#both my psychiatrist and therapist have been like hey. your depression gets worse in the winter time | Explore Tumblr Posts and Blogs

themultifandomgal · 1 year

Text

Michael Gray- Time Travel Pt2

Thing haven't gone back to normal. Once again I get dressed and head to the Garrison. Michael is already at the bar with Isaiah

"YN hey"

"Hi. You both want a drink?"

"We'll have a beer each" Isaiah says

"Sure" I walk around the bar and start pouring them both a drink

"So where are you from?"

"Long way away" I say still so confused to how I'm here

"Ok?" Michael frowns "tell us about yourself"

"There's not much to say really. Well other than I think I've been reading about illnesses to much and now I think I'm the only who's ill" both Isaiah and Michael look at each other. I close my eyes and take a breath "sorry, I'm not good at meeting new people especially people I've heard about"

"I see. So you've heard of us then?" Michael smirks at me

"You could say that"

"So what we're you doing before you came to Small Heath?"

"Oh I was writing a paper about metal health and medicine"

"So people in the asylums" Isaiah frowns

"Yeah m, but where I come from that's frowned upon"

"Where's that then?"

"You wouldn't know" I hand Michael and Isaiah their drinks

"Are you still writing your paper?"

"I should be yeah, but I'm having a bit of writers block"

"Let us know if there's is anything we can do to help"

"Thanks" I watch the men walk into the back room leaving me alone. Will I ever get back to modern day or am I stuck here? I think to myself.

Days go by and I come to the conclusion that I'm stuck here in the 1920s. I walk into the Garrison feeling down

"YN, Tommy wants to see you in the back room" Harry tells me

"Oh ok" I frown and walk into the backroom. I knock the door and wait for Tommy to say

"Come in" I walk into the room nervously

"You asks to see me?"

"Michael tells me that your writing a paper on the brain"

"Errm yeah"

"The war fucked us all up. Fucked us up in the head. Can you help"

"Errm maybe, a little" I shrug "I'm focusing more on the asylums and how their forms of treatment aren't acceptable"

"How so?" Tommy nods to an empty chair. I sit down next to Michael

"Well PTSD is a real illness. As you call it, being fucked in the head, but you don't have to take hard drugs. Therapy work, not water therapy, or electric chair therapy, or what other forms of torture they do"

"So what do you suggest?" Arthur asks me crossing his arms over his chest

"Talking about what scares you, about what happened during the war. Finding ways to deal with it in a healthy way. Where I come from we have therapists, they help with helping the way you think. It's worth looking into"

"Huh. What else do you need to write about?" John now asks

"Well how drugs can effect the body and the mind. Cocaine, snow, they can actually make your PTSD worse. Men and woman are being put in these asylums for the silliest things. 80% of woman suffer with something called postpartum depression, they have to hide this because they are 'crazy' it's, it's..."

"Crazy" Tommy says for me

"Yes" I sigh "you keep asking me where I'm from and the truth is I'm from the year 2023. I'm at university studying to be a psychiatrist. I have a book about you guys, The Peaky Blinders and I was reading it before I fell asleep and now I'm in the year 1920 something" Tommy and his brothers frown at me confused "I know now I sound like I'm the one who needs to see a therapist, but the truth is I just want to go back home" the room is silent for some time

"Ok. I've got a deal then. You answer my questions and I'll answer yours"

"Errm ok"

"If your from the future, tell me, do we ever get caught for our illegal business?"

"Yes, yes you do" I sadly say to the man. I mean they're bad people, but over the last few days I've been able to see a side of them that's sweet.

I spend my evening chatting to the Blinders learning so much from them about what's going on in their heads. I answer their questions about their future.

I go to bed that night with a smile on my face.

When I wake up I'm on the couch with The Peaky Blinders book in my hand. I look around my room and everything is back to normal. I jump off the couch and find my phone on the coffee table. It's the day after I fell asleep. I quickly have a shower and get dressed before heading to the coffee shop where Emma is working

"Morning YN. Your hear early. Coffee?"

"Yes. Please" I stand at the counter top as Emma brings my coffee over to me. The bell rings and Emma looks up

"It's the guy again. 2 days in a row. Just go and speak with him" I roll my eyes and turn around but bump onto someone

"I am so so sorry" I gasp grabbing some napkins off the counter. Finally I look up at the stranger, he looks exactly like Michael Gray. Weird

"No it's my fault. Came up a little to close. I'm Michael Grey" I frown at the man

"Do you so happen the be related to the Peaky Blinder Michael Grey?" I ask

"Yeah" the man chuckles "he's actually my great grandfather"

"No way"

"You know about him"

"Yeah" I laugh "I've read up on the Peaky Blinders. It's almost as if I knew them personally"

"Would you like to grab a coffee? My treat"

"Sure" I smile and turn back around to ask for Emma to make us a drink. She gives me a wink before getting to work.

