Mental Illness.
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@Bones said in Mental Illness.:
@Machpants man that frustrates me eh, I don't get the runners high - just the very occasional mild sense of satisfaction but usually just lung "pain" these days. Then again I'm also one of those people who can enjoy coffee any time of the day and not be buzzed. Swings and roundabouts.
Good enough for me. I’ll leave running off the fitness regime for another year.
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Runners high is very real for me. So much so easy paced distance running (Lydiard called it LSD - Long Slow Distance) has become one of my happy places. It's probably keeping me sane enough to continue working.
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@Crazy-Horse bastard.
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@Bones said in Mental Illness.:
@Crazy-Horse bastard.
I am sure other drivers are calling me that too when I slowly and happily drive home after a run.
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Around 2019 TR Jnr (now 18) and a mate were mugged, for the most part TR Jnr was fine, had moved on.
Then one day when at school (several months later) meeting the guidance counsellor, when he was asking him about school and other stuff, he then suggested to TR Jnr he may have PTSD from the mugging, whether he was or not, he decided he was, anxieties, mood swings, supposedly down to this.
He had spoken to a proper counsellor for a while, funded via the Tindall Foundation, I was allowed to attend a few sessions, and I gotta say, I struggled to keep quiet with some of the BS he was telling the counsellor, he was feeding her what she wanted him to say, suffice to say, after half a dozen or so sessions, the counsellor felt she had done what she could, he claims it achieved nothing.
We have suggested he speak to someone else now, being a few years older now, but he doesnt think it will make any difference...
Now I'm not discounting what happened to him, or that it didnt impact him, but I also think people are very quick to go down the mental heath issue path, more so that I think they are difficult to truly diagnose (in that I am sure anyone could convince a Dr they have a mental illness) and likely difficult to cure for those with illnesses.
My employer introduced a service a year or 2 back, giving access to services for staff and thier families; apparently they burnt thier projected annual budget in a month, and despite this have continued, realising it is an important benefit they are providing to employees.
As to the runner stuff, I dont run much, but I gym, and love nothing more than rocking up to the gym, put my headphones on, crank up the tunes and smash some tin, that is my happy place, that is where any issues, large or small disappear, even if only for an hour or so.
Mental illness, like bullying, have always been in our lives, but the world has changed and people are aware and do talk about it more now, but what actually constitutes these things, has changed drastically over time too.
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@Frank said in Mental Illness.:
Then there's a few women at my work essentially addicted to anti-anxiety medication (Xanax).
IIRC, you work in Asia? My anecdotal experience is that benzodiazepines (very potent drugs) are prescribed liberally in several East Asian countries, especially compared to Commonwealth countries. My doctor in NZ would be very hesitant to prescribe them to me, but I've been offered them by doctors in China for several issues.
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@Machpants said in Mental Illness.:
Anyway exercise is starting to be prescribed by some countries for depression, it certainly works.
It really does. Serious anxiety runs in the female side of my family and my daughter had a real crisis about 5 years ago. CBT and drugs really didn't help but she started dance again for some reason. Within a month of taking up dancing (and now running), she started to get better and hasn't had a serious episode since.
Most of humans throughout time weren't sedentary, so got their exercise without gym membership.
This. I do wonder how many of today's mental issues are seeded in office work - remote or otherwise.
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@Victor-Meldrew said in Mental Illness.:
@Machpants said in Mental Illness.:
Anyway exercise is starting to be prescribed by some countries for depression, it certainly works.
It really does. Serious anxiety runs in the female side of my family and my daughter had a real crisis about 5 years ago. CBT and drugs really didn't help but she started dance again for some reason. Within a month of taking up dancing (and now running), she started to get better and hasn't had a serious episode since.
Most of humans throughout time weren't sedentary, so got their exercise without gym membership.
This. I do wonder how many of today's mental issues are seeded in office work - remote or otherwise.
Kids playing hours of video games instead of running around outside...
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@canefan said in Mental Illness.:
CF Jr can play for hours. But it just makes him someone I don't like very much, very resistant to going out, sullen and argumentative, doesn't put much effort into a lot of stuff, just thinking of when he can get back on the vids
It's all about the balance, I think. My oldest friend's son is on the autistic scale with Asperger's and he had a really bad time with depression when he was 10. Computer games helped a lot and kept him quiet but his mum insisted on other stuff. He took up drumming as well which helped hugely.
He's in his late-20's now and manages really well - cycles everywhere. He designs computer interfaces and games for a living...
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@Tim said in Mental Illness.:
@Frank said in Mental Illness.:
Then there's a few women at my work essentially addicted to anti-anxiety medication (Xanax).
