Depression, Anxiety, or other Mental Health Conditions

Curls wrote:

Curls wrote:

Clarkman wrote:

Curls wrote:

Green Gecko wrote:I think happiness is a bit of a misnomer, as you can't be happy all the time. Being happy all the time is biologically wrong, in fact, it's not even remotely possible.

Content or "safe" is a much better word. Most humans in this country are safe from the vast majority of natural hazards. That alone is a reason to feel safer than in some other walks of life. Sometimes I just think about how I'm sat beneath the stars and my life isn't immediately at threat from anything, but perhaps that's a pretty low bar to set. It still makes me feel better in some situations worrying about work or whatever.

I do agree with this.

Life isn't about seeking constant hapiness, its about being able to deal with sadness and depression, being able to accept that life isn't great, and being able to look forward to things. Those who seek constant happiness are doomed to not be happy, those who are content with mediocrity, them people have got it figured out.

Try watching the video.

I haven't had 45 mins yet, sorry if that's exactly what the video says clarky.

I watched it. Interesting video. The bit about mood susceptibility (I think) is definitely my major issue. I can swing from elevated to anxious and down quite quickly. I’m working so hard at a lot of things about myself right now. I’m hoping the last year of my life and the coming months and years where I really delve into my own psyche a bit more are the making of me.

Excellent stuff mate. Power to you.

Been reading back through the thread about different anti-depressants, and found this on NHS site:

https://www.nhs.uk/conditions/antidepressants/

How antidepressants work

It's not known exactly how antidepressants work.

Really hoping I can ease off eventually with appropriate therapy and actual occupational/"life" support from our society.

NB: This is a personal thing, and not a suggestion SSRIs are at all bad or you should avoid getting on them. They are in general very useful drugs that I have been taking every day for 8 years.

Isn't it strange how even small victories can have a massive effect on one's mood? I've had a gooseberry fool week at work, and finished work today feeling like total gooseberry fool, and feeling so angry with everything.

Then I phoned Sky because I knew my contract was about to end (and result in me paying £15 a month more for the same gooseberry fool). The very excellent guy I spoke to set me up with a slightly better contract for £10 less a month than I have been spending, and since them I've felt strawberry floating great.

Somebody Else's Problem wrote:Isn't it strange how even small victories can have a massive effect on one's mood? I've had a gooseberry fool week at work, and finished work today feeling like total gooseberry fool, and feeling so angry with everything.

Then I phoned Sky because I knew my contract was about to end (and result in me paying £15 a month more for the same gooseberry fool). The very excellent guy I spoke to set me up with a slightly better contract for £10 less a month than I have been spending, and since them I've felt strawberry floating great.

I know exactly what you mean.

I talked about insomnia last week, has anyone had tests for sleep apnoea or the like? I feel like even when I sleep well I'm waking up exhausted and it's really getting to me now. I think when you have sleep problems you know the difference between the sort of tiredness you can just walk off with a shower and a bit of caffeine and feeling exhausted. That brings its own problems in that I find it really hard just relax because I know there are things I should be doing. I'm going to speak to the doctor's on Monday but I imagine the first thing they'll say is to get a test for Covid.

Hime wrote:
I talked about insomnia last week, has anyone had tests for sleep apnoea or the like? I feel like even when I sleep well I'm waking up exhausted and it's really getting to me now. I think when you have sleep problems you know the difference between the sort of tiredness you can just walk off with a shower and a bit of caffeine and feeling exhausted. That brings its own problems in that I find it really hard just relax because I know there are things I should be doing. I'm going to speak to the doctor's on Monday but I imagine the first thing they'll say is to get a test for Covid.

I have been tested but I don't have it. In my experience they make you wear a sleeping monitor for a night and then see what happens in your sleep. They found out I snore, but my partner says I make strange noises too. All I was told to do was to lose weight (which I'm trying to do, I'm not that big in the first place).

I still feel exhausted no matter how much I sleep though. For me they never found out the reason why it happens to me. Hopefully you'll have better luck!

Had a really bad day today after a weekend of feeling anxious. Will hopefully start to feel better now.

Fingers crossed you pull out of it a little bit soon.

