The Mental Health Thread - (Help Contacts in First Post).

[Samba]

he comes up to Skye one week in 4 - lovely man - I asked him how come he spoke with ' that ' accent - he just said it was a mixture of his natural Romanian and wherever he learned English . I must have kept him talking for at least 20 minutes on etymology and linguistics - anything to distract myself from having his finger up me bum...

[Samba]

Tomos over here in Cork we have a castle called Blarney castle. There is a stone at the top that if you kiss it it gives you the gift of the gab.

I reckon you have been over here sometime and ****ing swallowed it.

Seen that on the telly. Have to lie on your back upside down, to do it..
Must have been before TOMoS had a bad back..

[The Old Man of Storr]

Tomos over here in Cork we have a castle called Blarney castle. There is a stone at the top that if you kiss it it gives you the gift of the gab.

I reckon you have been over here sometime and ****ing swallowed it.

When I was flown to Paisley with sepsis back in 2012/13 one of the many scans they gave me was a full bone scan - I had to be driven to the Queen Elizabeth for that procedure as the Royal Alexandra didn't have the facility - one of the Auxiliaries [ another Peter ] asked me to tell them I'd prefer accompaniment so that he could have a day off from his day to day duties at the RA - when we arrived at the QE I was given this injection [ radioactive ] then had to wait 2-3 hours until the scan - even though I was too weak to get out of bed I kept chatting away asking various questions .

Peter the Auxiliary said ' I thought I could talk but you never shut up do you ? ' .

[The Old Man of Storr]

On BBC Breakfast news this morning they fitted in a story about a man who had suffered from and treated for hairy cell leukemia - he was convinced that Nature played its part in his survival [ something that Tenners and many of us here have been banging on about ] - he now runs Bird Watching Courses - nice to hear a positive bit of news .

[YorksHammer]

Sorry to read Tenbury's diagnosis - hope you're doing OK.

Had a weird couple of weeks here, just very slow, steady, and getting on with it without much really happening. Feeling very odd about work at the moment, I feel quite underutilised since moving jobs at the start of the year. While I'm happy for the slightly less stressful job compared to my previous one - it's kind of what I moved for - I wasn't expecting it to be quite this quiet.

Hoping it's just a lull - consultancy does that from time to time. But it's very unsettling and I can't help but feel like there's just not enough work for me right now.

[EvilC]

A friend’s brother took his own life yesterday. Married with a daughter. He had had some MH issues for a while, supposedly he came off his medication and went downhill really quickly.

Look after yourselves and your people

[S-H]

Sorry to hear that evil.

[Tenbury]

How shocking , EC.and how desperately sad.

I've come to believe that as a society, and as individuals, we have a duty to try anything and everything to prevent the disaster of suicide. The poor guy's family will live with that all their days.
We must learn to distinguish what's really important from the consumption/fakery/bullsh*t that gets thrown around us everyday. Each death is one too many.
Let's hope the poor man is at peace.

[EvilC]

Indeed it is sad Tenners. He was a lovely guy, always made me feel welcome when I was with him and his brother and their friends, which meant a lot to me as I am naturally quite shy and I know the remaining brother as he is married to my wife’s best friend.

It is a genuine tragedy, it also makes reading some people’s experiences on here even more real and make you realise the consequences.

[btajim - mcfc]

A friend’s brother took his own life yesterday. Married with a daughter. He had had some MH issues for a while, supposedly he came off his medication and went downhill really quickly.

Look after yourselves and your people

That’s terrible. Really, really sad.

Don’t quote me on this but I was told one in five adults are presently on some form of antidepressants. I go through many good friends and I believe we all have been.

Listen to the experts, guys.

[White Goodman]

Can I just second the point about trying to come off your medication by going solo?

I tried to come off my SSRIs recently mainly because I’d been on them over two years and just wanted to be off.

Because I think I can tough things out usually I did it almost cold turkey ie a very short self weaning period.

All I can say to anyone as stupid as me who wants to try this, is don’t do it. It was truly atrocious , so much so that I can’t actually describe it to you. Just a black pit much worse than the actual depression it was treating plus nausea, brutal headaches and even tinnitus

I put myself back on and was fine within a day or two .

I’m sure you’re not as pig headed as I am but if you want to come off , see your doc to discuss it first

[Turns to Stone]

Tenners, I’m so sorry. I’ve only just caught up with this thread.

I just want you to know that you are a wonderful man. At a dark time for me you gave me some words that I really needed to hear and I will never forget it.

And, when I tell my kids why I continue to support West Ham, I won’t tell them it’s because of men like Moore, or Brooking, or Bonds, or Noble or Rice. I’ll tell them it’s because of men like Tenbury.

Thank you my friend.

[Samba]

