[Life] Mental health club

TheGhostHunter said:
I feel that things regarding my anxiety have been getting worse lately. Recently, I had admitted that I had lost my faith to myself (no offense to anybody here). I want to explore this new side of me, but I feel overwhelmed by the fact that I had this change in my life and what to do now. I also felt like, to put it nicely, poo since this revelation. I feel like I've let people around me down by not following the same beliefs they do (my parents don't really care that much about church, but my grandma does). I'm trying to get a job at a local antique job, maybe a seasonal stint at a Halloween retailer. I also plan on transferring out to a four year college once I'm done with my communitty college education. Any tips on how to handle all of this?
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Sorry for responding to such an old post but I saw this and I honestly couldn't help but to say something.

Religion and spirituality has been something I've always fought with since I was old enough to start thinking for myself and when I started questioning things that didn't make sense. Things like social taboos, stigmas, and religion. I never liked how Christianity, specifically (I was Christian-raised) always went on about "oh love your neighbor yaddah-yaddah" but then would turn around and tell people that being gay, something that you can't help, is abhorrent. I'm sorry, what? When I got into my 20s I tried to get back into faith. After a couple years of infrequently attending religious services, though, something just STILL didn't settle right with me. Mainly revolving around what I mentioned earlier: bigotry that is, mostly, encouraged by religious texts. I tried to tell myself that "oh, I'm not one of those Christians," but after a while the burden got MUCH too heavy to bear. I finally stopped lying to myself: I cannot identify with a religion that as a whole, contributes to the oppression of so many different people of so many different backgrounds that honestly are only trying to live their lives peacefully and haven't hurt anyone or haven't done anything wrong. It made me uncomfortable. I identified as an atheist starting at when I was about 23, and I feel so much more at peace with myself now. I see myself as a secular humanist and I do what I can to fight back against any kind of bigotry, especially that that has been encouraged by things like religion.

Sorry for the autobiography lol, but basically what I'm saying is that I understand what you mean by feeling like you let people down. It's understandable to feel this way. However, I REALLY hope you are able to overcome that feeling, because what you believe in does not define your self-worth and anyone who thinks otherwise about you can seriously screw right off. If your family are good, kind people then I'm sure you won't have any issues. Of course, some things may be better left kept to yourself. At this point, I've come out to NONE of my family my lack of faith. If they find out, then whoop-de-doo, they won't really care that much lol.

I should disclaim that yeah, not every Christian is a bigoted jerk, of course, and I certainly don't feel that way! While I have found myself to have a...bit of a bias against people who claim to be of faith (I just have trained myself to expect a lot of people of faith to be bigoted in some regard), it's something I've been actively trying to work on fixing. After all, like I said earlier: whether or not you're spiritual does NOT define your self-worth. It's how you treat others. And I should practice what I preach hahah.

Believing that there's something out there that loves you unconditionally and is always watching out for you is a very comforting feeling, and I can 100% understand why people would choose to believe in it! Regardless, I hope you've gotten to the point in which you can come to terms with yourself and your newly-found lack of religious / spritual belief. I've found atheism to be comforting all in its own regard. Now, I no longer feel like I have to appease some higher being to be seen as a good person. I can live my life, and so long as I don't hurt others, I can be at peace with how I live my life.
 
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SassySnivy said:
Sorry for responding to such an old post but I saw this and I honestly couldn't help but to say something.

