I wonder what it’s like to be free from mental health struggles. I do. Like the ones you read about with the “healthy brains”... or, honestly, does that really exist?? Because you’re always going to be bad in someone’s story...right? You can’t please everyone, and that’s a fact. So, in this persons mind, you may even be toxic. So having a “healthy brain” well, that’s pretty subjective, right? Like “healthy brain” as in free from mental illness.
Now, thinking you are perfect and have no problems or mental issues, may be called arrogant. Right? Like YOU are so free and healthy that you have NO mental struggles whatsoever. I mean, I feel like this just can’t happen.... I feel like that is impossible. Maybe I am the arrogant one here...
But you read about your mental health struggles to help you better understand them. It lists some reactions that may happen with a person who has this mental health struggle, may react. Then, it lists some views as to what a “healthy” brain would typically react...
Like.... what?! So whoever wrote that article, may be someone who has “no mental health struggles” and are free and happy. OR, maybe it was written by someone who has this struggle, and are told to believe this is how a “healthy” brain would react...
But, WHAT IS A “HEALTHY” BRAIN? Free from any mental health struggles?? Is it arrogance/subjective? Or is it possible/objective?
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I can only comment from an anxiety/depression perspective. Being free means you are no longer constantly living inside your own head and suffering from debilitating levels of fear and anxiety at every turn. A sufferer focuses on what is happening internally instead of externally and constantly monitoring or questioning the slightest change to how they may be feeling....or what may or may not be perceived as being normal.
A person without anxiety doesn't think too much about any of this stuff, if at all. Why? Its because they don't really care how they are feeling. It's not their focus of attention. They are too busy living their lives and filling their days with normal things.
The best way i can explain it is that an anxiety sufferer will feel worse if they know they have to fly somewhere. They may even decide not to fly because they don't want to feel those emotions. They avoid flying.
A person without anxiety may feel a little apprehensive about flying but don't pay any attention to their feelings and still travel. Their focus is on the flight, not how they may feel about it, before, during and after the flight. Then you have non sufferers who love flying and enjoy the buzz it gives them. To be honest, there is very little difference between that buzz and feeling anxious. The only thing that makes it different is fear.
To recover, my focus slowly shifted from myself and on to other things happening around me. This meant living my life as if i didn't have anxiety/depression with no expectation of recovery. I simply took all that baggage with me. If this was how I was going to feel, then so be it. I accepted it and carried on. A by-product of this shift in focus is that the symptoms disappeared, mainly because I lost interest in them.
During my suffering, i oftened looked at other people and wondered what they did to be happy. Why were they so happy? It made me feel bad and longed to be as happy as them. In reality, they are not doing much other than going about their daily lives.
Okay, I do understand what you are saying. And I agree with you on what you mean by the definition of being free.
BUT, we still have these mental health struggles...right? Like, you still have your anxiety. Am I correct? It still happens. My main point here is how can someone claim they have no mental health struggles at all? And this is how a brain without anxiety (a “healthy” brain) would react vs a brain with anxiety.
Am I making sense? It makes sense in my head. But, it’s a hurricane up in there so maybe it doesn’t make sense to others 😂🥴🤦♀️
Hey Hecate! What is a healthy brain?? What a great question!!
First of all, trust me when I say you aren't the arrogant one. No one is perfect.
Secondly, maybe the brains not considered healthy are prone to an overractive "fight or flight" response system. That would make "healthy" brains having a baseline "fight or flight". But, then we'd have to ask what is meant by baseline?? I think maybe only a scientist studying brains and human behavior can answer this. What do you think?
I understand your struggle, I call it going into hell. I came out of a 3 year struggle late last year, two things helped SO much, a change in med's which my Dr. gladly wrote for me, and a wonderful therapist. Believe it or not, I am free of fear, depression, and anxiety. Now I am happy from dawn to dusk, I have no worries.
So I live my day happily, I live in the moment it is wonderful. Maybe you could invest in some medication and a good therapist. I feel free, wish I could help others feel the way I do. I wish you well, I send you peace, love n hugs....Sprinkle 1.....
Wow! Envious! I would love to learn how to live in the moment since I'm prone to live in anything but there.
Also, I wonder if our diet has anything to do with the status of mental health.🤔
Thankfully, I am not as depressed as I used to be. Interesting enough, I felt my depression lift quite a bit once I moved from the States to Norway. The diet is healthier over here.
