YOU ARE NOT ALONE - A companion online community discussion board for The Mental Illness Happy Hour podcast with Paul Gilmartin

Hi all, I've been on anti-depressants for most of the last 18 years (since I was 20). I'm high-functioning while I'm on them, but just ... not great. I'm still irritable and not the happiest person. I get easily frustrated by people at work and I feel like I pass most days in a sort of fog. Last wee...

I cut myself on my arm. I never intended for anyone else to know about it, nor did I really want to die (crazy, I know), so I didn't cut myself deeply enough to warrant stitches. I had a perpetually scabby/itchy/stinging area about 2" by 2" on my left inner forearm for that year. Once my s...

I agree wholeheartedly! Or perhaps people are looking at it backward if they don't feel that what they experienced is bad enough to make them feel as bad as they do. If it's causing PTSD-like symptoms (nightmares, flashbacks, etc.), it was probably a bad thing to experience. If you don't trust your ...

I used to cut myself every Sunday night for about a year when I was a teenager. I was extremely anxious about the school week starting again. I stopped cutting myself completely after I left high school, although I still had to fight off the thought of doing it. It became a lot easier to fight as I ...

I second Ipsis's response. I've been on psych meds since the mid 90s when they were being handed out like Mardi Gras beads, and I don't like the idea of a doctor prescribing psychiatric drugs for someone they don't have an ongoing relationship with -- even if that doctor is a psychiatrist. An ongoin...

If you feel frustrated that she's asking you about something you already discussed, I'd say so. Therapy is essentially a relationship between two people -- even though one person has a degree on the wall. You may be the one who is asking for help, but that doesn't mean that all of your instincts are...

I have had too many therapists to count, over the last 22 years. Some were more helpful than others. Bottom line -- -- you usually (but not always) get what you pay for -- insurance companies like to keep you on medication and out of therapy, even if it means you never make any progress and are caug...

I've always wondered about this. I usually come to the conclusion that I don't care whether it's placebo effect or not. If it is, I wish someone would make placebo pills with fewer side effects. And that they'd be cheaper, but maybe that's also part of the placebo effect. "I paid a lot for it, ...