Mental Wellness Support Group

[Peach Wookiee]

I go with Ecclesiastes 3:1-8 which shows there is a time for everything. I read it to my students when life is hitting us hard. I read it to them last week when we were seeing what happened in Ukraine.
As for those dark thoughts, I fight them and at times, have to fight them harder than others.

 

[think]

**HUGS** I was suicidal from the age of 13 until I got on antidepressants in my late 20s-early 30s. I now realize that smoking (I quit around age 26) and eating crap/gaining weight were also forms of self-harm. We're all working on it.

{{{{{{{{{{Hugs back}}}}}}}}

 

[Malicia]

Just saw the Judge Judy episode with Jason Stemple on CBS Reality which I've seen before and it's always painful to watch. He had severe heroin withdrawal during the filming and Judge Judy showed compassion by offering support which I think is the only time she has done that. It's heart breaking to see someone in that situation and it's not because they are on drugs which so many people think but because they are not. It reminds me of the line from Kingpin "I don't get sick when I drink I get sick when I don't". Sadly Jason took his own life and perhaps felt he was too far gone to even consider there was a way out. Such a handsome man who once had hopes and dreams like the rest of us but had become a tortured soul.

 

[Peach Wookiee]

I suspect Judge Judy has seen more than her share of addicts and does want to help. I think addicts are not treated as they should be in the US. If we truly wanted to end the drug problem, we could. We just lack the will.

 

[Peach Wookiee]

Sorry for the double post, guys. Do you ever feel like if you disappeared that people would mourn for a little bit, then forget you ever existed? I thought these feelings were gone from me, and yet I find them returning.

 

[DEWLine]

Yes. In some cases, they'll forget me before either of us dies, because dementia diagnosis.

 

[Peach Wookiee]

I understand. I think I was one of the first to disappear from my mom’s mind.

 

[Malicia]

I think about what will happen after I die because I have no arrangements in place so it would all be left up to my family but I think they would put on a good spread and they know I prefer a burial. Following the funeral I would fade in the minds of some but I know there will be people who think of me every day and hopefully eventually those memories evolve from grief to a smile or laugh. I remember people who passed away that I barely knew at school but still think about them so the memory of someone will be forever remembered and celebrated by more people than they could ever know.

 

[Peach Wookiee]

I guess I'm going through the thoughts because I know that, in less than a month, my dad, my brother, sister-in-law and nieces are going on a family trip without me. If it was supposed to be a truly family trip, then why couldn't they have worked it out so that I could go, too?

 

[Malicia]

Why can't you go on the trip?

 

[Peach Wookiee]

It'd mean two weeks away from work, not one. And short of an emergency, I can't do it. When the trip was originally scheduled, it was when my Mid-Winter Break and my nieces' coincided, and I'd miss a week because of COVID restrictions at work. But thanks to my brother and sister-in-law's screw-up, which according to my dad isn't their fault (insert really irritated scream here), we couldn't go then. So the trip was rescheduled for my nieces' Spring Break, which doesn't coincide with mine.
And then my dad told me he'd make it up to me, which amounts to him deciding because when I mentioned a couple of places I'd like to go, he didn't want to go there because "it's not warm and I want to golf somewhere warm." Well, Dad, then it isn't about making it up to me, is it?

 

[Malicia]

Join them for the trip if you can because the enjoyment will make it worth going. If you lose out on wages you have the time to strong arm your dad in to ponying up the dough to cover the expenses.

 

[Commander Troi]

Sorry for the double post, guys. Do you ever feel like if you disappeared that people would mourn for a little bit, then forget you ever existed? I thought these feelings were gone from me, and yet I find them returning.

Yeah. My depression has really been kicking my ass over the last few weeks. I've felt like I'm only sticking around so as not to hurt my hubby and others who love me, but have nothing to live for - no meaning in the present and a bleak future. My psychiatrist added a mood stabilizer (Abilify) to my meds and wants me to taper off the Lexapro I've been taking for 20 years and switch to Prozac. She also wants to see me once a week until we get a handle on this.

She'd *really* like me to try Transcranial Magnetic Stimulation, but my insurance won't cover it unless I've tried 4 different antidepressants! Anyone here have experience with TMS? There seems to be good scientific studies behind it.

 

[XCV330]

Yeah. My depression has really been kicking my ass over the last few weeks. I've felt like I'm only sticking around so as not to hurt my hubby and others who love me, but have nothing to live for - no meaning in the present and a bleak future. My psychiatrist added a mood stabilizer (Abilify) to my meds and wants me to taper off the Lexapro I've been taking for 20 years and switch to Prozac. She also wants to see me once a week until we get a handle on this.

She'd *really* like me to try Transcranial Magnetic Stimulation, but my insurance won't cover it unless I've tried 4 different antidepressants! Anyone here have experience with TMS? There seems to be good scientific studies behind it.

I am sorry you are going through that. I hope they can at least sidestep a few of the insurance hurdles put in the way to get the help you need.

 

[Malicia]

We all have meaning and I hope it gets better for you @Commander Troi. I love to read your posts and always smile when I see your name because you have a sensitive and carefree outlook on life that I'm intune with and it makes me feel human. [hugs]

 

[Peach Wookiee]

Yeah. My depression has really been kicking my ass over the last few weeks. I've felt like I'm only sticking around so as not to hurt my hubby and others who love me, but have nothing to live for - no meaning in the present and a bleak future. My psychiatrist added a mood stabilizer (Abilify) to my meds and wants me to taper off the Lexapro I've been taking for 20 years and switch to Prozac. She also wants to see me once a week until we get a handle on this.

She'd *really* like me to try Transcranial Magnetic Stimulation, but my insurance won't cover it unless I've tried 4 different antidepressants! Anyone here have experience with TMS? There seems to be good scientific studies behind it.

My therapist a couple of years ago mentioned that therapy and a friend of my family tried it. TMS seems to work for some people quite well.

 

[Commander Troi]

Thank you all! Especially you @Malicia - you really touched my heart.

 

[Malicia]

Thank you all! Especially you @Malicia - you really touched my heart.

Ditto

 

[fireproof78]

Sorry for the double post, guys. Do you ever feel like if you disappeared that people would mourn for a little bit, then forget you ever existed? I thought these feelings were gone from me, and yet I find them returning.

Probably. But, then I remember the smiles in the moments I have helped people and I am strangely OK with that.

 

[think]

this is a really neat way to change my thoughts=== it does help to breath for 10 minutes the 6-3-9 I think means six count in three count hold and 9 count out repeat -- there are other ways to breath but this is quite the meditative way to breath=== most helpful all of these -