Ask HN: How is your mental health?

I have a mood disorder and generalized anxiety disorder.

This is the most accurate answer in the thread.

> Having strong relationships, having a therapist, and keeping a regular schedule.

These are the things I'm actively working on. I'm only 6 months into working full time. It's monumentally difficult just to achieve those 3 things. I haven't worked an 8 hour day since training because I often feel drained and unproductive and end up just going home.

Right now, I'm doing CBT, and my therapist and I are focusing on ways for me to feel less drained at work. It's amazing how little things like taking 5 minute breaks and not eating at my desk have helped.

I feel like everyone I know who works in tech is either seeing a therapist or would benefit from one. If you can make it happen, try it.

I'm doing okay these days. A year ago I started taking anti-anxiety meds at a very low dose and seeing a counselor every month or so. I also broke up with a partner who didn't treat me very well and met someone who I see a future with. A year and a half ago the answer would have been something like "thinking about going to emergency so that I don't hurt myself". All the changes I made felt small and insignificant at the time but they added up.

I'm supposed to use a document template my therapist emailed me, most likely I will search for an app that does the same (too paranoid about printing and filling a document about my mood) -- so I don't track it yet.

I was diagnosed 5 years ago with BPD, has gotten better over the years(mostly by just life exposure I guess), I still get huge situational flare-ups, stuff about work or family, but I no longer react like a cornered animal, even at my worst I realise "this thing sucks at an intensity of 8/10, most likely it will subside in a day or two if I go back on buspirone, and if not, I have benzodiazepines as backup, sleep aids and so on".

Who hasn’t got problems these days? Anxiety, stress, work pressure, financial problems, health issues and many more contribute in creating many mental health related issues that most of us take as granted in our modern lives :-( I understand that for people diagnosed with a condition and on medication is more serious than the rest of us, but I think if affects all of us. What I find working for me is keeping my mind occupied with stuff (technology, photography, music, books...) and talking to other people. Reading HN late at night really helps a lot.

I started a new job in January and although it was all right at first, it wasn't until long when my boss and I started being at odds with one another. As early as three months in he said multiple times that I "should know how to X by know" and later on said that I "hadn't improved since I started."

I dreaded going into work everyday, primarily because of him. I started looking for a new job six months in and I'm still looking.

About a month ago I started working with a remote dev, and it's been like night and day. Not only is he incredibly patient with me, but we have a good rapport and I'm unafraid to ask him questions. While he does give me fair critiques (never harsh), he's also complimented my work which has been a huge bonus.

This new arrangement's supposed to be temporary, and I'm hoping I can work under the remote dev full-time. I'm dreading the possibility that I may work under my original boss again.

But for now, my mental health has improved ten-fold. My original boss still works in the same area as me, and although his presence still gives me some anxiety at least I don't have to converse with him.