fit, need opinions on how to proceed...been struggling with mental health (depression + heavy social anxiety) all my life, but the past few years have been particularly bad. I’ve had ups and downs, but the overall trend has been pretty negative despite my life circumstances being pretty positive. I graduated college with no debt and went to work for a law firm, but my deteriorating mental health eventually forced me to move back in with my parents and work small jobs to pay for food. I’m reminded daily of how much im wasting my potential and what a shell of my former self I am…I feel apathetic, cognitively blunted, and anhedonic, experiencing a fraction of the pleasure I used to get from many of my main hobbies (lifting, music)
Anyways, I’m a bit split on what to do next. I feel like medication may be the responsible move….I took lexapro in the past and got an extremely strong initial benefit, but the benefits waned and the side effects increased, leading to me eventually stopping. Worse, I’ve suffered from permanent reduced sex drive as a result of the medication (however, this could also be a symptom of depression, so its hard to parse out cause and effect). This, along with seeing my dad’s permanent apathy and flat affect after years and years of antidepressant use make me scared to get back on them, but then there’s a part of me that feels this fear is childish and that if the side effects don’t get me, the depression will. I don’t want to waste my youth being paranoid about meds when they may be the lesser of two evils…
Anyone with experience have any advice?
Mental Health Medication Advice
The gut is a large part of mental stability and isn’t emphasized enough these days. 75% of serotonin is produced in the gut and almost all dopamine is produced by bacteria in the gut as well. It’s imoortant to keep it healthy by removing toxic foods like sugar and grains that will only stimulate bad bacterial growth and to feed it healthy products like raw milk and raw fermented dairy (if there is no casein intolerance), raw meat, raw eggs, and other options. Dr. Natasha Campbell-McBride talks a lot about this, pretty sure she coined the GAPS diet and has been able to aid a lot of people plagued by modern chronic illnesses with it.
this, almost everyone i've ever met with the severest case of neuroticism, borderline personality, had mad gut issues. same goes for a lot of people with bipolar disorder.
if you take anti-depressants, they should be on a 1 or 2 year course before reducing dosage and eventually stopping to see if things have evened out. if your doctor doesn't do this, or never suggested it, GET A NEW DOCTOR.
most importantly, get out and do stuff. you can't think or speak your way out of depression, action is key. move. do. create. just do something, anything other than think.
chronic use of neural pathways leads to inflammation which may be the primary cause of, or at least contribute to depression. stop thinking and act.
I don't think I have it near as bad as you, but I've also been going through a slightly negative mental decline even though I've been achieving more than I have in all my life. My problem is directly related to a woman though so it's different than your problems.
However, I would suggest going to therapy, which is what I'm going to do. I've always thought therapy is crap and only weak people need it but I just feel like I want to talk out what is bothering me and fix it. I've always been a fixer so for me it's natural to want to resolve a problem as quickly as I can. After some reading I came to the conclusion that cognitive behavioral therapy(CBT) is probably the best route to take. It's more focused on shifting what your CURRENT thoughts in the moment are to more positive, or at least more neutral, ones; learning how to manage stressful situations and disrupt the patterns we've developed that cause anxiety, OCD, depression, etc.
I see drugs as patching the symptoms but therapy as fixing the issue.
I have been eating WFPB for the past few years, and in my mind I eat a very healthy diet, but I would go back to animal products if it were necessary for my mental health. Do you think this is the case?
Appreciate it user, going to make an appt with a new shrink tomorrow. The screening process for new ones is always stressful, but i think youre right that long term benefits are worth it.
im definitely a victim of routine....it comforts me initially, but eventually i become trapped in it and breaking out causes anxiety. Will try to keep this in mind....thanks
not him but you could eat things like sauerkraut, kimchi, yogurt. All homemade if possible and that can promote good bacteria growth.
Original user here, kefir was pretty amazing for myself, that and plenty of sunlight
I also wanna add that I don’t think SSRIs should be used until one tries to completely revamp their lifestyles of sleep, eliminating blue light, and repairing the gut.
git gut
honestly depression is a meme, life is fuck, pissearth 2025, do whatever you want because nothing matters and the less you care the more free you are
fuck antidepressants. the only antidepressants worth trying are maois (aurorix/moclomebide) they work fast and they work good. Zyban is half decent. SSRIs are a chemical jew. How the fuck ssris are supposed to fix your brain chemistry?
