chess | Internet self-diagnosis time!

Internet self-diagnosis time!

Having just snapped out of 'depression' into 'do-all-the-things-I-must-be-involved-in-everything', again, I kind of wonder whether it would be worth seeking some kind of actual psychological assessment. I quite like 'do-all-the-things-I-must-be-involved-in-everything' but it does have a tendency to make me into a ginormous flake when I suddenly swap back into 'depression' and drop everything on the floor. Also, the depression stage isn't so great.

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

Firstly, have a hug.

Secondly, I have heard that CBT (Cognitive Behavioural Therapy) can be very useful for depression or related issues. Perhaps worth exploring?

If you're not sure, have a look at this - it gives you some frameworks for self analysis and for reframing your thoughts into (hopefully) a more positive way. If you find the concept helpful but feel you'd benefit from some face to face time with a real person, ask your GP for a referral.

I've had a look at various online CBT stuff before, but I have massively lacked the self-discipline to follow through :). (My brain either goes 'that's trivial faffing around, it can't possibly be helpful, on with the Grand Projects!' or 'I can barely be bothered to feed myself, let alone fill in stupid worksheets', depending.)

Oh god yeah, I know this one. I love being bouncyhappyWeevil, but spend far too much time being zoned-out standby-mode Meh Weevil. Discussed it with my therapist this morning, she reckons that the meh is kinda my default state, and it takes a certain amount of energy to get into/maintain Bounce, and so I keep running out and suddenly sliding back into Meh without noticing/intending.
Need to find a way to make Meh not be the default any more.
Also, I assume you know http://hyperboleandahalf.blogspot.com/2010/06/this-is-why-ill-never-be-adult.html ?

I suspect strategies may be more useful than diagnoses. Although the only thing that's ever touched my depressive tendancies is SSRIs.

I kind of feel I have reasonable coping strategies - I don't _actually_ stab myself or throw myself under a truck or fail to go to work while I'm depressed, and I'm beginning to be able to spot when I'm going over the top and cut back on committing to extra things even though I really want to - I would just rather like to stop e.g. vibrantly fantasising about slicing my fingers off every time I go past the work guillotine...

I found real life CBT massively helpful. Self diagnosis is a bit of a bitch because you are always left with a certain amount of doubt, others won't take it seriously, and you may or may not then be able to do anything about it in terms of treatment. If you ask a GP for a referral you should be able to get a proper medical assessment and then advice on what to do next (you can take someone with you if you don't want to do it on your own, and it will always be your decision what you do in terms of treatment). I found that going to see my GP was a massive step in taking control back over my life whereas years of self diagnosing had just fuelled my insecurities.

If you have blue spots on your tongue and a high fever and you've had them for a while, you go to your doctor. Reading medical texts and trying to self-diagnose will end up with you believing you have Bavarian flesh-eating tongue spot disease.

More seriously, actively avoiding treatment is a symptom of depression; one would hope that the people designing the medical strategies would have taken this into account.

One would hope, but from my recent experience, some of the things you can be referred to have initial letters that mention "please call us / fill in this form and post it to us by this date or we will assume that you're not interested". I haven't yet been dropped due to this, though I came quite close when someone mistyped my house number and so the first referral letter arrived after the initial appointment date...

I think places do this because their services are in quite high demand and if someone doesn't get in touch, there's always another person who could use that counselling / space on a course. But it doesn't interact well with the sorts of mental health fun that involves curling up into a ball and not interacting with the world, or having difficulty with phone calls, or similar.

(And, as you mention, this is past even the inital hurdle of "avoiding treatment is a symptom of depression".)

Is there some important subtlety to 'actively' in that last sentence? Because I'm pretty sure most people without depression are avoiding treatment ...

Unless there's some kind of conspiracy to sneak up behind people and give them CBT while they're not looking, I'm not sure it could be said that they were avoiding treatment exactly. Whereas people who genuinely need the help are also people who are most likely to be found hiding from everything, including people trying to help them.

I'm still a bit confused is it:
a) these statements are accurate, but in no way related to Chess
b) there's someone sneaking up on Chess to give her CBT, but she's outwitted them again
c) there is some useful way of distinguishing 'not getting treatment because you haven't done anything to get it, but you could do with it' and 'not getting treatment because you haven't done anything to get it, but you don't need it' without actually knowing in advance whether you need it, such that it could actually be spotted and used as a symptom?

Upon investigation of what I intended it to be a reply to, it turns out that the comment is actually concerning one of the comments, the one about "lacking the self-discipline to follow through". So in fact it's d) requiem brain stack overflow in comment generation engine.

CBT works for some ppl, and not for others. I had a psychiatrist for CBT, and it was a total mess. She was really nice and everything, but it really just didn't work for me. One of the things we tried was just keeping a note of the times I got up and went to bed and got up, and trying to change it a bit to get it practical. but it stressed me to hell, no matter how nice she was or how much I wanted to do it.. I had panic attacks having to go see her every week, and the stupid litle form for writing the times down on stressed me so much, I gave up going.
Now I've tried just sorting myself out by doing pretty much the same thing without the paperwork and without the obligation to talk to anyone about it. just setting alarms to tell me when to eat and when to go to bed. And that works so much better for me.

So.. yeah, self diagnosis can be good or bad.. but so can psychiatrists and CBT I think. :S

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

Internet self-diagnosis time!

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