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

I had a realization a few weeks ago that I have a bad habit of coming on too strong when I'm interested in someone romantically. It's been an ongoing problem, most notably towards a guy I was mildly obsessed with in high school. I asked him out about once a month despite repeated nos, based my extra...

Apologies for the humblebrag. I fucked up at work back around Thanksgiving, and turned in my resignation. My boss told me that I was "not allowed to quit." One lateral promotion later (into a role that was actually created for me), and I STILL am convinced that he's firing me every time he...

Yeah, one of the joys (note: not joyful) of mental illness is that your brain is simultaneously freaking the fuck out and convincing you that you don't have a problem, you're just being a big pussy. I've found that learning about the mechanics of my mental illness helps me feel less like a whiny bit...

My anxiety makes me feel overwhelmed and overstimulated, so I find a quiet place, close my eyes, and concentrate on my breathing. If that doesn't make me less stressed, I think about rubbing my cat's belly or something equally enjoyable. If I'm at home, I find that taking off all my clothes and gett...

I rarely change my profile picture because I'm never really at places where my picture is being taken, and I feel like such an attention whore when I take selfies.

Breathe deeply. Listen to calming music (the Freelance Whales work for me). Close eyes and concentrate on breathing. Physically relax every muscle I can.

I find that sometimes the panic attacks I can feel coming on are easier to handle than the ones that hit me all of a sudden. They give me time to prepare. Then again, sometimes knowing that they're coming on is worse than the actual anxiety attack! Best of luck with your issue. Sending mental hugs y...

Like lots of people, I was bullied pretty badly as a kid. I won't go into the details of how it's fucked me up as an adult (which is its own post altogether), but it happened. For the first time in my life, I'm working through those issues in therapy, and it's been amazing (and difficult, but mostly...

I agree with AlmostWell. Sometimes it's easiest to just take sex off the table for a while. I was a virgin when I started dating my boyfriend, and we decided early on that sex was not going to happen for a while. We got to know each other as people before going to bed together which made the sex tha...

Yep. I've had anxiety since I was a kid. It's been about fifteen years since my diagnosis, and I'm at the point where I can recognize an anxiety attack, but it doesn't make it any easier. My anxiety and depression tend to alternate, so in times of low anxiety, I'm only nervous about 1/3 of the time....