Essential Stretch

A

Alexis52

Cathlete
I forgot who ordered Michelle LeMay's vids but I'm still waiting for a review cuz I'm very interested. Seems that there was a lot of hoopla over getting the tape, and then Michelle was sending a free one to the person; that was weeks ago. So has anyone reviewed this tape yet? Cheryl
 
RE: Hi Cheryl!

Hi guys:

it was me and the substitute video has arrived but I have not had time to do it yet and review it for you since I have had more trouble with my depression, increased panic attacks, overwork and then was sick for 3 days following trial of a new medication my doctor wanted me to try. Forget about it!!!!!

But I am feeling a bit better now and need to get my life back in gear, and stretching will help me to relax so I will get on to it this week. But if I add it as another on an enormous list of things to do, it will stress me out even more.....so, just watch this space, OK?

See ya later ladies,

Clare
 
Thanks Clare!

Take your time. We'll just wait on you here! ;-) Glad you are feeling better. Take good care.
Your-Friend-In-Fitness, DebbieH http://www.handykult.de/plaudersmilies.de/wavey.gif[/img] If You Get The Choice To Sit It Out Or Dance...I Hope You DANCE!!!
 
RE: Hi Cheryl!

Hey Clare, First things first. Take care of yourself. In my twenties I used to get panic attacks so I feel for you. But I promise you that they WILL go away in time. So take your time and, when you feel stronger, give us a shout. We're here for you. Cheryl
 
RE: Hi Cheryl!

Thank you Debbie and Alexis. Keep thinking of me, it's gonna be a tough week......be back soon.

Clare
 
Clare!

Clare, try to check in here at least once a day for a dose of HAPPINESS! Thinking & praying for you this week too!
Your-Friend-In-Fitness, DebbieH http://www.handykult.de/plaudersmilies.de/wavey.gif[/img] If You Get The Choice To Sit It Out Or Dance...I Hope You DANCE!!!
 
Sherry!

Speaking of thoughts & prayers, you've been in mine lately. How are YOU????
Your-Friend-In-Fitness, DebbieH http://www.handykult.de/plaudersmilies.de/wavey.gif[/img] If You Get The Choice To Sit It Out Or Dance...I Hope You DANCE!!!
 
RE: Clare!

Sherry and Debbie:

thank you both for your kind words and thoughts, it helps to know that lovely ladies like yourselves wish me well.

It's been a real tough two years and I don't know when the light will shine at the end of the tunnel. I am still waiting. I do check in here, but I am more or less reduced to lurking status right now because since I got so depressed, I have stopped exercising, about a month ago, probably lost all my fitness I worked so hard for and lord knows the muscle has long since departed my puny ecto body....so i don't feel able to come on here and preach when i so badly need to listen to my own preachings....

But things have to get better, right? I have now tried and failed with about 5 or 6 antidepressant medications, and each time, the side effects make me sicker and sicker. I think working out has actually changed my body chemistry in some way, made it more sensitive, and now my body rejects anything that aint supposed to be taken into it, except good food and TLC. Have you ever heard of such a thing?

The net results of this are both bad and good. Bad because it means that there are no easy solutions out there for me in a bottle with a prescription attached. No easy support system to help me through. Good because maybe this is the lessson I had to learn. That there is only one solution and it lies within me, if I have the courage to work it and face down the fears and anxieties. I have been reading a book recently on generalized anxiety disorders and it has helped me to realise that this need not be cause for despair, but rather hope: because lasting recovery can result from finally making a decision to treat onself nicely, to nurture oneself. The trick is to eat better, do regular exercise, but also to incorporate relaxation techniques (which I am hoping my new Michelle lemay videos and Baron Baptiste yoga video will help me with), de-stresssing, and to gradually start changing the way you think so that you change the way you feel. Emphasizing the good, rather than the constant listening to the critical perfectionist inner voice that tells me I will never be any good at this chosen profession of mine.

The problem with all of this is that it sounds so marvellous, so completely sound, but from somewhere within the depressed mind and body I have to find the strength to start and then do it again tomorrow and then the next day and then for the rest of my life. It's quite a challenge.

But I have no choice and I have to do it for my daughters' sake, because they are too much like me and deserve better than to follow these particular maternal footsteps into years of wasted living, not to mention escorting their mother to the ER with panic attacks so bad, they think their mother is dying, and it hurts to see them so fearful.

This is probably way more than you cared to know, but I don't keep a diary and sometimes you just gotta get it out of you, and maybe hardly anyone will read it anyway so it won't be a burden to the cyber airwaves....

but I thank you for your concern and I'm still here....

Bye ladies,

Clare
 
Wow Clare!

We just never know what others are going through. I have no advice as far as helping you because I am no professional in that field. My heart feels for you though and I truly think that is why we are here...to help others thru the good and the BAD. I also think that you still have lots to offer others here as you are very educated in this field! :) Sometimes, we do have to take breaks from things we love. Hopefully, SOON you can get the energy/ambition to just put a tape in. Hmmm, maybe you just need the NEW SERIES!!!! Like I said, we can help here even if it is a listening ear and glad you felt you could share with us. I know you have been there for MANY who have gone thru troubles or have questions so please don't feel you are being a burden. STILL thinking of you! {{{CLARE}}}
Your-Friend-In-Fitness, DebbieH http://www.handykult.de/plaudersmilies.de/wavey.gif[/img] If You Get The Choice To Sit It Out Or Dance...I Hope You DANCE!!!
 