#peaky blinders #peaky blinders imagine #peaky blinders reader #john shelby #arthur shelby #tommy shelby #michael grey imagines #michael grey x oc #micheal gray #michael grey x reader #michael gray x reader #michael grey x y/n #michael gray

43 notes · View notes

one-abuse-survivor · 3 years

Note

Hey, I'm not sure if this is a vent or if its me asking for advice but today i had a conversation with my sister about my mental health. I've been going to therapy for over a month now. And I've gotten better. But i mentioned to my sister about seeing a psychiatrist to maybe find a medicine that will help with my depression and ptsd. Because I really want to be happy. But my sister thinks i'm better off without medicine and told me that I'm more happy when I'm working and what not. But honestly I feel just as worse on those days, more distracted. And I can't tell her how bad it is because she threatened to put me in a mental hospital when i made one off hand comment about me dying a few years ago. And i know i can't afford to go to a mental hospital at all. But the idea that i don't need help via medicine at all because of that reason and her reason being that she had it worse and i should be like her. Even though things she doesn't know have happened to me and probably never will know. And because her husband is off worse mentally than me and no medicine worked for him at all. It just makes me really sick thinking about that. I just want to be happy and I'm not happy even when I'm working. It distracts me but I don't want a distraction. I want to enjoy being able to relax on my days off and be able to do things without dealing with ptsd and feeling like i'm under a boulder. I don't know what to do.

I think the best thing to do here is to ask your therapist whether they consider you would benefit from taking meds, nonnie.

I can't tell you what would be best for you in that area, and neither can your sister. She doesn't get to decide how you're doing going by what she sees or what you do or don't tell her. She doesn't get to decide what you need based on what was best for other people in her life or for her. She doesn't get to decide that just because others had it "worse" than you, you don't deserve to consider every single option that will help you.

From what you shared here, she sounds like she exhibits several red flags of toxicity and emotional abuse; namely, threatening you, invalidating your emotions, comparing you to others (going as far as to tell you she had it worse and you should be more like her), and imposing her version of what your needs and feelings look like over your own, acting like she knows you better than you do.

I really hope you know none of these things are okay, and you deserve to be taken seriously. You deserve to be happy and to express what you need in order to be happy without getting told what you need is wrong or inaccurate somehow. You deserve to focus on your own recovery path at every single step without having to worry about what others' mental health journey looked like, and without questioning whether you deserve the help you're getting. What your sister thinks based on her own personal experience and subjective opinion should not affect your recovery.

I don't know how things work where you live, but I know a few people who see both a therapist and a psychiatrist who prescribes them meds, and the way they found their psychiatrist was by getting recommendations from their therapist, who also agreed taking meds might be the right path for them. So if you feel comfortable with your therapist and you trust them, I really recommend bringing this up with them. And, if you can, establish as many boundaries as possible with your sister, nonnie. Her invasive opinions about your mental health are the last thing you need right now, and I can only imagine how scary and hurtful it must be to have to hear all those things from her.

Sending a virtual hug, and best of luck with your recovery ❤️

#ask #Depression #Ptsd #depression meds #Ptsd meds #Therapy mention #Toxic sister #mental health recovery #And hey; I asked my therapist if meds would be a good thing for me too!#She thought they weren't #But it still prompted a conversation about WHY meds weren't the right path for me #And it helped a lot to understand what I did and didn't need during my recovery and what our goals were #So regardless of the answer it is still worth bringing it up if your therapist doesn't do it first!#though it's important to note that I don't have depression - and as far as I'm aware depression is one of those MH illnesses #where meds tend to be vital for recovery #so DEFINITELY ask about that nonnie

9 notes · View notes

transgenderteensurvivalguide · 4 years

Note

Hey there! So I’m pretty sure I’m bipolar, and the councillor at school thought so too, but told me it sounded like I have it under control. I don’t really. My emotions are always all over the place and it’s been worse. However, I’m supposed to be starting T soon, which messes with emotions. Do you think I should wait to start T to get diagnosed with bipolar disorder and try and get it under control, or would it be okay to start anyway? Sorry!! 💛 —🎭

Lee says:

I’d recommend looking at the Getting a therapist and being in therapy post! Finding your own therapist who you can see outside of the school counselor can be really helpful. That gives you more one-on-one time with them.

You should also see if you can find a psychiatrist to start medication- there are medications for people with bipolar disorder that can help reduce your mood swings and help you become more stable, which makes it easier to make progress in therapy.

