topic Re: New here in Welcome and orientation

New here

Phoenix99 — Mon, 02 Sep 2024 13:34:26 GMT

i am new to the forums. I have had depression for 8 years and still struggling everyday.

Re: New here

Happylife — Wed, 04 Sep 2024 03:24:40 GMT

Hello Phoenix99,

Warm welcome to the forums. I am really sorry to hear you are struggling with depression.

It can be very draining and exhausting but you're not alone and you have come to the right place.

If I may ask, 8 years is a long time, do you have family/friends/support groups whom you have reached out to? Have you spoken to your GP or mental health professional for guidance and support?

If you feel like sharing more, are you able to provide more information about what exactly you are going through so we can help and advise you better but there is no pressure.

Below is the link from BB if you want to read more about depression and how it can help you:

https://www.beyondblue.org.au/mental-health/depression/signs-and-symptoms

I am here to help if you need assistance with navigating the forums...

Take care

Happylife

Re: New here

Phoenix99 — Wed, 04 Sep 2024 08:21:14 GMT

Hi Happylife

i have no idea what is causing the depression. I can’t find anything in life interesting all day everyday for 8 years. I might as well just lie around all day doing nothing. Like an animal. I am bored of life. No matter what I do I can’t be engaged with anything. I am sick of it. I don’t have anyone to talk to. I have spoken to the GP and psychiatrist and psychologist and a social worker and a counsellor. No one seems to know what to do. I am becoming more frustrated everyday that nothing gets better. I want to care about something. Just one thing.

Re: New here

lacy — Thu, 05 Sep 2024 06:29:11 GMT

hi phoenix ive been strugeling with anxiaty its hard but im getting thrugh it wanna talk

bye lacy

Re: New here

Phoenix99 — Fri, 06 Sep 2024 02:00:53 GMT

hi lacy

sure I am here if you need.
phoenix

Re: New here

lacy — Fri, 06 Sep 2024 02:07:14 GMT

thanks

lets get to know each other

Re: New here

therising — Fri, 06 Sep 2024 17:25:07 GMT

Hi Phoenix99

I feel for you so much, I really do. Eight years is a long time to be feeling this way. From my own experience, I've found there's a significant difference between long term depression and episodic depression. While I'm a gal who left long term depression behind me in my mid 30s (close to a couple of decades ago), since then it's been about periods of depression. With the latter, the breaks provide the opportunity to make sense of what each depression is about. The breaks make a difference in a whole variety of ways. One of my fears in life involves returning to long term depression for whatever reason because it can be so incredibly challenging and upsetting in so many ways. As I say, I feel for you so much.

I have to say, if there's one thing depression's led me to become in life it's a detective of sorts. Whether it involves elements of psychology or psychiatry, biology or chemistry or natural soulful kinds of stuff, the rabbit whole of greater self understanding is massive, absolutely massive (with so many intersecting points). Such investigation and exploration's partly come about out of desperation and partly out of fascination. I can never settle for not knowing why I'm depressed. I have to know. I feel for you with none of your detectives (GP, psychiatrist, psychologist, social worker and a counsellor) having any significant keys.

While I've found the list of reasons for depression to be extensive, I've also found some people who specialise in certain fields to have a bit of a one track mind (not all). It's not a criticism, just an observation. Not all the reasons or answers can be found on one track or along one specific channel down that rabbit hole. For example, if I was to go to a physician and say 'I have intermittent uncontrollable buzzing happening throughout my body', they may consider sending me to a neurologist who might put me on medication. If I was to go to a mental health specialist, they may prescribe anti anxiety meds to calm things down. If I was to talk to a practitioner and master of martial arts, they may say 'That is you feeling your chi (life force/energy), I'll show you how to understand it, manage it and master it so that you can choose when you want to or don't want to feel the buzz or humm of life running through you'. Three completely different takes on what that feeling is but all may agree 'You are feeling your nervous system'.

