Therapist Liaison
Hello everyone! My name is Cassie and I have been a Therapist for 17 years and have been on 7 Cups for almost five months now. In that time I have spent most of it with clients who sign up to speak to a therapist. However, when this new role came up I knew it was something I wanted to try. Depression and its buddy, Anxiety, are probably the two main reasons that someone seeks out therapy. There are other versions/combinations/reasons, but these are the most common. So it seemed a natural fit to what I walk others through everyday. My role in here is to help you so what I am interested in, is what you are. So what type of topics would you like to hear from me? Let me know and I will do my best to share some of my small bit of experience through helping others in this journey with you.
I have anxiety issues . I never actually have a panic attack but I am always nervous when I first go out to an event or social gathering. I am going to dinner at a restaurant with a group of people this weekend I can feel my anxiety levels increase. I know nothing bad will happen and I like the people I will be with, but I feel I will be anxious when I get there. After about 15 minutes my anxiety levels will drop and I will feel ok. The worst are doctors appointments were my pulse can reach 130 beats a minute. Even though my physical was fine and pulse will drop once I leave the doctor's office. I did not know if you had an opinion in general about this, I was glad I found 7 Cups as I think their resources and positive way of showing people how to cope was a great help.
@sail46
Thank you for the question. A raise in blood pressure is one of the symptoms of anxiety and one that everyone actually has more control of than they know. One trick that I have taught others over the years is to try out one of those bracelet type blood pressure cuffs, or go into your local grocery store/pharmacy where they have one. Take your pulse when you start. Remember or write down the number. Then do a very simple breathing excercise. I like the simple three deep breaths. Deep breath in, hold, let go. Deep breath in, hold, let go. Deep breath in, hold, let go. Then take your blood pressure again. It will have changed. Our blood pressure and pulse can be altered by simple breathing excercises. Once you can physically see yourself changing it, that tends to shift something in your mind. Some of the helplessness evaporates, which in turn, lowers your anxiety. Learning how to breath doesn't cost anything, is easy to learn and can be done quietly so no one needs to know. (Just so everyone knows, I use this trick when I donate blood or have blood draws)
@CassieColemanHepplerLICSW
Thank you for the tip on breathing. I think I may hold my breath and not realize it. I have to practice breathing more often. I know I am am nervous when they put a blood pressure cuff on me and I think this is real problem at a doctors office. I use mindfulness and think of pleasant images in other anxiety situations that do help but never work at the doctor's office. 7 Cups have been helpful in minimizing my anxiety issues and I appreciate that. In other situations I can feel anxiety drain out of me very quickly once I start a friendly conversation which never worked at a doctors office. Thanks again.
@CassieColemanHepplerLICSW Thanks Cassie for this thread. I will post the link to the thread in Daily Check-in.
@CassieColemanHepplerLICSW
Why depression has to make me feel so confused with myself? Like I dont even know whats going on sometimes with me and I'm actually not 100% sure if its depression or me that does that. Aha..you can see I'm confused now
@sensitiveShade5337
I think that I would have to know more. However, the feeling of "fuzziness" is a common symptom of those who are fighting Depression have. Do you have that feeling all the time or just during a particular low period? What are you like, or were you like, when Depression was not in your life?
@CassieColemanHepplerLICSW
Um you are going deep now..
I have it even when I'm okay even when I don't feel depressed. I question myself a lot about different things and I get confused.
Before i know that I have depression I was a normal person. Really shy and sensitive (still am) and was keeping everything inside me. I wasn't trusting anyone and I still don't trust easily.
.....
@thoughtfulCandy29 Hi Candy. Hope you are doing fine. Do you have something that you want to ask or share with us.
@CassieColemanHepplerLICSW, so glad to have you here in the Depression subcommunity. I look forward to hearing what you have to share with us.
