Share a cuppa?

I’m studying a course in mental health @Oaktree 🙂🌺

It’s all online, so I’ll do it at home ☺️

Hello there @Spirit_Healer 🌺🙂

Nice to meet you ☺️

Having a nice evening thank you 🌺🙂

just having a cool pomegranate juice and mineral water.

Hows your evening going?

Hey @Former-Member , nice to meet you. Your course sounds fascinating/ What kind of job are you hoping that your course will lead to do?

It's been relatively good, thanks @Former-Member . Went out for dinner with my parents before. Just feeling a little lonely so thought I'd jump on here. Work keeps me busy, but in my downtime I don't feel very socially connected...

@Spirit_Healer

I can relate, I access the forums to combat loneliness too. I only have one good friend and she is the busiest person I know. I can only really visit her during school holidays as she is a tutor for kids and is always working. If she rings me and asks if I want to run errands with her I drop everything and run over there. I wish I had more friends. I love our forum family but it’s not exactly the same

Thanks for sharing @Oaktree @Spirit_Healer .

I actually love my forums family and I really don't want too many 'friends' from outside - or any friends as a matter of fact. I get so many phone calls from people wanting to catch up, but I just don't have the energy to talk on the phone nor meet up with people. It drains me. Yet when I'm on the forums, I always feel revived. Like I can be here 24/7 and I wouldn't feel drained.

Some people here share that they reach out to people but the other person doesn't respond. I'm guilty of not responding, and hence I can see it from the other person's point of view.

I'm not sure if having the feelings above is actually healthy? I don't think I've ever discussed it. Yes, psychs say I need 'down time', but I find the forums here my down time. I find it more stressful going out or talking on the phone! @Oaktree @Spirit_Healer

@Oaktree I feel sad thinking about friendships because I lost two friends a few years ago when I relapsed and I reached out to them for support my struggles. At least one of them was not very open-minded about mental health issues and both of them were put off by my uncharacteristic behaviour. I regret reaching out to them for help because if I hadn't they probably would still be my friends now. One of them stopped replying to my messages and calls, and the other one has never committed to meeting up with me again. Before I relapsed, I was quite well and managed to hide my illness from the latter one. I remember one time how she was talking about our colleague going on extended leave and commenting how he was probably one of those 'manic-depressive types'. I just nodded and went along with the conversation because it was the easiest thing to do, and at the same time I committed not to tell her about my own problems. It all came unravelling when I relapsed and she probably realised then that I was likely more similar to our colleague than she realised before.

I try to tell myself that these people don't have the empathy to be good friends to me, but I still feel regret all the same.

@tyme I can empathise with that. I used to get bad anxiety when I had to make phone calls. At first it was all phone calls, then it was when I had to make phone calls at work. Social anxiety has also made it hard for me to go to social gatherings in the past, especially in noisy environments or with people I didn't know so well. Thankfully I find these things a lot easier now.

That's so hard to hear @Spirit_Healer .

So it sounds like they had very little understanding.

Do you think you'd be less empathetic if you hadn't experienced MH for yourself?