Trying to Move Forward

Hi, I have been diagnosed with depression and anxiety. Over the past two years I have worked really hard with doctors, counselors, my family and myself to try to overcome the overwhelming sadness and hopelessness. Today I have been off of my meds for 2 months and I'm feeling pretty good! While my depression is no longer such and issue, my anxiety seems to have come back in full force. I have pretty debilitating social anxiety and for the most part avoid social situations. I have become much better at little things like going to the store and making small talk at work, but larger more social events still elude me.

With this, I feel that I now have a better understanding of the illness and a good set of tools to put in to play. I feel I know what I need to do to calm myself down in stressful situations and the steps needed to move forward (and hopefully past the anxiety). However, I can't seem to drag myself out of the pit of negative thinking. I recently applied to volunteer at an event I have interest in thinking this was the next natural step in becoming more at ease in social situations and perhaps maybe even make a friend. However, I have been completely sick this week leading up to the event and am thinking of not going. I want to be better, but to be honest I'm tired. There is no break from your mind.

Despite rambling, my question to you is, how do you stay motivated to keep on working toward your goals? How do you know if you are or aren't moving too fast? My support system is falling away, and the one friend I do have has very little understanding how I feel. How do you change the way you think, despite living your whole life with people telling you "you can't".

Thanks

I wish I knew the answer to your questions. Just so I hear what you're saying. I am also looking to find the way to keep motivated.

Medications:

ZMAN

Hi, just a little update. I committed to the event so I ended up going. It was surprisingly quite easy to get through. I feel like I have so many moments like this in my life. I am just absolutely filled with dread about something, then when it's all over I realize that I can do anything as easily as others. I suppose that was something I forgot beforehand. What I'm going to do with this knowledge now is to start keeping a journal solely for my successes (I find that journaling has been really helpful with my anxiety). Then whenever I have any doubt in myself I can look back and remember that things really aren't so hard. That's my new motivation.

Thanks for replying Mustkeepjob32. Surely you have some success stories too!!

Glad the event was easy to get through. I too find that I worry before an event and then after I'm relieved because it went a lot better than I could have expected. Why do we do that to ourselves?

Medications:

ZMAN