A
anxietygirl2
Guest
Hi everyone, this is my first post but I registered because I need help with something so I'll give you a bit of background about me so you can understand my questions. (pardon how long this is!!!!)
I'm 30 and I had a "Major Depressive Episode" this year. My frienRAB pushed me to seek help and it was hard but I did. I have always believed that I should be able to take care of myself so it was hard for me to accept my frienRAB' help. This was at the beginning of April.
My depression was because of loss of hope, severe chronic pain with acute situational pain, and loss of employment/home/possessions from a back/sacrial/hip injury which happened in 2007.
I started in April on Sertraline (Zoloft) at 25mg and then 2 weeks later 50mg and this is my final dose which I have been on since. Starting immediately I noticed a lot of changes that were not related to depression at all. My doctor had sent me to a counselor to help me with the depression when she put me on the medication and after 5 weeks the counselor felt it necessary to get a consult from a psychiatrist because the things I was talking about and reporting in changes were not in line with depression.
After 3 investigative appointments the psychiatrist took me on as a regular patient and diagnosed me as having severe social anxiety and general anxiety and suffering a Major Depressive Episode.
Okay so that's my background
These pills have absolutely changed my life. Things changed, without any effort from me, with things that I had no idea were "wrong" / not "normal". I had no idea that I had anxiety. I knew that I didn't like parties at people's houses but these anxiety issues have existed for my entire life. I do not remeraber a so-called before time. It is definitely chemical and I have been experiencing a life that I had no idea existed! Basically, I've had this since I have memory but because I was so young, it was normalized. I had absolute no idea that I was experiencing anxiety.
I have a hard time now remerabering what it was like before and what changes I felt throughout this year, but I have emails to frienRAB and I remeraber some things. One thing I remeraber is thinking "I always thought life was so hard and felt like such a bad person that I couldn't accomplish things or make goals and other people could but now, I think, if everyone else feels the way I feel now, how can they NOT accomplish things??!"
So, life is new and it's like I am learning all these lessons that everyone else learns throughout their life. Self-care, home care, career care, etc. Everything is just like an alternate dimension! haha
It is a real novelty for me, watching my progress as I learn these life skills but I have other challenges than just learning. I also have to address my anxiety. There is one thing I am not really sure what to do and I hope someone here can give me suggestions to get me on my way.
I am trying to figure out a healthy way to manage my time which will not trigger my anxiety and cause me to become overwhelmed. When I get overwhelmed I become paralyzed and can do nothing. I know that managing my time will cause some anxiety but it is good to expose myself and learn how to deal with it. And I have to learn this, this is another life skill which I need if I want to be able to go back to work or school. (I failed out of university after trying for 4 years off and on and it is very obvious looking back that it was due to anxiety).
I am not working but I have two highschool courses I am trying to upgrade and I have a couple of hobbies I am serious about and try to increase my knowledge. I have not figured out how to do these courses on a regular basis, or do the drawing I want to or the readings I want to. I have tried to schedule my time strictly (specific days/times), I have tried to schedule it loosely (specific days but not times).
What I am trying is not working. I do my laundry and clean every Sunday and that has been working really well, in fact now I tell people I can't do anything until it's done and I don't feel like I have lost out on anything. That's really good for me! So I was thinking of trying to do the same thing with those activities I want to do. Such as saying "3 hrs Math on one day, 3hrs Physics on a 2nd day, 3hrs on Drawing on one day, 3 hrs on Reading on one day". But the first thing I think is "how can I get enough done with 3 hrs only a week? So then I think maybe I will do it on two days each for the school courses and one day each for the hobbies but the first thing I think about in that case is then I have no free time. You know how these thoughts go....
But I just don't know and I am getting a little antsy and frustrated with not finding a solution. My courses were supposed to be done in Dec but I haven't even done one assignment yet. The school was very accommodating and changed my end date to June when I explained about my anxiety so I have more time but I need some more ideas to do these 4 things at least once a week.
If you can relate to what I have said can you please share with me ideas that have worked for you? If you can not relate please do not just throw random ideas out. I've read the time management websites and looked at some books at the library. Random ideas or declarations of what is "best" are not helpful at all and in fact increase my anxiety about this I'm really interested in hearing how people overcome similar problems to me and what methoRAB they found to work into their life in a more permanent capacity.
