Re: Declining Mental Health, Do You Need to Vent?
I am happy to say my mental health has significantly improved since that time in my life. Recent changes and updates have left me happier than I've ever been. I know people often say happiness shouldn't be based on, or reinforced by other people, but I think a reason I haven't gone mad yet is because of my significant other living with me.
And in general, I imagine it's a bit easier to deal with this isolation when living with someone.
I couldn't have said it better myself.
I confess at the moment, whilst I am in no way attempting to diminish the struggles of anyone who is having problems with social isolation, especially those like Nocturnus who have young children to deal with, part of me is feeling a little smug, or at least wryly amused.
to put this in perspective, since moving out of university in 2006, I pretty much was living completely alone and other than weekly role playing games, seeing nobody. My attempts to find! groups to actually interact with met with temporary success at best. Due to a combination of England's generally crappy attitude towards blind people, and what I now realise was probably a breakdown caused by fallout from my sexual abuse as a teenager, resulting in fairly extreme levels of depression, fear of crowds and genophobia.
Fast forward 12 years to 2014, and I've suddenly met my lady by what I can only attribute to divine grace. Did this fix everything? Certainly not, England still has a crappy attitude to blind people, all the crappier since we inadvertently moved to a small town in 2016 where there are even fewer people I know than where I was before, and where my parents' proximity often does more harm than good.
Yet now, all of a sudden, everyone! is talking of "the evils of isolation", I have had more phone calls from long distance friends in the past few weeks than I had for years previously, since up to now it's always been me! who has had to contact them!
Even with my parents, ironically conversations via phone have actually significantly improved things between us (mostly because my mum is no longer able to try and fix my life in the way she thinks best).
And the irony is, we're probably on the extreme end of isolation, since with my lady recovering from cancer, she's on the at risk list, so we're being extra careful, not leaving the house at all, taking in delivery parcels with latex gloves, indeed the only time we go out of the front door is to walk the dogs, and even that we only do at ungodly hours of the morning.
Yet, oddly enough I'm feeling great! Am getting more creative work done, for the db and otherwise, and am trying to volunteer for the NHS to sign up to be a companion at long distance for others.
Of course, this is not to just say "well I'm okay, sod everyone else", however, I do find it amusing that so many people, now faced with the life that a combination of society and my own ptsd forced me to live for a significant amount of time, just are not coping half as well.
I've been thinking that hopefully, if some good is to come out of this pretty awful situation, perhaps people will cut back a bit of the factionalism and flag waving which has dominated culture for the past five or ten years, and realise that everyone actually is on the same planet and it might be good to be nice to people for a change.
Perhaps, as part of this realisation, a little social isolation might also help society remember those who have been isolated long before Corona.
I suppose it's a tall order, but one can but hope.
Of course, if I can do anything to help people struggling with social isolation, I'd be glad to. I'm always around the forum, and anyone who wants to chat is welcome to give me a ping.
Heck, if I can get my microphone and skype to behave maybe some voice chatting might be in order as well.
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