Mental illness thread

[sunn0glasses]

drop a shout if you currently suffer from mental illness, or have in the past

ive had major depression since i was like 8, and social anxiety, and i guess just general anxiety

current coping mechanisms: zoloft (100mg daily), smoking weed everyday (definitely not recommending to anyone, just saying), fuckloads of coffee.. i've wanted to get more into meditation, but my brain doesn't really work like that(?) so i treat stepmania like meditation (lol)

just trying to gauge where others are at. what's eating you and what do you do to fight it? bc i'll admit i have a terrible way of dealing with things, but trying to work on it.

hope ur all doin ok

[choof]

Re: Mental illness thread

probably not a critical thinking thread

[Celirra]

Re: Mental illness thread

Depression and related mostly with me, with a fair bit of (social & not) anxiety; no medication though. I mostly deal with it by just trying to keep occupied constantly, which is pretty rough when there's no way for it to work.

I think the most effective way really is just to keep busy though, I've found with myself anyways that the only effective way for me to push it away is to just not think about it at all. Even if it's something monotonous or pointless, just being distracted means I'm too busy to be feeling down.

Coffee too, though. But I dont know if that actually helps at all, or if it's just an addiction. I might also have early signs of a drinking problem too, but I don't know if that'll really develop at all.

Best of wishes dude

[Sanjixcon]

Re: Mental illness thread

depression is out of control these days... seems like everyone has it.

[choof]

Re: Mental illness thread

depression is out of control these days... seems like everyone has it.

everyone experiences depression to some extent and it will manifest differently in everyone
it seems like everyone has it because you spend a lot of time on the computer; I'd imagine there's some correlation between being a sadboi and spending copious amounts of time on the internet

[SubaruPoptart]

Re: Mental illness thread

With me, it's been this thing called Dissociative Identity Disorder, or Multiple Personality Disorder. If you've ever seen Total Drama Island, Mike had this so it works similar to that. I've got this one personality, James or as he DEMANDS everyone call him, "Sneaky", is a bit off at times. He can be really irritable and sometimes even physical from what I've heard from my friends. I've got 6 personalities in total and each appear on their own "triggers" but I've been goin through this for around a year now. Sometimes it's good but sometimes it can end up horrible depending on which personality comes out when.

Although on the bright side, we found out at school that Sneaky likes FFR since I still had it up on my school computer so that's a plus I guess.
He left his own notes on which songs to avoid, and which songs were "complete bullshit" on the notes program on there it was so funny XD

[Shadow_God_10]

Re: Mental illness thread

ADHD and General Anxiety Disorder.

I like the concept of this thread, as I have an older brother who suffers from depression due to the fact that he has a speech impediment and was made fun of for a lot of his life. I've been his only source of social interaction for the last decade or so because he doesn't like talking to people.

Any ideas for me to help him out?

[Spenner]

Re: Mental illness thread

Depression was a crippling disorder for a long time for me-- I've recently floated into the territory of bipolar type II and I have some underlying conditions like depersonalization and generalized anxiety that have stuck with me, and have become an unavoidable aspect of life.

Coping took a long time, but I dedicated most of my life to self study, and trying to better understand my mind and behaviour as a whole. A lot of drug abuse took me a step lower in reaching that understanding, but I've been better for quite awhile in that department. And now with no withdrawal effects, or lingering PTSD (for the most part-- I had a really bad acid trip before I stopped indulging in psychedelics for awhile, just now getting over it really. I still start up into panic mode if I depersonalize a little bit but I have methods for keeping myself grounded), I can finally see things more clearly, and learn when I'm being irrational, and keep reminding myself of what's what.

In any mental illness, solid reminders and moderating your thoughts to weed out the unnecessary/harmful ones is essential. It takes a long time to study and understand what those are on an individual level, but if something like a mood swing or anxiety episode is triggering and you sense a pattern, take notes. It's time to reprogram certain cognitive fixations away from necessity.

If anyone is seeking advice or needs whether its with direct mental health issues, thoughts of harm, or substance abuse problems, here are a few links you can pick at:


- Information on Cognitive Behavioral Therapy [CBT]
- Acceptance and Commitment Training [ACT]
- Meditation basics
- Mindfulness basics
- Lucid dreaming [also a huge community aimed to help people sleep better]
- The human brain [learning some basics on how it works]
- /r/Depression, /r/SuicideWatch, /r/Anxiety, /r/Bipolar
- RecoverYourLife [support network for self harm and mental illness with live chat]
- List of resources used related to SuicideWatch
- Tripsit.me [For live support on substance abuse and addiction and harm reduction/prevention]

ADHD and General Anxiety Disorder.

I like the concept of this thread, as I have an older brother who suffers from depression due to the fact that he has a speech impediment and was made fun of for a lot of his life. I've been his only source of social interaction for the last decade or so because he doesn't like talking to people.

Any ideas for me to help him out?

What are some of his interests? The most beneficial thing he can be doing is interacting with groups of likeminded people both online and in person once he gets more comfortable. A skill or interest that he can pair up with people to explore makes it possible to see that communication challenges needn't be a barrier, and it's a great way to learn how to develop a style of communicating to get clear messages across with or without speech problems. Certainly doing nothing and being isolated is just going to make him think more and more that certain networks of people won't be accepting of him, but really do encourage him to try at it. Seeing himself move up the group's hierarchy of importance because of his contributions is a fantastic confidence boost.

That, and just finding activities that don't even need to reference vocalizations at all. Kungfu was a great thing to learn and practice in my younger years, but anything related is also effective at increasing confidence and self worth.