My uncle has bipolar disorder, and he was hospitalized for it at one point but now he’s taking his medication and he’s a doctor managing his own clinics. I have different mental health issue, but I’ve found library books helpful! Look to see if they have things like The Bipolar Workbook for Teens or similar things in the bipolar section of the Dewey decimal.

Both therapy and medication are important components in managing mental illness, so it’s usually best to try to incorporate both into your recovery because both in combination works better than doing of one of them alone.

It’s possible to start T while struggling with mental illness. It can be harder to get a prescription in the first place when you’re mentally ill, especially if you’re severely mentally ill or if you have stigmatized disorders like a schizo-spectrum diagnosis, but it isn’t impossible to do.

The WPATH guidelines say:

“Any co-existing psychological, medical, or social problems that could interfere with treatment (e.g., that may compromise treatment adherence) have been addressed, such that the adolescent’s situation and functioning are stable enough to start treatment"

“The presence of co-existing mental health concerns does not necessarily preclude possible changes in gender role or access to feminizing/masculinizing hormones or surgery; rather, these concerns need to be optimally managed prior to or concurrent with treatment of gender dysphoria. In addition, clients should be assessed for their ability to provide educated and informed consent for medical treatments.”

Some people find that taking testosterone can negatively influence their mental health, but the majority of trans people who take hormones finds it helps reduce their body dysphoria, which can help reduce their depression because it’s one less thing to deal with. Taking testosterone can’t ‘cure’ your mental illness, but feeling comfortable in your body can help get you to a place where you’re able to start focusing on addressing other issues.

Some people experience mood swings on testosterone, as it is your second puberty, so if you feel like you had mood swings caused by your first puberty, this might be similar. But it can be hard to figure out whether you had mood swings in your first puberty because of the hormone changes or because of dysphoria and mental illnesses.

You’re more likely to have mood swings if you’re taking T by injections that are 2 weeks apart or more because you’ll have a high peak level of T at the start of the first week after you do your shot, then a low level right by the end of the second week before your next one, so the fluctuating T levels might be an issue there.

Taking T in gel form, which is a daily application, should reduce mood swings because you have a constant level of hormones in your body all the time. Starting on a low dose of gel and titrating up while monitoring your mood with a symptom tracking app or journal could help you determine if you’re experiencing mood changes. And, when menstruation stops, you’ll get rid of any mood swings you might experience as a result of PMS.

From this link: “While hormones may contribute to mood disorders (such as in premenstrual dysphoric disorder or postpartum depression), these is no clear evidence that testosterone therapy is directly associated with the onset of or worsening of mental health conditions. In fact it has been found that transgender men experience improvements in social functioning and reduced anxiety and depression once testosterone therapy is begun. Mental health conditions in transgender men should be approached with a broad differential diagnosis as in any other patient, taking caution to avoid relating all symptoms directly to gender dysphoria or testosterone therapy. Consider using a non-injected medication form to avoid the potentially cyclic levels, which could bring about or worsen existing mood symptoms.”

Here are a few of the links from our mental health page to help during the wait while you’re in the process of finding treatment:

Coping with mania

Dealing with this manic episode

Dealing with anger and impulsivity

Coping with bipolar disorder

A guide to (bipolar) recovery

Managing unstable moods

How to avoid a manic episode

Things that might cause or trigger manic episodes

5 tips for taming impulsivity

Managing impulsive behaviors

Getting help

Apps

Breathing

Depression

Dialectical behavioral therapy (DBT)

Distress tolerance

Emotion

Grounding

Interpersonal relationships

Medication

Relaxation and mindfulness

Self-care

Self-talk and thinking

Stress

Therapists and therapy

Additional resources/info

#Lee says #testosterone #bipolar #bipolar disorder #Anonymous #transgenderteensurvivalguide #trans #transgender

57 notes · View notes

argyle-s · 4 years

Link

Summary:

Lena and Sam have a chat; Clark wakes up after getting out of the regeneration matrix; Kara, Cat, Alex, Maggie, Susan and Leslie have a discussion about Kara's mental health, and Supergirl and Superman meet with James's family.

Notes:

So, I have some unfortunate news. January of last year, I started having some health issues. For a while, I was able to manage the situation, but in October, things kind of took a turn for the worse, my mental health has been going steadily down hill as a result. I'm not in immediate danger of dying, and I see a therapist and a psychiatrist on a regular basis, and I am hopefully on the road to recovery, but right now, I have to step away from working on Future Shock. The reason is simple. Writing this story is hard. It deals with a *lot* of dark and depressing shit, and working on it was starting to make the depression I'm already dealing with worse.

