How's your mental health?

[ZeroT21]

Good.

I'm better when my family members are away than when they're here. The only thing that may annoy me temporarily, well, the bills.

Are you sure you didn't get dumped at fostercare?

 

[Marc_LFD]

Are you sure you didn't get dumped at fostercare?

Pretty sure, I look like my father, but that's about (and DNA, of course) we have in common.

I'd rather be by myself than a room full of kids crying and adults speaking loud. It's hard to concentrate on anything with an environment like that.

 

[Veho]

I was gonna say "not good, my dude" but reading the other people's experiences I'm just gonna be quiet. Doin' fine, thank you.

 

[Maximumbeans]

TL: DR I keep procrastinating my life away due to work and family, as friends are my escape and they help me escape from my issues that I've created by continually seeking to relieve the stress that I gain from everything I endure or create(issues). Although hopefully me living with my girlfriend will actually allow her to call me out more on my procrastinating which we've both talked about.

I see, do you think there's any shot you're feeling burnout and that's why you struggle to focus when not in the classroom or work setting?

 

[Deleted member 571007]

I was gonna say "not good, my dude" but reading the other people's experiences I'm just gonna be quiet. Doin' fine, thank you.

Just because you feel like other people have had worse doesn't mean your situation isn't any less valid though. Feel free to elaborate on it if you feel comfortable - no one will judge you here. (At least I won't lmao)

 

[appleburger]

I feel lucky that many of my biggest struggles in life came earlier on, from about 7-24. Now that I've hit 31 I feel I've finally got a pretty good handle on my world over here. Losing loved ones is particularly brutal - I sincerely feel for those of you here who've gone through this as well. I suddenly lost my little brother in 2019 and it's beyond soul crushing to bear with a loss like that, but it does get better, I promise.

Having mental issues growing up helped me get comfortable with keeping mental tabs on myself as I got older, so I'm very grateful for that. Learning how my ADHD works has been an absolute tremendous help for me as well, and I suspect with a userbase like GBAtemp there are likely lots of ADHD folks here who can relate to some extent. It's apparently very common for dopamine issues to manifest in very self loathing, depressive and "what's wrong/could be better/why can't I" kind of thinking.

Re-framing that into a more stoic and optimistic approach significantly improved my day-to-day for me - this sort of happened by accident, beginning with me binging ADHD content on Youtube and making very simple changes slowly over time. My executive functioning is terrible, but instead of framing this as something to fix, I look at it as an advantage because my behavior and thinking is now predictable and understood enough to strategize around. This happened slowly, over the course of about 6 years or so, but it really did produce a domino effect for me. I went back to school, snagged my Comp Science degree, got into shape, got a decent job, beautiful girlfriend, bought a condo, and I feel like I'm living on my own terms now for the first time.

I think the biggest single change I made that got the domino effect going was honestly getting into shape. I wanted to do so many things to "improve my life", but the "motivation" wasn't hitting me. Once I started exercising, it really helped kick me into gear to where I could reach my goals. It also reinforces the idea of very small, easy changes over a long period of time really, really, really pay off.

Mental re-framing is very effective, imo, and mindfulness is a good starting point worth looking up if you haven't tried it. And if you're like me, thinking something like "If I could just/Why can't I/I wish I could/ I need to improve" isn't nearly as helpful when you can instead frame it like "This could be great/useful/worth trying/make my days even better".

 

[Deleted member 571007]

I feel lucky that many of my biggest struggles in life came earlier on, from about 7-24. Now that I've hit 31 I feel I've finally got a pretty good handle on my world over here. . [snipped to save space]

I'm glad you're doing better, sometimes changing your state of mind can make a lot of difference - so it's good to hear that you were able to come out of that positively. About being ADHD, that's completely understandable - I was diagnosed with it at a very young age and upon doing basically 3 years worth of research I've realized it does cause a lot of problems (although usually with ADHD brings other things that can dog-pile on-top of it.) Regardless being able to overcome that isn't easy; so seeing that you were able to even over a long period of time is good to hear. Hope you're doing well now and will continue doing so in the future.

 

[subcon959]

If you suffer from depression and have been told you need certain drugs then this might be interesting reading for you..

https://www.ucl.ac.uk/news/2022/jul...w-serotonin-levels-finds-comprehensive-review

 

[Veho]

If you suffer from depression and have been told you need certain drugs then this might be interesting reading for you..

https://www.ucl.ac.uk/news/2022/jul...w-serotonin-levels-finds-comprehensive-review

The study does not claim antidepressants don't work, it just shows (or claims to show) that depression is not linked to levels of serotonin in the bloodstream.

Which we already knew:



Basically the study concluded that antidepressants don't work for reasons we thought they did, but it doesn't claim they don't work. There has been a huge amount of double blind studies proving they work better than placebo.

Additionally, not all drugs work for all people and every doctor will tell you that if you find your medication doesn't help, you should stop and try other ones or seek other options.

No psychiatrist worth their license will just slap an SSRI prescription on you and send you on your way. Antidepressants are one part of the complete course of therapy which also includes psychotherapy and lifestyle changes (if possible).

 

[subcon959]

The study does not claim antidepressants don't work, it just shows (or claims to show) that depression is not linked to levels of serotonin in the bloodstream.

Which we already knew:

They do claim that depression is not linked to chemical imbalance, which is still in the medical textbooks to this day. I'm not exactly sure how they jumped from serotonin to such a broad statement though. I'm definitely concerned about some of these drugs, and it's entirely possible that in the future many of them will be seen the same way opioids are seen right now as doing more harm overall than good. I'm not necessarily talking about SSRI as I personally had a good experience with them, but some of the others are extremely dodgy as far as adverse effects go.

 

[Veho]

I have some more resources related to the serotonin study, please give this a read as well:

https://www.sciencemediacentre.org/...-paper-on-the-serotonin-theory-of-depression/

 

[hippy dave]

It's interesting and I'd love to see them figure out what the fuck is actually going on. For me personally my SSRI works wonders at keeping me stable and out of "the pit", and with no noticeable side effects at this point. I know I'm lucky with this.

 

[Maximumbeans]

Re-framing that into a more stoic and optimistic approach significantly improved my day-to-day for me

Once I started exercising, it really helped kick me into gear to where I could reach my goals. It also reinforces the idea of very small, easy changes over a long period of time really, really, really pay off.
Mental re-framing is very effective, imo, and mindfulness is a good starting point worth looking up if you haven't tried it. And if you're like me, thinking something like "If I could just/Why can't I/I wish I could/ I need to improve" isn't nearly as helpful when you can instead frame it like "This could be great/useful/worth trying/make my days even better".

I read your whole post but wanted to shave down to these points in particular. I feel like stoicism has changed my life dramatically in terms of simple ways to cope with intrusive thinking and reframe my usual thought patterns (which weren't serving me well). There's an app I use called 'stoic.' and it's utterly fantastic for structuring your day and challenging your thinking.

Your point about small, easy changes over time is especially useful, and totally true IMO. As Seneca wrote, "the one who puts the finishing touches on their life each day is never short of time".