Thread: What enters your mind and how does your body feel when 'Stress' is mentioned?

Originally Posted by NavyDiver

Thank you Dr. Lionel G. Evans
firstly apologies for not 'yet' responding. I have at work and home multiple significant issue which I fully acknowledge and know are impacting on my mental health.

Your journey to your excellent Doctorate and the potential Benefits for military and civilians alike is commendable. Far more commendable than my mere typing !!

My medication is still my bad habits of running long distance often with my 'slipper' now. Mika is two today. When she wakes up we are off for a slow 10km. My Massive Over Medication of opioids required to keep me alive was a journey that I was happily able to stop in a week. Living with pain is for me much better than the zombie like feeling I experienced with the week of opioids!
Mika slipper.jpg

My Slipper picture - She is 2 today

Mind if we nominate you for an Australia day award?

Hello NavyD,

Good to hear from you. Take your time with the little task. Your health and that of Mika comes first. Also, that of your support network. Take care of yourself Navy-D. Have a good weekend too!

Kind regards
Lionel

Thank you for this post, My wife suffers badly from depression & anxiety, has off & on for many years but in the last 5 years it has become extremely bad to the extent that she wants to know where I am all the time, I can't even go to the toilet without telling her where I am going. I don't think her psychiatrist is a lot of help, since covid she only has phone consultations & he can be up to an hour late or doesn't ring at all. He is trying to ween her off a medication she has been on for years that she should have been on short term. He tells us she could just stop breathing during her sleep if she stays on it. Her psychologist is better but is the 4th one she has had in 5 years due to them moving on. Our GP we have been with for 40+ years, he retired early this year which was a step back for my wife. Our new GP, a lady doctor has been helping my wife a great deal & is happy to talk with my wife encouraging her to get out of the house & to do things she has not done the last 5 years, she has also loaned my wife some books on anxiety. My wife does not do computers, so I have printed your post for her to read, I found it quite interesting.
Wayne

Hello All,

Just a bit of a warning if you get interested in different models of emotions. In an earlier post I mentioned the Shaver et al.'s (1987) 'Five Basic Emotions'. After a lot of investigation to settle on my PhD research into wellbeing I came across an extensive range of different emotions-based models. One of the most popular you may come across is Plutchik's (1980) 'Emotions Wheel' model that has 8 basic emotions: joy, trust, fear, surprise, sadness, anticipation, anger, and disgust. Notice what emotion is missing from Shaver et al.'s list of five basic emotions mentioned in my earlier post... the Shaver et al.'s basic emotion of 'Love' is not included in Plutchik's model as a basic emotion.

There is great debate within the Emotions researcher community about whether love is a basic emotion. To me if two year old children can discuss what love is, why can't university trained - supposed adults understand love as one of the building blocks of life? I do not consider myself to be a romantic however .... a world without love being an essential component of life is something that I do not wish to consider.

Now, darling wife - where is the $50 you promised me if I wrote something nice and cheery for a change? ... tee-hee! Umm, did I mention about the 'love' of inanimate objects such as Land Rovers!

This song is kind of fitting .... Accessed 17th June 2023 Bob Marley .... Bob Marley - Is This Love (Official Music Video) - YouTube

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Plutchik, R. (1980). Emotion: A psychoevolutionary synthesis. New York: Harper & Row.



Kind regards
Lionel

Lionel

I’m not sure if you would you agree? I find it is of significant importance to my mental wellbeing to find a past time to refocus and remove the every day stresses?

One of my key “tools” used for my wellbeing is an all immersive pursuit that requires utmost focus to be on point.

This redirects my mind, enabling me to tune out the daily and focus solely on the task at hand.

As work has intensified, I’ve diversified these pursuits.

One is precision (long range F class target shooting and associated loading etc) and the other is more physical, MTB riding.

Sitting around with my thoughts isn’t sufficient to provide the necessary wind down.

Originally Posted by Tombie

Lionel

I’m not sure if you would you agree? I find it is of significant importance to my mental wellbeing to find a past time to refocus and remove the every day stresses?

