Anxiety - Depression Advice Please

[Kimmi Zehetbauer]

Adding....

Avoid any meds if possible.  Some pills like Cymbalta and others are heavily marketed to get people to ask their doctors to dispense them.  If possible seek out a local therapist and talk to him/her to see if they help.   Sometimes it might take shopping a few to find the right match. 

If the therapist offers EMDR (Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing) for some that helps. Although originally the therapist would move his/her hands back and forth -- now many use a little box with a pair of pulsars (Tappers) you set beside you.   There are some other suggestions posted here. 

For some music might help out and SL is great for that. Log in and find a club with live music and relax.

[Kathlen Onyx]

30 minutes ago, Kimmi Zehetbauer said:

Adding....

Avoid any meds if possible. 

Such bad advice....

[Kimmi Zehetbauer]

6 minutes ago, Sam1 Bellisserian said:

Such bad advice....

I put that since one of my cousins took one of those depression meds and made her worse. She bowed to the doctor who was pushing it since pharma was pushing it.

[Rowan Amore]

2 hours ago, Madelaine McMasters said:

So have placebos and even known placebos...
https://www.nih.gov/news-events/nih-research-matters/placebo-effect-depression-treatment

I'm quite sure they do.  The OP has tried all manner of things.  Acupuncture is just another avenue to explore aside from medication.  It worked great for my sister's migraines.  Ancient Chinese secret?

ETA...nvm, that was Calgon.  🙂

Edited May 22, 2022 by Rowan Amore

[WereBeast Alpha]

I do these steps when my Anxiety acts up with the help of my therapist I see weekly but as well do these to help me feel better.

1.) Take deep breaths, focus on one object and breathing.

2.) Journaling, This helps me get out my feelings and I make time for it in my routine.

3.) have a routine, Get up exercise, do laundry, clean etc. Sitting in one spot doesn't help me when my anxiety and depression acts up. On Rainy days its a bit more difficult to get out but I have a workout setting for my small place in RL to help. I even eat a lot more healthier now which helps me.

4.) Take your medication and follow the guidelines for your meds your doctor prescribes. Please do for anything medication or therapy seek a real life doctor.

I hope this helps you out.

[Akane Nacht]

9 hours ago, Sam1 Bellisserian said:

 Just because it's natural doesn't mean it's safe including marijuana.  

Not to mention we have no idea where the OP lives and such drugs are illegal in some countries 😛

[Coffee Pancake]

2 hours ago, Kimmi Zehetbauer said:

Adding....

Avoid any meds if possible.

I've been on dozens of different medications over the years.

Some just didn't agree with me, some I only got side effects (or the side effects ramped up faster than the benefits), some did nothing at all, and some really helped. Personally I find it helpful to have a couple of known good medications that I can flip between, but its an ongoing struggle.

Finding the right meds can be a challenge. The same pill can work wonders on one person and be junk for the next. There is a genetic component and the brain is deeply complex. While DNA testing is starting to come online, it's slow and expensive. The doc will likely just give you whatever is doing the best for most of their patients at that time, and most of the time for most people, that's not a bad recommendation.

Right now, I'm finally off everything and actually doing pretty good. My anxiety is manageable and depression is off on holiday someplace, I hope it's having fun.

There is no chance I could have gotten to this point without long term medication and working out what worked and what didn't.

 

Do not, under any circumstances, go with a blanket avoidance of medication for "reasons". While it can be a bumpy ride, it really can make the difference between surviving and not. 

Depression isn't some nebulous vague sadness than can be tricked away with routine, habits or positive thinking.

Depression is a very real illness that can easily and rapidly cascade into suicide. 

I have lost too many friends over the years, some of them thanks to people who didn't believe depression is real or who decided getting them off their medication and away from care and "big pharma" was the best option.

If you suffer from depression, seek professional medical involvement. If you don't and you have a depressed friend or loved one, keep them engaged with professional services, by all means help them get better care, but don't for one second think your touchy feely google church denial and knowing best is doing them any good, if anything you're increasing the chances of losing them forever. 

 

"They were fine this morning, I though they were doing better, I don't understand it, they told me they were fine." and now they're dead.

[Ceka Cianci]

5 hours ago, Madelaine McMasters said:

A typical cigarette contains ~10mg of nicotine, of which ~1-2mg makes it into the bloodstream upon smoking. Eggplant contains ~100ng/g. So, to get 1mg of nicotine from eggplants, you'd have to eat 1mg/100ng or 10,000g. That's 22 pounds. You'd have to eat ~150 lbs of taters or ~300 lbs of maters to get one cigarette's worth of nicotine.

You'd probably couldn't eat enough nicotine laden veggies in a day to match what you'd get from second hand smoke.

