Depression, anxiety, suicidalism and similar disorders, issues and troubles V5 - General

[QUOTE=LordyLord;52953800]any tips on grief or is it as simple as soldiering through the shit? my dad is really weak and sick, he's got a day or two left we think[/QUOTE] with my friend getting cancer and eventually succumbing I focused more on the good memories and times we had, and that he wasn't in any more pain. It's not fun, but I chose to remember being happy with him rather than grieving over the loss for too long

well last night he finally passed. right now i feel oddly fine, just in a weird surreal zone. ill keep all of your advice in mind though, and i did visit him every day for a while, said everything that could be said before he couldn't understand any more. but i am relieved. the worry that he is lying in bed, anxious and in denial of his condition, just scared, is gone. he's okay now.

[QUOTE=Xenophobia;52953907]This is probably going to sound bad, but if I'm on antidepressants, how safe is it do drink alcohol? I know it's probably a bad idea, but I'm not talking about emptying a bottle of pills and downing a bottle of vodka. If I'm taking one pill a day, and then want to drink a couple of beers with my friends one evening, I should be safe in the long run right? I don't really want to ask my doctor right now since I'm admitted to a psych ward, and I don't want to give them another reason to keep me here any longer.[/QUOTE] A glass of wine is good in general. Any time I have a chance I drink to relax a little from work or a difficulty I had in general. Please don't do something with pills and drinks without asking someone who have knowledge. [editline]7th December 2017[/editline] [QUOTE=RoboChimp;52954485]Hopefully I don't have nightmares tonight either. If I do I'll post about it.[/QUOTE] curious, the name of the movie you saw?

it's like my subconscious doesn't realize how much legitimate progress I've really made in the last two or so years I've been thinking a [I]lot[/I] about my life for almost three months now, and at this point I'm honestly quite confident that there's really no logical reason for me to be as depressed as I am with the progress I've made

[QUOTE=Xenophobia;52953907]This is probably going to sound bad, but if I'm on antidepressants, how safe is it do drink alcohol? I know it's probably a bad idea, but I'm not talking about emptying a bottle of pills and downing a bottle of vodka. If I'm taking one pill a day, and then want to drink a couple of beers with my friends one evening, I should be safe in the long run right? I don't really want to ask my doctor right now since I'm admitted to a psych ward, and I don't want to give them another reason to keep me here any longer.[/QUOTE] I think as long as you don't take the antidepressants [I]with[/I] alcohol you should be fine. I rarely ever drink unless it's a social situation, I'm not sure if drinking while on antidepressants does anything

[QUOTE=SweetShark;52954887]A glass of wine is good in general. Any time I have a chance I drink to relax a little from work or a difficulty I had in general. Please don't do something with pills and drinks without asking someone who have knowledge. [editline]7th December 2017[/editline] curious, the name of the movie you saw?[/QUOTE]If I mention it, I'll seem more weak minded than I already do.

Really fucking sorry if this isn't the right thread for this sort of thing, but here I go... I was hoping some of you could help me out with an appropriate way to support my gf. She lost her mother about half a year ago and her father's normally "too busy for her" in his words, it really fucked her up. I like to think we're on a path toward recovery, we've attended a few bar & bat mitzvahs that her extended family was holding so she was able to stay around family and talk to them. But still, she's having trouble with aggression towards other people, alcohol, and cocaine. The aggression part comes in with her being super protective of me, which I guess is understandable, we knew each other since around 2011 I'd say, but didn't actually get together until very recently. We're always hanging out but any time somebody looks at us funny she has an overwhelming urge to pick a fight with them. Alcohol's been a problem since her mom died, I knew her too before it happened, she was a wonderful woman. I like to think we've made significant progress in that since now she only drinks heavily when she's alone, which really isn't that often now. The really troubling thing to me is her cocaine addiction, I think it might be going hand-in-hand with her aggression. And on top of all that, she's been having a struggle of faith (is that the correct term for this) and has been considering renouncing her religion even though she's been a very avid Jew for years. But I think this all might be associated with the pain she's in from losing her mother. We're both 21 years old so it's a pretty early age to lose a parent at for a lot of people. She absolutely hates therapists because she sees them as scumbags who just use troubled people as a means to make money, but I'm having a lot of trouble helping her through the turmoil she's in, and I would hate to lose her to alcoholism or drug addiction. I'm not trying to sound entitled or anything, but if there is any advice you guys could offer to me I would really appreciate it.

