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Josherino)
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Consummate Professional posted:he told me to diet/exercise/therapy/spiritual poo poo for two weeks then talk about meds. Did you try this stuff? It can help a lot
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Apr 2, 2019 01:39
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twoday posted:Did you try this stuff? It can help a lot today is day 0, I'm doing this in good faith. I'm not opposed to it
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Apr 2, 2019 01:47
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Consummate Professional posted:I wish someone would spray me with a hose till I rolled out of bed some days a lot of people with mental health issues end up in jails... (like yours truly)
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Apr 2, 2019 02:55
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Consummate Professional posted:so I went to a new GP or whatever they're called now. I explained the depression and anxiety I've been going through the last 6 months or so and that I've been going to therapy for a month. he told me to diet/exercise/therapy/spiritual poo poo for two weeks then talk about meds. I wondered the same thing for far too long because my anxiety and depression didn't let me see them as a real possibility. Yes, it's okay to ask for meds. The only ones that really get abused are benzos but you probably don't want those in the medium/long term anyway.
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Apr 2, 2019 03:06
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Consummate Professional posted:today is day 0, I'm doing this in good faith. I'm not opposed to it First of all, it’s great to hear that you are talking to people, to fellow goons, to a therapist, and a GP. These are good steps, and it sounds like you are on a path towards improving your life, and that’s always good to hear about. Second, I am not qualified in any way to advise you about what to do, and those people are. However, I will just share my thoughts about what you said, just as a fellow goon and human being. Do with this information what you will: The human psyche is complex. Our lives are complex tapestries of thoughts, actions, habits, and choices. What we eat affects our quality of life, as does our physical condition, and how we manage our thoughts and feelings. These little things, these little choices and moments are the bricks with which we build up the structure that is our life. When we are in pain, we may want a painkiller that will relieve us of that pain, which is nice, but doesn’t address the underlying problem. If you have a broken limb, you can pop a pill and not feel the pain, but you are still going to need a cast and some time before you heal and feel normal again. And with psychic/mental/emotional ailments we can have the same temptation. “I feel bad, I want to take a pill that takes away my depression and anxiety.” Sure, sounds great, and there is nothing wrong with wanting to try that, or trying it. But the thing that you must realize is that while depression and anxiety are conditions in their own right, they are also often symptomatic of deeper underlying structural issues in your life that lead you towards choices and situations that make you feel depressed and anxious. For some people medication works like a cast, and allows healing, but for others it works like a painkiller, and relieves discomfort without actually helping the underlying problems. There is a difference between feeling bad and wanting that bad feeling to end, and having a goal that yo7 are striving towards. You can say, “this sucks, I want my life to be something else” without specifying what, or you can say “this sucks, I want my life to be x, y, and z.” If you’re not striving towards specific goals, you are just aimlessly wandering and hoping to bump into a better life. It’s important to set specific goals. A small exercise in imagination that I do from time to time: Imagine yourself a year from today, living a better life than you live now. Imagine yourself healthy and happy. Imagine the best you that you can be in a year. Try to picture what that looks like. Where are you living? What do you look like? What sort of things do you eat? What is your job like? Your relationship? How many friends do you have and how often do you see them? How do you spend your time? What sort of hobbies do you have? When I do this exercise, which I try to do every year or so, I imagine myself eating awesome food that I made, being in better physical shape, I’m expressing myself creatively, I’m going out to museums. I like museums. I do that exercise and then I have this specific list of things I need to do to achieve the life I want. I need to cook, I need to exercise, I need to make artwork, I need to go to museums. If I want to live that life that I imagine, these are all very specific actions I need to incorporate into my life. For me, it’s been difficult and it has taken many years to retrain myself, but now when I feel bad, when I feel lonely or disappointed with my life, I try to distract myself, stop myself from entering self-destructive thought spirals, from beating myself up. I try to push