Went through a period of bad insomnia, anxiety etc.
Best things for me were:
1) Exercise but not too close to bed time
2) Sleep meditations on the Insight Timer app
3) Making sure I don't get too hot in the night.
4) Very dark room
5) Headphones/ear plugs to block out sensitivity to every little noise
6) No coffee or alcohol
7) Only relaxing books/shows before bed
For years I was pretty sluggish in the morning and not at my best until had at least two cups of coffee. Then I'd later crash in the evening. After eventually quitting caffeine I realised that all those years of energy levels going up and down during the day was caused by the caffeine itself rather than it being the saviour.
Energy levels much more consistent throughout the day without it. I do miss the routine though and drinking decaf does feel a bit silly.
I went through a rough patch recently with mental health too. I know how hard it can be but I have come out the other side a much stronger person and a lot clearer on what is important in life. Always hang in there, it gets better.
Everyone is different I know and I don't claim to be an expert but thought it might be worth listing some of the big things that helped me and seems to help a lot of others as well, just in case you find something:
- Exercise like you've never exercised before. If you ever had dreams of getting in shape or conquering a fitness challenge nothing motivated me more than knowing I might feel a little bit better mentally for it afterwards.
- Sleep. I got serious about making sure I got a good night sleep which was extremely hard at times. All the sleep hygiene tips are worth learning. Not getting too hot at night, blocking out all light, ear plugs, sleep meditations, stretching before bed, reading something calm and positive before bed, writing everything on your mind down so you can let it go etc etc
- Every day writing down 3 things I'm grateful for (even small things like a warm cup of tea), 1 happy thing that happened in the last 24 hours and 1 thing I'm looking forward to. There's something to all the gratitude diary stuff.
- Meditation and mindfulness were often the best way to get a break from it. Learning these skills is one of the best things I've ever done.
- Controlled breathing gave me some control of my nervous system. To calm things down and slow my thoughts (especially in the middle of the night) I personally found the 4-7-8 breathing technique worked well for me if done properly but there's lot of others taught in yoga etc as well.
- Socialise and talk to people a lot, even if you don't feel like it.
- Help others. It is the right thing to do and it feels good and takes the focus off you.
- Learn new things, take on new challenges, things that you have no expectations about.
- Possibly the hardest but best lesson I learnt of all though was not to buy into the negative thoughts my brain was having. Realising that I'm only thinking that way because of the state my brain is in and that the state it is in today isn't necessarily the state it will be in tomorrow, next week or next month. The world is a great and amazing place. If it doesn't seem that way right now it's just because of the state I'm in now but that state will change and when it does change the world does indeed seem great and amazing again.
I also tend to agree with the advice of staying in your job. For me there was an element of not being able to deal with too much but at the same time, running from all responsibility and work wasn't the answer either so it was a balance to be found until I could get back to full capacity. Taking on as much responsibility as I could handle at each step helped to improve my self worth and helped a lot too. But that's just me so I hope you find what is best for you.
This is great, my wife was looking for a site for old movies the other day. At the risk of offending could I suggest working on the design a bit to increase trust and look more established. If I stumbled upon your site I don't know I'd be willing to put my credit card details in with the current look and feel of the site.
No risk of offense. Styles are not my best skill, though I have found people trust more when you throw things like pointless animation at them, which is something I'm specifically avoiding. (Part of the site design guidelines is that my highly autistic niece can use it without freaking out).
But, you don't have to put your CC in. Not until you've established a relationship.
Hey, I just posted this in another thread, but here's what has helped me a lot with mental health having just been through a rough time in case you find it useful...
- Exercise, exercise, exercise.
- Sleep quality. Look at all the sleep tips out there and make sure you are getting good sleep.
- Improved diet, no caffiene, very little alcohol (one drink if out with people)
- Socialise more. Make sure to check in with friends in person and on the phone regularly. Social media doesn't count.
- Try new things, go new places. Meetup.com is great.
- Learn controlled breathing to help when tense. The 4-7-8 breathing when done properly and for 8 good breathes helps me a lot. Be sure to breathe with your stomach (diaphragm breathing) not your chest.
- I took up brazilian jiu-jitsu which has been awesome, ticks a lot of the above boxes for me.
- Look at Maslow's heirarchy of needs. Start at the bottom and start working on improvements for each thing. The world is great with lots of opportunity. If your feeling bad your first port of call is to look at what things your brain and body needs that you aren't getting right now and take action.
- Go and see your doctor and a therapist and talk it out with someone. It helps a lot just to talk about it. See if there's an undiagnosed condition contributing to things. Don't face this alone, there's no need to do that and there's lots of support and services out there.
Hey! Here's what has helped me with mental health having just been through a rough time...
- Exercise, exercise, exercise.
- Sleep quality. Look at all the sleep tips out there and make sure you are getting good sleep.
- Learn controlled breathing to help when tense. The 4-7-8 breathing when done properly and for 8 good breathes helps me a lot. Be sure to breathe with your stomach (diaphragm breathing) not your chest.
- Improved diet, no caffiene, very little alcohol (one drink if out with people)
- Socialise more. Make sure to check in with friends in person and on the phone regularly. Social media doesn't count.
- Try new things, go new places. Meetup.com is great.
- I took up brazilian jiu-jitsu which has been awesome, ticks a lot of the above boxes.
- Look at Maslow's heirarchy of needs. Start at the bottom and start working on improvements for each thing. The world is great with lots of opportunity. If your feeling bad your first port of call is to look at what things your brain and body needs that you aren't getting right now and take action.
- Go and see a therapist and talk it out with someone. It helps a lot just to talk about it. Don't face this alone, there's no need to do that.
- The Youper app is pretty good too.
- Programming is amazing in that everything you need to learn is online and you can do it yourself. It just takes a lot of focus to stick with one thing and see it through. Like others I recommend having an idea for a fairly simple app, game, website whatever that you'd like to build. Pick a popular technology for building that type of thing and go with it.
If you want a rough idea of how popular something is, see how many questions for it have been posted on stackoverflow.com in the last week. https://stackoverflow.com/tags
Forget about being good or doing things the proper way. Just hack your project together little bit by little bit by googling and asking for help on websites like stackoverflow.com and forums. Just build something! It will probably be crappy but you'll learn a ton and be proud of the accomplishment.