To be clear, I'm not abandoning this fic. I am just stepping away until I get back to the point where I can work on it without it being detrimental to my health This is the same thing I did back at the beginning of last year when I wrote Taking In Strays. The thing is, the buffer currently stands at one chapter, which means, you will get chapter 18 next week, and then... I don't know. It could be a month, it could be six months. I'm not going to start posting again until I have a significant buffer in place, but I honestly don't know when I will be in a place where it is safe and healthy for me to come back to this project.

I'm very, very sorry about this. I really, really want you guys to see what I've got planned, because I think it's a great story, but I just need time to recover, and that has to come first, or I won't be able to finish the story at all.

A final note. If you do see other stories go up from me during the hiatus, understand that those will be stories that are easier for me to write, because they aren't digging into the depths of my own mental illness the way Future Shock does. I just have to work on stuff that I can work on.

Thanks for all of your understanding, and I'll see you next week for chapter 18. Trust me when I say, you don't want to miss Sam being a big gay mess.

Preview:

Wednesday, March 8th, 2016

Sam sighed as she looked at the mountain of work in front of her, wondering how she had gotten so far behind. It felt like she hadn’t done any work at all in the last two days. It didn’t make any sense, because she’d spent both days at her desk buried in the various projects she was working on. She’d gotten so absorbed in her work she’d skipped lunch both days.

She wondered if she was coming down with something. She didn’t get sick often. She couldn’t remember getting sick at all after Ruby had been born, but growing up, when she was feeling sick, she’d fall asleep just about anywhere, and she always woke up starving and feeling like she’d run a marathon, which wasn’t too far off from how she felt now. The last two days, she’d been absolutely ravenous by the time she’d gotten home. She’d devoured meals that would have been big enough to leave even a Kryptonian satisfied and fallen asleep hours before she usually went to bed. Her whole body was stiff, and more than anything, she wanted five minutes on the couch. The problem was, five minutes would turn into all day, and she was so far behind, she couldn’t afford to take a day off.

“Ms. Arias,” Gabrielle said over the intercom.

“Yes, Gabrielle?”

“Ms. Luthor is here to see you.”

“Send her in,” Sam said, trying to think of some reason why Lena might be there. Whatever it was, it probably wasn’t good news. Especially not with this Reign business going on. She looked up from her desk as Lena walked in, and the frown on Lena’s face didn’t ease her apprehension at all.

“Hey,” she said. “Everything okay?”

“That depends on your definition of okay,” Lena said as she sat down. “I’m worried about Kara.”

“I think we’re all worried about Kara,” Sam said. “The woman goes through so much shit it’s like watching Michael Phelps do laps in a sewage treatment plant.”

Keep reading on AO3

#supergirl #sanvers #alex danvers #maggie sawyer #kara danvers #taking in strays #little girls lost #susan vasquez #eliza danvers #elisa wilkey #vicki donahue #clark kent #diana prince #bruce wayne #oscar rodas #high school au

6 notes · View notes

mental-health-advice · 5 years

Text

Submission from romy

TW: symptoms // alcohol // fear of medication and misdiagnosis // side effects // s*icide mention at the end // please stop reading immediatly if you get triggered, or don’t read if you think you could get triggered, as it’s a touching topic

Hey! first of all, thank you for taking your time to read this, it really helps to have someone on the other side, especially when we can’t talk about this with siblings/friends, you’ve helped me a lot of times, I always come here when I feel really helpless, and I couldn’t thank you enough, you admins, deserve all the good things in life <3.

Last Monday, I went to my first psychiatric appointment. I told them everything I’ve been dealing my whole life with, and they prescribed me two meds (lamotrigine and quetiapine) the thing is, I’m super scared to take them. I’m shaking while typing this, I’m afraid it’d make me worse, intensify my symptoms. They didn’t tell me what I have, they told me to take the meds to stabilize my mood.

I know these meds are for treating bipolar disorder, but I don’t think I might be bipolar. I do have some of the symptoms… kind of, like, I tend to feel either extremely sad, or an uncontrollable rage that makes my stomach hurt, isolation for weeks, insomnia, my opinion and feelings for certain people can switch in a day, from “I love you”, to “I hate you”, and that’s when I cut them off. I also tend to drink till I pass out when the sadness is too much to handle. All of these feelings intensify when someone I love leaves me, I can’t function at all. I derealise too, since I’m little. For a few seconds or minutes, I feel like my reality isn’t really real, or that I’m dreaming.