myself into the kitchen and make myself cook, or push myself to go out to visit a museum, or those other things. That was hard to learn. Cooking was the easiest, I guess, because I always need to eat. So, I’ve come to the conclusion that exercise and good diet and meditation and creative expression are the building blocks of a happy life for myself. You have to figure out what activities will be the building blocks of your improved life, and figuring out concrete actions you can take to incorporate those things into your life. If you want your life to change, these are issues that you are going to have to work through sooner or later, whether you are on medication or not. Maybe you are the sort of person who reacts well to medication, and it will help you to make these changes in your life. That’s for you and your therapist to find out. But you can’t be dismissive and say, “I’m gonna skip the diet and exercise part, and skip ahead towards taking the pills that help me improve my life.” Even if you take the pills, and you gain some strength to start improving your life, you will see that you probably need to improve your diet and exercise more to make the structural changes you need to live a better life. But it won’t do you any harm to start seriously thinking about those things already. I’m not saying that you were being dismissive, or that you are skipping over anything, or doing anything bad by desiring medication. It’s fine. I’m just trying to put medication in context, I guess. A lot of people are disappointed by it in the long run. twoday has issued a correction as of 03:28 on Apr 2, 2019 |
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Apr 2, 2019 03:10
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poo poo, that was way longer than I intended. Meditation owns and I will rant about that in depth on a separate occasion, but in short I recommend that if your doctor is saying to try spiritual poo poo, try breathing exercises or mindfulness mediation. Buddhists and yoga folk do that stuff a lot, which makes it seem spiritual. Even if you don’t have a spiritual bone in your body, it is very effective because it’s just a way to manipulate your oxygen levels, heart rate, and other physiological processes that in turn help shape your mental state. Sitting and breathing and trying to clear your mind of all thoughts reduces your stress levels and isn’t necessarily spiritual. It’s an exercise, like pushups for your midbrain, and like all exercises, with enough repetition will make you stronger. But it makes your mind stronger. Anyway, if you’re looking for some spiritual exercises to do, look up mindfulness meditation or zen breathing exercises on YouTube and try some out.
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Apr 2, 2019 03:17
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I guess my goal in life is pretty much just to be more like this guy: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SMYVof9sTGk
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Apr 2, 2019 03:36
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Consummate Professional posted:so I went to a new GP or whatever they're called now. I explained the depression and anxiety I've been going through the last 6 months or so and that I've been going to therapy for a month. he told me to diet/exercise/therapy/spiritual poo poo for two weeks then talk about meds. this is why I don’t like GPs handling psych meds. he’s full of poo poo and you need to see a pdoc. if THEY say you might not need meds then it’s different. there’s zero reason to make you try yoga before you can consider meds if you have depression and imo it’s bordering on malpractice. e: to clarify those are all really good things but saying “try them first before you’re allowed to have meds” is insanity Chokes McGee has issued a correction as of 05:10 on Apr 2, 2019 |
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Apr 2, 2019 05:05
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We’re all different; you have to find what applies to you and what works for you. Like the “imagine your life a year from now” thing? That sends me into a spiral where I just stop caring about anything. Mostly because a lot of those things I am farther away from than ever. And even though I’m pretty resilient to basically anything critical or mean, if I think about me minus 50+ pounds a year later (I could manage more) I will absolutely start beating myself up constantly - just as a reflex. Focusing on the next week or so at most helps me a lot to keep from spiraling down into deep depression, but I still have to find a way to get better. Cognitive fusing was definitely something I recognized a lot but never had a term for. And the aspect of being blindly dishonest with myself in the terms I used is something I hadn’t really recognized that likely is something reinforcing where I am. Cognition is certainly one aspect of group therapy that’s helped me improve my mood at least (I was constantly depressed with loads of suicidal thoughts). Recognizing what I feel and what I’m doing and naming it has helped me a lot. and I appreciate the links as well which should hopefully help me move forward even more. And maybe some CBT-minded exercises might help give me a foundation to work on.
