Topic: Mental Health Awareness/ Support Chat

While this thread got a bump, what do all of you do when you're stressed? Might be stress from work, might be private stuff. What do you do when thinks get a bit much?

I'm very easily stressed, and am not able to handle a lot of stress easily. So for example last week I had my yearly review at my work and a lot of other work to do, and I was feeling a bit uneasy all week. It's all good again now, but maybe some tips?

I destress by taking long walks, doing breathing exercises and yoga.

Hahahahahaah I jest. I panic eat and wait until bed time. Obviously.

I'll be interested to read responses here. I've never suffered from stress or anxiety but due to recent events I have so much that it's causing me panic attacks, I've lost a lost of weight, sleeping maybe 2 hours a night, severe chest pains, forgetfulness, bursting into tears multiple times a day for near 3 months straight now, it goes on and on and on. And as a recovering alcoholic I no longer have that outlet. I have absolutely no idea what to do with what I'm feeling.

@TabulaRasa That sounds difficult .Good luck out there.

With regards to outlets, I always try to have a few "small, healthy obsessions". It's always something like "I don't know anything about Elvis Presley, I'm going to make it a point to listen to all his music this week." Just stuff to get lost in.

There's always this kind of balance where addictions aren't good, but having something to obsess about for a little while can help me switch tracks.

Also, your situation sounds very serious. You have people to help you?

@Kidfried Yes and no. I'm in therapy and I'm prescribed a variety of drugs which I haven't been taking because I'm terrified of pharmaceutical chemicals. I'm ok feeling the daily pain but I scare myself with suicidal thoughts. Kind of like I'm at the wheel but not really in control. People tell me it'll get better. I've always been fairly patient. Thanks for the suggestions, I'll try that.

My mental health has been kinda all over the place since the pandemic started. When I first started working from home it was an absolute dream. And I would still rather work from home than waste hours of my life commuting like I used to before. But you kinda don’t realise how meaningful those micro interactions are with colleagues, even if you don’t particularly like them. I live on my own and just the overwhelming loneliness I feel at times, it is like it is going to bury me. Plus my life is just so meaningless now. It wasn’t any more varied and meaningful in an office, but it at least gave you an excuse to get up, get dressed, go and talk to people and do things. Giving the illusion of progression to some degree. Working from home has turned me into a ghost who haunts my apartment and just… exists in this static state. It is weird, because 99% of the time I am fine, but then I will just go into these depressed slumps that can sometimes last weeks at a time, but once I get out of the other side of them I’ll be fine then for months afterwards even though nothing changes.

This is a good question. Living in this day and age brings it’s fair share of stress. I’m no expert, but I feel like we humans have created a world in which we aren’t yet properly adapted to handle, at least not instinctively. The kinds of mental stress we put ourselves through day-in and day-out is different from what our ancestors had to deal, especially primordial humans. In many ways we aren’t naturally wired for survival in a modern world. People through the ages have struggled with mortal survival and the basic physical needs of life, which is it’s own form of stress, but nowadays we struggle with different issues. Whereas prehistoric man or woman might benefit from having ADHD and hyper-reactive anxiousness in order to deal with predators, enemies, and the need for robust fight or flight responses, we have it different. In the current era, we don’t have regular attacks on our physical survival and so the body’s response to mental, social, and emotional stress creates survival instincts that don’t work well in our world, especially when such “attacks” are a constant barrage during every waking hour at work and home via technology.

Although humankind has remarkable resilience and adaptability, our intellectual cleverness has changed our world quicker than our bodies have been able to evolve to it. Within the last generation we’ve turned life into a constant onslaught of hyper-stimulation and overabundance. Throughout history and up until 1900 the majority of people participated in some form of farming or hunting for their sustenance. Merely 100 years later, the only farming I do is in my RPG’s and the only hunting I do is on Amazon. If a restaurant doesn’t Door-Dash its a major inconvenience. Evolutionarily I feel like this shift in social and existential tone has led to much of the mental health crisis in the world. We inundate our bodies with adrenaline when it really doesn’t ‘need’ it for survival purposes. Yet the physical effects of the hormonal response still manifest themselves.

Furthermore, increased global communication has also led to excessive pursuit of social climbing, financial success, and hyper-comparison and self-judgement. One salient phenomenon that I’ve observed is that there is no direct relation of affluence or social achievement with happiness and contentment. In fact, i think there’s an inverse relationship between how much money you have and how content you are. Its a well-worn fable visited many times in stories, but I think it’s true — the simple life is often a happier life. Nevertheless I recognize I can’t speak with authority on the subject and there’s plenty of misery in poverty. So perhaps it’s more of a bell-shaped curve rather than a direct inverse relationship of wealth and life-satisfaction. Either way, it’s something to think about.

One thing to be clear — depression, anxiety, and all their associated psychological cousins are legitimate biological health issues and do need professional intervention. I am a firm believer that people should seek out mental health care when they have clinical depression and disabling anxiety. No question about it. Whether it be proper medication, professional counseling, or a combination of the two, I encourage those individuals who are susceptible to get the help they need.

So with that said and the preceding background lecture on human history, I think there’s a few ways one might deal with routine ‘garden-variety’ stress (ie. not the aforementioned clinical disorder variety). I try to take the personal approach of finding outlets for my daily stress. Video gaming is actually one of them. Exercise would be another (which I’m doing very poorly at right now). When stress is high I also like to meditate and disconnect from the noise of the world. And I think there is substantial value in having some kind of grounded place to reset my own expectations. Most of the time I stress about things that either A) I have no control over, or B) that are quite insignificant in the grand scheme of things. Sometimes it takes an outside observer, like a family member or friend, to point out the futility of stressing over something. I do try to remember my ancestors scraping by and starving due to an ill-timed drought, or suffering from physical maladies that are easily treated nowadays, and it helps reset my frustrations when the WiFi doesn’t work or someone cuts me off in traffic.

@Th3solution I really appreciate your comment. That was a very insightful and inspiring collection of thoughts. So, thank you.