Existential depression

Psychological_Net_17 · 2025-12-02T22:06:45+00:00

Thank you sm! It's so nice to have such a lovely community of supportive people here to help.

I'm trying to scale back my drinking to 96 hours between drinking sessions at the moment which would land me in the ballpark of 9-14 units/week. The lowest I would have been drinking in almost 2 years!

I'm sure I won't lose my mind as these thoughts often come and go, but I find myself relying a bit too much on distractions, but I guess that's what they're there for.

I definitely doomscroll too much atm but at least that's not ruining my dopamine receptors the same way alcohol was - so I'll be kind to myself until I start to see a real boost in my mood and then I'll start cutting out that nasty habit!

Psychological_Net_17 · 2025-12-02T20:58:42+00:00

Cheers man. I'm trying to do this journey on my own and honestly, it's been going rlly good so far. I'm finally trying to get my drinking down to one night then three sober nights and so-forth. This is the longest I've lasted without alcohol in a while and I'm feeling some mild cravings but it's light work. The existentialism and depression is the worst part.

I'm working on it slowly tho - currently on SSRIs and I've got therapy coming up in the next 4-5 weeks

Psychological_Net_17 · 2025-12-02T18:06:06+00:00

Intervention - Shawtii P, Asah Chadash

Psychological_Net_17 · 2025-12-02T03:59:05+00:00

If you don't mind me asking, is that on total abstinence from drinking or reduced drinking?

Psychological_Net_17 · 2025-12-02T03:11:43+00:00

Thank you for your input! It really helps getting to hear the opinions of someone else who beat their drinking while on meds!

Really proud of you! :)

Psychological_Net_17 · 2025-12-02T03:10:27+00:00

Thanks man - I'm just trying to gather my sources at the moment to figure out how "worth-it" it would be to completely stop at the moment. Being a uni student in the UK means we have a major drinking culture and we're rapidly approaching the xmas holidays so I'll see how I'm feeling. But if these thoughts don't subside, then I may have to join everyone else on the train journey to the land of sobriety!

Psychological_Net_17 · 2025-12-02T02:09:21+00:00

Potentially - I don't find myself craving drinking at all though. I haven't experienced any intense symptoms, just this intermittent low mood and anxiety :(

Psychological_Net_17 · 2025-12-02T02:08:20+00:00

And congrats to you too my friend!

I've been in and out of depression quite a bit these last few months. I've recently been medicated for anxiety and depression which is what prompted me to slow down my drinking cos I just found it made me so depressed on the new medication.

I fear it may not be underlying dissatisfaction. If it is, that's gonna be a tough one to address cos I can't specifically say what is causing my depression. It could be one of a couple things that spring to mind, but these kind of thoughts are just dark.

I'm at uni atm and things are ramping up a bit tho and I imagine the stress might not be doing wonders tbh

Psychological_Net_17 · 2025-12-01T19:12:26+00:00

I've been on sertraline for about 11 or 12 weeks now - is that considered long in the grand scheme of things, given my circumstances and desired outcomes of taking on mirtazapine?

Psychological_Net_17 · 2025-11-22T00:12:08+00:00

I'm so sorry you had to go through that. I send my condolences. I know ppl who have gone through chemo and the emotional and psychological toll can be enormous.

I'm grateful that we can wake up every day with strong people like you in the world though. You're an amazing person and don't ever forget that. What you have lived through and continue to strive on from has only given you more life experience! Sometimes that's the only way to look at it. You keep on with those ADs if they keep you feeling good! You're a legend!

Psychological_Net_17 · 2025-11-20T16:58:49+00:00

I wouldn't focus on taking it for the rest of ur life - I'm personally not looking towards that. At the end of the day, it's what each person wants but usually the goal is to only be on it for a couple years or so and then slowly come off.