Sorry to take so long in replying I have been SO busy. Yes you can learn to live in the moment. It is learning to stop your mind from going forward or backward, just live with what you are doing at any special moment of the day, does not have to be special, just concentrate on what you are doing and enjoy it, even if it is only scrubbing the toilet, one job down. I do believe a healthy diet is a good thing to do, lots of veg and fruit, small amount (4 oz) of lean meat, they provide amino acids only found in meat. Avoid sugar as much as possible and fat, use pure olive oil and avocado oil, they are the best. And exercise to keep your mind fresh and recharge the endorphins. Hope this is of help, if I can do it, so can you. Sending love n hugs.....Sprinkle 1.....
You are right in the sense that anxiety is a natural emotion. Everyone feels anxious at some point of other. It is there to protect us in times of danger except there are no sabre tooth tigers running around trying to eat us any more and we are no longer living in the stone age. Unfortunately, anxiety hasn't moved with the times. It's still the same old primitive defence system for humans, protecting us against "First world problems."
However, the BIG difference is that most people of this forum have inappropriate levels of anxiety at inappropriate times. Their defence mechanism does not switch off because they are highly sensitised. Their fight/flight response has been "triggered" so often, it fires off at any thing and everything. People become afraid of the feelings of fear. Keeping with the analogy, a non-sufferer's trigger is very rusty because it doesn't get squeezed so much. It takes alot more to trigger our natural safety defences. The difference between the two is sensitisation. A person without anxiety or those who have recovered have de-sensitised by facing their fears.
To overcome anxiety and depression, let that hurricane roar and accept everything it does. Your mind and body will eventually find peace because that is our default setting.
Yes it does but the more you accept, the more you catch glimpses of reality where the mind and body is relaxed. No mental chatter, no physical symptoms, you can think rationally about the perceived problem, if there is one, other than anxiety itself. You can see the wood between the trees and you realise that all the anxious thoughts and feelings are created by anxiety and not real. Even though this symptoms will return for the foreseeable future, they are easier to accept and let go. You are no longer at the mercy of this“ thing.” You have called anxiety’s bluff and seen it for what it is. A con trick of the highest order. You actually regain control of your life by giving up trying to control your anxiety.
This reminds me of a trick I learned through DBT (Or maybe it was CBT?) Anyway...it involves writing out your everyday thoughts (including axious thoughts about upcoming scenarios and anxious thougts about recntly past scenarios) and attaching a "percentage likelihood of that thought being true". I'll have to find where I have that tool. It is quite powerful.
I didn’t bother with any of that stuff because I knew it was anxiety creating those scary thoughts, not me. Additionally, I never wrote anything down before I developed anxiety so wasn’t about to start! Acceptance is the way to go.
No one is immune to mental illness unless they know how to deal with it. Many dont because they havent had to. I am free of it. My symptoms developed when I was 40.
I would add that it only becomes a mental health issue when it begins to interfere with your life. For example, you stop doing things because of the way you are feeling. Fears spring up here, there and everywhere and the person withdraws from life in general.
You are what you think unless you realise that you are not your thoughts. That is one of the things I learnt during my recover. Thoughts are not real and you have a choice of either believing them, or not.
OK. I cannot remember if I mentioned this to you specifically but OCD is just an offshoot of anxiety. It’s just compulsive behaviour to try and avoid a fear.
For example, I fear catching some dreadful disease so I constantly wash my hands and wipe down all surfaces. Anxiety blows that fear of catching a disease all out of proportion...it is very good at magnifying every single thought and emotion and giving them a false sense of importance to the person because it came with a large dose of fear. They then try and avoid that feeling by compulsively doing something to stop them feeling fearful. It’s as simple as that.
I’d be interested to know what your OCD is about, how it developed and if it actually has any benefits. Does it provide permanent relief or is it temporary? My guess is that it will be temporary, otherwise it wouldn’t be a compulsive behaviour.
Ok. If you learn to lose your fear of whatever is driving your OCD, all symptoms, including your OCD will cease to be a problem.
My anxiety jumped from one thing to another and found it exhausting trying to keep up with it. I then put all the thoughts and feelings into one basket labelled “anxiety“ and stopped chasing it around. I was actually chasing my own tail.
Let the thoughts come, let them have their say and then let them go. This is what Weekes describes as facing, accepting, floating past and letting time pass. Even though you may not be interfering with the thoughts and letting them go, they don’t disappear straight away. That what Weekes meant by letting time pass.
If you learn to control your thoughts, they can become real, you are the watcher behind your mind, that is who and what you are ! the life force, Ray. ie you can manifest your reality with your thoughts.
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