Anxiety and Depression

Life Health & Fitness
1

I’m starting a new thread, even though there are some threads about either anxiety or depression. From my experience and my research, they are related, you can have both, and many drugs are used to treat one or the other or both. Moderators, feel free to merge this into an existing thread if you feel it’s more appropriate.

I hope this thread can be a place where we share our experiences and also where we can share things we did/are doing to heal- both natural remedies and using medication. From my experience, I know that depression and anxiety can be seriously debilitating, and further that it’s best to get some help and use a variety of different approaches in combination.

First a little background info. I started to feel anxiety about 9 months ago. It was really bad during the first few months. I would worry about things from the moment I opened my eyes in the morning, and the feeling would persist until I fell asleep. I was talking very little at home, I had trouble concentrating at work, I had insomnia, and I just felt terrible all day. My thinking was very irrational. Something would happen at work, for example, and my mind would not stop thinking of all the “what if’s.”

Then a few months ago, I started to feel sadness. I’m pretty sure it was depression but I’m not 100% sure about that.

So what did I do to heal? And what am I still doing (because the anxiety is off and on and I’m not completely healed from that yet)?

First, with the depression, I healed from that very quickly. The way it happened was accidental. I stopped drinking because of a stomach issue, and immediately starting the next day, I stopped to feel sadness (it was probably about 90% gone that next day). It kind of came and went over the next month or so, but eventually completely disappeared as I haven’t had a drop to drink since that first day of realization that booze was causing my depression. I have since researched the link between alcohol and depression, and there’s no doubt in my mind that alcohol was the cause.

As for anxiety, as I mentioned, I am still dealing with that. It comes and goes. I tried some medication for a while but stopped it. I am still taking sleeping pills as I think I’ve developed a dependency, but I’m cutting the pills in half now. I hope to be off them soon.

The things that worked for my anxiety include the following:
a) Faith. I know this is not for everyone, but my faith is a big help for me. I go to words of encouragement in the Bible, I talk to people at church, I listen to sermons at church and on YouTube, and I have an older friend who approaches his counseling of me with a heavy emphasis on our shared faith.
b) Exercise. I workout 4-5 times every week. I ALWAYS feel better after my workouts whenever I’m feeling anxious. During LNY, there were a couple of days when I felt that anxiety creeping up. I would then head out for a hike, and start to feel better during and for many hours after the hike. I also swim often and that definitely helps. However, I feel being outdoors and getting some sun/UV rays (even on cloudy days) works the best.
c) Wim Hof breathing. I do this every day now and it calms me. I do the breathing during naptime at work when I don’t head to the pool, and I do the breathing every evening. All I can say is that it works.
d) For about the month or two that I took medication, it helped.

The things I am doing but I’m not 100% they are helping:
a) Alcohol abstinence. I know this helped with my depression, as I mentioned above. Does it help with my anxiety? My research has showed me there’s a link between anxiety and alcohol, and so there there’s a good chance that staying away from booze is helping me. But I’m not completely sure about this.
b) I’ve been taking cold showers since January 31. Every morning, I end my lukewarm/cool showers with 3 minutes of cold water. I could feel the effects immediately when I first started (I would get a kind of high afterward- I guess increased dopamine), but now I think I’m a bit cold water adapted and so I’m not sure the cold showers are still helping. I continue to take cold showers because I believe that, at the very least, they invigorate me and get me ready to start the day. I just started experimenting with ice baths. Let’s see how that goes.
b) Diet for good gut health. I’ve been reading that your gut microbiome plays a crucial role for good mental health. So I’ve been eating foods that help to promote good gut bacteria.
c) Magnesium. I’m now taking magnesium supplements (effervescent tablets are sold at FamilyMart), and trying to eat foods rich in magnesium. From what I understand, most of us are magnesium deficient, and I’ve read that increasing your intake of this mineral helps with anxiety and depression.

I would love to hear from others. Your experiences and what has helped you.

27 Likes
2

Antidepressants don’t help unless you take it for a very long time, but the problem is once you take it for that long you become dependent on it and there are withdraws if you stop cold turkey. So I’d avoid them if it was possible.

Alcohol is a depressant, you would think it would cause depression.

Bible study groups, etc. don’t help. For me it is basically sitting through lectures, and I hate doing that. Christians swear up and down that bible study will somehow magically cure everything but in my experience snake oil works better.

It doesn’t help that Christians that I meet, especially missionaries, have boundaries that are difficult to impossible to cross, and you will not be close friends with them no matter what.

1 Like
3

Great post. I appreciate you sharing your personal struggles and applaud your endeavour to seek solutions that work for you :+1: :clap:

7 Likes
4

Many Christian leaders don’t know how to deal with mental issues. It’s NOT just a matter of faith. Some people need help (medication, counseling, etc.).

Having said that, my faith has been very important in my process of healing. But like I said above, I know this isn’t for everyone. Feel free to chuck this particular method out the window if it doesn’t suit you!

There’s no doubt in my mind that it’s the combination of approaches that is helping.

I’m not sure what you’re dealing with, but feel free to share here.