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Apr 2, 2019 06:42
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Cbt has some tools, tools that on a slightly bad day, combined with some other techniques can make things more bearable/let me get a few bits done. On a day where I don't get out of bed because I'm alternating between sobbing my eyes out and going into a kind of dissociative trance, staring at a wall and hoping a few hours pass me by without all the pretty little hate spirals? Cbt is loving useless for that- actually worse than loving useless as I can end up beating on myself for being such an incompetent, weak willed failure who won't mentally bootstrap my way out of hell just like everyone else can, just like in the flowchart.
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Apr 2, 2019 08:54
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Ugato posted:We’re all different; you have to find what applies to you and what works for you. 
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Apr 2, 2019 13:18
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CBT isn’t about bootstrapping (not is it a cure-all either). the point and purpose is “Are things really as bad as it seems?” and sometimes the answer is going to be “gently caress yes it is.” I’m not sure what you mean by flowchart, that’s a new one by me. Can you elaborate?
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Apr 2, 2019 16:18
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Chokes McGee posted:CBT isn’t about bootstrapping (not is it a cure-all either). the point and purpose is “Are things really as bad as it seems?” and sometimes the answer is going to be “gently caress yes it is.” A big part of CBT is the quest for accuracy. Is what I am thinking accurate? Are my perceptions of what is going on accurate to what is happening in reality? Sometimes things being hosed up is the true and accurate reading of reality as it exists. A lot of time it is not as hosed up as we think it to be, and this is what keeps/gets people stuck. Behavior serves a purpose, even maladaptive coping behavior like avoidance e.g. staying in bed in an attempt to get the hours to pass. the B part of CBT is about taking action to influence your thoughts and emotions. It is often read as bootstrapping but in reality it is about understanding the relationship between thoughts, behavior, and emotions and with that understanding taking control of what you can do to do something that supports recovery. Are my actions supporting recovery? Are my actions perpetuating a cycle of negative thoughts and emotions keeping me stuck? Are my actions perpetuating a cycle of positive thoughts and recovery? It should be noted that these skills/tools in a vacuum can definitely sound like you are at fault for your symptoms, but they are part of a larger framework that you can understand how to implement and apply. I posted them because they are basic and I think are helpful even in a vacuum. Action can precede thought and emotion. Thought and emotion are not fated to precede action. Nothing will change unless you do something differently. CBT is not the be all end all, but imo it is a helpful place to get things moving because it requires little trauma work to begin with. I personally use an integrative approach where I pull aspects of CBT, DBT, ACT, and narrative therapy into session. Each therapist has their own particular framework/theories that they generally fall back on / use primarily. I encourage you to ask what theoretical orientation they operate from and what they think about recovery.
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Apr 2, 2019 19:00
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Goon Danton posted:I wondered the same thing for far too long because my anxiety and depression didn't let me see them as a real possibility. Yes, it's okay to ask for meds. The only ones that really get abused are benzos but you probably don't want those in the medium/long term anyway. tbh, benzos are really good at what they're good at. i have them for acute anxiety and probably take ativan once a month to deal with severe tics brought on by bad, bad stress. i wouldn't be afraid of being prescribed them, just be cognizant of what they can do (kill you or ruin your life). i get zero refills and gotta ask my gp for a refill every couple years (they give me 30 at a time, which seems like overkill based on my usage). my mom, otoh, apparently takes 2 ativan a day per doctors order which seems crazy to me, but I'm not a doctor, so what do I know
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Apr 2, 2019 22:07
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lol i have a woman who takes 8 clonazepam 0.5s twice a day and she normally picks up weekly but she’s going away for 5 weeks so is getting 784 of them when she comes in on friday. the locum doctor signed off on it so it’s gotta be ok
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Apr 2, 2019 22:26
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echinopsis posted:lol i have a woman who takes 8 clonazepam 0.5s twice a day and she normally picks up weekly but she’s going away for 5 weeks so is getting 784 of them when she comes in on friday. the locum doctor signed off on it so it’s gotta be ok jesus christ 
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Apr 2, 2019 22:34
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Eat This Glob posted:tbh, benzos are really good at what they're good at. i have them for acute anxiety and probably take ativan once a month to deal with severe tics brought on by bad, bad stress. i wouldn't be afraid of being prescribed them, just be cognizant of what they can do (kill you or ruin your life). i get zero refills and gotta ask my gp for a refill every couple years (they give me 30 at a time, which seems like overkill based on my usage). it’s not uncommon. MY WIFE has a prescription for 1mg twice a day as needed and if poo poo goes really sideways she’s allowed to take two a day every day for a week or two. pdocs will assign you a safe dosage. I mean there’s always shithead doctors that over prescribe and I can’t deny their existence, but SOP is usually a max of 1mg twice a day as/if needed and it’s fine people are way more scared of benzos than they should be but like all meds they are not for everybody. still should be safe under doctor supervision so long as you follow doctor directions.
