How to manage anxiety and depression in 10 easy* steps

[Hypoxia]

How to manage anxiety and depression in 10 easy* steps:

1. GET OUT OF BED
2. BRUSH YOUR TEETH
3. EXERCISE
4. SHOWER
5. CHECK YOUR EMAIL
6. DRINK LESS
7. DO ANY PRODUCTIVE THING
8. ENGAGE WITH ANY HUMAN BEING
9. SEEK OUT FRIENDS
10. NAME ONE THING YOU ARE GRATEFUL FOR

I don't know if writing qualifies as #7 but give it a try. Or maybe you can get your neuroses to work for you. How many authors qualify as 'sane'?

 

[Blind_Justice]

Sanity has moved on from me and lives with her lesbian girlfriend in Munich. Sometimes she sends an email, usually asking when I'll finally get around mailing the reamaining shit she left with me.

It's not like I miss her... Life is so much better now...

 

[NotWise]

Sanity has moved on from me and lives with her lesbian girlfriend in Munich. Sometimes she sends an email, usually asking when I'll finally get around mailing the reamaining shit she left with me.

It's not like I miss her... Life is so much better now...

I'm going to save that somewhere.

 

[TxRad]

So many plot bunnies and not enough cages for them all.

 

[CoffeeWithMonkeys]

How to manage anxiety and depression in 10 easy* steps:

1. GET OUT OF BED
2. BRUSH YOUR TEETH
3. EXERCISE
4. SHOWER
5. CHECK YOUR EMAIL
6. DRINK LESS
7. DO ANY PRODUCTIVE THING
8. ENGAGE WITH ANY HUMAN BEING
9. SEEK OUT FRIENDS
10. NAME ONE THING YOU ARE GRATEFUL FOR

I don't know if writing qualifies as #7 but give it a try. Or maybe you can get your neuroses to work for you. How many authors qualify as 'sane'?

I wish it were that easy. I actually couldn't manage #1 until Wednesday. Not even sure how long I had been in bed at that point, at least 4 days though.

And I know this is supposed to be funny and I did actually click the link and am reading it now.

#10 though, not sure I could name just one thing. There are 2 things that keep me alive, actually maybe 3. My pug Gloria G, music and writing. Writing is my escape.

 

[Handley_Page]

How to manage anxiety and depression in 10 easy* steps:

1. GET OUT OF BED
2. BRUSH YOUR TEETH
3. EXERCISE
4. SHOWER
5. CHECK YOUR EMAIL
6. DRINK LESS
7. DO ANY PRODUCTIVE THING
8. ENGAGE WITH ANY HUMAN BEING
9. SEEK OUT FRIENDS
10. NAME ONE THING YOU ARE GRATEFUL FOR

I don't know if writing qualifies as #7 but give it a try. Or maybe you can get your neuroses to work for you. How many authors qualify as 'sane'?

Excuse me, but I think you forgot a Very Important Thing:

BREAKFAST

 

[CuteSlaveLisa]

According to Chaplain Robert Preston Taylor, Major USAAC and a Texan, go Baylor Bears, when taken prisoner on Corregidor in 1942. He survived and was later chief chaplain of the USAF. Surviving capture was a matter of...

Getting up
Moving ones bowels
Shaving etc
Getting properly dressed
Having breakfast
Speaking to others

Seems really close to what others have said here...

Love and Kisses

Lisa Ann

 

[gordo12]

Excuse me, but I think you forgot a Very Important Thing:

BREAKFAST

And even before that

COFFEE!!!

 

[Hypoxia]

And even before that

COFFEE!!!

Staggering around the house sipping your cuppa counts as #3 EXERCISE. I'm heading there right now. It's Kahlua coffee brewed in a French press so it counts as a fetish. As for sanity, it's multidimensional. We can be quite insane on the X axis but fairly rational on the Y and Z axes. In theory, anyway.

 

[redzinger]

All this advice stuff is shit. If you're struggling with depression, pain, stress, your executive function is damaged. People can advise you to do stuff, but that's like being offered a new ornament when your house is burning down.

There was a great thread on the Twat about this the other day.

 

[redzinger]

You'll probably need to put the twat bit back into the link to open this, but it's really helpful:

https://www****itter.com/ErynnBrook/status/1132008635712901121

 

[John988]

[This content has been removed due to a copyright violation.]

 

[John988]

[This content has been removed due to a copyright violation.]

 

[Handley_Page]

In my own case, the "exercise" bit was accomplished by having to take the dog for a walk.

 

[Bramblethorn]

Thanks for such good information. I tried it and it worked.

^ spammer.

