Sashajade Posted October 30, 2013 Posted October 30, 2013 I have been meaning to share my experience with self-therapy. Things that have worked for me and really aren't that difficult to do in the comfort of your privacy just with reliable internet connection and a computer. A little about my history and how I discovered these methods. I have been thru a number of traumatic childhood events. As I got older and these emotional problems and resulting PTSD had never been dealt with. I didn't have a good support network ie family and friends. I was a pretty depressed teenager and continued to suffer all through my adulthood. When I turned 20, I had what is called a breakdown. Although at the time I didn't know what happened until I literally snapped out of it on my own one day. When this occurred, a few upsetting life events happened all at the same time. It came on sort of gradual, from one day to the next. It seemed like I became less energetic, lost my appetite, would sleep all day, and scramble to try to get ready for work. Couldn't concentrate and within a month I had dropped 20 lbs, and already being of normal weight it was not pretty. So around a month or a little more, I had a chance to leave home and move to Vegas with a boyfriend. I believe the extreme sunshine helped lift me out of the depressive episode, and probably just a new place took my mind off of other stuff. This was the official beginning of more episodes of depression to come. Around 22 I started to figure out that there is something wrong and that I needed help. I was aware that my childhood and other negative consequential events were part of the problem. When I would try to discuss it with people, it seemed like they undermined how serious my issues were. It really bothered me that other people and even people who had been through the same things didn't seem to be too bothered by their own traumatic life events. My mom just told me to not to dwell on it, and move on. Bad things happen and you just have to keep going and put it behind you. Well that definitly wasnt working. Around that time I bought my first self-help book on depression called "The Noonday Demon". That book really helped to shed some light on what I was dealing with. It covered alot of different aspects that go along with depression. In that book I read about various types of therapy that are used to treat depression and PTSD. Back then of course I didn't have access to all this info on the internet and didn't think I would ever be able to get any real help, as I couldn't afford it and definitly didn't think I could do some of it on my own. Instead I got put on meds and while they were helpful, they didn't solve the root issues that were ruining my life. I had finally got desperate to help myself about 10 months ago. My life became a complete disaster and I was prepared to do whatever necessary to try to save my life. It was either that or I wasn't going to be around much longer. At least that's how seriously bad I was doing. I wasn't going to go this much into my history but I think it matters because maybe some of you can relate and realize you aren't alone, and there's hope. In the next post I will go into the tools i've been using for therapy on myself and how to use them, or at least how i've been doing it.
Recommended Posts