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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Requests for advice and / or encouragement. On basically any topic and for any scale of problem.
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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'm mal-functionally non-anxious and probably less professionally successful than you, and this is big advice for me to give as some jackass on the internet, but consider Thomas Szasz' famous dictate that most mental illnesses aren't in the brain, they're problems in living. What we call mental illness, is often just the world asking something of you that you just can't do. This South Park Episode, but unironically or SA on stimulants in Sillicon Valley.
Consider that just as it's silly to say someone has ADHD because they can't read The Great Gatsby or look at spreadsheets all day, maybe you have anxiety because your life is stressful and it is ridiculous to say that you need drugs to cope. Maybe the simple fixes aren't working because it isn't a simple problem.
Now, hey, if you want to take drugs to be even greater than you could be without them, I don't necessarily object to that. Barry Bonds started taking drugs long after he had won several MVPs. But don't confuse using drugs because you want more with needing drugs to function as a human.
It's certainly possible that I have anxiety because my life is stressful, but I have to admit I'm quite sceptical of that interpretation. I'm steadily employed at a normal 9-5 office job; I am treated with respect and courtesy by my colleagues; I've never had to work late, overtime or at the weekend; I have no dependents; I'm not wealthy but nor am I struggling to make ends meet; I have good accommodation; and I don't have any health problems. All of these things were true two, three and four years ago, and I know I didn't feel like this at those times.
You're probably right then, just wanted to throw it out there.
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