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Consistent Sadness
Hi guys, I'm a 22 year old female. For some background, I just left a job that I've worked at for four years to start working at a new place that would help get me experience that I need to find a job in my field of study since I just got my bachelor's degree. I hate change and I thinking switching jobs has been the biggest change I've made yet. I am also sick for about two weeks now. And, I also just finished my period on Sunday (today is Wednesday).
I don't mean to demean what I'm feeling right now but I wanted you to know everything that I've been going through to help out in finding a solution.
I've been pretty sad lately. I have been crying a lot, on the drop of a dime. A lot of the times, I don't even really know why. Sometimes I think it's just stress, sometimes I think I have anxiety, other times I just can't think anything because I cannot stop crying. I have also been tending to exacerbate life a lot lately as well. For instance, I currently work with my brother's ex girlfriend and I was thinking the other day how even though my brother and his ex girlfriend are not currently together, they do have a lot of mutual friends and I wondered how weird it would be for them to see the other person with someone else at a party or just hanging out one day since my brother and his girlfriend have been together for six years. Then I started panicking thinking about if my boyfriend and I ever broke up, how I would handle seeing him out with another girl so I texted him to just to talk to him about it and because he's one of the people that can calm me down when I get like that and he said that thought shouldn't have even crossed my mind since breaking up with me has never crossed his mind in the two years we've been together.
My mom knows it all, how I've been sad lately and how I've been crying way more than usual. She has anxiety, so she is no stranger to it. I can be fine one minute but the second she asks me how I'm doing, I just lose it and cry to her for a long time or I can be crying and stop and be fine but when she asks me if I'm doing okay, I get said again and start crying. She said she noticed that I haven't really been eating as well and that no appetite is a sign of anxiety. She's monitoring me to see how the rest of my week goes but she's been researching lately and she read somewhere that hormones will change every 7 years and I just turned 22 so she's thinking that my hormones are out of balance and it's just really attacking me right now.
Like I said, my mother knows as does my boyfriend and they are both watching me and said we'll talk to someone if it does not get better by next week. I guess I'm just wondering if I could get some answers from people on the outside beforehand and maybe I'll go into this more ready. Thanks for any help.
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Maybe give some free advice about: Mental health?
I think it's more than hormones based on what I have experienced with myself and others with mental health issues. However, you need a psychiatrist to make that determination.
The one thing that strikes me is that you can be happy and enjoying life one minute and bang you get really depressed and non-stop crying and or negative and sad thoughts racing through your head. That could be a sign of depression and even bipolar disorder as it keeps cycling on and off.
Definitely make that doctor's appointment for as soon as you can get one. What you should do is keep a journal. In it write the date down, how long the episode lasted, what you were thinking at the time and doing immediately before. This is important as it establishes how long this has been going on and how fast it keeps cycling. You also want to note or have your mother do so any grandiose ideas, thinking that may not be in line with reality and periods of happiness, elation and total crashing.
It's not normal for you to be happy and then profoundly sad or elated and crash back down from one or the other and have that constantly repeat without any warning. Something is going on and it's best to find out what without hesitation.
Your moods should not be that up and down and nor should anxiety. It's good that your mother is monitoring you for she may see things that you cannot that are subtle but important to resolving this. If you cannot get checked by your doctor this can be considered an emergency room visit as it could be a mental health disturbance needing immediate care. Either way I would get to see a doctor pronto.
The thing with women and bipolar as well as other mental health issues is that on average they hit during late teens to early twenties because of hormonal and brain changes so yes, it can be part of the issue and bringing and making an episode start earlier in life but not the main reason for you having it. Anyways, a psychiatrist will be able to help you.
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Being sick and just finishing your period can be part of the problem. What I would like to know is just how long lately means. Is it a couple of days, a week or closer to a month or more. This is important because some of what you have written fit the description of Clinical Depression which can be a hormonal problem.
What I suggest is the following.
1. First see you family doctor for a full physical just to make sure there is nothing organically causing this problem. Ask your doctor to screen you fro depression. IF he diagnoses you with depression go to step 2. Your family doctor can also prescribe something to ease the symptoms of the anxiety.
2. Find a Board Certified Psychiatrist and make an appointment. Clinical depression is primarily caused by a lack of or an insufficient amount of one or two chemicals secreted into the brain. since we are dealing with chemicals of the brain the psychiatrist is the better medical doctor to treat you and a Board Certified Doctor is one who has done a Fellowship in psychiatry making him or her the better one to treat you and to prescribe the proper medication.
3. Your psychiatrist will most likely recommend talk therapy with a psychologist. Most depression has a root cause. I know this for a fact as I was diagnosed with depression and went through talk therapy. The root cause is almost always so deeply seated we don't even realize it but it does control us through a smell or object or even and activity. Through talk therapy with a good psychologist you can find that root cause and learn to deal with it rather than have it blocked of deep in the recess of you mind.
You need to find a therapist you are comfortable with for you need to be able to tell she or him your deepest darkest secret comfortable in the knowledge that what is said in therapy stays in therapy. I went through three before finding one I was comfortable with.
If your employer has health insurance you should also have an EAP program. The EAP, Employee Assistance Program, can help you find a psychiatrist and psychologist. Most programs will also pay for the initial visit. Mine paid for the initial and first 8 visits with the psychologist and then my health insurance took over.
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