Re: New here

Phoenix99 — Sat, 07 Sep 2024 02:22:35 GMT

Hi therising

thank you for your reply.

i am getting impatient about not having any answers. I feel I am at risk of suicide if I don’t get any answers soon. I don’t have anything to live for. I don’t find any joy in anything. I literally can’t feel anything no matter what I do 😞 I don’t have anyone other than my therapist to talk to. So I just have to wait until session to have a chance to talk. It is horrible not having any answers. I have no idea why I can’t enjoy anything for 8 years. And with not even one day of relief! I wish I had just episodes and it wasn’t chronic. I don’t have any hope because I don’t remember the last time I felt anything positive. How can I have hope if I just don’t remember what I was like before. It has been too long.

Re: New here

Happylife — Mon, 09 Sep 2024 01:20:39 GMT

Hi Phoenix99,

Thanks for opening up, I really feel for you. Depression is an ugly thing, it deprives you of the ability to feel your emotions. When you are feeling down it can be very tough to focus on anything.

The key to finding solution is probably to find out where exactly the problem is coming from in the first place.

Is there anything that makes you happy? Even simple activities like taking a walk on the beach or reading your favourite book can do wonders. Also, you can try getting out of your routine, sometimes doing the same things day in and day out can get boring and drain you out.

You mentioned about caring for something, have you tried Volunteering at your local community, library or anything that interests you? It is one of the things that really helps me when I feel anxious or depressed.

It's a wonderful way to give back to your community and make a positive impact for yourself and others. Whether you want to help people, animals or the environment, there's lots of opportunities. It also gives you an opportunity to think about something or someone else and in return it gives you a sense of purpose and accomplishment.

You can try the below link or google any other volunteering websites that you may like:

https://www.volunteeringaustralia.org/#/ Home - Volunteering Australia

I really hope you feel better. Keep sharing if you feel like, happy to listen and help...

Take care

Happylife

Re: New here

Phoenix99 — Mon, 09 Sep 2024 04:03:09 GMT

Hey Happylife

i would like to volunteer to help animals. I have always liked animals. That is the only thing that has stuck with me. Maybe because I also feel like an animal at this point. I will keep looking for opportunities to volunteer. Thanks for your help.

Re: New here

therising — Mon, 09 Sep 2024 18:34:24 GMT

Hi Phoenix99

Another way I've come to look at depression is as a depression or a 'well' kind of thing. You can be teetering on the brink of falling in and not necessarily know it. You can even have entered into it and not recognise you're in a depression. It's not until some way down that you can feel yourself in there and begin to wonder 'How did I fall into this depression?'. The deeper you go, the harder it gets. There is nothing that compares to rock bottom, the darkest part of that well or depression. When people speak of 'the light at the end of the tunnel', in regard to remaining optimistic, when you turn that tunnel sideways and the light is at the top of the tunnel, at rock bottom there's not even a pinprick of light. Having been at rock bottom in the past and while being a realist, I can relate to hope not being enough while you're down there. The desperation to get out of there can become overwhelming. If there's one thing I've learned from being in that well on a number of occasions, if there's a way into it and down through it, there logically has to be a way up and out of it.

Not sure if you're able to do a bit of back tracking in order to recognise what the brink of that well or depression looked like or what even led you to it in the first place. I know, not always easy to do, recognise what's not all that obvious. For some folk this scenario might sound like

'I went through a terrible time 10 years ago, where I had no choice but to emotionally disconnect in a number of ways, so as not to feel so impacted by the events at that time. I never realised how deeply depressing remaining disconnected could become. I don't know how to emotionally reconnect'
'Someone hinted to me that I may have an ADHD brain or a nature that hints at high functioning autism. If one or the other or both (AuDHD) is the case, have the last 10 years been a reflection of the mental, phyiscal, soulful, emotional struggles etc that can come with such a challenge?'
'While I've never really had a solid sense of identity growing up and have even been led to some depressing false beliefs about myself, such as me only being acceptable if I look, sound and behave in certain ways, have the last 10 years been challenging me to completely redefine myself or discover who I naturally am? Have the last 10 years been about suppression, a lack of self understanding and not being raised in constructive ways when it comes to discovering who I really am? Have I spent the last 10 years largely in a depressing state of people pleasing?'

Just a few of many examples.

