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tips for reducing anxiety & depression

A

Anon54

Ex-Bluelighter
Joined
Jun 11, 2010
Messages
861
im interested if anyone has any good ideas of how to reduce anxiety & depression because Ive been diagnosed with both. Here's some stuff that has helped me anyways.

Reducing my caffeine intake. Ive done some research & have found out that it's a bad idea to drink more than 250-300mg of caffeine. So now i just drink a few cups of regular coffee in the morning & than if i want more later I drink decaf. switching to tea is another good idea as it only contains about half the amount of caffeine to coffee which has about 100mg. We all know that to much caffeine increases anxiety.

Quit smoking. Ive found since ive quit smoking im alot calmer now. Its not so much the nicotine that causes restlessness but the other 1000 harmful chemicals that reduce blood flow & restrict the airways. Im using nicotine gum & havnt smoked in 2 weeks. I feel alot calmer already.

Taking supplements. I take a multivitamin, fish oil & milk thistle. vitamin B & fish oil reduce stress & milk thistle is an antioxidant which helps repair the liver from things like alcohol or apap that may have got in ya cwe.

Exercise. Endorphins are released & it's relaxing. opiates mimic endorphins. it helps ya loose weight & helps ya sleep.

Hobbies & interests. Do stuff u like. Even if it's simple stuff like listening to music or better yet join a sport or if ya unemployed atleast try to get part-time work as doing nothing can keep ya isolated & depressed.

Medication. I take benzos but only sometimes which works out fine with no addiction. I also use codeine to but not all the time. I suppose u could call that a hobby but not a good one. Try different ADs or APs if u feel that nothing else is working. talk to ya dr.

Dont take to many drugs. I suppose ya wouldnt be a BLer if ya didnt take drugs but try to only use them sometimes & not just cuz ya bored & defensively not to escape from problems as the problem will still be there when the effects wear away but will probably bother ya more. Definitely dont drink to ease anxiety as it'll end up making ya feel worse.

has anyone else got any good tips?
 
Smoking has improved my mood, as I think this is a subjective topic.
I mean some people are gym junkies/love exercise, but it doesn't help everyone. Pain releases endorphins, but if everyone liked that we'd all be hurting ourselves whenever we wanted to feel better. (I hope this isn't triggering. If it is please remove it/let me know)
Same with employment, it can make some of us feel great and others shit.
It's a good intention, it really is, but if I started writing about the things in my daily life and everyone started co-
I'm not even gonna entertain the thought. I think if there's something that isn't destructive/"bad" it should be named, and on that note I've got nothing to say..
 
Eat healthier!

That's seems like incorrect grammar for some reason but it's what autospell wants to say!
 
i think an occasional magic mushroom trip can be greatly therapeutic for anxiety and depression.
 
Lazyscience said:
i think an occasional magic mushroom trip can be greatly therapeutic for anxiety and depression.
Click to expand...

Personally that's the last thing I'd recommend to someone suffering mental health issues. Having said that I've often found psychedelics to produce in me relatively profound realisations and new perspectives on life.
 
I do take supplements myself. I think my Dopamine System needs a little assistance so i take 500mg L-Tyrosine most days. (Precursor to L-Dopa which is precursor to Dopamine) I believe that by taking one of the earlier amino acids, rather than taking L-Dopa that it the body is less likely to recognise this substance as toxic)
You need to see what works best for yourself.

I went to the GP a long while ago with depression, but i was given Citalopram. (SSRI)
After 2 weeks of utter brain/medication malfunction i was having extreme anxiety and weird eyesight changes, i stopped taking them.

Ever since i started looking into foods. Foods are important in our diet, Very important.
Some foods are high in Tryptophan, which when eaten in combination with a very starchy food, allows the other amino acids to be pushed into the muscle, and the Tryptophan to be first in line to be converted.

Tryptophan > 5HTP > Serotonin (Sunlight required also i believe)

So as you can see, with the careful selection of foods you may be able to have the same action and effect of anti depressants, just by eating the right foods.
 
