**The Mental Health Thread**

Had a mental health review yesterday, had been rejected by counselling and kicked back to mental health as they thought my drug reduction was the issue. Had hour long session and was surprised the practitioner agreed to me coming off antipsychotics completely and my main issue seems to be coping with rejection. She was extremely happy with my more positive attitude and dramatic weight loss, am to stay on mood stabiliser and antidepressants, and she is kicking me back to counselling.

On an even more positive note, finally stood up to someone that I was very attached to, there was a lot of raw emotion from both parties, very complicated, but I feel better for doing it, ball is in her court if she wants to contact me.

Never considered any ink or piercings until 2 weeks ago when I had a piercing done, got to thinking about a tattoo, it had to mean something though. Came up with the idea of a hand with red and blue pills as a sign of my reawakening at the age of 57, my dearly missed old cat was called Morpheus so it has a second meaning too. Tried to call the inker yesterday but no reply, will take a bimble into town later.
 
Not quite too late, have paid deposit and booked in for next Friday. This hasn't been a rapid transformation, but a series of quite big changes over about 16 months, huge weight loss, coming off large amounts of codeine and other meds and actually going out of my flat on quite a regular basis, had been cooped up for about 16 years. It isn't a midlife crisis, more a desire to enjoy life and interact with society again, the lady I fell out with did help me along my way and I don't hold any regret or resentment to her, as she said "live life for you". Being heavily drugged up on what is known as the chemical lobotomy for 16 years left me with no zest for life, it was never prescribed for psychosis but sleep problems I was having at the time, once I was on it all real interest in anything was killed off.

Had called the piercer for recommendations for tattooists in the area, stuck my head around the door to say I was getting it done. The young lady behind the counter said she had spoken to the piercer and said "we should take a leaf out of Mark's book".
 
I have no idea why things are happening in my life now, perhaps it is my far more positive attitude. Have been on a dating site for about 8 months with pretty much zero response, woke up yesterday to a mutual like from a local lady, we exchanged messages on the site and later agreed to a voice chat. The app for the site was pretty useless and would cut out after a couple of minutes, was about to suggest a way for her to safely contact me when she messaged me her number. I should point out I was never involved with the woman I stood up to, she was a very good friend for 16 years, there had never been any physical involvement.

We had a really open and honest conversation, I told her about my various health problems and massive improvements to my life. She didn't walk away and used to work in mental health, knew most of the medication I had been on and was still interested in me.

Invited her out for a piece of the town's finest carrot cake and a beverage of her choice, next week, and she accepted, she did laugh when I said a friend said I have the perfect face and voice for radio. Will see how things go from here.
 
13oots2 said:
I have no idea why things are happening in my life now, perhaps it is my far more positive attitude. Have been on a dating site for about 8 months with pretty much zero response, woke up yesterday to a mutual like from a local lady, we exchanged messages on the site and later agreed to a voice chat. The app for the site was pretty useless and would cut out after a couple of minutes, was about to suggest a way for her to safely contact me when she messaged me her number. I should point out I was never involved with the woman I stood up to, she was a very good friend for 16 years, there had never been any physical involvement.

We had a really open and honest conversation, I told her about my various health problems and massive improvements to my life. She didn't walk away and used to work in mental health, knew most of the medication I had been on and was still interested in me.

Invited her out for a piece of the town's finest carrot cake and a beverage of her choice, next week, and she accepted, she did laugh when I said a friend said I have the perfect face and voice for radio. Will see how things go from here.
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Awesome! I hope you have a great time :D.
 
Have had massive positive changes recently, finally after 16 years totally severed a very toxic and complicated friendship with a female friend. She would pick me up emotionally and then drop me, in my fragile state it was like a drug, amazing highs and awful lows, I just kept going back for my fix, no more.

About a month ago, I went for a piercing and met two lovely ladies, so positive and full of the joys of life, they were so pleased for me knowing I had isolated for about 16 years. Every time I walk past the shop, I am beckoned in for a catch-up chat, I saw them yesterday in the new shop and I had some big news for them, more about that in a bit.

