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

Hi everyone,

I've been meaning to post in the forum for a long time but was wary. I'm a Canadian queerish woman in my mid-twenties and just finished my Master of Arts in a humanities field. I come to you now in the lull, no longer a student for the first time in my life, facing unemployment.

I've struggled with depression and anxiety all of my life, with suicide attempts at a very young age and throughout my teen years. My family always seemed supportive, so I thought that it was my own fault that I was depressed. I was never hit, but now realize that even my seemingly-mushy mother invalidates my own feelings and relies on me and my siblings to be therapist-proxies. I still live at home, but hope to soon move out.

My biggest worries are related to perfectionism and running out of time - I'm petrified that before I know it I'll be old, on my deathbed, and have accomplished nothing in life. I had a few extremely rough years around 15, and now all the memories I have left from then are traumatic ones.

I have done several years of therapy, including CBT, EMDR, and emotion-focused psychotherapy (my favourite), and have been on medication for the last 10 years. I've been listening to the podcast since it was in the early #100s, and it has helped more than anyone could imagine. Thank you to Paul, everyone on the forum, and all of the guests.

heyo, I'm also a twentysomething depressed and anxious canadian queer gal. twinzies.

And I am a depressed and anxious graduate student surviving academic abuse. Don't worry about it being too late. I'm 58 and my motto is, "It is never too late!"

Welcome!

I remember the post-graduation lull like it was yesterday. It's such a terrifying time of life. If I had reached out then as you are now I imagine I'd have fared a little better during that time.
What I mean by that is there is all the time in the world to figure out what to do with yourself career-wise (seriously) but your physical health and mental health are the things that should be steadied and taken care of right off the bat. I think every person who has just graduated a phase of life (college, career change, move etc) should have some sort of therapy to help them through the transition. If you take care of yourself now then things will fall into place naturally when they're supposed to.

It's awesome that you are here and I wish you the best of luck in your moving forward