Re: New here

Phoenix99 — Tue, 10 Sep 2024 04:41:10 GMT

Hi therising

i am definitely a people pleaser. For probably most of my life I have been. I don’t ever worry about making myself happy. I have been assessed for adhd and autism. Even if I did have it it would be mild autism. I am definitely emotionally disconnected and don’t know how to reconnect. I have been like this for 9 years. It makes life so boring now. I find everything pointless. I want my emotions back now! But I know it won’t happen that fast. Everything I go to do I cannot stop thinking about how pointless it is until I stop. Now I don’t know what to do with myself. It is driving me crazy. My brain drives me crazy every minute of the day.

Re: New here

therising — Tue, 10 Sep 2024 18:25:45 GMT

Hi Phoenix99

As poet John Milton once wrote 'The mind is its own place and in itself can make a heaven of hell, a hell of heaven'. The quest to find heaven naturally comes with a lot of questions. The greater the quest the more questions there are. I've personally found that with depression it kind of turns one into a philosopher of sorts. You can be left asking many of the questions asked by the greatest philosophers in history but because those questions have a depressing feel to them or a sense of desperation to them, they don't necessarily feel like philosophical questions. Some of those questions can be 'Who am I? Why am I here? What is the point of all this? What is my purpose? What is the purpose of life? Why do I suffer so terribly?' and the list goes on. To be a lone philosopher can feel like a form of torture but to be one amongst many becomes an exploration within an inspiring think tank of fellow wonderers in search of theories and answers. With each answer or revelation, there comes a form of graduation. From my own experience, I've come to believe that life is not simply something we do, it's something we're designed to graduate through. While I don't believe I'll ever reach 'Master' status (fully graduating), I know I have no choice but to give it a damn good go, otherwise I'll suffer through a lack of knowledge and a lack of greater self understanding.

Hmmm, how to be thoughtless 🤔. I've found there are plenty of reasons as to why it can be so challenging. The process of overthinking can begin quite young, with adults around us demanding 'Stop being so thoughtless', 'Think before you speak/act', 'You're completely thoughtless (said as a chastisement)' and the list goes on. So, we're conditioned to think all the time. Going to school or working a job means more mental processing. Navigating a variety of relationships also means having to mentally process a variety of situations. To be a people pleaser requires almost constant thinking, mental processing. The thinking just never stops until we learn how to become thoughtless in constructive ways.

Daydreaming is just one way of becoming thoughtless. Some might call this 'meditation'. If you're a well seasoned daydreamer from way back, this will be pretty easy. If I was to point out a gate or a door within your mind, once you go through that gate or door into your imagination, you'll be able to tell me what you see. Myself, my gate is a small white picket gate and beyond it is a forest full of a variety of things. I don't have to think up what's in that forest, it's just there. It's like you could ask me what lies further along the path in that forest and I don't have to think about it, I just have to walk a little further and simply see it. The image, in my imagination, simply comes to me without thinking. If you were to ask me about the finer details of what I see, then I'd have to think about it/mentally process the finer details when it comes to what I imagine. While daydreaming is an incredible natural ability, we can have people from way back (back to when we were kids) conditioning us out of daydreaming, out of this ability. So, you lose that ability. Getting it back takes practice. Of course, we can't stay in our imagination all the time. It needs to be managed strategically. I have to say, one of the most incredible things about daydreaming involves going into the place that we imagine and finding the answers we need in there and then bringing them back into reality.

Re: New here

Happylife — Wed, 11 Sep 2024 00:21:08 GMT

Hello Phoenix99,

So glad to hear about you wanting to help animals, it's a great initiative.

Below are couple of links that can get you started, or you can look for other opportunities that you like:

Volunteer | RSPCA Australia https://www.rspca.org.au/support-us/volunteer

https://wildlifeheroes.org.au

Hope this helps...

Take care

Happylife

Re: New here

Phoenix99 — Thu, 12 Sep 2024 12:01:05 GMT

i don't know what is happening, i keep losing my train of thought, cannot think all day, cannot focus on anything, intrusive thoughts, not responding to anyone, confused, want to be dead. it makes me feel so frustrated and helpless. i have even forgotten my own dogs name. i am not responding to my own family. i am not even registering what they are saying,. id like some support. i cannot even imagine anymore. i have no inner monologue it feels like. my inner voice is gone. it just feels blank.