Quote:
Originally Posted by fishsandwich
Oh um, well. Lots of ways, really. My biggest thing is having goals - lots and lots of goals. I guess having things I want gives me a reason to stay well. I exercise, which is also a 'goal' thing for me. I ran a marathon a few weeks ago; my next goal is to run three marathons in one year. I'm also very academic and I have a lot of 'book learning' goals. I made a career goal for myself when I stopped taking psych drugs. I have financial goals; like I have a savings goal. I'm looking into an (admittedly very bizarre) coping strategy, which is to purchase certain investments which get liquidated if their owner loses mental capacity. Then I lose money if I go nuts!! Ha. That might be taking it a bit too far.
What else . . . hrrrm.
I have a special diet - which I'm currently reviewing.
I do yoga in addition to the running.
I have a kickass, eccentric therapist who takes a really different approach and has helped me a lot.
I think routines are very important; getting up and sleeping at the same time every day no matter what is going on. Eating at regular intervals. My body gets really angry at me if it doesn't know roughly what's coming next. 
I avoid caffeine as much as possible. But eh, I'm (almost!) a lawyer, I think it's a law we have to drink coffee!! I don't drink alcohol, though.
Meditation. I'm getting better at this as I practice. I've heard a lot about how meditation is better than therapies like CBT because with CBT you learn to repress/divert bad thoughts, but with mediation you learn to simply sit with them.
I own very few things. I don't know why, but the more 'stuff' I have the more unwell I feel.
Sorry, that probably sounds like a hopelessly random list of crap. It is! I had to nose around a lot in my own life and figure out the things that worked for me. I did a hell of a lot of reading in self-help books, religion/spirituality books, cookbooks, diet books, personal finance -- everything. I picked out strategies that appealed to me and tried them. Some worked, many didn't.
[ETA: I forgot to add that I also started getting acupuncture and seeing a Chinese/alternative medicine practitioner recently. I noticed that my nuttery is closely linked to my hormones, so I'm going on a quest to sort that **** out.]
Oh wow, we're very similar! I graduated when I was sixteen, too. I was in my first year of university when I was 16/17, and I moved to Greece for it. It was a very lonely time! The men in Greece have to do military service once they graduate from school, so often I was in classes with women two years my senior and men four or five years my senior!! Unsurprisingly, I didn't have much in common with the other students.
Anyway, that's dull. What do you study? |
Wow! That's a lot of stuff, that sounds busy, but I really admire you for that, having all those goals and activities you do! See, I have a problem with doing things, especially clubs/activities, thanks to not only my severe anxiety, but also the fact I have no motivation whatsoever. That has always been a problem for me even since i was very small; I have no motivation to do much of anything, and school and my studies have always come relatively easy for me, so I rarely studied. I quickly realized at the start of college that attitude was not going to fly, but I still study very minimally and am still able to make good grades. (And believe me, I am NOT bragging as you will see here in a moment.)
The thing is, I really am bad a math, and most sciences aside from Biology, which I am okay with. I went into college originally wanting to be a Neurologist and go to medical school, but I completely dashed that within the first few weeks of starting. My Biology class was difficult to my surprise, and then my Pre-Cal class was just absolutely excruciating. When things get too tough, I just quit. Extreme laziness I suppose, but that's how I always have been, even since I was younger. When trying to study for math or bio, I would end up doodling or getting distracted by something very easily, just like a little kid, eheh.
So since I love art and like to draw, and do digital drawings/coloring, I figured I would try for an Art degree and become a teacher or something. But after taking an Art History class this most recent semester, I realized how much I miss taking history classes and learning about cultures and other areas of the world and their pasts, so I finally switched my major to History. I plan to get my PhD and become a professor in that field somewhere, now. :33
And that is very ambitious, a lawyer! I know I could never do that, I just have no guts! I could never talk and argue in front of people, eheh. More power to ya!
EDIT:
Oh, I have to have a special diet too! Eheh. I kind of stray from it sometimes though, which always ends up in pain. In Fall Semester of 2011, I began getting very sick. I have always had some stomach problems, but they progressed until they got worse and worse, until in early December, I simply had been unable to hold down any food whatsoever. I found myself losing 12 pounds when I am already relatively skinny (Or, so people say. I have extreme anxiety about my weight despite the fact I am 5'3 and 113 pounds, which is supposedly normal.)
I was hospitalized and had to stay in the hospital for a week to get a whole bunch of tests done, and I had to have a procedure done as well. Turns out, I have a hiatal hernia, severe inflammation of the stomach, and the pyloric valve, which is the opening from the stomach to the intestines, was almost completely closed off, and they had to balloon it open via endoscopy.
That was not fun at all. But I am doing better now with my P. Valve open, and am on lots of medication and enzymes to keep me from getting sick so easily. :33
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Moves like....Jagger? Nah man, i've got them moves like Strider.
Age: 17
Dx: Social Anxiety Disorder, Agoraphobia (Social Phobia), Panic Disorder, Obsessive Compulsive Disorder (of the self-mutilation type)
Medication:
Zoloft 50 mg- once a day
Abilify 1mg- once a day