I agree that a good diet of fresh, not processed foods is essential for your mind but exercise for me is key in battling depression. I am a very undisciplined person so getting exercise in my life is always a struggle. When I do it i always feel so good afterwards that I am amazed that it remains such a struggle but at 58 I've had to accept that I will never be an exercise addict! :)

Check out the mindfulness thread here in TDS. I have found that practicing mindfulness has been by far the most life-changing as far as my anxiety goes. I am not prone to depression but over the last year have struggled with it quite a bit from the loss of my son. One of things mindfulness teaches is to try to accept emotions rather than run from them or try to anesthetize them. Depression feels harder because in a way it is almost an absence of emotion. again, exercise seems to have the most effect on this state for me. (The trick is finding the motivation once you are already in the depressed state!)

One more thing that I find helpful is to connect with other human beings. Anxiety and depression can cause total isolation. Everyone has different comfort levels with social situations but for me I have tried to force myself to keep up my friendships, to open up to people about how I am really feeling and to try to reach out to others in some way every day. Connecting with other people who understand your situation is a very rewarding and positive thing to do (and you are already doing it because you made this thread!)

<3:)<3
 
I totally agree on connecting with people. A life with meaningful relationships, with love and care, a sense of responsibility, of growth and bonding, of connection and desire.
I think you can go down a path that is void of such things, not for a lack of trying but for a lack of feeling able. When you're surrounded by people but you're so disconnected, when you talk lots and say little, when you've got nothing left to communicate. When it's been so long since you've felt the love we've all experienced. Just knowing the human mind is capable of creating such emotions, when they seem so unattainable. When you don't know anything, yet everything repeat. A sort of perpetual chaos, a rut of certainties with minor variations between the vibrations. I don't know. It's just so strange when everything becomes a haze, life passes you by as you're stagnant. Everything is hectic, but there's always a sense of sameness, yet you're so out of touch that you're not even aware of the situation, you can just feel this incessant suffering taking it's toll.

Building meaningful bonds, connecting with others, that's great. I don't know if I'd classify creating a thread about your issues in the same ilk as that, but hey, at least it's something, right?
 
herbavore- Depression feels harder because in a way it is almost an absence of emotion. again, exercise seems to have the most effect on this state for me. (The trick is finding the motivation once you are already in the depressed state!)

i completely agree with this!! The way i get exercise is skateboarding, i quit for a while but start up again using it as exercise and i love it just as much as before
 
i tried drinking chamomile tea when i was in the middle of a panic attack once, somebody had left some in my kitchen. i didn't expect it to work, but figured it was 'worth a try'. by the time i had got to the bottom of the mug (leaving the tea bag in it), my heart rate was totally normal. it's worked repeatedly since. i was very sceptical about using a herbal tea, especially after all the different pharmaceuticals etc i've taken in my time, but try it. it may help with your anxiety.
 
Wow that's so awesome about the tea! I think the tea has a nice relaxing effect and then just the warmth of it and holding the warm cup. Then telling yourself to give yourself until the end of the cup to "completely" freak out. And until then while you're drinking the cup you don't have to freak. That seems like a pretty do-able trick. I will definitely try that.

I've noticed a lot of my panic is very similar to PSTD panic. Things that cause me to go into a mindset when seeing or hearing a certain thing. One thing in particular I am still fighting actively (because if I let it go it will creep back) is I get extremely anxious when I hear my boyfriend breathe a certain way at night.

I know this is a PSTD thing caused by drug use. Heavy stims in particular where I would find myself awake for hours and hours and hours and hours listening to him snore in the most horrible assed out anxiety. I don't even need to hear him actually snore but I can identify his "falling into sleep" breathing and it just throws me into a panic. The panic from this got so bad at one point I would drink heavily at night just so I could pass out before I heard the sound. Because the panic would spiral so far out of control that I would be so scared. (of being alone?)

I use earplugs now which have become a calming tool for me. I use them when I am with him and when I am without him. They bring such a feeling of comfort and help me fall into sleep now.

It took a while to train myself not to be scared but the earplugs now are actually a tool that calms me down. Very weird how the mind works.

I will be trying to tea trick next time. Thanks for the suggestion! <3
 
^ I think meditation is a great suggestion.

Also, silentcowboy, I know what you mean about the absence of emotion as opposed to an overabundance of sadness being the problem. It has got to be one of the toughest situations I have experienced. Again, I hope I don't sound like a broken record repeating endlessly, but mindfulness training (through reading) is what has helped me to step out of the cycle of depression and anxiety that I found myself in this year in particular.
 
Meditation really helps me, I meditate at least 3 times a day, when I wake up, before bed and during the afternoon. If I am having a panic attack or my pain is extremely high I also meditate. it takes quite a lot of practise to get it right, but it really does help.

