Mental Wellness Support Group

[Nakita Akita]

I hate maggots for pretty much the same reason. I was traumatized after I once picked a dead rat with my bare hands in a wildlife rescue...


I faced psychophobia today during and after my eye surgery. The ophtalmo who practiced the procedure talked to me like I was some piece of shit and almost shouted at me in the middle of the procedure. I almost cried while lying under the laser machine. I was terrified and the last thing I needed was to be treated like crap.
After it was done, as she was filling the forms for the health insurance, she lessoned me about why I should not stress and that it was basically my fault if I was unable to calm down by myself. I bursted into tears in the office. I had to explain I have generalized anxiety disorder and was born that way, and that I take meds. I felt so humiliated and disrespected.
I wish doctors were taught at university how to handle and interact with terrified anxious patients. How can they imagine that telling us to "stop whimpering" can do any good ? ??

I used to work in the medical field.
Some doctors are very nice done are POS's.
Some are so sweet with the patients but treat the staff like 5hit.
It's like Forest Gump said " life is like a box of chocolates"
But it's like" doctors are like a box of chocolates"
Sometimes you get a shitty old salty sour one sometimes you get a sweet honey one.

 

[Butters]

I can relate to so much of the anxiety on here. I’m pretty much afraid of everything that can go wrong to the extent that I worry about things not going wrong because I know they will eventually go wrong anyway, and the anxiety of losing the things that I love (kids, wife, home, job) suggests that I might actually be happier as a loner, a slum dwelling yellow fingered bar fly with nothing to look forward to but failing health and the long decline to an unremarked end. In the absence of hope I might find solace.

But I have good days too, where every possible outcome of every possible decision doesn’t ultimately lead to an unspeakable fate. Seeing an old photo of the kids so unbelievably young, for example, lifts me, and I see it ain’t that bad, the fight is worth it and I relax, but then, there’s that false sense of security again. Universe can’t fool me, best be on my guard.

 

[Snaploud]

Mmh it would be safer to determine wether or not Gryffin is suffering from depression before taking antidepressants :-/
They can make some conditions worse (like bipolar disorders) if taken inappropriately.

True. I am in no way advocating self-medicating behavior. A medical professional (preferably both a psychologist and a psychiatrist) is needed for any diagnoses and treatments.

 

[Snaploud]

I think taking antidepressants is a rather too large step from feeling a little off or blue.

Possibly taking up a new hobby that involves a group or taking a class of something that interests one like from an extension college or recreation center.

Or possibly joining a group, discussion group, book club, wine tasters club, beer tasters club, some group where you get out go someplace meet up with real life people.

Talk to your doctor, ask for recommendations.
Medication should be a last resort.

All good advice, though I might quibble with the "last resort" phrasing.

 

[Nakita Akita]

I don't really have any issues.
I'm like my dad, I'm usually in a good mood, people don't really freak me out or upset me, sometimes I'm in the dumps and bummed out but I keep on keeping and find something and get out of the dump.
I am generally healthy, but my 89 year old dad has had better health than me. ( that's kinda annoying )
But that's it. I'm usually in a good mood, and happy about most things.
Sure I feel bummed like a few years back when my dog had cancer and died and yes my dad is 89 still living in his is but I worry about him, I'm human but still I feel good that i feel good. I feel blessed or lucky.

 

[Nakita Akita]

All good advice, though I might quibble with the "last resort" phrasing.

I'm just an advocate for myself most probably of trying to not take medications long term.

Of course there are those that need to do so and that is fine I understand that too, but there are a lot if people who and there doctor's are advocates of it, just giving someone a happy pill with out proper diagnosis.
There is clinical depression and situational or transitional depression.
Doctors today don't want to take time for a diagnosis do they give an Rx to get on to the next patient.

 

[Steven P Bastien]

In some ways, happiness can be just taking a little thing and making a big deal about it. The "big deal" can be either an outward or inward expression depending on your personality type and depending on the "little thing" itself. The little thing can be any thing that gives you joy and occupies your mind. For me, the little thing can be whatever hobbies I'm interesting in at a particular time. The strange thing is that every rare once in a while (like the other day) it all seems so pointless. What does it matter if I do that hobby? No one cares about it and it does not really do anyone any good, except that I am happy when I do it, but for this one day. The next day, the feeling is gone and I'm happy again, and I don't even need the hobby to be happy that day. It's just "all good" again.

