General Psychology Thread (for non-emergency and long-term issues)

[Miku Fan]

Are you neurotic? Sure, we all do!   

We have a thread for acute psychological distress, where help is needed.  But, sometimes, we aren't in a crisis, and just want t discuss psychological issues.  So, I decided to create this thread, so that we don't clog the "Distress: help!"  thread with posts that are of a general nature. This is also a good place to discuss things of a chronic nature.

So, if you have a problem or issue of a psychological/emotional nature, that doesn't fit in the "Acute psychological distress: help needed" thread, feel free to post here. 

Disclaimer: You'll be sharing your thoughts with and receiving feedback from other posters in a non-professional setting.  This is not a replacement for therapy or medications.  However, it can be therapeutic!

Go nuts!   Express yourself!

[RVR II]

Like calling a radio attorney to get marginal legal advice only for him to just tell you that you have no case?
Perfect! Now I need some psycho-anal-ysis

[Miku Fan]

Or being charged 5,000 bucks for a social security lawyer that doesn't even show up for your case, and gets paid anyway?  Yeah, that still burns my ass after 6 years.

[RVR II]

Or being charged 5,000 bucks for a social security lawyer that doesn't even show up for your case, and gets paid anyway?  Yeah, that still burns my ass after 6 years.

That really happened
He should have been reported to the state bar for Abandonment

[Miku Fan]

Well, I was crazy back then.     OK, "crazier."   

[soguru]

I'm very, VERY lucky I didn't need a lawyer for my case. I did have to work very hard to get all the necessary medical records together though. That was very stressful, very time-consuming, and very tedious.

[Miku Fan]

I should rename this, "The worthless legal advice" thread. 

I don't know how you got approved without a lawyer, Soguru, but I am glad you did. 

[soguru]

I should rename this, "The worthless legal advice" thread. 
I don't know how you got approved without a lawyer, Soguru, but I am glad you did. 

They're actually still reviewing it. There's a final stage called quality review.

[Miku Fan]

Are you asking for Social Security Disability? (SSDI) or something else?  I had three years of submitting medical reports and being told "You have failed to prove your case."  Finally went to an Administrative Law Judge who approved me retroactively to 1988.

[soguru]

Are you asking for Social Security Disability? (SSDI) or something else?  I had three years of submitting medical reports and being told "You have failed to prove your case."  Finally went to an Administrative Law Judge who approved me retroactively to 1988.

It's just SSI. I don't know how their system works. But I'll just have to wait and see, still waiting on that final, final decision.

[Quantum Vagina]

Every night, I feel like crying around 8 pm. EVERY night. I start feeling horrible. I just keep running out of things to do... videos to watch, nothing I used to do interests me any more. I'll occasionally work on a Pokemon team, or play a little Smash, but things just keep... idk. I'm still kind of depressed about Bas not being here. I mean, I'll be seeing him this fall... and if I don't then I don't know what I'll do. I'm not sure I'll be able to take it. Everything is weighing so heavily on me lately. I'm tired. So tired. I don't sleep more than 5 hours a night any more. I'm eating too much, and horrible food. I'm bordering on that 200 mark again, and if I hit that I think it'll really hurt.

I've also been really obsessed with the idea of marrying Bas lately, and starting a family and all that fun stuff. I don't know why. It's just stuck in my head and won't get out.

Every one of my old friends haunts me now. Constantly, I have thoughts of them running around my head. I'm trying anything to get them out, but they're persistent. Everything hurts.

[Miku Fan]

I don't know where you live, but if it's safe, maybe 8 p.m. would be a good time to exercise, Just strolling, if nothing else. 

Or maybe try meditating at 8pm- creative visualization, that sort of thing.  Your brain and spirit need a break from the constant negative voice that tries to drag you down.

[Quantum Vagina]

I managed to stay up until Bas was awake. Then we got on skype and he stayed with me till I fell asleep. So comforting.

[Johnny Unusual]

That does sound really nice.  Nice to have a moment like that.

[anais.butterfly]

From the Random Thoughts Thread:

I had a lengthier response to this, but my computer froze and there was no way to save it.  I simply don't have the capacity to try to recreate it.

