RadicalDoubt
Alongside Questionable Clarity
- Joined
- Jun 27, 2017
- Messages
- 1,847
- MBTI Type
- TiSi
- Enneagram
- 9w1
- Instinctual Variant
- sp/so
I've been struggling with depression and anxiety for a good portion of my life. I think the key to handling poor mental health is having proper outlets. For me, I draw frequently (which helps to maintain focus and get out ideas which clog my mental space) and exercise (which is a great way to release anger and the energy/restlessness associated with anxiety and stress. Self analysis also helps on occasion, because if you can figure out some of the triggers for more worse depressive states or anxiety, you can work to minimize or avoid triggers. When I get particularly down or begin drowning in intrusive thoughts, sometimes I also find it helpful to go to sleep or just lay down in bed so I can restart the next day. Therapy also helped during the brief period of time I had access to one.
Also, as difficult as it sounds, pushing yourself to be active and talk to people (not necessarily about your depression/anxiety, I don't really do that at least) is really helpful. For some people, depression can lead to self-induced social isolation and, even for your most extreme introverts, this typically isn't healthy. By forcing yourself to do work, you feel less guilty for accomplishing the supposed nothing and by socializing, you are able to keep yourself from falling into inertia. This can prevent social phobias/human based exhaustion from getting worse. Also, some level of distraction doesn't hurt as long as you don't go to extremes and completely ignore your emotions (like I have unfortunately lol).
I have a lot of unhealthy coping mechanisms too that I'm still not sure how to mitigate, but being self aware (only in the sense of these mechanisms of course) can be helpful in minimizing them.
I don't personally have PTSD (or at least I hope I don't), but my mother did. For her, it was especially helpful to have an outlet/some person she was able to talk through her memories with. She also suffered from bad anxiety and depression, and I often found that her symptoms were mitigated when she spoke about her fears and paranoia and had someone to help her bounce around ideas and solve problems. This helped to prevent closing her mindset into a box and think through problems and fears semi-rationally (ie. Life is bad and can only get worse, what if I do this and then it has all these improbable consequences, all my abuse is my fault ect).
Also, as difficult as it sounds, pushing yourself to be active and talk to people (not necessarily about your depression/anxiety, I don't really do that at least) is really helpful. For some people, depression can lead to self-induced social isolation and, even for your most extreme introverts, this typically isn't healthy. By forcing yourself to do work, you feel less guilty for accomplishing the supposed nothing and by socializing, you are able to keep yourself from falling into inertia. This can prevent social phobias/human based exhaustion from getting worse. Also, some level of distraction doesn't hurt as long as you don't go to extremes and completely ignore your emotions (like I have unfortunately lol).
I have a lot of unhealthy coping mechanisms too that I'm still not sure how to mitigate, but being self aware (only in the sense of these mechanisms of course) can be helpful in minimizing them.
I don't personally have PTSD (or at least I hope I don't), but my mother did. For her, it was especially helpful to have an outlet/some person she was able to talk through her memories with. She also suffered from bad anxiety and depression, and I often found that her symptoms were mitigated when she spoke about her fears and paranoia and had someone to help her bounce around ideas and solve problems. This helped to prevent closing her mindset into a box and think through problems and fears semi-rationally (ie. Life is bad and can only get worse, what if I do this and then it has all these improbable consequences, all my abuse is my fault ect).
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