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How to cope with low mood and feeling ''Down''?

Peteyzee98Casual Contributor27 Mar 2022, 11:34 pm AEDT

How to cope with low mood and feeling ''Down''?

Hi this is my first ever post here. i am 23 from Melbourne with Autism and OCD.

I was reading an article on better health and came across this website.

I take medication which helps mostly but i plan on seeing my GP next week to start seeing a psychologist again.

How can i cope with feelings of depression and feeling lonely/down?? my AFL team lost 2 games in a row and that's really made me feel miserable because i get lots of excitement when my team wins and re watching the highlights. The worst part is the night, i actively obsess about how i will sleep, and have what if thoughts, i also experience disturbing intrusive images/thoughts which makes me nauseous, these usually happen at night and sometimes i feel like im going crazy or dont exist

3 replies

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In response to: How to cope with low mood and feeling ''Down''?

NatureLoverSenior Contributor28 Mar 2022, 7:19 am AEDT

Re: How to cope with low mood and feeling ''Down''?

Hi and welcome, @Peteyzee98 .

It sounds like you're not able to sleep with these obsessive thoughts going round and round in your head? I feel for you (I have OCD too).

Regarding depression, I know that meds from my psychiatrist and also counselling from a psychologist helped me. I hope that starting with a psychologist again will help you too.

A handy forum tip is if you type @ and click on a name in the drop-down box, that person will get a notification and won't miss your reply.

In response to: How to cope with low mood and feeling ''Down''?

GwynnSenior Contributor28 Mar 2022, 2:56 pm AEDT

Re: How to cope with low mood and feeling ''Down''?

Hey @Peteyzee98 , glad you've found us! 🙂

What kinds of activities do you do that are fun or pleasurable or that you get a sense of achievement from, besides watching your AFL team win? There's a lot of evidence that just having something fun to look forward to and then following up and doing that fun thing is really helpful in depression management. ( https://www.verywellmind.com/pleasant-activity-scheduling-4779965 ) There are a lot of good lists of ideas you can try if you have trouble thinking of something right off the bat ( https://www.cci.health.wa.gov.au/-/media/CCI/Mental-Health-Professionals/Depression/Depression---Information-Sheets/Depression-Information-Sheet---06---Fun-Activities-Catalogue.pdf ) For myself, I attend a gym to do exercise, I sometimes catch up with my friends, I do some knitting, I volunteer in an op shop and sometimes cook a cake for my parents.

If I feel lonely and I'm not able to pick up the phone and talk to someone immediately, it sometimes helps if I read a book or listen to music. I think that's because I can respond emotionally to the singer or character's issues, and it kind of improves my sense of being part of humanity, if that makes any sense? Sometimes it also helps if I go the other way and distract myself with my knitting, too.

Have you tried meditation at all for your intrusive/ruminating/obsessive thoughts? I like this video from Headspace, I think it's really illustrative of what mindfulness meditation can be: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iN6g2mr0p3Q&ab_channel=Headspace

Hope this helps!

In response to: How to cope with low mood and feeling ''Down''?

IsAnybodyThereSenior Contributor28 Apr 2022, 11:01 pm AEST

Re: How to cope with low mood and feeling ''Down''?

Wow! I can so relate to what you are saying. I have had those thoughts about whether I exist. I often wish I didn't. Lately I have had a new thing to my mental issues. Even at home, when I close my eyes, it feels like I'm in a different place or facing a different way.

As I am feeling really down myself right now I am afraid I don't have any positive advice.

Your Post just spoke to me and I wanted to say Hi.

Regards; IsAnybodyThere.

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