Recent Posts
Now that Thanksgiving has come and gone and you are going to be eating turkey prepared in a million different ways for the next few days, you have successfully made it through the first part of what I like to call The Bermuda Triangle: Thanksgiving, Christmas, and New Years. The three holidays that cause many folks to feel depressed. You should feel proud that you are still standing unscathed because there are probably some of us who have succumbed to the emotions that only this time of year can bring. Congratulations for making it this far. You are now ahead of the game. There are a few things that you can do to fight back against the next two holidays that are in my book, the most difficult to get through.
There have been many top 10 lists compiled thru time, but this is a bit different because there are only a few things that you need to do to combat Christmas and New Years. One of the first things you must do is to accept that this is the holiday season, and no matter where you go, you are going to be reminded of this fact because people will be decorating their homes, some outrageously, to celebrate the holidays. It is impossible to go through your day without seeing huge displays of Santa and reindeer, and Snoopy and Frosty, and Mangers.You will also be inundated with Christmas music on just about every radio station. For instance, I heard Bruce Springsteens Santa Claus is coming to town on Thanksgiving Day night. So if you dont want to hear holiday songs by the radio stations that are jamming it down your throat, I suggest that you learn to change the stations you are listening to often, or just refrain from listening to the radio for a month or so. You also need to take a break from watching primetime T.V., or any regular stations because you will be bombarded with commercials from all of the major stores such as Wal-Mart and Old Navy. Now these commercials are on a loop. Last year, I had the Old Navy commercial memorized within the first few days after Thanksgiving. And that same ad ran from November 26 thru December 25th. After seeing the same ad several times an hour, on different station, I was ready to push my head through a wall.
So you get the idea right? Shut yourself off from the rest of the world for a few weeks. You could also go to a place that doesnt celebrate Xmas, but I am sure that would cost a great deal of money. Or, you could just join in and make a great effort to enjoy the holidays this year. You do not have to spend a lot of money just surround yourself with people that you like to be around, friends, family and so on. That would be the easiest thing to do, Instead of trying to hide away for a few weeks. Whatever you decide to do, I hope you have fun!!
Be Well
So I go to see my doctor last month and as I am driving, I am thinking about how long I have been seeing her and I get this nice fuzzy feeling as I think: Gee, I have been with this doctor for almost 2 years now. She really knows me, and I really feel good about my relationship with her.
I walk into her office after a half hour wait and as I am sitting across from her she looks down at her desk at some papers and she picks one up and hands it to me. She proceeds to tell me that she can no longer be my doctor anymore and the sheet of paper she handed me was of other clinics in the area. One of which I had been to before I wouldnt think about sending my cat there. She tells me she cannot handle the work load and she is going to another hospital where they are not inundating her with patients. Work load too much doc? I said as I looked at the other shit holes she was referring me to. She shakes her head yes. I start to think that this is not good. It takes at least 3 months to get into another place, but she was gonna write me a script for 3 months worth of meds. How kind.
So, my doctor is giving me the boot because she happens to work at a clinic that bombards doctors with patients and she was going to work at a better clininc? A place where she can take her time and practice to the utmost ability for her patients? How does this benefit her other patients? Did I not make the cut? Were there any patients she was bringing with her? If there was, I wasnt one of them. Lets face it, the whole Mental Health field is always slammed with patients. Its kinda like fast food. Ya drive in, they ask you how you are feeling, and then they prescribe you meds and you are asked to proceed to the check out counter. Thank You. Please come again. Or in my case, please dont come back.This is what I love about the Mental Health field. This is how it works. Or this is how it doesnt work. I called three of the places. One gave me an intake on the phone and they told me they would get back to me, and they did a few days later. A woman named Lisa was kind enough to call me back and tell me that they were backed up. I told her that is understandable, how long. And she said she did not know. Oh well, Thanks anyway. All I need is someone just to monitor my meds and most places want you to see a therapist as well. I have no problem with that, on to the next phase of my recovery. Sometimes you just gotta fight a little to get to where you need to be. Things change as life changes. It may seem like a horrible change but I think we just need to go through things to get to the other side. I always fight change, but after a while I stop fighting and I see that I need to exert a little effort.I have come to realize that it is probably a good idea to get some fresh blood, a new doctor with new ideas. This is where I am at.I'll keep you posted.
