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Depression, Anxiety and reliance of substances

Jeff11025Casual Contributor20 June 2024, 9:43 am AEST

Depression, Anxiety and reliance of substances

Good morning everyone,

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. Any advice on how I can make things better this time?

3 replies

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In response to: Depression, Anxiety and reliance of substances

FriendlyflutterSenior Contributor20 June 2024, 9:52 am AEST

Re: Depression, Anxiety and reliance of substances

Hi there @Jeff11025 ,

We wanted to take this opportunity to welcome you to the forums.

We hope that you find the forums a great place to connect with other members, share stories and ideas, and find the support and connection you deserve.

Feel free to Introduce yourself here if you haven’t already!

We look forward to seeing you around on the forums!

It sounds you really want to learn new coping strategies and want to get rid of alcohol as your coping strategy, what kind of supports do you have to help you with your goal?

In response to: Depression, Anxiety and reliance of substances

PeppyPattiSenior Contributor20 June 2024, 1:50 pm AEST

Re: Depression, Anxiety and reliance of substances

dear @Jeff11025

I'm posting a book that iv ordered for my youngest son who hasn't spoken to me for about 5 years.

My mother has undiagnosed borderline and narcissism and although iv been in therapy for over 20 years, what positive she could do is stopped as her one and only mission in life is to lie and talk about how wonderful she is.

This means that she lies and trips my poor son out who had cancer for 15 years. Book by

Terrance Real.

I Don't Want to Talk about It: Overcoming the Secret Legacy of male depression ...

Amazon.com.au

https://www.amazon.com.au

I'm going to ask my partner Mr Rocker to take it to him where he works .

Do you think it would be something you could read as the book is fairly new and is directed to males who are depressed ??

In response to: Depression, Anxiety and reliance of substances

AsgardSenior Contributor20 June 2024, 2:56 pm AEST

Re: Depression, Anxiety and reliance of substances

Hi @Jeff11025

Hope this finds you in better form. Was very much like you as regards anxiety and depression, except I used drugs for over 20 years to deal with life. Covid and lockdown made me look at myself, lets just say the last 4 years have been interesting. Am clean now thank God, but what I have learned is being able to talk with someone about how I was feeling, to really talk, to let my walls down was the best thing I was finally able to do for myself. Grant it my life had exploded, but in a way I think it needed to explode for me to finally be true to myself. So try and speak with someone who cares about you.......Asgard

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