Anxiety/depression

[Tomshardware]

"Been through bad time lately with suffering with this. Dark thoughts as well. I know some posters on here suffer with this. Anyone come through the other side of this shit?

"A number of posters have been yellow carded and told to stay off this thread unless they have anything constructive to add.This is a thread that has been very useful to so many, for any other posters with scores to settle, argue on another thread. This thread is sacrosant.Thank you"

[Irish Hammer]

"I have a AstroCytoma brain tumour, brain cancer and all that’s comes with. Severe epilepsy etc. It’s ok though. I’m not lying down."

[Block]

"Oh shit, how did that come about?"

[Irish Hammer]

Not able to. Cognitive deficit means I can’t do the numbers anymore.

[Block]

"Good to hear you're doing well, Irish. Still play any poker?"

[Irish Hammer]

"I’m very lucky in that I have very strong self awareness. I know when I’m in the shit and can try to be gentle to myself and work through it rather than raging against it. Excerise (the gym/a short run/spin bike) is my happy place, I empty my tank without aggression and feel so much better after it. We don’t cure it, we just learn to manage it. Through whatever way works for us. Im on a lot of different medications and have nasty side effects from them which don’t help, but my wife is a rock and I’m blessed to have her. Just keep putting one foot in front of the other lads. That’s all we need to do."

[Block]

"Mike, no sniggering from my end at all mate, every person has their own coping mechanism, the wife is very much like you mate if she gets aggy or in a down mood she potters about cleaning. Everyone has their own way of coping, no way is the wrong way, if it helps you. Meditation is quite hard, believe it or not. I usually do it as I've gone to bed, usually my mind goes nuts of an evening, so doing it then usually relaxes me before getting an hours kip before the kid decides to wake up chatting to himself."

[Mike Oxsaw]

"Block 11:19 Tue Jul 27 Interesting about meditation - I found out that doing mundane domestic tasks brought peace - and got stuff done at the same time. A few hours ""woman's work"" - laundry, cleaning, cooking, that sort of thing seemed to both drag my mind away from any problems I may have thought I had (nothing like many on here have reported though) and offer the mundane repetitiveness of meditation. The kids have long grown and are leading their own lives, but I still like to ""dumb down"" my thinking with this stuff every now and again. Gardening/growing stuff is another great relaxer - even if it's only a window-box/few pot plants (don't snigger)."

[Block]

"goose 9:15 Tue Jul 27 Re: Anxiety/depression goose, the signs and signals are totally different for each person, for me the sure signs I'm struggling is that I'm moody, withdrawn, lacking motivation and just generally isolating myself. Usually, when I notice this going on just talking really does help - thankfully my mrs can spot these as well so we usually talk about it. A coping mechanism for me is meditation, I meditate one a day every single day, not the mindful stuff which for me doesn't work, more so transcendental meditation. the crux of it is repeating a word which you just make up, and saying it over and over and over again for a period of time, an analogy is that you're giving a child a playstation to play on whilst you just sit and chill, it's effectively giving your brain something to just solely focus on whilst you are ""in the now"" and not thinking about anything else. SOrry for the long post."

[Block]

"goose 9:15 Tue Jul 27 Re: Anxiety/depression goose, the signs and signals are totally different for each person, for me the sure signs I'm struggling is that I'm moody, withdrawn, lacking motivation and just generally isolating myself. Usually, when I notice this going on just talking really does help - thankfully my mrs can spot these as well so we usually talk about it. A coping mechanism for me is meditation, I meditate one a day every single day, not the mindful stuff which for me doesn't work, more so transcendental meditation. the crux of it is repeating a word which you just make up, and saying it over and over and over again for a period of time, an analogy is that you're giving a child a playstation to play on whilst you just sit and chill, it's effectively giving your brain something to just solely focus on whilst you are ""in the now"" and not thinking about anything else. SOrry for the long post."

[goose]

Fair enough. I’m not gonna presume to know more than those who’ve been through it. Reason I say it is a friend of mine suffers with bouts of anxiety but knows the warning signs and has his own protocol to help deal with it. He’s ex special forces so living proof that even the most resilient of minds is capable of suffering. As an aside I think the principles taught by Wim Hoff are invaluable for all mindsets. He continues to re-write what the human body is capable of.

