Welcome and Orientation

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Meet your community champions!

replies: 10

Hi everyone, We wanted to share with you the way that our wonderful Community Champions are here to support you. You may have noticed that a few of our Forums members are labelled ‘Community Champion’. Community Champions are volunteers within the Beyond Blue Forums who: have the time, skills and empathy to support other members regularly; help to welcome new members; are actively engaged members that help set the tone of our community. Our Community Champions are regular contributors to many conversations across the forums. They are a consistent and friendly voice that have committed to sharing their experience and expertise with this community. They are not health care professionals or clinicians. Like you, they have an experience with a mental health challenge or diagnosis – either for themselves or someone they care for. This forum is for people who understand what it feels like and have a lived and living experience of mental health challenges. Our Community Champions help everyone feel comfortable and confident by demonstrating what excellent peer support is all about. Click here to find out more about how you can become a Community Champion! This incredible team are excited to introduce themselves below, and we are sure you’ll see them around the forums in conversations important to you.

HELP..Am I posting in the right section?

replies: 10

Welcome to those who are considering posting for the very first time, welcome. Thought I would repost part of the words that Chris B posted awhile ago, (2014) as I can hear that people are unsure if they are posting in the right section or worried that they are posting "the wrong thing". 1.A good title makes the difference Just like a headline in a newspaper, when scanning the dozens of threads to click into, it’s only natural that people will choose the ones that resonate with them most. A title that entices the reader, or asks a question, is likely to get a better result than something non-descriptive like “Depression” or “I don't know what to do”. If you think you’re not good at choosing titles, leave it till last. Spend time writing your post, then perhaps choose a sentence from what you’ve written as the title. 2.Join in threads that have already been posted We all have our own unique stories, but part of the reason for joining a forum like this one is because you know that you will have a lot in common with others who are posting. Before starting a new thread, have a look through the current topics being discussed and see if there’s a conversation you can join in with. It can be quite common to have a handful of very similar threads happening at any one time, with members seemingly unaware that there are others right there who are going through the same thing. Talking to other members on their threads is a great way of getting yourself known so that when you post a thread of your own, people may respond quicker because they recognize your name. 3.Choose the most appropriate section for your post Many people browse the forums looking for stories specifically to do with pregnancy and parenting, employment, grief, loss, separation etc. Going straight for the “Depression” section may seem like the easiest option, but this section is often the busiest, so your post is more likely to get lost among the threads. Making good use of the different forum sections not only helps keep the forum relevant, but you’re more likely to find others who are going through the same experiences as you. Also, if you're wanting to discuss issues of trauma, abuse, suicidal thoughts or self-harm, it's really important you post in the designated section to avoid triggering others who may not wish to read about these topics. Mostly..just come and chat, we are here for you. Our amazing wizards in the background will see your message ends up in the right spot. Sarah

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Need assurance

replies: 15

I just joined today because i thought i want to let few things out while seeking assurance about my issue. I have a male acquaintance who has a wife and 1 year old daughter. In the beginning he was fine. He frequently sent me random articles and most of them are pretty general and harmless. One day he sent me link about plastic surgery and said "u r single, why don't u try?" And he wanted to set me up with his friend who is also single. But this guy is not my type and definitely not a kind of guy you will introduce to your friends (I'm being very polite here). So I made a joke that I'd rather find a toyboy and work harder for my future. I blocked his fb message but still friend him on fb. The next day he sent me a link to a make up artist with before after picture on my instagram I reached out to my friend and she said stop being judgemental and overreacting. Hence, i unblocked his fb message. But things got worse, he sent me articles with inappropriate sexual content. I did not reply to any of these and kept a screenshot. Then i sent them to all my friends. I blocked him from fb message again. After few weeks, he went to my whatsapp and sent me porn video. I politely said i did not appreciate his posts and told him to stop sending me things like this. He said "lol" I have distributed the screenshots to all my friends, talked to my colleagues and boss. I also had reported this to fb, blocked him on every social media. Everyone said i did the right thing but this one friend who i knew for 10 years refused to listen to me. She said that i should not bitch about her bff's husband and told me i am the most judgemental and overreacting person she knows. Well this guy never send her those posts and my friend has a business together with this man's wife. She only knew this couple for less than 2 years but defended them even without listening to my story. She claimed she is a neutral person. I thought being neutral means you listen to both sides of the stories. I just feel like i don't know whether I'm judgemental or those posts are inappropriate. I want to do the right thing. I feel helpless and annoyed because some people think those posts are funny even though i feel like I'm being bullied. I want to slap some conscience to both of him and my friend but i don't know how. Thank you for listening though, much appreciated