[QUOTE=Xenophobia;52953907]This is probably going to sound bad, but if I'm on antidepressants, how safe is it do drink alcohol? I know it's probably a bad idea, but I'm not talking about emptying a bottle of pills and downing a bottle of vodka. If I'm taking one pill a day, and then want to drink a couple of beers with my friends one evening, I should be safe in the long run right? I don't really want to ask my doctor right now since I'm admitted to a psych ward, and I don't want to give them another reason to keep me here any longer.[/QUOTE] I've actually asked the same question from my therapist since I was also curious to know. It's not as good to take alcohol with antidepressents, since it's just like taking up to 4 times the amount of antidepressents. One beer isn't going to do much harm but more wouldn't be a good idea, especially something like vodka. For some reason I thought the SNRI I take would also interfere with alcohol but it turns out it isn't, which is good, since the doctor's plan is to reduce Xanax as much as possible, since I've started making quite a a lot of progress already. I'm already at half dosage now of 0,25mg, and in about a week to reduce it to another half. On another note my cat just died last night, it was all too sudden. Rest well little buddy, I'm going to miss you a lot. :(

Talked with my therapist yesterday. Told her about my plans and my crisis points at work. She gave me several suggestions to make the leap of moving out of state more comfortable. She seems to be on board with the idea. Right now, the biggest threat is myself trying to convince myself to not leap. The obvious thought I'm trying to stomp out is 'Work is going fine, why should I move?' when I know well enough things are not ok.

[QUOTE=PelPix123;52958762]My ex sent me current pictures of my house and his footprints were still outside when the police came. I'm fucked up.[/QUOTE] What's the context of your post? Who's he, why did the police come? Why's she sending you pictures of your house?

[QUOTE=PelPix123;52958787]We dated for a while until he went crazy and he's been harassing me for 2 years sending me and my family death and occasionally rape threats. Sometimes hundreds of emails and text messages a day, all on anonymizers services or throw away numbers. He said he was getting help for his mental illness but then he bragged about raping a girl at a con and bought a flight to my city, so I blocked him again and he came and took pictures of my house.[/QUOTE] Holy shit. I'm guessing you turned to the police then, from your first post. Hope they catch him and put him somewhere that he can't harass you from. """Mental illness""" is not even a shred of an excuse to act like he's acting.

If he's acting the way he is, the cops should definitely do more than just call him to tell him to fuck off. This is some extreme harassment and stalking. You shouldn't put up with it for even a second longer. Whatever he used to be like, he's not that person anymore. EDIT: don't get me wrong, I'm not doubting that he might suffer from mental illness. I do too, but it's no excuse for his behavior. Not even remotely. EDIT 2: ok let me clarify more lol, it could definitely be the [I]reason [/I]for his behavior. I wouldn't doubt that. I'm just going off on a tangent I guess, we're on the same page.

Can you get a restraint thing placed on him? deffo deffo deffo report it to the police, if he does show up somewhere then that'll be against his record and it can be used against him.

Sounds like someone that should not be on this forum.

[QUOTE=PelPix123;52959373]Now he's saying he's going to sue me for defamation for making these posts. I really wish he would just go to a hospital or something and not dig himself in deeper.[/QUOTE] I mean he can press charges, but I think the majority of people (the third-party in this case) don't know who the plaintiff is, and as such, it wouldn't hold up in court for defamation unless he can prove that the readers/third-party can make a reasonable estimation on who the writer is talking about, and the burden of proof is on the accuser, but this is just from what I understand, IANAL.

I certainly don't know who he is.

What helps you guys through depressive episodes? My gf has a therapist and has been diagnosed with depression and anxiety, so I have some experience seeing her go through episodes. This time though the stakes are a lot higher. It's finals week but every time I talk to her symptoms seem like they're getting worse as her finals approach. Most especially she always tells me that shes been sleeping too much aka multiple times a day. I'm just really concerned and feel like I could be doing a lot more to help her, but I'm not sure how.

