How can I learn to work without medication?
I know your specific question is basically “What do I do to avoid medication?” So this may not be the exact answer you want, but it’s all I can offer: I was in a similar place, and consider myself very strong-willed when it comes to “forcing” myself to change. I am extrememly patient with other people, and in general am a person who doesn’t let things bother me too much. In my quest to avoid medication, I tried the following, with varying success: -Relaxation techniques: closing my eyes, and focusing on each part of my body, and making myself relax. It’s amazing how many muscles can be tensed without you even knowing. -Prayer/meditation: I would pray and meditate, and read scripture, making myself focus on higher things, and get my mind off of myself. -Exercise: Walking, bike-riding, tennis, golf. But it was difficult to get over the hump and even feel like doing these things, so I couldn’t sustain any of these things on a regular basis.
I’ve been taking cold showers a couple of times a day for a few weeks and the results are much better than from anything else I’ve tried for my depression and concentration problems (including meds). The world just seems so much more interesting and colourful, and I have energy for doing creative things that I haven’t had in years. Check out this page on cold shower cures for more people who have found similar benefits. I appreciate that this may sound like an insane suggestion given your particular issues but give it some thought – I didn’t think I could do it either, but it feels so good afterwards that within a few days it’s really not all that hard. I’m not great at details, but I can tell you that my friends have noticed how much happier and more talkative I am. I’ve gone from being the guy who never says anything to the guy who cracks jokes all the time.
Anonymous, I have/had many of the same issues you’re encountering for basically my entire adult life. In the past I’ve always been able to deal with it on my – either through exercise or life style changes or whatever, but I’ve never been able to consistently maintain my ability to do quality work or stick with school. This past fall I reached sort of a breaking point where I messed up pretty severely with my school. I basically shut down for about three weeks. Surprise, surprise – this “depressive event” coincided with getting out of a long term relationship and moving into a new place out of necessity rather than choice. As I said, in the past I’ve always been able to deal with these sorts of stresses on my own… but this time it was really bad. So for the first time ever I sought professional help. Through my school I found a counseling center and went in for several interviews before I was finally set up with a weekly counselor.
Well I’ll go ahead and say I don’t think you’re sick and, as you’re not sick, you don’t need medication. It seems you’re depressed, severely bored, and generally anxious but you’re not sick. In fact such feelings may be the appropriate, healthy response to particularly toxic environments. Traditionally, before the age of Prozac and “talking cures,” people dealt with such feelings by initiating drastic changes in their lives. You say you’ve tried “everything” but it seems you’ve done nothing more than a few, minor lifestyle “hacks.” It’s stupid to think such tactical measures are going to have real strategic benefits. This is just more lazy, quick fix, “lose 20lbs in a week” thinking. I doubt meditation or volunteering or any such procedural solution is going to solve what is really a deeply structural problem. The problem here is you. It’s unlikely that somebody as sheltered and pampered as you appear to be has any real challenges to overcome so, really, you are The Enemy.
bingo said exactly what I was going to say, only said it better. Temporary medication can give you insight into normal thought processes, and you can retain those memories, even after you’ve decided to stop using medication. For me, I did sort of the opposite, when I stopped taking recreational drugs: remembering the weird euphoria I’d have and how little things just no longer mattered, reminded me that the mattering may have been much more in my own head [and thus manageable by me] than a result of some out of my control circumstances.
