re: For those suffering from mental illness: (Long Post)

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A few inexpensive dietary supplements later and it was like a light switch was turned on. Downright amazing.

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Do you know what they were??? I have B-Right by Jarrow ... it's got Folate in 6S form (am I writing this correctly???).

My homocysteine levels were >17 and came down with this but I got off track and shame on me quit taking it. Need to start again -- I often feel completely like falling apart and that I need counseling and then well, I just never make the appointment. Maybe all I need is to take these supplements faithfully.

eta: my bloodwork is scheduled for next week for a follow up. Homocysteine, thyroid, hormones, you name it and they're checking it.

I’m actually pretty riddled with some negative mental/emotional stuff today, like 7/10. Trying to take my own advice given in the first reply in this thread. When you’re in it, better seems pretty far away.

But I know things can turn around for the better pretty quickly because I’ve lived it too many times to ignore. Or maybe I’m supposed to go through this for some reason and an easy-out isn’t what I really need.

I wonder if there is any correlation between mental illness and the decline of work/life balance?

I don’t know if it’s mental illness, but I’ve been extremely depressed since losing my parents. I’ve had to be the rock for my older sisters...but I’m cracking.

This place has literally saved me....the craziness and humor have kept me laughing when I’ve felt like crying.

Just a psa to you baws & gals on SSRIs, be careful with supplements which increase serotonin levels. Particularly St John’s wart.

Serotonin syndrome (too much serotonin) can be deadly.

I really appreciate your comment. Means a lot!

Just binge drink when I'm not working. Not the best solution, but frick it.

Thanks...I really appreciate it. My mom died from Alzheimers and now my oldest sister has it and it’s really rough.

Just wanted to thank y’all for really giving me some laughter in my life.

I’ve suffered from depression and crippling anxiety, and I suspect I suffer from mental illness but to really nothing I can concretely say. Here’s what helped me the most aside from therapy: work out, baby. It gets positive emotions flowing and it’s good to look in the mirror and think to yourself “If you were gay, you would definitely frick yourself.” Maybe that ties into my mental illness, but it’s much better than looking into the mirror intensely loathing yourself and knowing you’ll be alone forever being a worthless piece of shite.

Seriously hit the gyms not the meds unless you have no other choice. The meds fricked my world up, but I’ve never heard of anyone saying hitting up the gym 4 times a week did the same.

Been wanting to respond to this post for a couple of days but haven't had a chance to sit down and write out what I wanted to say.

Even keeping it short it's TL;DR but for 33 years I was the least stressed and probably one of the happiest people I knew. Had an ideal upbringing, have a great life, great family, friends, low stress job etc...

After having kids I had a couple of weird instances where I had some health anxiety issues but after seeing a Dr. and being told I was fine I got over it right away.

2 years ago though after reading an article about a brain eating amoeba that you get from fresh water shooting up your nose I was at a family reunion at the lake, went down a slip and slide and got a nose full of nasty lake water up my nose. I immediately convinced myself I was dying and even after I knew I was fine I couldn't get over it. Couldn't stop thinking about it and worrying about dying young and leaving my two young kids fatherless. Over the next 3 months or so it plunged me into a total depression and I ended up in a pretty bad place.

I got on meds and things got better for almost 2 years and I thought it was just a fluke and everything was back to normal forever, started getting off my meds and things were fine for a while but about 4 months ago some of those depressed feelings came back. Since then it's been up and down I've started seeing a therapist, psychiatrist, got back on meds etc...

Where I'm at now is that I feel pretty good but still struggle to not think about the way I'm feeling, or worrying it will come back tomorrow or next week or next month etc...

However, all that is to say my focus has shifted to realizing and accepting this may be something I have to deal with forever. One of the primary ways I've dealt with it is changing my perspective on life. I've become much more empathetic, made much more of an effort to be a better person, father, husband, son, friend etc..., and made an effort to get my relationship with God back where it needs to be. I've always been a Christian but everything always came so easy I mistakenly believed I had this life thing all figured out and was outwardly kind and nice but inside I was selfish, prideful, and arrogant.

I hope to use my situation to help others and if there is anybody here struggling, for any reason but especially if you just don't know why... if there is anything I can do to help please let me know. I know "thoughts and prayers" is kind of a frowned upon phrase these days in some circles but I truly believe and have felt it make a difference whether it's for spiritual reasons or if nothing else just to know someone cares.

I know the struggle and I love all you guys and hope we all find a way to move past this crap permanently. God bless