Mental Health Support Society MKVII

Hmm, I'm not sure she really sounds like my kind of girl in that case. But I wish you and her the very happiest of happinesses.

I know how hard it is, especially when you're depressed, but sometimes you really do need to just stand up for yourself. If you like I will come and growl menacingly in the background.

mmm the banana sounds really good, gonna have to try that some time Bad as it sounds veggie BBQs just never smell as good and seem to lack a certain something

you're not the one who want's to go out with her tbf! thanks

yeah, I know, is just I don't know what to say and stuff and then I worry about things idk, maybe when I see my GP again they will do something

Not gonna pretend to understand how bad this must be making you feel, but I think it's beautiful how much you care about your pet. And that he's made such a difference in your life is amazing too. I don't want to patronise you with anything about how you might feel now or later, but I hope you don't feel at all ashamed of feeling so strongly about a creature that's been such a positive influence in your life. We all have our different things that help us get through the days, and no-one should be belittling that.

Just say 'I really think I need to be referred for therapy sooner' or suchlike, and then stand your ground as best you can. Hope the GP does something for you.

Thank you for your reply. You are spot on though, the way people react when I say a guinea pig has had such a positive influence make me feel like I am crazy (well more so than normal!) and I do feel like I should be ashamed for feeling that way. But I love all my pets, taking care of my little collection of waifs, strays and misfits make me feel like I am doing something positive, but because this one is 'just' a guinea pig, I am not allowed to be upset in the eyes of other people (admittedly my two closest friends are animal people and do get it but other people I have spoken to think you should only get that attached to a dog)

how the **** am I still awake

If you like you can have a go at being me - had two goes at sleep, lasting 5-15 minutes each, nightmares each time.

We really do fail don't we?

My sympathies - whatever triggers my depression isn't too dependant on external stuff either, except for sometimes stress. I guess becoming long-term dependant on prescription sleeping pills could really be one of the worst things you could be doing (plus in my case right now they're not even working ). I've heard vaguely good stuff and no negatives about melatonin as a sleep regulator though - maybe you could look into that?

CBT was a waste of time for me really - spent a whole summer going over thought patterns and stuff with my psychologist before I eventually got her to agree with me that there was very little wrong with my thinking in that sense. We started mindfulness which at least in theory could have helped me better (although it's been slated a bit by other folks on here ), but I only got to try it for a few weeks before I had to leave for uni. If this is looking to be a long-term problem for you though it could be worth doing a bit of investigating and seeing if there are any therapies you can get to help you adapt better, that's the vague hope I've got for myself at least.

Glad you're not on the critical list at least - hope the better mood sticks around.

Resitting years aren't the end of the world I'm doing another gap-year; this one'll be planned though, so I'll be going to university after some of my original friends who went when they were 18 have graduated. Going back a year is just effectively the same - at least in a time sense, as someone doing a gap year It's nothing to be ashamed of ^^

Oh hun don't be too hard on yourself, remember if exams are super hard there's a chance the majority of people also found it hard. Also, if you're finding it hard to study because you're sick, it's good to speak with your GP and see if you can get some extra time or extenuating circumstances or something. Just do you best and that's all you can do

Unfortunately I've tried basically every OTC sleep med and some things that're sort-of OTC including melatonin. Nothing really works that well when hypo, melatonin only really helps you get to sleep rather than stay asleep, unfortunately.

Doxylamine doesn't do much, even if I take a few times the standard dose. Diphenhydramine has never done much to me, promethazine partially works sometimes but gives me restless legs zopiclone doesn't work on me either when my sleep is messed up due to meds/cycling either. So I'm kinda screwed in that respect. Quetiapine kinda works but I can't tolerate useful doses without bad restlessness.

Pretty sure I really need trimipramine/doxepin for sleep but my psych won't prescribe anything like that until I'm stable, at which point I probably won't need sleep stuff anymore

Not really sure there's a lot more adapting I can do, basically just try to keep my sleep under control while I wait for more stability through medication. Also trying to watch out for irritability so I don't piss off my girlfriend too much. As it is I keep a schedule due to work which is supposed to be good for bipolar people, in practice it makes things worse since I'd sleep best during the day a lot of the time

Sucks that none of them work/are tolerable. I'll be sure and let you know when I invent that miracle cure though.


Aargh irritability. It is fast becoming one of my most loathed words in the dictionary.

thank you both , that was very reassuring, I just want to give up on exams now i only have four left and haven't revised for any of them and I just don't think physically and mentally that I could do them so i'm going to talk to my head of year and see what happens

Guys guys I think fluoxetine is working! (after about 6 weeks)

Anyone know if its ok to take 80mg propranolol with 2-4 mg of diazepam?
My limited medical knowledge says yes but just wondering if anyone had any personal experience of doing so? Don't want to be knocked out!
Might just phone NHS direct actually hmm

We're all crazy here, and I'd say caring so much about a guinea pig makes you one of the lovelier sorts of crazy. Doubt you even are crazy on that front actually - I've never looked massively into it, but I've heard various times that giving pets to the elderly can be vastly beneficial to them, in terms of improving mental health, encouraging them to look after themselves and suchlike. It's a totally valid way of improving a vulnerable person's quality of living, and it's great that it worked so well for you and produced such a bond with your pet.

Yeah my CPN at the time said a pet can be beneficial for MH issues as well as for the elderly, and my experience supports the theory.