Lonely and just needing to talk it out

replies: 7

Hi, first time posting here. I'm 20 years old and always kind of struggled with anxiety and opening up to others about it, towards the end of last year/start of this year was when I first decided it was affecting my life so much that I need help and at the start of this year I saw a counsellor at my uni. I found that useful and she said how it seemed I was having anxiety problems and kind of explained how anxiety works to me and told me about negative thought and ways to rethink. I saw that counsellor four time over a couple months and it was decided that I was doing better and didn't need to keep seeing her. Over the last couple months though I feel like as if it's slowing rebuilding and I've noticed things like feeling nervous and restless but somehow sometimes a sense of nothingness. While also experiencing some physical symptoms like not getting to sleep until hours after I've actually gone to bed then not being able to get up until hours after I've woken, as well as a loss of appetite and just a general feeling of panic that I guess if I had to have way of describing, it would be a feeling in my chest. I know that I should get help again but I almost feel ashamed because I was so proud of myself for getting better that I feel like I can't open myself back up to friends about it. I also feel like my recovery was kind of rushed at my uni so I would want to find a new counsellor which seems like a daunting task. I guess I'm just looking for anyone who's experienced this sort of relapse and any advice? Sorry for the massive post but thank you

Newbie

replies: 6

Hi im new to this forum and i'm honestly a little anxious about posting, but I've been dealing with a lot of anxiety lately and im hoping someone can relate

Hello and the merry-go-round of depression

replies: 4

Hi Everyone I'm new and struggling. I'm back at the bottom and while I've been to the doctor and going to the counsellor, I still feel great shame and uselessness that I'm not moving forward. I call it the depression merry-go-round. I work hard to get out of the ruts but then when I get to a good place, something big will happen and bring me straight back down. Right now its not just one big thing but a series over the last 2 months that have hit hard - I'm working 12-14 hour days in a job that I'm really fond of and with no likelihood of this changing soon; my partner has decided we need a break; my abusive mother who I am estranged from is dying in hospital and the guilt is really difficult. Its been a very hard few months and I hit the bottom last weekend. I feel terrible talking to friends as they have had to listen to me before and I'm embarrassed I'm here again at the bottom. I know I'm the only one who can fix this but I guess I'm hoping the Forum can support me in this journey. Hope thats ok.

Hi, I'm new here (sort of...)

replies: 2

Hello! It's taken me 17 months to finally introduce myself.... I replied to a couple of posts when I first signed up and then thought people might find my responses stupid or no-one would acknowledge them, so I never logged in again. Anxiety got the most of me then! Anyway, I'm in a sort of better place than I was last time, but still on and off struggling with depression, anxiety, some chronic health conditions, and as of this winter these include asthma. Are there any threads related to asthma medication affecting or triggering depression? I'd love to hear if anyone has had similar experiences, if that's allowed... (I know discussing specific medications as such isn't...) I'm starting to think I'm going crazy. Since I started to take asthma preventer medications I've had a number of relapses with depression (not being able to manage stress and emotions, crying, very negative thoughts that seemed to come out of nowhere...), and the only thing that changed for me during that time was the asthma meds. I spoke to my GP and tried a different preventer type, which pretty much had the same effect, but since I've had quite a long history of depression my GP does not seem to believe me when I say it has to do with the asthma meds. It's significantly affected my work recently, and my work is my life basically... I love my job, so I'm starting to think if I can't manage to be happy now, I never will. So this is me. Well, one version of me. Maybe someone can relate...? x

I'm new, but also not really

replies: 5

Hi guys, I've never been really good at reaching out I guess.. I've had this account since 2016, I made it when I was in a rough patch, but I've never done anything with it. It always seems like my problems are just me being lazy to me, so I haven't really gotten any help before. Even though I do know there were times when I needed it! I'm constantly torn between telling myself I need help, and telling myself to stop being such a baby. A few years ago when I was in year 11/12 I was in such a bad place, and I didn't speak to a single person about it. I don't know how I managed it, or hid it. I'm 21 now and it's been a slow battle for me to get where I am, which was pretty good! I have my rough times, but usually I manage, and I know that it will get better but I feel like it's going downhill again. Little things keep happening this year and its just piling up. I don't want to be like in year 12 again. And now I have a uni assignment that's 4 days overdue but I can't even start it for some reason. It's not even a hard assignment! Its just this little thing.. I don't even know if there's anything wrong with me, since I've never spoken to anyone about it really, but I dunno. Maybe I'm just sad and lazy. Maybe its just hormones. Even now just typing this I'm wondering if I'm on the right website. But maybe this is a good place to get used to talking. I hope I'll be active here.