[rayword45]

Re: Mental illness thread

I just feel alone. I have friends who care about me and a family that loves me, yet I still feel alone. I'm completely socially retarded. I've burned a lot of bridges over the years and some with people I'll have to see often. I want to repair those bridges, but people are stubborn (we both wronged each other, why can't they see it from the other side? Jesus fuck people). I'm jobless, lazing around without purpose, waiting for a goddamn callback and I don't even have the morale or energy to hit the gym. Anxiety strikes me hard at times and I can't form new relationships.

I just want to stop being socially retarded. I want depression and anxiety to get the hell out of my life. Most of all, I want to learn how to fucking focus, because my ADD riddled mind makes focusing on conversations impossible at times. What a combo of disorders. Meditation helps sometimes but I even lack the willpower to do that consistently.

I'm surprised how coherent this came out (I think) normally when Im drunk this would be a barrage of typos

[Funnygurl555]

Re: Mental illness thread

I want to do my thesis on mental illness, but I'm afraid whoever my adviser is is gonna be like, "but why tho" and I'll just be like I'm also afraid of explaining it to my friends/people in general, since I don't really talk about my issues with them anyway. But I still want to do it. Heh

I've had depression and anxiety for a while though. Most of the time I'm fine, like now, but I almost had to take a year off of school this past year because things went south, and because of that I don't think I can live my life without accepting that my mental illness is a part of me.

Being busy helps me a lot. I take as many classes and participate in as many extracurricular activities as I can so I don't have time to think. I also volunteer at a crisis hotline. I've found that it helps me feel less pathetic that people have to help me with my own problems, haha.

I also wasn't pre-med for a while, but because of how horrible my last semester was and a really bad chat I had with someone at the crisis hotline I reconsidered, so maybe something good came out of everything bad that happened.

Speaking of which, I'm procrastinating on studying for the MCAT 'cause I'll inevitably fail. ;______________;

[Renmei]

Re: Mental illness thread

Depression is very common among peers. I'm depress all of the time, but I try to act as if I'm good with life when around my relatives or people in general. Honestly, I'm not sure what you can find your answer around the FFR community, but basically, you want to take your mind off that you are living miserable and do things that are fun and positive. Of course, it easier said than done, but I often play games with people like Co-op, PVP (FPS, etc.). Cooking and eating is one of the factor that plays in my role to fend off my depression. But honestly, if you're already taking medication and weed per se, I'm not sure if there is anything that could help you with against depression. If anything, you would probably need an ideal partner to take care of you. That's all I can offer.

[Funnygurl555]

Re: Mental illness thread

If anything, you would probably need an ideal partner to take care of you. That's all I can offer.

eheh... I'd suggest the opposite here. I wouldn't look to someone else to make you happy. I'm forever alone, but whenever I'm down in the dumps boys are more off-limits than they were before.

Actually, I told one of my close friends I had depression because I wanted at least one person on campus to know in case I went a-wall again, and he suggested that I try weed to make things feel better. I declined because I'm not the biggest fan of weed and getting high, haha. I guess it is a type of coping mechanism, though.

[GammaBlaster]

Re: Mental illness thread

I've been living with MDD + GAD for almost my entire life, but was only really diagnosed professionally 9 months ago.

I had a chance of passing away last week, but someone managed to find me in the middle of a near-highway before I could do anything else impulsive, heheh...

[Cavernio]

Re: Mental illness thread

IIRC I tried the 'don't think too much' angle back in 2002. It's about as effective as 'just stop breathing' Coming to that conclusion is growth though. Accepting inevitabilities.

I now delve in over-thinking daily almost as much as I want to. I've begun trying various forms of higher self-awareness, meditations, I guess. The altered state of awareness that marijuana has given me on occasion has helped. That I'm addicted to the stuff doesn't. I'm exploring Buddhism.

My over-thinking has lead me to explore concepts of religion, philosophy. It's resulted in a paradigm-shift. By paradigm-shift I mean that things that I have taken as truth or reality, has shifted. 'I' here is my thought process. It's like I'm a decision-tree, each thought returns true or false, leads to a new pathway for a new thought. So it's like changing a switch high up on the decision tree, the paradigm shift. It's trying to reset, or create aknew, everything that I knew under the old paradigm, and fitting into the new one.

Oh yeah I recently read stuff supporting my idea that pesticides promote mental illness. A few studies working with farmers. Other things just ideas of exactly how specific pesticides interact with the body to possibly create the altered function that leads to depression and anxiety, things that are testable. Not that this is particularly useful right now.

[Azpb Djbread]

Re: Mental illness thread

Recently spoke to a psychologist.

No details, but she says i have

ptsd. That was new. But i always had Chronic depression, &
social anxiety,
& inability to adapt.

(Suffered from divorced, several counselors, psychologists, and court people said this is the worst divorce seen in their careers. there was a Psychologist has a career based on split families for 25 years at the time. Up to date, still the worst one she says she has seen. Long story. I'm not even going to speak about how i got ptsd, but i've recently spiked in ptsd attacks, with 5 this week :'] )

Also; I Haven't left my house in about 2 years for anything more than to go to walmart, or something, so i don't have any real-life friends. Only friends i've met online. Even then, i only have 2 solid friendships i've built online.


The worst part is; since i am still considered a "Minor", along with living in a divorced family-- All the doctors my mother has taken me to see always say "i have a chemical imbalance" or something like that, and can only be fixed with medication. But the thing is; since i am a minor, and being in a divorced family; i have to have both of my parents sign of approval for something like medication. Even though countless psychologists, therapists, doctors, and other sources say i NEED medication in order to live a somewhat stable lifestyle, my dad refuses to believe i have any mental illness. This leads to me not being able to take any medication, or help at all. Another thing; he is stubborn. He doesn't believe he is wrong in any way. Never. I Can't quite put it into words, but... its just crazy.