The EMDR link isn't working.

Also, you say society is designed for the sociopaths...if almost everyone is psychopathic (because they're functioning normally and are successful) then wouldn't that then make it the norm?

Serious question: is The First And Last Freedom worth reading? A girl I know left it at my place

Antidepressants and anxiety medications saved my life...literally.

Arrrrrrrrre you a recovering drug addict?

Same

Glad you are here 🤗

They're not the greatest, but they at least help me get out of bed, go to work and not be 100% anxiety ridden all the time. I went 5 years with severe problems and tried everything. The SSRI's are the only things that really even slightly help(plus exercise and staying sober, not drinking). But I also at the same time realize they come with problems like increase in heart problems, bone mineral density long-term. So I don't smoke, drink and take a few supplements to try and make up for that negative.

Eh you coulda done yoga / meditation / got out of your comfort zone and not become a zombie. But to each their own.

I agree medication is not a solution, and i'm not trying to sound like an asshole, but what would yoga / meditation do for something like a chemical imbalance in the brain?

https://www.health.harvard.edu/mind-and-mood/yoga-for-anxiety-and-depression

You idiot. You really think having a stretch in different positions and meditating will cure people who have serious mental illness?

Will that stop my voices? Fuck I wish I knew all I had to do was have a stretch and say ummmmmm to cure my illness.

This is the reason I personally can't stand the overmedication of America, which definitely exists. It leads all sorts of dipshits to say "you don't actually need the meds". Same sort of people that used to tell me "i get depressed too, you just gotta get over it". Made me think there was something profoundly wrong with me, led me on a path that left me lost for years until I found medication that helped me properly cope.

The voices? You have schizofrenia. Not anxiety and anti-depressants. But yoga / meditation / therapy / exposure therapy could help you quite a bit as well. Drugs should be everyone's very last option and avoidable at all costs. If you haven't tried it, then you won't know. Until you do, we can't talk about it.

I say this with as much kindness as I can muster. Go fuck yourself.

Look dude, different strokes for different folks, it's people like you who will add to the stigma of mental health, what do you care what works for someone else other than beeing a dick and totally negative. Who gave you that authority?

Peace love and happiness to you.

IDK maybe because it feeds the pharma death grip on our reality making us dependent on external poisons that numb very critical parts of our emotional experience and processing? Pain is a response to stimulus. Confronting the stimulus within is the better way and doesn't delay the inevitable fall back into dependency on the external. These drugs ruin people.

Actually you did not give a suggestion, you gave an opinion. As you had no idea about what I have done to combat my mental illness. In order to provide a suggestion...or at least a useful one, you would need to know my "story."

Yoga and meditation are safer, healthier ways of combating mental illness. This is a fact. The reason is beyond the mere fact they do not introduce a forced chemical change in the brain, but rather because you earn them, its internal actualization not external. Nearly all mental ailments can be reduced by internal actualization, meaning realizing your value based on self discovery and love for self. When you take care of and "clean" you mind and body it starts to heal, you can program your thoughts. It's anti mind control. You begin forming a relationship with your body and mind that is loving and kind. There is real science behind this, but experiencing them is that only way to know. Have you? Prove me wrong. Experiment.

For your info I have been doing 1 hour of meditation a day for 10 years. I have lived outside of my comfort zone more than most. When full fledged anxiety and depression take hold it becomes completely debilitating. I am on the medications. I am not a zombie. I am a productive worker, a living husband and a wonderful father. I have emotions. I am not a robot. I practice meditation daily, I exercise daily and only eat raw foods. Sometimes diet, exercise and meditation are not enough.

Ok well how is your body? Your eating habits? Your social group? Your relationships? Your job? Your life purpose? There are so many things to work on in life. They're almost endless. I've found as a long sufferer of depression, anxiety, bipolar, ocd (treated with meds on and off for 10 years starting at 14) that wholistically approaching the matter is the only solution. Meds numb the pain and treat the symptoms but after years of wondering if this was just who I was, a fundamentally imbalanced person. But I decided to search for a cure so I tried everything I could. A combination of yoga and meditation (and temperature training) melted it all away which then lead me to a path of being high functioning / motivated which even further climbed me out from the pit.

