**The Mental Health Thread**
- Thread starter Gabbatek
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Soldato
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Down to 2mg diazepam in the evening now and have promethazine before bed. Don't underestimate what regular good sleep does for you!
Weird how random stuff not related to core issues can trigger off a bout of anxiety issues, posted a thread here the other day about something i've sold on MM that went missing and basically gonna be out of pocket for a few hundred quid soon if I do the 'right' thing and refund. Not really a few hundred quid I can afford to lose at the moment with other things going on and just stewing on it, playing around my head for over 3 weeks now and making everything else seem rubbish, hate my damn brain sometimes.
Had to break out the tablets the other day as while in itself it's a minor thing, it's making everything else seem ridiculously worse than it is.
Had to break out the tablets the other day as while in itself it's a minor thing, it's making everything else seem ridiculously worse than it is.
A real bad one? Diazepam, it's the only thing that will calm me down.
For what I call a mini panic attack/anxiety attack then I try to concentrate on and control my breathing, sometimes lie on the ground, do my best to take my mind off whatever seems to be causing it. Most of the time it's health related, ill be worrying about some sort of pain.
Those coping mechanisms don't work when it's a bad one though, because it feels like every nerve ending is in hyperdrive, mind racing, pulse all over the place, sweating and every part of me is telling me I'm dying.
After my old man’s death I really really struggled to cope. Never really spoke about it much and to those who I did, only 1 or 2 fully understood. Life has been good to me tbf I’ve had it better than most but there has always been a sense of missing something since he passed. Having lived in the family home everything seemed to remind me of the good times and I guess it’s what kept me from moving forward and just living in the past.
After a long time I left the family home and relocated the whole family to somewhere better. I’m finally chasing a career I’ve wanted to do and seem a different person.
I thought I’d put this in here to those who may seem to struggle to see the light at the end of the tunnel. I’ve realised the most simplest way to move forward is to do the thing your scared of doing and breaking a comfort zone. Change your environment and you’ll change yourself for the better.
I also stopped smoking, yippee.
After a long time I left the family home and relocated the whole family to somewhere better. I’m finally chasing a career I’ve wanted to do and seem a different person.
I thought I’d put this in here to those who may seem to struggle to see the light at the end of the tunnel. I’ve realised the most simplest way to move forward is to do the thing your scared of doing and breaking a comfort zone. Change your environment and you’ll change yourself for the better.
I also stopped smoking, yippee.
Acceptance and willingness to feel the anxiety. It's taken me a long time to get close to this concept, but instead of fighting the anxiety or trying to avoid it, I take a mental approach of being willing to feel the anxiety and engage in normal activities that I value, whilst feeling the anxiety. This is a completely different approach to my old default response of withdrawing and trying to avoid/struggle with the anxiety. Anxiety will pass in its own time, and struggling with it's presence just amplifies it and guarantees more of it (anxiety about anxiety).
This approach is based on Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT), which is a type of therapy I've had to help deal with the OCD and general anxiety. This is a good starter book:
https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/3250347-the-happiness-trap
And a super short video explaining one tiny part of ACT via the metaphor of a struggle switch.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rCp1l16GCXI
Of all the things that I've tried over the years, this approach has given me more freedom. Yeah, I still get anxiety sometimes, but it isn't as limiting or painful. ACT is a philosophical shift that takes time, and is something I still haven't, and never will perfect. But that's OK as unpleasant emotions are a fact of life. We get more of what we don't want, so struggling with anxiety etc. or trying to avoid it or push it away is the best way to get more of it.
Yeah, it's funny; as you progress in life you come to the realisation that everyone is broken, and there are no exceptions. Not in exactly the same way, but everyone has their own issues, demnons, or whatever you want to call it.
Yep broken in Cornwall here, had a bit of a meltdown a while back (my special herbal tea maybe didnt help) afew family issues and some of my own, had nearly 6 weeks on sick and been put on mirtazapine.
Trouble is living here the stress bustimg activities i do on sick like surfing and coastal walking make me feel like i am taking the **** but im not.
My mood today if i was a sky would be grey cloud but some blue patches
The meds seem side effect free but add 3 hours to my nights sleep and dont wake up like i used to...
Trouble is living here the stress bustimg activities i do on sick like surfing and coastal walking make me feel like i am taking the **** but im not.
My mood today if i was a sky would be grey cloud but some blue patches
The meds seem side effect free but add 3 hours to my nights sleep and dont wake up like i used to...
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Soldato
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Just remember, when you're off sick you do what's needed to get better. Cold = rest, muscle injury = gentle activity. Mental health? Often means de-stress activities, seeing friends, or wellbeing stuff like outdoors and hobbies.
I have a friend on sick leave from work as his union are striking and it's pushed him over the edge combined with his personal issues. He's been going to see friends to play board games, having more time for his kids, rebuilding a normal life routine going outdoors etc. That's his healing.