I also find any kind of art work very therapeutic and I am currently studying art therapy. You don't even need to be good at it, it still helps.

I also find keeping a journal helps. I often suffer from racing thoughts and i find getting the thoughts out of my head and into my journal very helpful.

CBT workbooks are good too especially if you cannot gain access to a therapist, there are lots of different ones available on amazon, I found the ebook version of the mood gym very helpful, it is well wrote, easy to understand and has a lot of exercises specifically for anxiety and depression.
 
Ditto on meditation. Doesn't gotta be guru stylie, or sittin for hours droning "om mani padme hum" in tha lotus position... Just a few steps above the whole "ten deep breaths" thing. A few minutes of quite deep breathing, attempting to clear your head and think of either nothing or the proverbial "happy thoughts". And I couldn't be more serious when I say, thinking happy thoughts DOES make a difference. Everyone has gotta have a few things they can think about that makes you feel good. I know I've had some pretty kick-ass adventures in my life that just thinking about puts me in a much better mood.

Of course, these are mainly for depression. Anxiety is a muthafucka. Only thing that ever helps me with anxiety is removing myself from the stressful situation or using something to distract me, total immersion in something pleasurable that takes all of my concentration or something completely mindless. The techniques for depression helps, but can't handle every anxiety attack.
 
^ true, panic attacks can be impossible to get rid of sometimes. they are the bane of my life at times especially the ones that have no triggers or stressor, and anticipatory panic attacks are super fun lol
 
My Tip.... Seek medical treatment. Get sessions going with a psychiatrist whom you feel comfortable with. Get on some meds. keep control of the meds and don't abuse them..... I've tried for years to self medicate, avoid seeing a doctor.

Depression and anxiety can cause you to go crazy and sometimes medical treatment is the only answer
 
I have had anxiety and depression since birth. Tried the drs meds. But never really helped. Xanax always made me tired and i always took opiates. Opiates help the best. But now im on suboxone to try and quit opiates. And even though its still early. I think this is my cure im where im supposed to b. i no this is addicting. But. Maybe ill commit to it for life. The same way people commit to paxil or lithium or prozac
 
Anon54 said:
im interested if anyone has any good ideas of how to reduce anxiety & depression because Ive been diagnosed with both. Here's some stuff that has helped me anyways.

Reducing my caffeine intake. Ive done some research & have found out that it's a bad idea to drink more than 250-300mg of caffeine. So now i just drink a few cups of regular coffee in the morning & than if i want more later I drink decaf. switching to tea is another good idea as it only contains about half the amount of caffeine to coffee which has about 100mg. We all know that to much caffeine increases anxiety.

Quit smoking. Ive found since ive quit smoking im alot calmer now. Its not so much the nicotine that causes restlessness but the other 1000 harmful chemicals that reduce blood flow & restrict the airways. Im using nicotine gum & havnt smoked in 2 weeks. I feel alot calmer already.

Taking supplements. I take a multivitamin, fish oil & milk thistle. vitamin B & fish oil reduce stress & milk thistle is an antioxidant which helps repair the liver from things like alcohol or apap that may have got in ya cwe.

Exercise. Endorphins are released & it's relaxing. opiates mimic endorphins. it helps ya loose weight & helps ya sleep.

Hobbies & interests. Do stuff u like. Even if it's simple stuff like listening to music or better yet join a sport or if ya unemployed atleast try to get part-time work as doing nothing can keep ya isolated & depressed.

Medication. I take benzos but only sometimes which works out fine with no addiction. I also use codeine to but not all the time. I suppose u could call that a hobby but not a good one. Try different ADs or APs if u feel that nothing else is working. talk to ya dr.

Dont take to many drugs. I suppose ya wouldnt be a BLer if ya didnt take drugs but try to only use them sometimes & not just cuz ya bored & defensively not to escape from problems as the problem will still be there when the effects wear away but will probably bother ya more. Definitely dont drink to ease anxiety as it'll end up making ya feel worse.

has anyone else got any good tips?
Click to expand...
All the non higlighted text i pass with flying colours.:)

All the highlighted text i fail miserably. :( (Although i talk to, infact i sometimes feel like i educate my G.P and i have been down the Anti-Depressant route for the past 10 months with zero success.
 
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