SmilingJack
Esteemed Member
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- 707
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Have done so.You need to see a medical professional (MD). There is help for you just have to see the right people. Super frustrating I know. Good luck to you.
You're not wrong about this. I volunteer whenever I have time. Monday through Thursday my teaching schedule prevents anything but the basics. I teach from 9am to 2pm and then from 6 to 1030. In the break, I do an hour at the gym, walk the dogs, start dinner, etc. I also walk after the night class to chill my brain. Then I'm up at 7 to rinse and repeat. My time to volunteer is on the weekends and I do so when I can.Voluntarism can help. Tutor or read to a kid. Deliver meals to shut-ins. Work at an animal shelter. Help at a food pantry. There are plenty of opportunities out there. Giving time freely to others who need help can sometimes distract us from worrying about our own plight. Plus, the people involved in charity work are frequently some of the most inspiring & optimistic folks you could ever hope to meet.
You are right that feedback often makes these problems worse (technically, the feedback here is positive, though the signal itself is negative), and I'm glad this counter-trigger strategy has worked for him. I am skeptical, though, of its general efficacy. Generally speaking, I don't anticipate "think happy thoughts" is likely to be an effective strategy for most people. I don't say that to denigrate or mock. That's what therapy is all about -- finding individualized ways of coping, often based on a therapeutic model but one that is loosely defined in most cases (not CBT but I don't think that's in the mix for this posters). I am skeptical that this advice will be generalizable but it's not wrong to mention it or describe it.I have encouraged him to try to identify when he is thinking self-loathing thoughts or blaming himself for how he feels to try to have a counter-trigger — use that to focus on individual moments of joy or accomplishments or just moments in life that made him laugh for no reason.
Basically, he has had some success managing depression by not feeding it with self-directed negative feedback. It takes a kind of intellectual discipline to grasp a memory of joy or accomplishment at a moment when you maybe can’t FEEL that so much as visualize it, but I think part of the goal is just to keep contact with the light in your life, not top the summit every time you feel down. It makes the return trip much shorter and more bearable, and if you can cycle down like that perhaps you start to get more time in between descents.
You're a real piece of work. There's a reason I've told you before that I don't engage with you.Outside of the therapists who frequent the board, I probably have more experience with this than anyone here. When I saw this, I DM'd the OP to reach out and offer thoughts and gather a bit of information. The DM remains unanswered. His other posts on the thread have been defensive and not indicative of someone genuinely looking for assistance -- although in fairness, much of the advice was nonsense about using drugs to cure depression. He seems to want to complain, which is fine but the thread title should be edited to more accurately capture what the thread is actually about.
Man, I learn a lot from your posts but your self-scouting seems to take a hit amidst heightened rhetoric, and subsequently makes me want to tune you out. I recognize you approach with good intentions. From my perspective, the assumption of good intentions deteriorates by trying to control the narrative and processing of long established, good faith posters - especially with respect to their health.Outside of the therapists who frequent the board, I probably have more experience with this than anyone here. When I saw this, I DM'd the OP to reach out and offer thoughts and gather a bit of information. The DM remains unanswered. His other posts on the thread have been defensive and not indicative of someone genuinely looking for assistance -- although in fairness, much of the advice was nonsense about using drugs to cure depression. He seems to want to complain, which is fine but the thread title should be edited to more accurately capture what the thread is actually about.
The poster is free to do whatever he wants. If it were me, I would at least say "thank you" even if I didn't want to engage. And what narrative am I trying to control?Man, I learn a lot from your posts but your self-scouting seems to take a hit amidst heightened rhetoric, and subsequently makes me want to tune you out. I recognize you approach with good intentions. From my perspective, the assumption of good intentions deteriorates by trying to control the narrative and processing of long established, good faith posters - especially with respect to their health.
This post is less than 24 hrs old. The OP may intend a substantive response to your DM (which I appreciate you doing, fwiw, bc you indeed know a lot about this subject), and circumstances haven’t allowed the time nor psychological space to do so (or this, or that, or whatever). OP may not appreciate your DM, and thus has no desire to respond; that’s perfectly appropriate, too. Neither of the above is plausible, too. Irrespective, you trying to control isn’t helpful, again, from my perspective.
No, no, no. If you are traveling Jamaica for a mental health treatment, you're not doing it right. In part that's because it's difficult to distinguish feeling better from just being in Jamaica.I'm in a men's group and one of the participants is going down to Jamaica for a supervised psilocybin therapy session. His brother in-law who's a type A straight laced guy told him it changed his life and really helped. Maybe worth a look?
What you're looking for is a piece of work. You aren't going to find solutions to your problems from people who have never had an emotional disturbance in their lives.You're a real piece of work. There's a reason I've told you before that I don't engage with you.
This is, generally speaking, a good strategy (though one that won't work for everyone).I've battled chronic depression with acute episodes for over 50 years. I've done therapy and self medicated. The only way I got through it was focusing on getting up every day with at least one thing I was determined to get done.
Reducing my post to "think happy thoughts" is actually denigrating and basically ignoring the substance, but fine.You are right that feedback often makes these problems worse (technically, the feedback here is positive, though the signal itself is negative), and I'm glad this counter-trigger strategy has worked for him. I am skeptical, though, of its general efficacy. Generally speaking, I don't anticipate "think happy thoughts" is likely to be an effective strategy for most people. I don't say that to denigrate or mock. That's what therapy is all about -- finding individualized ways of coping, often based on a therapeutic model but one that is loosely defined in most cases (not CBT but I don't think that's in the mix for this posters). I am skeptical that this advice will be generalizable but it's not wrong to mention it or describe it.
I didn't mean to denigrate; I was using shorthand. You were in fact talking about thinking happy thoughts, literally -- and I was merely using that for a reference point. I get that there's more to it than mere flippancy. And if it has worked for some people, good. That's the thing about mental health. Treatments can so often be highly customized that they sometimes seem not to be treatments at all.Reducing my post to "think happy thoughts" is actually denigrating and basically ignoring the substance, but fine.
Repeat this mantra to make yourself feel better - "at least I'm not superrific".You're a real piece of work. There's a reason I've told you before that I don't engage with you.