I posted on Beyond Blue forums earlier and was referred over here and it looks like an active community with supportive people so I decided to join.
I am a 35 year old male from Sydney and have been suffering with extreme depression and anxiety disorder since the age of 23. I was bullied every single day through my school years to the point I left mid year 11. It’s had a huge impact on my life as an adult. I’ve also been medicated since my diagnosis, which has been increased over the years.
I’m at a point in my life where I’ve lost all my friendships due to isolating myself, I have no friends, no pets anymore, no social life and haven’t worked a full time job since 2013 due to my mental health. These days I barely leave the home and it would be an understatement of me to say I feel an incredible amount of loneliness. I recently had a close friendship with someone from another state for an 8-9 month period. But things between us blew up two months ago and since that I have felt extremely alone and at times completely empty and hopeless. I don’t know where to turn to next because the traditional route of therapy and support worker programs IRL haven’t worked for me. I’m pretty sure I know what my life is missing, which is friendship and meaningful connection with other human beings. However I have never been great at making friends. I’m not very socially confident, even less as I’ve gotten older and I tend to feel like an unlikeable person until people give me a chance to really get to know me. I’m hugely passionate about music of all kinds, love animals (especially dogs) and do like to go to concerts when I manage to.
anyway I know this has been a ramble but I guess the road to recovery has to begin somewhere. Hopefully there are some night owls like me around.
