thread on which to be factitiously Mentally Normal (NOS)

[Mitchy1nge]

nobody was wondering but not only am I still alive, the horribleness of my back pain has completely stopped is all a bit tender and traumatised but hooray for me

and partial hooray for the weirdness that is tramadol I suppose

It always seems to happen at a weekend eh Caulk? MH stuff never keeps to business hours

Do you have a crisis plan/a list of things to try when you're feeling unsafe?

Oh dear caulk Do you have distractions? (I know that may not be helpful, but it's what crisis people usually say to me). You could try ringing them and seeing if they help.

Yes. Lovely Therapist and I came up with a list of stuff to do. I feel like I've been doing the stuff on the list for days now though and still not feeling any better.

Does going out of the house help?

Enpoid- hehehe

DHorse is orange and Welsh and a bit of a clown

Caulk, what is your experience of seeing the duty psych? I've never been to A&E, but I've heard mixed things. Is your therapist contactable? Mine encourages contact in between sessions, partly, I feel to try and cure this damn attachment disorder

I've been twice - once when I felt suicidal, and once when I had taken an od. I've been a few times when I've sh badly but that's it. I've found them more helpful than the crisis team.
I drove to a&e just now, decided I am being ridiculous and drove home again.
I can text lovely therapist, and she will remind me of the list of things to do and people to contact.

So hard when you're not sure what to do Caulk

I wish it was a physical thing and not in my head and that it didn't ever mean I wanted to Not Be Here.
I'm going to make tea and have a bath, as that's what the crisis team will recommend for me, so I might as well do it.

Maybe it will help? You deserve to feel better. Hope you have some nice tea.

I have green tea with orange. I'm so middle class in my hideous depressiveness it hurts.

I've opened lots of vitamin e tablets and using them to make my scars better, as clearly that will make me not want to sh. Right? Right?

Right, you can keep going, caulk

I think I have that exact same tea Does it count if I rescued it from the expiry-date hell of my parents' storecupboards?

Looking after yourself and taking care of your skin is a good idea.

I've set a timer. Will keep going for half an hour. Then another. Then another. We are three minutes into the first half an hour.

Totally counts

Good plan Caulk.

Good idea

that tea sounds lovely

is there anyone you could be with? I find it helps me if I can be around other people, not horrible people obviously, just someone who is used to me or who is a bit depressed so not too talkative or who is a dog or cat or horse or other combination of fur and listening skills

Not really. The academic is downstairs writing the phd so she is in the house.

When I took the od in re autumn I ended up losing a lot of friends - my best friend said she could never forgive me for it, and her anger has led others to be as angry with me too. So the few people who are still on my side either know nothing about it or get it, but are very busy with their lives and young children.

The cat has been in, have just put him out for toileting but will make him come in and sit with me soon.

By school I meant, yes, one of those single-sex academic super-selectives. Fantastic education: questionable preparation for adult life.

Weekends are shit times to need help, I agree, and especially in winter. And as someone who has a lot of unequivocally physical issues (won't bore you all with details) which can land me urgently in A&E, I'm forever horrified by how much more time, sympathy and compassion I receive when I'm there for non-MH reasons.

mitchy Honestly, you don't look fat. I'm so useless around food that I automatically seem to delete fat from everything I ever attempt to cook (which is probably why, come to think of it, everything I bake comes out dry and cripsy and overdone) so you have more than enough spare calories for your omelette, I promise.

enpo Don't feel awkward. I mean yes, you were behaving in a way that most people would consider to have been a little unusual, but does that not simply go with the terrain we're all navigating? I would guess that most of us on here have said and/or done things about which we're embarrassed. I'll tell you about mine when I stop worrying about whether or not any of you are neighbours/colleagues/etc.

Thanks, all, for the welcome.

Eeeek just realised that I said that twice to mitchy

Sorry It's pure transference. I feel fat, fat fat too

I think your friends treated you appallingly, Caulkhead. I don't have a lot of friends (damned social isolation ) but I've come to realise how astonishingly lucky I am to have a family who treat a suicide attempt and a psych ward stay the same as any other acute illness and hospital admission - with sympathy, not anger (or at least not anger AT me).

Those who you say are still on your side but their lives are very busy - what would they say if you told them, "I was struggling at the weekend, but didn't want to bother you"?

Thanks tooth

I can promise I'm not any of your colleagues, if that helps?

it can be so isolating :( and the more I need my friends the harder it is to call them and to get over the guilt of being So Shit

could you have some soup or something? I made a 3 egg omelette he's a bit of a beast with courgettes extra spinach tomato - eating him to the accompaniment of Flicka on DVD

fancy a go at one of today's questions? I trust you not to google for clues

which public health/stigma busting campaigns about mental health have been found to increase stigma among the general public:

1. Campaigns which emphasise the importance of seeking help early on for mental illness?
2. Campaigns which emphasise the biological basis of mental illness?
3. Campaigns which emphasise the mentally ill are more likely to be victims rather than perpetrators of violence?

They would say that they would want me to go round. So I could text and go round, but I'm hesitant to as I'm scared to tell people and to possibly lose more friends, that sort of thing.