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BeyondBlue Hello! Read this if you're not sure how to get started
  • replies: 0

Welcome This section of the Beyond Blue Forums is for talking about our experiences with Depression. There are lots of chats about how it makes us feel, what it’s like to live with depression and what has worked to help in these times. Thank you for ... View more

Welcome This section of the Beyond Blue Forums is for talking about our experiences with Depression. There are lots of chats about how it makes us feel, what it’s like to live with depression and what has worked to help in these times. Thank you for coming this far, we know it can be really hard to take these steps if depression is in your life - we see you and think this is a great step. To get the most out of this space we have a few tips: Get involved. The Forums work best for you when you get active and post where you can. Now, we know that can be really hard, especially when you are experiencing depression. So, if you can post something supportive to someone else here, that would be an incredible start. Speak from the heart. This community wants to know how YOU feel and what has worked for YOU. We trust that you have something unique to say and we can’t wait to hear it. Check in. Lots of the chats on this Forum having been going for years and they are some of the richest conversations we have. Keep checking in to get new ideas and offer your support. We know it can be tough to start, but when you are ready we want to hear your thoughts. If you need some time to get to know the community, that's okay! Have a look around and see where you want to get involved. Thank you for being here Beyond Blue

Jeriava How do I talk to my doctor?
  • replies: 9

I’ve been struggling with my life for the past 7-8 years but I finally made an appointment with a doctor. I feel really scared though because I don’t ever go to the doctor for anything, and I havent seen this doctor for so many years that I’m really ... View more

I’ve been struggling with my life for the past 7-8 years but I finally made an appointment with a doctor. I feel really scared though because I don’t ever go to the doctor for anything, and I havent seen this doctor for so many years that I’m really scared that they’ll judge me or won’t believe anything I say. I’m really anti social so I feel like I won’t be able to say what I wanna say or I’ll say the wrong thing causing them to just dismiss me and move me along without helping. I’m just tired of feeling alone, depressed and just worthless but I’m really scared to talk to them.

AGrace SELF HELP TIPS FOR MANAGING DEPRESSION
  • replies: 132

Hi Everyone, Here are some ideas you might like to try for managing symptoms of depression. Of course everyone's different, so let us know what works for you, and please feel free to add to the list... Mindfulness – through breathing or engaging the ... View more

Hi Everyone, Here are some ideas you might like to try for managing symptoms of depression. Of course everyone's different, so let us know what works for you, and please feel free to add to the list... Mindfulness – through breathing or engaging the 5 senses Distress Tolerance – Accepting Emotions and Self Soothing Distraction – Put the thoughts/feelings aside and come back to them when you are ready to deal with them Positive Affirmations – Have some affirmations written down repeat them to yourself daily Sleep/Exercise/Diet – All 3 aspects of our lifestyle can impact the way we think/feel Increasing Pleasurable Activities – Engage in at least one pleasurable activity per day

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Silent2024 Feeling alone & no one to talk to.
  • replies: 1

Hi all, I feel so alone and like I have no friends. When I was younger, I had many friends and was quite social, but now it feels like no one wants to hang out with me. I've tried many times to reach out and make plans, but I get rejected every time.... View more

Hi all, I feel so alone and like I have no friends. When I was younger, I had many friends and was quite social, but now it feels like no one wants to hang out with me. I've tried many times to reach out and make plans, but I get rejected every time. I never get invited anywhere. I feel jealous when my husband gets invited to hang out with the boys or go to the pub after work, while I'm stuck at home with the kids because no one wants to hang out with me. I feel like there's no point in living if I have no friends. The only reason I haven't done anything is because of my kids. I constantly think about them and how they would have no mum around anymore. I pretty much stay at home by myself with nothing to do and no one to talk to. My husband works crazy hours and is hardly ever home. My eldest is 14 and is never home, and my youngest is nearly 10, so it won't be long until she's out most of the time too. I just feel so alone and always think, "What's the point in living?"