But the thing is, there are moments where I feel fine, like, I genuinely laugh at things, I want to talk to other people, I go for a walk, I plan big things like trips or I start a lot of things at once because I feel like “I can do this”, but again, I drop all my interests when I feel down. I always thought that this was just something all people go through in their teens and that I’ve already overcome, but I’m 20 now, and I’ve been like this since forever. I’ve always believed that I’ve lost my teen years to sadness, to feeling miserable… but I could lead with this by my own, by taking one day at a time, there were days tougher than others, but I’m thankful to be alive. I’ve considered “doing it”, and I was decided, but something held me back, thankfully. I’m afraid of medication because I’m scared it’ll make me lose all hope. I did therapy for a few months last year, but it only triggered me, she didn’t take me seriously and only wanted my money. I really don’t want to talk about this with anyone anymore, that’s also, why, I don’t want to take meds, I’d have to see a therapist and I don’t want to tell them all of this.

Could you tag this as #romy so I could search for your response later? Again, thank you from the bottom of my heart for taking your time to read all of this, I hope you have a great day, month, life <3

Hi romy,

I’m sorry to hear that you’re struggling so much and for so long. I’m really glad that you have been able to get help, even though doing so has brought up some other concerns!

Medication can be tricky because one medication can treat many different disorders but only be advertised as treating one disorder. For example, an antidepressant can be advertised as treating just depression, but it can also help relieve symptoms of anxiety. This usually happens when a medication is created to treat one disorder and then, once people started taking the medication, it is discovered that it helps with other symptoms too, so doctors started prescribing it to treat the additional symptoms. Basically what I’m saying is that although the medication you were prescribed is technically used to treat bipolar, that doesn’t necessarily mean that you were given this medication because you have bipolar. It’s possible that you’re taking it for something entirely different.

With that being said, you may be right that you don’t have bipolar, but it’s hard to say. Unfortunately, symptoms tend to overlap quite often, so it can be difficult to determine a diagnosis without doing a complete assessment of all of your symptoms. Mental health professionals often don’t even know a diagnosis right away simply because of the huge amount of overlap. For example, some of your symptoms sound like the symptoms of bipolar disorder while others sound like the symptoms of borderline personality disorder, but it’s really common for the symptoms of both of these disorders mimic one another. This is why diagnosis is a complicated process and why professionals can only give official diagnoses, simply because it takes a lot of skill to tease apart symptoms and narrow down a diagnosis. Since I’m not a professional, I can’t say what you do or don’t have, so I definitely recommend asking your psychiatrist what they diagnosed you with if you really want to know!

Medication can be scary, but it can also be extremely helpful. Unfortunately, there is the risk that medication can make things worse at first. However, the good news is that most negative side effects go away after a few weeks of being on the medication because it takes a while for your body to get adjusted to them. Otherwise, in some cases, the side effects don’t go away, but when that happens there are usually other medications that can be used instead without all of the negative side effects. It can take a while to find the right medication. While that can be frustrating, it typically makes a huge difference in how you’re feeling in the long run.

I also think that your concerns about therapy are completely valid. Talking about the things you’re dealing with or have gone through can be hard, but it can also be really healing. Also, I’m in school to become a therapist and something I was taught was that it’s important to tell clients at the beginning of therapy that things will likely get worse before they get better. That may sound contradictory since therapy is supposed to help you get better, but it actually makes sense if you think about it: When you see a new therapist, you have to go through your whole history, including things you’ve been through in the past and things you’re currently dealing with. This is often triggering because it brings up difficult topics, so it makes sense that you’re going to feel worse/triggered at first. However, once all of that is laid out on the table for your therapist to see, the healing can begin since your therapist needs all of that information to figure out what you need help with and how they can help you. So, although therapy in the past was triggering, this is just a part of the process – a difficult part, but a part nonetheless and this is something your therapist should have told you so you would have expected it when it inevitably came up.

Because of this, it might be worth giving both medication and therapy a try! Although it’s terrifying and certainly not a quick fix, I really think you would benefit from it. It’s important that you have a good therapist, especially with your negative experiences in the past, so perhaps your psychiatrist would be able to refer you to a therapist that they think would be a good fit for you. Therapy can be challenging, but with the right therapist it can quite literally be life-saving. Also, even though you’re clearly a survivor and have made it this far on your own, you deserve help and to get better! There’s nothing wrong with needing a little help to get there, whether that’s with medication, a therapist, or a combination of both. Regardless, help is available to you and you deserve to utilize it to the best of your ability!

This probably seems like a lot, but I know you can get through this. You’re a lot stronger than you think and, as I said before, you’re a survivor. Please let us know if there’s anything we can do to help you through this!

-Samantha

#medication #therapy #getting help #suicide #getting a diagnosis #romy #advice #advice blog #mental health advice #mhasamantha

4 notes · View notes

undiscoveredstory · 7 years

Note

mom are you okay?