Check out my two lists above. I believe everyone’s approach will be different. I hope you find the right combination of things that help you heal. And feel free to share any other things that have helped you.

3 Likes
5

I need individual attention. Right now no church leader is willing to provide that. None of them have time for that. I’ve been asking for weekly 1 hour meetings with my church leaders and so far they haven’t replied. Actually I even offered to volunteer and they wouldn’t reply either. I conclude that they want me out of sight, out of mind.

Church leaders are far too concerned with the “needs of the many” to care about individual cases.

2 Likes
6

I took some antibiotics a few years back and I was struck with depression in a way I never felt. I could barely get out of bed. I found out that some people can experience this because of the disruption of gut microbes.

I started to eat kimchi everyday for an about 2 weeks and felt back to normal.

Consider taking a vitamin test to see if you’re low on anything. I supplement vitamin D for the lack of sun in the UK.

7 Likes
7

Definitely, fermented foods help with gut bacteria. Add a bit of raw garlic to your meal and you help that bacteria in the kimchi grow in your gut! Okay, now I’m hungry.

I’ll be getting a physical soon. I’ll look into your suggestion.

1 Like
8

Hormones also play a big role in mental health. Look into having your hormones checked. They might be out of wack

3 Likes
9

You’re high maintenance, TL. You seem to want to be magically healed of all your ailments. That’s not how it happens. Funny right, you think religion is a sham but want a metaphysical experience to change you. :wink: But let’s get back to the OP, shall we?

Thanks for starting this M. I have been wrestling with anxiety and depression for decades. The best thing for it seems to be free time to do what I really want. That meant sucking it up and working like a dog. But the hope has always been to save enough money and downshift into a far more enjoyable life, a simpler way. I’m closer now to that than I’ve ever been, but the last part involves a large commitment and fair deal of planning. Fingers crossed.

@superking and I have been talking about this kind of thing for a few years now. Changing everything is tough, but as far as I can see, well worth it. He’s way ahead of me on the road less traveled. :bowing:

I like the counseling aspect of your religious friend. Talk therapy works wonders.

6 Likes
10

I’ve never been depressed, even during periods where life was unfair. And when you work in many countries and sectors, there is a strong likelihood you’re going to get fucked employment wise at some point.

Sports, kombucha and good sweaty pig sex—life’s natural balance and endorphins.

11

Yeah, I also have that feeling. It seems better not to suffer from it if I can choose. On one level I can’t understand depression, but objectively (I’ve seen enough of it for one thing) it clearly exists for many people who do suffer from it.

1 Like
12

Then what’s your advise for me? Just suck it up and stay out of everyone’s way?

13

You have enough to go on. Now apply what you have learned. I think you’re already doing some of it, walking, exercise, cutting back on unhealthy food and drinks.

One of these days you might even realize that this site provides a chunk of your day to day positive social interactions and appreciate it more. :slight_smile:

5 Likes
14

Same here. Closest I seem to come is a kind of wistful nostalgia. I’ve witnessed a lot of real depression up close though, and I really feel for the people who go through it. Definitely not a walk in the park.

1 Like
15

I need some healthy in person interaction that isn’t a therapist. I hoped my church leaders could possibly provide that, but apart from telling me to attend bible study groups (where the interaction makes me very uneasy) they will not do anything else.

16

Anxiety sucks. I got agoraphobia so when I flew to Japan I was freaking out about the bus and flight etc. I went to the hospital and explained it and they gave me some diazepam and propanolol and I had the best flight ever. Defo be getting that for next time!

I’d defo recommend avoiding alcohol, ciggies and caffeine though. I always feel super anxious the next day after drinking but I’m improving recently

In fact, even the hospital appointment was scary. While I was waiting in the waiting room, there was an earthquake, so when I went and spoke to the doctor, I was basically shaking.:joy:

4 Likes
17

Doctors in Taiwan hands out painkillers and benzos like candy. I don’t know if this is a good thing because I heard benzo withdraw can be nasty. I’ve seen someone prescribed enough benzo to kill an elephant.

What are your thoughts on benzos?

18

If you take them for like a month or two and plan to do whatever your depression/anxiety is stopping you from doing then gradually weaning off then good

If you use them but don’t make any effort then not good I guess

19

Benzo makes me nervous because they can work at a high enough dose (like enough to start to do weird things, such as 5mg of stilinox will do that), otherwise they can give you a very nice restful sleep. But I’m also reading that they should only be used for 2 weeks max. Basically once hooked you’ll be unable to sleep, develop illness, etc. because your body is craving it.

It’s something I rather not find out in person.

Then there’s this thing called “Dormicum” which exists at a very high 7.5mg dose, and that particular variant was used in a lethal injection and led to a botched execution (to be fair this was an extremely high dose, like 100mg)

20

I’m not sure either, I only tried it for stressful situations like flying. I defo wouldn’t be keen to experience the withdrawal effects, but I think if you gradually decrease the dose under the guidance of a doctor rather than stopping cold turkey it shouldn’t be a problem. Especially if you already ‘ conquered your Demons‘ while taking them.

I didn’t take anything particularly severe though. Just prop and diazepam but I could see how they could be addictive. I got like 20 left but saving them for flights only