You should try to get a job. This might help improve your mental health.
I felt worse, when I was unemployed.
Like my tag line says, I’m trying.
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Because I hate my original job? Or because there are amazing paying jobs in my area?
You don’t know my situation.
If I’d had good support and treatment that would have been more likely, though still a long shot. I’m stuck between the twin rocks of lacking the qualifications for a professional job, and lacking the manual skills for a more practical , perfectly respectable, manual labour job.
In the early to mid years of our marriage my wife and I did check out home work , but it was basically an exploitative rip off. It’s not easy to find something that combines needing to be very near to where I live due to difficulty getting places, preferably therefore working from home, and doesn’t require a string of qualifications or at least average manual skills. Then there’s the severe social anxiety to add to the mix.
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I agree it is hard for me to work in a professional setting given my social anxiety.
So, I trade stocks, I am glued to the screen 9 to 4 while working on strategies and stuff.
I think what he means is that being productive can ameliorate the symptoms by increasing self-worth. I will add another dimension to this: The more you exert, whether trying to think, remember, etc, etc the more the cognitive symptoms ameliorate. As far as I am concerned, I can’t stand Sundays because there is nothing much to do. I struggle to focus at things I don’t like, but if I am really interested, and emotionally invested, like in stock trading, then I can focus.
My experience with this debilitating illness: Mental exertion is the key in order for the symptoms to get better. I know this is not conventional wisdom, and it is said, that positives may recur in highly stressful work, but my experience is the complete opposite. I think it is because I usually lack dopamine, and in high pressure situations, my brain gets enough dopamine to get stuff done.
Magnitude: 2.5
Frequency: 24.8%
Repute:Good
References:272(worrier) advantage in memory and attention tasks Little or no response to modafinil. You are more difficult to hypnotise. Placebo is more effective http://www.nytimes.com/2013/02/10/magazine/why-can-some-kids-handle-pressure-while-others-fall-apart.html?ref=magazine&pagewanted=all
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rs4680 (Val158Met) is a well studied SNP in the COMT gene. 23andMe blog summarizes them as *rs4680(A) = Worrier. Met, more exploratory, lower COMT enzymatic activity, therefore higher dopamine levels; lower pain threshold, enhanced vulnerability to stress, yet also more efficient at processing information under most conditions *rs4680(G) = Warrior. Val, less exploratory, higher COMT enzymatic activity, therefore lower dopamine levels; higher pain threshold, better stress resiliency, albeit with a modest reduction in executive cognition performance under most conditions Roughly speaking, the predominant wisdom (known colloquially as the warrior/worrier hypothesis; summary at ) posits that people with Val alleles have increased COMT activity and lower prefrontal extracellular dopamine compar…
That’s my result. I don’t do well when it comes to stress. I do family history,especially the DNA side as a hobby. Exchange views on ASD,mental health and politics on Twitter . The mental health part includes interacting with several mental health professionals.
On Facebook I’m on several high IQ groups and try to solve brain teasers or sometimes discuss things . I’ve done several high range IQ tests . The best results, currently , are verbal: 168, fluid:143 and numerical:139 .
I’m listed on the World genius directory with a higher score than these doctors-
Dr Eick Sternhagen Fields of education: Economy, Latin, ev. theology, Doctorate in Latin of late Middle Ages, Westfälische Wilhelms-Universität Münster – WWU, University of Münster, Germany.
Dr Manahel Thabet The youngest – and only – Arab with a PhD in Financial Engineering, she writes research papers on quantum mathematics. Her work to revolutionize our understanding of math and physics is poised to earn her a second PhD, at the age of 32.
Dr Donato Stolfa Nutritionist Biologist Specialized in Human Nutrition
Dr Jeremy Saget Weightless Flight Surgeon
ZeroG Instructor
United Nations rotary wing Aeromedical Evacuations Flight Surgeon
Dr Bishoy Goubran Bishoy Goubran, MD. Is a clinical researcher in the field of Behavioral and Cardiovascular medicine. Bishoy’s research line is in psychosomatic medicine
Dr Daniel Piersee Doctor of Pharmacy in Pharmacy @ University of Iowa
Dr Jawdat Wehbe Cardiologist - electrophysiologist · Heart and vessels
Executive functioning ,especially organising and planning, is far from good. Sequencing activities I struggle with (multi step tasks). ASD & schizophrenia can both have a bad effect on it.