I'm sorry for assuming anything about you. But those meds were horrible for my overall being. They lead me to complacency and apathy towards my situation and life when what I really needed was purpose. I just get a bit pushy about it because they really should be a last resort and especially in a conspiracy reddit where people deal with very dark subject matter and feel the heaviness and don't realize there's a great solution for most that doesn't involve furthering the grip of mega pharma on our reality.

I agree meds are not the long term solution. I am currently tapering off them. I also agree with a holistic approach. However in the thick of the shit...the meds saved my life.

What meditation? Any suggestions?

I practice mindfulness meditation. You can read a lot about online and in books. You can also read many research papers on PubMed.

Nice post, KP. I won’t touch the medication part(I have strong opinions but I know that many people will say they saved their life so.....I’m not going there.)

I legit question those are aren't depressed and/or anxious in this fucked up world.

It's hard for me to not be optimistic and hopeful when I look around and see so many people working hard to make the world a better place. There are a lot of assholes out there, but the simple fact of the matter is that they are maybe 5-10% of the population. We outnumber them, and we're getting better at fighting back against them every single day.

You either die a hero or live long enough to become the villain.

You clearly haven't lived long enough.

Those cliche quotes don't have any real meaning...

You can recognize a desperate and bad situation and not let it get to you. I used to be depressed and feel the same way as you, but I don't feel that way anymore and I realize now that a lot of my negative thoughts were distractions weighing me down. We should try to keep our morale up! Its good for our health and the long term struggle. PM me if you are feeling down and want to talk to someone.

I went through a depressive few years... Then came out the other side a mentally healthy conspiracy theorist! :)

Ignorance is bliss my friend, I look at folk who don't have a clue what is going on around them and honestly they don't give a fuck, they live in their bubble, fuck everyone else and throw a blind eye to all the chaos that goes around them, sometimes I'm like, man what would it be like to be that blind and ignorant, maybe a lot less stressful I don't know but what I do know is these people don't have an independent thought in their mind, they are like drones, do what they are told, conform and go about their business with their head so far up their own holes they have no clue how to live their life other than been told what to do.

More people are waking up, I've seen that in the last 16 years, many more people have woken up and more will as people are starting to see through the bullshit slowly but surly. Not fast enough though.

Truly. Just how far do these people have their heads buried in the sand? Is it just a shallow note? "What the fuck do I have to complain about? Look at this hot piece of ass I'm with, got beer in the fridge, got the snacks for the superbowl. I'm READY to Gooooooooooooooooooo!

Really good post. As someone who was told he was mentally ill at a young age and drugged out of my mind..now recently employing these same techniques ..I am healing at a level unknown to the current western bandaid on a headache system. NeedeNeeded to read this tonight

If you need an immediate shot in the arm against anxiety and depression, try something which may sound overwhelming: random kindness without agenda. It almost always creates mutual joy through surprise and reminds you of the connections we often forget.

Unfortunately, it’s not really that easy for many.

Oh, I know, believe me. I'm speaking from the business end of many years of work trying to do this without meds, trying to shoot hints at people much earlier on their paths. I wouldn't lie though. It is terrifying and difficult and it works and becomes perpetual motion.

No, it's not.

But we still have to do it.

Drop off $25 of dog treats at your local shelter on your way to work. Its actually pretty easy. Animals love kindness too. :)

This is true. I live in San Francisco (high homeless population) and I saw this woman crying and screaming with a small boy and a bunch of luggage on her person. I asked if she needed help and she said she was looking for the city's Woman's shelter. I go ogled it on my phone and gave her the directions plus $10. Not tooting my horn because I'm well aware I'm only 2 missed paychecks from being on the street myself. Being conscious of the people around you helps a lot, and not keeping too solitary and cocooned from reality.

This. Just getting into the habit of doing good for the sake of good, especially for random strangers, really helped me get out the dark place I found myself in in the past.

What is rule 9?

I have many thoughts on this but it may take me a while to formulate.

Rule 9:> Posting links in other subs pointing to specific submissions or comments here is subject to a ban, depending on context.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kKyMvjPJdtM

Oh wow! This post answered my question as to what the source of my depression is... Will look into deep breathing. Thank you so much!!

