How to engage / stay engaged in handling mental health?

@Former-Member I feel like I’m wired differently too sometimes.

The recent explosion in how common neurodivergence is (look at both the number of people being diagnosed with autism, ADHD etc) and also the transition from it being a black and white threshold (you either have it or you don’t) to it being a continuous spectrum, suggests it’s still waaaay more common than we give it credit for.

The key seems to be understanding your own nature, and carving out a niche that works for you. Everyone is different, in so many ways.

Your generation has unique challenges with social media and the internet. I don’t think there is an easy answer to it. Much of today’s internet is geared towards being highly stimulating and giving tiny, quick dopamine hits (addictive, but ultimately unsatisfying). Thankfully this forum is a very supportive place to be.

I believe that offline life is generally way more fulfilling, and I’m trying to use the internet mostly to find hobby groups so I can build and maintain relationships with offline potential. I know that poses some challenges for you but hopefully you can find a group you click with. Some of my groups are widely dispersed and I’ll never meet any of them, but that’s OK because the discussions are interesting.

Hey @Former-Member

wanted to respond to your posts as they brought up a lot in me. Not sure if it will help, but I relate to highschool drug culture ... and I am lil ole lady. First trip at 16 etc. Yeah ... what is personal choice and what is not?? big questions for me ...Who was jeering me into having a smoke? Whats a legal one or illegal one?

Its interesting your dad was the meditating one ... often the son needs to find their own path ... even if some of what the dad is/was good ...

I started mediating in early 20s ... after stopped all the dope apart from ciggies ... yes it can help sometime ... but then after disastrous relationhip ... could not meditate for over 15 years.... so all I could do was curl up foetal position. I feel I have some head trauma and damage.

I also love the bush ... Do you mind if I tag @tonys to this thread cos he is a bloke and might be able to offer more.

I really liked a few things @nervouswreck wrote ... including ..."People are fiendishly complex beings".

I think you posted well, responsibly and are articulate enough. You persevered in responses and it all made sense to me, including the not feeling heard, but accepting best intentions etc. I get that you have had some big blow ups. Can only start today ... again and again.

Shame is a big one.

Self care is a big one.

If it is going bush sometimes ... there may be a few answers there ... not rosy and sweet .... but bottom line... what is the nature of life and how it all fits together kinda thing.

Your self care ... needs to fit you. No one size fits all.

Also I agree @Former-Member you should not have to have known to ask for a Mental Health plan. That is the Gps job.

But if you can get one ... it might be a start.

@nervouswreckYeah the neurodivergence thing is definitely interesting, I think it's quite likely I've got something, there's precedence for ADHD in the family.

Re niche, I guess we'll just have to see.

I think we might've got some wires crossed here. When I'm thinking about the internet broadly I'm not really talking about social media and news sites, I'm predominately talking about the mostly free content provided by passionate individuals without corporate backing, which is still a massive amount of the internet. Sure it's not advertised directly to your feed so a lot of people never see it, but the internet is more than just clickbait.

When I talk about not having/accessing social media as a negative I mean that people use it as primary communication nowadays, people don't tend to share their numbers, don't tend to invite each person individually to events, etc it's all handled through social media which means even opportunity to engage socially is drastically reduced. Yeah I'd definitely prefer to skip that entirely but that's not really an option I have.

Despite all the good stuff I have to say about the internet, I'm not too sure I'd use it to find anyone I actually intend on meeting offline outside of work context, whether that's reasonable caution or paranoia I'll leave to interpretation.

Hey @Appleblossom

Thank's for that I got a couple little giggles from that. Weird times, I don't really think much about the highschool drug culture, probably the most social time of my life, but weird too, lucky to of made it out without harder habits really.

Well I don't think I'll follow his, or my mums, not to insult either of them but what they've tried to share hasn't worked for me.

I'm sorry that sounds awful, but I appreciate the validation around meditation not working for everyone all the time.

You're welcome to tag tony, but I think I'm probably gonna leave this thread here after this. As much as I really appreciate everyone's responses it takes me a lot of energy to read and respond to everything, and I haven't really gotten what I was hoping too out of it.