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******** my sister.

She saw my cat's eye was kinda leaky, picked him up, and decided that his left side was obviously weak since he was trying to squirm out of her grip, and he'd obviously had a stroke. She offered to take him to the vet, which was cool.

Except then she called our parents with her stroke hypothesis, and made our dad, who adores my cats, panic.

So my mum called me, telling me my dad was in a panic and I had to assure her that his ONLY symptom was a teary eye and he's had no behavioural changes.

Then my sister comes over today saying hey, I'm taking him to the vet Monday because he's had a stroke and needs attention NOW! and I'm like, you're full of it, a leaky eye is more likely to mean a minor infection or dust under the eyelid, especially when it's the ONLY symptom, and she grabbed him, tried to force eye contact, and started manhandling him to 'test his strength' on his left side. Then said if I'm so convinced she's wrong, well, she's not going to take him to the vet after all.

I really hate my sister. stare

Heh, of course I don't think you're bullshit. Thanks for helping <3



I have thought about it. Actually, the entire thing was inspired when my partner told me that my anxiety levels and depression shoot through the roof when winter comes, and I'm fine in the sunny months. We're thinking seasonal-affective disorder might have something to do with it, but we can't really know until the blood tests are done, right?

Fortunately, I'm aware that the dosages are supposed to be small for vitamin-D; from what I've seen of people who use it to help combat anxiety disorders, a good number of them have said their doctor keeps advising them to back off a bit. Unfortunately, most of them seem to go on to say "but I feel better with large doses, so I'm not gonna slow down." :/



Things started getting bad at the end of last month and the first week of January. There was a lot of stress around the family and I was eating too much fast-food between holiday visits and drinking too much caffeine and then not sleeping very well at all.

I've reversed the diet - cut out the caffeine and replaced it with L-Theanine (tea!) and I'm steadily working to get my diet back to where it was pre-holidays, with no fast-food and as many fresh, local fruits and vegetables as I can find. That, combined with forcing myself into a regular sleep schedule seems to work wonders, so long as the anxiety doesn't hit as I'm trying to sleep because then I can't get to sleep at all.

As far as exercise goes, I'm pretty much limited to running to class, running around the house cleaning up after dogs/cats/partner/father, and the little bit of yoga and stretches that I do a few times a week. Should I consider making time to use the campus work-out facilities?



Thank you for that. It certainly beats crawling in bed and staring at the wall till it goes away.

I'm sorry to hear that. sad

If it is seasonal-affective, try light therapy. I'm not sure the exact lighting or types of bulbs that may be needed, but I've heard it's one of the best treatments for SAD.

Perhaps they too have some kind of light sensitivity or something, so the vitamin D helps. However, there are alternatives to superdosing on vitamins. It's strange to think of a toxicity related to vitamins, but it's there.



Well, the lack of sleep can definitely exacerbate anxiety in many ways: you may be freaked out because you're tired when you should be really alert, could lead to poor planning/missing stuff, general irritability from being tired, etc. Plus fast food really isn't nutrient-dense either.

It seems like you're back on a good track insofar as your diet, but sometimes the effects of changing your diet take a while to show. Try to aim for your eating goals at least 5-6 days a week, if not every day.

With the exercise, I mean, if you can do it, try for it. It will improve your mood and does help to decrease stress. But if you can't set aside time for a full regimen, try considering just a brisk 10-minute walk once a day. If you already get that from running around school, try to increase it to 15 minutes. Even just this much will get your heart pumping, endorphins released, etc.



Indeed. I've also found it's easy to do while driving, because it's fairly quick and I don't have to pull over and wait 10 minutes or more before everything goes back to normal.

Best of luck, and if you have any more questions, feel free to ask here or pm me!

I've had times when I've felt like that. My one passion in life is music, but if something overly emotional traumatic in my life happens (thankfully it doesn't happen often) I lose all all interest in it.

What do you want? What are you doing to get there? Maybe writing a journal entry about it to work out your thoughts will help you start to get out of this funk.

I understand.

But mostly I think I've been doing this to my self. I've filled myself with so much doubt on a subject that even after I've made a descision and feel that I've worked it out, I am afraid to move away from the disaster. What makes it worse is my ability to think the absolute worse of the situation.

So, Things that I know will make me happy or I loved doing are difficult and bring up the situation that caused the distress. It's a viscious cycle.




I've never been good at meditating, but trance work was something I was really getting into and working at before my situation arose. I loved it.

Now I can't even attempt it anymore. Forget meditating! The moment I get alone or quiet enough to do it, I somehow go straight to obsessing or over thinking the problem until I've given myself a panic attack.