Just wanna add, I don't buy into all the skepticism toward medication myself (speaking from experience, I really do lose a lot of ability to function when I'm not medicated for my ADHD). But even from a mainstream medical perspective, this post is largely correct regarding anxiety and depression: medication is not, in most cases, supposed to be permanent. Talk to your doctor about Cognitive Behavioral Therapy if you haven't already, it's widely considered to be as or more effective to medication for depression and anxiety.

Yo, same here wrt the ADHD meds. My therapist very explicitly told me he wants the meds to be a temporary thing - like a flotation device to help keep my head above water while I learn to swim on my own in the meantime, I guess. Hoping I'll get there someday.

Yeah it's a struggle for sure. Keep fighting my man

medication is not, in most cases, supposed to be permanent.

And going against the grain on the sub, I say the same for marijuana and psychedelic drugs.

Not to drive anyone to narcissistic thinking, but if you spend some time watching videos of Max Spiers, you'll very likely inevitably come upon a video in which he discusses psychiatric medications. He claims that the deepest conspiracy, regarding these medications, is that it massively limits the sensitivity of the most gifted human beings. He says that those who are depressed are often depressed because they are so naturally sensitive, and the vibration of the world is so crazily low that it affects us. Beyond that, it takes a sensitive person to begin questioning reality, rather than going with the flow of inversion. I say avoid all pills, other something like kratom or CBD pills.

I'm not so sure about that top link. It lost me at the description on the link! I wouldn't call myself as having a 'higher iq" Truth be told there were a lot of time I did bare minimum in order to get a passing grade while I was in school. I hated that environment with every fiber of my being. There were so many stupid things that we had to go through that must seem hilarious to others that didn't go through it. And I'm talking outside of the bullying shit tbh. Although that didn't help my case either.

An issue that irritated me involved the bathrooms. This happened in high school. Guess this goes to show how naive these people could be. Only one set of bathrooms were open full time. The other bathrooms were locked when class was in session. It was a 50/50 shot you'd have a teacher come and unlock the door. They did all this because of smokers. Anybody guess what happened with the smokers? They'd go INSIDE the stalls to smoke. Can you imagine really having to go the bathroom and having to go through these hoops in order to piss, take a shit or change your pad/tampon? You're in the bathroom and you just can't get in. A lot of teachers would act like you were asking for the world itself in order to go to the bathroom when class was in session.

And at this risk of this being tmi, I had very light periods when I was younger. It's only that I've gotten older that they are so heavy and I literally don't have a clue what I would've done if I'd had these heavy periods during the times I went to that damn high school. And I feel for the people that DO have heavy periods and they have to jump through hoops in order to go to the damn bathroom.

is that they massively limit the sensitivity of the most gifted human beings.

Years ago I took some meds for a while and I found I couldn't feel energy anymore, weed has somewhat helped me regain that ability (it can be done sober but needs some meditation and yoga).

I'm not sure I can promise that. It wouldn't surprise me if a few years from now I start popping the pills like they were candy. I tried for SO long to keep it together for as long as I could by myself. The most I leaned on was music because it gave me a peaceful feeling. But it's not as strong as it used to be.

Every single day I wonder about the constant dark clouds over my heads, the 'what if this happens?" And sadly I have every reason to believe that. My life has been filled with one bad thing happening after another. My younger self never wanted to take pills and now I'll probably be able to fill up a Skittles bag with all the pills that are going to make me even have the illusion of having it together. It's so hopeless and I feel like I'm on the Titanic sinking.

Maybe try to really see that you are simply the awareness of the darkness you experience. You are not the darkness. Believing yourself to literally be the darkness, or the anxiety, or the depression, only works to perpetuate the negative experience.

Have you spoken to a therapist? If not, I highly suggest finding one before you decide to dive into a 'skittles bag' full of medications. Meditation can lead to incredible recoveries for the mentally unstable; I know from experience.

You're going through a hard time. I completely understand you. I spent probably a decade in fundamental depression, thinking there was no way out and that nothing would ever change. I was wrong, though. Everything passes -- even depression. I suggest finding a therapist and meditation, as both will help you to let go of whatever worldly or personal beliefs are holding you down. Keep your head up. "This, too, shall pass."

