Mental health spiral, I don't know what to do

[Anonymous]

If there is anything you can do to calm down and slow your thoughts do it.

Maybe watch a comedy special or two. If anything can make you laugh.

I find reading very calming.

Sleeping with a hot water bottle helps me a lot.

If you can't get help from your family, I agree that a GP would be the best place to try. If you can find a support group that might work as a next step.

[Anonymous]

You need medication and therapy.

[Anonymous]

Start by talking to your doctor for medication and implement that right away. Try to schedule a few therapy appointments with different people so you can find a match. You could do it only, doesn't have to be in person.

I would not take the advice of just telling a friend "I need help." Not everyone knows how to manage that, and your friend might just drive you to an ER and even if she/he spoke with you for a while, this isn't a trained therapist. Professional help is key .

[Anonymous]

Online, not only

[Anonymous]

Find a psychiatrist that can see you asap. It will be expensive because it seems none of them take insurance. With help of psychiatrist, get on antidepressants, and maybe an anti-anxiety med to bridge the transition onto the antidepressants. Then look for a therapist to help you in the longer term. Talk therapy or perhaps CBT. Don’t drink alcohol, take walks everyday, try to sleep if you can.
You can get through this.

[Anonymous]

Would you be open to possibly starting on a light dose of an antidepressant?

You may be able to get a prescription from your PCP.

[Anonymous]

Low-dose prozac helped me so much, OP. I highly recommend trying an SSRI. I also recommend taking a full day or two off if you can, and just resting. No work, no household chores, no kids activities. Just rest. That kind of reset does wonders for me.

[Anonymous]

np. This was me in October:
https://www.dcurbanmom.com/jforum/posts/list/1298442.page

I was at a point before the crisis where a day or two off would not have helped. In fact; a friend who was worried about me, took me out for breakfast and a long walk the day before. I just couldn’t stop spiraling.

My doctor at the time told me insomnia spikes cortisol which then causes insomnia and it can become physically / mentally extremely difficult (if not impossible) for some people to break that cycle without medication.

My husband didn’t want to take me to the hospital at first because he didn’t know what would happen if I was admitted, whether I’d be put on a psych ward, whether it would affect my job (federal employee) etc.

The hospital gave me a Valium and told me to get some sleep and follow up with my doctor. It was only when I started having (again) seizure-like symptoms that they kept me for the day to run a catscan and monitor my brainwave activity. They said they see a few people a week where stress induced insomnia is causing severe symptoms. More recently, when I had a follow up with the pulmonologist (who had diagnosed my reflux) I let him know what has happened and that my psychiatrist thinks there may have been a reaction with my adhd meds. Other than expressing concern / empathy, he also noted that insomnia can be a severe emergency.

My doctor put me on hydroxizine. It’s non addictive / non habit forming. I started on 25 mg and I’m down to 12 except on nights I expect things to be bad. This is (a) the 2-3 nights before my period when I have trouble sleeping and (b) once when I had something I was anxious about the next day. I highly recommend you start with medication to help you sleep. I have a very hard time with medication because I’m super sensitive to it. (The 25 mg of Valium they gave me at the hospital completely wiped me out all day and I slept 14 hrs that night and napped the next day!) So I was very hesitant to take anything to help with sleep and have it interfere with life. But if you don’t get the sleep under control you could very well end up in the hospital. I’d been working during the shutdown but happened to have just finished the hard push when I collapsed. In case the government reopened, the hospital wrote a doctor’s note ordering me not to return to work for a week. I know it’s really hard to find a different path at work and even harder when you aren’t sleeping and your brain isn’t functioning as well, but eventually your body will make you take a different path if you don’t. There were various reasons I don’t feel comfortable talking to my managers during my shutdown project, but I’ve talked to some managers since and shared what I need and it’s gone well.

I did not end up in the psych ward or really under any observation. I’m no longer in a position where I need a secret clearance (was years and years ago) so your circumstances might be different, but it was…fine.

At home I’ve had to learn to let more slide (if the dishes aren’t done but I’m exhausted I need to get sleep; if my husband and I’ve had busy days and it would be fun to snuggle and watch a movie but it will go too late I need to pick a different activity). I’m on a different project at work which helps with stress (this was already the plan). I’ve started walking my younger child to school in the morning and my psychiatrist says morning sun can increase dopamine. Even if I’m tired and haven’t slept that helps.

My psychiatrist also says don’t stay in bed if you can’t sleep. I find it helps to go get on my yoga mat and do a few very gentle poses (like a forward fold) and then try again. She suggests repeating your bedtime routine to signal your body to get ready for bed. Luckily I’ve had almost no nights of insomnia since the incident.

Longer term, she thinks I should consider an ssri (I took one decades ago that didn’t help) and my gyn thought (since my symptoms are way worse before my period) I should go on birth control that could help with sleep (hormonal given my age) and reduce my heavy periods and help with pms. I’m trying that for now.

(Actually terrible cramps woke me up and I write this while waiting for advil to kick in.)

Anyway, this is a long, long reply to say all the things that you think you can’t change or do are going to be forced on you - possibly very quickly - by your own body if you don’t start to address it and the first thing to do is tell your doctor about your severe insomnia. Don’t sugar coat it (I think I maybe did a bit) and get help sleeping.

Once you can sleep, it is so, so much easier to figure out the next most helpful step, whatever that step is.

Good luck and be well.

Good luck.

[Anonymous]

Stay away from knives and bridges right now.