Now I ask myself, what if this "empty" feeling hit me every day? I think I would be depressed and life would seem utterly pointless. This is the closest I can get to understanding what a depressed person must feel, and I know it is still infinitely far away from the real feeling itself.

I get an occasional bad day of anxiety too, and then brush it aside if there is no action I can take to minimize the chance of disasters. But again, what if it happened every day?

You have to do whatever it takes to get that brain chemistry back on track. For some people it is automatic. The feedback loop corrects for the disturbance (big ones and small ones) that knocks you "out of whack". For other people, it takes more effort, but they can do it without medicine. For others, medicine is the answer. Kitty Dukakis advocates for electroshock treatment as that is the only thing that works for her.

Back in the 1970s my mother would suffer for years with depression, once the depression was triggered by a tragedy, or even something much less than a tragedy. She would never bounce back until the depression made her angry (at God? the world? herself?, who knows). It could take 6 months to 1 year to get angry enough to recover because she is not someone who easily gets angry. Nowadays, she can use medicine, and she need not suffer more than a few weeks. Hence, instead of the majority or her life being "torture", a very tiny portion of her life is like that now. And this, even after my sister died of cancer. She is sad about it for sure, but not depressed and there is a very big difference between the two states of mind. Tragedy and sadness, as well as triumph and elation, are normal parts of life, but depression is not a necessary evil, even if periods of sadness are.

I'm an engineer, and by chance, one of my areas of study is "control theory" where we study feedback systems, stability, instability, control and lack thereof. Just like the body, the brain is a machine, and just as not all our bodies are equally coordinated, neither are our brains. And that is not to say, that such "less coordinated" brains are defective, because often such minds are also very creative and intelligent. If you wished all the "depressed people" away, you might not have much of a civilization left, or maybe one you would not want to live in.

... OK, end of babbling. I think there was a point somewhere in there.

 

[Nakita Akita]

In some ways, happiness can be just taking a little thing and making a big deal about it. The "big deal" can be either an outward or inward expression depending on your personality type and depending on the "little thing" itself. The little thing can be any thing that gives you joy and occupies your mind. For me, the little thing can be whatever hobbies I'm interesting in at a particular time. The strange thing is that every rare once in a while (like the other day) it all seems so pointless. What does it matter if I do that hobby? No one cares about it and it does not really do anyone any good, except that I am happy when I do it, but for this one day. The next day, the feeling is gone and I'm happy again, and I don't even need the hobby to be happy that day. It's just "all good" again.

Now I ask myself, what if this "empty" feeling hit me every day? I think I would be depressed and life would seem utterly pointless. This is the closest I can get to understanding what a depressed person must feel, and I know it is still infinitely far away from the real feeling itself.

I get an occasional bad day of anxiety too, and then brush it aside if there is no action I can take to minimize the chance of disasters. But again, what if it happened every day?

You have to do whatever it takes to get that brain chemistry back on track. For some people it is automatic. The feedback loop corrects for the disturbance (big ones and small ones) that knocks you "out of whack". For other people, it takes more effort, but they can do it without medicine. For others, medicine is the answer. Kitty Dukakis advocates for electroshock treatment as that is the only thing that works for her.

Back in the 1970s my mother would suffer for years with depression, once the depression was triggered by a tragedy, or even something much less than a tragedy. She would never bounce back until the depression made her angry (at God? the world? herself?, who knows). It could take 6 months to 1 year to get angry enough to recover because she is not someone who easily gets angry. Nowadays, she can use medicine, and she need not suffer more than a few weeks. Hence, instead of the majority or her life being "torture", a very tiny portion of her life is like that now. And this, even after my sister died of cancer. She is sad about it for sure, but not depressed and there is a very big difference between the two states of mind. Tragedy and sadness, as well as triumph and elation, are normal parts of life, but depression is not a necessary evil, even if periods of sadness are.

