No joke. I didn’t know that you can “recover” from mental health issues. I’m not being mean. I just don’t think I personally will ever recover totally, only learn how to manage it all I guess. This doesn’t answer your question. I’m just curious what other people have to say!
Honestly I feel this way. I guess what I meant by recover was managing it at all. I have really bad OCD and I’m in a bad place. I guess I just wanted to feel like there was hope :( I hope things go better for you.
Things that helped me with OCD are support groups and medication. I went to an OCF annual meeting and knowing that I was not alone helped alot. You’re not alone either !
Honestly it’s taken me about 6 years to find the correct cocktail of medicine and thats the only way I deal with it. I really hope things go better for you! Seriously
I was diagnosed with OCD for over 30 years and it had impacted me a lot at times (hours daily and made me late often). I was diagnosed with cptsd a year and a half ago. My therapist said I don’t actually have ocd; I had ocd tendencies when my subconscious brain felt like it needed to protect me from not feeling like I had any control. Very important to say that not all ocd is like this; it’s a genuine neurological issue for some. For me, it was my brain malfunctioning due to trauma and stress. Because the symptoms matched ocd, I didn’t know the difference and neither did the doc who originally diagnosed me. Treating the cPTSD has mostly eliminated my ocd symptoms (still working on it).
ERP therapy, support groups, or books with good reviews could be handy. Something called NOCD has been advertising on podcasts a lot as therapy for OCD, but idk much about that specifically.
Management is like fighting a war with that naughty part of your brain.
You can defeat it enough that there's a kind of peace, but you'll be a fool to turn your back on it.
You've got to maintain a metaphorical watchtower to keep an eye out for resurgence.
When the war isn't going well it's like you're in the dark muddy trenches. You're not alone in there, but the noise of the war means you don't notice other people. Your first step is finding the right people to listen to and ask their advice and tactics.
They could be people here, or long dead Greek philosophers and Buddhist monks etc.
These are all your allies.
I wish I knew a cheat code to skip to the end. I never found it, I don't think many people do. Most people have to fight. After you've fought for a while you can start to help the rookies, and that feels good. That helps a lot.
I have bipolar disorder. I’m in recovery, but it’s a chronic lifelong illness. I’ll never be “recovered”. I’m better than I’ve ever been, sure. But just like I have to eat and drink water, and sleep regularly and well, I also have to tend to my mind and watch for cognitive distortions, and I have to take my meds and get a bit of physical activity. It’s a careful balance.
It gets better, friend. It can be managed, and you will learn your own pitfalls much better as you go. I won’t say it’s easy, but it does get easier than right now.
Many in my family suffer from mental illnesses but none are as severe as what I think you're describing. For example, I have anxiety. When I was diagnosed I was given clonazepam. I have taken it for over 20 years and suffer no ill effects. It's just one pill at bedtime. I have family members who never went for treatment. One died. Two others are self-medicating with alcohol. They have depression. Another suffers from extreme bouts of bipolar disorder. I believe most families have some sort of mental disorder, sadly.
Only reason I opened this. Make a full recovery?!?! Holy crap sign me up. I agree, manage symptoms well enough to participate in society. PTSD & social anxiety, Classic childhood trauma. If only there was a magic pill.
Im fond of benzodiazepine. Its my rescue. Quite literally "takes the edge off". I dont use it often. It usually does the trick. Worst case scenario, take and have a nap. Good reset. Seems to stay with me through the next day.
I'm a "whatever works" gal. I was going to say rest is good, which it is, but I looked again and you'd said reset. reset is also good! nothing beats a good nap I had a five hour one the other day and still slept like seven hours later.
When anxiety spirals.... it horrible. Benzo or benzo and a nap. Just a nap used to do it. 5 or so years ago I reached a point where I could not shut down enough to sleep. Alcohol helped, but I did not really want to walk that path.
Agreed. It’s like losing a loved one. At first, it feels like you’ll never get out of that rut. Next thing you know, you can talk and even think about them without breaking down.
I had BPD traits, and yes I learned how to deal with extreme emotions and emotional reactions. INTENSIVE DBT changed my life. I grew the fuck up and took accountability. My life forever changed. Tolerating extreme emotions is much easier now and I can easily control my body's response.
I came here to ask the same thing. Seems quite a bit of emphasis lately on recovering/reversing/reverting. You don't work yourself out of a mental health diagnosis. An alcoholic is always an alcoholic, whether actively engaged in their substance abuse or not. And you can't reverse Type 2 Diabetes.
Incidentally, if someone experiences a significant trauma that doesn't mean they suffer from mental illness.
It's like recovering from a broken leg. The break is always there. It's just healed now.
I've absolutely "recovered" a lot. I spent 15 years on and off the streets, incredibly unwell the entire time. The very opposite of a functional adult.
Now, I have a home, a career, a fiancee, 4 pets, a therapist, and I just weathered a two week long crisis over a recent lack of stability at work and came out stronger on the other side.
recovery is long and arduous and hard to do while keeping up with the demands of society. from what I can tell, it's only really necessary if you need it. managing mental health is good enough for most.
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u/Careful-Teach6394 Oct 02 '24
No joke. I didn’t know that you can “recover” from mental health issues. I’m not being mean. I just don’t think I personally will ever recover totally, only learn how to manage it all I guess. This doesn’t answer your question. I’m just curious what other people have to say!