/lit/ I need some help.
I had an episode of severe social isolation/agoraphobia not too long ago. It lasted about a year, and though it's been a while since I don't feel 'right'.
Every day feels like I'm scraping the bottom of a barrel. If the soul was a well filled with vitality and life, mine has run dry. I'm on edge, I don't feel at ease. My baseline level of existential pain is a dull headache, but transitions to the level of a migraine very easily. Worst is while I'm lying in bed after a particularly devoid day.
I've read the Greeks, the Stoics, and I'm starting on the French...but /lit/ isn't helping very much at all. I would give anything to change this because it feels awful. Please help.
>ageraphobia
It's called depression, m8. See medical help.
go see a therapist. you can't just expect books to solve all your problems. that's retarded
Meditate.
try bdsm
>>8209286
Agoraphobia ain't depression, pal. It's an extreme form of anxiety.
I assume you're unemployed? You should simply find a work.
>>8209461
That's not how mental disorders work, m8. Agoraphobia is a symptom (as any other phobia), related to anxiety. But Anxiety is intensely correlated with Depression, so the symptoms can and more often than not do overlap.
>Not depressed, not anxious, just some kind of mental pain.
Describe this "mental pain", anon.
>>8209507
>Describe this "mental pain", anon.
Deep mistrust of the people around me, anger to mask emotional vulnerability, self hatred for my shortcomings. Makes it hard to feel comfy.
Being raised by an anxious mother and distant father really did a number on me. I feel like I should be over this shit at 22.
>>8209355
You need new experiences not new solutions.
>>8209558
People here don't really know what having a phobia means, specially one like agoraphobia.
A phobia causes intense fear, and I mean really intense fear. The meard thought of facing people (or whatever the phobia is) causes a phisical reaction and the brain goes to fight or flight mode, even when there's no apparent danger in crowds. Agoraphobia isn't just feeling akward around people and (feeling like you have a mask) Its a deep irational fear.
My gf takes meds for her anxiety, she says they dont help as much as having phisical aids when it comes to panic attacks. I've been living with her for almost 3 years and I can tell you for a fact that the best thing you can do to start going on a path of understanding what you feel is to be completley honest with yourself in the first place and don't force yourself into situations that you want to change just yet
>>8209507
Agoraphobia translates to "fear of the marketplace". Sounds like anxiety to me.
More or less the same boat OP.
Have been since I was about eighteen; I can tell you at 24, that unless you make an effort to subdue your disease with the world and everything in it, you will still be precisely where you are right now in two years time, only with less resources, and less patience left for your allies to offer.
Books don't help - they're just streams of information that passes through your brain, some partially absorbed, else discarded.
The best management method for depression is taking up a craft that produces real tangible things - things are tropihes of the value of your time and skill - fetishes to ward off nagging sensations of doubt, from internal or external sources.
For this carpentry is infinitely better than writing, because a sturdy and beautiful table has an innate usefulness and a sum of effort put into it that shames even the most carefully constructed arrangements of words on paper.
>>8209804
There will always be people, even strangers who can offer you help or advice.
never forget that and the world becomes a slightly less frightening place.
Awesome, where can I find you blog Anon?
>>8209577
This. Make some new acquaintances. Even if it's some other August you meet up with from some shitty forum you visit. And taper off your drugs they will cloud your reasoning.
>>8209283
>He went on a year of isolation and didn't return with a renewed love for life
I'm sorry. I wish I could help you in some way, I really do but I don't know how I got myself out of that rut. I hope everything gets better friend.
