Depression anxiety

[Lula]

@MJG017 

Hello M

I do really hope all is well with you.  And I’m sorry I didn’t reply to your last message, especially about your being able to reconnect with your biological mother.  I’m still watching episodes of Long Lost Family and while you would find it too hard to watch, I think I do watch because I’m kind of imagining a happy reunion with my siblings, through watching their mostly happy stories. A reunion in my case is SO unlikely to happen I can’t even imagine it.

Unfortunately I’ve gone downhill with my situation.  A couple of months ago I joined a depression and anxiety support group in my area, at the time mostly because I was looking for company. In some fairly minor ways it did help, but my main problem is not having family, no partner and limited friends locally.  That ended a couple of weeks ago, but then there was an extra night as well which I missed going to. I slept badly the night before and was woken the next morning by loud banging and crashing next door because of major renovations. I’ve forgotten now what happened the rest of the day but it was not a good day for me. So now that group is over it’s left a whole in my time, and other things have been happening too - we’ve had very mixed weather, rainy, very humid and some really hot days - and combined with feeling low it’s made going walking hard to do, and of course that’s bad for me.

I am feeling so isolated and lonely. Nearly half way through November and things Christmas starting to show up everywhere.  I know you don’t like Christmas either M, so how do you cope with it?  Does your partner like it and you kind of go along with it to support her ?  I really don’t know how I’m going to get through the rest of the year.

And all things considered I decided that it was better I not go to my friends down south - difficult to explain here.

I did see a new counsellor, but it was a one-off thing because of the cost (no Medicare rebate).  I’ve also been to a psychiatrist once - out of desperation and even more expensive - $255 back from $490 fee - but the Medicare threshold kicks in from January 1 so I have to wait - and I still have to consider the cost involved. 🤷‍♀️

That’s all for now M. Thanks so much for being here for me again. Lulu

[MJG017]

Hi @Lula 

I'm sorry to hear you feel you've gone downhill.  It's so hard to fight these battles alone and i understand how much of a battle everything must feel for you without many people around you to rely on for support.  You said you went to a depression and anxiety support group but it ended.  Was it just that meeting that ended and there's more meetings to come, or was more of a once off thing, because you said it's now over.

The weather has been a bit mixed here, but generally pretty good, which helps with my mood.  Hopefully it improves where you are and you can get some walking done as i'm sure it will help to improve you mood.  Even just sitting outside on a nice day helps me.

I don't really know how I get through Christmas.  I sort of just endure it.  My birthday is a week before Christmas and that's just as tough, so combined with New Years where I do nothing, December is just a bad month for me now.  But I endure it knowing it will at least end and it will be gone for another 11 months.  So just focus on Next year and just count down the days until December is over for another year.

We usually have Christmas with my partner's family, it means it's usually at our house or at one of her brothers house.  They live about 70kms away and it's been at their house for the past 3 years.  We said we wanted to have it at our house this year, but everyone just decided without us that it's at the brothers house again.  Neither of us really enjoy going there because everyone just goes off and does their own thing so it feels like we're just sitting there talking to each other for most of the day.  So we're annoyed and planning just to do something by ourselves.  But I have told her than i'm happy to go so she can spend Christmas with her family, but she seems as annoyed as I am, but maybe that's to make me happy... i'm not sure.

The cost of everything medical these days is getting so expensive.  Mental health is outrageously expensive!  My GP put me on a mental health care plan which gets me those 10 subsidised visits.  They still cost me $50 each and it's only 10 to last me a year, so it didn't really help me a all.  It's criminal how the people that probably need the help the most, it's just financially out of reach for most.  No wonder there's a mental health epidemic!

Sorry I couldn't offer better advice for getting through Christmas for you.  But we're not the only ones who struggle through this time of year, so i'll be around the forum as always so feel free to send me messages here, or even on some of the other threads here as well if you feel like talking to other people.  Otherwise we can have our own little December support group right here in our thread here.  Maybe I could start one for everyone??

I hope you get some nice weather soon and it helps you feel like your going a bit more uphill.  Take care and chat soon.

[Lula]

@MJG017  Isn’t online, but before he is maybe someone else can help me ?

[Ru-bee]

Hi there @Lula it looks like you've clicked on "Start a new discussion", were you wanting to create a new thread? 

When we create a new thread we need to choose where we'd like it to appear within the forums. For example, this thread we're talking in is in the topic "Welcome and Getting Started". It's just a way to organise threads so that they can be found more easily by those wanting to interact with certain topics. Here's how the different topics display in the Spaces tab:

You can just choose the one where you think it fits best out of the options in the drop down menu when you're writing the post. I hope that makes sense!

[Lula]

🤷‍♀️

[Lula]

How do I start a new post under ‘Depression and Anxiety’ then @Ru-bee 

[Ru-bee]

So Depression and anxiety is the name of this thread which you've created @Lula To continue posting under it all you need to do is exactly what you've been doing by using the reply button.

If you wanted to start a new discussion/thread then it will be separate to this, and you'll have the opportunity to choose a new title and you can choose where in the forums you'd like it to go. If you're not sure which one would be best you can read the short descriptions of them all in the Spaces tab here 

[Lula]

I don’t want to reply to someone else’s post - I want to make my own post 🤷‍♀️

[MJG017]

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@Lula wrote:

How do I start a new post under ‘Depression and Anxiety’ then @Ru-bee 

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Hi @Lula.  I would put it under either...

• Recovery Club  (Explore day-to-day coping strategies)
• Something's Not Right (Share concerns and seek advice here)

So probably recovery club if you wanted to talk more about how to cope with the depression and anxiety or Something's not right if your are looking to discuss concerns and advice.  It probably doesn't really matter, just which every one you feel suits the discussion you wish to start better.  It's really just a matter of your preference of where you feel it makes the most sense.  Depression and Anxiety would be your title if that's what you wanted to call it.  I'd suggest something a little bit different because it's already the title of this discussion.  So it would be like this...  Type your subject into the subject box and select the space from the menu that appears when you select the Select Location box.

I hope this helps.

[Lula]

@Ru-bee 

Now I know why I’ve only ever connected with @MJG - I’ve had problems before with this page, but this is the worst