I feel like I should point out a few things:

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

1) I am not sedentary. I work at a job where I sit all day, and I do go weeks sometime without working out, but for the most part, I am pretty active. I walked 4 miles yesterday. I sweated (which I love, so I do it) and I was tired and had to rest for about 20 min afterwards, but it was "easy" for me (and the dog, she came with. I actually want to do more research on how much walking/hiking a dog can do vs their age and what have you). So many of these questions were to get your guys' POV on the subject. As I have pointed out, I frequent the My Fitness Pal forums and I have read all their POVs. Now I want yours.

2) Do I want to be a marathon runner? Yes. Yes I do. My mental problems have this duality about them. I walked the dog 4 miles yesterday and I was enjoyed every second of it. But, when I get depressed, then I don't/can't/won't get the motivation to work out. Working out is a drug to me. My current goal is to work out more, ESPECIALLY when I am feeling depressed because exercise dopamine's work better than pills and ESPECIALLY better than B eer amd P ot.

3) I am morbidly obese. I get that. And my brain is screwed up about my relationship toward food, body image, and all of that. So, my ultimate goal is to be an athlete because I enjoy working out when I am obese, and I assume I will enjoy it more (because I can do more things) once I lose weight.

4) I am a huge yo-yo dieter because I can go several days and then have a mental crash. The people on My Fitness Pal just say I am lazy and using that as an excuse. Whatever. I just think I have too many conflicting thoughts of "I can do this" vs. "You suck and you are and will be a big fat pig all your life" vs "I hate myself."

Also I need to add:

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

I have in the past had exercise bulimia (exercising so much to offset any amount of food you eat and then getting really upset if you can't work out). This is something I have to be watchful of.

I did not mean anything I wrote to be critical.  My responses were based solely on what you'd written.

With your comment '4', people using terms like "lazy" are the opposite of helpful.  That is one of the most DEmotivating comments that can be made to someone who is overweight, and result in additional emotional responses that can feed into binging and exercise avoidance.

In response to the term 'lazy': first, people who have made attempts at change are not lazy.  People with psychological difficulties are almost never lazy (generally they have too much going on inside and are often, at best, mentally exhausted from it to the exclusion of other actions).  In addition, when food is involved, there are a large number of biological components to food addictions (e.g. sugar/corn/wheat) that often trump the psychological functioning of people without psych difficulties.

If your yo-yo dieting is related to sugar (or wheat or corn - which behave the same as sugar in the body, but with additional problems), then I might suggest this book: The Sugar Impact Diet, in which she discusses how to phase out sugar, as she points out that going cold turkey on sugar is next to impossible, given the way human biology works.

What I've written on the forum about nutrition and exercise is what I have synthesized from watching over 100 hours of health presentations by specialists in assorted medical and medically-related fields.  It sounds different from what most people say because it is based on the most up-to-date scientific research.  Does everything I've ever written apply to everyone?  No.  Nothing does.  But from the large degree of overlap between what various medical professionals have said, apparently it does apply to the majority of people most of the time, so I believe it is worth trying.  Otherwise I wouldn't spend the time describing it, and describing it in enough detail so that it can be seen it isn't just the adoption of a bit of 'common knowledge' that doesn't happen to be true (e.g. the food pyramid was created by companies with a vested interest in getting people to eat their products like grains and dairy; the 'eat less and exercise more' idea that simply does not work and is actually problematic for people whose biology has been adversely affected by everything from their microbiome being devastated by antibiotics to autoimmune thyroid problems to the simple truth of poisons in the food they eat; etc.).  [Seriously: look up the FDA and GRAS regulations, it is horrifying how little the FDA protects the food you eat from completely untested chemicals.]

I really don't want to get into a debate about if I am addicted to one kind of food because I am not. I am addicted to numbing myself with any and all foods. I was trained from a very young age to eat and eat a lot (thanks DAD  ), and if you asked me to remove one type of food, then I would just end the day doing some sort of d r u g anyway, so it's the psych issues that are my biggest obstacle.