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Apr 2, 2019 22:36
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Eat This Glob posted:jesus christ yeah that doctor is ... of questionable quality
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Apr 2, 2019 22:37
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what is the alternative if someone goes overseas tho? 🤷♂️ i almost have faith because of how dependent she must be on them, she must know what’ll happen if she doesn’t have any, making abuse of them very risky because she won’t be getting any more dispensings for 5 weeks if she does gently caress it up? eh she’s unstable but not an abuser from the years i’ve known her but then again..
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Apr 2, 2019 22:48
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echinopsis posted:what is the alternative if someone goes overseas tho? 🤷♂️ I mean, it’s their meds and doctor at the end of the day. I’m guilty multiple times (especially in the last two pages) of passing judgement on docs based on personal experience, but as long as it’s therapeutic and not making things worse then whatevs I do have concerns about doctors that prescribe that much just based on opioid epidemics due to unethical doctors. reaaaaaally don’t want to see poo poo like that leak over into psychiatry.
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Apr 2, 2019 22:53
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My personal opinion on medications like benzos are that they can be an effective bridge to de-escalate an acute situation when someone is unable to de-escalate themselves. The concern is that they are physically and psychologically addictive. meaning that the person who takes 8 a day may not be able to self-sooth without them or believe that they can't. This can lead to a whole host of new issues when they are unable to have access to them and then present as drug seeking to an ER or doctor's office. I think if you require them to help you remain functional that is fine, but it is dangerous to view them as the silver bullet to your anxiety as your anxiety is still present even if you are living life through chemistry. Once access to that chemistry goes away you will likely struggle or suffer more. TLDR; right time right place for anxiety meds. ask for them if you think you need them. there are risks that should be considered. Medication alone is not likely to solve the underlying issue, though it may improve your symptoms of those issues allowing you more bandwith to work with.
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Apr 2, 2019 23:07
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I appreciate everyone's input on meds. My fear is that right now I'm going through a really good period and feel pretty "normal". I'll usually go through a period of like for a month or two and then suddenly I'll wake up and feel paralyzed by anxiety and lose my purpose in life. In the past I've used booze to keep those feelings a little less impossible to beat but weird, they get much worse. Now that I'm cutting out the booze and going through therapy and working on depression/ PTSD/anxiety I'm a bit nervous about what happens when another wave of depression hits. My hope is that meds would help even that out so I don't stop talking to everyone in my life, drinking 12 beers every day and considering "lol trump" as being social. I don't expect it to be a cure all and I understand why a Dr wouldn't whip out his prescription pad after a 30 minute appointment. I have gotten a gym membership, started to try to eat better, taking vitamins and all that stuff (trying to get this meditation thing going too). These are all good things for everyone and I certainly could be physically healthier in general. I'm just terrified of what happens when the days get really dark and I stop functioning again which is why I think they might be helpful. Maybe I should have said all that to the doctor, I don't know. Maybe I needed to sleep on it to try and explain my point of view a bit better but I appreciate everyone's thoughts and advice.