Be Well
Tired of waking up to overcast skies with leaves falling from the trees? Is the daylight savings time wearing you down as it gets dark at 4:30 in the afternoon? Are you finding it difficult waking up in the morning to darkness? If you have answered yes to any of these questions, you just might be sad. Thats right; you just might be suffering from S.A.D. Seasonal Affective Disorder. There are more people that are dealing with this than you might think. Especially those people who live in New England, where the bright warm and long days of summer are well behind us. It is easy to fall into a depression because it can be very difficult to make the transition. You may wake up to darkness in the morning and travel to work in the dark, and then return home in darkness. What a drag, huh?
There are many ways to combat the disorder and there are some things we can do to break out of the winter blues. The key to keeping from falling into a rut is to stay active. There are many things you can do such as hobbies that can happily pass the long winter days and nights away.
Exercise is one way to fight off the blues, yet you dont need to join a gym and workout for hours. If you are not into heavy exercise, just go out for a walk. Even when the weather gets real cold, you can still go for a nice brisk walk for a half hour or so. It will get the blood flowing and even though you may hate the cold wind whipping against your face, it will be well worth the effort because you will be surprised how much better you will feel.
And if you don’t wanna brave the cold, the nearest shopping mall is a great way to get some walking time.Another antidote is to make sure you eat. Eating 3 square meals a day can help a great deal giving your body the energy it needs to get through the day.Be sure to drink plenty of water, Keeping your body hydrated really affects your mood.This can be difficult to achieve because of busy schedules,but it can really make a difference. Another way to keep your spirits up is to keep in touch with family and friends. Keeping in contact with our dear friends and family is a great way to help fight off the winter doldrums. Try not to spend too much time alone because that is where the problem lies, when you are alone and those negative thoughts just keep playing themselves over and over and the next thing ya know, you are down in the dumps and you begin to think that life sucks.
There are many things we can do to keep chasing the blues away. Keep moving and stay connected to support systems, but if you really need to see a doctor, then you may need to be on some sort of anti-depressant, however, if your doctor is very familiar with S.A.D. he or she will also suggest to eat right and get some exercise along with the medication because medication alone is NOT the answer. So get up and outta the house and keep active and keep an eye on the calendar as spring time may seem like an eternity, but after the middle of December, the days start getting longer and the warm weather is right behind!
I go through these phases. The phase where things go good, everything seems to fall in place, life is light and easy, I am doin ok. People are nice and friendly, I can go through the day without worries. Then there is the other phase: Everything seems to be so heavy and wrong. Things just seem to take so long, a heavy burden just to go out and get freakin laundry detergent. Life just feels so hard and angry. There is like a big black cloud hanging around. But I guess life is like that. Ya gotta take the good with the bad. Kinda like the good, the bad, and the ugly. The last time I went through a major depression, it lasted from 1996 to 2005. Now THAT was some serious depression, or bipolar, or just an allergy to life. That is the way it felt and it didnt let up. I wasnt sure what was going on, only that I could not get out of it no matter what I did. Taking medication did not help because it was impossible to try and explain to a doctor what was going on. They would just look at me and scratch their heads and prescribe something. Nothing seemed to work. The only thing that gave me any kind of relief was alcohol and pot. Deep down I knew it was only making things worse, but it did give me relief, even if it was only for a short while. Life isnt a lot of fun when you feel like that. What I feel these days is a lot like I felt back then but the difference being it doesnt last as long. It could be because there has been a long period of sobriety, however it came on when there was a 5 year period of sobriety, and so instead of trying to figure it out, I just go with the flow. By the grace of God {or the grace of something} I am able to climb up and out.