For what it's worth I'm in the same boat at the moment. I seem to be having at least one panic attack or anxiety attack at the weekend, every weekend. I think it's because I really, really don't like my job. Alongside having a torrid time adapting some writing that I've done into a publishable book(deadline is January, currently I'm sitting at 0% complete) and having had major IT problems with a Postgrad course I was supposed to start almost a year ago it just feels like everything's gotten on top of me and I've completely shut down and am just panicking on a pretty much constant basis.

I am also in a bad run. I've been in the same job for over a year now and it is boring the gooseberry fool out of me.

I have also made zero progress with breaking my social anxiety and introvertidness and now with the virus there are no real opportunities for me to attend events and meet people either so I am stuck in limbo.

A lot of people are really dense about mental health aren't they.

I've been off this week because of my mental health, work know this. Yet they kept texting and messaging me asking them to phone them, obviously I was too anxious to phone and every message they sent made me more and more anxious.

Would have made too little sense to just converse with me through the actual messages right, instead of banging their head against a brick wall.

Bunch of sexist pricks there, I'm so ready to find a new job.

I fear that may be the situation with a lot of places. My sister was off half the year even before March because a new guy started harassing her. Basically he did not like taking instruction or criticism from woman with more experience at the company.

I'm not really fan of the people I work with now; bunch of smug assholes with some very regressive attitudes to things.

Meep wrote:I fear that may be the situation with a lot of places. My sister was off half the year even before March because a new guy started harassing her. Basically he did not like taking instruction or criticism from woman with more experience at the company.

I'm not really fan of the people I work with now; bunch of smug assholes with some very regressive attitudes to things.

Sorry to hear about your sister's situation.

Just to be clear I think my issue is a bit different though, I am a man working in an 99% female workplace. I've not experienced any outright harassment, just your usual sexism towards cis presenting men.

Fade wrote:A lot of people are really dense about mental health aren't they.

It's why I don't talk about my mental health issues to anyone I know. The first time I spoke to someone and told them I had been diagnosed with anxiety and depression the very first thing they said was "well you can talk to people just fine!" And cut off the conversation. It's happened time and time again to me. Just because I can talk to people quite easily doesn't mean I don't have anxiety issues.

I don't speak about when I've felt suicidal either. I've been told, when I've said that I'm feeling like that, to "stop being stupid" before the conversation gets changed again. It's like it's a taboo. It upsets me because sometimes all I do need is someone to talk to about this sort of stuff when I'm feeling like that and I don't feel like I can. It's not the same when you have scheduled therapy, because when I've gone to it I haven't had these feelings and thoughts.

Sorry you have to deal with that, it's a real shame.

Tsunade wrote:

Fade wrote:A lot of people are really dense about mental health aren't they.

It's why I don't talk about my mental health issues to anyone I know. The first time I spoke to someone and told them I had been diagnosed with anxiety and depression the very first thing they said was "well you can talk to people just fine!" And cut off the conversation. It's happened time and time again to me. Just because I can talk to people quite easily doesn't mean I don't have anxiety issues.

I don't speak about when I've felt suicidal either. I've been told, when I've said that I'm feeling like that, to "stop being stupid" before the conversation gets changed again. It's like it's a taboo. It upsets me because sometimes all I do need is someone to talk to about this sort of stuff when I'm feeling like that and I don't feel like I can. It's not the same when you have scheduled therapy, because when I've gone to it I haven't had these feelings and thoughts.

Sorry to hear this. We’re good listeners - if you ever need to vent or need someone to lend you an ear we’re always about.

Just to chime in, earlier in the month, when I told my boss that I was suffering with anxiety and depression, his response was "well you really should have told me about this before you got to this point. Maybe go for a walk, you'll probably find the fresh air will make you feel better".

Like, what the actual strawberry float? How can you say something like that to someone? But I remember when he told me that Joker "taught" him so much about mental health that he wasn't aware of, so go figure. It's just upsetting that he isn't an exception and that most people still react to mental health in equally abhorrent ways.

I don't even speak to my mum about mental health because whenever it comes up she immediately gets defensive as if no one in her family could ever have "mental problems". I remember receiving a letter from the police, offering me support after I filed an incident of assault at the hands of my father and my mum didn't even let me read it. Just joked that I wasn't "mental" and didn't need counselling. But now I'm moving further away from the issue of people's awful reactions to hearing about mental health and going into a dark tangent about my own problems

Anyway, I really didn't mean to go on and on. Just wanted to slag off my boss a bit for his ignorance.