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Apr 3, 2019 00:01
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Consummate Professional posted:I appreciate everyone's input on meds. My fear is that right now I'm going through a really good period and feel pretty "normal". I'll usually go through a period of like for a month or two and then suddenly I'll wake up and feel paralyzed by anxiety and lose my purpose in life. In the past I've used booze to keep those feelings a little less impossible to beat but weird, they get much worse. the important thing is that you’re moving forward. you can safely ignore my lovely opinions bc I’ve been manic and bossy this last week. as a former binge drinker I will say stopping helps a lot. the thing about booze is you feel great for a day and then two days later you’re in a hideously down mood and have no idea why bc enough time has passed you don’t associate. drinking always has SnapBack with depresssion/bipolar and it’s sneaky. just make sure you give the doctor all the info you just gave us and try not to drink or trump. you’ll get there. 
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Apr 3, 2019 04:55
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echinopsis posted:lol i have a woman who takes 8 clonazepam 0.5s twice a day and she normally picks up weekly but she’s going away for 5 weeks so is getting 784 of them when she comes in on friday. the locum doctor signed off on it so it’s gotta be ok In 2015, I was prescribed 4mg. of clonazepam a day for anxiety. Thankfully, I found out what I was getting into, and tapered off after only being on them for about eight weeks. The withdrawal still sucked, and probably had a lot to do with why I've completely lost touch with everyone non-family I knew before then.
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Apr 3, 2019 05:56
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she’s been on this 4mg bd dose for at least as long as i’ve known her.. and quetiapine and temazepam and venlafaxine. she was on something else but forgotten now 🤷♂️ she once laid a complaint against me with health and disabilities tribunal but it’s fair to say she’s a fairly high strung individual and I suspect the bar for her not being happy is pretty low. she said she did anyway I never heard from anyone
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Apr 3, 2019 06:16
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sometimes ur all just like aughhhh but then meds and therapy its like this gif: https://cdn.discordapp.com/attachments/523658523968798720/562885863298826250/G7mQXjT.mp4
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Apr 3, 2019 07:28
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echinopsis posted:lol i have a woman who takes 8 clonazepam 0.5s twice a day and she normally picks up weekly but she’s going away for 5 weeks so is getting 784 of them when she comes in on friday. the locum doctor signed off on it so it’s gotta be ok How do you even stay awake after taking that much?
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Apr 3, 2019 11:48
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Chokes McGee posted:I’m not sure what you mean by flowchart, that’s a new one by me. Can you elaborate? I did cbt stuff because it was a mandatory thing before getting a bloc of one to one traditional therapy sessions through the nhs system. The flowcharts came from the homework assignments we were given at the 6 or 8 sessions I went to- from memory it would be something like a case example where we would then work out a flowchart with examples of how said person would put cbt practices into place, but flowcharts and diagrams were also a big part of the power point based presentations that were the first half of every session I had for it. Chokes McGee posted:CBT isn’t about bootstrapping (not is it a cure-all either). the point and purpose is “Are things really as bad as it seems?” and sometimes the answer is going to be “gently caress yes it is.” I didn't expect a cure-all, but the efficacy of it was heavily promoted as a diversion/alternate to the therapy sessions I actually wanted and got afterwards. At the root of it for me, cbt processes require me to be able to use them- and when I'm ill that doesn't happen for a variety of reasons. At that point it's very much in the category of diet and exercise, a sleep regimen and hobbies- all logical and helpful but might as well be on the moon in terms of me accessing them.     Don't get me wrong- I value cbt stuff as it helps me deal with a lot of day to day level stuff that then in turn lets me get out and do the above stuff which gets me fitter and lets me worry slightly less about stuff dying. I just carry a lot of baggage from the processes I went through for it.
