Welcome! Introduce yourself here 🙂

Hi @JaynJules

Welcome to the forums! It's so lovely to have you in this community, I'm sure some of our members will have some great pointers to share with you in your time here.

What are your cat and dog's names? I also love cats and have two of my own, Ollie and Momo

@Ru-bee My cat's name is Temi and my dog's name is Aisha

those are really cute pet names ^.^

Hey @JaynJules ,

Welcome to the forums! Great to have you with us.

I've created a support thread here for you Support of JaynJules

See you around!

Good morning everyone,

My name is Jeff and I am new to the forum.

I posted this on another message but just wanted to post it here as well. Lately, I have been in a bit of a dark place as of late. I was diagnosed with anxiety and mild depression last year and I thought I had a handle on everything but over the last little while, things have not been going very well for me. A lot of stuff has been happening with my family, extended family and with outside obligations that I am having trouble coping with. Whenever I get into that place, I tend to lead towards alcohol to try to numb everything out but over the last little while when I did that, it just made it worse. Last time I tried to take a break and try to work stuff out on my own, it always ended back with me leaning towards alcohol and just seemed to make it worse. I am going to attempt to take a break from it but I don't want to go back to my usual habits if something triggers me again like last time.

Welcome Jeff @Jeff11025

It's great to have you here on the forums.

It's a big step being able to recognise when a coping mechanism isn't serving us. It sounds as though for you alcohol has been effective in numbing these emotions for the short term, but over time it's started to add to these issues.

When we're trying to stop engaging in one coping mechanism, it's best to have others ready to take its place. Do you have any other coping skills you've been able to use? Or perhaps any supports in place to lean on when things are feeling hard?

If you feel as though your drinking is becoming hard to control there are also supports out there to help you to get it back under control, there's a free national helpline you can contact if you ever feel you need.

Hi Ru-bee,

Thank you for the warm welcome, I appreciate it.

I used to go to the gym a fair bit before but stopped due to other obligations but it did help me in the past so I suppose I can go back again. I am from Canada originally and I have been trying to build some support system through friends/extended family out here but I do not have that constant communication as I did in Canada. My wife has been of great support with me to help and she mentioned that I should reach out through online forums to get some friendly outside opinions of some helping coping mechanism's whilst also trying to get some help through a professional.

Getting back into that routine of going to the gym sounds like a great idea @Jeff11025

Your wife sounds like a wonderful support, and it's great that you're already looking to set up a few more points of support by joining this forum, and looking to engage with a professional. You're already making some really great steps, and I'm sure the community here will be able to share some of their wisdom with you as you continue on this path.

Hey everyone,

A fun fact or two about me; I love getting outdoors for hikes and trying to surf 🙂 i think its really good to recharge as if i spend toi long in a city i get burnt out.

Also into personal development and health.

Really glad to find the space and connect with you all here.

Hey @Jeff11025 , thanks for sharing, hope your doing ok