Thinking of You

Hiya Clare, You don't know me (and vise versa) but I felt the need to share with you too. Being severely depressed is like being at the bottom of a large, dark hole and you can see the light above, but you're too whipped to get out. So you just look at it, and wish.

If meds are not the answer for you, then you need to find something else. There are napropaths and holistic doctors you might want to try. You deserve better than just bearing this. I'm no professional, but I'm pretty good cuz I've been there.

Your daughters will survive this just fine. My guess is that you feel guilty cuz you know you'd do it again in a heartbeat if you have another bad attack. And it's all OK.

This may all sound harsh but I'm trying to give you truths. Something, or many things, need to change in your life in order for you to heal. So you have some work to do, that's all. But I would highly suggest not doing it alone.

If any of this resonates with you, send me a private message and we'll see what avenues you haven't explored on your path to getting healthy. Now here's a great big hug - Cheryl
 
Hi, Clare

I just wanted to tell you I think of you and your struggles and you are in my prayers also. Sometimes, it seems, the search is endless, the solution so elusive and it's discouraging and so sad. Then you look at your child and you know you have enough strength, maybe just enough, to start the search all over again. Keep searching. It may come in small increments. So small, you almost don't realize you are getting better but bit by bit, you are. I have faith in your ability to find your healing because I have seen you extend your heart and that sharp and intelligent mind to others right here. You may not realize your own strength or wisdom but we see it and it's going to lead you to what will restore your balance, restore you to you. Anne Frank said, "I don't think of all the misery but the beauty that still remains." Depression steals the light that falls upon all things beautiful in life. But they are there. They are waiting and so is the answer you are seek.

May you find it soon!

Bobbi
 
Bobbi:

what a beautiful post and thank you. I do keep struggling and you are right on two counts: better feelngs do come in small increments and yes, my children make the world a better place and I strive for them and me. Thanks also for the compliments, they mean a lot to me. Academia undermines all but the toughest individuals...me? I keep turning up at the table, trying again and again. I don't give up easily, comes from being a stubborn Taurean bull! Someone once said, success is 90% persistence. That's me.

Clare


And to Musclemaiden:

I am gently easing back into my exercise routine after a 9 month break from fitness due to ill health. I will get to "Essential Stretch" and review it for you just as soon as I can.

Clare
 
Clare, I know you and I haven't seen eye to eye on here, but I felt compelled to post to you. I'll tell you the same thing I tell my daughter who is on Paxil for OCD. Fight back. They are your emotions, and it's your body, and you have more control than you may even realize. I don't understand the pain you're going through, but I see it in my daughter. When we first sat down with her psychiatrist and went back over our family histories, it hit me like a ton of bricks that my mom and me were most likely undiagnosed OCD sufferers as well. The signs were so clear once a professional pointed them out to me. I was never on meds and probably should be now, but I'm not. But I watch Nik every day struggle with this, and she always will. They've taught her techniques to fight back, but until she wakes up one day and decides to use them, she will suffer. I realize panic attacks and OCD are not the same thing, and depression and OCD are not the same thing, but often they all go hand in hand, and they do have similarities in terms of chemical imbalances. Nik suffered depression we did not see until she went on the Paxil. Her depression went along with the OCD because she could not control the anxiety of it, and she had no resources with which to cope.

Clare, you have two choices. And I hope you take this as it's meant - in the spirit of caring about another fellow human being. Your two choices are you can fall victim to an endless progession of trying new meds, and continuing to suffer - and I know you are suffering, or you can fight back. You may always have to take meds to depress those damn rebel chemical imbalances enough to be able to cope, but you can also wake up one day and say ENOUGH! If you aren't seeing a therapist who is willing to help you find ways to cope with the symptoms, and help you learn techniques to calm the panic when you feel it rising, then find one. They taught Nik all sorts of useful techniques to mentally push away the obsessions when they start. OCD is basically an anxiety disorder, and she doesn't have the familiar compulsions like hand-washing or turning lights on and off a million times. She has the obessessions - the thoughts. She can't do the compulsion to get rid of the anxiety. Her anxiety is from the thoughts themselves. She knows the techniques, but she won't use them. A good therapist, willing to work with you, would be able to help you learn them. But the trick is you have to use them.

I know you've got your plate full with school, and I know you have kids. But you have to take care of yourself. Your children need you. School will always be there. If you have to put it on hold for a semester or two, then do it. It won't go anywhere. But your health is too important to play with. The meds only give you some relief. We were told even if Nik was on the highest dose she could safely be on for Paxil, she would only achieve about 30% reduction in symptoms. I don't know what the stats are for panic attacks and depression, but I do know the meds don't usually make the symptoms disappear completely for most people. But there are ways you can fight back. And that's how you have to approach it. That it's a fight. A fight for your body, and your mind, and your emotions. Otherwise you will be a victim of this imbalance, and a slave to these endless rounds of new meds for the rest of your life.

I hope you aren't offended by this. I'm not trying to lecture you, and I'm not trying to pretend I understand what you're going through. I can't, because I'm not in your skin. I can only tell you what I've gone through with Nik, and with countless patients at work I've taken care of with similar problems. You DO have a choice, Clare. It's your body, and your mental health, and you do have a choice to take charge of it. I hope this helps, and again I hope you take this post in the spirit in which it's intended. With respect, and concern for you.

Carol
:)
 
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