Hey bby!

The short answer is yes, I’m okay, just really bogged down with course work and life!

But I also want to give a longer answer/what’s been going on in my life because I like to be honest and open about the stuff I go through, since I think that’s more helpful to me and to my kiddos, so you guys know that no one has a perfect life and that struggles don’t mean you’ll never feel okay again.

The main reason I haven’t been on is because I have no time, or when I have a bit of time I have no energy thanks to grad school. It’s really demanding and, as much as I love it, I sure miss being able to pop on and answer questions regularly! :(

But some other stuff has been going on, too, that also makes it even more difficult for me to find the energy/time to answer asks and write anything that isn’t for school, STCNTA, or one of my other Hamilton mini-series.

Around December my therapist and I decided to increase the dose of the medication I’m on because I was feeling depressed. By the time it reached full effect I was even more depressed, and we became worried that the medication was causing my depression (I’d started it for anxiety, but it works for both).

So my therapist told me I should see a psychiatrist, since psychiatrists are better able to monitor psych. meds than a primary care doctor. I recently did just that (that’s why I was making those phone calls... oh how I hate phone calls to offices!!) and am in the process of switching over to a different medication that will hopefully still work for my anxiety and not make me depressed/worsen my depression.

I wanted to tell you kiddos this because there’s no shame in it. For the longest time I have felt ashamed and that’s made it all worse. It doesn’t mean it’s easy now–– my anxiety is way higher because of the change in meds (which is to be expected)–– but why make something that’s already difficult to go through even worse by adding shame into the mix? There’s just no need.

So this is to all of my kiddos who also have mental illness(es). Please get all of the help you need. Make sure you find a good therapist, and if they recommend adding a psychiatrist to your team, listen to that advice. Your mental health is just as important as your physical health and you deserve to feel healthy and happy.

I love you kiddos so much. You have given me so much strength, especially through these darker times. I need to get back to my homework now, but if you guys have any questions do feel free to send them in as long as you’re okay with waiting for a response! I’m hoping to answer a bunch over my upcoming winter break.

Keep on being your beautiful selves, bbys! I love you!!!

#me #mi vida #anxiety #depression #anon #thanks for checking in bby!!! <333333 #Anonymous

30 notes · View notes

petewentzisblack1312 · 3 years

Note

You don’t have to answer this if it’s too personal but like i know you’re bipolar too and I think I saw you mention you take mood stabilizers… do they completely take away manic symptoms or do you still feel manic? And does it affect depressive phases at all? I’m just talking to a therapist right now virtually so I’d need to figure out how to get medication if we think it’s necessary but I was just curious about a first hand perspective before i talk to my doctor about it

hey, yeah youre right, i am bipolar and i do take mood stabilizers, alongside antidepressants. i mostly experience hypomania but ive also experienced mania. i dont want to say my specific prescription but i will say i take a very specific drug that like only started being used as a mood stabilizers recently, and its like the only choice in its class of drugs that has been approved for this use iirc. your mileage may vary, is what im saying.

anyway to answer you question, they dont completely take away my symptoms, but frankly no drugs can completely take away your symptoms. they do make them waaay more manageable though. like sometimes i can tell that if i was going through an episode unmedicated i would be d*ad in a ditch or something.mostly because ive had unmedicated episodes so i know what it feels like when its Bad.

i do find that my mood stabilizers do make my depression worse, and antidepressants make my mania worse, which is why i have to take both, but they like cancel each other out. i experience pretty bad episodes during pms (mixed i think, thats mostly what i deal with) and since ive started taking my meds regularly theyve gotten infinitely more manageable. i see a counsellor as well as taking medication, and he helps me manage the feelings i have and not feel bad about it bc i have self esteem issues lol.

i definitely think i wouldnt be able to manage without medication as well personally, especially since i was going through a lot besides being mentally ill at the time, but i went through a long period when i was just taking meds and seeing a psychiatrist but not a counsellor and while i felt better, i didnt feel good, not by a longshot. i felt broken because it seemed like i shouldntve had any more problems, but i still had a ton, i still felt unstable and self destructive and i couldnt even really take advantage of the fact that i didnt feel as bad because i didnt really know what to do when i felt bad at all. mind you i also went through a long period where i was seeing a counsellor but they didnt really think i needed to be referred and didnt listen to me when i said i definitely needed psychiatric care and i definitely could not use their advice very effectively because i was not doing great.

bottom line, if just counselling isnt working for you and like you cant get out of your head long enough to implement the stuff you learn, meds can help you get more out of it i find.

#dils declares #dils is depressed #<mental illness tag if u havent figured that out #i try to keep that to my main but i dont mind answering questions here if im asked!

