Let's have a party!!!

[gingerschnapps]

It's the time of year when moods are crashing.  The days are short, the weather is miserable, Wintermas looms on the horizon with all its stresses, frustrations, and problems.  At the suggestion of the lovelystaranise , it's time to have a [mental health] Downswing Party!!!

By which I mean, come on over and:

• complain. go ahead. let it all out. anon comments are screened if you'd prefer other people don't read it (tho if you want me to know who YOU are, signing is good) I won't tell, I won't think you're pathetic, I won't think at you "other people have real problems and you don't". Promise. Also, I will only unscreen YOUR comment if you tell me it's cool. Otherwise, your secret is safe with me.
   
• yell at your mood disorder of choice - MDD, Bipolar, PTSD, anxiety, whatever - anything that's currently fucking you up. The world, maybe. Or your meds! While there is a community for that, it can be fun to do it some more.
   
• post funny cartoons, macros and pictures of cute kittens, great stories you found, instances of people not sucking, hilarious gifs and other things (if it's nsfw, put it behind a link and note it and follow charitable warning systems - we're not here to make people feel WORSE after all).
   
• talk about things that make you happy, no matter how much you swear other people don't care about them.
   
• ask other people who might be reading about other stuff.
  
  There's metaphorical tea, although I cannot recommend highly enough making yourself a cup of tea/coffee/tisane/hot chocolate/hot milk/whatever as a calming, soothing exercise. I'd turn on some music, except I do not know how to make a playlist show up in your computer. ANYWAY.
  
  The only rules are EVERYONE PLAY NICE. If you DEFINITELY don't want any unsolicited internet advice, just stick "NO ADVICE" in your subject line. Even if someone doesn't have that, please offer advice politely, as a suggestion, and with the assumption that the person you are talking to is an intelligent human being. I would like to reemphasize this. Don't phrase it "you should look into X". Phrase it as "have you looked into X?"
  
  Ready? GO.

(points shamelessly borrowed fromrecessional )

Comments

[kore]

THANK YOU, heard about this from the marvelous rydra_wong and it's awesome because --

I used to just say "every February my life falls apart" which is true, but I have now realized that is probably because of SAD. It's weird because I like overcast days and rainy weather (I live in the PNW and love it), but I've really noticed my mood slipping the past few weeks (which also happened because I had my birthday, which I hate because it reminds me of all the stuff I haven't done, and I drowned my laptop with coffee and it totally died). I also get migraines from bright lights, so everyone's advice is "Use a lightbox!" and I'm not sure if it would work at all....but mainly I've just been depressed since realizing yeah, this is hard, and not likely to let up until March. Augh. I'm on a combination of antidepressants/mood stabilizers/other drugs that help keep me nice and stable during the whole rest of the year, and I'm terrified to mess with it just because of SAD.

I'm also dreading the holidays because I'm estranged from my family, and this is the time of year when they send nastygrams about how that estrangement is all my fault, and I know it sounds awful but I'm dreading reading friends' posts about fun travel and time with family and cooking and general holiday happiness. I've been broke/unemployed most of my adult life during the holidays (my husband has a job right now, but we're trying to be supertight and save money). But I hate being a killjoy for other people, so I try not to say anything about it (which just makes me feel more depressed. Lovely).

(You know what this rant needs more of? ((Parentheses)) )

[gingerschnapps]

SAD sucks so very hard. For me it was "my life falls apart every October" but cause and effect were virtually identical. Stressful holidays are probably not helping the already-downward trend. One thing I found that helped me when my family was sending nastygrams was letting my partner read them first. That way he could filter out anything I really needed to know and I was saved the passive-aggressive shittiness. I don't know if that's something that would work for you/is even applicable?

[untonuggan]

*sympathies*

I have to be very judicious in my use of a lightbox, because it helps with SAD depression! Too much means a manic swing! So I sympathize because it's really annoying when I feel like someone who may or may not have any experience with depression/brain weasels gives the Reader's Digest/Oprah advice for someone with the condition they think I have and life is more complicated. *solidarity fistbump*

Sympathies for family crap and holidays. If it helps, there's a whole post/thread on Captain Awkward of many people who also have awkward holiday family feels and stuff to deal with? <3

((Apparently what my post/comment needed was lots of slash marks.))