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Post by JDMaleSwiftie on Oct 11, 2021 23:59:50 GMT -5
I feel as if it’s a good idea to have a mental health thread. How is everyone’s mental health? For me personally it’s been really up and down. There are good days and bad days. More bad days unfortunately. School is causing me a lot of anxiety and stress, but that’s just part of being a college student.
Depression is something I’ve had to deal with throughout my life and I’ve been doing a six week treatment program for depression that will be ending next week. It’s hard to explain some days I am feeling pretty good about myself and other days like last night I’m questioning my purpose in life or just feeling so down I don’t even want to be here anymore. Loneliness can start to creep in and in these situations I really believe no one cares about me or loves me.
Self esteem is another issue and I’m sure a lot of has can relate on some level to not feeling good about yourself or your appearance. For me personally I hate the way I look often times I feel ugly, unattractive, and fat. I’ve starting eating healthier mainly because I have gained a lot of weight in recent years and I just want to be skinny again.
Anyways that’s enough out of me. Hope everyone is doing well. Please be honest about where you’re with your mental health. This should be a safe space for all of us.
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Post by SydneyPaige on Oct 17, 2021 11:13:28 GMT -5
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Post by Deleted on Oct 17, 2021 18:26:32 GMT -5
That is wonderful Sydney!
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Post by JDMaleSwiftie on Oct 18, 2021 21:26:11 GMT -5
Is that really true for me? That’s my question because honestly I believe people are better off without me.
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Post by SydneyPaige on Oct 18, 2021 22:07:34 GMT -5
Is that really true for me? That’s my question because honestly I believe people are better off without me. It's 100% true for you. It's true for everyone. The voice that's saying that to you is an intrusive thought. It's irrational and created out of depression and not real. You shouldn't give it any weight or any regard. Everyone has people around them. Friends, family, acquaintances, people they know on the internet, pets and every person you meet, every person you've ever met, you hold influence in their life. Now the tough part is that people rarely let you know how deep that influence is but, the truth of the matter is that all of those people would miss you. All of those people care for you. You just may not realize it. Something I've tried to do more over the past year is let people know how important they are to me. How much I care. It helps me feel less alone and get out of my own head. It takes the focus off of me. Maybe try it? It may help in a way.
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Post by JDMaleSwiftie on Oct 19, 2021 13:25:18 GMT -5
That guess that would probably help.
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Post by Deleted on Oct 19, 2021 16:30:33 GMT -5
There is a youtube channel that presents videos on mental health issues that I find very helpful. It is called 'Therapy in a Nutshell.' The presentations are done by a licensed therapist. There is a video for almost any emotional problem a person might experience. I think it is a wonderful resource.
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Post by JDMaleSwiftie on Oct 19, 2021 19:36:18 GMT -5
How do you try explaining mental illness to friends that don’t deal with it themselves? I know they just try to help, but I feel so misunderstood and like I’m talking to a wall. I think it’s hard for them to understand how much mental health is impacting my life especially as a college student.
I’m not trying to use it as an excuse I get that I still need to do my schoolwork, but I’ve got a 90 in my class so clearly I’m doing something right.
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Post by Loufus on Oct 19, 2021 20:48:37 GMT -5
The increased attention to mental health is a trend I'm really glad to see catching on these days. I can't recall it ever being talked about when I was in High School, which is a shame because it's such an important thing to understand. I might go so far as to say that it's actually more important than physical health. A person with an unhealthy body but a sound mind can whip themselves into shape, but if your mind is unhealthy it can become that much more difficult to address the problems which are creating that mental unhealthiness in the first place. Talk about a Catch-22.
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Post by JDMaleSwiftie on Oct 19, 2021 20:56:39 GMT -5
The increased attention to mental health is a trend I'm really glad to see catching on these days. I can't recall it ever being talked about when I was in High School, which is a shame because it's such an important thing to understand. I might go so far as to say that it's actually more important than physical health. A person with an unhealthy body but a sound mind can whip themselves into shape, but if your mind is unhealthy it can become that much more difficult to address the problems which are creating that mental unhealthiness in the first place. Talk about a Catch-22. I read awhile back suicide is the second leading cause of death here in the United States. I’m not sure about world wide, but I can’t imagine it is much better world wide. There are so many people that commit suicide and unfortunately not everyone is able to get the help they need.
