Hello everyone. It's been a while since I've been here. And by a while I mean years! Glad to be back. For the past couple of years I've been battling feelings of depression and anxiety. I tried counseling this year with little to no success. I am self employed and I mostly work from home. Most days are difficult and I try to power through them but this year has been particularly difficult....almost as difficult as the same time 10 years ago. When stuff hits me hard (by staff here I'm referring to emotions and feelings of inadequacy or just pure sadness) I lock myself in my home and don't really attend to anyone. I get to sleep and relax but I fear this may Impact my income. Plus I feel really guilty that I'm not being productive enough when I do this to a point that I work even on Sundays. A typical work day is 13 hours, 5/6 days a week. My worry is, am I really taking care of myself or I'm just sabotaging myself? A few clients have expressed displeasure. Some have withdrawn their business. Do you have any advice for me on how to cope or manage my work and mental health? Thank you all in advance. If you need me to elaborate on anything I'd be happy to. TeePee.
Hi @TeePee I’m sorry that you’re going thorough a tough time at the moment. When I’m feeling particularly anxious or low, my instinct is to shut myself away too. Sometimes we do just need to do what we need to do to get through, but as you say, this can sometimes have a negative impart on other aspects of our lives. Don’t give yourself a hard time about that because that wouldn’t be good either. Have you ever had therapy? A good therapist will be able to help you to develop some new coping techniques, so it would be worth some consideration.
Depression, as you know, is a master at makIng you feel it’s quite OK and comfortable to be withdrawn and not connect with the outside world. Add self employment, working at home and Covid in to the mix and it’s a potential recipe for getting lost in your head and not knowing if life is going in a positive direction or not. Clients dropping you might be a sign things aren’t under control. if you can afford therapy again, I would suggest that some structured questioning and checking in with yourself could be very powerful. You just need the right therapist this time. Maybe it could be a life coach? Maybe it needs to be a psychologist for a deeper investigation of what is causing the depression in the first place what was the reason the last counselling didn’t go well?