 

[_Lynn_]

How to manage anxiety and depression in 10 easy* steps:

1. GET OUT OF BED
2. BRUSH YOUR TEETH
3. EXERCISE
4. SHOWER
5. CHECK YOUR EMAIL
6. DRINK LESS
7. DO ANY PRODUCTIVE THING
8. ENGAGE WITH ANY HUMAN BEING
9. SEEK OUT FRIENDS
10. NAME ONE THING YOU ARE GRATEFUL FOR

I don't know if writing qualifies as #7 but give it a try. Or maybe you can get your neuroses to work for you. How many authors qualify as 'sane'?

I've had my share of rough days. Knowing what can help doesn't mean I'll do it. Some days go better than others. I don't make excuses for the days I don't manage to accomplish anything. I just work at making the next one better.

The pandemic isn't helping those who struggle either. And it's not easy to reach out the way we might other times. I started writing letters to elderly family members as a way of letting them know I'm thinking of them. My messages are short but positive.

 

[Zeb_Carter]

How to manage anxiety and depression in 10 easy* steps:

1. GET OUT OF BED
2. BRUSH YOUR TEETH
3. EXERCISE
4. SHOWER
5. CHECK YOUR EMAIL
6. DRINK LESS
7. DO ANY PRODUCTIVE THING
8. ENGAGE WITH ANY HUMAN BEING
9. SEEK OUT FRIENDS
10. NAME ONE THING YOU ARE GRATEFUL FOR

I don't know if writing qualifies as #7 but give it a try. Or maybe you can get your neuroses to work for you. How many authors qualify as 'sane'?

Well, I got them down pretty well, except #7 very unproductive in my mind. I sit here wanting to produce(write) but instead I watch YouTube videos or watch a movie or play a game. And #10 is pretty hard as currently I have nothing to be grateful for except I'm still alive. So there's that. The others are easy and I have some chemicals to help. Prescribed by a doctor too.

 

[nylonpunkie]

It's the seeking out friends bit I have trouble with.
Seems to have been years since I had an interesting conversation with someone.
And the older I get, the harder it gets.

The more alone I feel, the more it becomes my reality.

 

[Emirus]

Suicide is the ultimate way of curing depression but not advisable. I’ve always thought how sad it is when someone sinks so far into depression they think that’s the answer. Not realising there’s always people out there willing to help. I’ve also always thought how much courage someone must have and know I couldn’t do it.

To answer the OP sensibly I think it’s, as others have said, being positive. Laying awake in bed or sitting doing nothing and letting your mind wander is the worst thing you can do.

Two exceptions are if you think of all the people you dislike and what you’d like to do to them or, in the case of a man, thinking of all the women you know and lust after and what... just don’t let your wife know thinking about the second way is how you’re being positive. If she thinks you’re serious you’ll never suffer from depression again.

 

[Omenainen]

This thread annoys me immensely. I’ve got even better advice! It takes only two steps!

1. Don’t be anxious
2. Don’t be depressed

There, I fixed your list for you.

 

[Omenainen]

That would be too easy thinking, and ignoring the seriousness, the pain, and sadness these issues raise. If it were that easy... It's kind of offensive to say this.

That was the point I was trying to make.

 

[Sextified]

I've had my share of rough days. Knowing what can help doesn't mean I'll do it. Some days go better than others. I don't make excuses for the days I don't manage to accomplish anything. I just work at making the next one better.

Here is something that I typed in as folder name on my computer's desktop. It's right at the very top of my screen, where I have no choice but to look at it first. Normally, I would have put it somewhere on a wall in my office, small and hidden, where only I would be the one to see it.

[ Don't Waste today, or at the very least, don't let it ruin tomorrow. ]

Not that big of an earth shattering idea, that I made myself write down, after a really bad pandemic-ly depressed day. But the next time I logged on to lose myself with hours of web surfing, instead of writing, I closed my laptop and went did something else.

Anything else.

The next day when I opened my laptop, I checked my author's account email messages, saw nothing, admitted that I was painfully still missing my old editor and close friend, internally wished her continued good luck with her new life, and got right to typing new material.

What works to jar you out of depression one day, won't always do it for you the next. It's best to have a handful of 'good' rather than 'bad' remedies at your disposal, to try immediately, when the first one doesn't do the trick.

Another small secret is to always have something you have to do every day, and a few extra things things to look forward to on the next.

Also, if you have the right kind of cat(s), they can be a big help, too.

 

[Sextified]

So many plot bunnies and not enough cages for them all.

Oh, and I just added TxRad's quip right beneath mine on my desktop!

I really think that one will help me a lot down the road!

 

[Bramblethorn]

For one thing, it always makes me feel sad, seeing Hypoxia's thread showing op again.

Hypoxia was posting a couple of weeks ago, FWIW.

 

[eroticstoryspinner]

I see this thread started a while back. Whoever resurrected it thanks I am coming up on the first anniversary of the passing of my wife of over 30 years and the black dog has been nipping at me. I needed to see this.