I'm an engineer, and by chance, one of my areas of study is "control theory" where we study feedback systems, stability, instability, control and lack thereof. Just like the body, the brain is a machine, and just as not all our bodies are equally coordinated, neither are our brains. And that is not to say, that such "less coordinated" brains are defective, because often such minds are also very creative and intelligent. If you wished all the "depressed people" away, you might not have much of a civilization left, or maybe one you would not want to live in.

... OK, end of babbling. I think there was a point somewhere in there.

Totally how I feel and think, but I don't have the patience to type stuff on the phone.
Anyway I'm lucky to have the snap back brain type.
I paint and draw etc. and sometimes I just think it's pointless, but the next day I get out paints etc. and go at it again.
Ooooooo, so weird, it's like I'm on the same wavelength with someone else on the plant.
I'm afraid, very afraid ......

 

[Gryffindorian]

@Snaploud, @Nakita Akita, I am and have been on Prozac for 13 years. It has kept me in a more balanced state of mind. I would be in worse shape if not for my meds. I understand that some people are against taking medications of any kind, but there's nothing wrong if they help in the treatment of illnesses.

The kind of depression--or rather emptiness--I'm experiencing lately is more like boredom. I feel at times like I'm stuck in a rut, and maybe I am. I still enjoy watching my favorite TV shows, going to the movies, shopping, dining out, light reading, exercising on my elliptical, social media, etc. There are times when things get mundane, and I feel like I want just a little more fun and excitement. I should probably look for a new hobby or two. Variety is, as they say, the spice of life.

 

[TrickyDickie]

I highly recommend rock and fossil hunting, photography, and rummage sales. There is always something new to be found that keeps things fresh and interesting to stave off depression.

With the rummage sales, it may be rediscovering something from the past that you have completely forgotten about. Or discovering something interesting that is out-of-print or otherwise no longer produced. Thrift stores are good for that, too. And the cost is minimal.

I am a big advocate for regular walks in the woods. Preferably alone or with one other person whom you are very close to in a relationship. We are, after all, creatures of nature ourselves. All of the concrete, steel, asphalt, and glass is artificial. The hustle-bustle of 'scheduled' living, in the middle of all of that, takes its toll.

It's also important not to lose touch with one's childhood self.

Sometimes the best therapy is to get out there and make a few mud pies.

 

[Herbert]

I used to work in the medical field.
Some doctors are very nice done are POS's.
Some are so sweet with the patients but treat the staff like 5hit.
It's like Forest Gump said " life is like a box of chocolates"
But it's like" doctors are like a box of chocolates"
Sometimes you get a shitty old salty sour one sometimes you get a sweet honey one.

Very true. I've worked in a hospital for many years and, oh boy, do I know this well. I'll never forget the time that a nurse referred to a doctor as Dr Rottenburg, which was a negative play on the spelling of his name and it summed up perfectly this guy's personality. Another time I was in a training class for new residents and I was mentoring a new trainer. She had an accent and one of these residents was actually making fun of her accent. I wanted to punch this punk repeatedly in the face. Seriously? You're a doctor and you're this immature? I can only imagine what an asshole this guy would be once he became an attending. Having said that, the "bad ones" seem to be in the minority. Most of the time, docs that I've encountered have been fine, not jerks and are just regular people like the rest of us. Unfortunately, the few negative experiences tend to sometimes skew perceptions.

 

[feral.cherub]

Lack of drive is not laziness. People don't understand that. And their coping strategies are dismissed as nonsense.

YES!!!

Thank you! Sometimes it's apathy related to depression, or you brain is running faster than the rest of you can keep up, or you feel psychologically paralyzed and just can't take action. And sometimes you just feel in the. grip of something you have no words for, your mind draws a blank, dread grips you and you feel like youre 'disappearing' somehow. And when you feel that way and have a sink of dirty dishes, that's laziness or lack of drive?
It still angers me how people think you don't have a legit reason to be on social secuurity because 'you look fine' or 'you sound intelligent and reasonable, etc.'
Nevermind that my disorder is chemical or between my ears at any rate, I've never held a job longer than six months before I end up in the hospital, and also having been in the hospital like 14 times.
No, I just want attention, I'm creating drama, Its all self centeredness. (There's truth enough to that but sometimes you become the center of your world because you're just trying not to fly apart at the seams.