One of my key “tools” used for my wellbeing is an all immersive pursuit that requires utmost focus to be on point.

This redirects my mind, enabling me to tune out the daily and focus solely on the task at hand.

As work has intensified, I’ve diversified these pursuits.

One is precision (long range F class target shooting and associated loading etc) and the other is more physical, MTB riding.

Sitting around with my thoughts isn’t sufficient to provide the necessary wind down.

Hello Tombie,

From what you are describing it matches the concept of "Flow" that was developed by Positive psychologist Mihály Csíkszentmihályi. He has written a number of books such as Flow: The Psychology of Optimal Experience Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi
Publisher ‏ : ‎ Harpercollins (1 March 1990)
Language ‏ : ‎ English
ISBN-10 ‏ : ‎ 0060162538
ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-0060162535

If you do an internet search for the author there a lots of articles and webpages that describe the state of 'flow'.

Kind regards
Lionel

Originally Posted by 1950landy

Thank you for this post, My wife suffers badly from depression & anxiety, has off & on for many years but in the last 5 years it has become extremely bad to the extent that she wants to know where I am all the time, I can't even go to the toilet without telling her where I am going. I don't think her psychiatrist is a lot of help, since covid she only has phone consultations & he can be up to an hour late or doesn't ring at all. He is trying to ween her off a medication she has been on for years that she should have been on short term. He tells us she could just stop breathing during her sleep if she stays on it. Her psychologist is better but is the 4th one she has had in 5 years due to them moving on. Our GP we have been with for 40+ years, he retired early this year which was a step back for my wife. Our new GP, a lady doctor has been helping my wife a great deal & is happy to talk with my wife encouraging her to get out of the house & to do things she has not done the last 5 years, she has also loaned my wife some books on anxiety. My wife does not do computers, so I have printed your post for her to read, I found it quite interesting.
Wayne

Hello Wayne,

Sometimes reading words triggers a mental link to different songs in my mind. While reading about your wife a Bob Marley and the & The Wailers song sprang to mind ... No Woman, No Cry Accessed 17th of June 2023 Bob Marley - No Woman, No Cry (Official Video) - YouTube ... Then again my mind can be quite strange sometimes. I hope I have not caused any offence?

Kind regards
Lionel

Hello All,

I am off to the greater wilds of Queensland following the coast in a northerly direction. Contact with the WWW could be sporadic at best.

Take care, stay well and be as happy you can. Yes and unlike the Positive Psychologists - it is totally okay to have a crap day and not feel like you have failed yourself.

Kind regards
Lionel

Wayne,

SWMBO has had severe anxiety (GAD manifesting in health and other symptoms) for decades (She's 60), is on antidepressants (for the anxiety) and takes Xanax when required. Its also taken decades for her to find a Psych that can help. In the the past the various people she's seen have been either no help or limited at best.

We are in Brisbane. If you'd like this ladies details, PM me. That said, I don't know what the wait time would be to get on her list.

Mark.

Originally Posted by 1950landy

Thank you for this post, My wife suffers badly from depression & anxiety, has off & on for many years but in the last 5 years it has become extremely bad to the extent that she wants to know where I am all the time, I can't even go to the toilet without telling her where I am going. I don't think her psychiatrist is a lot of help, since covid she only has phone consultations & he can be up to an hour late or doesn't ring at all. He is trying to ween her off a medication she has been on for years that she should have been on short term. He tells us she could just stop breathing during her sleep if she stays on it. Her psychologist is better but is the 4th one she has had in 5 years due to them moving on. Our GP we have been with for 40+ years, he retired early this year which was a step back for my wife. Our new GP, a lady doctor has been helping my wife a great deal & is happy to talk with my wife encouraging her to get out of the house & to do things she has not done the last 5 years, she has also loaned my wife some books on anxiety. My wife does not do computers, so I have printed your post for her to read, I found it quite interesting.
Wayne