After what seems like a year of near constant stress, disappointment, and loneliness, I decided to stop sitting at my computer all day and start making better choices for myself. This was a really hard thing to do for me since I work from home about two feet from my entertainment area. I would end up sitting at my desk all day and neglecting things that I wanted to do and I wasn’t sure why.
This month I have:
Set up the Ender 3 V2 that was sitting in my closet for two years and printed out a bunch of cool shit with my kid.
Exercised every other day to try to help myself with some vicious joint pain that has developed recently.
Kept the dishes from piling up on my desk.
Made doctor and dentist appointments.
Don’t get me wrong, things are still stressful and disappointing, but I feel a lot better than I have in a long time. What have you done to care for yourself lately? Digging yourself out of depression is hard and I want to hear your successes, no matter how small they are.
No phone or screen usage for 1 hour after I wake up.
I haven’t broken the addiction completely, but it’s progress.
Oh shit, that’s a really good one. I hate that I instinctually grab my phone and start doom scrolling. Getting rid of Twitter was a big one that helped for me.
When smartphones were new, I started dating a girl who would roll over in bed first thing in the morning, pick up her phone, and start scrolling. I thought it was incredibly weird. Why not life? Why computer? Now, I do the same thing, and it’s normal. Or rather it was until a couple of weeks ago.
The scary thing is that I’ll start to get antsy as the one-hour mark comes near. I’ll keep checking the clock for when I can pick it up and get my stimulation. So far it is working most days, though, and it feels like it improves the rest of the day for me.
I always feel like I’m going to miss something important, but honestly, there is nothing important happening that I can’t just hear from someone else. I really want to get to the point where I wake up, throw on some clothes, and go for a walk and leave my phone at home. I think if I can do this through the fall and winter, I can do it forever.
You can run down some of the clock by making yourself a good breakfast every morning! My wife got into a real tamagoyaki kick and I’ve been making her one pretty much every day and it makes me pretty happy to be cooking again.
Locking my account helped me cut down my Twitter usage a lot by making it pointless to reply in most cases.
I just found myself picking fights with locals on the opposite side of the political spectrum and it got bad enough that my handle was named in two different defamation lawsuits. 🤷. Luckily decent opsec made me harder to find IRL, but both cases were laughed out of court anyway.
Lol wow.
I’m going into withdrawal just thinking about that.
I started responding to posts that start with “Heyo” so things are looking good so far.
Can I be the guy that replies to the guy that responds to posts that start with “Heyo”? I don’t really have a lot going on
I started learning a little about music theory. I’ve been interested for a while, but always thought I wouldn’t be able to understand it. But it’s doable, a little at a time.
And I’ve been going outside more. I spend too much time in front of the computer. It’s nice to have fresh air and read, listen to music, or just take in the surroundings.
Congrats!! I loved the little bit I learned. It’s a lot more intertwined with others subjects than I had thought, like physics and math. Feel free to share if you learned anything interesting 🙂
Trying to mentally/emotionally distance myself from my “customer service” job. Like, pretending I’m not a CSR, but that I’m playing the role of a CSR in a show, or something. After over 10 years working jobs like this, and for multiple reasons, the stress and asshole customers have been making me even even more miserable than necessary lately.
At the very least, this is helping me stay cool-headed and friendly enough to piss off angriest/most condescending callers, which can be pretty cathartic sometimes. It’s not so effective when it’s overwhelmingly busy, though.
Also, calling my lawyer, which was extremely stressful to me for literally no logical reason. Actually, I had a reason to look forward to it.
I went to a couple social dances hosted by a local ballroom dance club. I like pretending I’m someone else, someone cool, since I don’t know anyone there.
Trying to stick to my feeding plan as much as I can. It gets difficult at times so every day I can check that box, I feel happy.
Using heavier weights for my workouts. It makes me feel great and so powerful to help my body fight stored trauma.
Using my words to be able to say what I want to say.
Using heavier weights for my workouts. It makes me feel great and so powerful to help my body fight stored trauma.
Yooooo!!! Me too!! I make sure to piss myself off real good before going to the gym. I’ll be pacing like a madman before I get in the car. I know I’m ready when I don’t even want to go outside because even sunlight is offensive. One time, I pushed it too hard and had to ground myself in the car at the gym parking lot for 15 mins. Between sets, I’m pacing and stimming with my earbuds in. Prolly look like I think I’m in a rap video.
I catch people side-eyeing me often. But, I could tell who gets it because I catch them doing similar and are friendly to me when we’re near each other.
I don’t know if this will work for the trauma eventually or just a mandatory habit now, but it’s made adjusting my weighted blanket a lot easier.
Keep it up!
Weighted blanket for the win!
I workout at home because I am too much of a germaphobe to go to a regular gym but also too self conscious about how I look while exercising lol BUT reading your comment made me glad there are other people out there pushing themselves to do better and not feeling judged for it.
Can relate to the rap video! I like old school stuff mostly but that big dawgs tune is fire.
Oh I hope it’ll work out for you eventually because it will, literally, change the way you go through life ❤️
Currently in the process of extricating myself from a nearly 5 year long relationship that I’ve realized has become more or less parasitic
The detachment process is hard, parasitic or not there are fond memories there. I hope you both the best of luck with the healing process, and can only say that time is the best remedy for forgetting about someone you used to care a lot about.
I’ve been going on lots of walks and jogs, I try to go at least once a day. It’s good for my mental health which has otherwise been kinda bad lately.
I read about Buddhism and meditation and it got me through depression. “Being Peace” by Thich Nahn Hahn changed my life.
Thanks for the suggestion, I found a pdf of it online I’ll check it out
Everything is temporary, friend. Money, possessions, and stature won’t make you happy. You have to happiness in yourself. You can do hard things and you are worth happiness.
Sir it’s the IRS
The IRS is temporary. The country is temporary. The ground you walk on is temporary. It’s all a grand, elaborate dance of pointless space-time and there is nothing as important as how you feel and how you make others feel.
But do pay your taxes.
I’m day thirty of my no poop challenge.
:(
I finally organized and filed away the mountain of paperwork on my desk! It took some work but everything has a place again.
Well it’s the first of October now but in September I was off sick with exhaustion, so I got a blood test done after a couple of years of putting it off, just to be sure of course. I rearranged my bedroom too for a change. I spoke to my supervisor at work saying I need more rest, so making sure I get breaks every day and not too many workdays in a row.
My tip for anyone who’s suddenly struck with enough motivation to pull yourself out the hole: I find using a tasks app helps an awful lot with not only remembering to everything and when to do it but with feeling a bit of satisfaction when I mark it as done. Which reminds me, I need to tick off that I’ve taken my soup out the freezer this morning.
I’ve been trying to tell myself that it’ll be a good day before going into work every day. It’s made a big difference in my mood.
I finally started working out again! I also work from home and my Job made me miserable, but I’ll be starting a new Job in November and that gave me hope and motivation to pull myself out of the depression hole.
Just by returning to college fall quarter in the middle of the month, my exercise level has gone up compared to the sedimentary summer I ended up having. I have had to walk more with slightly more weight due to having to take my laptop case with me to and from my 3 classes. And it has made me actually get back into a slightly more regular eating schedule as I’m required to eat breakfast if I don’t wanna be hungry after classes.
As of yesterday, I played hard-ball with a job I really wanted, and it paid off to the tune of a salary I previously never would have dreamed of. Stressful as hell, but sometimes you gotta tak risks.
