The Mental Health Thread

[mamselle]

If its most helpful to know you're not alone, please know that.

If it's helpful to brainstorm strategies and responses, we're here for that, too.

You probably know the basics--figure out the bite-sized components, do them one-at-a-time, then assess, etc.

If it helps to have accountability for that, there's  a work-sprint thread you can post to.

I'll see if I can find it....

In any case, you're not alone.

M.

[smallcleanrat]

I'm finding it very difficult to get motivated. I just want to veg out and play mindless puzzle games, well, maybe not entirely mindless. I've been procrastinating and still have work to post for tomorrow. I feel very overwhelmed at the moment.

Sympathize, epw. (Especially after reading about your two extra demanding students).

Sorry you're having a rough time.

Maestro and Caramelo mrrp their best wishes.

[evil_physics_witchcraft]

I'm finding it very difficult to get motivated. I just want to veg out and play mindless puzzle games, well, maybe not entirely mindless. I've been procrastinating and still have work to post for tomorrow. I feel very overwhelmed at the moment.

Sympathize, epw. (Especially after reading about your two extra demanding students).

Sorry you're having a rough time.

Maestro and Caramelo mrrp their best wishes.

:) :) :)

[smallcleanrat]

Looking for something to say mostly to hear from people...

Feeling a bit disconnected and adrift.

Healthcare stuff moves slowly, and some days I'm tired of being patient with the pain and fatigue and lack of answers or a clear plan for someday possibly maybe not feeling so beaten down every day.

Getting things done in lab though, and that helps. I hate feeling useless even more than I hate feeling sick.

[evil_physics_witchcraft]

Looking for something to say mostly to hear from people...

Feeling a bit disconnected and adrift.

Healthcare stuff moves slowly, and some days I'm tired of being patient with the pain and fatigue and lack of answers or a clear plan for someday possibly maybe not feeling so beaten down every day.

Getting things done in lab though, and that helps. I hate feeling useless even more than I hate feeling sick.

I can empathize. I don't have any answers, though I'm not sure if you're looking for them. When I feel disconnected (and probably really anxious), I try the 5 senses grounding method. I also like to do lots of Math in my head. ;)

Just know that there are people out there who do care about you. It's rough, but you're not alone. Sounds cliché. I hope something that I wrote helps you.

[clean]

I'm finding it very difficult to get motivated. I just want to veg out and play mindless puzzle games, well, maybe not entirely mindless. I've been procrastinating and still have work to post for tomorrow. I feel very overwhelmed at the moment.

You dont have to be motivated Every Day!  In the last 10 days, I have been particularly busy (ie no real days off).,  I am looking forward to one in a few days, I hope!  (Test to give on Wednesday, meeting before that, another assignment due Wednesday night, so grading on Thursday for both assignments, meeting on Friday, annual evaluation from last year due soon (got some email about it today, but the got another email that the first didnt include ALL that needed to be done!!!))

Looking ahead, my 7 week online class only has 2 weeks left to run I think AND Spring Break is on the horizon! 

EPW, If you can hold out and stay strong and moving forward for a few more days, the weekend will be here, and if that is not enough, Spring Break is not far off!

Maybe just a night of debauchery for Fat Tuesday? (just a week away!)

Finally,... I dont know if this is a curse or just an observation.... In PhD school, the professor I worked for heard me complain about being behind, and he said, "Clean, As far behind as you think you are now, you will never be this caught up!"   He was right! 

The goal is just to try to keep from getting Too far behind!  But I have also found that Once you Give in to being behind, you can reorganize, drop the items that have expired, and try to reprioritize and keep up again!   

[smallcleanrat]

Looking for something to say mostly to hear from people...

Feeling a bit disconnected and adrift.

Healthcare stuff moves slowly, and some days I'm tired of being patient with the pain and fatigue and lack of answers or a clear plan for someday possibly maybe not feeling so beaten down every day.

Getting things done in lab though, and that helps. I hate feeling useless even more than I hate feeling sick.

I can empathize. I don't have any answers, though I'm not sure if you're looking for them. When I feel disconnected (and probably really anxious), I try the 5 senses grounding method. I also like to do lots of Math in my head. ;)

Just know that there are people out there who do care about you. It's rough, but you're not alone. Sounds cliché. I hope something that I wrote helps you.