Depression? Isn't that just a fancy word for feeling "bummed out"?

When someone tries to kill themselves, or actually does kill themselves, it's a little more than being bummed out.

This is a quote from the office, fyi

Great post. Informative and concise. Quotes flow really well with the theme.

Agree, excellent placement of those passages!

It's late, I'm two 40's deep, have to work in the morning but I've been fighting depression for close to four years now.

I've had everything I could ever want and would still get heavy episodes but ever since I've cut down on my socially media and axe Facebook I feel like I've been alot better only after two months.

Keep fighting bro.

Hate to throw cliches around, but life is truly what you make of it. Any negative situation/event can be reframed into a positive one.

The internal battles you are going through have made you stronger than the average person, it's given you the strength to take on anything in life.

The greatest blessing I've ever received in life was Anxiety and Depression, the life lessons gained through the whole journey were priceless.

Now I feel unstoppable, I could lose everything, make endless mistakes, embarrass myself, I don't fucking care. As long I'm breathing I'm fucking winning

Good luck mane

Fucking aye dude. It's a fight worth fighting.

Cutting facebook out has really helped me as well.

Keep Strong brother, dig deep to find that resolve and keep on moving forward.

Look up Drummer and the Great Mountain. Explains a lot.

Great post. Thank you.

For a long time I've been mostly a lurker here, save for a few occasional comments. Just wanted to say this post is very well put together, and it really moved me. This is quality content for this sub, and I commend you for bringing something TANGIBLE to the table. I find my bi-weekly psychotherapy sessions an invaluable tool. While I do maintain a low dose of SSRI's, I supplement it with the near-constant psychotherapy, as well as lots of exercise, diet-watching, meditation, reading, and art. At 25, I have never felt better in my entire life. While I think there is a ton of value to SRRI's DEPENDING ON the various genetic and personality traits, I do agree that the industry as a whole has been thoroughly commodified, and I agree wholeheartedly with Krishnamurti's sentiment. Glad to see these conversations on /r/conspiracy. From an intellectual standpoint, it is easy to post something from the endless stream of Trump/Hillary white noise. It is not easy to create a good writeup on an often overlooked issue, especially one that deals with such personal struggles. Cheers.

Been doing my best to cope with anxiety and depression that has left me very non-functioning for the past 10 years or so. Tried the pills from psychologists but those fucked me up even worse than before. I'm extremely strict with diet, exercise, CBD and general holistic approaches to medicine and while everything definitely helps, by far the biggest boost is coming from managing expectations of what "normal" is. My own idea of how I'm supposed to feel, what's the right way to feel.

Most of us are taught that there are good and bad feelings, good and bad things, judgements in general. We're taught that good should be the goal and everything bad be avoided. This belief causes what we perceive to be undesirable emotions, feelings or thoughts to persist and grow in intensity via resistance to them. Furthermore, belief in chronic "negative" symptoms causes the symptoms to stick around. "I think therefore it is", kind of thing. Everyone gets depressed or anxious sometimes and that's normal but not everyone gets stuck in the pit forever.

A book that's helped me is "The Happiness Trap" by Russ Harris, just 270 pages. It's about changing your expectations through guided therapy called "ACT" which shares many similarities with mindfulness and meditation techniques. You could just google these things but the book does a great job of thoroughly explaining the whys hows of it all so you really understand the content rather than just know it. I don't think the book has even mentioned pills, diets, exercise or sunlight, it's purely mental.

I'm getting my life back from the prison I've built myself through this stuff and it's great. Eager to get working again so I can actually buy a copy of this book since I pirated it.

With all due respect, this is the gayest shit I've ever read (no disrespect to the gays).

"Many of us end up doubting, questioning, and even hating ourselves for having a heart."

No, you end up hating yourself because you value the opinions of others, more than you value your own opinion when it comes to your self-perception and self-image.

Isn't that crazy? With the limited time you are given on this Earth you choose to let others dictate your happiness and self-image?

Happiness has nothing to do with what's outside of you (unless your getting tortured or some shit), it's all internal.