[Manuel]

"I saw yesterday the fella that use to be in Home and Away topped himself, 45, on the face of it had everything to live for. Very sad, and you hear more and more about this now."

[Manuel]

"goose - I'm certainly no expert on it all and I won't go too much into my own situation on here, but I think there are just too many variables to pin it down how you may suggest. A lot I think depends on why you are depressed and how difficult or not the solution is 'a way out' and of course it also depends on how strong. or otherwise, a person is and what they have to live for, ie do they have something they think is worth living for, ie young children. Sometimes there is a reason(s) why you are depressed, sometimes you hear people with no worries still get depressed and they don't even know why. I don't really think any amount of 'training' will help beforehand as if you are in a dark place you don't really see any light, you just hope that a situation or something arises that will give you the hope that you need to come back. Some come out of it and some don't. I do think there is a bottom though, you can only go so low, then you either end it all or start to climb back."

[goose]

"67 (and maybe Manuel too), do you think that people can be educated to see the warning signs? Are those signs preventable if spotted & tackled? And if you knew coping methods beforehand would it have made any difference?"

[Manuel]

"I know all about depression, that's for fucking sure. Wish everyone the best."

[Westham67]

It's not the kind of thing you can predict goose it accumulates over time and then ovewhelms you.

[Mike Oxsaw]

"Westham67 7:40 Mon Jul 26 Yet you seem proof that it can be managed. In common with what many have said on here though, the biggest issue seems to be accepting you have a problem in the first place and then realising help is available. I need to qualify that as merely an observation as ""an outsider"" in these matters."

[goose]

"I don’t doubt that for a second 67. But at some point you have to get up if you wanna beat it. Also, if you had a toolkit previous to that point do you think it would have got that far?"

[Westham67]

Goose. Thanks for good intentions but about 18 month ago I was sitting in an hotel room sobbing for ages. Depression is debilitating mate you cannot get motivated about anything even getting out of bed is a chore

[Block]

"goose, bottling things up and sweeping stuff under the carpet, does not work. So talking about it helps, in that regard."

[goose]

"Instead of people talking about how they feel, give them a toolkit to manage their feelings. - breathing - cold water/weather exposure - move more - get outside - keep a journal - sleep - choose your story. Limit or filter what you read & see - what you take in will shape what you feel"

[Block]

"goose, to a degree I do agree. Sadly, there's a lot of people who are taking advantage of it because of all the discussion about it, which makes people switch off. Because of the minority who take the piss and because people are switching off a lot of people now do not talk up about it who genuinely have a problem."

[goose]

I'm not expert but here is my thoughts on the subject of mental health - completely agree with the below comments RE consistently talking about MH. It's become the thing to talk about if you're a celeb. In the end it becomes damaging to the people really struggling while some desperate celeb claims to have 'anxiety'. If you want to build a resilient mind-set you could do a lot worse than looking up Wim Hoff.

[Block]

"Mike, I'm a very very laid back person - The kid is very much the same. If me and the mrs ever have a row it's always when he's not around, same goes for when I'm not feeling great, I take myself away from him so he's not around that."

[Mike Oxsaw]

"Block 11:24 Mon Jul 26 Following up from what Irish said, kids really do pick up on any stress (or even lack of confidence) going around and it then becomes a self-feeding vicious circle. I'm about as laid back as you can get, but my kids mother was the opposite. I'd often hear one of my kids (as babies) crying as I walked up the garden path home. As soon as my key entered the lock of the front door, the crying stopped and by the time I'd de-booted and gone up to the nursery, she was fast asleep. In fact, weekends and days when I was at home it was hard for me to believe that my kids gave their mother any grief whatsoever. Not suggesting you should get stoned to create a relaxed atmosphere at home, but cutting out stuff that gives you a personal ""buzz"", gives you an ""edge"" may be a good investment."

[mashed in maryland]

"Fifth, spot on. Unpopular opinion: the more we're urged to ""talk about mental health"", the worse the country's mental health gets. Its obviously not working. What you noticed is a prime example. Don't wanna bog the thread down so will leave it at that."