Religion and spirituality has been something I've always fought with since I was old enough to start thinking for myself and when I started questioning things that didn't make sense. Things like social taboos, stigmas, and religion. I never liked how Christianity, specifically (Christian-raised) always went on about "oh love your neighbor yaddah-yaddah" but then would turn around and tell people that being gay, something that you can't help, is abhorrent. I'm sorry, what? When I got into my 20s I tried to get back into faith. After a couple years of infrequently attending religious services, though, something just STILL didn't settle right with me. Mainly revolving around what I mentioned earlier: bigotry that is, mostly, encouraged by religious texts. I tried to tell myself that "oh, I'm not one of those Christians," but after a while the burden got MUCH too heavy to bear. I finally stopped lying to myself: I cannot identify with a religion that as a whole, contributes to the oppression of so many different people of so many different backgrounds that honestly are only trying to live their lives peacefully and haven't hurt anyone or haven't done anything wrong. It made me uncomfortable. I identified as an atheist starting at when I was about 23, and I feel so much more at peace with myself now. I see myself as a secular humanist and I do what I can to fight back against any kind of bigotry, especially that that has been encouraged by things like religion.

Sorry for the autobiography lol, but basically what I'm saying is that I understand what you mean by feeling like you let people down. It's understandable to feel this way. However, I REALLY hope you are able to overcome that feeling, because what you believe in does not define your self-worth and anyone who thinks otherwise about you can seriously screw right off. If your family are good, kind people then I'm sure you won't have any issues. Of course, some things may be better left kept to yourself. At this point, I've come out to NONE of my family my lack of faith. If they find out, then whoop-de-doo, they won't really care that much lol.

I should disclaim that yeah, not every Christian is a bigoted jerk, of course, and I certainly don't feel that way! While I have found myself to have a...bit of a bias against people who claim to be of faith (I just have trained myself to expect a lot of people of faith to be bigoted in some regard), it's something I've been actively trying to work on fixing. After all, like I said earlier: whether or not you're spiritual does NOT define your self-worth. It's how you treat others. And I should practice what I preach hahah.

Believing that there's something out there that loves you unconditionally and is always watching out for you is a very comforting feeling, and I can 100% understand why people would choose to believe in it! Regardless, I hope you've gotten to the point in which you can come to terms with yourself and your newly-found lack of religious / spritual belief. I've found atheism to be comforting all in its own regard. Now, I no longer feel like I have to appease some higher being to be seen as a good person. I can live my life, and so long as I don't hurt others, I can be at peace with how I live my life.
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I think things have gotten better in the months since I posted this. I've learned that it's okay to not know and decided to just focus on trying to sort out things right now. I've talked to some friends from school, who have been pretty good to me and found a support group online to talk things out. This holiday season was a bit rough, but I managed to power through it. It's just a matter of working out the kinks and trying to find something to call home. I'm not rushing to find that something as I'm still young and have plenty of time to figure this mess out.
 
soooooooooo....

apparently i haven't had any super bad thoughts lately?? although honestly, i think it's because i've been distracting myself gaming a lot more often for my mind to really focus on any amount of harsh self-deprecation. i guess keeping my mind busy sort of works in a sense cause my mind was so focused on what i was doing that there was no real room for jumping down the ol' rabbit hole of negativity, as it were.

that said, i still intend on going on my refreshing/more self-reflecting walks. i think having some absolute peace and quiet would help clear my mind a lot.
 
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So, how is everyone doing in 2020? What's your outlook for the year looking like at the moment?

I am very much in a "take it one day at a time" state of mind right now. I absolutely HATE January - it's like every day is Monday. There isn't really much to look forward to, and coming down off the holiday high period back to normalcy is always difficult...especially when I have to go back to work. So yeah, one day at a time. I don't have an outlook for the year at the moment...it's all very up in the air. Usually I have at least some kind of plan for things that I want to do, although I am not having one of those this year for a change.
 
2020 has been real intense and hectic. I'm kind of ready for 2021 already so we can move from the year of the rat towards the quieter year of the ox.

I wanted to extend my milotic flipper to this club in particular with all that's going on in the world, as the pandemic might trigger anxiety and depression in many individuals who could be shut away from friends, had their work interrupted or God forbid gotten sick or have a loved one who is. Hopefully everybody still has access to medications to help treat any underlying disorder if you are living in a quarantined areas. I have at least enough meds to last me this week and the next before I have to go out and refill. Usually I get sertraline from a community clinic that's a little cheaper, but right now these areas are really overcrowded with people who are ill and need help and serious care. It's more expensive for me but I plan to pick up my prescriptions from the drive-by pharmacy at CVS as extra precaution.