Guest_88266939 Paull
  • replies: 1

In earl 2000s I had a serious accident that almost killed me, I was married and my wife was fantastic through this period of my life we got through it and life’s rolled on with our two kids who are now grown up. At age 61 in and late 2022 my mum pass... View more

In earl 2000s I had a serious accident that almost killed me, I was married and my wife was fantastic through this period of my life we got through it and life’s rolled on with our two kids who are now grown up. At age 61 in and late 2022 my mum passed away and in December of that year I began to transition to retirement in Jan 2023 my wife said she wanted to leave me. For me this was out of the blue and gutted me still does. A few weeks after the announcement I found out she was cheating on me since early 2022. It’s totally gutted me and made me feel ashamed and worthless as a man and person for that matter. I haven’t been in contact with her since this time and our financial settlement is completed . So today I’m feeling low and I see an email from her requesting divorce proceedings. This has hit me hard and I wounded if I will ever get over it. I have had counciling and was told I still have PTSD from 2000s accident and combined with the death of my mother, retirement and wife leaving me was depressed. Anyway the councillor didn’t work out. In mid 2023 I returned to work and have engrossed myself in my work. I have no external interest and work is my life and I’m good at what I do. Anyway today I receive an email for divorce proceedings and it’s hit me hard and I’m struggling to cope. At 63 I feel like I should be able to cope and be big enough to move on like my ex but I just can’t seem to.

Guest_34657985 family abuse
  • replies: 1

Im 14 years old and going through a hard time in life but as other people would just say- oh theres no way your 14 you would never understand how hard it can be well not exactly i get home from school evry day and get constantly abused by my sister a... View more

Im 14 years old and going through a hard time in life but as other people would just say- oh theres no way your 14 you would never understand how hard it can be well not exactly i get home from school evry day and get constantly abused by my sister and if i ever layed a hand or yelled or swore at her i would get the cops called on me btw my sister is 16 and bigger then me but the only reason why she gets away with it and she knows is because she has autism when i have ptsd from my dad being constantly abusive to me too and adhd i absalutly hate this

BAS_061125 I don't know what to do
  • replies: 1

Me and my finance have been together for 5 years. We share two beautiful children of our own and I have a child from a previous relationship. I'm lacking an emotional connection with my fiance. He's grown up in a really difficult situation, this make... View more

Me and my finance have been together for 5 years. We share two beautiful children of our own and I have a child from a previous relationship. I'm lacking an emotional connection with my fiance. He's grown up in a really difficult situation, this makes him block out his emotions because that's what he learned to do to cope. I'm a highly emotional, empathetic person. I like to talk about how I feel and this seems to be overwhelming to him which ends in a fight and him walking away/blocking me out. The thing that kills me the most is that he could easily walk away from this relationship if he wanted to and I'd be an absolute wreck. There's so many times I feel lonely, like I can't express myself because I don't want it to end in a fight. I love this man so much and when we are good we are really good. But I need more from him, I need him to be more than surface level with me. I also resent him for allowing me to be alone in my feelings, allowing me to sit there crying while he just walks off to bed because he's had enough of the conversation. I get people deal with things differently but he won't even address the situation at a later date he just brushes it off. It makes me feel unimportant and that my feelings aren't valid. it's ruining me, I've booked in to see my gp tomorrow to hopefully get a mental health plan but I feel like he needs to fix himself before this relationship can ever be fixed.

Mich87 Obsessive thoughts towards psychologist and BPD
  • replies: 1

I’ve been suffering with this issue more than a year now but unfortunately still couldn’t find an answer. I just had 8 sessions with my previous psychologist. During 5th or 6th session I started to develope romantic/erotic thoughts towards my psychol... View more