Even thinking about eating that much food would probably cause far more anxiety than the nicotine could counter.

Ya I'm aware of  there not being as much in those and many others compared to what is in a cigarette.. But I was just meaning you can get nicotine from other sources in the nightshade family other than from cigarettes.

The naming veggies part of my post was actually meant to be kind of silly, which I guess nobody caught, with the internet peener eggplant thing.. hehehehe

It was more of, you can look to other sources besides cigarettes to find nicotine, kind of post. Not something where i was really diving in to say, use these.. hehehe

Powerful wise, there is Nicotiana rustica  which is also known as Wild tobacco/ Native tobacco/Aztec tobacco, which is like 3 times or more powerful than Nicotiana tabacum, the tobacco  plant used to make cigarettes.

Wild tobacco is used in more ways to Sunday with never having to smoke it, for many things and a much better source for nicotine than the  tobacco used for cigarettes you get from a gas station or where ever..

Years ago I was looking up sources with some friends that owned a vape shop,back when the FDA was going after the vape industry.. So it's not all fresh in my mind.. hehehe

 

 

 

 

 

[Madelaine McMasters]

33 minutes ago, Ceka Cianci said:

Ya I'm aware of  there not being as much in those and many others compared to what is in a cigarette.. But I was just meaning you can get nicotine from other sources in the nightshade family other than from cigarettes.

You know me, Ceka. The moment you mentioned "amount" you hadda know I might give you the numbers.

[rasterscan]

Being at the bottom of the pit of depression is a god awful place. Those who have never suffered a bout of depression pouring out their bile and spite filled solutions wont help. Step 1. You know your'e in the pit of despair. This means you are looking for a solution, an escape from your dilemma, a way to climb out of the pit. That is healthier than you will realise right now and brings hope which will help you to survive.

Crawling out of my own pit of despair was hard as hell. It involved giving up every friend, every habit, and my home, moving away and living alone  while I cataloged the state I was in mentally. After 3 months of that, which was possibly even harder than the depression itself, I began to formulate ways forward involving things I wanted to do for me. I propbably eventually crawled out of my pit of despair much more selfish than I was before, but that has stood me in good stead ever since.

[Ceka Cianci]

3 hours ago, Madelaine McMasters said:

You know me, Ceka. The moment you mentioned "amount" you hadda know I might give you the numbers.

I don't usually think about that when shooting from the hip like I do a lot of the time.. hehehe

[Aiyumei]

One way to battle anxiety and depression, at least it works for me, is to exercise regularly and find hobbies that motivate you to think get better. 

In case of exercise, doing regular high-intensity or exercises suitable for your current physique(don't over do it at first) are proven all-natural treatment against depression and anxiety as it starts a biological cascade of events that results in health benefits whether they are physical or mental. Regular exercises cause the body to release endorphins which can boost your mood and all natural pain relievers - ideal for battling the symptoms of anxiety and depression.  

[Luna Bliss]

5 hours ago, Ceka Cianci said:

But I was just meaning you can get nicotine from other sources in the nightshade family other than from cigarettes.

I thought at first in mentioning those vast amounts of veggies Maddy was just talking about one of your super-shakes...🤣

[Luna Bliss]

On 5/20/2022 at 11:03 PM, DarkKinGdom said:

So here I am on this forum asking if anyone here can help me find a better way to treat this. 

It's common for people to be misdiagnosed with clinical depression. Have you considered getting a second opinion?  It's not unusual for people to see many therapists before finding one that fits or understands their condition. Diagnostic categories change all the time, too, and some therapists might not be aware of the most current knowledge.

[Luna Bliss]

4 hours ago, rasterscan said:

Crawling out of my own pit of despair was hard as hell. It involved giving up every friend, every habit, and my home, moving away and living alone  while I cataloged the state I was in mentally. After 3 months of that, which was possibly even harder than the depression itself, I began to formulate ways forward involving things I wanted to do for me. I propbably eventually crawled out of my pit of despair much more selfish than I was before, but that has stood me in good stead ever since.

That sounds like a real dark night of the soul.  I'm glad you were able to climb out of it.