SSRI's/SSNRI's are notorious for causing unpleasant symptoms when coming off of them, especially trying it by cold turkey. As slow as possible should be the way & even then with the knowledge of the person that prescribed them.
The thing is Whitey, if you're feeling ok, it can be tempting to want to try stopping them & to get it over with quick. We live & learn (hopefully), as they say & I'm pleased to hear that going back on it has made you feel much better.
I've been struggling more than ever since my mum died last July. Just been unrelenting misery, tbh. Got so bad by early April that I got referred to a 'day hospital', which is there to stop people being admitted. Had been on a very high dose of antidepressant for many, many years but after a terrible experience on Prozac years ago, have always been frankly, terrified of changing, whenever the possibility was brought up.
You get asked, is the one you've been on for years, working? How the f*ck do I know? It wouldn't appear to be stopping me living in the aforementioned unrelenting misery, so maybe not. Even so, they did have the option of increasing it even more. That was until they did some heart tests in the day hosp. I knew when it had been increased over the years, the medication has caused me to have high blood pressure (that one can do that) but the tests also showed that I also had something called 'long QT' which unfortunately isn't something sexy. It's when a certain electrical impulse in the heart has been altered & can be dangerous, so, far from it being increased, I've had to be weaned off the one I was on (too fast for my liking but you can only be seen by this day hosp for 4/6 weeks & they clearly have their agenda to discharge me asap) & been put on a new one, a week ago now.
Trouble is, I don't feel any better; I still don't want to be here (alive) anymore. However, so long as I haven't 'made a plan', they're 'happy'.
As mentioned elsewhere, through blood tests they also discovered that I have diabetes so that's been an utter joy, at the same time starting on a diabetic medication which makes you feel nauseous, gives you indigestion at night & causes you to have diarrhoea so bad that you're pissing out of your arse..
That's REALLY made me feel less depressed. And because I haven't been able to face going very low carb, hasn't really made any difference in lowering my blood glucose which still appears to be as if it's like Lyles Golden Syrup coursing through my veins. Of course, this will mean I will have to go on to another diabetic med (as well as the first one) to get my b/sugar down.
Believe me, the saying that 'there's nothing so bad that it can't get worse', is very true unfortunately.
Anyway, thanks for listening. Like TOMoS, I also appear to have 'kissed the Blarney Stone', at some point..

[btajim - mcfc]

I accidentally came off Citalopram through a combination of moving home, doctors de-registration and the chemists not being able to give me more. It was disorganisation on my part but I was dreadful after five days or so. Back on them, I was ok a few days later.

Taking my morning 20mg Citalopram is as much as my morning routine as putting the kettle on. At present, I’ve no intention of coming off them and wouldn’t dream of doing so without doctors orders.

[-DL-]

I've only ever been on meds once in my life - and did what my doctor called at the time as 'bouncing' on them - they had the opposite effect. I was in my early 20s, had PTSD, my life was a mess and falling apart around my ears and I was off the rails. Can't even remember what they were, but I got worse - self harming, suicidal, (attempted a couple of times) and as soon as I stopped, although I wouldn't say I was fine, the self abuse stopped.

Never touched any head-meds since.

[YorksHammer]

I was on sertraline and came off them with the help of my therapist last year. I slowly cut down from one a day (I think it was 50mg) to one every other, then half a tab every day, then cut out completely.

It was one of the early goals I set with my therapist to show I was improving mentally and getting better, and credit to her she was absolutely great with me about doing it and supporting me through the slight slumps I had each time the dosage was cut down.

[The Old Man of Storr]

A friend’s brother took his own life yesterday. Married with a daughter. He had had some MH issues for a while, supposedly he came off his medication and went downhill really quickly.

Look after yourselves and your people

That's awful news , EC - hope his wife and family are getting the support they need .

When our boy was first diagnosed with Autism I was going round with this pain / butterflies type thing going on in my chest so I went to see my GP who prescribed fluoxetine - they helped massively but after a few months were giving me these vague thoughts of suicide , not serious thoughts but enough to think ' What if I swerve towards this oncoming car ' type of thing while I was out driving home from work so I stopped taking them immediately - I should have come off them gradually but thankfully I was alright .

I visit my friend , Mike [ who has been diagnosed with Complex PTSD ] regularly , he says it helps him more than any medication he's taken [ though I did stop briefly when I was told I might need an operation ] - I phoned him twice a week instead - I stay with him for 4 -5 hours once a week , I get as much out of it as he does .

[Paolopaul]

I’ve been on Duloxetine since April 2020 and twice I’ve attempted to come off it, but found myself having sleepless nights by day three both times - not an option with a young child to take care of. I’d love to get off it one day.

I’d also back up what others on here have said about nature being a big healer. Two trips out to Lancing Ring this week have done wonders for my mood and the knee pain has come right down. Happened the same with my last flare up as well so I don’t think it’s just a coincidence.

[The Old Man of Storr]

I’ve been on Duloxetine since April 2020 and twice I’ve attempted to come off it, but found myself having sleepless nights by day three both times - not an option with a young child to take care of. I’d love to get off it one day.

I’d also back up what others on here have said about nature being a big healer. Two trips out to Lancing Ring this week have done wonders for my mood and the knee pain has come right down. Happened the same with my last flare up as well so I don’t think it’s just a coincidence.

Speak to your GP about coming off the Duloxetine -

It'll depend on your dosage - I believe the usual medical advice is to try cutting it down by a quarter or two thirds for one week or 2 weeks - then halve it the following week , bringing the dosage down gradually and slowly .

My GP put me on a maximum dose of dihydrocodeine - when I first tried halving it back in 2019/2020 I had a bad time of things - I couldn't sleep , suffered the usual withdrawal symptoms , itchy skin , horrible feelings , the usual stuff - the way I dealt with it back then was to listen to fast songs via my headphones , they had to be fast to cope with how my brain was feeling - it actually worked or helped at least , this went on for a week - I'd go to bed , couldn't sleep , went downstairs and stuck my headphones on for 2 hours then the feeling would lessen and I'd get to sleep - a Nurse told me later that I'd gone about it incorrectly , I should have taken 2/3rds of the dose not half .

This year I thought of halving the dose once more - I'm currently on 2/3rds the dose which is at least better than the full dose which was half the dose I was on previously !!

So , speak to your GP , he/she will most probably give you the advice I just gave , start off my cutting them down by a quarter , so take 3/4 of the dose [ if possible ] - if not , ask them to give you an appropriate dose with which you can cut down .

Good Luck .

[btajim - mcfc]

Clean living helps me. I’ve not drank alcohol since Saturday (not even to toast you last night), am eating well and cutting out everything that feels lazy or counterproductive to happiness.

I’m focusing on ideas for the future too. Where I want to be in 2024 stuff etc.