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Apr 3, 2019 13:52
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CODChimera posted:How do you even stay awake after taking that much? When I was a teenager I was once prescribed 3x 1mg klonopin, 3x 1mg xanax, 60mg vyvanse, and 20mg regular amphetamine salts, can't remember their name, not adderall. all I had to do was keep escalating my "anxiety" report when I went to the doctor and as a cynical 17 year old I wasn't really thinking about the possible consequences of that kind of intake. it's outrageous how much some people end up prescribed, though that was over a decade ago now, and things have changed, I think. anyway you'd be astonished how outwardly functional a serious benzo addict can be even with like five or six mg in their system
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Apr 3, 2019 15:07
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DesperateDan posted:I did cbt stuff because it was a mandatory thing before getting a bloc of one to one traditional therapy sessions through the nhs system. The flowcharts came from the homework assignments we were given at the 6 or 8 sessions I went to- from memory it would be something like a case example where we would then work out a flowchart with examples of how said person would put cbt practices into place, but flowcharts and diagrams were also a big part of the power point based presentations that were the first half of every session I had for it. Oof. Yeah, I can deffo see how an experience like that would turn it into bootstrapping. They're trying to force it into a one-size-fits-all thing, and you need more than that. Thanks for clarifying, and I'm glad you eventually got the help you needed. Also, thanks for the pictures. They're gorgeous.
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Apr 3, 2019 15:20
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Frog Act posted:anyway you'd be astonished how outwardly functional a serious benzo addict can be even with like five or six mg in their system cspam.txt
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Apr 3, 2019 15:21
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lmao i love having the stomach flu and not being able to keep my meds down this owns
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Apr 3, 2019 21:41
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SpiderHyphenMan posted:lmao i love having the stomach flu and not being able to keep my meds down this owns what the—that doesn’t sound like it owns at all 
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Apr 3, 2019 22:10
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SpiderHyphenMan posted:lmao i love having the stomach flu and not being able to keep my meds down this owns i like it when i have diarrhea and shoot pills out of my rear end
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Apr 3, 2019 23:28
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turn off the TV posted:i like it when i have diarrhea and shoot pills out of my rear end “plink plink”
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Apr 3, 2019 23:28
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I've read a bunch of this thread and peoples' accounts, but not all of them. Wish I'd read it sooner. I've dealt with depression and anxiety for 18 years or so now, but it's been about 13 years since I was last medicated or anything. Trump's election kind of started me back down those roads. My wife and I are both endangered species biologists, which means we're de facto climate change scientists, so we're pretty constantly faced with realizations of how lovely things are in some regards. The shittiness with regard to the governments' handling of climate change issues also covers funding for our careers, so we always have that sword of Damocles. Anyhow, we decided to have a kid last year, and that all went pretty well. So now with a child, constant fear for my job, and perpetual sleep deprivation for both of us, my depressive symptoms occur a lot more frequently and just kind of linger. It causes me to just check out a little from time to time and not be emotionally present for my wife. Communication problems that we've always had suddenly became a lot more meaningful and consequential, because there's a kid, right? We're not good at arguing and solving conflict and just avoid it most of the time. Anyhow, I'd been starting to think about going back to counseling for myself, but one argument we had led to us agreeing to go to couples' counseling. It's not like things were dire and irreconcilable, we just realized "Hey, we're not great at solving this problem when it comes up, so perhaps we should fix it so this kid has the best life we can provide." So a couple months into couples counseling once per week, I have some thoughts. The counselor focused on the kid and parenting immediately from the start. Not sure if she thought that's what we wanted, or if that's what we really wanted, or if it's what she thought we needed, or what. Anyhow, a lot of our sessions are talking about parenting from a lot of different focuses, and especially how we parent with each other. Makes sense, since that's our reality now. The upshot is that we've gotten a lot better at anticipating each other's needs, taking care of each other, and living life as a family rather than individuals who interact with each other. I've put a lot of my hobbies on hold and focused on thinking about myself last. I mean, of course, that's what you do when you parent intentionally, right? But it's not intuitive so I had to learn that part. I guess my point is that by investing pretty much all of my emotional/mental health improvement in my wife and kid and our new little family, I'm strengthening the place in my life that I need to be the most secure, safe, rewarding, loving, etc. I still have a lot of anxiety about the poo poo I can't control, but it's not dire and I have lots of good days. So my advice is to also consider involving your closest loved ones in your therapy/counseling/mental health development when you are able. It might have some really big effects at a personal level that you were not expecting.
