Mental Health Support Society Mk XII

I'm feeling surprisingly good today. Which is convenient, cos I have to do something mildly scary (go to a train station I've not been to before and meet a woman I don't know to pick up a mouse cage). But I am feeling positive, caffeinated and happy.

Also my new knitting books came today!

Therapy can be quite tiring too, at least from my experience :0 I feel restless a lot...i almost always need to fidget or have a nervous leg, and i don't always sleep that well :|

I assume its over now and you're either running around or sleeping Hope the therapy session was good!

Haven't posted as regularly as I normally do. Thought I'd give you all some breathing space and not clog up the thread every time I'm on.

Just wanted to say I hope you're all doing okay.

Thanks
If i'm sitting down for a long time I almost always need to fidget so my legs don't hurt or go numb. Sometimes just having them up is enough though. I always feel a bit mean telling little kids to stay still cos I know how frustrating it can be.

Had a lay down and a bit of a pace between sessions. I was okay in the later one (thanks partially to really odd sitting positions :P)

Back home now and going to have a nap after a nice relaxing bath and quick call to my bf. And suprise suprise my cat is curled up on my bed again so I get to cuddle him too.

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Had stress-workshop - only three people turned up But was helpful I think!
Helped point out bad habits I have with approaching work/situations, and another pointer to do some exercise. So might look into that more...! One person said he'd found starting squash this year had helped him lots with stress/work.

Sports help me hugely with stress. Where did you do this workshop?

Good idea

Yeah i'm alright today! Was a bit shaky this morning but Poncho sorted me out

Glad to hear that despite the spookyness, you're still feeling good At least it's a public place so you're not in any danger, lame people don't tend to get up to nasty stuff when there's lots of people around What kinda stuff is in the knitting book? :0

I've been drinking a lot of herbal tea recently tastes delicious but unlike most tasty beverages, they aren't bad for you I've even got like 5 different flavours too (lemon balm and liquorice, pomegranate, Echinea, nettle and mate, and green tea with something). I can drink quite a lot of it in a day but they're caffeine free, so no worries xD Also have a ceramic burning thing for aromatherapy stuff which is also nice, my room spells quite good Eucalyptus and orange are my fave smells atm ^^

I found out the other day that the eucalyptus oil i have smells a lot like cough sweets, this plant is supposed to have decongestant properties, btw. So upon reading ingredients, yup, the same stuff is in these cough sweets!(that's why they can work). The nerve that some people have claiming its all placebo rubbish, when the very same plants are used in other things, just hidden!

Baby blankets are uber cute, infact babies in general are cute

Youll have to ask her, this poncho however is ok, triggeriffic last night but managed to sleep, so feeling a bit better today and done so e washing

Hows the wonderful resident wolf? Other than having to go pick up the mousie cage?


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Ooh exciting! Hope it went well and you have a lovely new mouse cage. Now you can knit the mice clothes!

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So I started MoodGym. How good are their quizzes for testing for depression and anxiety? It gave me moderate/high for both Are those reliable do you think or untrustworthy? Finished the first module on feeling and found it to be quite good. I don't think my thoughts have changed much, but it's made me see how I think and how I can change that so I guess it's progress.

its stupid how little my doctor knows about depression, or any mental illness for that matter. these appointments are really doing no good for me. I leave feeling absolutely emotionally charged and it nearly always ends in me spending ages crying at home and having some sort of weird breakdown. I cant regulate all these emotions

Had stress-workshop - only three people turned up But was helpful I think!
Helped point out bad habits I have with approaching work/situations, and another pointer to do some exercise. So might look into that more...! One person said he'd found starting squash this year had helped him lots with stress/work.

Some good mindfulness/stress management exercises, which were really calming, and also a bit on sleep hygiene (I think...)

Overall helpful Though also reminded me/made me think back to the counselling session/difficult-er questions near the end of that. Probably need to question them more myself, and maybe be more honest next time/just say what I'm thinking.

Managed to get a fair amount of work done this morning, too! Plus spoke to tutor, and he thought I was doing okay, so I think that that's encouraging Think I *manage*, but struggle a lot when feeling down. I don't know I'm not sure if he knows about my most recent assignments! But yes, encouraging (Think positive, duck!)

Overall feeling really pretty good the last few days - in terms of feeling *down*. Been upset/worrying an ish amount, but not felt particularly down that much, which is good

Might not post so often this weekend, not sure yet - might try and get lots of work done, and just focus on making progress while I'm still not feeling rubbish

Long rambl-y post again

OH! And also fed the ducks after the workshop Was good Some of them fight though There was the same one there though that ate from my hand Feels odd though feeding them in the day time People walking past/judging, though generally just try to ignore!

Hope everyone's doing okay


OH AND ONE MORE THING (Sorry ) I'm trying to decide whether to message an acquaintance/friend, saw her quite a few weeks ago looking quite sad/down - smiled to say hello, and then went back to a sadface, and it's been playing on my mind whether to check if she's okay/not. But maybe it's too late now to ask Example:
Not sure


Thank you lots guys

Was at the Uni's counselling thingy-ma-bob, they run a workshop each week, might sign up to a few more - was nice and therapeutic, though it also meant I had to miss a lecture/lie to friends about missing it
Will look into a good sport Maybe start badminton/squash next term or something

Awesome (just like Poncho ).



I got the cage, it's in really good condition for being second hand, and will make a nice holiday home for my mice.

I got two knitting books - one's about techniques for knitting multiple colours at once, and the other's a book of patterns for baby blankets (so I can steal approximate sizes and know how much yarn to buy, as well as for ideas).

Herbal tea is good. Although I resent the insinuation that coffee might be bad for you!



Babies are yick.

Wolfie is good, feeling a little restless (too many ideas + absolutely not too much caffeine + indecisiveness = jitter jitter jitter wolf). Might come on skype to pester you for knitting entertainment in a bit.

But they are cute

Noooo you would never have too much caffeine!
Skype sounds good, just eating now but it will help me when the landlord comes round in a bit


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Has anyone had a medical interview for PIP/DSA? What's it like?

Never ever!

Will come online in a bit.



Do you mean DLA? If so then it's nothing to worry about, just the usual irrelevant questions and then they probably say you're fine, and then you go through the appeals process and six months + later they decide you really are ill and give you a bunch of cash.

Yes DLA. What sort of questions? Sorry to hear about your experience

So far as I recall (was a fair bit ago and there's a chance I'll mix this up with the ESA interview) they go through the form with you, so all the questions about can you climb a flight of stairs (to which the correct answer isn't 'yes, of course', it's 'this depends on whether or not I have the energy and motivation to climb said stairs, so quite often no'), can you cook a meal, blah de blah.

The most important thing is to stress over and over the genuine difficulties you have, linking them to as many daily problems as you can so as to tick all their silly boxes. So: even things you could theoretically do fine on a good day, make sure you tell them why you couldn't do them on a bad or average day. And remember that there are two different components to DLA - care and mobility. I get lowest rate on both, which is unusual for someone with depression, and I think I got it (on appeal) because I had actual proof of my need to have someone around near-constantly, especially when leaving the house (Rob photocopied around £3000 worth of petrol receipts showing all the trips he made to look after me between Manchester and Nottingham ). So if you think you ought to get one or both, make sure and have as many points/evidence as to why you should get them as possible.

Sorry I haven't been posting. I need some time out from this thread. I will read when I can but think just feeling a bit introspective atm and need some space