Well, therapy, support groups, moving out of my parents home into a city a few hundred km away, and taking part in all sorts of activities with others.
I guess what helped me most was moving out and getting some distance between me and my family. It's too tempting to just lean back and let your family care for you. But once you got to start paying for your own bills, the regular life starts pushing you forward.
Like, now I got to look for a new job. I wouldn't have to do so if I'd still live at home. At the new job I will meet new people. And some of them will be nice.
I read another self help book by Dr. Illard called "The Cure to Depression"
and it had six steps which were:
The 6 steps:
1. dietary omega-3 fatty acids
2. engaging activity
3. physical activity
4. sunlight exposure
5. social support
6. sleep
I am on the first step of the book and trying dietary omega-3 and it might just be a placebo effect but I think it's changing my mood.
I plan to take out these other plans soon.
I've never read any books about this but after 5 years of trying to cure myself of depression, AvPd and SA without medication this is pretty much what I came up with. Except No 1 would not be only about Omega-3 but basically changing your entire diet in order to starve a certain category of bacteria in your guts that you really don't want to feed - when they eat, they release chemicals that affects your brain. When I neglect this diet, the foggy feeling comes back. Taking a supplement of Omega-3 and vitamin D helps for the mood too, added to the good diet. And I would replace sleep by "go to bed early and get up early" and I would add No 7 "don't spend all your time on the computer" and No 8 "find activities that boost your self-esteem"
Here are some activities that I practice, not necessarily everyday:
healthy eating
exercise
yoga
meditation/mindfulness
getting hobbies
pursuing a passion
enough sleep (though sometimes I wake up like a zombie even though I have about 8 hours)
talking/venting out loud
SPW emotional catharsis
volunteering
I exposed myself to social situations without any professional guidance, focused on getting more confident and better social skills and here I am now, even though I get anxious at times I'm pretty successful socially.
acceptance and seeing the impermanence in everything. still a long way to overcoming anxiety but i am not depressed like before. i believe anxiety has come for good..it has taught me a few things which i would have never learnt with a normal life.
some days i cannot accept my anxiety...it's not easy, this life.
Psychodynamic psychotherapy, cognitive behavioral psychotherapy, Nardil, Prozac, Zoloft, Effexor, hypnotherapy. Nothing worked. My therapy history is actually more complex than that though, because I suffered a bizarre misdiagnosis.
As I've stated before, the best thing to "try" is not to not give the slightest damn about what people think of you. It's actually not that difficult once you get used to it.
As I've stated before, the best thing to "try" is not to not give the slightest damn about what people think of you. It's actually not that difficult once you get used to it.
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