0 notes

mental-health-advice · 5 years

Note

I have been depressed w/o help for 10 years. And for 3 yrs i cope by self harm, now im 22 and I cut everyday, to function as human being and not feeling empty. Skip a cut and everything will turn worse, which now I start to realise that I’m addicted to it, cutting gives me comfort and emotion that i seek over all the pressure of my life... but this month is been harder as I actually think of kill myself.. how to save myself is all i want to know or is it just too late? Thank u

Hey lovely,

I’m so sorry to hear that you’ve been struggling so much! I can actually relate a lot to what you’re going through. I’m going to explain a bit what it’s been like for me, not to make this about me, but to show that you aren’t alone in this. I hope that’s okay can take steps. And step by step, you’ll get there. It’s not too late.

First of all, I’d strongly recommend you to reach out for professional help. Is this a possibility for you? You can visit your GP / local doctor and explain to them briefly what’s been going on. They can then arrange a referral to a therapist, psychiatrist, or other mental health professional. For depression, often a combination of both medication and therapy is recommended. You can read more about getting help here.

Self-harm now gives you comfort and emotion, so to be able to stop or reduce self-harm, you need to find other things that bring you that same comfort and emotion. What could this be for you? For comfort, I personally like to cuddle up with my teddy while listening to music (either Ludovico Einaudi, The Piano Guys, or the music that I dance on with ballet). Taking a bath (potentially with a Lush bath bomb) while lighting a scented candle can be really soothing as well. Other people swear by exercising, such as running or even a walk around the block. Do you think you can find something like this?

I can imagine that when you feel so empty all the time, you’re desperate to feel some sort of emotion, even if it only lasts for a short amount of time. But there are other ways to try and get back in touch with that emotion. The sad part of a Disney movie never fails to make me cry for example, or when one of the heartbreaking deaths in the Harry Potter movies/books happens.

Once you’ve found good replacements for self-harm comfort and emotion wise, it can still be really hard to stop. Self-harm can become a habit, which can be really hard to break through. There are a lot of tools that can be of help though. Distractions can help take your mind off of the urges and for time to pass while the urges reduce naturally. Alternatives can help reduce those urges; different alternatives can help based on the underlying reason for the urges. When you feel like you need the pain, it can help to hold an ice cube to your skin. When you feel like you need to see the blood, it can help to use red colouring and play around with that. But before you’re able to use those tools, you need to feel the intrinsic motivation that you want to stop harming yourself. This can be really hard when you’ve relied on it for so long, so I’d strongly recommend you to write down any reasons you can think of. You can have a look at our page with reasons not to harm for inspiration, but please do make your own personal list.

Something else that can really help is to make a list with the pros and cons of harming yourself. Then when you look at the pros, see if you can find something else that also gives you this. I already mentioned this for comfort and emotion, but maybe there are other pros for you as well. If you find replacements for them all, then you can clearly see there are only cons to harming yourself, which can give a boost in motivation to stop.

I hope that this helped at least a little bit! If there is anything else I can do to help, please let me know. Like I said, I understand, I’ve been there. You are not alone and I fully believe in you

Sometimes what seems impossible, is just hard.Love Pauline

#mental health #advice #advice blog #depression #self harm #cutting #comfort #self-harm #mhapauline #anonymous