I had similar experiences with that medication. It really knocked me out hard, weird nights too. Drinking a full glass of water with them helped, and never mix with alcohol.
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Tbh havnt avoided alcohol but noticed how out of it i am after a little.
Feel its awesome for anxiety and sleep just taken a while to lift my mood.
But yeah just had a surf at polzeath, feel better for it plus told this can make you gain weight.
Tbh felt a little worse last week but it feels like the 30mg dose is kicking in a little now (2wks 15mg 2wks 30mg still on 30mg)
Tbh havnt avoided alcohol but noticed how out of it i am after a little.
Feel its awesome for anxiety and sleep just taken a while to lift my mood.
But yeah just had a surf at polzeath, feel better for it plus told this can make you gain weight.
100% this.
The anxiety isn't some alien presence that resides separately within you. It IS you. It's a part of you and it exists alongside you and you'll never be able to change that. But you can learn to disenfranchise it. To take away it's ability to gut you of all other emotional compromise for fear of it's return. It sounds really 'dime store shrink' to say it, but it's true. You need to take away it's platform as the torchbearer of your day to day life and give it to something else. Anything else. Curbing your existence around your disorder is precisely what feeds it. It rewards the triggers and gratifies the outcome which as Andy said is ALWAYS anxiety about anxiety.
It's a truly horrible thing to have to accept at the time, especially when those attacks come everyday and you can't remember the last time you had a 'clean day'. I've been there and it's crappy beyond belief. But it WILL get better. It takes time and immeasurable effort, but if you can learn to sit with the attacks as they're happening and better yet do things IN SPITE of them, you'll get there. I can't remember the last time I had a panic attack now. Sure I have off days where I can feel them waiting but I don't run from them anymore. If one happens then it happens. I won't reset some silly mental clock, I'll just let it happen and remember that it will pass.
Exactly, well said. It's really the only sustainable way through and out of anxiety. The pain of anxiety is all in the struggle with it, and when you let go of the struggle with anxiety you free yourself up for everything else.
Acceptance is a hard thing to grasp. It's not a "thing you do", it's more of a philosophical approach, more of an absence of struggle than anything else. It's not something you "get" and then that's it. You don't reach the holy grail of acceptance and that's you done, it's something you practice every time anxiety comes. You can either choose to be accepting or not. You can choose to be willing to feel the manky feelings of anxiety and all that comes with it, or not. If you have a bad day or week, or month, then like you said, there is no clock reset or falling off a wagon.
This last year I had a number of Skype sessions with a psych in the UK (a proper psych not a "counsellor") and we worked out I'd probably spent 20,000+ hours in the last 15 years struggling with anxiety/OCD rather than focusing on life. I'm high functioning with it, I have a good job, family etc. but I've wasted a lot of painful time in my head, focusing inward on anxiety rather than outward on my life. The whole acceptance thing has really helped. Yeah I don't like anxiety when it comes, I don;t have to like it, nobody does, but I can let it pass through me much more easily. The episodes come less frequently, and I find I'm watching out for them less, and being less vigilant.
Other things that have helped are mindfulness meditation (not regimented, but 10mins every so often), I drink less than I did (probably have a glass of wine most nights, but no massive sessions), I try to sleep better than I did, and the acceptance approach has also has helped me manage my work stress better.
The one thing that really takes the power away from anxiety is letting it happen and focusing on life outside your head. Doing something that you really value, like playing with the kids, or practicing a musical instrument. And even better, not in SPITE of the anxiety, but making the choice to do it WITH the anxiety.
It sounds absolutely bonkers, but it works, and is research based. It's basically just a values-based in-vivo exposure and response prevention.
I am not "healed", as anxiety is part of me, as it is part of everyone, but I'm struggling with it less than I did. I had a few hours of it yesterday in fact. I'll probably have many lapses in my life, but fighting it and struggling has never helped and can never help.
Finally off of citalopram and the withdrawals have finished. Nice to feel un-zombified again, though I needed the numbing, as it were, at the time. Everything feels more colourful again now, if that makes sense. The highs and lows are higher and lower again 
.
.Finally off of citalopram and the withdrawals have finished. Nice to feel un-zombified again, though I needed the numbing, as it were, at the time. Everything feels more colourful again now, if that makes sense. The highs and lows are higher and lower again
How did you come off?
Stopped cold turkey because I felt in a place where I was ready to. Withdrawals.were nasty though, any eye movement triggered.little electric.shocls in my brain. Sorry for grammar, on useless android keyboard.
Not saying I will never use SSRIs again or anything but exercise helped bridge the gap coming off.
What? Just stopped? My doc said to reduce number of pills over a long period and then when down to one, reduce to one every other day and then none... thats what I was wondering?