>take a substance
>substances makes your brain have more neurotransmitters
>stop taking substance
>somehow your brain remembers it should have more neurotransmitters
yeah except it never works like that, use meds as drugs that are completely under your control and will. make them your little helpers in achieving your goals, want to be high? yeah sure I want to be high today I want to turn anxiety off so I can do X and Y, use them for something
t. 2 suicide attempts and one prison sentence behind me, happy and content but it took me 25 years to get there
how does one let go of old betrayals from other people? shit like that seems to stick with me for a long time.
sometimes when my mind wanders, I think about shit former close friends have done to me that, even if I look carefully and some of the stupid or inconsiderate things I've done, seem totally uncalled for. my mind spirals into a lot of negative directions, such as wishing for an apology, reminding myself that I likely will never get one, feeling that it's almost always me who goes out of my way to apologize for my wrongs, believing that there's something fundamentally wrong with my personality or behavior that causes me to be treated this way (but can't quite figure out what), etc. if I don't snap out of it quickly, it will ruin the rest of my day.
yeah, I can focus on where I fucked up, and I've been really working on that, but this stuff still comes back to bite me hard.
you need to sort that stuff out first. But if you sorted it out and it just keeps coming back ask yourself two simple questions.
It is happening now?
No?
Will it affect the future?
No?
Then move fuckin on, it doesnt matter.
I will quote elliot on this topic;
What is the opposite of depression? Expression.
I was severely depressed, suicidal, anxious, and borderline. In my opinion medication is never the best option. The only thing that got me out of that shitty mental state was reflecting upon my condition while meditating. You shouldn’t have to rely on anything or anyone other than yourself if you want to stay mentally healthy in the long run. Studying philosophy also helps.
A guy disrespected a girl I was seeing while out (made sexual comments about me and her) and basically made her extremely uncomfortable in front of
I did absolutely nothing about it
We broke up since and I'm over her (in hindsight she was horrible and definitely was putting herself around like she was available) but the feeling of not doing anything to that piece of shit still keeps me awake at night. It's not even about her, it's about this cunt thinking he could disrespect me and get away with it. I get extremely angry and feel like finding him and beating the living shit out of him, I fantasize about beating him into a coma
I decided to never let anyone disrespect me like that again, not worth the regret of taking the "high road". This was over a year ago and I'm usually a really calm guy, but thinking about it makes my blood boil even as I type this.
*In front of mutual friends of ours
I wasn't even there but she told me about it. Makes me sick thinking about it, he was basically saying shit like "oh does he like it when you bend over like that" and making comments about her giving me head, creepy fuck deserved a serious beating and I let it slide because he was drunk. Fuck I'm angry again
>We broke up since and I'm over her (in hindsight she was horrible and definitely was putting herself around like she was available) but the feeling of not doing anything to that piece of shit still keeps me awake at night. It's not even about her, it's about this cunt thinking he could disrespect me and get away with it. I get extremely angry and feel like finding him and beating the living shit out of him, I fantasize about beating him into a coma
fucking hell, now I'm raging for you. everything about that situation is fucked. I wish we lived in a machismo society so that people would understand that there's consequences to fucking with the wrong person. nowadays the only consequences most people have to live with are the possibility of the bullied misfit kid shooting up a school.
now I'm thinking about it, I've got tons of stories about my last ex too. tons of FUBAR situations like that. didn't even want to be in that relationship for most of that time, but I was afraid that she would kill herself if I left. eventually she went manic while doing a political campaign halfway across the country, found a guy, dumped me 3 days after, and got engaged a week after. total bloatlord now, apparently the suicide attempts are still ongoing from what I heard from mutual friends.
bipolar girls, not even once. rage fuel that could easily burn for 5 years per year of contact.
you broke up with her but you haven't moved on, that shit is dead and buried bro, but you gotta let go
My ex was definitely borderline
No lie after reading your post and remembering my own story I probably won't be able to sleep haha, too angry
Taught me a life lesson all the same: Nothing is worth your self respect. I was treating this guy like a bro just to fit in with a group of people I didn't even like. She was a manipulative cunt who should have been gone months beforehand. She was out at a party of one of her orbiters when this guy started saying all this creepy shit and a guy I thought was a friend of mine was laughing at it, too, a guy who I was living with for nearly a year and going to class with every day.
Learned from my mistake at least, they are all out of my life for good now.
Never stick your dick in crazy, no matter how hot she is
I don't want her back. Haven't ever since the shock wore off of me two weeks after and I realized just how fucked the whole situation was. I'm with people who bring me joy, people who make me want to be a better person so I can return the favor doubly so. I feel like I've "let" go.
Every once in a while though...
no more crazy ex-gf talk, Chad >:(
Talk about personal mental health, medicines and alternatives.
I'd prefer to still be a virgin than ever meeting that horrible cunt, hope she kills herself
hey user, OP here....hope it works out....not gonna spout that "were all gonna make it" bs, but just know that there almost certainly is a happier version of yourself somewhere in your future if you work for it
thanks both, will look into it....ive had gut issues in the past, but of late ive felt my gut health has been pretty decent. Its frustrating because it seems to fluctuate with no rhyme or reason, I've tried fermented foods in the past with not much luck. But ill give it a shot