IIRC, you work in Asia? My anecdotal experience is that benzodiazepines (very potent drugs) are prescribed liberally in several East Asian countries, especially compared to Commonwealth countries. My doctor in NZ would be very hesitant to prescribe them to me, but I've been offered them by doctors in China for several issues.
There is a guy who is/was famous for giving out whatever at a certain clinic in the city where I live. I have a couple of of friends who went in to get Xanax before their dissertation defenses; apparently it brings you down to just the right level of calmness to answer questions coherently and sound like you actually know what you are talking about.
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@gt12 said in Mental Illness.:
@Tim said in Mental Illness.:
@Frank said in Mental Illness.:
Then there's a few women at my work essentially addicted to anti-anxiety medication (Xanax).
IIRC, you work in Asia? My anecdotal experience is that benzodiazepines (very potent drugs) are prescribed liberally in several East Asian countries, especially compared to Commonwealth countries. My doctor in NZ would be very hesitant to prescribe them to me, but I've been offered them by doctors in China for several issues.
There is a guy who is/was famous for giving out whatever at a certain clinic in the city where I live. I have a couple of of friends who went in to get Xanax before their dissertation defenses; apparently it brings you down to just the right level of calmness to answer questions coherently and sound like you actually know what you are talking about.
If you aren't confident about your game, just buy yourself game
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@MajorRage as @canefan above mentioned, gaming, I'd add that to SM and obesity as a big issue.
The aggression and bullying that goes on in there is awful.
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I'd add it's also poss. gender-related. Unscientific analysis, but SM angst/bullying seems more of an issue with the female members of the wider whanau than with the boys. The latter seem more interested in gaming 24/7.
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I've had battles with mental health over the years, but in hindsight I would say 95% of it has just been the ups and downs of being a person. The 5% of it which wasn't though is very very different.
Had my first bit of depression in 3rd year university. It was pretty scary as I honestly didn't have a clue what to do about it. I was sitting in a lecture and over the course of it I started to feel very down. It was a completely different feeling to being upset / pissed off / blah or "in a bit of a funk" as it's colloquially known. I struggled to see the point of absolutely anything and really felt like shit. The freakiest part though was that I just didn't feel like I was actually me and I was looking down on me. I went to bed at night genuinely scared and worried that I would wake up the next day feeling the same. I went to dinner with my other half, tried to explain it and she didn't get it. On the way home, we stopped at the servo to pick up some completely pointless rags (I think one was called Thats Life) to try and get some perspective. It just didn't work, I couldn't break it. After about 4 days when I was walking home, I realised that it had broken and I was feeling normal again.
To this day, I have no idea what it was, but all modern research point to it being a depressive episode.
Since then, and this is now 25 years ago, I've always been very cognisant of this feeling and how I am. Like everybody, I get down on myself from time to time and lose perspective of what I've actually got in front of me. I've had little swings here and there, but if I start getting that feeling again I simply stop what I'm doing and regroup. Generally for me, it's going for a run. I had a really shit last Thursday which also co-incided with (for the UK anyway) cataclysmic rain. So when I got back from London, I decided to go for a run anyway. And by fuck did it turn me around. Only did 35 mins and was soaked to the bone/freezing afterwards but after a hot shower I felt fantastic.
The point of this though is would that have worked back in 1998? I genuinely don't know but if I had to guess I don't think it would. That shit was real, and something different. So although I'm hugely sceptical of a lot of mental health media, I have zero doubt that it really is a real thing & I cannot imagine having to live with it day in / day out. My sister had a bad episode about 15 years ago and I don't think she's ever really recovered from it. At the time, I always though her obesity was the cause of it, but perhaps it's more a circular thing. One is related to the other and it's a hard cycle to bust. She seems much stronger now though although the underlying condition hasn't changed.
One thing I do suffer from badly though is anxiety. It has destroyed many social & work situations for me. I still haven't got the solution to get that under control, but I do refuse to take medication. I've opened up about it with a few buds, and it's surprisingly prevalent. However, I'm the only one that doesn't take Xanax to relieve the symptoms. I spoke to a Dr once about it, and they talked about various therapies / scenarios I should look at before drugs. I guess I've been too stubborn to try it as I don't like putting drugs into my body (never really have). Perhaps I could have had a much happier life / successful career if I had gone down this path. That, I'll never know.
So yeah, bit of a ramble but that's my two cents. Upshot is that I believe mental health issues are very very real things, but far too many people self-prescribe as mental health issues in order to self-explain their own (usually shitty) behaviour.
