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

Hi friends!

Listened to the show for a while now, but finally decided to take the plunge and sign up for the forums. Coming from a very conservative household in the midwest, I always thought of mental health issues as sort of an obscure problem that only applied to a few, and maybe sort of "new age-y" or frivolous if that makes any sense. However as I've experienced my upper-20s and ran into some situations that changed how I examine myself and my life as a whole, I've found this podcast to be very helpful in expanding the way my mind thinks about topics and considers new ideas.

I've been diagnosed with social anxiety disorder for which I take sertraline. Self-esteem is a big issue for me. For a long time I turned to alcohol to unconsciously medicate myself. I started weekly therapy a couple months ago and I have to say that was one of the best decisions I've ever made. I'm gradually learning that people don't have to be scary if you give them a chance not to be.

So yeah, look forward to getting to know some of you on here and discussing the 'meat and potatoes' of life.

Hello jolly_green_giant - so nice you greet us as friends right off the bat! Please enjoy the forum and know we here are cheering for you and for your greatest today and tomorrow!

Thank you Manuel Moe

Oh, flyover country. I grew up in a rural town near Detroit (on the Canadian side of the border - Detroit spreads into Canada by way of its most mediocre suburb: Windsor, Ontario), so I know just that feeling. But you know what? Other places suck less, so they don't appreciate the special shitnitude that makes flyover country awesome. I mean, you just have to laugh at it sometimes. My hometown had a flood in an old cemetary and a bunch of skeletons were brought to the surface. We're too poor to bury them and the province is too strapped and stupid to help us. So we threw tarps on it and wrote a sign "Warning: exhumed skeletons" and called it a day. How stupid is that? It's dumb but it's my special kind of dumb and I love my hometown all the more because of those stupid tics and jerry-rigs. It's like a secret treehouse which you can only get in when you say the password. Even if there's not much up there only people who grew up here can get to it and that makes me feel kind of happy.

But yeah - I know exactly that attitude towards mental illness: mental illness? More like "lazy liberal loser, am I right guys? Just get over it, man!" It definitely did not do me well and it took me a long time to get it through that my hometown is not an enlightened place in that regard. I'm glad you're out of that nettle. Welcome aboard, friend!

Hi Jolly,
I have not been diagnosed, but I think I have a lot of social anxiety as well. I have used alcohol as a social lubricant to ease social interaction. But now that's not even working. I like your words of hope "I am learning that people aren't so scary if you give them a chance." Love that. Hope you're hanging in there

Bri

Ha! That exhumed skeleton story is pretty funny Chimney.

Thanks Bri.

Yeah I too reached a point where alcohol became less effective as a social lubricant. Kind of a rude awakening.