No shit. If I had the time and the constant motivation to add yet another job to do I'd feel better. I do everything I'm told. Medication, therapy, exercise, sleep, mindfulness, eat well. They all feel like work and they in themselves are draining. And them I have to actively avoid cruxes because they're unhealthy. Binge eating, alcohol, smoking. Also draining. It's all exhausting.
this post was submitted on 14 May 2025
52 points (100.0% liked)
Mental Health
5034 readers
40 users here now
Welcome
This is a safe place to discuss, vent, support, and share information about mental health, illness, and wellness.
Thank you for being here. We appreciate who you are today. Please show respect and empathy when making or replying to posts.
If you need someone to talk to, @[email protected] has kindly given his signal username to talk to: TherapyGary13.12
Rules
The rules for posting and commenting, besides the rules defined here for lemmy.world, are as follows:
- No promoting paid services/products.
- Be kind and civil. No bigotry/prejudice either.
- No victim blaming. Nor giving incredibly simplistic solutions (i.e. You have ADHD? Just focus easier.)
- No encouraging suicide, no matter what. This includes telling someone to commit homicide as "dragging them down with you".
- Suicide note posts will be removed, and you will be reached out to in private.
- If you would like advice, mention the country you are in. (We will not assume the US as the default.)
If BRIEF mention of these topics is an important part of your post, please flag your post as NSFW and include a (trigger warning: suicide, self-harm, death, etc.)in the title so that other readers who may feel triggered can avoid it. Please also include a trigger warning on all comments mentioning these topics in a post that was not already tagged as such.
Partner Communities
To partner with our community and be included here, you are free to message the current moderators or comment on our pinned post.
Becoming a Mod
Some moderators are mental health professionals and some are not. All are carefully selected by the moderation team and will be actively monitoring posts and comments. If you are interested in joining the team, you can send a message to @[email protected].
founded 2 years ago
MODERATORS
The app the study used is Healthy Minds. I downloaded it this morning to give it a shot. Seems better than other guided meditation or breathing apps I've tried, is free, and has a learning path sorta like DuoLingo which makes it gamified for my brain. Gonna try to do at least one activity per day and see how it works.
But it’s so harrrrrrrd! 😩
Asking me with my shit attention span to focus on something as boring as my breathing for ten fucking minutes? Even counting them doesn’t help! I tried keeping up with it for a month or two and every time I’d just space out into a long string of connected thoughts and didn’t feel any benefits.
I’ve been meaning to try it again, but even my therapist says it’s not for everyone/it may just not be for me, which would be a shame because it’s such an accessible mitigator if it worked.
This is me just venting out loud in response to this article. I’m aware I should probably get back into it, I’ve just been dragging my feet.
My ADHD laughs in contempt for meditation and mindfulness. My tinnitus doesn't need to say anything (but does anyway).
With my tinnitus, I breathe through my nose a bit more. The gentle sounds are helpful to me in maintaining my basic ‘tune it out’ approach. If you’re noticing it, maybe listen to it? Allow it to be, and use that like your breath, ever present.
It's two different high-pitched frequencies, one in each ear. It feels cold and sterile like a steel wind right through my core. A constant shrill undercurrent to my every moment. An eternal stinging discordant monotonous melody performed by ten thousand mosquitoes and an old tube television in the next room. Dueling bandsaws. Piano wire dragging through the meat of my consciousness. Someone is dragging a wet fingertip along the rim of my skull and I'd like it to stop, please.
If it can make you feel better, as a neurotypical person, it is hard to do as well.
I got young kids, I got work, I got a life to live, I am stressed out of my gills and it is really easy to forego taking 5-10 mins a day to stay put and be mindful.
My therapist always tells me what is worth doing is worth doing badly. Meaning that if you only do it for a minute instead of 5, or if you got distracted while doing it, it is still better than not doing it.
Being focused isn’t the point - noticing that you got distracted is. I’ve been meditating for quite a while, and I still get just as distracted by thoughts as I did when I started. That’s okay. The practice is in noticing the distraction and gently beginning again.
Criticizing yourself for getting distracted is just more thinking without realizing you’re thinking. You can even meditate on that, or on sounds, sensations, and so on. There’s nothing inherently special about the breath - it’s just a neutral, ever-present thing to focus on that we all share.
It's part of the process to lose focus, then you just get back to it. It's fine.
As for the article I'd say not surprised; everyone from neurotypicals to any neurodiversity should choose a daily practice for their mental and emotional health. It doesn't have to be only meditation.
Humans brush their teeth, why not also do another routine that is less effort and has wider results. (And those in such a slump where any routines like brushing teeth is difficult do eventually start their journey somewhere.)
It really isn't for everyone! There can even be negative side effects for people with some kinds of mental illness. (depersonalization and derealization are the big problems it can lead to, i think)
If you want to try it again, though, i had some small luck sticking with like 2 minute sessions. And sometimes when I'm stressed now I'll sit in my car and do the exercises for a bit and it can help, years after i made it in an organized thing i did.