Mental Health Awareness

Well said Donnie. Everyone looks for points of difference but humanity is a lot of common experience, albeit people look at things differently. It's especially sad when people who are suffering are told 'weak faith' when really, those who say that should perhaps realise compassion would be more appropriate. Like when people say if you're cursed you must have done something to deserve it, which is obviously BS and it says so explicitly in scripture.
I think there is still some stigma, but also I think those who haven't suffered similar issues often find it hard to understand and so try to rationalise it away. I have no skills or special knowledge but I'm always happy to listen to someone who tells me they're having a tough time. Sometimes it's all you can do, but also it helps massively just to talk to someone who 'gets it' and doesn't try to offer solutions. I think it's also a blokey thing, that when someone tells you a problem, you think that you need to solve it.
Bumped into my neighbours yesterday, we've lived opposite each other for 14 years, I often engage in a bit of small talk with him, (I generally get on with most of my neighbours who actually talk!) Anyway he came home with his Mrs, they'd been down the pub, obviously had a great day, he was pretty well away, gave me a great big hug and said its nice to have proper neighbours. Then his wife did tell me he's ex army and pretty distraught about Ukraine kicking off, plus his dad is very ill, and so is hers. Hard to get that lot out of your mind but he needed a break and a few scoops probably did him the world of good. You never know what people are carrying around on their backs, especially when we're all brought up to deny/play down such things. I'm not quite from the 'stiff upper lip' generation but it was still encouraged.
 
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Wow.
Some powerful stuff coming out here.
Not only do I suffer "the lows" sometimes, my wife also is on meds for depression, anxiety and Fibromyalgia.
Helping her from day to day or week to week... Month to month... Obviously takes its toll. We are a mixed couple, me being English/Hungarian... (British) my better half. (British) Punjabi... Her family, well parents, just do not get it at all. They think providing her with codliver oil capsules is the answer to her Fibro... Don't get me started on the depression.
So although I don't have as many or as Acute anxiety issues as some of you guys above... I do sympathise.
Having someone to talk to is important, but half the battle (for me) is just telling someone how I'm feeling on a particular day. Once I've unloaded a bit, it helps me out and gets some things in perspective.
Appreciate everyone's comments so far, shows how useful this forum/thread is for each individual.
 
donnie_arko said:
It's very difficult to come across someone else who has the exact same mental health issues, but have you come across anyone else who have some of them? We'll never find someone who has exactly the same experiences we have, but hopefully we can find someone who has the empathy to understand what you are going through to either listen or to provide some assistance.

Understanding your own mind is a difficult thing to do, but even if someone might not understand EVERYTHING, they might understand SOMETHING, and a little often can make more of a difference than you might think.

I presume you have issues with Anxiety, I do as well. A few things I have been taught this week is 'Anxiety is just an emotion, anxiety will not harm physically harm you', at rough times this week, I have been repeating 'Anxiety is just an emotion' almost like a mantra, trying to get my head to stopping running wild. Also, anxiety can occur as from an overactive imagination, your head runs wild on a tangent and blows things out of control, at those times I try to stop thinking about whatever was making me crazy and think about shaving, or a cartoon or music or something, but doing something creative like playing guitar or writing is the best thing, put that overactive imagination to some use.

Send me a PM if there's anything else I can say.
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I have to say after years of taking paracetamol, and valerian, hops and passion flowers tablets.I nolonger suffer any anxiety or nervousness. I also have St John's wort, Lemon balm and chamomile supplements too.
 
donnie_arko said:
Hello Saj,

I can see what you mean. Like yourself I'm brown as well (I'm second generation Bengali/Indian), 3 years older than you (1982), I'm not Muslim, but from seeing mates of mine who are Muslim but grew up around second gen Pakistani/Bangladeshi communities, I say we have a lot of common ground where depression/showing weakness is a little frowned upon and I'd wager all 'brown' communities are very conservative.

As for the mindset 'you have weak faith', I'm in agreement that is absurd, but with conservative mindsets they aren't always the quickest to change to the modern world, and depression/anxiety have existed since time began but it's only in the last generation dialogues are changing. Progress comes in the smallest incremental gains, and the world is changing but not everyone is changing at the same rate.