Grow some balls, grab life by the horns, exercise, meditate, and become the best version of yourself.

Sincerely,

Someone who used to have panic attacks going to a grocery store

Mainstream science is now recognizing that anxiety, depression and even autism may be caused by harmful bacteria in the gut:

"Cryan's research shows that when bred in sterile conditions, germ-free mice lacking in intestinal microbes also lack an ability to recognize other mice with whom they interact. In other studies, disruptions of the microbiome induced mice behavior that mimics human anxiety, depression and even autism. In some cases, scientists restored more normal behavior by treating their test subjects with certain strains of benign bacteria. Nearly all the data so far are limited to mice, but Cryan believes the findings provide fertile ground for developing analogous compounds, which he calls psychobiotics, for humans."

As someone who used to suffered from both, anxiety and depression, I agree with everything you've said. It really started near the tale end of highschool because that's when I realized the world was absolutely fucked, namely because of 9/11.

I had also realized that fun time was over and that I was going to enter the real world. A world where some sadistic fucks crashed some planes into a couple of buildings to subvert the public into going along with their satanic geopolitical agenda!

It's also a world where you're ridiculed for even asking questions about 9/11, Sandy Hook, Flouride, etc. Apparently you're a freak for even considering that these events were conspiracies.

And lastly, a world where we are chained to our mortgages, swimming in debt, working harder and longer than ever before, and most people can barely keep their head above water.

It's depressing that the world has enough resources for everyone to have a home, food, and running water. Heck, queen Elizabeth and Jacob Rothschild could probably foot the bill themselves and still be billionaires. they are. We've got to change this system. I'm fearing we're running out of time. We have to be extra diligent moving forward. The elite are following some greater plan and who knows how far along that plan they are.

This was like reading my own thoughts coming from someone else.

And then throwing all the crazy things like economic hitman,child trafficking, extraterrestrial cover up on top of it makes everything seem hopeless

Needed to see this!! So many apathetic folks out there. Really boggles my mind. They're mostly peeps who have been red-pilled...not to throw all of you conservatives under the bus, there are still very many intelligent conservatives I respect, just something I've noticed.

I was addicted to weed and alcohol for years. I used them to self medicate and numb my feelings of guilt. Weed started making me more and more paranoid over the years so I stopped. I've been going to therapy and quit my job because I didn't like how cocky I was becoming, plus the environment was toxic. I have this feeling of worthlessness. I feel like I have a lot of potential and I want to help the world but don't know where to start. I feel lost and bogged down by my own feeling of helplessness. I'm going on medication soon, in hopes that it will help me think more clearly. I've been doing yoga and the breathing is so helpful. This post makes so much more sense than anything on this fucked up earth.

Medicine to help you think more clearly? Adding chemicals to simplify the problem eh?

Find other ways. I care about your physical being as well as your ability to control your mental being.

Side effects are murder.

What side effects are exactly murder? You don't even know what medication he is going to go on.

So what? Any Chemical addition changes the natural harmony of the body. Objectively. With consequence.

The ones that cause suicidal thinking.

Thank you for rephrasing this and reposting it. What an honorable effort. I suffer from debilitating anxiety at times and I will be reading these links and stuff deeply.

Thanks again. :)

The approach to mental health you just described is exactly what modern psychiatry does. So...there is nothing really over the top about this. This is the standard approach to treating PTSD.

Source: I went through treatment for PTSD.

Thank you for this post. Especially right before the holidays it's very important. I have been using meditation to cope and it really works. I call it brain development. Also eliminating flouride helped a lot! If I am not mistaken Zoloft and lexapro both contain flouride. I just want to acknowledge your post I think it's right on the money. Our society is run by evil and breaking free from its stranglehold is not easy. But definitely possible. Step by step. I have never regretted taking the red pill.

basically its all a scam.

My anxiety and depression seem to work the way often described by certain scholars, that I start out fundamentally anxious or depressed because of both physical and mental causes: a tendency for certain neurotransmitters not to be properly cycled out, and feeling my survival threatened by bad parenting, bad neighborhood issues, bad morale at work, etc. And then my being in a fundamentally anxious or depressed state, my mind LOOKS for REASONS to be that way. Meditation and yoga are great for a mental reset. But they are not complete.