@CassieColemanHepplerLICSW
The inner me has lost confidence and faith! I feel like I always look at the negative of me and that people can look right through me and see oh it will never be anything. OR I will never reach my goals.... It is like I lost all my confidence and I am an impostor because I do not believe me... How do I combat that? I know that is part of the bipolar illness which I am now beginning to accept after over 20 years. My mind know I can create great work. BUT my heart, my energy, and my actions speak and scream of self-doubt constantly. What do I do to fight that? I predict this is an issue for many as we loose our confidence, self-esteem. as friends rally around cancer patients, stroke victims, car accident injuries. Friends do not rally around patients with mental illness and boost up their confidence or support because this is an unseen illness with a blood test for evidence of the mental illness condition. Whereas cancer you can share with friends your hemoglobin level or white platelets and gain empathy from that circle. Unfortunately, there is not that parallel empathy report that can be shared with friends regarding depression. bipolar. What are your thoughts?
@honestBranch5884 Branch this is a great question and many here would want to know about it.
@sujaypai thank you for your affirmation of sharing with me that I am not alone in my feelings...and the struggle is real
@honestBranch5884
You have a wonderful way of expressing yourself that I appreciate and I am positive that many here can relate to. I expecially love your thoughts around "rallying around" one another and producing an "empathy report" for others to rally around. You are right, fighting the stigma of mental illness certainly has a long ways to go. I remember one client sharing with me, "sometimes I wish I was in a wheel chair, it would make it easier for others to see that I struggle." While you may not get that in the general population, I do believe I have seen some tremendous strides over the past few years globally which have made acknowledging and even speaking about mental illness becoming more prevelant. As to your negative thoughts that lead to lowering of confidence, self-esteem issues and self doubt... There is an excercise that I use myself that I find helpful and have shared often over the years. But first one needs to understand therapy in a very basic sense. Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT) is one of the most common therapy treatment used. If CBT could be broken down into its most basic level it means, "Our thoughts lead to our feelings which lead to our behaviors." Basically, we can only change our thoughts. Feelings just are, they are neither right nor wrong and are directly influenced by our feelings and our behaviors are patterns of actions that we have learned over the years when we have certain feelings. What I see many people do is spend a lot of time on feelings and behaviors and don't do enough work on their thoughts, which is where change can happen. So with negative thoughts, there are several techniques, but my favorite is Flipping It. What this means is that you need to listen to your thoughts, acknowledge them, be mindful of them and then if they are negative you need to work on changing it or Flipping It into a positive. For example; "That person hates me." Flip It. "That person may be having a bad day, but that is their issue and not mine and I am not going to let their attitude ruin my day." Does that make sense? It is difficult to do at first, but does get easier the more you actively practice it. Thank you again for sharing your wonderful words.
@CassieColemanHepplerLICSW Cassie I would generally agree with you on the stigma being addressed however it is not being uniformly dealt with world over nor it is being addressed in a way it is to for maximum impact. I am though hopeful that with technology and innovation we would get there. One of the other collateral impact of it is difficulty in communicating as well. May with sensors and trackers to help automatically get requisite data from the clients that would assist in therapies. So the hope is always there for a better treatment experience also both for therapists and clients. CBT is a great exercise and you are right it requires some practice and patience to see the effect.
Could you please address in a general way, why people with anxiety think something may happen, but know it rarely will. I know nothing bad will happen I am still nervous until I meet the person and then anxiety will usual lift in most situations. The first several minutes can be very uncomfortable. Thank you.
@sail46
Sail46, this is a great question. Anxiety is made up of a few things; the combination of chemicals in our brain acting in the same way it would during an emergency (fight or flight response-=feeling brain aka amygdala & hippocampus) and some of our own patterns from our histories. Anxiety serves a purpose, it tells us when something needs to change, so a little bit of anxiety can be a good thing. I am making the assumption that you are talking about the unhealthy kind of anxiety, the kind that doesn't seem to fit any given situation. I like to refer to to this as the difference between our thinking brain and our feeling brain. When situations come up that you know may trigger anxiety, do you have certain things that you do or think? Sometimes just being prepared for those situations can be helpful and having a handful of coping skills that work for you on hand. But I think always going back to that idea... Am I using my thinking or feeling brain right now?