I’ve been suffering with this issue more than a year now but unfortunately still couldn’t find an answer. I just had 8 sessions with my previous psychologist. During 5th or 6th session I started to develope romantic/erotic thoughts towards my psychologist. It was really distressing and disturbing to manage my day to day life. These thoughts were unwanted and irrational. So I raised it with my psychologist and I thought she would help me with cope with it. Unfortunately she terminated therapy. Then I felt rejected and abandoned by the person I mostly trusted and I couldn’t tolerate it. I started to follow her home after work, stalking her on social media and invading her privacy. I knew it inappropriate, I didn’t want to scare her, I didn’t want to give her stress full time, I didn’t want to harass or abuse her, I didn’t mean anything but I couldn’t control my impulsive thoughts. In the end she went to the court and applied an IVO against me. It was so shameful for me so I didn’t want to go to court. I have had past attempts on my life. After this episode I got pregnant with a baby boy . Unfortunately, I could complete only 16 weeks. I had a miscarriage. It was unbelievable, my baby was completely normal had a strong heart beat. However, I had to give a birth to a dead baby. I am depressed again and have thoughts towards my previous psychologist. I have urged to go and see her but my hands are tight by the court order. The buildup pressure drives me to suicidal thoughts again. I want to stop these cycles happening again. I’m taking my medication but nothing helps. My psychiatric discharged me to my GP during the suicidal episode. since then no other psychiatrist accepts my referral. I haven’t seen a psychiatrist for 6 months. I asked help from so-called mental health professionals. No one helps me. I don’t know who to call, when I call PTS, a nurse told me i’m too far from their hospital. I can’t go to my nearest hospital as my husband works as a mental health nurse in there. I had enough, I am so tired , but I have to live for my 3 year old daughter. I want to know what’s wrong with me. My previous psychiatrist diagnosed BPD last year. Can someone please help me and tell me what to do and how to stop these cycle of episodes.

Jaibigrone907 Infuriated, I'm ruined by everyone and even myself!
  • replies: 2

Growing up I didn't like my father because he wasn't ideal. He wasn't involved, encouraging, praising and socially valuable, affectionate, understanding and supportive. He never cared about me achieving my driving, figuring out a life purpose and gen... View more

Growing up I didn't like my father because he wasn't ideal. He wasn't involved, encouraging, praising and socially valuable, affectionate, understanding and supportive. He never cared about me achieving my driving, figuring out a life purpose and generally transitioning into a adult. He was selfish, grandiose, and would talk behind your back and think lies are nothing, if you don't know their being told. I also hate his sister I had to know his friend for a little longer than a dozen years when I was going through high school. I was bullied all during high school and suffering everyday for six years since 2008 until 2013. I hated everyone in the school. I had five extra years of bad mistreating acquaintance toxic relationship's and that lasted until 2018. I haven't agreed with my mental health diagnosis that I had since 2012 - 2014 which was a result because of my mistakes. The pharmaceuticals I've been involuntary enforced on are detrimental and I had three years of weight gain, than it lead to some stretch marks and I was compensating and hating against tablet nausea with the old meds. It got even worse being diagnosed with pre diabetes in 2017 and than by 2020 I was having the cholecystectomy with my gallbladder being removed. It's the most un luck that anyone would get, it's literally being murdered with their treating, yet I'm obviously given no compensation, no apologies, no voluntary rights since their a promised myth. I've been destroyed. To make it worse I have this horrible reality of spirituality, I CAN'T detach, it's connected to the shrinks I was forced to see back in 2021 when I was demanded into having a admission into hospital, despite telling them I was fine and not wanting to go, my general practioner insisted and argued he felt concerned. I just am constantly discriminated about my intelligence in numerous ways internally and made to feel different in negative ways. I can't prove it to anyone, I just know that it's mixed from the American's and my brief hospital visit, I didn't like the psychologist and the psychiatrist I had to experience during those four weeks. They invalidated me and were cold, looking through me as a idiot and spoke to me like I was a child. I told the doctor I didn't agree with my diagnosis. He extended my time for two weeks and than I was on a 9 month community order to get a monthly injection. They see me as a relapse and I was only a voluntary forced admission, I didn't want to go. They generalise me too.

Earth Girl Genuinley recovering from vulnerable narcissm and would like some extra help to continue improving
  • replies: 18

I recently have gotten much better mentally thanks to my psychologist, my Auntie R and a person who talked to me once on YouTube. For a long time I suffered from narcissism because for example, I use to want to be the prettiest and most popular girl ... View more

