• Dear Guest, Please note that adult content is not permitted on this forum. We have had our Google ads disabled at times due to some posts that were found from some time ago. Please do not post adult content and if you see any already on the forum, please report the post so that we can deal with it. Adult content is allowed in the glory hole - you will have to request permission to access it. Thanks, scara

Does anyone suffer from mental illness on here?

Getting really stressed and moany about the smallest things at the moment
Anybody know of any books/websites I could read/look at ??
Sometimes it can be "other' unresolved things in your head, that can make you snappy and stressed about the smallest thing day to day.. I can see you're waiting upon your next contractor position, maybe when that clears you'll just feel better? Exercise does help, don't overdo it though if your stress levels are high.
 
Getting really stressed and moany about the smallest things at the moment
Anybody know of any books/websites I could read/look at ??

I do mate...this is one book I recommend to people. It is superb real-world advice.

It is available second hand in the UK via Amazon for cheap. If you have trouble finding it, and really want a copy, PM me.

 
Thanks matey, this is a big factor, massive ate and drank too much and need to do some exercise

I think you also have to account for the sheer volume of media telling you to be fearful/worried and keeping things on the precipice of chaos. It will get into even the sturdiest of minds.

This is going to sound weird but I don't care, it works for me. I will sometimes pick a creature -insect, bird- and focus on it for a few minutes. everything from colors to body to thinking about what it takes for that creature to survive in the world. It is a form of meditation I suppose...
 
Sometimes it can be "other' unresolved things in your head, that can make you snappy and stressed about the smallest thing day to day.. I can see you're waiting upon your next contractor position, maybe when that clears you'll just feel better? Exercise does help, don't overdo it though if your stress levels are high.
Yes this is defo not helping, am not massively concerned about not landing a new one yet but it's getting a bit full on again
I had 1 interview yesterday and 6 other calls with recruiters, it's mentally tiring

COVID meaning we had the kids here for 3.5 weeks without us being able to go out for a lot of it didn't help either

I do feel a bit happier and more chilled today so far
 
Two reasons that I’ve replied here. Well at least two.

Firstly, I feel as if this thread could be stickied. I feel that it’s important that the post is on the first page. Why? I want people to know, at this time especially, that they don’t have to suffer in silence. On this forum there is relative anonymity, and so you can talk without fear. It’s a bunch of strangers, strange people, and some friends all with connected passion in Spurs. People who as a community can support each other, can support you if you need it.

Yes, it is important that you seek professional help if your mental health is limiting your life BUT you can always feel free to open up as much as you feel like you can on here.

Secondly, I know first hand just how challenging poor mental health can be. I’ve had a horrible year of it. And so I know that it’s important to know that you’re not alone, and that we are all in this journey together. We all have our own challenges, but we do not have to suffer alone.

So please if you feel you have no one to talk to, that no one will understand you then open up with us and hope hopefully we can help. I would advise you contact the relevant professional services in your country too. I know that we are across many countries so I do not necessarily know the most appropriate people/organisation for you, within your country of residence, but if you are unsure, ask here and hopefully someone can help to direct you.

Life is tough, it pushes us to our limits, but we survive together.
 
Last edited:
This is a very serious statement to make, particularly in this thread.
Please reach out to a professional and talk, if you are feeling down.
Google a hotline and call them.

Ah. That is very good of you to make that observation and intervene.

I can be a bit casual about my outlook, but I would never hesitate to admit or talk through my situation with my friends.

I thought I was being helpful to others but you’ve probably given me more insight than you realise.
 
Blue Monday and a Full Moon !!!
Amazing Monday hahahah
Be positive, keep smiling and try and be kind to all !!

I cycled to work this morning doing howling at the moon. Started at 8am.

I read something online this morning that I thought might help some on here.

::
Chemical cheats aside, the obvious place to start with any attempt to boost energy is in the metabolism: the process by which chemical energy is harnessed from our food and used to power everything from the basic functions of our cells to our every movement and thought. This happens in the mitochondria, which as anyone who did biology at school will know, are the “powerhouses of the cells”, creating ATP, the chemical that powers everything our cells do.

We don’t fully understand how the workings of our mitochondria affect how energetic we feel, but we do know that people who have rare disorders of the mitochondria feel pretty lousy. “Tiredness and fatigue is their number one symptom,” says Martin Picard, who studies the links between mitochondria and mood at the University of Columbia in New York. Mitochondria problems have also been seen in people with depression and chronic fatigue.