I gave up on meds very quickly and early in life because of the "red-pill" effect on my creativity and enthusiasm for life. I played musical instruments and settled on wind instruments because WOW talk about breath work benefits! But I still ended up with chronic bouts of anxiety/depression....and perhaps connected, bouts of chronic pain.

It was not until I got a genetic profile done and discovered my genetic predisposition for all the mysterious health problems in my life that I was finally able to kick anxiety/depression. Even though I thought I was eating very clean, I had to completely cut out certain foods, and I had to find the RIGHT DOSE for basics like magnesium, molybdenum, methylated folate, etc. And I had to address an endocannabinoid issue. I don't think mmj is the only way people can address that issue because any food high in arachidonic acid will boost it, but MY GENETICS predispose me to reacting badly to foods high in arachidonic acid. I lack good instructions for the production of enough of the enzymes to metabolize it properly.

It's great that in spite of our sheeple culture I was able to use technology in healing myself. It's not great that every single one of the doctors I ever consulted were sheeple too and could not help me.

Energy healing in my experience is a powerful, permanent way to deal with every issue known to man. Two techniques I’ve used that have helped me greatly are Emotional Freedom Techniques! and The Healing Codes!. Also, I just started microdosing shrooms which really helps my anxiety.

Great post.

I will tell you based on my own experience that psychiatric medications are not the way to go. Some may argue that a blanket statement such as this is careless and irresponsible, that there are those for whom these medications are the only option.

Yup, I'm definitely going to say that. Might I suggest visiting a psych ward.

Am bipolar. I've tried exactly what you suggested before. It worked just long enough until I hit a depressive state and nearly drove my car off the road. Oh, and there's the manic states, which work great for driving away your family/friends.

Those other therapies work great for most people. For others, they aren't enough. And you're a bad person for claiming otherwise. I'm happy that you found relief without drugs. That means you never needed the drugs in the first place. Don't be arrogant enough to claim you know what's best for everyone.

Then we agree. But you should add that to your post if you haven't already, because it's a really important point. Many people wreck their lives by refusing medication because they think it makes them weak.

I agree that I'd also recommend CBT and meditation to everyone everywhere. They should teach that in schools even. Things would be better for a lot of kids if they learned life coping mechanisms like that at the time they need them most.

i really appreciate this post. thank you

This is so great.

I've suffered from Anxiety and Depression for as long as I can remember, fucking sucks big time but I've beat it many times, know when it will rear it's ugly head and recognize my though process and how it works and where they come from.

I've studied Buddhism for years now and it has been a life saver, from learning to be mindful, focusing on your breath / breathing and understanding the world around us.

I'm not one for spamming or endorsing anyone but I came across an English Buddhist Monk who lives and Practices in Australia. Ajahn Brahm is his name, he's in his 60's went to uni at Cambridge studying Astrophysics everything science and this guy is one of the smartest folks I've ever listen to.

Physiologists pay big money to see this guy, to learn of his teachings and put them into their own practice to help their patients.

Little things like, if are person suffers from Schizophrenia you don't label them as a Schizophrenic, you are only treating the part of the person who has Schizophrenia and there is a whole other part of that human being other than the Schizophrenia in which they suffer.

Other little analogies he presents would go like this, so simple but so effective in managing anxiety and depression that one may suffer, we have an awful ability as humans to mark everything as shit, everything looks bleak, the mind will play on that, what he says is simply this.

When you feel down, when you feel overwhelmed, focus on your breath, allow your thoughts to flow and don't entertain them but remember your life is like a brick wall with 100 bricks, there are some bad bricks which will will apply all out focus to, this is not the case, you have to look at the good bricks and not only the bad ones. Your wall could have 80-90 good bricks, still standing and strong, you don't realize it but remember those good bricks in conjunction with the bad ones and remind your self it's not all bad.

Anyway, this guy saved my life, he has lots of youtube videos and if anyone is interested, take a listen to one of his lectures

This lecture is called how to react in life, as he says, it's not what goes on around you in this planet, life is hard, life sucks at times but its your reaction to all this is what counts.

