Posted by john locke on January 23, 2016, at 0:27:52
Backstory on me. I am 19 years old. I was a very happy child, but when I hit puberty in the summer going into 8th grade, mental illness hit like a brick wall. During 8th grade, I was plagued by general anxiety, social anxiety, OCD (the most ridiculous, nasty case of obsessive thoughts that I could have ever thought possible), perfectionism (kind of a subset of my OCD, but I'll include it anyways), and severe depression. I remember having to remind myself that I was the same person as the year before.
My symptoms had gotten a lot better by 9th grade, but as the stresses of high school built up, my symptoms came back and got worse and worse. By junior year I was depressed again and can say that the depression has gotten worse and worse up to this point. By far the worst of it is how detached I am from friends and family. It might help to note that my mother has perfectionistic qualities and my dad has anxiety issues.
So anyways, I have this plan set out that I will go on a month long hiking trip with a group next month (neurogenesis, also could be extremely helpful with social anxiety). Then I'll do a CBT course for social anxiety. Then I'll go on another month long hiking trip. And if I'm still suffering at that point, THEN i'll know it's time to get on medication. I know it's my choice to make, but do any of you hold the opinion that I should get on medication sooner? I can say that taking fish oil, b complex, niacin, vitamin D, and acetyl l-carnitine has improved my outlook somewhat; I no longer have suicidal thoughts and no longer go into the darkest place imaginable like I was a month or so ago.
Any sort of input would be much appreciated, whether about medication or anything else. God bless you all.
John
poster:john locke
thread:1085660
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/20151225/msgs/1085660.html