Thanks, epw.

It does help quite a bit, and I appreciate it.

In the past I have used sensory grounding a lot, but in recent months it's been more difficult because pain makes me not want to feel too connected to my body.

It's difficult to sleep and eat, which further depletes my energy.

Some days I just feel a need to vent and say how sick and exhausted I feel, because it gets wearing having to maintain the mask of being "ok" day after day.

[Anselm]

(Disclaimer: I am not a physician but you all likely knew that anyhow.)

smallcleanrat,

When is the last time you had a nice vacation?   I personally have not a had a real day off in two years and it is draining me.  My breaks from school were consumed with caring for my mother.   It was only when I left the country for two weeks in 2017 when I realized how beneficial vacations are for the body and brain.   


There is an older post from last year about dealing with parents and memory loss.  I need to warn you folks that when we had our mother tested the appointment was set two months in the future.  Maybe this is not the case for everybody but I was not expecting that.   I first noticed my mother's memory issues in 2014.  As late as June of 2020 she drove a car and we likely should have stopped that beforehand.  By August she could not remember that her own husband was in the hospital and would ask about him repeatedly each day. 

[mamselle]

Thinking of all who are tired, feeling blank, or weary.

With you.

M.

[dr_evil]

I'm finding it very difficult to get motivated. I just want to veg out and play mindless puzzle games, well, maybe not entirely mindless. I've been procrastinating and still have work to post for tomorrow. I feel very overwhelmed at the moment.

Oh, I'm so there with you. I've been burnt out with work for some time and so I let some things go. Now I feel like I've figuratively fallen into a hole that I can't climb out of.

[evil_physics_witchcraft]

I'm finding it very difficult to get motivated. I just want to veg out and play mindless puzzle games, well, maybe not entirely mindless. I've been procrastinating and still have work to post for tomorrow. I feel very overwhelmed at the moment.

Oh, I'm so there with you. I've been burnt out with work for some time and so I let some things go. Now I feel like I've figuratively fallen into a hole that I can't climb out of.

Sorry to hear it. I took a mental health day today and it really helped.

[apl68]

I've been having a feeling, when work gets hectic and multiple things have to be left hanging in mid-air for a time, a sense of being trapped and wanting badly to just get away.  I'd planned to take tomorrow and Saturday off and go to a state park cabin for a personal prayer and study retreat.  Park accommodation has become so popular due to COVID that it has to be reserved weeks in advance.  I did so, then had to postpone for a month. 

Now I have my uncle's funeral to attend tomorrow.  I should be able to work it so that I can go from there to my park booking.  It means cutting short time spent with family, but I don't think I can postpone this again.  When it's done on Sunday, I plan to take an additional day off and swing by to visit family a bit more.

[mamselle]

Peace on your journey, and on your cabin stay.

Even though truncated, it sounds like a lovely, affordable idea.

M.

[apl68]

Peace on your journey, and on your cabin stay.

Even though truncated, it sounds like a lovely, affordable idea.

M.

But it's not happening.  Having had to move my reservation a month due to a controlled burn at the park (No sense taking a cabin on a mountain that's smoking like a volcano that weekend), I have now had it cancelled due to inclement weather.  It's nobody's fault, of course, but my plans for a getaway that I feel I really need have now been undone twice.  At this point I don't have the heart to try again.

Right after that, I had an online meeting to try to jump through the final hoop needed to collect our federal E-Rate reimbursement and found that it won't go through because the service provider--which has never provided good service in the first place--has failed to file the necessary paperwork on their end.  A year and a half of paperwork and e-mails and online meetings and trying to push past glitches and roadblocks has all now come to nothing.  I now regret ever having tried to file for E-Rate or ever hearing about that service provider.

I'll just attend tomorrow's funeral, and spend the weekend with family, and go back home and be ready for work like usual on Monday.  I guess I'll just have to keep feeling trapped for the foreseeable future.

[mamselle]

Very, very sorry this is all tumbling on you all at once.

Not fair, not kind, not right.

Grrrrrrrrrrrrrrr.......

M.