Enjoy if you would like to listen..

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jhLQy4iMDl4&t=1828s

Have a good day folks.

Also, I found that spending time exploring creeks and rivers and mountains lowered my anxiety as well as Xanax.

Nature can heal us.

I'd recommend a book by journalist Sebastian Junger called Tribe. He was interviewed by Joe Rogan earlier this year. His contention is that anxiety and depression almost vanish when people are in tight-knit communities. Soldiers during war, cities during a disaster, low-income neighborhoods where people help each other out, even a cul-de-sac in suburbia can get the job done. Something to think about when you're ready to put some roots down.

But what if you have no family

"One of the best kept secrets in the world is the undeniable power of deep breathing. "

Smokers know this. ;)

have you had chronic or acute pesticide exposure? they contain chemicals known to cause depression

I was on klonopin for 5.5 years it was extremely hard to get off. benzodiazepines like klonopin and Xanax are actually one of the only drugs that can kill you during withdrawal like alcohol they basically are alcohol...only get on those drugs if you really think you have to. I almost died a few times trying to socially drink on them. I think it may have stunted my brain development and motivation I used to feel much less dull =/ just because it's a medication doesn't mean it's not an addiction and when you're addicted to something it's not surprising you'll say it's great as a defense mechanism and try to convince yourself and others of that

Thanks for this post!

I want to share my thoughts before I read the post. I've suffered from depression since I was kid and all the stuff that came with it. It's only in the last few years that my anxiety has ruined what little life I have. It's not looking at conspiracies that made me this way. I'm capable of looking outside my bubble and seeing the shit that goes on day after day. I'm sick and I'm tired. I know I'm only one voice out of many that'd say the same thing. I've been drained til there's nothing else to drain.

I'm so thankful for who and what I have in my life. But I already know it will turn into the negative in the long run. I don't want to see my loved ones go down hill and die. They're my rock and I don't want to think about life without them.

And I'm so angry, angry at all of this. It feels like a hostage situation in our existence. How can anyboy be that much of a performer in order to put on a "Mary Sunshine" act? Everything's all okay, it's cool, don't worry about it.

I will admit flat out I'm a misanthrope. There's a VERY small group of people I trust. Anybody else, I literally don't want to associate with. A lot of times I wished I could swing getting a place in the middle of nowhere and cut myself off from as much as I could. I realize this main world is a hot water pot that's boiling over. I don't want to deal with it anymore. I want my freedom. Is this so much to ask for?

And I might be wasting my time with this post. It's an older post, doubt anybody still swings by. And if anybody does swing by, they'll probably call me a "snowflake".

I offer this last tidbit before I submit the post. My younger self was a damn fool. I've had a lot of stomach problems throughout my life. I was eating stuff that didn't gel well with my system at all. I'm talking about junk food with that comment. It's not worth eating at the fast food places and then having my head over the toilet the next day. I seriously cracked down on my eating and I don't have as many stomach problems as I used to. My body was telling me for so long "Something's wrong....." How can I ignore my mind that's basically telling me the same damn thing? "Something's wrong...."

after we each hatch from our perceptual cocoons.

what does this part mean?

This is a quote from the office, fyi

I agree medication is not a solution, and i'm not trying to sound like an asshole, but what would yoga / meditation do for something like a chemical imbalance in the brain?

You idiot. You really think having a stretch in different positions and meditating will cure people who have serious mental illness?

Will that stop my voices? Fuck I wish I knew all I had to do was have a stretch and say ummmmmm to cure my illness.

I say this with as much kindness as I can muster. Go fuck yourself.

Look dude, different strokes for different folks, it's people like you who will add to the stigma of mental health, what do you care what works for someone else other than beeing a dick and totally negative. Who gave you that authority?

Peace love and happiness to you.

For your info I have been doing 1 hour of meditation a day for 10 years. I have lived outside of my comfort zone more than most. When full fledged anxiety and depression take hold it becomes completely debilitating. I am on the medications. I am not a zombie. I am a productive worker, a living husband and a wonderful father. I have emotions. I am not a robot. I practice meditation daily, I exercise daily and only eat raw foods. Sometimes diet, exercise and meditation are not enough.