5 notes · View notes

mental-health-advice · 6 years

Text

Submission from Remy

So right now I’m 24 years old (female). My story is long but basically, I have had some form of severe manic depression for most of my life and developed a chronic illness around 19 which made it very difficult to deal with having a mental illness. I had to stay home for being sick and developed agoraphobia from the fear of getting sick away from home. Now I’m still living with my parents (who are in their late 60s–they had me late; it is also important to mention that they struggle with mental health as well) and I feel like I can’t grow up or move forward with my life. I do take meds and see a therapist and a psychiatrist and do have a pretty good team of doctors that help me but sometimes (a lot of the time) it’s really difficult for me to talk about things so openly. I can’t help but feel that by the time I make enough progress to really live my life, my parents will be very very old or (hopefully not!) dead and I’ll be in my 30s and alone. I don’t have any close friends because I live in a rural area, can’t drive at this time (extreme fear of it because a car accident when I was young), and have trouble with social interaction and making new friends. I don’t really know how to be 24 because I feel like I’ve been living the same life since I was 19, maybe even 18 because that’s when the chronic symptoms began. I don’t want to still feel 19, I want to live as a 24 year old woman, I just know that right now I have limits because of my illnesses and it’s hard for me to feel 24 when I still can’t drive myself places or when I haven’t really gained the mindset of a 24 year old yet. I just…feel like I’m stuck. And yes, I often wish I could go back to being younger so that I could choose things differently and be better prepared for the position I’m in now. I know that this kind of thinking isn’t productive and rationally I try to avoid it but sometimes it sort of creeps up on me and when it does, I really struggle with living my life. I feel overwhelmed with depression about my current state and my past, and anxiety about the future. I try really hard (when these thoughts come along) to tell myself that I need to forgive myself for not being good enough for myself in the past, but it’s difficult when I’m not making much progress in the present. Today, for example, I fell into a really deep state of depression where nothing, not even the things that usually make me feel even a little bit better, sounded remotely interested or appealing. I just felt so alone and immature and empty and it was just…a lot. I thought about whether or not I was feeling suicidal and tried to observe that but the truth is that I wasn’t. Killing myself didn’t sound appealing. But neither did continuing my life. I wasn’t dissociating because I knew where I was and could move and function and interact. But I still felt so far away from the rest of the world and I feel that way quite a lot. It’s like I said, I have medication and doctors and help but sometimes it’s still not enough. I don’t want to kill myself, but honestly, sometimes I feel like feeling this way–this way in which I’m stagnant and stale and alone and disconnected and empty, is almost as bad as how I feel when I get suicidal (which I don’t much anymore, mostly because well–I want to live!). I don’t know exactly what I’m asking for so I’m sorry if this was too long and I hope it didn’t overwhelm you, but I guess I’m just wondering if you had any advice to offer for someone in my situation.

Hey lovely,

Thank you for reaching out to us! I know that mustn’t have been easy for you. I’m sorry to hear that you’ve been struggling so much. I’m glad that you have a good team of doctors helping you! Unfortunately it hasn’t solved everything, but it’s better than not having them at least. I also think it’s important you discuss this with them too. They’re there to help your health, this includes both your physical and your mental health.

I don’t think there’s a certain way ‘to be 24’. Everyone is at different stages of their life, even when they’re the exact same age. I have a friend (who are my age) who has finished her Bachelor’s and Master’s degree already and has already bought a house and is living together with her boyfriend, living the working life. I also have a friend who just started their second year of college and will be studying for a couple years still. And then there’s me, I started uni but had to drop out a couple times due to my mental health / treatment and if there is ever a point I can start again it will take years of studying still (I’m 23). The reason I’m telling you all of this is because it really is okay you aren’t at the same stage in your life others might be. There’s such a good and valid explanation for it. For some people 24 is a lot different from 19, for others it isn’t really. There isn’t really anything wrong with either. I completely understand it can feel so frustrating to feel so stuck in your life. When you feel so stuck it can be really hard to see a way out of it all, to see anything changing. Maybe it isn’t about things changing though? Maybe it’s more about learning to feel more positive and at ease with how it is? I know that sounds a lot easier than it is, but I think for now it’s most realistic to work towards that.

Now that you’re in your current situation, it really isn’t fair on yourself to think back to the past and beat yourself up for not preparing better. You didn’t know at the time! You had no idea you’d develop a chronic illness, landing you in this position. When we know more about the future, we often beat up our past selves, but we didn’t know at the time. At the time we did what we thought was best for whatever reason. Getting to know more information might have changed what we thought was best, but back then we didn’t have that information! You couldn’t have done better at the time, you didn’t know. It’s good you’re trying to avoid thinking so destructively, I hope the more rational thoughts in this paragraph can help a little with that.

You’re good enough. You’re good enough for yourself. There’s nothing you need to forgive yourself for, besides maybe being too hard on yourself. Sometimes not getting worse is enough progress already. Sometimes that’s hard enough already! It’s really hard to see it like that, but if there’s been a time where it all gets a bit worse every week and then there’s a week where it stays at the same level, I’m happy with that already! It’s a stability. It’s not ideal, as we’d really like it if that stability was at a bit higher level, but it’s a starting point and it’s better than a constant crashing.

I think what you’re describing with not wanting to die but not wanting to live either would be described as passive suicidal ideation. This is something a lot of people struggle with, so you’re definitely not alone in this. Feeling so empty and disconnected can definitely be just as bad as feeling actively suicidal. It’s really different so it’s hard to compare, but feeling empty and disconnected definitely is super difficult and should not be underestimated!

I really wish there was something I could do to change your situation, but unfortunately that’s a bit outside of my control. My biggest recommendation would be to continue discussing options with your team of doctors so that you eventually maybe find something that makes everything slightly easier. Small steps! You can get through these super tough feelings. If you want to talk, we’re always here with a listening ear. I believe in you <3

Sometimes what seems impossible, is just hard. Love Pauline

7 notes · View notes