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[NT] NT Mental Health Thread

lunalum

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This is a general place to share your tips and what has worked for you when you are in a bad funk.

I've been having some fierce symptoms recently and meditation has been one of the only things that begin to touch on it at the worst times. I know that is a super general tip but I am hopeful that forcing attention on my body and the present and gaining control of my thoughts will help with the specific types of distress I tend to experience.

*None of this is medical or professional advice.*
 

Pionart

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I found meditation very beneficial.

There are different techniques, such as stilling one's thoughts, paying attention to the environment, repeating a mantra, focusing on a symbol, contemplating a koan/saying, and so on.

- not an NT, but INFJ with strong Ti, so honorary NT ^_^
 

Maou

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Doing chores, and focusing on what needs to be done physically. It helps with rumination, and anxiety. As well as rewarding, because your house is clean and there is always something to be done.

Meditation can help, but I prefer quiet walks. Keeping your blood flowing helps your mind become clearer. Hell, meditate while walking and take in the sites and sounds and be in the moment. Too many people think meditation is sitting on a pillow and going "ommmmmm" lol. There are several kinds. The emptying kind, the thinking kind, the guided kind, and self reflection kind.

I tend to reflect, a LOT. So walking and reflecting is a good calming ritual. I try to understand my feelings mostly, and have conversations with the different aspects of myself. Othertimes I daydream while walking, and that can be fun and stress relieving.
 

Mind Maverick

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My psychiatrist recommended finding distractions. It helps sometimes.

Note: This is for during highly emotional moments (episodes) or times when in somatic pain or feeling like harming myself.

Sometimes it's impossible to distract myself.
 

Totenkindly

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Sometimes it helps to focus on concrete sensory tasks to get out of my head, and just commit to putting in the life maintenance versus coasting along while my house and life details collapse due to negligence.

I dunno, it depends on the actual distress and what it's coming from. I definitely have stopped judging myself so rigorously -- my logic expects me to act like a machine and accurately all the time, but I'm just a person who is getting older, so I forget things, or I'm just overwhelmed, or I'm burned out, and beating myself up about it or harboring a lot of anxiety about things is not useful to my happiness or ability to function. I have to give myself some leeway to act less than efficiently.

Also have had to accept my feelings are not aliens assaulting me but part of who I am, providing me signals I need to parse as well as just being part of the experience of being alive. I can't disassociate from them, I have to accept them and process them somehow, and it's okay to feel things.

I'm still trying to figure out how much of connections I need to function. I want connections but don't feel like I usually have them nowadays, especially with the social distancing going on. It will probably always be a struggle, but it's worth having them if simply to feel that someone else is listening and also that you can stop focusing on your own burdens and help someone else bear up under theirs, among other reasons.

And that need to be mentally productive -- I tend to veer between the extremes. Sometimes distraction is necessary to keep your sanity, but it can also prevent you from doing things you really want to do, because it's the path of least resistance (play another game, watch another movie, etc.) So in that case, it's good just to shut it all down and stare at the blank page or whatever you want to work on, so you can focus and commit to just creating an artistic mess because that's how you get someplace new. Yet at the same time, it helps to jolt yourself out of mental ruts. I am trying to put on more music in the background, and go outside more with the weather improving, because the sensory impressions of moving through the world or listening / stirring up moods, other similar things, helps break any brain lock you might be experiencing.

I'm pretty sure I am experiencing some level of depression currently, but it's not really a med thing, I think it's mainly just about life in general and I'm tired and haven't been taking care of myself and my body as well as I should have. It's ironic because I used to get so intense about my depression in my 20's but now it's just old hat, I don't feel very intense about it and it doesn't signify as much to me. ("Oh. Hey. I guess I'm depressed again.") I've already made the decision countless times to keep living, so that is what I do, and it's just a state of mind / feeling I deal with without trying to give it too much credibility or emphasis.
 

ceecee

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I'm pretty sure I am experiencing some level of depression currently, but it's not really a med thing, I think it's mainly just about life in general and I'm tired and haven't been taking care of myself and my body as well as I should have.

This. I'm not having anxiety due to the state of things, more like a oh, more news from hellworld. Does that make sense? I watch zero news, which means zero Trump, little Twitter no FB. Mostly I gave up on TV and just watch You Tube and Netflix.

Mostly I've been reading when I have time. I grabbed every free book Haymarket Books had and the 50% off ones I wanted. Yoga first thing in the morning and last thing at night. My garden. Those seem to be working.
 

Totenkindly

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This. I'm not having anxiety due to the state of things, more like a oh, more news from hellworld. Does that make sense? I watch zero news, which means zero Trump, little Twitter no FB. Mostly I gave up on TV and just watch You Tube and Netflix.

I usually see headlines go past but I have really had to pull back from diving too deep because it's all so awful and ongoing. There is nothing I can do in general to change anything I read about, and I barely have enough sanity/energy to get through the day anymore between how exhausting work is plus being alone all the time now. Any contribution I make to things is essentially through my work for fedgov and it's draining me nowadays.

My eldest is reading a ton right now. he just blew through Lord of the Rings again (among other things, I think he's reading Rendezvous with Rama by Clarke right now and will probably read the Chronicles of Amber next, and he still wants to get Dune in before the film release. I'm considering reading instead of video at this point too.
 

soulsin

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This. I'm not having anxiety due to the state of things, more like a oh, more news from hellworld. Does that make sense? I watch zero news, which means zero Trump, little Twitter no FB. Mostly I gave up on TV and just watch You Tube and Netflix.

Mostly I've been reading when I have time. I grabbed every free book Haymarket Books had and the 50% off ones I wanted. Yoga first thing in the morning and last thing at night. My garden. Those seem to be working.

Same here. My TV is useless unless I am playing games because I only watch a certain channel on YouTube and I don't even watch Netflix. Something about movies and sitting still makes me uncomfortable. I feel like within that two hours, I can do something more constructive.

I am still on Twitter but I filter words so it doesn't appear.
 
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