re: Pondering Life With My Situation

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You have no idea how much better you can feel until you shed the excess fat, eat healthy, and work on your strength.

And what does “my desired weight range for my height” mean? Because it implies the typical “BMI doesn’t apply me” thinking we see on the OT.

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That's not necessary what I meant, my apologies. I meant I know I need to get to a BMI that indicates I'm at a weight appropriate for my age range. I know that currently I'm not and I need to get back to that.

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Long time lurker, but I registered to reply.

Don't give up! If you have nothing to live for, live for others. You talk about being lonely, there are many kids who feel the same. Mentor them. Guide them. Help them find their way.

If you feel that path isn't for you, just live and give. Live through Him and doors will open.

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Thank you for the well wishes, from one lurker to another. I've lurked on here for awhile and decided to start posting again recently.

Thank you all for the advice so far. I truly am printing and writing down all of the advice. I do feel like there's more hope for me than when I started this thread so there's some hope. :)

Coastal, there are a lot of us that post on this board with a heck of a lot worse conditions than you are describing. It is obvious to me that you are suffering from depression and if that is the med that you are not taking, you need to tighten up.

Otherwise, you have to understand that as you age, you will invariably get health issues and some of them will be chronic conditions. Through posting on this board, I’ve found that everyone else has these health issues too…and some are living with some damn bad stuff.

Put a woman on the payroll that will tell you everything you want to hear. Eventually, you'll believe it.

“mental health is commonly tied to physical health“

This is wrong.

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Who is going to want to marry a guy who has medical problems like me?

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My cousin just got married. He has had 3 heart attacks and at least 3 back surgeries. His blood pressure and cholesterol are through the roof. He has rheumatoid arthritis and lives on disability. If he can get married, you can too.

You should take up rock climbing. I’m serious. All it is…is a fight against death. But it’s beautiful and painful and real. It’s really good to struggle externally…it’s all a reflection of how you really don’t want to give up.

And if you do, just start crying…at least you’ll know to quit working and just cash it all in. Go to an island and drink yourself to death.

Friend,

You sound like you have the blues. And it is good to talk about the blues when they get you down. I am honored you would share your feelings with me.

Know, dear friend, that there are plenty of ladies out there who have the same self doubts. "Why would anyone want to date, love, and marry me?" Whether they suffer from depression, obesity, guilt from past mistakes, self-doubt is part of the human condition for many. And for some, it is crippling. Seek God, the God who he tells us, "Get up and walk." Do not let your self-doubts cripple you. Get up. Walk.

Speaking of walking, go for a walk. There are few things so relaxing, so centering, so natural as is taking a good long walk. It does not have to be rigorous. It does not have to be in a national park or a town. It can be anywhere. Start walking and lose your worries along the way, casting them to the left and right. The longer the walk, the more the worries seem to drop as a large bowel movement after a week's worth of constipation.

Your health matters are quite personal, and none of us knows exactly what they are. However, high blood pressure is something that is quite easily controlled, and once controlled with diet, exercise, and medications, it should not cause any deleterious long term problems. As for your chronic bronchitis diagnosis, was this diagnosis made through pulmonary function testing with and without albuterol or its analogues? If you are a smoker, stop smoking. Damage to the lungs and blood vessels will repair with time -- God has made our bodies in such a way that if we remove a poison, the body can heal itself. If you are not a smoker and have COPD, you may consider asking your doctor to test you for alpha-1 antitrypsin deficiency. The novel approaches to this condition, such as augmentation therapy, are miraculous.

Consider changing your diet. So much of the American diet is ultra-processed junk, poisons, really. And if you drink alcohol, dump it all down the drain. Alcohol does no one favors, but most especially someone who has the blues. Those refined sugars and carbohydrates and sweet drinks, they are addictive to your brain. They fool the brain. A diet rich in fresh fruits and vegetables will do your body well. Perhaps you could join us over on the Food Board and share with us some of your edible creations. We share there, and most creations are significantly healthier than anything you will buy from a can, box, or restaurant.

Cooking healthy food can inspire you in the art of creation. We are created beings, and in our DNA is the need to create. Consider learning an art, be it pottery or woodworking or painting or writing. You need not become famous or make a living from your creations. Perhaps, though, sharing in the act of creation, you will strike a cord deep in your primordial spirit and see God's face.

One of the modern human conditions many in our world suffer from is isolation. We were not made to be on our own, separated in thought, word, and deed from our neighbors. We were created as being who need so desperately that thing we call community, a community in a real sense, a family to share our thoughts, feelings, triumphs, failures, and mundanities. Arguably our most profound need is the need to know, love, and serve both God and our neighbors. When we focus only on ourselves, our condition, our lacking, our suffering, our loss, we lose focus on both God and neighbor. Becoming involved in a church community or a group that serves others will help you regain this fundamental requirement for joy. As the great Anglican priest and poet John Donne said, "No man is an island entire of itself; every man is a piece of the continent, a part of the main." Find your continent!

When you get down in the dumps, fall to your knees and pray to God that God give you the light. Read the Bible. Read the spiritual classics. Serve the poor, the widow, the orphan, the prisoner. Be generous. And pray always. Become like the widow in the parable with the unjust judge. Pray always and do not lose heart.

There was a Welsh poet from the last century, Dylan Thomas, who suffered from chronic breathing issues and ultimately died of other causes at age 39. He speaks to your condition in that great poem:

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Do not go gentle into that good night,
Old age should burn and rave at close of day;
Rage, rage against the dying of the light.

Though wise men at their end know dark is right,
Because their words had forked no lightning they
Do not go gentle into that good night.

Good men, the last wave by, crying how bright
Their frail deeds might have danced in a green bay,
Rage, rage against the dying of the light.

Wild men who caught and sang the sun in flight,
And learn, too late, they grieved it on its way,
Do not go gentle into that good night.

Grave men, near death, who see with blinding sight
Blind eyes could blaze like meteors and be gay,
Rage, rage against the dying of the light.

And you, my father, there on the sad height,
Curse, bless, me now with your fierce tears, I pray.
Do not go gentle into that good night.
Rage, rage against the dying of the light.

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Yours,
TulaneLSU

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Psychological Operations and/or Post-Graduate Sociology Experiments

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Munchausen