I don't know anyone else in my community who has the same mental health issues I do, but I occasionally mention them in conversation to a few people I trust, even if they do not have personal experiences of sharing my troubles they can still provide a little empathy, but I've lost many friends at the same time who I weren't able to speak freely with. It's sad but this happens.

Nonetheless I have tried to speak my mind with others, and sometimes just a PM from a forum can provide more help than I can describe.

I sometimes think we are often taught to look for what makes us different from each other, but I'm coming to learn to appreciate what makes us alike as I have much to learn from those who are different stages of their experiences similar to mine, we can share them and better ourselves, even it it seems difficult or impossible at the time.
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if you dont mind me asking you on any meds?

im on meds and have been on a sh*t load tbh, some Dr's do play with you like some sort of guinea pig

they throw everything at you when most dont work and the odd chance it works they be like i knew it was going to work lool

yea its an asian thing that sort of mentality
 
CjH said:
Wow.
Some powerful stuff coming out here.
Not only do I suffer "the lows" sometimes, my wife also is on meds for depression, anxiety and Fibromyalgia.
Helping her from day to day or week to week... Month to month... Obviously takes its toll. We are a mixed couple, me being English/Hungarian... (British) my better half. (British) Punjabi... Her family, well parents, just do not get it at all. They think providing her with codliver oil capsules is the answer to her Fibro... Don't get me started on the depression.
So although I don't have as many or as Acute anxiety issues as some of you guys above... I do sympathise.
Having someone to talk to is important, but half the battle (for me) is just telling someone how I'm feeling on a particular day. Once I've unloaded a bit, it helps me out and gets some things in perspective.
Appreciate everyone's comments so far, shows how useful this forum/thread is for each individual.
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sorry to hear that, i know fibromyalgia can be very painful

i know someone who has it and she got evening primrose oil in oil and not tablet form and its suppose to help
 
Sabre said:
I have to say after years of taking paracetamol, and valerian, hops and passion flowers tablets.I nolonger suffer any anxiety or nervousness. I also have St John's wort, Lemon balm and chamomile supplements too.
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i read about st johns wort years ago but i read that if youre on medicationnit can conflict with it and cause more harm so never touched it but i do want to try out more natural methods hopefully
 
donnie_arko said:
Yep, I've been on a few meds for anxiety, over the years it's Fluoxetine, Sertraline and Mirtazapine.
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been on fluoxetine and mirtazapine not sure about sertraline

have you put on weight with mirtazapine? i put on loads of weight and couldnt even fast in ramadan,
like evn if i had a massive meal i'd still feel hungry hated that feeling, really frustrating
 
saj1985 said:
been on fluoxetine and mirtazapine not sure about sertraline

have you put on weight with mirtazapine? i put on loads of weight and couldnt even fast in ramadan,
like evn if i had a massive meal i'd still feel hungry hated that feeling, really frustrating
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Yes, I'd get the 'munchies'. I try to manage it by not keeping snacks in the household.
The worst side effect I'd get is waking up in the morning which would feel like I'd be punched in the head, and sometimes the dreams/nightmares are grim.

I hate being on the medication, but whenever I've tried to come off it the side effects make me struggle even worse.

Sertraline's withdrawal symptoms were brutal.
 
donnie_arko said:
Yes, I'd get the 'munchies'. I try to manage it by not keeping snacks in the household.
The worst side effect I'd get is waking up in the morning which would feel like I'd be punched in the head, and sometimes the dreams/nightmares are grim.

I hate being on the medication, but whenever I've tried to come off it the side effects make me struggle even worse.

