Hi Struggling Christian--Wow, so you are taking Cymbalta, and two other drugs. I have been on Cymbalta and it was very helpful. I took it with Wellbutrin, but this was after I had lost my son to suicide. I went off of Cymbalta 2 years ago right after Christmas was over and the new year was beginning.
I can only surmise that part of it was due to the lack of sunshine and I wanted to lose weight that I gained after being on Cymbalta.
I was experiencing other things in life also at this time. Anyway, I would suggest going on an anti-depressant, but you are already on one. So maybe try another anti-depressant such as Wellbutrin. Because going cold turkey at the stage you are in, might be stressful.
So since you have this program and you believe in Christ, read at least one scripture to begin and listen to the CDs. I listen to them as much as I can, I'm always gleaning something new from them.
You do have us...and I am doing much better then when I first started and this is 5 days before Christmas. I'm doing better than last weekend...so you will get better and the days are going to get longer after the 22nd. Yippee!
I have my cluttered areas of my house I need to work on and right now my brain is not functioning enough to work on all that bothers me. But I can just do the bare minimum, and that makes me feel better.
I'm cooking again, and I really haven't done much of that since my son died. But I'm cooking very healthy foods. I eat tuna on whole grain toast, chicken w/o skin with potatoes, carrots, celery, onions stew, from scratch. And homemade chili w/ extra lean ground beef, fat rinsed off and I add different beans and garbonzo beans as well as canned cut tomatoes to the mix. Along with fresh onions and no salt. I add my own chili powder from those rectangle tin cans.
Anyway, this is to build my "brain matter" and muscles. This stew or chili sits on my stove during the day on very low heat and gradually they just get better and better and keeps my weight down and gives me nourishment and no added salt or sugar to add to the anxiety I'm working on. I add a little bit of salt and pepper to taste when I serve it into a bowl.
So this gives me a feeling of accomplishment.
Also, my Christmas tree is a fake one with colored twinkle lights on it. I don't have ornaments on it, no fake pine garland on my fireplace mantle or entry way, I don't have any lights on the outside of my house or trees.
Just things are all minimal. It has been a bit hard getting use to it. But I can't do it all and I don't want to bother my youngest college student son or husband to get the decor down for me.
Because I know that I really need to just focus on overcoming my anxiety and do my volunteer work and just enjoy my family as they are and my little grandchildren.
Listen to Lucinda talk about expectations, that CD will really help.
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Take good care of your self. I'll be around...
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Paislee