It's a stressful time right now, but we'll make it through. Bless you all.
 
This looks like a helpful club! I suffer from generalized anxiety disorder, autism spectrum disorder, and mild depression. I've been taking medication that helps with the first three issues, but there's a good chance I have an undiagnosed mental illness. Ever since I was 10, I've had frequent voices that harass me in public. At first the voices were children teasing me about my insecurities. Once I got into high school that changed. They started to become the voices of classmates, ones who openly despised me. Not only did I get to deal with them in person, but their voices continued when they weren't around. Even months after transferring from that school I still hear them frequently. In a few weeks I will be screened on the subject. Hopefully I can finally find out what this is.
 
My nerves have been in a bundle these last few days. At night I have been hearing gun shots going off. On Tuesday night it sounded like a gun was fired 30 times. I don't know which house on the block is doing it. I just see flashes off in the distance. It's not a home directly next to me. My neighbors are mostly retirees, there's a couple with a baby, a family with some sisters who are girl scouts, and there's a church right across the street from me. It was a neighborhood that seemed safe. This isn't anybody that I know involved in this activity.

Thursday there was a lot of shooting and I heard police sirens. Last night it started again, my mom says she heard shots and then cars zooming off fast like it was a drive-by gang activity.

This is taking its toll on me as someone who suffers from anxiety.

Things look calm and normal right now this morning, it's a sunny gorgeous Saturday afternoon with birds chirping, kids playing outside, I hear music and radio, see neighbors gardening, all sorts of pretty flowers are in bloom from azaleas and camellias, lots of big shady green trees. But even though nothing bad is happening my body feels stiff and I am drawn up with anticipation. My sleep has been destroyed lots of trouble falling asleep, plus nightmares. I tend to wake up in contorted positions so I suppose I have been tossing in turning.

I am going to do some deep breathing exercises, and pet and comb all of my household pets to get the oxytocin levels up. Maybe make a nice soothing cup of tea to ease my agitated state. Oy vey...
 
Yeah. Self-isolation is pretty much making things harder for me. I've been finding it harder to preoccupy myself. My anxiety has been going through various ups and downs. It doesn't help that I've been struggling to sleep either. Troy Baker has luckily been keeping me from going off the deep end with things I don't dare mention. I mean, nothing really overly serious or anything like that. I'm finding it mostly hard to find stuff to do during this time because my parents have decided to also self-isolate, so no going anywhere unless absolutely needed (IE if I need meds refilled and next month to see my doctor). All this stuff about the virus is taking a huge toll on my mental health right now. D:
 
it's been hard for me too =( since i'm forced inside a lot of the time i find myself checking social media more, and the likes of reddit have been especially damaging to my mental health. fortunately someone here suggested i download an extension that will filter out content by keywords, so now i'm not seeing anything that would trigger me. feel much more positive about it!
 
Sheep said:
it's been hard for me too =( since i'm forced inside a lot of the time i find myself checking social media more, and the likes of reddit have been especially damaging to my mental health. fortunately someone here suggested i download an extension that will filter out content by keywords, so now i'm not seeing anything that would trigger me. feel much more positive about it!
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Yeah. Troy Baker has been keeping me on my feet through all this crap tbh. I've been more active on Twitter lately because it's just hard to find other things to do. I think a lot of that is my routine. I am staying somewhat busy with Camp NaNoWriMo as much as I can, so that helps me in some ways. I also find it harder because I have a very phobic fear of talking on the phone. I found out that the only way for me to get my meds is to talk to my doctor over the phone. It's scaring the hell out of me. This virus is really putting a huge toll on my anxiety and even my autism, which is saying a lot because my autism is part of who I am. D: It's just the massive amount of changes, not being able to go out... it sucks so much.
 
i've honestly been distracting myself by playing pokemon and other video games and listening to music. that's just about the most i can do to pass time these days until i can go back to work. i barely pay attention to covid news for the sake of my own mental health.
 