My adaptive functioning skills lag far behind my intelligence level .That doesn’t happen with all autistic people, but does happen with a lot of us.
https://www.advancedpsy.com/documentation/adaptive-functioning/
My biggest problem is being very sedentary especially since Covid19. Lower back pain that means I can’t walk very far, or stand up for very long, doesn’t help. That’s not ideal for cognitive or physical health.
Then there’s the balance, coordination and gait problems that have been there for over 6 decades, but in terms of being recognised, and help given, have taken a very distant backseat to the mental health issues. They seem to have got worse recently . I’m supposedly going to be referred to a specialist team dealing with such things .
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It seems to me that you have a very high IQ, but, at the same time, it is tough to live with many diagnoses that you seem to have.
It is interesting stuff that you posted.
Did you try any treatment for Social Anxiety? Anything that helped you?
I’ve been given very little help for the anxiety, and none at all for the social anxiety. The very small amount of treatment I got for the general anxiety, a 6 week group session, didn’t help at all. Outside of family & stepfamily I find it very hard to interact with others IRL. How I am on this forum is very different than how I’d be if you met me IRL.
My Social Anxiety has been increasing lately as well. I notice that it is a vicious cycle, the more you avoid people, the less you are able to interact with them in the future.
I think it is time for controlled experiments. I can’t find a good therapist. As usual, I will have to do this myself.
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I have tried from time to time to interact more via mental health groups. They’ve all been total failures. The last one was a mental health group at my local library in 2018, a ‘stone’s throw’ away from where I live . I found it hard to talk, and when I did I got very little response . I was definitely the ‘odd person out’ . What capped the disaster off was the group leader, a self described ‘radical social worker’, making a snide remark when I paid for the refreshment I’d had. The woman who’d paid the same amount just before me hadn’t had a snide comment directed at her.
I found out a little later via Facebook, I’d found out about the group on FB and messaged him for details, that he was a virulent anti-Semite who’d been booted out of the political party I’m a member of. I then blocked him. He’s into community activism , and in the Summer I can hear him singing outside as part of his community ‘good guy’ routine. It’s a stinking pile of crap.
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At first I thought I was a total failure when I couldn’t be an architect anymore…after finally accepting that I couldn’t work I worked on being happy and hopeful…never looked back…that is kind of success to me…I manage to find things to make me happy still and I am a very happy man now…
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Thers meds for social anxiety. Maybe I already told you, sorry for that. I had a friend who is on Citalopram for social anxiety, it helps him he said but not 100%.
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It’s like getting advice from Matt Foley, innit?
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Right. As if every are has better paying jobs. There are just a few places to work in my area and they all pay 12.50 an hour. I don’t have rel8able transportation.
Not very successful the least bit. I’m hoping to just live a semi-normal life and be happy and content, really. My goal is to keep my mind active, stay out of the mental hospital, and make some extra cash/dough/money, really.
I don’t take care of myself and I have a lot of messed up brains/memory.
I haven’t really been hospitalized since 2017 except when I needed a check up here and there for a short time due to stress from being a caretaker, but that’s it. I think Vraylar has really helped me and I don’t have bad negatives anymore or an unstable mood where I feel I need to live in the mental hospital anymore. I think the mental hospital is scary now. I used to like it, but not anymore. There’s no freedom and there’s nothing to do including the food anymore.
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I’m here to tell you that if you get a second job instead of a single higher paying one, you won’t amount to JACK SQUAT!!. There, feel better?
Yes, it’s your fault if your area has limited employment opportunities.
I live in a semi-fantasy world, really. I think I’m all these different people and invented these things, have the memories and experiences, and stuff but it’s gets tiring trying to talk about it and share it because I’m only convincing myself anymore. I’m afraid I’ll die or something by talking, but so far I’m alive, but the dissociation and fear and paranoia goes away but increases temporarily along with anxiety when I talk about it on a public forum.
Oh noes! I am bad person.
Yeah I have a degree and a Masters and have spent a long time unemployed. I also have a cushy life. Not through marriage but a good benefit system for disabled.
I also write and would love to make something of it.
I’m 37. How old are you?
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Do you do art as well? I think I remember seeing your art.
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