I am a horrible person that goes out of my way to make peoples' lives worse why am I still alive oh yeah it's because I'm a cowardly faggot-ass piece of shit that's afraid of dying for some stupid-ass reason i should off myself like the worthless piece of garbage that I am i'm not a girl I'm just a disgusting delusional piece of shit dude

[QUOTE=AtomicSans;52960147]I am a horrible person that goes out of my way to make peoples' lives worse why am I still alive oh yeah it's because I'm a cowardly faggot-ass piece of shit that's afraid of dying for some stupid-ass reason i should off myself like the worthless piece of garbage that I am i'm not a girl I'm just a disgusting delusional piece of shit dude[/QUOTE] I'm a bit confused by the last sentence, but I am new to this thread, so I may have missed something. Why would people think you were not a dude? Not wanting to die is basic human instinct. Even when I have tried to end my life before, it is a scary experience- it doesn't make you cowardly, just human. What do you mean when you say you go out of your way to make people's lives worse? I hope you feel a little better soon, but I confess there is not much I can tell you without understanding the context of your post a little better.

[QUOTE=titopei;52960130]What helps you guys through depressive episodes? My gf has a therapist and has been diagnosed with depression and anxiety, so I have some experience seeing her go through episodes. This time though the stakes are a lot higher. It's finals week but every time I talk to her symptoms seem like they're getting worse as her finals approach. Most especially she always tells me that shes been sleeping too much aka multiple times a day. I'm just really concerned and feel like I could be doing a lot more to help her, but I'm not sure how.[/QUOTE] The things that help me (or others) may not help her, so to figure out what helps her is just something you'll probably need to feel out in time, personally when I'm having a bad day the biggest things for me are music, talking to someone who understands anxiety/depression, talking to someone who listens and responds, and talking to someone who will tell me that everything will be ok/what I feel is valid/and that they are & always will be there for me. I also find that trying to generally avoid the topic that is making me uncomfortable during conversations is better, because when I find myself talking about what is making me uncomfortable, I usually lead into self-destructive thoughts (I'm selfish, I'm useless, I'm going to fail, etc, etc) which can lead into self-destructive habits (self-harm to feel like I have control of my life, or the things going on around me). However, as I said, this is like everything in life and is different from person to person, so some people might like talking about the thing that bothers them, and may end up asking for help/advice on how to tackle the issue, while others may simply want to be alone and avoid those thoughts as they can be "trigger" thoughts.

Anyone else here who has dealt with the stresses of welfare and its demands? Since September, my mental health has dropped rapidly to the point where I've been unable to work. My caseworker has as a result gotten frustrated herself since I've gone from not being able to work, to being able to work 40% and now I'm back to not being able to work. She's a lot more pushy now since she has seen me work before and I don't know what to do about it. The demands that welfare puts on me is actively contributing with increasing stress and further pushing me down this dark spiral. At the start, I was able to do it at my pace since my history at the time allowed it (hospitalized, psychosis, major depression, GAD & SAD). I felt like I was able to make real progress since I didn't have to worry about rushing anything. Now it's a completely different story where I feel both rushed and very stressed. I never feel relaxed anymore because of this pressure and its making everything worse. Instead of spending my energy on actively improving my situation, its instead used to worry about my situation. Everyone who is currently in my "team" (psychologist, welfare caseworker, general social worker) are all pushing towards that. I understand why, but at the same time it makes the pressure just so much worse. I don't feel like I can talk to any one of them about this either since I don't feel like they're on my side. Which is even more added stress. I feel stuck in a literal sense. My mental health is too poor to sustain myself through work so welfare is the only solution right now. At the same time, welfare is currently a massive contributor to why my mental health isn't improving because of all the worrying and demands. The people who are supposed to help me are also making me feel worse since I feel like they're all pushing and trying to rush me, so I don't feel like they're on my side at all. So what do I do then? All the things that are supposed to support me and help me are making it all worse.