 

[TrickyDickie]

I wonder if the character in Johnny Got his gun was the same movie they showed clips of in a Metallica song called 'One'. He loses all his limbs (I think they cut some off as experiments. They believe he's as ''unthinking and unfeeling as the dead until the day he joins them". He eventually learns to somehow get out S.O.S. and the doctors and soldiers meet. The soldiers interpret the message, "Kill me. Over and over. Kill me."
A doctor's asks a high ranking officer, "Well don't you have anything to say?"
The soldier says, "He's a product of your profession, not mine."

It's an awesome Metallica song from their earlier days I think. I almost want to look it up in song credits and watch it but I'm afraid it would be anticlimactic somehow.

Yes:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/One_(Metallica_song)

 

[Nakita Akita]

I wonder if the character in Johnny Got his gun was the same movie they showed clips of in a Metallica song called 'One'. He loses all his limbs (I think they cut some off as experiments. They believe he's as ''unthinking and unfeeling as the dead until the day he joins them". He eventually learns to somehow get out S.O.S. and the doctors and soldiers meet. The soldiers interpret the message, "Kill me. Over and over. Kill me."
A doctor's asks a high ranking officer, "Well don't you have anything to say?"
The soldier says, "He's a product of your profession, not mine."

It's an awesome Metallica song from their earlier days I think. I almost want to look it up in song credits and watch it but I'm afraid it would be anticlimactic somehow.

That book sounds horrible.
If I need inspiration I just Think about Helen Keller or the College veterinary professor that was autistic. Just thinking about these two makes me know I'm lucky.
When I was in high school nobody knew me would let me drink hard booze or smoke pot etc. because they said I was too weird already.
But now I'm just a plain stupid person with a boring 9-5 job. I still draw and paint, maybe being mildly artistic is my weirdness.

Overall I guess I'm pretty boring.
I've had a lot of head injuries. I think if I had not had those I would be something like a chemist or engineer, but even more boring.

 

[Avro Arrow]

Hi @feral.cherub , I know you're new here, so not really a big deal, but just wanted to let you know that we actually have a rule against posting more than twice in a row in succession. If you'd like to continue your thoughts after posting, it's preferred to edit your original post and add as appropriate.

I know that when you first join, you don't have post editing rights, but I believe you are past the "probation" period now, so I just thought I would mention it!

 

[Locutus of Bored]

If I need inspiration I just Think about Helen Keller.

Because she was a radical socialist NAACP supporter who co-founded the ACLU?

 

[feral.cherub]

Hi @feral.cherub , I know you're new here, so not really a big deal, but just wanted to let you know that we actually have a rule against posting more than twice in a row in succession. If you'd like to continue your thoughts after posting, it's preferred to edit your original post and add as appropriate.

I know that when you first join, you don't have post editing rights, but I believe you are past the "probation" period now, so I just thought I would mention it!

Sorry, I wasn't aware I had. I'll try harder to be vigilant.
Does this mean twice in a row on the whole board or by topics. I read the rules but something must have flown over my head

 

[Avro Arrow]

Sorry, I wasn't aware I had. I'll try harder to be vigilant.
Does this mean twice in a row on the whole board or by topics. I read the rules but something must have flown over my head

Oh my, no, not over the board as a whole, that would be almost impossible for us to monitor anyway.

Just within a single thread.

Post no more than twice in a row. This is so you don't dominate a discussion/thread. Use the quote function if you need to answer multiple posts aimed at you.

I hope this helps, but if you still have questions, feel free to PM.

 

[TrickyDickie]

Looks like they changed the ending of Johnny Got His Gun for the film version and left it that he wanted to die.

In the book he decided that he wanted to live, because he was finding simple joy, like the feel of the warmth of sunlight.

To change it to ghastly-grim right to the very end defeats the whole purpose of showing the triumph of the human spirit being able to overcome even some of the very worst that life dishes out.

 

[Gryffindorian]

Oh my, no, not over the board as a whole, that would be almost impossible for us to monitor anyway.

Just within a single thread.



I hope this helps, but if you still have questions, feel free to PM.

I may have done it once or twice. Sorry, I'll try to use the Quote+Reply more often.