Dieteid

@JennKay Thanks so much for reading what I wrote, I know it was a lot. Also thanks for suggesting therapy. Yeah, I think processing it is an important part of handling fear. It's very helpful to see someone else's perspective so I really appreciate it.

@Pistol Thank you so much for sharing your experience. I'm sorry you went through that too, the feeling of nothing working and the stress of it all is really not fun. Also, thanks for including the part where you applied for disability, because I'm in the middle of figuring all that out myself. I definitely want to fight total inactivity, in my case it's a bit of a slippery slope. Things like exercise, doing things I enjoy, staying somewhat busy, going outside, is actually recommended for the type of catatonia I have. It all builds up momentum. Which kinda sounds simple but with needing to make money as well I've just been totally stressing about the money, so you give good advice. I do art, so I have stuff like YouTube, online store, Patreon set up, and they make like 10 bucks a month haha. That's more long term I think. I've been struggling to find/think of part time jobs that are not as slow as passive income, but not as stressful/demanding as a typical job. Research or medical transcription sounds like it's up my alley, if you know more about it I'd be interested.

Hi all, can't be diagnosed but I've got catatonia with dysautonomia. So, as a teen I would head to school, do stuff automatically since automatic obedience, cant talk at school, go home, lie on the floor until the next morning unable to move, can't sleep since I'm cold, brain fog from sleep debt and then do it again. Dysautomia kicked in after a few years of this. I passed high school by doing everything in school hours, went to uni, where I tried to figure out the cause. Adhd meds kicked my body into moving around, for 6 hours per day, which was epic. Still, voluntary movement slowed to a stop in the evenings and night. I got 0% for a few semesters in a row. In high school, you can do the assignments in class and submit it in class. In uni, it's all submitted online. I can't submit stuff when I can't move, plus the workload meant I couldn't just do it within a few hours or at uni. It was also way more free, so I couldn't just obediently do whatever the teacher said and be led from class to class (which I did not enjoy but just saying). It led to a negative spiral where I would be too anxious to go to classes since I got 0%. When I'm too anxious I can't move. I really tried to fix this and did all sorts of stuff for a few years, like study groups at uni, different therapies, asked if I could take tests or in-class assessments instead of home assignments (nope). I kept getting 0 despite my efforts and eventually got kicked out. Once I was out, I could actually think, move a lot easier, and do things I wanted to do more. My stress dropped tons. Pretty sure I'm hypersensitive to "pressure", and that made me flop and dissociate in response to deadlines where another person would get stressed but not terrified. I think everything that would normally help someone in a school system was almost working against me. A bit like how teaching someone how to drive by making them crash their car every day would never work. That system was way too stressful for my body to cope with, not the learning material, just the existance of deadlines. Point is, uh that was terrifying. Things are actually good now. I don't want to go through that again, but I need money. Work and earning money is a massive pressure, and once I start, I know I can't just stop or think clearly enough to make decisions. I'm scared of being trapped in my head again. Much more than having no money. But I need to move forward and not let fear control my decisions, like, maybe making passive income is better. That way, I'm not dealing with deadlines, clients, a boss, any additional stresses. I think having dysautonomia or chronic illnesses in general would lead to having fears similar to this. Maybe not the exact same, just, "I don't want that to happen again". How do you deal with your fear and move forward in your life?

That is a relief to hear, thank you. I think those exercises are important skills to know, its good to hear that they help.

Thank you, the appointment is soon so I find this very helpful I've been thinking about that, actually. I think the hardest part would just be getting my hands on one. But I think that could work.

Hi all, I'm new to the forums. I have highly suspected catatonia with dysautonomia, which is basically just episodes where I'm trapped in my body. Not being able to move led to dysautonomia and deconditioning. I've already figured out what causes the catatonia to happen and how to prevent episodes of it, so that isn't the issue. Right now, I have to deal with my body being really fragile from years of not moving. (Past 3 years or so I was the least active, I was also catatonic as a teen - so 11 years total- but I did go to school so I did kind of move around for 8 of those years). Since I can move around now I'm super hyped to get fit (in the far future) but also nervous. Has anyone had experience with reversing the effects of deconditioning? Or advice on it? I have booked a GP but that's all so far, not really sure what else to do. I want to go all the way, like I don't want to stop at a normal fitness level, I want to keep going so when I'm old I am just absolutely ripped and won't go catatonic in a nursing home. Thanks