I have been thinking about maybe using an online therapist on 7 Cups. Could you give a brief idea how this works. Do you send out a detailed questionnaire and base treatment on this. I know I can e-mail any questions I have once you sign up. I have been dealing with some external anxiety issues like fear of losing my subsidy under Affordable Care Act and family friend getting sick. These seem odd things to worry about since my home life is calm. I have always had anxiety issues but could usually keep them in check until this year. I have worked on my anxiety over the last few months with what's available on 7 Cups and have had great improvement. My health is fine after last physical. I was not sure if online therapy could fine tune this. Thank you.
@CassieColemanHepplerLICSW Okay here is one for the community. I noticed when I am depressed the whole world is gloom. I do not go outside, do things I enjoy and the typical symptoms of being depressed in the low of bipolar. SOOO coming out of the phase there may be some joy when I get attention from the opposite sex. Go out on a date. Go out to dinner. Something of the sorts. Is there a link between the endorphins of being engaged in a relationship with the opposite sex that makes a "depressed/bipolar" member draw the relationship closer because it simulates the action of serotonin in the brain? Technically, I should still stay to myself since I am really still in the depressive state but like the attention of someone because I sought isolation in my depressive state....I would like to hear the discussion on this aspect please
@honestBranch5884
Interesting question. So what you are describing is rather "normal" with those who have either the chemical imbalance of Bipolar Disorder and in those that suffer from a lot of different mental health issues. It is one of those common symptoms that a lot of people share. One thing that you have going for you is that you are recognizing the behavior for what it is. That is good. Where the danger comes in is if it becomes meaningless or risky interactions for you. There are ways you can work on this. Your insight into seratonins relationship with this is a good one, but it goes a little deeper into patterns of behavior. You do something, it makes you feel good, you keep doing it. This happens a lot with those who struggle with addiction as well. One thing that I always recommend for those who have ebbs and flows to their moods is actually tracking it. There are now a lot of apps that can assist with this as well as good old charting. Keep track of those ebbs and flows and be aware of what behaviors are healthy and unhealthy for you. Getting attention from others is not bad in and of itself, its a matter of what it is doing for you in the long run? Is it turnin into healthy or unhealthy relationships and support over time? I once had a client that I had start charting her moods. She stated she got into a fight with her partner almost every evening at 9:00 pm. Once she started tracking and sharing she recognized that her instinct was right, she was doing this. She brought it with her to her psychiatrist who recommended taking adjusting the time (by only a half an hour) of her medication and the fighting stopped. That little adjustment was all it took to change a behavior.
@CassieColemanHepplerLICSW
I guess I have never asked that question before and to my amazement I'm so surprised that it is real can you talk more about the trackers or the process for tracking behaviors of mood I don't necessarily understand that
@honestBranch5884
Sure. It's pretty simple they have apps for smart phones that are pretty easy because you can set an alarm to ask you a couple of times a day. Just go to the app store and search for mood tracker. If you don't have a smart phone and want to do it the old way, you just Google: Mood Tracker or Mood Charting and you will find thousands of templates that will help. It is basically a chart that you fill in the date/time/mood/as well as other information like did you eat or excercise? Medication? Those types of things. What this will show you over time is a graph of what your cycle of mood fluctuation looks like. It's actually really similar to tracking your menstrual cycle.
I wanted to talk a little bit about this pyramid and explain it's importance in treatment if that is okay? This is called Maslow's Heirarchy of Needs. In brief, it describes a theory about what humans need in life. One starts on the bottom of the pyramid and works their way up. What becomes interesting to me in treatment is how many people try to jump to higher up in the pyramid without first addressing and meeting their basic needs. So I want to hear your thoughts on Maslow's Pyramid. What do you think?
@CassieColemanHepplerLICSW I like it. According to him I'm half way through the yellow level
