[Amethyst_Stargazer]

Just wanted to ask a question and see if anyone else felt this way: Does anyone else feel happy and sad, at the same time? I tend to feel like this sometimes and I think it's the worst feeling in the world. I'm feeling happy, yet at the same time I'm feeling sad and cry over things because I feel so overwhelmed by everything.

If you feel like this: how do you cope with this feeling? What sort of things do you do to occupy yourself?

[Moose72]

I felt this way a few months ago. I cried at something then laughed that I was actually crying so I was doing both at the same time. Odd.

[yellow_fleurs]

Yes, I do sometimes. In a couple of different kinds of ways. Sometimes it is an complex, bittersweet kind of emotion where something important is happening like someone graduating or getting married, but it is also the end of something else, so the emotions get mixed together. I have also experienced it when depressed, but finding joy in a moment. My underlying mood is sad, but I feel happiness burst through. My worst experience with this was during a bad mixed episode on an SSRI, and that was a whole different level. Very confusing, distressing and made me unsafe.

[Pookyl]

Yep, mixed mood is my brain’s default position.
Using the right combo of meds (in signature) is the primary thing that works in keeping me ‘normal’.

[*Laurie*]

Sure do. Most of the time...close to all of the time. They tell me it's a mixed state. I don't know. Medication doesn't seem to touch the feeling. I wonder if it might be just the way some people are created.

[Rainbow Child]

Yes. I feel very thankful for so many things, my children give me joy, I have a positive and determined attitude, I’m proud of my progress over the last few months; HOWEVER, I cry all the time, I am SO overwhelmed, I’m full of fear, I am miserable with myself physically (looks and weight), I’m stressed most of the day. I want to run and hide and bawl my eyes out, YET I’m excited to prove to myself that “I’ve got this”. I laugh and feel joy every day. I also feel extremely dissatisfied, generally.

What do I do about it? I don’t know, I’m still figuring it out. I keep trying. I keep fighting the exhausting fight. I’ve been trying really hard to not be so hard on myself or put so much pressure on myself. That’s easier said than done, but I try to at least talk nicely to myself. I try my damnedest to stick to a schedule; to give myself a sense of order. Lately, I’ve literally been focusing on making it through one day at a time.

I can’t offer much help regarding how I cope, but I can tell you that, yes, I definitely feel that way.

[A Hobbit]

Yes.

I’m not certain that I am understanding your question correctly, but my emotions confuse me.

I spend so much time in a mixed state - which totally sucks. I can feel miserable and detached, amped up and agitated and pissed off at everything, and then purge massive tears during a movie which others may find to be an inappropriate response, and feel great pride and joy in my wife and children, and appreciate the beauty of nature and literature, and want to die all at the same time.

I don’t like it.

[Fuzzybear]

[*Laurie*]

I took the question as feeling electric, energized, inspired, ecstatic, impassioned, excited, "flying", irritable, angry, enraged, tragic, hopeless, doomed, in physical/mental pain that is agitated, sad, frightened....all at the same time.

[DarkVapor]

I have felt similarly. There is a certain sweetness and pleasantness to my melancholic depression. So much of a mixed feeling that I revel in it and love it's periodic stay. It's a beautiful state of mind for creative adventures.

[Korat]

Yes. These are the things that help me: meditation, walking, listening to music I like, getting outside, cuddling one of my cats, eating something chewy like brown rice or crunchy like an apple, driving with all of the windows down, swimming, taking a hot bath, talking to someone who really understands me, cleaning (the kitchen, the bathroom, whatever), writing or journaling, drawing or painting. I’m usually too restless to do much of anything creative, but if I can get lost in something, it helps.

I’m an introvert, so I prefer to be alone when I’m feeling like that, but you could add friends to most of those activities if you wanted to.