The Mental Illness Thread

[Kitty Galore]

There still is stigma, but we are fighting it. There are some groups making strides. NAMI is a good place to get support.

I will start by telling you Saxmoof, that I understand, as well as someone could, I suppose. I am 30 years in, diagnosed early with depression, now it is severe recurrent depression, generalized anxiety disorder, and PTSD. I am not a vet. I think there are more.. meh... I go through periods that I am mindful and work on myself, but they are out balanced by my illness. I will say, my social life is with the people in my computer for the most part. Other than my family, and the love of my life. We help each other out. I used to have groups of friends but have slowly gotten to the point that keeping up on facebook is much more comfortable than seeing people in real life. As I get older I feel more insecure and awkward. Probably not supposed to be that way, so it makes me wonder if my illness is worsening. There are other reasons too, but I would rather not get into that here. My suicidal thoughts have waned though, and I use tools when I am feeling anxious, and that is a positive. I am on meds also, when I care enough to take them, or not  talking them for self sabotage.

I'm sceptical about therapy for the very depressed, like detailed above. CBT basically boils down to positive thinking, if you're as hopeless as I was that just feels pointless, and therapy can't work if you don't buy into it - it took me 6 years to feel like therapy was something that could help. And with severe social anxiety, you don't even want to leave the house let alone sit and talk to a stranger for an hour

^^ditto