Lost my job, im done

Can anyone here on antidepressants tell me how well they work? I'm really stubborn and my life has been falling apart these last 6 years but now I'm finally going to make an appointment with a psychiatrist on Monday. I know talking won't help and I'm hoping that medication can at least get me out of bed in the morning

[QUOTE=Funion;52963635]Can anyone here on antidepressants tell me how well they work? I'm really stubborn and my life has been falling apart these last 6 years but now I'm finally going to make an appointment with a psychiatrist on Monday. I know talking won't help and I'm hoping that medication can at least get me out of bed in the morning[/QUOTE] They're really different from person to person, but the general idea is that serotonin is the hormone that affects mood and they try to raise the amount that you have in your body, that's a super simplified version of it and there's lots of different types of SSRIs (SNRIs, TCAs, MAOIs, etc), my personal experience with them has been that they're ineffective and I've been on all of the popular ones like Venlafaxine, Escitalopram, Citalopram, Bupropion, etc. but of course YMMV.

[QUOTE=Reyjr43;52963641]They're really different from person to person, but the general idea is that serotonin is the hormone that affects mood and they try to raise the amount that you have in your body, that's a super simplified version of it and there's lots of different types of SSRIs (SNRIs, TCAs, MAOIs, etc), my personal experience with them has been that they're ineffective and I've been on all of the popular ones like Venlafaxine, Escitalopram, Citalopram, Bupropion, etc. but of course YMMV.[/QUOTE] I also find them ineffective, but many find them useful. Serotonin is a neurotransmitter, btw, not a hormone, although I am just being pedantic. My recommendation for the most successful antidepressant is mirtazepine. For a start, coming off of it does not cause withdrawal "brain zaps." It is also one of the most efficacious antidepressantls in double blind studies (although Tricyclic Antidepressants can be better for many) and is also very useful for getting to sleep if you suffer from insomnia. Finally, mirtazepine increases appetite due to being, unusually, a serotonin antagonist, not agonist, so can be good if your depression makes you eat less. Don't take mirtazepine if you suffer from seizures though - 5-HT2c antagonism reduces seizure threshold and should not be combined with drugs like tramadol either. Whichever antidepressant you do take, assuming it is not an NDRI (which are rare), you should understand that it will both limit your negative and positive emotions, effectively reducing the overall variability of your moods. If you take an SSRI, also bear in mind that it takes about 4 weeks for the effects to be felt.

[QUOTE=Dan The Man;52963729]... Whichever antidepressant you do take, assuming it is not an NDRI (which are rare), you should understand that it will both limit your negative and positive emotions, effectively reducing the overall variability of your moods. If you take an SSRI, also bear in mind that it takes about 4 weeks for the effects to be felt.[/QUOTE] You're right, I made a mistake, but what I said is (for the most part) correct and also very simplified, as for NDRIs being rare, it depends on where you live, they put me on Bupropion & Escitalopram at the same time and that was my second anti-depressant, so it really varies depending on doctor, location, and patient, but NDRIs (the most popular being Bupropion) are known to raise the amount of epileptic seizures a patient can suffer from, among other things, Bupropion overdose can also be very dangerous as 1/3rd of the people involved in ODs on it suffer from a seizure, which is why they took me off of it (suicidal tendencies & it being ineffective), as for Mirtazapine and Tramadol, wasn't there a case about that in the USA where a person died after being administered Tramadol along with it and that's why you can't work a shift for more than 24 hours in a hospital at a time now? I found that anti-depressants made me feel less emotion, as Dan The Man pointed out, but the "lost" emotions tend to get bottled up and all explode out at once in a fit of crying and hopelessness (so my depression was overall much duller, but it'd all come flooding back at once and hit me really hard), every anti-depressant I was on acted this way, which resulted in them being generally ineffective for me. I wouldn't recommend Effexor/Venlafaxine personally because the half-life is super low, so if you forget to take your dosage for one day, you'll start getting brain zaps, you'll feel noticeably more fatigued, dizzy, nauseous, and etc. however, if your doctor recommends that you try it, I am by no means a doctor and you should listen to them over me.