Belated intro to myself

replies: 2

Hi, So I've already posted a few times but thought I really should introduce myself. I feel like I've been dealing with so much for so long and things are finally starting to look up. But recently there's been a few things that have reminded me how much of a factor mental health plays in our lives, so I thought I'd reach out to establish myself in a community like this before I got to the point where I feel lost. I grew up in a emotionally complicated home (I draw short of labelling it emotionally abusive) and in a very controlling church. After leaving the church and withdrawing from my parents home in my mid 20s, I married a guy who turned out to be abusive. I left, since divorced, received a diagnosis of high anxiety, had a phsychologist confirm I have Aspergers, been made redundant twice, remarried, had one baby and diagnosed with post natal depression, and am now about to have another baby. My ex has been unable to accept my right to leave and continues to interfere where he can. My husband is an incredible man and exceptional father, but has Autism and depression. I feel like I've been in a really good place. My anxiety is at an all time low, but with the pending birth I am starting to get anxious (the birth wasn't ideal last time), and I'm concerned the PND is starting again. My ex is niggling. My husband has decided to change how he's managing his depression... which I fully want to support him, it's just another thing for me to grapple with. I don't have much of a support network, and those I do have don't understand the complexities of autism. Besides, it's so much more comfortable for me to reach out in writing than it is to try and explain verbally. I really hope I can contribute to others as much as others can help me out along the way.

A FIFO worker struggling with life

replies: 4

Hi Everyone, I’m a 29 year old FIFO worker from Canberra that works in Western Australia. I work a 2 weeks on 2 weeks off roster. I’m also a professional Firefighter in my time off, and I have found myself really struggling with life in the last 12 months. I have struggled with the depression of being away for 6 months of the year and this has badly affected my relationship. I’ve become lazy, unmotivated, progressively more depressed and this has had a horribly negative impact on my relationship with my fiancé and friends. Today I had a fight with my fiancé, and ended up in such a low state that I told her I didn’t want to marry her. After I snapped out of it I realised what I said was so far from the truth it isn’t funny. I think however the damage is done, and understandably she now wants to at the very least postpone if not cancel our wedding in May. I’m not angry about this as I’d feel the same in her shoes. I’m here to help get some strategies in place to fix myself, which hopefully goes a long way to helping us get through this really tough time ahead.

Any place for likeminded anxiety sufferers to meet

replies: 2

Does anyone know of any groups for anxiety that I could join so that I could get out of house and meet likeminded people around Liverpool, nsw, please?

Introduction - Help for my Adult Daughter

replies: 3

Hi Just joined the site to get information to help my adult daughter. She was "diagnosed" by her GP with Anxiety and prescribed a medication over 5 years ago and has had not been review by anyone. The last couple of Dr's she has seen who have refilled her script have advised her they will not fill it again until she is reassessed by her "own" Dr. So she Dr hops to get her anxiety medication which I would have thought by now was not too effective after 5+ years of no dose adjustment. She seems to become agitated and describing that she has large amounts of anxiety when ever she forgets to take the medication, however within a few minutes of taking the meds she is "better". I have spoken to her recently and I know she is terrified that she will have her anxiety meds taken away from her leaving her feeling really horrible with no help at all and unable to cope. She is now struggling to get out of bed in the mornings, her house was in a desperate mess but her sister went over yesterday and cleaned the place up for her and she sat there doing very little. She expressed to her sister that she cries most days and that the day before she spent the entire morning crying, she has difficulty seeing positives in her life and has some minor debt issues(Under 6k) which she seems to worry continually about. She posts all sorts of stuff on Facebook about her anxiety and more recently about her feelings of depression which are becoming more prevalent for her. We have tried to help her every way possible and so has her sister. I am really concerned she will continue down this spiral. We have asked her to get some help several times, provided solutions for to her to get help...pretty much tried everything I can think of. I am concerned this could flip over and she self harms. Her sister who spent the day with her is really concerned about her well being and feels it won't take much to "tip her over" Depression runs through our family on my mother side and I personally have suffered from it. I was able to eliminate depression from my life and am fine but that is a story for another time. Any Suggestions as to how to help my (27 yr old) daughter would be greatly appreciated. I am just starting to read through the site now but thought I would just introduce myself first. Thank you LizK

Meet your community champions! replies: 10

HELP..Am I posting in the right section? replies: 10

Need assurance replies: 15

Lonely and just needing to talk it out replies: 7

Newbie replies: 6

Hello and the merry-go-round of depression replies: 4

Hi, I'm new here (sort of...) replies: 2

I'm new, but also not really replies: 5

Belated intro to myself replies: 2

A FIFO worker struggling with life replies: 4

Any place for likeminded anxiety sufferers to meet replies: 2

Introduction - Help for my Adult Daughter replies: 3