Topic Title: What does feeling better feel like?
| |  "What does feeling better feel like?"
, Tue 29 Mar 07:42
Hi,
This might just be a stupid question, but here it goes. I've been taking SJW for about three weeks now and I think that it has been helping, but I've been wondering what feeling better is supposed to feel like (I know that there is probably no set answer on this).
I think that I have suffered from depression and social anxiety for years. There have been periods of time when I have been free of debilitating self doubt, and felt confident enough to go into new social settings but generally since I've been a teenager (I'm in my early thirties now), I've had trouble. Once about ten years ago I tried to goto a shrink and when I explained my problems he told me that what I was experiencing was normal, although after explaining to him how I couldn't spend time with friends without getting deeper and deeper into a feeling of hopelessness that I would end up shaking and crying could be seen as normal I'm not sure. I should have found someone else at the time to see, but the experience was embarrasing and it took a lot just to make an appointment to see him. These fits of hopelessness have continued, and they manifest themselves around the people I'm closest to, and this tends to drive them away. As years went on I knew something was wrong with me, but I didn't want to seek out help because a) it's kind of embarrasing, and b) I really didn't want to be put on meds. There is a certain part of my melancholy that I like to have (if this makes sense), or maybe it's just something I've lived with for so long that I feel it's a part of me.
Since I started to take SJW I've noticed that I do have a bit more positive outlook, but more importantly it feels like it's blocking entrance to the door in my head that leads me to spiraling negative thoughts.
I don't want to sound melodramatic, but I don't think I have ever really felt normal and I'm wondering what it feels like, or how you know if SJW is really working.
Posts: 0 | | Registered: Tue 29 Mar 2005 7:23 |
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| | "Re(1):What does feeling better feel like?" , Thu 31 Mar 12:01
Greg,
For some people, it seems to be like the infamous quote about pornography 'I may not know how to define it, but I know it when I see it'. Check out some of the posts on the Experiences forum. I found, like you, that after several weeks, I thought I felt better, but wasn't sure if that was so or if so, how much better. After 6 months of SJW I can now look back and I'm quite sure I feel better. Normal is a relative term, but I don't think I would ever classify myself as normal. I feel better about myself than I can ever remember. My outlook/mood has improved (despite my work situation), my energy level has improved, and I don't have those fits of despair that take over my life anymore. Sure, life still has it's challenges, but now I can tell myself that 'this too shall pass' and believe it. Unlike so many other meds/drugs, SJW didn't 'kick in' in any noticeable way, I just kind of found myself in a better place after a while. Hang in there, keep working on your positive attitude and let us know of your progress.
Posts: 7 | | Registered: Mon 14 Mar 2005 12:34 |
| | "Re(1):What does feeling better feel like?" , Tue 29 Mar 08:23
Hi Greg
It is so interesting the way you put it, that SJW blocks the door to the negative thoughts. Wow, after I read that I said yeah!! that is exactly how I feel about it.
My emotions aren't wrapped in a numbing drug feeling, but the negativity is being blocked. Thanks for that, it made sense to me.
I have been taking SJW for almost a month, I think. I don't keep good track of these things.
Posts: 18 | | Registered: Tue 15 Mar 2005 9:7 |
| | | "Re(2):What does feeling better feel like?" , Wed 30 Mar 04:05
Good question, and it is a hard one to answer, but I think you just instinctively know when you're starting to feel better.
I guess I define feeling better as when the highs you get are higher and the lows not as low. I'm aware that it's all to easy to have an expectation that you should feel happy all the time, when often there's things in your life which are affecting you as well. Good Luck with the SJW!
Posts: 127 | | Registered: Wed 14 Apr 2004 23:27 |
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