Depression, Anxiety, or other Mental Health Conditions

Trelliz wrote:Everything's a bit gooseberry fool really, isn't it?

On the one hand, I've got a job I enjoy which I have been lucky enough to continue to do while working from home which is something a vast number of people don't have, I live in my own house, have the time and space to engage in hobbies and i'm getting married soon to a wonderful woman, but its hard to stay positive when everything else is going to absolute gooseberry fool. The world is increasingly literally on fire, ice caps melting, politicians openly lie and act like shitlords, laughing all the way to the bank and despite the clear obviousness of their shittiness, never seem to get their comeuppance. A global pandemic shows no signs of going away, further propelled on by individual stupidity, the aforementioned shitlords for various reasons and the increasing tide of medieval-like superstition and fear through bizarre and utterly horrific conspiracy gooseberry fool bursting into the mainstream.

I've been keeping myself in escapist activities like warhammer, videogames, TV series etc but that can only bring the blissful wool over my eyes for so long before being wrenched back to reality by the real-time horror show of any news broadcast/article. Hearing about all this stuff day after day makes me hope for an asteroid to come down and finish us off because at this point that's probably the best option.

Just take solace in the knowledge that you're in the last generation of people who got to enjoy life before the world completely turned to gooseberry fool.

It works for me.

Ironhide wrote:Just take solace in the knowledge that you're in the last generation of people who got to enjoy life before the world completely turned to gooseberry fool.

It works for me.

Indeed. On a related note I generally find the OTT enforced merriment of christmas/new years eve excruicating in a normal year, we get swamped with pictures of people having perfect christmases, like its holding up a mirror and saying "you should be like this, but you aren't, unless you BUY OUR STUFF! IT WILL MAKE YOU HAPPY! Look at how wonderful things could be!" Its like the country adopts this maniac grin to show how great everything is, and we can't dare let up or pretend that things aren't okay for fear of taking a fleeting glimpse into the sucking void of how things are now.

This year with another probably harsh lockdown and disaster-tier brexit on the horizon it's going to be even more horrific. I imagine all kinds of trite "in these strange times/new normal, we at [BRAND] are with you, but you need to buy our gooseberry fool with money you don't have to prove you still love your family" adverts have been made since mid august. NYE is going to be even worse - all the gooseberry fool that happened this year won't magically stop just because we are roughly at the same point around the sun as we were 365 days ago. It's enough to make you want to go live in a cave and never see another person again.

So after taking Sertraline for about 5 weeks now it's amazing the difference that it's starting to make. Before I started taking it I was genuinely having moments where I couldn't ever see myself being happy again, where it felt like I was just going to spend the rest of my life in a perpetual cycle of fear and horrible thoughts.
The first week was definitely rough, my already shaky appetite plummeted even further and I couldn't manage more than 4 to 5 hours of sleep a night. But now I'm so close to normal that I can remember what it was like. I've managed to re-engage with some of my hobbies (Where Covid restrictions permit), my appetite has returned to normal, I can concentrate at work again, I can think clearly, I actually feel like I have energy to do things and my family and people I work with have all noticed the drastic improvement in my these past few weeks.

Lagamorph wrote:So after taking Sertraline for about 5 weeks now it's amazing the difference that it's starting to make.

Nice one, glad to hear it. What dosage did they start you on?

Drumstick wrote:
Lagamorph wrote:So after taking Sertraline for about 5 weeks now it's amazing the difference that it's starting to make.

Nice one, glad to hear it. What dosage did they start you on?

50mg which is what I'm still on. I still have a few little 'moments' here and there which at my last review they said may mean they increase my dosage, but we'll see how it goes over the next 3 weeks before my next review.

OK. The only thing I will say is that, as with any medication, you may eventually build up a tolerance to it which may cause the effects to lessen. Keep evaluating how you are feeling but otherwise rock on.

Thanks.
Ideally I'd like to not need it long term. From reading up once I 'stabalise' they'll keep me at the same dosage for a while then start to gradually bring me off it, since stopping at once can actually lead to withdrawal symptoms including Anxiety.

Well after talking just yesterday about doing a lot better I think today has definitely been a little bit of a setback.

The return of some restrictions, massively compounded by reports of idiots going out and panic buying, has definitely put me back to being on edge a bit with just general feelings of anxiety creeping back up again.

Just a small step back my man not a full 180. I know when I was on 60mg of Fluoxetine for my BDD it was a two steps forward, one back a lot of the time. Was on 60 for about four years, lowered to 40 for a year, lowered to 20 for a year and now I'm off them completely. So although you may need them forever, you also might surprise yourself. I was told I'd be on it forever.

blackoutHERO wrote:Just a small step back my man not a full 180. I know when I was on 60mg of Fluoxetine for my BDD it was a two steps forward, one back a lot of the time. Was on 60 for about four years, lowered to 40 for a year, lowered to 20 for a year and now I'm off them completely. So although you may need them forever, you also might surprise yourself. I was told I'd be on it forever.

