Hello Dr. Gould
I'm very glad that I found this site. For the past few months, maybe a little longer, my mental health has been getting worse. I've been consulting my parents, my guidance counselor and my therapist, but nothing is really helping. I've been suffering mostly from depression and anxiety. Depression runs in my family, and my life situation is causing me to be very depressed. I've moved around and my life has changed so much in the past 5 or so years, yet nothing has ever made me happy. I'm really in need of help concerning my anxiety though. I think OCD comes in to play here as well. I suppose I have some social anxiety, and I am constantly concerned about what everyone thinks of me. Particularly after i've talked to someone, either someone I know and see every day, or someone I don't know, whether it's in person or over the phone, afterwards I obsessively go over in my mind how the conversation went. I am so concerned with how I came across to the person I talked to, I wonder how they took what I said about this that or the other thing, and what they think of me. I also freak out if I even think I was misunderstood. If I feel that I said something and they took it the wrong way, like they might have come to a conclusion that just isn't true, it leads to me having a mental breakdown, even if as I said, it was someone I don't know and may never see again. I'm very concerned about my depression, but this sort of anxiety drives me insane. I am unable to let go of these thoughts, sometimes I only do if another situation comes up and I have new things to obsessively worry about. In my right mind, I know these things that I worry about aren't a big deal and shouldn't matter, but as I said, I am unable to make myself stop obsessing over them. In a few weeks, i'm going to see a psychiatrist about anti depressants, which i'm told will probably help my anxiety as well as my depression. But i'm running out of patience, yesterday I had another breakdown because of a situation I obsessed about, and it's still on my mind today. Is there anything I can do for myself to help slow down my mind or keep my mind on other things, without going back to obsessing over trivial things that make me crazy? Thank You.