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Apr 3, 2019 23:28
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turn off the TV posted:i like it when i have diarrhea and shoot pills out of my rear end stop taking suppositories
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Apr 4, 2019 00:14
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HenryJLittlefinger posted:I've read a bunch of this thread and peoples' accounts, but not all of them. Wish I'd read it sooner. Thanks for sharing your experience. When it comes to couples or family counseling I was trained to view the family/couple unit as the client. i.e. the counselor does not have have 3 separate clients (you, partner, child) rather just one client (the family unit). This may explain why the focus was on parenting skills/solidifying/harmonizing the family unit, and why you are finding success in managing your family dynamics effectively. It still sounds like you could benefit from some self-care / balance if you truly are putting ALL of your mental health energy into your wife/kid and wind up neglecting yourself. I do not know if this is the case but it is always important to consider care for yourself as having strong value. If you take care of yourself you are also taking care of your family.
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Apr 4, 2019 00:26
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HenryJLittlefinger posted:So my advice is to also consider involving your closest loved ones in your therapy/counseling/mental health development when you are able. It might have some really big effects at a personal level that you were not expecting. when i did OCD treatment family stuff turned out to be super helpful, in part because the natural way loved ones treat someone with OCD is pretty much exactly the wrong thing to do like if an OCD patient spends all their time touching the knives in the cutlery drawer to keep their parents from dying in a future plane crash (a real issue somebody else in my program had, btw), people will: - comfort the person and tell them that their parents probably won't die in a plane crash - give them time and space to touch the knives so that they can calm down the problem, of course, is that these things don't help with the intrusive thoughts long term. it's like a drug; the OCD patient gets a few minutes of "high" from the ritual / reassurance, but they'll need more and more ritual / reassurance to get back to baseline in the future, and things spiral out of control. it turns out the right way to treat someone with OCD is to 1. get them to a therapist who knows the disorder and 2. ignore the gently caress out of all their OCD thoughts. just go full yoda on their rear end. like they come to you and say "I can't stop worrying about dying of Ebola" you gotta be all "yeah you might lol. here come help me make these sandwiches, you can chop some tomatoes. the tomatoes might have ebola, by the way." this is (obviously) annoying as poo poo, but very helpful long term, because you learn to cope with the stress + stop having your daily life / relationships interrupted by nonsense. like once your family has a better picture of what you're struggling with, you can work together to find healthier patterns of behavior. explaining the intrusive thoughts i spent all my time avoiding to my family was scary as poo poo, but now that i've done it managing things is so much easier + they understand so much better what i'm going through so basically yeah share stuff with your family / close friends in a healthy way, if at all possible
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Apr 4, 2019 01:18
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EmbryoSteve posted:Thanks for sharing your experience. That’s interesting and makes sense. I take it you’re a counselor? Right now, enough of my taking care of family serves me individually that I’m in good shape. We socialize, go hiking, and do fun things together often enough. Being in complete agreement about the trump administration and environment means we’re generally angry at the same things so that helps. I guess to be accurate, it’s not 100% of my time, I do take a couple hours to myself for creative things on weekends as long as chores are done. It will be nice to get back to what I saw as my important me time before, eg., working out, wrenching on motorcycles, smoking weed in the garage, etc. Gardening season is coming soon, which means my wife will be doing something that gives her joy, and that goes a long ways for my own mental health.
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Apr 4, 2019 01:23
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