Joined a FB page a while back, we have a little cat in town that has become quite the celebrity, she goes around all the shops in town for treats or a cat nap. Last Wednesday was Susie the cat's book launch and signing, it turned out to be quite a big event, the book was written by 3 people with learning difficulties and illustrated by a very talented local artist. I must've made a good impression, as next day I offered to help out and was made an admin of the group, it has opened up meeting new people to me, and we are talking of meet-ups and attending local quiz nights. My energy levels and self-esteem have been restored, all quite exiting and new, in some respects it's like discovering new things all over again.

Yesterday I went on my longest walk in years, took my pro level DSLR out with me on a Susie hunt, bumped into the illustrator and went in quite a few shops looking for the elusive feline, needless to say she knew the paparazzi were stalking her. Got back home and for the first time in ages didn't need my grandad nap to reset, am not hypomanic, just happy to discover living again, much of it thanks to one special little feline.
 
13oots2 said:
Have had massive positive changes recently, finally after 16 years totally severed a very toxic and complicated friendship with a female friend. She would pick me up emotionally and then drop me, in my fragile state it was like a drug, amazing highs and awful lows, I just kept going back for my fix, no more.

About a month ago, I went for a piercing and met two lovely ladies, so positive and full of the joys of life, they were so pleased for me knowing I had isolated for about 16 years. Every time I walk past the shop, I am beckoned in for a catch-up chat, I saw them yesterday in the new shop and I had some big news for them, more about that in a bit.

Joined a FB page a while back, we have a little cat in town that has become quite the celebrity, she goes around all the shops in town for treats or a cat nap. Last Wednesday was Susie the cat's book launch and signing, it turned out to be quite a big event, the book was written by 3 people with learning difficulties and illustrated by a very talented local artist. I must've made a good impression, as next day I offered to help out and was made an admin of the group, it has opened up meeting new people to me, and we are talking of meet-ups and attending local quiz nights. My energy levels and self-esteem have been restored, all quite exiting and new, in some respects it's like discovering new things all over again.

Yesterday I went on my longest walk in years, took my pro level DSLR out with me on a Susie hunt, bumped into the illustrator and went in quite a few shops looking for the elusive feline, needless to say she knew the paparazzi were stalking her. Got back home and for the first time in ages didn't need my grandad nap to reset, am not hypomanic, just happy to discover living again, much of it thanks to one special little feline.
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That is amazing! Glad to hear things are improving. All the best :D.
 
I returned to work in June this year after 14 years off with mental health issues. I'm part time doing a cleaning job which I don't enjoy I was doing well in IT before I became ill. The people are nice and the place is nice so could be worse. They've started asking me to do more hours, in fact they've just advertised for a new cleaner doing longer hours and they contacted me to say they had, I'm assuming they were hinting at me to apply for it. I've said no to overtime and I won't be applying for the job. I don't want to spend more time than I am cleaning toilets etc, I still have a mental illness albeit controlled, I'm learning I need to say no to things and not feel bad about it.
 
The workplace and people are absolutely the thing to chase, but not if you hate the work. I would much rather be in a place I like with people I like, and a lesser job, but if I hated the work I'd still need to move on... both play an important part, and often finding that 'balance' is the difficult thing.
 
How's everyone doing? I'm just finishing up on a bit of stressful delivery at work so a big weight it lifted, nothing compared to a lot of people's issues but for me its not been fun!
 
Rob_B said:
How's everyone doing? I'm just finishing up on a bit of stressful delivery at work so a big weight it lifted, nothing compared to a lot of people's issues but for me its not been fun!
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Things have improved quite a lot for me but I need to work out how to move forward with things as I feel stuck. I have no idea what I should be doing.

Glad to hear things are getting better for you! May it last a long time.
 
Work is too tiring and home DIY is slow. But life with partner is great. So in general I'm happy but suspect I'm clinically depressed?

Not too worried for now, I just come home and sit on the sofa exhausted but happy :)
 
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