Fade wrote:A lot of people are really dense about mental health aren't they.

I've been off this week because of my mental health, work know this. Yet they kept texting and messaging me asking them to phone them, obviously I was too anxious to phone and every message they sent made me more and more anxious.

Would have made too little sense to just converse with me through the actual messages right, instead of banging their head against a brick wall.

Bunch of sexist pricks there, I'm so ready to find a new job.

I generally got signed off for anxiety for 2 weeks as a matter of course, without even a GP certificate, and my manager/director just left me alone. Can you get a doctors note? THey should give you at least a week for depression/anxiety as they know contact about gooseberry fool that ultimately doesn't matter as much as your health needs t strawberry float off for a sustained period or it will most likely make you feel worse.

Zilnad wrote:Just to chime in, earlier in the month, when I told my boss that I was suffering with anxiety and depression, his response was "well you really should have told me about this before you got to this point. Maybe go for a walk, you'll probably find the fresh air will make you feel better".

Like, what the actual strawberry float? How can you say something like that to someone? But I remember when he told me that Joker "taught" him so much about mental health that he wasn't aware of, so go figure. It's just upsetting that he isn't an exception and that most people still react to mental health in equally abhorrent ways.

I don't even speak to my mum about mental health because whenever it comes up she immediately gets defensive as if no one in her family could ever have "mental problems". I remember receiving a letter from the police, offering me support after I filed an incident of assault at the hands of my father and my mum didn't even let me read it. Just joked that I wasn't "mental" and didn't need counselling. But now I'm moving further away from the issue of people's awful reactions to hearing about mental health and going into a dark tangent about my own problems

Anyway, I really didn't mean to go on and on. Just wanted to slag off my boss a bit for his ignorance.

Really sorry to read about this mate. If your family treat mental illness in this way it is probably for the best to avoid raising the issue with them and focus on what your GP and relevant support services can do for you instead.

FOr example I've been going through some (albeit paid, fortunately I can pay for this myself moving forward thanks to a recent correction to the personal independence payment) counselling every week. One of my key takeaways is the situation that "I can't be responsible for my parents actions", whereas previously I tried too hard to compensate for them or make up for their shiftiness in various situations. I feel the same rule applies here.

You can't be blamed for simply "getting too ill" and "not letting us know you were getting more and more ill", that is very unfair. For extreme example, you might have had a cancer eating away at you and not found out until you needed to be signed off work for a year or more with chemotherapy. It's absurd to blame an individual for not identify in a legitimate illness as soon as possible. Nobody can be held responsible for such things.

But some of the things you've mentioned in the work thread previously suggest to me your management are not the most shining example and so again I wouildn't blame yourself and have every right to vent about such occurrences. There are very real and present mental health stigma issues in British culture that will take time to alleviate, just remember that none of these people have a permanent hold over you and things can and will change.

Tsunade wrote:

Fade wrote:A lot of people are really dense about mental health aren't they.

It's why I don't talk about my mental health issues to anyone I know. The first time I spoke to someone and told them I had been diagnosed with anxiety and depression the very first thing they said was "well you can talk to people just fine!" And cut off the conversation. It's happened time and time again to me. Just because I can talk to people quite easily doesn't mean I don't have anxiety issues.

I don't speak about when I've felt suicidal either. I've been told, when I've said that I'm feeling like that, to "stop being stupid" before the conversation gets changed again. It's like it's a taboo. It upsets me because sometimes all I do need is someone to talk to about this sort of stuff when I'm feeling like that and I don't feel like I can. It's not the same when you have scheduled therapy, because when I've gone to it I haven't had these feelings and thoughts.

I have suicidal ideation roughly every few weeks at least, please feel free to talk about your experiences here if that helps

I've never really acted on them, but I do often go off on "wanders" into the middle of nowhere without really knowing where I intend to end up, I've put myself in very real (I..e potential no return situations) on the railway before and I used to suffocate myself under water and with pillows when I was as young as 11 or so. It all stems from my family's breakup when I was 5 years old, bullying or just genetics, nailing a cause down for it isn't really the be all and end all, it's a constant process of self discovery to work through my triggers.

GG looking after us all I hope you're doing well yourself, dude.

My main issue atm is just crushing loneliness. I have made some enquiries today about volunteering at a local animal sanctuary so hopefully something comes of that.