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Post by SydneyPaige on Oct 19, 2021 21:26:40 GMT -5
The increased attention to mental health is a trend I'm really glad to see catching on these days. I can't recall it ever being talked about when I was in High School, which is a shame because it's such an important thing to understand. I might go so far as to say that it's actually more important than physical health. A person with an unhealthy body but a sound mind can whip themselves into shape, but if your mind is unhealthy it can become that much more difficult to address the problems which are creating that mental unhealthiness in the first place. Talk about a Catch-22. I read awhile back suicide is the second leading cause of death here in the United States. I’m not sure about world wide, but I can’t imagine it is much better world wide. There are so many people that commit suicide and unfortunately not everyone is able to get the help they need. I think it's important not to separate mental health and physical health though. They often go hand in hands and a problem with one can lead to a problem with the other. Overall, health is health, it's important to take care of ALL of you.
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Post by JDMaleSwiftie on Oct 19, 2021 23:41:53 GMT -5
I read awhile back suicide is the second leading cause of death here in the United States. I’m not sure about world wide, but I can’t imagine it is much better world wide. There are so many people that commit suicide and unfortunately not everyone is able to get the help they need. I think it's important not to separate mental health and physical health though. They often go hand in hands and a problem with one can lead to a problem with the other. Overall, health is health, it's important to take care of ALL of you. That’s true I can speak from personal experience a few years ago I was in the best physical condition I’ve ever been in and it was irrelevant because I put everything into trying to be physically fit while ignoring my mental health. Recently I started dieting and exercising to lose weight because my physical health has been in a steady decline. It’s had a minimal impact because again I’ve put all my effort into being physically fit while basically ignoring my mental health in the process. I’d love to reach a point where I’m really skinny again because that’s what I want, but also being in a good place mentally.
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Roman
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Post by Roman on Oct 20, 2021 8:35:10 GMT -5
There is a youtube channel that presents videos on mental health issues that I find very helpful. It is called 'Therapy in a Nutshell.' The presentations are done by a licensed therapist. There is a video for almost any emotional problem a person might experience. I think it is a wonderful resource. Yeah, there are very good Youtube channels. Personally I follow Kati Morton. She did a lot of subjects over the years. And nowadays she does a weekly segment called “Ask Kati Anything”. People can write in questions about their mental health or therapy. And she answers them open and honest. There’s a lot of behind the scenes info from the perspective of a therapist; things clients wonder about but do not dare to ask. I also have two books she wrote, really helpful stuff.
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Post by taytaytay on Oct 20, 2021 15:32:54 GMT -5
How do you try explaining mental illness to friends that don’t deal with it themselves? I know they just try to help, but I feel so misunderstood and like I’m talking to a wall. I think it’s hard for them to understand how much mental health is impacting my life especially as a college student. I’m not trying to use it as an excuse I get that I still need to do my schoolwork, but I’ve got a 90 in my class so clearly I’m doing something right. Honestly I just try and explain it in terms I know that people would be familiar with. My dad has a disability that includes chronic pain, so it's explaining to him that my anxiety/depression is similar to what manifests in him physically, just for me it's relating to my brain rather than my body. For my boyfriend, it's mostly just been explaining what my limits are with regards to mental health as and when they come up, and explaining to him when I'm struggling and what I expect from him in terms of support. It's honestly just opening the communication channels and realising that whilst no one may understand exactly what you're going through, a lot of people have comparable experiences in other ways that they can relate to or explaining to them as best as you can what you need in order to feel better.
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Post by JDMaleSwiftie on Oct 20, 2021 22:39:14 GMT -5
I appreciate the responses I bring some of these things up because I had a conversation with one of my close friends about some of my recent struggles with depression. I left the conversation feeling frustrated because I felt misunderstood.
I’ve been in therapy for over three years and will certainly talk to my therapist about all this. I will also be talking with my friend in a couple of days. It’s going to be important that I communicate my feelings to my friend, but it is done in a respectful manner. I talked to him earlier briefly and he asked how I was doing, but honestly I lied about how I was doing. I said I was fine and everything is going well, I gave the same response to a few others as well.
To be honest the last few weeks have been rough as it relates to mental health. It feels like this hurricane of depression and negativity has crushed me. The big key for me is to find a way to pick myself back up and get myself out of this extremely negative mindset. I’ve been feeling hopeless, like there is no purpose in my life, like no one really cares about me, and like I don’t belong anywhere.
It’s very difficult to get yourself out of this mindset, but it can be done and I know it’s possible because I’ve done it before. The first step is I need to be honest with the close friends in my life about what is really going on. I’m actually going to talk with another close friend of mine and talk to him about everything going on with my depression. The truth is I do have people in my life that care about me, love me, and want to see me be happy.
The other thing is myself there have been some really dark moments in my life I found a way to get through those moments and those struggles certainly made me a stronger person. Somehow I’ve found a way to balance college with my mental health and as well as my church/ministry. It really comes down to whether I want to get better or am I just going to allow myself to keep going down this path of self destruction.
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