Thank you so much for all your help and taking the time to read this!!
I'm 30 and I had a "Major Depressive Episode" this year. My frienRAB pushed me to seek help and it was hard but I did. I have always believed that I should be able to take care of myself so it was hard for me to accept my frienRAB' help. This was at the beginning of April.
My depression was because of loss of hope, severe chronic pain with acute situational pain, and loss of employment/home/possessions from a back/sacrial/hip injury which happened in 2007.
I started in April on Sertraline (Zoloft) at 25mg and then 2 weeks later 50mg and this is my final dose which I have been on since. Starting immediately I noticed a lot of changes that were not related to depression at all. My doctor had sent me to a counselor to help me with the depression when she put me on the medication and after 5 weeks the counselor felt it necessary to get a consult from a psychiatrist because the things I was talking about and reporting in changes were not in line with depression.
After 3 investigative appointments the psychiatrist took me on as a regular patient and diagnosed me as having severe social anxiety and general anxiety and suffering a Major Depressive Episode.
Okay so that's my background
These pills have absolutely changed my life. Things changed, without any effort from me, with things that I had no idea were "wrong" / not "normal". I had no idea that I had anxiety. I knew that I didn't like parties at people's houses but these anxiety issues have existed for my entire life. I do not remeraber a so-called before time. It is definitely chemical and I have been experiencing a life that I had no idea existed! Basically, I've had this since I have memory but because I was so young, it was normalized. I had absolute no idea that I was experiencing anxiety.I have a hard time now remerabering what it was like before and what changes I felt throughout this year, but I have emails to frienRAB and I remeraber some things. One thing I remeraber is thinking "I always thought life was so hard and felt like such a bad person that I couldn't accomplish things or make goals and other people could but now, I think, if everyone else feels the way I feel now, how can they NOT accomplish things??!"
So, life is new and it's like I am learning all these lessons that everyone else learns throughout their life. Self-care, home care, career care, etc. Everything is just like an alternate dimension! haha
It is a real novelty for me, watching my progress as I learn these life skills but I have other challenges than just learning. I also have to address my anxiety. There is one thing I am not really sure what to do and I hope someone here can give me suggestions to get me on my way.
I am trying to figure out a healthy way to manage my time which will not trigger my anxiety and cause me to become overwhelmed. When I get overwhelmed I become paralyzed and can do nothing. I know that managing my time will cause some anxiety but it is good to expose myself and learn how to deal with it. And I have to learn this, this is another life skill which I need if I want to be able to go back to work or school. (I failed out of university after trying for 4 years off and on and it is very obvious looking back that it was due to anxiety).
I am not working but I have two highschool courses I am trying to upgrade and I have a couple of hobbies I am serious about and try to increase my knowledge. I have not figured out how to do these courses on a regular basis, or do the drawing I want to or the readings I want to. I have tried to schedule my time strictly (specific days/times), I have tried to schedule it loosely (specific days but not times).
What I am trying is not working. I do my laundry and clean every Sunday and that has been working really well, in fact now I tell people I can't do anything until it's done and I don't feel like I have lost out on anything. That's really good for me!
So I was thinking of trying to do the same thing with those activities I want to do. Such as saying "3 hrs Math on one day, 3hrs Physics on a 2nd day, 3hrs on Drawing on one day, 3 hrs on Reading on one day". But the first thing I think is "how can I get enough done with 3 hrs only a week? So then I think maybe I will do it on two days each for the school courses and one day each for the hobbies but the first thing I think about in that case is then I have no free time. You know how these thoughts go.... But I just don't know and I am getting a little antsy and frustrated with not finding a solution. My courses were supposed to be done in Dec but I haven't even done one assignment yet. The school was very accommodating and changed my end date to June when I explained about my anxiety so I have more time but I need some more ideas to do these 4 things at least once a week.
If you can relate to what I have said can you please share with me ideas that have worked for you? If you can not relate please do not just throw random ideas out. I've read the time management websites and looked at some books at the library. Random ideas or declarations of what is "best" are not helpful at all and in fact increase my anxiety about this
I'm really interested in hearing how people overcome similar problems to me and what methoRAB they found to work into their life in a more permanent capacity.Thank you so much for all your help and taking the time to read this!!