Which suggests that we can feel it when our bodies are running on empty. Even so, boosting your energy levels can’t be as simple as just adding more fuel to the furnace, says Herman Pontzer, who studies energetics and metabolism at Duke University in North Carolina and is the author of Burn: The Misunderstood Science of Metabolism. “If you’re starving you’re likely to feel lethargic, but it’s definitely not the case that eating more calories or having a faster metabolism means you’ll feel more energetic,” he says. “If it were like that, people with obesity would be the most energetic. I don’t think that’s the case.”

Advertisement
Picard agrees, and also points out that there are signs that too much fuel actually backfires, making us feel worse. “If you overfeed people you would think – oh, more energy, they are going to feel better. But no, it actually taxes the body… physiologically the body becomes less efficient,” he says. So, strangely, less fuel may equal more power. In particular, avoiding refined sugars, which studies suggest disrupt the mitochondria, making them less efficient. “Not eating too much is probably the best, most concrete thing we know that can promote mitochondrial health at this point,” says Picard.

Getting the recommended seven to nine hours a night is a good idea for anyone who feels depleted CREDIT: tommaso79/ iStockphoto
Another is reducing stress. Picard’s research shows that the stress response puts a huge strain on our mitochondria, which not only need to provide energy for the raised heartrate and other physical responses to stress, but also produce and pump out the stress hormones that keep the response going. For reasons that aren’t fully understood, stress makes cells age faster, perhaps because they are being forced to work harder than they should.

Advertisement
Nevertheless, Pontzer remains unconvinced that “boosting” the activity of our mitochondria to get more energy out of them is possible. His research suggests that our bodies adjust the rate at which the mitochondria burn calories to keep the total within a narrow range. If we exercise more, for example, the body adjusts the overall metabolic rate to spend less energy on other things, such as the stress response or inflammation. So, any attempt to tinker with your mitochondria is likely to be pointless, and “wouldn’t necessarily increase vitality”, says Pontzer.
 
Good article Chich, my energy levels are always low, same as my motivation and my mood. I have anxiety, depression, and paranoid person disorder. The three leave me just feeling despondent, not caring if I live or die, I want to live life, but my paranoia makes me think horrible things will happen. How do you keep living life when you are fearing the worst in every day? How do you keep going regardless of what may or may not happen?
 
Good article Chich, my energy levels are always low, same as my motivation and my mood. I have anxiety, depression, and paranoid person disorder. The three leave me just feeling despondent, not caring if I live or die, I want to live life, but my paranoia makes me think horrible things will happen. How do you keep living life when you are fearing the worst in every day? How do you keep going regardless of what may or may not happen?
Hmm. Big questions. There are thousands of books written by professionals that wrestle with these things, which MIGHT have better answers than me. But I may as well type a few lines.
We're all just a fleshy bag of neuroses, ideas, instincts, prejudices etc. These fleshy bags are full of powerful chemicals sloshing around. None of us are as important [to the world] nor as insignificant [to a few people] as we like to think. Feelings are governed by chemicals in your brain that are hard to control. Sometimes you will feel absolutely awful, due to brain chemicals. Sometimes you'll be happy. Often (usually) you will feel neither, and that is normal.
People that project power and happiness and pretend to live the best lives are often wildly unhappy and overcompensating and living a lie.
Someone that seems extraordinarily courageous, who is really putting themselves out there, might be doing so because they have nothing much to live for and think "why not, I might as well go for it, there is nothing left to lose".
Someone with an incredible job might be working 24/7 because their life outside work is unbearable.
Someone who does NOT go for it, who does NOT go for that global role, who does NOT go out to all the parties, and settles for a quiet life might do so because they are content in their little slice of the world, doing a small job in a small way. There is no true benefit to huge jobs and huge pressure and going out out.
Taking yourself out of a situation/location can change your mood for better (or worse). Helping others is rewarding. Sunny weather in remote places is nice. London in January is awful. The end.
 
Doing some wildlife volunteering today. That’s a good thing all round. I think there might even be a bonfire lol.

I would love to work outside permanently.

How did this go mate? Props for getting out and about, doing something purposeful like that.

I’ve been out of work for a while now (not considered fit for work due to mental health reasons ) and it’s mighty easy to fall in to abyss of doing nothing, which tends to lead to more nothingness and as such it’s a hard pattern to break out of.
 
How did this go mate? Props for getting out and about, doing something purposeful like that.