[Luna Bliss]

https://blog.virtualability.org/

[Rat Luv]

These are just suggestions that worked for me…bear in mind I am not qualified and can’t guarantee they will work for everyone! And I never had major depression. But I hope one or two help

*  Make a list of everything you’re unhappy about. Then go through each item and think about whether you can change it. I was insecure about 1) some pigmentation on my skin (still am, a bit) and my body 2) always procrastinating about paying bills or opening official documents. So, I can’t change my skin, unless I pay thousands to some cosmetic surgeon, and it was silly to worry about one person saying I “have no butt” years ago in school, and nobody’s 100% happy with the way they look - but I decided my fear of bills could be fixed. So now I try to deal with anything official as early as possible in the day, so I can enjoy the afternoon watching YT videos and reading, and being a lazy cow 🐮

* Imagine your anxiety is a big mass of horrible bugs, crawling all over your body…so take a shower and imagine the water’s blasting them off and down the plughole. When you come out of the shower, you’re fresh and clean to start over! 🙂

* Try to learn a new language, or how to play poker, or a new recipe, or magic tricks, or things you didn't know about history and current affairs, or how to script on SL 😮 I always find that the effort of learning something new occupies my brain and I forget about the other things bugging me. Also, being able to speak a sentence in a new language, even if it’s just “My cat will order the shrimp, please”, gives you a high!

* What @Ceka Cianci and @Aiyumei said is very true – diet has a huge influence on your mood! You don’t have to eat salad forever…you can make healthy curries and stews at home that taste DE-LISH   Also, exercise is good, even if it’s just moving around a little. During the lockdowns, I know I got maudlin on days I was just sitting around…but jumping on my exercise bike made me feel great. Oh and don’t smoke, I have no idea why people are talking about nicotine! 👎 And avoid energy drinks...

[Rat Luv]

By the way, let's all nag @Ceka Cianci to make her smoothie recipes thread 

[Luna Bliss]

14 minutes ago, Rat Luv said:

By the way, let's all nag @Ceka Cianci to make her smoothie recipes thread 

Totally agree!  She did give us a few recipes but I want MOAR   

[Krystina Ferraris]

1 hour ago, Rat Luv said:

Oh and don’t smoke, I have no idea why people are talking about nicotine! 👎 And avoid energy drinks...

I never smoked either but from a pure medical perspective I can summarise it as this… we and other animals have nicotine receptors in our brains, these are called nAchRs. Nicotine modulates stress response, anxiety and depression in the normal brain. So nicotine intake releases dopamine and that results in alterations of anxiety and mood (makes someone feel better and less stressed).  It is actually the beta2 AChR that affects mood: inhibition of B2AChR relieves anxiety (anxiolytic effect) while stimulation of the same triggers anxiety (anxiogenic effect).

 

[Krystina Ferraris]

To the OP… if you are feeling this down please please go see a medical professional, any professional available, who can direct you to the best facility available near you to provide help. Over the counter advice helps with colds and insect stings not with someone’s mental health.

[Luna Bliss]

8 minutes ago, Krystina Ferraris said:

I never smoked either but from a pure medical perspective I can summarise it as this… we and other animals have nicotine receptors in our brains, these are called nAchRs. Nicotine modulates stress response, anxiety and depression in the normal brain. So nicotine intake releases dopamine and that results in alterations of anxiety and mood (makes someone feel better and less stressed).  It is actually the beta2 AChR that affects mood: inhibition of B2AChR relieves anxiety (anxiolytic effect) while stimulation of the same triggers anxiety (anxiogenic effect).

 

Very interesting...I didn't know there was such a biological component to the relaxing aspects of smoking, though knew it was considered physically addictive.

[Luna Bliss]

4 minutes ago, Krystina Ferraris said:

To the OP… if you are feeling this down please please go see a medical professional, any professional available, who can direct you to the best facility available near you to provide help. Over the counter advice helps with colds and insect stings not with someone’s mental health.

She said she is seeing a medical professional and it's not helping though.

All the techniques the forum peeps are presenting can help with situational depression, but not likely to help with clinical depression, or at most a temporary lessening of symptoms could occur.

We don't know, as she didn't state, which kind of depression she was diagnosed with.

[Krystina Ferraris]

8 minutes ago, Luna Bliss said:

Very interesting...I didn't know there was such a biological component to the relaxing aspects of smoking, though knew it was considered physically addictive.

Oh yes it’s pure biochemistry 😀

[Krystina Ferraris]

10 minutes ago, Luna Bliss said:

She said she is seeing a medical professional and it's not helping though.

All the techniques the forum peeps are presenting can help with situational depression, but not likely to help with clinical depression, or at most a temporary lessening of symptoms could occur.

We don't know, as she didn't state, which kind of depression she was diagnosed with.

By all means, meditation and complementary therapies can and do help, and I would always advise to seek qualified complementary therapists for advice on what suits their condition. I use complementary medicine on animals and I am a strong advocate for complementary therapies. 
It’s just that I worry when people might decide to try herbal remedies or just go off meds without checking with their doctor first as some remedies can interact with prescription drugs quite badly.

Edited May 22, 2022 by Krystina Ferraris