Mental health

cw37frapp

I would say do not expect miracles too. Most people agree that just talking seems to help.

Whickwithy

I wasn't sure I could find this thread, which is exactly the right one for this article. And, once again, I'll just mention how much vitamin cereal (you know, like Total) has done for my moods....

http://www.dailygood.org/story/837/the-link-between-eating-well-and-mental-health-steve-holt/

Ponygurl · Post edited by Ponygurl at 2014-10-26 11:28:05

It's actually quite amazing how food has the power to heal you. Especially raw organics. Think I'm going to plant a small garden. I just have some herbs now. I have two gorgeous Black Walnut trees near the house, I gathered some walnuts and am going to use them for baking. Hmm, maybe banana walnut bread.

Hells_Bells

Been an anxious day for me as had to wait until after work for my doctors appointment for my well overdue 6 monthly review.
Basically, keeping me on the anti depressants until reviewing again end of April 2015. That would take it to 3 years I will have been on pills. I'm OK with that and she recognised I'm not ready to come off them yet. She's concerned that I'm being put on too much at work and would sign me off without a doubt but I said no, but she's borderline writing to my employer!
Concerned that I said I still have "dark thoughts" on self harm and suicide and has insisted that I must not hesitate to speak to any Doctor if those thoughts become prominent again. Going to see about councelling sessions again. Trouble is, when I feel fine I don't want to go through all that shit again but then one bad thing happens and straight back to square one. Sorry not explaining myself properly :(

Whickwithy

Another very interesting article on happiness...

https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/inspired-life/wp/2015/06/29/do-these-exercises-for-two-minutes-a-day-and-youll-immediately-feel-happier-researchers-say/?ref=yfp

Ponygurl

Great article WW. Here's a link to a blog that helped me when I was feeling blue. It's New Agey, but helped me come to terms with my rebellious streak. Black sheep are better anyway- they change the game.

http://www.sophiagubb.com/how-to-tell-if-you-are-indigo

whisperit

ww's post reflects an approach that is very close to one that has taken off with some mental health professionals in the last few years, here in the UK.

Probably the best known is the "five ways to well being"

Its not perfect, but at least it has a more holistic, social perspective of the problems (and solutions) - an improvement on the individualistic perspective that some CBT seems to promote.

Whickwithy

The whole approach just makes sense to me. Perception and perspective are reality. Of course, if you have a chemical imbalance of some sort, it won't help much until you fix that. But, that's why I've suggested vitamin cereal in the past (like Total cereal?). It really did wonders for me. And, if I ever get off the cereal for a rather short span of a handful of days, I'm right back where I was. I don't know. Maybe it's from dropping acid like candy for a few years. Or, the concussion I received as a teenager. Dunno. It actually didn't take any brain-training for me, really. Just the cereal. Like a friggin' miracle.

KatRobin

I learned this week that some people are having a semi-colon tattooed on their arm as a " code" meaning " I have depression / I have tried suicide" etc.
I'm interested in your thoughts on this one.
It left me incensed to be honest, on so many levels.
A) I don't like labels. Of any kind. Tattoos seem to have this appeal in their ability to " define" somebody, but it's usually only a moment in a lifetime...and moments pass.
B) the Nazis ( and others) have used tattoos to discriminate and destroy...having a tattoo today ( imo) is not a reclamation of freedom or symbolism.
C) why this trend nowadays to proclaim every idiosyncrasy about yourself in the expectation that that makes YOU ( ME ME ME) unique, special, pitiable and attention-worthy?
d) as the majority of people who have ever had true ( and I'm talking prolonged chronic ) depression know, it's not something to celebrate, no matter how valiant your attempts to conquer, subdue and come to terms with it.
I could go on...and on....
Look, people who have Autism and Aspergers may choose to carry a card to notify others of this in the same way that people with physical health problems may carry med tags, but I personally am not in favour of this ( medical emergencies are obviously a different thing altogether). How can this be inclusive? If there's a problem, the problem lies with the ignorant twits who don't understand the condition, not the person who carries the card.
I consider myself extremely lucky to be a 44 year old in good physical health, but of course I ve got a list of minor niggles here and there, none of which I feel a need to bore the rest of the world with via Tattoo ( and my very own Tat-Selfie!).
I get fed up when I read problem page letters about people worrying about going on a short course of antidepressants, as if this will stigmatise them and make them less of a human! I've been on them for over 24 bloody years and always will be, but do I wear a t shirt about it? What's most worrying and insidious of all, is this trend- it's probably not new- for underground movements, inc paedophiles and extremists- to identify themselves to each other via embedded tattoo symbols. Now that IS something we should know about ( and it's coming into school training if you hadn't already guessed).
Me? God, I'd give ANYTHING to wipe my medical records, my employment records and my insurance policies clean of the fact that yes, I have depression ( zzzzz) .
Most of all, I'd give ANYTHING to wipe my conscience clean of the fact that an attempt I made to take my own life hurt so many people so badly.
Tattoo that.

