The Wednesday Wellness threads are meant to encourage users to ask for and provide advice and motivation to improve their lives. It isn't intended as a 'containment thread' and any content which could go here could instead be posted in its own thread. You could post:
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EDIT: Thanks for all of the suggestions folks, they're greatly appreciated.
I'm worried I may have some kind of anxiety disorder. For the last few months I've found it very hard to relax, and almost always feel tense and on edge. I don't (or rather, can't) enjoy most of the things I used to enjoy. Even when I'm spending time with my friends or a girl I'm dating, I feel tense and can't let myself relax. I don't look forward to anything. When I'm in work I'm bored out of my mind, when I get home I do nothing to pass the time. My sex drive is virtually nonexistent.
What I've tried so far:
Cutting out caffeine: I didn't drink any caffeine for an entire month. Now I'm back on it but drinking less than I was before I cut it out completely.
Reducing alcohol intake: I was probably drinking too much during Covid. For the last few months I've been trying to keep my non-social drinking to a minimum and not to overdo it when I drink socially
Meditation: I've been doing guided meditation once a day for the last two weeks, using www.tarabrach.com as a resource
Talk therapy: I was seeing a therapist once a week from July until two weeks ago (I had to pause the sessions as I changed jobs which meant a change in insurance provider). The therapy wasn't specifically about this issue, but the issue did come up in the sessions
Exercise: I got into running during Covid and still run once or twice a week. I cycle to work every day (provided it's not raining).
Leisure activities: I try to read from a corporeal book every day.
None of the above seems to have helped much, if at all. Maybe once every two weeks I'll experience a day where I'm able to just completely relax and unwind - but there doesn't seem to be any obvious rhyme, reason, or pattern to when these days strike, at least as far as I can see.
Any suggestions for how to deal with this are welcome. Ideally I would prefer not to resort to psychopharmaceuticals, as I've been prescribed antidepressants and antipsychotics in the past, and found the gains rather meagre compared to the brutality of the side effects.
I've dealt with the same issues, and Tara Brach is a great meditation teacher. I have eventually managed to curb the worst of my anxiety but it took many many years of meditation, yoga, therapy, etc etc.
In terms of pharmaceuticals, I was also skeptical but ended up taking Klonopin after a bad stretch. It actually helped quite a bit and now I'm completely off of them.
I think that the healthiest practices are meditation, exercise and therapy. At the end of the day it just takes a lot of work. Anxiety is essentially your brain being habituated to interpreting everything in your environment as a threat, and you have to work to change the way you naturally respond to things. Wish I could give you a stronger recommendation but that's my experience.
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