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

[Quantum Vagina]

I was told the group members didn't want to tell me straight out because they didn't want to hurt my feelings.

Absolute bullshit. You have a right tj be told what it it is you've done.

[MartyS (Gromit)]

If being in the same room with an upset man was triggering bad memories in the women, shouldn't that be something to be worked on by the group?  Couldn't that be used in some way to help them heal?

I have to agree with LucasM, the person running the group sounds terrible.

[soguru]

Well... I always have a great deal of respect for someone who manages to keep a group going that consists of a lot of people who've been in it for years.

[Quantum Vagina]

You know what's fantastic? When people who you thought were your friends treat you like garbage, act like you're just a lazy jerk who doesn't want to change. Recently had someone bring up the idea to me that "You're not an adult until you start making your way in the world and no one but you is paying for you." Either she was MASSIVELY tactless, because she knows my current situation, calling me a child because I have issues with finding a job, or she didn't think about it while she was talking to me. Judging by the fact that she is very self righteous, I'm inclined to believe its the second. It really hurts because I know it's thrown in with a lot of my mother's thoughts of me, "HE'S just lazy and doesn't want to grow up." Garbage. I want to work. I've tried. I've been trying to find work recently. I don't want to be under my mother's thumb anymore. I want to do my own things and make my own way. Unfortunately, the fact that I have panic attacks persistently, the fact that even though I had a great time Thursday, I've been so terrified to leave my house that I'm probably not going out for more other than to take Ein out until Monday, kinda make working extremely fucking difficult,  and even the task of finding a job daunting as hell. It's pretty hard to say too myself "Ok, you need to get a job at this place so that you can earn money and get out from under your mother and eventually move," when I know that there is a MASSIVE risk of panic attacks.

[soguru]

You're a human being, a good person, an adult under the law, therefore you are entitled to be seen as an adult and treated with the respect due you. Sometimes shit happens and people have to rely on others. That doesn't make them any less deserving or entitled to respect... what's the old saying? A friend in need... is a friend indeed. Friend to me is somebody you respect, and even love to some extent. These days, love is in short supply and for me is something that should in theory inextricably be linked to respect.

[Miku Fan]

I slowly learned that the people who react the most negatively  to me (in my family) are the people with the most emotional troubles of their own.  I try to remember that when dealing with them.   It makes for a much less painful conversation, and makes coping much easier.

[Miku Fan]

I think I've finally adjusted to my new, lower dosage of klonopin.  I took 3mg a day for the last 20+ years.

Reduced to 2mg a day.  Had about 2 months of mood swings, Possibly withdrawal syndrome. Or just adjusting to the anxiety with less meds.

Anyway, that's finally over, and I am back at my (medicated) baseline anxiety.  I hope to decrease even further in the future.  My goal is to take nothing.

[LucasM]

I think I've finally adjusted to my new, lower dosage of klonopin.  I took 3mg a day for the last 20+ years.

Reduced to 2mg a day.  Had about 2 months of mood swings, Possibly withdrawal syndrome. Or just adjusting to the anxiety with less meds.

Anyway, that's finally over, and I am back at my (medicated) baseline anxiety.  I hope to decrease even further in the future.  My goal is to take nothing.

Klonopin is especially difficult to get off of because of the withdrawal symptoms, which are (not a big surprise) increased anxiety, as there's a rebound effect.  [I was on it for a few years for the PTSD.]  Other benzodiazepines have similar difficulties, but Klonopin is apparently one of the worst (according to a friend who is a pharmacist).

To reduce the dose or get off of it with minimal withdrawal effects (with the approval of your doctor, of course), try cutting back by MUCH smaller amounts than what it sounds like you did.  I was on a very small dose (injured brain was very sensitive to it), and cut it back by about 1/6th (or less) of my dose until I felt 'normal' again.  Then cut it back by another tiny amount.  Each drop was for about two to three months, which apparently is what you discovered for stabilizing afterwards.

Yes, dropping it by much smaller amounts will result in it taking much longer to reduce it or get off of it, but minimizing the withdrawal symptoms was - to me at least - a far more important consideration than time.  And that withdrawal time will have much higher anxiety levels than what you will have once you are normalized after the higher dose is out of your system and your brain has re-adjusted.  So they will go back down.  It isn't "just adjusting to the anxiety with less meds".

If you are on 2mg now, if it is two 1mg tabs, I'd go with maybe 1/4 of a tablet less for each dosage drop (for a month or two or three for each drop).  If a 2mg tab, then 1/8 less for each drop.  Yes, that small a drop each time, as you've experienced how disruptive larger drops are.

Good luck with that.  I hope it works out.

[Miku Fan]

I see him in about 2 weeks.  I plan on discussing that with him.

[soguru]

I think I'm going to be okay without group. I'm just hanging in the air a bit mostly because my therapist is still recovering from surgery and I probably won't see her for two more weeks. I used to have a chat group where we'd meet every saturday night and chat while watching an episode of MST. Anybody interested in getting in the Rifftrax chat room and doing something similar some time? It might be good for us all to chat with each other while watching an episode of MST together... more or less. Or doesn't even have to be that, just schedule a good time for the majority of us RT regulars to get online and talk to keep our collective spirits up.

[Miku Fan]

What Rifftrax chat room? I didn't know there was one.

[Pak-Man]

I didn't know there was STILL one..

http://www.rifftrax.com/chat

[Miku Fan]

wow, and it's on IRC!

[soguru]

Well? If anybody's down for chatting in there, let me know... or everyone else.

[soguru]

I'm scared. Sometimes, when I'm up this late I will... get very moody... I will get apathetic, I just won't give a shit anymore about myself and that really worries me. It's almost like someone else is taking over and turning me into someone else.