Sertraline's withdrawal symptoms were brutal.
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i found coming off mirtazapine difficult even when being weaned off, i struggled with the withdrawal symptoms, i was on a high dosage though

have you tried black seed oil? been having it on and off but need to stay consistent

in general my diets awful, think too many fizzy drinks is my weakness

diet will obviously effect your body and mood

like i came across the carnivore diet the other day and this woman mikhaela peterson (jordan petersons daughter) changed her diet after having serious arthritis and acne, depression etc

it was so bad she had like a hip[ and ankle replace at age of 17,
she changed her diet to a carnivore diet and made a massive difference to her health,
check out the vid with her and joe rogan on youtube

tbh when it comes to diets i dont know who to believe,
one person says one thing and another person says another

either i need to fix up
 
saj1985 said:
i found coming off mirtazapine difficult even when being weaned off, i struggled with the withdrawal symptoms, i was on a high dosage though

have you tried black seed oil? been having it on and off but need to stay consistent

in general my diets awful, think too many fizzy drinks is my weakness

diet will obviously effect your body and mood

like i came across the carnivore diet the other day and this woman mikhaela peterson (jordan petersons daughter) changed her diet after having serious arthritis and acne, depression etc

it was so bad she had like a hip[ and ankle replace at age of 17,
she changed her diet to a carnivore diet and made a massive difference to her health,
check out the vid with her and joe rogan on youtube

tbh when it comes to diets i dont know who to believe,
one person says one thing and another person says another

either i need to fix up
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I've had some health problems over the last 3 months, a lot of it concerning my acid reflux, I've had to change my diet completely. I will send you a PM.
 
Sabre said:
I have to say after years of taking paracetamol, and valerian, hops and passion flowers tablets.I nolonger suffer any anxiety or nervousness. I also have St John's wort, Lemon balm and chamomile supplements too.
Click to expand...

Very interesting. I should look into this avenue of treatment at some point, I wouldn't want to mix them with the medication I already take though.

Good to hear it's been worthwhile for you.
 
CjH said:
Wow.
Some powerful stuff coming out here.
Not only do I suffer "the lows" sometimes, my wife also is on meds for depression, anxiety and Fibromyalgia.
Helping her from day to day or week to week... Month to month... Obviously takes its toll. We are a mixed couple, me being English/Hungarian... (British) my better half. (British) Punjabi... Her family, well parents, just do not get it at all. They think providing her with codliver oil capsules is the answer to her Fibro... Don't get me started on the depression.
So although I don't have as many or as Acute anxiety issues as some of you guys above... I do sympathise.
Having someone to talk to is important, but half the battle (for me) is just telling someone how I'm feeling on a particular day. Once I've unloaded a bit, it helps me out and gets some things in perspective.
Appreciate everyone's comments so far, shows how useful this forum/thread is for each individual.
Click to expand...

I agree entirely with the last line and with the importance of getting things off one's mind.

I think it's good for us all to be able to share, as I imagine many of us have been where the other has for their terrible days or the ones which are just about tolerable. Even if some of us may have mental health issues of greater severity at times, we are able to help and listen to each other each other as best as we can, and that makes the difference.

Sorry to hear about Mrs CjH's health problems and her parents; from personal experience it's something that crops up with people from the subcontinent from my experience, weird homebrew remedies to complex medical problems. It can be a frustrating thing to go through.
 
Valerian, hops, passiflora are classic natural sleep aids. I've heard of (well, more than that, tried) St John's Wort for the lows, kind of helped a bit.

I tried 5-HTP, which is supposed to be good for depression, but be careful cos it can interact with other Auntie Dees (MAOI or SSRI) and it can have other side effects so probably best avoided unless you're not on anything else. It is a precursor to serotonin production, which is why it can work, but also be a bit dodge with SSRI meds.

To be honest, I'm a lot better than years ago. Most of my trouble nowadays is stress and an inherent pessimism born of lack of confidence in my ability to successfully navigate my way through the world or life or whatever. I used to have mega panic attacks and alternate between the kind of depression that is numbness rather than sadness, and anxiety, which I think is quite distinct from depression although equally crippling.
Thankfully most of the time I'm just predisposed to being gregarious and up for general banter and jocularity. It's easy to feel isolated and lose your identity when you get down, but basically most of the time if I'm not battling I'm bantering and coming up with funny stuff. Well, stuff that I think is funny anyway! Getting stuff off your chest and having a bit of a laugh with people is a powerful force in itself. So is exercise and diet, although that can be easier said than done.
 
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I tried 5-HTP probably about a year ago and it made me feel worse. Mood was lower and was anxious all the time. Im not on any meds so I think it may have adversely interfered with my neurochemistry
 
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