I hope all will be well for you guys <3 you're both strong so keep at it!

i had a really bad night yesterday, more anxiety than usual and couldn't stop overthinking. it was terrible. ended up taking two ashwagandha pills which eventually helped me feel a bit better, though it was still a little hard to fall asleep. i ordered a new bottle online which should come later this week, my current bottle 'expired' september 2019.. i know it's safe to keep taking them since they don't actually expire, but the potency isn't as good after the expiration date and i would like full potency in these times ):
 
Sheep said:
I hope all will be well for you guys <3 you're both strong so keep at it!

i had a really bad night yesterday, more anxiety than usual and couldn't stop overthinking. it was terrible. ended up taking two ashwagandha pills which eventually helped me feel a bit better, though it was still a little hard to fall asleep. i ordered a new bottle online which should come later this week, my current bottle 'expired' september 2019.. i know it's safe to keep taking them since they don't actually expire, but the potency isn't as good after the expiration date and i would like full potency in these times ):
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Take care Jana, sorry you have had such rough nights. I was fascinated hearing of your experience with ashwagandha, and glad they offered you a little relief. I might want to try them myself some day. I am interested in Ayurveda and other traditional medicine. I was wondering if you have ever tried kratom?

I turn to it when I can't get a quick refill for prescriptions of tramadol or codeine-- over the counter meds like ibuprofen are of no use to me. While treating pain is one use for kratom, it has many uses and different varieties, and it can alleviate anxiety as one of it's many talents. Lately I take the red Bali kratom because it's stronger and more effective for pain. That one is more of a stimulant I think, makes me feel euphoric. Some describe the sensation as like caffeine, but it reminds me a little more of tramadol like a lower dose because that medication also elevates the mood. Previously I took capsules of the green kratom for awhile, which is milder and considered more of a sedative. It is used to treat anxiety, as a sleep aid and to reduce pain. I liked it. It's not for everyone, but I thought I would mention it to you just in case it is something you would be interested in trying one day if you are under stress. Take it easy, and hang in there <3
 
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Honestly, I've been having a rough time with sleep myself... I get anxiety in the evening. So, I sleep it off, only for the same thing to happen the next evening again. It's quite annoying. I'm actually getting good sleep, and yet it seems like my anxiety isn't taking it. D:
 
Ahh kimi I'm sorry ; ; I can understand, that seems like a real pain :(

I've been okay lately. The struggle to sleep hasn't been as bad as a couple of weeks ago, and I'm hoping that lasts. I'm happier knowing the virus is slowing down here finally, but still worried about what will happen when people inevitably go back to work. And how it'll impact my trips to the bf, who is an average of 25 hr flights away in another continent. 😔
 
So, I think I might've entered a bit of a depression not too long ago. I felt a bit blah and just didn't want to do much. I'm getting out of it now, but I have to catch up with schoolwork.
 
Miss Wendighost said:
So, I think I might've entered a bit of a depression not too long ago. I felt a bit blah and just didn't want to do much. I'm getting out of it now, but I have to catch up with schoolwork.
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I'm glad you're starting to work your way out of it! Hope things keep getting better. <3
 
colours said:
Spoiler: suicidal thoughts tw
sometimes i cant wait for death. this is one of those times. it's odd really; i dont actively have suicidal thoughts as much anymore, but death is one of those things where, if it happened to me, i wouldn't really care and it would, in fact, be a net benefit to everyone who knew me if i was gone. buut unfortunately, i'm too cowardly to actually act on these thoughts, so all i can do is think "what if..."
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I guarantee you are loved. You are cared for. You matter. Whatever it is will pass always.
 
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