I am afraid to mention it because I feel like I might jinx myself, but then again this doesnt have anything to do with magic or luck. It is just how life moves. It gives me a great perspective. Life moves in and out. Good and bad. Hot and cold, Wet and dry, well ok, you get the point right?
One thing to take note is anger. I went into road rage yesterday. Glad I didnt act out on what I wanted to do but for most folks, they just let it go. They just carry on without ever giving it a second thought. Some even say they feel better after the whole ordeal. I dont, in fact, I feel worse. I feel horrible because all these thoughts, feelings and emotions come crashing in. I keep on playing it over and over in my head. I feel an intense emotional hangover. That is what sucks is trying to let out the anger and rage and it only makes it worse. I dont know it really sucks to be me. I am getting used to that. Its no big whoop, just me being me.
[ Click here to read more ]
home-work-co-workers-play-hobbies-meetings-family-relationships
A friend of mine that I have known for many years was kind enough to tell me that as long as he has known me; my life has been out of balance. He commented that it seemed I was always "Chasing" after something
[ Click here to read more ]
A friend of mine that I have known for many years was kind enough to tell me that as long as he has known me, my life has been out of balance. He commented that it seemed I was always "Chasing" after something.
Now this came from a good guy, I always value his suggestions, and there is in fact a great deal of truth to what he said.
Balance. If you are "in the rooms" you will sometimes hear this as a topic for discussion. And if you have been around long enough you probably have been given some unsolicted advise from someone that can see your life clearly, yet is still very blind to their own lives. Typical recovering drunk telling you whats wrong with your life while his has been way outta control for quite sometime. Oh well. Enough about that rant
[ Click here to read more ]
Fake it til you make it is a term that is used frequently. Some folks use it when they are struggling with a belief in a higher power. It is more like a blind faith that they place their belief in. I could never get the hang of faking it. It was either there or it wasn’t so I guess I can not relate to those that fake it. I didn’t need to fake it because every time I came to the turning point, I was brought to my knees, this time I was flat on my back. Everyone has their own turning point but the result is always a belief in a power greater than us.
It is a paradox. Going through some extreme pain to come to the realization that we can not do it alone. We give into the higher power that has been carrying us all along. It comes as a great relief that we do not have to face our lives all alone. After the realization, we get a sense of hope and faith that we are safe. A sense that everything is going to be alright. Looking back we can see that we were always o.k. We just never gave it a chance. Free will is a hard thing to control. Free will can make us arrogant and it can give us a feeling that we are in control when in fact we have very little control over things and even if we did have control, we would probably louse everything up. I am not very good at just letting things be. I am too impatient in just letting them unfold. I can look back at many instances in my life where I jumped the gun. Hind sight is 20/20. [ Click here to read more ]
How are you supposed to let go? After all this time and effort there comes a time when you must let go. Maybe it is just a process of going through everything to get to a certain place where you can no longer afford to hang on, to let go and let the current take you where it needs to. That’s where we are supposed to be. Right here, right now is where we are supposed to be. The resistance is what causes all the pain.
[ Click here to read more ]
So, how does it feel to know that there are millions of other people that are probably feeling the same way you are right now? Somewhere along God’s green earth there is another human being, animal, or let me just say sentient being that is feeling sadness, and depression. It might comfort you to think that perhaps not too far away there is another person feeling anger and rage, jealousy and bone chilling fear, or perhaps the overwhelming feeling of grief you are feeling at this very moment is being felt all over the world by people that are grieving over the loss of a pet or a loved one. Whatever the pain you experience, do you look to connect to all that may be suffering as a way of coming to terms with your own pain?
[ Click here to read more ]
|
|
|
Add Comments
Read More
Comments (5)
Comment by Anonymous
on 1/13/2011: Frank Zappa
Help For Your Depression
The Recovery room
Thanx for posting!