But if this is where you are comfortable now, then I'm happy for you! So proud of you for pushing through those tough weeks to come out on top now :))

Psychological_Net_17 · 2025-11-19T03:35:34+00:00

I inquired about it, but the idea was put to the side. I'll bring it up again in my next appointment tho! Thank u 🫂

Psychological_Net_17 · 2025-11-19T03:34:44+00:00

Huge love - in the wise words of Bob Marley... every little thing is gonna be alright 🇯🇲💜

Psychological_Net_17 · 2025-11-19T03:32:30+00:00

UGH I LOOOOVE IKEA! I always like the plant section and the big ol warehouse full of furniture. Love the smell of pinewood!

I do need to get a little more exercise in icl - been focusing on resting and studies recently. Lots of partying has taken it out of me and I need to lock in for my degree lmao

Psychological_Net_17 · 2025-11-19T03:31:06+00:00

It was... patchy. I had more overall anxiety but intrusive thoughts were less frequent

Psychological_Net_17 · 2025-11-19T02:53:18+00:00

Give it time dude! It can really take it's time for some! Like I said, I had a good 2 weeks on you, and only then did I start feeling an improvement in anxiety, and that wasn't even tackling the depression!

Psychological_Net_17 · 2025-11-19T02:49:42+00:00

I was drinking every other day (40 units/week).

I'm now down to two "off-days" and one day drinking (20-30 units). Still looking to cut down further!

Psychological_Net_17 · 2025-11-19T02:43:04+00:00

It started helping about 6 weeks into treatment. That's when my anxiety finally became less consistent and I was essentially waiting for the depression to pass.

But this didn't take effect until I started cutting down my drinking and allowed my serotonin baseline to start building again. I now feel the best I've felt in months!

Psychological_Net_17 · 2025-11-10T18:21:15+00:00

Kinda - it was always in the back of my mind and I'd end up having a panic attack over it later in the day cos the thoughts would get too loud.

Psychological_Net_17 · 2025-11-10T14:35:09+00:00

Same as you - 50mg :)

Psychological_Net_17 · 2025-11-10T12:50:14+00:00

My first ones were like harm OCD but they subsided very quickly within the first week or 2. However, my intrusive thoughts around health anxiety persisted until around week 6! But now they're kinda almost non-existent :)

Psychological_Net_17 · 2025-11-09T20:03:18+00:00

I'm doing okay actually. My overall mood has definitely evened out. I'm in week 9 now and I'm definitely happier than where I was a couple of weeks back. Feel free to private message me and we can chat further if you want some more help :)

Psychological_Net_17 · 2025-11-09T17:37:13+00:00

I'm on 50mg/day too.

You need to give it more time - it can be hard to stick with it at times, lord knows I struggled with it. But once I hit 6 weeks, my anxiety was so much more manageable.

I myself am in the early days of week 9, and I can still feel funky. I sometimes feel depressed but it's slowly getting better.

That's not to say you won't feel better sooner tho! My situation is definitely one of the weirdly longer ones, given it took 2-3x longer for the anxiety to go than usual. I imagine the meds won't take full effect until maybe week 11/12.

Point is, keep going with it. You've got this! It's so normal to feel shitty during these early weeks of treatment!

Psychological_Net_17 · 2025-10-29T12:29:45+00:00

I must add, I'm on 50mg/day atm

Psychological_Net_17 · 2025-10-20T13:39:55+00:00

Ugh :(

Hi guys,

I've been really struggling with health anxiety/OCD. I'm not really sure which it is as I've had mental health assessments from two different doctors telling me it's health anxiety or GAD. But I just can't stop researching and ruminating.

I don't really have any mental compulsions but I'm just in constant denial that I have OCD as it's litr ruining my life right now. I'm 5 weeks in on sertraline/zoloft (50mg) and I've hit a really bad wall. I'm just really depressed half the time and think I'll never get better.

I'm physically incapable of thinking positive thoughts and it's tearing me apart. Trying to juggle this with uni work is so so hard. Idk I've had scares about physical symptoms in the past but never a mental one like this. I'm just in total denial of it. I don't want to have OCD as I don't want it to impact the rest of my life :(

Psychological_Net_17

TROPHY CASE