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curl-6 on 02 February 2021
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Alex_The_Hedgehog said:
curl-6 said:

Congratulations Alex, I'm really glad to hear you're feeling better!

A combination of finding the right medication and just learning to know my own mind better and develop better management strategies worked wonders for me personally, over the course of 2007-2019 I went from not being able to leave my house to leading an almost normal life.

Getting cancer and the pandemic have unfortunately set me back quite a bit in the last year, but I'm working on rebuilding and it should be easier and faster than last time since now I've done it before.

So which medications and therapies ended up working for you if I may ask?

Thanks, curl! I'm also glad that you overcame your difficulties. Basically, I'm taking anxiolytics and I was also taking a medicine to sleep at night, but the doctor ruled it out, since I'm not having trouble to sleep anymore.

Also, another thing that helped me a lot is that I'm actually facing my fears. For example, I was nervous about the idea of going to the dentist a couple of months ago. So, instead of fleeing it, I actually made an appointment and everything went the best way possible. Well, the days before it were a bit longer than usual, but now I'm free of that fear.

I'm also enjoying myself more. When I was at my mental limit in 2017, I would avoid even playing video-games. I'm going to be honest with you, back in those days I would boot up my favorite games and play them for like 5-10 minutes before giving up. Now, if I want to play a game, I play it for the time I really want.

Trivial things like watching a movie you like, playing games alone or with friends, having a nice walk, studying, every little thing helps.

Now I'm going to tell you something I learned with my experiences: Laying down in your bed and thinking about how bad your future can be destroys you. It's like a curse, but inside your mind.

Yeah getting out there and facing my fears worked for me too, I just had to make sure I did it in a gradual and controlled way so as not to overwhelm myself and slip backwards.

And yeah, self-care with stuff like movies, gaming, exercise, are essential for me, I try to use "rewards" to motivate myself and as relief when I'm having a rough day. I can always look forward to sitting down and playing games in the evening after work for example, or if I have an anxiety incident I'll watch a meditation/ASMR video or maybe just game games reviews or Digital Foundry or something.

I'm also seeing a psychologist; unfortunately they're pretty heavily booked atm for obvious reasons, but my next is halfway through next month, so I just gotta make it through the next 5 weeks without losing my shit haha.