whisperit · Post edited by whisperit at 2015-07-05 05:46:11

I completely agree with your points a-d, Kat.

I suppose it does reflect a society where people feel anonymous, as if they don't matter. Proclaiming some aspect of your "identity", which you feel marks you out as special can be a protest against that, however ill-thought through.

On the other hand, I don't feel like I have the right to pass judgement on any one person's choice to be tattooed or not. Even if I might have a general discomfort with tats, each person will have their own reason for getting one, and who am I to look down on that?

Re the med tag thing. I agree that it should be the responsibility of others to be sensitive to - for example - ASD. The trouble is that, in real life situations, not carrying a card often means that its the card carrier that gets to deal with the shit that results from inadequate care. The incompetent professional just shrugs and moves on. So, practically speaking, yeah, carry that card, if it means that you are more likely to get better care.

Urban_Tribesman · Post edited by Urban_Tribesman at 2015-07-05 07:33:23

Well said Kat =D>
I would guess part of the continuing obsession for promotion of self. I would think the last thing I would want if I had suffered from depression was to let others know or have a tat to remind me of it for the rest of my life.
If a person feels they want to pay back the support they hopefully got when they suffered, go and be part of the all too few support networks which will not be found at the tattoo parlour !

Whickwithy

Very interesting view, Kat. I hate labels, and records, and tattoos myself, but I feel lke I can understand the tattoo view. I wonder if it isn't something like AA or that rainbow thing that was going around for awhile. A feeling like one is not alone in one's struggles. And, maybe a hope that one could find others in the same dilemma.

I'm amazed, also, Kat. Your anti-depressants seem to really work. That doesn't always seem to be the case. I took those ones that they started using for stopping smoking and all I felt was creepy from the experience. My form of depression, though, was kinda weird. It took all of the joy out of life but it didn't really wear on me. It was more like life was just kinda washed out rather than what I would consider really not worth living. But, as I said, the vitamins in the form of cereal has completely rid me of that.

What really annoys me and seems to be programmed into alot of Americans, especially through right wing talk shows, is that, "well, I had a tough life and I made it through, so all of you peons that are falling off the cliff are just screw-ups and too bad for you. Not my problem." What's the phrase that seems to be used so often. Something like, "pull yourself up by your bootstraps." That these people cannot comprehend the depths of dejection or faulty programming/conditioning (yes, I believe nurture overwhelms nature) or feelings of incompetence that life has put some people through boggles my mind. That they think they have been anything but lucky to have dodged the bullet blows me away. And, in fact, a lot of the most ruthless, vicious, claw-their-way-to-the-top people that make this claim while "sitting on top of the world", to me, are much more despicable and have had much worse faulty programming/conditioning than any complete failure I have ever met.

There! That's my soapbox for the day!

KatRobin

Interesting replies, thanks. I don't want to give the impression by the way, that while I (personally) can't stand tattoos, end of. Of course Id always defend anybody's right to do what they want with their own body ...but I'm looking at this from a whole new viewpoint now, now that I know what creepy subtexts are disguised in among "all the stories written in your skin". Someone sang about that once. Wonder if they were thinking about something more innocent?

Whickwithy

I agree on scarring the body permanently. Actually, I have some little dots from being stupid enough to take radiation treatment. I hate 'em.

Are you talking about Sade? I would expect it was innocent.

whisperit

Maybe if it was "All the poems written in your skin" it would sound more familiar?

I've always interpreted that line more metaphorically, symbolising the things that we are and know and experience deeply, rather than the superficial things we say or think in a fleeting moment; the things that we return to as the core of our selves.

Paradoxically, actual tats seem to me to represent the more temporary thoughts and feelings that seem important for a while, but may turn out to be only fleeting

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