Advice

[vickh9]

Hello,

I am new here, I am just looking for some advice?

From as far back as I can remember I haven’t felt okay, as I got older I realised it was something with my mental health.

I went to the dr about it once when I was around 19 and was given anti depressants. I never took these because a person close to me laughed when they seen them and I tried to tell myself that it was all in my head. I have just been trying to get on with things but it’s been getting harder all the time, e.g. I worry that people judge my work and ideas, therefore holds me back in my professional career.

I got diagnosed with a bowel disease recently and it has completely changed my life, I haven’t been sleeping the best, I can’t eat or drink the way I use to, i have joint pain, on medication with side effects, weight gain from steroids so I don’t look myself, I was told twice that surgery was looking likely for me and somehow I have gotten through it. I am worried about the side effects of this disease when I am outdoors on a daily basis, having to get a stoma in the future, getting a job, (as I have had to give up my job due to illness) being discriminated against while in the application process because of my illness. I feel a burden to everyone around me.

I need this to stop and get on with my life. I am even nervous posting this. Can anyone recommend anything I can do to snap out of this so I can focus on myself?

[NeuronerdDoaty]

I’m curious why you wouldn’t take medication for your mental health which comes from an organ in your body but you’ll take medication for other organs in your body.

I have lupus and epilepsy and clinical depression. This is integrated into my life but it is not my life. I don’t let this stop me. When I meet new doctors I tell them it is their job to get me through the day. I now am 56 years old and I do Neuro research. I’ve done many things prior to this along with my health issues and ex-husbands and stalkers and three children. This is what life is about but it is not who you are.

Don’t identify yourself as a person with illnesses. If all of us did none of us would get anywhere and nothing would happen on this planet because we all have something. Illness doesn’t define you unless you let it. I am not what’s in my chart and neither are you.

We are all more than the sum of our parts.

There are great people in this group and I hope you stay.

I do hope you have a therapist or are in a group where you can talk about your issues so that they don’t define you.

Doaty💛

[vickh9]

I didn’t take the medication as a family member laughed at me (which at the time was very horrible, also I was 19 at the time) so I convinced myself I was being dramatic and tried to down play it, I was embarrassed. I took the ibd medication as I had a very short time frame before my condition became life threatening and the drugs were the only thing that would help me plus I am 33 now and see things a lot more clearly.

No I don’t have a therapist as I don’t feel like I can tell anyone even a doc how bad this is in my head, I tried to tell them a little and everything was put down to this new disease I have, but this disease is just making it worse.

I definitely don’t consider myself as a person with a disability, more upset by what it has done to me, that’s why I am looking for advice on how to snap out of this.

Thank you for you advice, I shall look for a group in my area.

Happy new year