Mental Health Thread

I wanted to ensure that this is a safe place where all members show sensitivity to, respect for, and support for other forum members. This includes mental illness, self-harm, eating disorders and many other serious life road blocks. Anything you would like to speak about whether it be support for a member or just genuine curiosity. Every person is affected differently and can speak on how they are feeling. We're always here to lend support. ❤️

 

always happy to talk to anyone who needs it! you're not alone

 

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Just started my final quarter at my current college. Have to do a public speaking course, and I have debilitating social anxiety, so i'm really really anxious right now and idk how to handle it.

 

if you have a diagnosis, if you took it to the professor, i believe they're legally required to help you find a solution.

 

I have a really hard time with speaking publicly because of anxiety. You can see my note cards shaking anytime I have to do it. I wish I had someway to help you. Other than popping a Xanax or something there isn't much you can do. I wish you the best of luck and let us know how everything goes afterwards.

 

I've talked to student disability services and the best they can do is for me to make my speeches down there in front of a small group of office staff. Better, but still terrifying, y'know?

 

definitely. my anxiety always made it difficult to do speeches, but one method i found helpful was to give my speech to one person in the room i trusted. zone in, say it to them, take the grade hit for not engaging the whole room, and move on. hope you find a solution!

 

Thank you!

That might be a good plan. Thank you!

 

I guess I should have thrown this in OP. I'm Bipolar II with generalized anxiety disorder. I'm also an Insomniac and can only sleep when medicated. It's been 6 months so far with no hypomania or depression. I lean more to the dangerously depressive side. I have gone through a lot of things that triggered all of this at the age of 25. I'm kind of a rare case in that no one I'm related to has Bipolar. I usually have an episode every 3 months for a week or so but here I am hitting 6 months and I'm so excited! I have struggled to handle it but I think my medicine is finally doing its job. If you're feeling worthless, sad, angry, etc I'm always here. If anyone wants to talk..I've found support, even from strangers, has really helped me come a long way.

 

I was diagnosed with depression and anxiety back in October. I've struggled with the symptoms for years now but I just found myself at a breaking point one day and finally saw a doctor. Tried two different types of meds so far and neither worked, o right now my only solution has been medical marijuana, but because of the effects of the THC, I can typically only use it to help myself at night so I don't write off most of my day.

Most people have been very understanding with me and my girlfriend has been hugely supportive (after she got to the point where she finally started to understand how I was feeling. It was frustrating for the first month or so). So far, I've only really had one inappropriate encounter, with one of the supervisors at my job. He sat me down because apparently my performance wasn't up to standard for them. When I told him I was struggle with depression and anxiety, his response to me was "everyone has outside problems but you can't bring those into work."

 

I don't think he can say that to you? I think it's discrimination to fire or whatever someone with a debilitating mental health issue. Could be wrong tho.

 

Yeah, I probably could have done something about it, but I had only been working there a month and still felt very uncomfortable. He's just a general dickhead though and his presence at that job has been enough that I'm hoping to line something else up and quit in the next week.

 

That might be the most horrific story about a psychiatrist I've ever heard. Is there anyway you can see someone else? Their office is supposed to be a safe place and my psychiatrist has NEVER said anything close to that to me. I don't blame you for being scared.

 

anyone have any experience with Remeron? I recently started taking it to help with sleep troubles and the two nights i've forgotten it I've woken up with massive headaches. that's not a dealbreaker because i'll do anything to get my sleep under control but i'm curious if that's something other people have experienced.

 

you can talk to me for a bit. pm me on here if you want.

 

