General / Mental Health Support Thread

[Marklr]

Trying. Undecided what to do. Change medication or pursue other options like ECT.

Are you not getting any counselling/therapy? There will be a treatment for your particular illness, mate. You will get there.
If you've been on the same medication for years, then yeah, you need a review and maybe upping the dose or changing it altogether. I've been on Citalopram for over 20 years, and I'm pretty sure they do fuck all for me these days. The depression is up and down....I've no control over it. When I'm on a down, life seems pointless. Nothing excites me....things I should be looking forward to just seem pointless. Life grates. But...when I'm on a good day, I can never understand why I was thinking such negative thoughts. It feels like it wasn't ME.
The brain chemicals are all over the place! haha.
It can be fucking awful, mate...but it's not permanent. Get to your DR. It's an illness that needs treatment like any other illness.

 

[skillman]

I just want to wish you the best of luck with this, and to say that I know how you feel.

In real life, I'm very confident, but when I was 15, I had to stand up in front of the class an read something out in English class. I thought I was having a heart attack, I had very bad shakes and just like you say, the shaking voice and blushing sound all too familiar.

I don't know if this will help, or even been seen as good advice by some, but I thought I'd mention it here. After that incident (and a few more like it) I went to the doctors and ended up on beta blockers for a few years. They don't take away the fear or the mental anguish at being in a pressurised situation, but they 100% helped with the symptoms and they keep you calm and centred (well, calmer than you would be) in the moment and the shaking/voice etc. is definitely calmer.

Haven't taken them, for years, and it might not be a good long-term thing, but as a short-term fix, it could definitely work. Maybe speak to your doctor?

That's something I've seen when doing research. People swear by a particular one - can't remember the name - and call it some sort of miracle drug for public speaking anxiety. As you say, the symptoms are still there but people say the excitement of doing something good overtakes the negative thoughts as opposed to being overpowered by them!

I'm going to have a look into them closer to the team.

Thanks mate.

 

[Stephen Ireland's pants]

My stomach feels like I've swallowed some battery acid or something. It hasn't settled for the last 5 days or so. Bubbling about and making me feel sick.

I had a pint of wobbly bob yesterday that had the same result.

 

[SebastianBlue]

That's something I've seen when doing research. People swear by a particular one - can't remember the name - and call it some sort of miracle drug for public speaking anxiety. As you say, the symptoms are still there but people say the excitement of doing something good overtakes the negative thoughts as opposed to being overpowered by them!

I'm going to have a look into them closer to the team.

Thanks mate.

To add to what @RobMCFC said, sometimes the short term pharmaceutical fixes can do wonders for your confidence, such that you don’t actually need them after the short period of use.

It really is amazing how much the experience of speaking in front of others going well (rather than poorly, as you initially fear) can change your perspective on future public speaking situations.

They aren’t silver bullets, by any means, and you’ll no doubt still need to use CBT techniques to help during and after if you are among the many, many people (including myself) who has always struggled with speaking in front of more than a few people (especially when you don’t know most of them well), but prior positive experience really cannot be overestimated for improving future experiences.

 

[RobMCFC]

That's something I've seen when doing research. People swear by a particular one - can't remember the name - and call it some sort of miracle drug for public speaking anxiety. As you say, the symptoms are still there but people say the excitement of doing something good overtakes the negative thoughts as opposed to being overpowered by them!

I'm going to have a look into them closer to the team.

Thanks mate.

When I was first prescribed it in 1983, it was Inderal, but the current version is called Propranolol.

You can see why these are banned in sport because if you were playing snooker, for example, you’d be steady as a rock when taking your shot! It would be a big advantage.

The thing I remember was thinking “it’s not working!” because I still felt all the turmoil inside, but when it comes to the pressure point when your heart would normally race away, it’s like this calming hand is keeping a lid on it and stopping all of your body’s fight or flight responses.

 

[SebastianBlue]

Missus apparently heard yesterday from a uni friend that lives in Tampa (unsure what part of the larger metro area) and they are not evacuating because they are not in a mandatory evac zone. The missus was trying to urge them to leave anyway, but they said they felt confident they would be fine where they are.

Genuinely hope they are right.