I’ve been out of work for a while now (not considered fit for work due to mental health reasons ) and it’s mighty easy to fall in to abyss of doing nothing, which tends to lead to more nothingness and as such it’s a hard pattern to break out of.

Yea that is exactly why I did it. To break the cycle. I really enjoyed it, given a job and left to my own devices to crack on within the group. All quiet respectful people and it was a beautiful sunny day.

I’ll be going back again but with more awareness it’s bloody hard work - I was aching on Tuesday.

This was scrub clearance for my local wildlife trust where some chalk downland is being over run by thorns and whatnot.

And yeah a bit of physical graft puts you back in the moment and provides a focus for the day.

It’s had some effect on me as I have been out in the garden today with my chainsaw and axe chopping up some firewood - a job I didn’t get around to the whole of last year despite not being at work.

One strange thing Is that I realised I get up and get dressed quite smartly as if going to work or something as the wife is always on zoom so she is business smart. And that then is enough to stop me from tackling some of the home maintenance jobs I really should have completed. So now I am in shorts and t shirt unless I have an appointment. It’s daft little things that have gotten me into a rut.

There are a myriad useful organisations out there looking for help and I think being outside is so good for us generally.
 
Definitely being outside is good for mental health. I too often stay indoors all day. I’m not working so not a lot for me to go out for.
But when I head out it’s as if I realise that my paranoia is within my head. So for you to get outside, yes, it’s definitely good especially if you can contribute on a positive way.
 
Unfortunately I’m overdue a post in this thread before I start offering out virtual fisticuffs again..Sorry to vent and get all me me me but here goes! (after a bottle of Jim bean so forgive any typos or lack of general sense)

My mental health position is stuck constantly stuck in a state of “Too afraid to live + Too afraid to kill myself”. I’ve been sectioned previously (during a spectacularly public breakdown on here) and diagnosed with bi polar and psychotic disorder.

Take more exercise! Be more positive! Just try harder! Go for a walk! It could be worse.

The above has been said by people that know and love me and those that are alleged medically trained professionals. The meds I could give or take. I went for a walk for 25 days in a row, to a nice park but it doesn’t change my irrational anger at those who don’t naturally walk on the left hand side (ie the side of the road we drive on thus turning almost every person I bump in to in to a Mexican stand off). I go to feed the squirrels and the people I encounter are literally an obstacle of the tranquillity that the walking + outsideness the venture offers.

I think it’s a jealousy thing but I’m amazed by everyone who can manage to get out of their beds / houses for some flimflam job daily. However I have nothing but respect for people with real jobs ie nurses / firefighters / builders / teachers / paramedics

After being in a good routine of daily walks and eating well things have gone south recently and i’ve been drinking a bottle of scotch a day as it makes me feel better. I don’t know if it’s that I need everything to be perfect but things should be so so much better than they are.

Due to where I live going outside for that aforementioned walk means I’m wading through litter and dogbrick for 30 minutes to get somewhere nice because everyone here is a clam. It’s safer to stay indoors apart from the necessary shopping trips to local off license, even then the social interactions seem to take so much out of me.

It feels so entitled looking at all of this written down, even in today’s world I could be a kid mining for lithium batteries or in a sweatshop. It could be worse right?

“Seek professional help” is legitimately great advice unless you’ve already been through the system and can’t afford private therapy. I get half an hour a month with a CPN (community psychiatric nurse) which isn’t enough but depressingly is more than many people struggling get. I personally think my guy enjoys listening to me rant (delusions of grandeur perhaps) but there’s no solutions other than another +10mgs of whatever I’m on.

Nothing is easy for anyone, that’s something to keep in mind, much like how tough it’s been for people during COVID but for those with long standing mental issues this spell has really sucked.
 
@spurspinter1
Firstly - thanks for taking the time to share (and to proof read!) all of that.
How do you feel after posting it?

I don't really have much practical advice other than I've been there in the "don't want to live but don't want to die" area. And it sucks.

I know it's obvious - but alcohol doesn't help. I no longer drink (mixed with my meds it sends me to sleep!!) and I've never felt more clear and consistent in my thoughts and emotions. I'm not it's the same for you, and our diagnosises (is that a word?!) are different - but might help?

I do also find fresh air to be helpful. We are what we consume (with the exception of the mental illness effects of course).

You said it's 30mins unpleasant walk to get anywhere nice. Could getting a bike be an option?

Anyway - big love.
You got this. Whatever this is.
COYS
 
Back