I've held this story in for a couple of years now and am extremely nervous posting this but I'm starting to feel like it's necessary for me to talk about it and this feels like a safe place to do it in (apologies for length).
Up until a couple of months ago, as illogical as it sounds, I felt like I was the only one who encountered a negative experience when it came to dealing with the health system, in regards to mental health. The feeling that I was alone made me question if my illness were legitimate and if I was in the wrong.
Basically, I confessed to a friend that I wasn't feeling all that well (feeling suicidal) and they had concern for my safety so they ended up calling the police over to my house. I didn't know that the cops had been called and my parents had no prior knowledge to how I was feeling nor would I feel comfortable discussing those feelings with them. A couple of policemen came over to my house and my mum was the one to answer the door. The officers wanted to take me to the station but she refused to let it happen because I was under 18 and it can't happen without a parent being present. There ended up being a huge argument out the front of the house between my mum and the police and ended up in my mum driving me off to visit an uncle who was in hospital at the time- without going to the station.
My mum and I didn't really discuss anything that had happened- she was upset that the police turned up. I kind of played dead in my room to avoid her when we got home from the hospital. My dad got home from work a couple of hours of later and he was pretty furious at me because the police had called him up at work about it and he'd felt "embarrassed" in front of his colleagues. We ended up getting in a pretty heated confrontation over it and I wasn't in the best of states afterwards. About half an hour later the police turned up again because they needed to question me. I complied and ended up being asked questions like "why did you want to hurt yourself?" "Why did you tell your friend these things?" "Why do you feel this way?" while my parents were about two meters away listening in. I tried to talk my way out of having to go to the hospital. My dad got into an argument with the police over me pulling this whole thing as a way of trying to impress the friend that I had confessed to, which ended up in them being pretty suspicious of him. They felt something was off so they called an ambulance in.
(Trigger for self harm) In the ambulance I was asked pretty intimate questions but was given the option to pass whichever ones I liked. Got to the hospital and was put in a room with three people who were going to further question me. That whole session was probably the worst part of the entire thing. Two of the three people asking the questions were really condescending, unforgiving, and unsympathetic. I remember, in particular, being asked if I ever participated in self harm and I assumed the standard was the same as it was in the ambulance- that I could pass questions. So I asked if I could pass the question and was met with offended stares followed by "this isn't a gameshow. You don't get to choose which questions you can and can't answer. I don't think you understand the gravity of this entire situation". I admitted to self harming and they wanted to see what I had done. I tried dancing my way out of it as well as I could but I ended up feeling like I was backed into a corner and had no other option but to show. It's still an incredibly embarrassing moment for me to recall, having to expose myself like that. One of them scoffed at certain scars and made remarks like "that's not so bad" "Hm, that one's not very deep at all". They were very cynical to a lot of my responses and it without a doubt made me question whether my illness was actually existent. The whole thing was unrelenting. Most of the time they were more concerned with my dad and his nature, while he is abusive I wasn't about to out him to them. They seemingly threatened to keep checks on me, which I'm sure was just protocol but nonetheless the way it was put to me made me extremely intimidated. I was intimidated throughout the entire process.
I was later diagnosed by two doctors (because I wasn't sure) and, while the feeling is less intense nowadays, I didn't come to terms with the fact that I was sick. Despite diagnosis and being put on medication I never really saw my struggles as being worthy to be actual symptoms of mental illness and I feel one of the reasons was because of my experience in that hospital.
I still do admire the people who work in that occupation and I'm sure it's not easy to get things right 100% of the time in such a high stress job.

 

I definitely understand that "I never really saw my struggles as being worth to be actual symptoms of mental illness" sentiment, @LWS, and I am so sorry about the combative and confronting nature of your experience. I'm truly hoping that as mental illness becomes more discussed and understood, that future generations will have different experiences when dealing with the authorities and doctors who are genuinely trying to help than those of us on the forefront of the change are experiencing. Especially on the parental front.

Just know that no matter what, you're not alone.

 

Wow. I'm really sorry you had to go through that. This is a completely safe place so feel free to PM one of us if you would feel better talking privately. I work in a hospital and I have noticed that nurses, police, and EMTS are not trained to handle 1013's and that some are really insensitive. 90% of the time we just want someone to listen without judgement. I hope things get better for you and your parents/friends start to take it seriously and give you the support you need and deserve. XO ❤️

 

My best friend is in med school and they just began their psych block. He's been telling me the professors have begin to focus more on it as the mental health landscape changes. Says it's the first time his classmates have engaged with the class in months since the sheen has worn off. Kinda gives me hope. He says it's helped him understand my depression from a few years back (I say this like it's not on-going, but it's gotten way better) and he's noticing a lot of things in other people that they never mentioned and realized how much further we have to go to remove the stigma.

 

@Garrett L. Thanks a lot for the support!
It's definitely difficult to even begin some form of treatment when there's a constant sense of doubt.
Also, it definitely is somewhat reassuring that those conversations surrounding mental illness are popping up more and more. Here's to hoping the future is a little brighter for sufferers.

 

@AelNire Thank you! This would probably be the only place I'd feel comfortable to post something as personal as that so I definitely appreciate the support.
Yeah, the staff seemed really rigid and uncertain. I'm pretty sure one of them was also being trained as it happened so I think I am a little sympathetic to the way that it was all handled.

 

My heart breaks for everyone who has been mistreated by professionals. It's bad enough when friends and family do it, but when it's people that are supposed to be trained to help, it feels very hopeless.

Last night my grandpa was talking to me about stuff and he has a very "it's family and that's how things were so ppl need to get over it and learn to forgive" mentality and it was very eye opening because my mom is the same way and I hate it. I resent my mom for so much. I have a relationship with her but it's very surface-level and if we spend more than like 1 day together things get dicey. I'm going with her on a nearly week-long trip over spring break because my great-grandma died and we need to get affairs in order and I'm super nervous about it. She is admittedly a much better mom now which is great, but she still doesn't take responsibility for her actions and I'm resentful and sometimes I let that resentment out in passive-aggressive ways when I'm around her. Her whole side of the fam just has such toxic views on family and it's hard to deal with.

 

I was hoping a thread like this existed, very thankful that it does.

I don't really know if it's fitting to discuss my dysphoria in here, but it's been ripping me apart the last few days, it seems. I'm on tour with my band atm, and don't really have any healthy way to deal with it. I can't even look forward to going home because I live with people who dont gender me properly or use my chosen name. I've felt like there's absolutely no hope more times than I'd care to admit in the last week. I really hope it fades soon.

 

maybe, while you're on tour at least, try to look at it as a break from your home environment and focus that you're surrounded by your bandmates who do respect your identity. I realize dysphoria doesn't just go away by a change of perspective but it might reduce some of the pain in the short term.