Thanks mate.
I've rallied back around a bit yesterday/today but the reports here and there on people panic buying again and empty shelves when it comes to toilet paper are definitely keeping me on edge a bit.

Don't listen to the reports, the shops will be open the whole time again and the toilet roll panic buying is only a few people going mad. What I do is listen to the rules, but turn off the reports. That's what I've done and I must say, I've felt a lot calmer with my anxiety since doing so when it comes to this.

Shite and straight into the shower you're laughing. Haven't bought bog roll in years.

Yeah I need to just disconnect from the news for a few days I think, will definitely do my mental health good.

Despite the blip my therapist believes I'm making strong progress, and compared to where I was a month ago I definitely agree. I'm just incredibly lucky to have had my private insurance via my employer to give me such quick access to a therapist. When I had a follow up with NHS Mental Health a few weeks ago they discharged me to free up my spot in the queue so at least I could clear a spot to help other people move forward.

Can you get the spoken BBC news bulletins from smart device that are only like 2 minutes long once per day? It's just enough to know about any new rules etc as that's basically all they're talking about, but it doesn't really go into hysteria territory. That's what I'm doing then I just put on TV/music for the rest of the day (no news).

I'm feeling really really down in the dumps, I'm in hospital as of yesterday my pancreas has become highly inflamed and my gullbladders kicked out a load of stones. This all started after a Chinese on Monday with me being sick for 6 hours and me wondering why, called in work sick for the first time ever in my current job saying I wouldn't be in for the rest of the week, then feeling worse and worse Friday at 5:50 i admired myself to my local accident and emergencies department and now I'm on a ward having IV's and stuff the pain is unreal and it's driving me crazy apparently they want to calm the pancreas down then chop the gullblader out but have given me no time frame on anything I was on a temp ward till 11.15 last night , they've also tested me for covid-19 which I'm waiting for the results of now ... Work want me to call from hospital Sunday to tell them when I'll qbe back

strawberry floating hell.

I'd call work when your doctor is in the room and let him explain what's going on and when they can expect you back.

kerr9000 wrote:I'm feeling really really down in the dumps, I'm in hospital as of yesterday my pancreas has become highly inflamed and my gullbladders kicked out a load of stones. This all started after a Chinese on Monday with me being sick for 6 hours and me wondering why, called in work sick for the first time ever in my current job saying I wouldn't be in for the rest of the week, then feeling worse and worse Friday at 5:50 i admired myself to my local accident and emergencies department and now I'm on a ward having IV's and stuff the pain is unreal and it's driving me crazy apparently they want to calm the pancreas down then chop the gullblader out but have given me no time frame on anything I was on a temp ward till 11.15 last night , they've also tested me for covid-19 which I'm waiting for the results of now ... Work want me to call from hospital Sunday to tell them when I'll qbe back

You may be in for a while, hospitals take time with everything. I've had a number of stays in hospital and the best thing you can do is just be patient. Work can wait, you're ill and your health is way more important.

Tell the nurses you're in a lot of pain. Maybe they can give you something to help ease it till they get round to doing something.

Spot on there. I once spent 4 weeks in a ward and it was only once I stopped focussing on when I’d get discharged that I could relax and the frustration of everything slowly ebbed away. Hospital is a bleak place and can be a massive downer if you let it be.

Tsunade wrote:
kerr9000 wrote:I'm feeling really really down in the dumps, I'm in hospital as of yesterday my pancreas has become highly inflamed and my gullbladders kicked out a load of stones. This all started after a Chinese on Monday with me being sick for 6 hours and me wondering why, called in work sick for the first time ever in my current job saying I wouldn't be in for the rest of the week, then feeling worse and worse Friday at 5:50 i admired myself to my local accident and emergencies department and now I'm on a ward having IV's and stuff the pain is unreal and it's driving me crazy apparently they want to calm the pancreas down then chop the gullblader out but have given me no time frame on anything I was on a temp ward till 11.15 last night , they've also tested me for covid-19 which I'm waiting for the results of now ... Work want me to call from hospital Sunday to tell them when I'll qbe back

You may be in for a while, hospitals take time with everything. I've had a number of stays in hospital and the best thing you can do is just be patient. Work can wait, you're ill and your health is way more important.

Tell the nurses you're in a lot of pain. Maybe they can give you something to help ease it till they get round to doing something.

The nurses have been fantastic , I love the NHS I think I've interacted with about 30 and 29 were the most amazing people, just one was a bit grouchy my other half a coming to drop me a bag off with stuff in but is not allowed to stay but at least I'll see her for a moment and have things to try and concentrate on, I'm also now in a quiet little side room so think sleeping will be more likely . Its looking up a bit but when my pain was at it's worst it wasn't nice

Get well soon kerr.

Depression, Anxiety, or other Mental Health Conditions

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