I recently have gotten much better mentally thanks to my psychologist, my Auntie R and a person who talked to me once on YouTube. For a long time I suffered from narcissism because for example, I use to want to be the prettiest and most popular girl in school which I never was and now realize that it doesn't matter. I also really wanted to have a daughter one day and don't get me wrong because even when I was narcissistic, I knew I would care about her needs and would love her no matter what (children are so lovely and it would be extremely hard not to love your own child especially), but one of the reasons why I wanted a daughter back then was quite frankly (I feel really bad saying this) to live through her. I was hoping that she would be the "prettiest" and most popular girl in school because I never was and I was also hoping that she would be an extremely nice person because even then, I knew I wasn't that nice (I tried really hard to be nice because it makes people feel good and because I want to be a really nice person or at least a nice person but I wasn't very good at it most of the time), but that wouldn't be fair for my daughter and it wouldn't be fair to my son if I had one as well for that matter. I also found it extremely hard to listen to people, to take accountability, etc. People also say that I am lying about not remembering things that I have said and done, but I genuinely don't remember a lot of the mean things I have said about people. I have asked them to please talk to me about it in a *direct* way so I know what I said, but they only either talk to me about it in an indirect way or they would talk to people pretending to be me online about it (a lot of people have pretended to be me online) and there for it doesn't get through to me. The people I have mentioned earlier helped me get over my narcissism because they reminded me that even when I was unwell that I do have some things that are really good about me (everyone has things that are really good them) and they very politely encouraged me to work on my weaknesses as well as remembering that I have a lot of strengths as well. The person on Youtube told me about shadow work and about how we all have things that are good and bad about us and that even if you have this disorder, you still have good things about you and you can always work on the bad things about you. (He said it in a really nice way too). I would just like some more *kind* advice to help me improve more and more........

Sandym0 CHRONIC PAIN MANAGEMENT
  • replies: 5

Chronic Pain ManagementHi there, how are you all doing? I have a question that I suffer from chronic pain. In my entire body, specially in feet, heels, knees, lower back, as I am a amputee. I have a problem in my right hand too, doctors suspect carpa... View more

Chronic Pain ManagementHi there, how are you all doing? I have a question that I suffer from chronic pain. In my entire body, specially in feet, heels, knees, lower back, as I am a amputee. I have a problem in my right hand too, doctors suspect carpal tunnel. As long as I don't do anything, it's okay. But if I do something, it's painful. For which I was on pain medication. So as I have a addiction too, is doing a opioid replacement therapy. And did nothing for pain management, as I am thinking about stopping opioid replacement therapy. I will have to deal with pain. Which was somehow numbed because of the medication I use for addiction. On top of that I have a mental illness too, if I speak to a doctor. What they say is, reasonable help. They can give me, so it's really a struggle. How you can recover if you are in agony from pain. Doctor gives you nothing for pain. And the antibiotics you use gives you a tremors and extrapyramidal side effects. The support network you have, has a different agenda. Which they are kept on hiding and kept on pursuing there motives. How to deal with all that

Guest_85871854 Nothing in life is going my way...literally nothing.
  • replies: 1

20 years into life feels like I have lived 20 decades. I am constantly stressed out due to living in a noisy, unsafe neighborhood, i was verbally assaulted by them too last year. No matter how much I seek help from strata, council, and other neighbor... View more

20 years into life feels like I have lived 20 decades. I am constantly stressed out due to living in a noisy, unsafe neighborhood, i was verbally assaulted by them too last year. No matter how much I seek help from strata, council, and other neighbors, nothing has helped. Literally nothing quietens the bloody people that live around me. I despise staying home, my parents and I do not have a good relationship and being around them worsens my mental health. I spend my days just being out and coming back to sleep at home at 10 pm. I have applied for housing and submitted all my documents, but my case manager has not reached out to me in a long time now. Despite being newly employed, I barely get shifts and as I am someone who wants to move out thru rent choice youth, it is so much more complex. I lost my job in december, 2023 and I just got a job this month, and the lack of shifts make me feel useless and unemployed. Things just have been so slow, crappy, and bad for me. Stress is getting me to the point that I have chronic headaches and nosebleeds, and my GP asked me to do a MRI. All i want is just a good, consistent job that does not affect my uni timetable and helps me save some money to escape my noisy, abusive household. I used to be highly religious and since stuff has been severely low for me, I am literally agnostic. I just feel so hopeless and lost on life.

Lilly18 Living a disgusting lie
  • replies: 2

Evening, I believe I might be a functioning addict.Barely functioning.I need to get help but Im worried I will get into big troubleDont want to keep doing this but I just do it

Evening, I believe I might be a functioning addict.Barely functioning.I need to get help but Im worried I will get into big troubleDont want to keep doing this but I just do it