[QUOTE=Reyjr43;52963784]You're right, I made a mistake, but what I said is (for the most part) correct and also very simplified, as for NDRIs being rare, it depends on where you live, they put me on Bupropion & Escitalopram at the same time and that was my second anti-depressant, so it really varies depending on doctor, location, and patient, but NDRIs (the most popular being Bupropion) are known to raise the amount of epileptic seizures a patient can suffer from, among other things, Bupropion overdose can also be very dangerous as 1/3rd of the people involved in ODs on it suffer from a seizure, which is why they took me off of it (suicidal tendencies & it being ineffective), as for Mirtazapine and Tramadol, wasn't there a case about that in the USA where a person died after being administered Tramadol along with it and that's why you can't work a shift for more than 24 hours in a hospital at a time now? I found that anti-depressants made me feel less emotion, as Dan The Man pointed out, but the "lost" emotions tend to get bottled up and all explode out at once in a fit of crying and hopelessness (so my depression was overall much duller, but it'd all come flooding back at once and hit me really hard), every anti-depressant I was on acted this way, which resulted in them being generally ineffective for me. I wouldn't recommend Effexor/Venlafaxine personally because the half-life is super low, so if you forget to take your dosage for one day, you'll start getting brain zaps, you'll feel noticeably more fatigued, dizzy, nauseous, and etc. however, if your doctor recommends that you try it, I am by no means a doctor and you should listen to them over me.[/QUOTE] Oh, I was just mentioning the classification for clarity - your post overall was totally correct and would be useful to everyone. I just find pharmacology interesting, so I like to explain things when I can. Do you have ADHD, by any chance? I ask, because that is often one of the reasons that Bupropion is used, even if the patient doesn't suffer from depression as well. I ask because I am currently in the process of being diagnosed with ADHD, and if they are unsure about trying me on methylphenidate, I may ask about another DRI that has less abuse potential. I don't think I had heard about the case you mentioned involving the fatal seizure, but it makes perfect sense. I remember that a friend of mine had some Tramadol, and I took 250mg, me being a very experienced psychonaut, but didn't consider the receptor activity of mirtazepine as I had always made the assumption that, like most antidepressants, it was a serotonin agonist. I didn't actually seize, but my entire body felt like it was ready to seize any moment, and it was a very distinctive feeling, bearing in mind that I have never had a petite or grand mal seizure to go on. I agree regarding Effexor. I have only heard bad things about it myself. I have tried sertraline, fluoxetine, duloxetine and mirtazepine, and whilst I no longer take any of them, due to them not being effective in my case, I do think it is worth asking the doctor about mirtazepine. You could also ask about fluoxetine, if you can't take mirtazepine for ant reason, as it has a long half life, such that it won't be as hard to withdraw from. Obviously I echo Reyjr's advice about just seeing what the doctor thinks though. :) One last thing that I should have written in the last post is that all antidepressants, but especially SSRIs, can cause an increased level of suicidal ideation in people. That's why many effective antidepressants such as MAOIs and TCAs are used sparingly now, as unlike most SSRIs, they are highly dangerous in overdose. PS: I doubt you take drugs, but bear in mind that certain antidepressants can make drugs like MDMA (Ecstasy) dangerous, or at the very least, ineffective.

[QUOTE=Dan The Man;52963812] Do you have ADHD, by any chance? I ask, because that is often one of the reasons that Bupropion is used, even if the patient doesn't suffer from depression as well. I ask because I am currently in the process of being diagnosed with ADHD, and if they are unsure about trying me on methylphenidate, I may ask about another DRI that has less abuse potential.[/QUOTE] As far as I am aware, I don't have ADHD, but I do have borderline personality disorder (which I've been on a million anti-psychotics for and they do nothing as well), generalized anxiety disorder, and major depressive disorder. They put me on Bupropion and Escitalopram at the same time because I complained that Escitalopram made me feel like a robot, and very apathetic toward everything in life when I used to worry constantly about everything, I went from worrying to not caring about anything at all, then they put me on Bupropion to see if that'd help reverse what Escitalopram did, and it didn't do anything so they put me on Venlafaxine and Aripiprazole, neither of which do anything either. I think it might have been a special case for me, but a lot of the people I've met who have similar things to me have all been put on NDRIs at one point in their life. Also: [url]https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Libby_Zion_Law[/url] This is what I was talking about, it turns out to have been serotonin syndrome related and not related to a seizure, but it is relevant to what we were talking about. Serotonin syndrome is also incredibly dangerous, as noted, so avoid drugs that can cause a spike in your serotonin levels, which things like MDMA can do.