Confidence raising through commenting on blogs.

My efforts to make friends through Girlfriend Social were not successful, but I have not been put of. I'm still not ready to start talking to people in real life, but I figure any little step I make is good, and so began commenting on two blogs I read, XOJane and Autostraddle. Between them these sites have, in just a few weeks, expanded my ideas and reignited my interests.
XOJane is the site that has sparked my interest in taking more care of myself, it's the reason I'm not eating sugar, the reason I now actually moisturise everyday (my skin feels so much nicer!) and gave myself a mini-manicure. It's matter-of-fact approach is perfect, real people recommending products they spend their own money on is great, but also the emphasis on self care as something that can improve the way you feel about yourself mentally is really good for me. Also, I often do a thing where I assume I won't like people, that I won't have anything in common with them. With XOJane I find myself wanting to be friends with so many of the writer's, because they are awesome, which has in turn made me think remember that a lot of the ways I think about friendship are informed by my social anxiety, but hopefully my CBT will help with that.
The other awesome thing about XOJane? It's reignited my interest in feminism! And not just feminism, the emphasis on intersectional feminism , so I've been reading posts that have made me want to read about disability rights, I've learned about fat acceptance. I've been more interested in wider things than I have been in ages, maybe this is just the antidepressants talking and I hadn't realised how much I'd been in a rut, but reading people's post, and the amazing comments section, has really had an impact on me.
Autostraddle is having the same effect on me, in different directions. It's a lesbian blog with a very queer feel, very inclusive, and very interesting. It's made me want to read about queer theory again, as well as reminding me how little I know about things like the Civil Rights movement. It's the only place where, when joining, I was able to tick the 'pansexual' box, normally I'm impressed if I can choose 'bisexual' or 'other'. Also, there is an amazing column that is just links to interesting articles, not generally about queerness, but about all sorts of other things, the KKK, child beauty pageants, medical insurance. I've been trying to read a wider variety of fiction and nonfiction, and this column makes it easy.
These two sites have made me feel part of a community, even before I started commenting, and I like commenting, I find it easier to talk to people online, and both sites are so friendly and casual. If I can talk to people easily online, even if it's just saying I liked their article, or that I too can't stand tinned tuna, it's a step closer to be being comfortable talking to people in real life.

CBT session 1

I had my first proper session of CBT last friday, after a couple of introductory sessions. I'd been looking forward to it because I'm really interested by the whole idea of CBT and I like psychology generally, I loved reading Freud and Jung at uni. I'm feeling a bit more comfortable with my therapist now, though it still seems odd how young she is, she's so nice and calm and together, while I don't feel like that about myself at all.
So, the session was great. We went through the 5 Aspects, using this worksheet, which I had done about two different situations as homework. The sheets are quite useful because they make me think about my reactions to situations, which is the whole point of them, and I am beginning to see the persistent negative or unhelpful thoughts that are such a big part of anxiety and depression. I knew I had them, obviously, but looking at them almost from an outsider's point of view is good. It feel like taking a step back, and I think that is the whole idea of the worksheets. I am a person who will endlessly analyse their actions, at least here I feel like I might be doing so in a productive way, rather than going round in circles, especially looking over the sheets with my therapist and adding to them as we talked about the situations.
The other thing we did was work together on a more general sheet with examples of situations that made me uncomfortable, and my reactions to them. We ended up talking quite a lot about body language, and also the conflict between not wanting to be noticed vs wearing almost aggressively noticeable clothing and hair, something I did more when I was younger. Also, we talked about 'safety behaviours', which are apparently something I do all the time. I hide behind a book, I clean my glasses when I don't need to, I hunch in a corner, all the way up to lying about being ill so I can go home, all the things I do in an effort to feel more comfortable. Clearly, some of them are more problematic than others.
The best thing about that one hour session was how interesting everything was. I tend to get stuck in a rut, read the same type of book, watch the same sort of things on tv, now I want to go and read about psychology, and mental health, and all sort of different things. It's so good to go into a therapy session feeling ok, and come out feeling really good.

Going sugar-free

Today marks one week of me having given up sugar. This is a pretty big deal because I like sweet things a lot, as the title of this blog hints. However, it was getting to the point I was comfort eating a lot, lots of pastries, chocolate and biscuits, and even the not obviously sweet food was mostly prepackaged and full of preservatives. I would keep trying to eat healthily and then have a not-so-good day so get a big pack of chocolates. When I read something online about someone who gave up sugar for three months and started to sleep really well I decided that a lax attitude to healthy eating is not getting me anywhere, so maybe a really strict attitude will, though not a diet, because I am very distrustful of dieting.
It's actually gone really well, apart from a slip-up on saturday when I forgot that cranberry juice is actually cranberry juice drink and so has sugar in, the sugar rush from that was pretty intense after 5 days without any. I discovered nearly everything I eat has sugar in, so I've been making a lot more from scratch, and I've ended up eating more vegetables than before, which is good. Because of my medication I also can't drink alcohol, which is annoying in pubs as nearly everything has sugar or alcohol in, but I've been drinking lots of coffee, peppermint tea and green tea with jasmine. I think I may end up losing weight because of this, but that's not why I'm doing it, I just want to feel healthier and sleep better. I will start eating sugar again, after a while, but not in the same quantities, and I'll try to stay away from white bread and food that's full of preservatives too.
This is what a typical day without sugar looks like for me:

Breakfast:
Banana
Tea
Porridge

Lunch:
Brown bagel with cheese and spicy hummus
Carrot sticks
Unsalted nuts with raisins
Tea
Water

Snack:
Apple
Poppy seed biscuits

Tea:
Couscous with vegatables, lemon and chili
Cheesy roll with butter
Natural yoghurt
Green tea with jasmine

Medication

At the moment I feel like if you were to shake me I'd rattle, I'm taking so many different tablets. I'm taking:
Sertrolene - anti-depressant
Birth control
Victamin C and zinc - to ward off colds
Vitamin B12 - to increase energy
Painkillers - for my bust ankle
Diazepam - to help me sleep or if I get especially anxious.
I don't overly like the idea of taking lots of medication, but the pill is the best thing ever, and being so stressed and anxious I snap at people all day and cry myself to sleep/ lie awake worrying so much I can't sleep is clearly not a good state to be in. I am a little worried by the diazepam, it's not for everyday, just for if things are especially bad, which slightly reassures me, but the fact I'm taking valium seems such a big thing. On the other hand, I found it pretty funny when I realised, like I'm a character from Valley of the Dolls or something. I took one the other night when I couldn't sleep and was actually really disappointed, it didn't do anything and it still took me ages to get to sleep. Hopefully my eating better and exercising more will sort out my sleeping instead, I will still try the diazepam if I have a really bad anxiety situation, but the fact I can't sleep beacause I'm anxious and worrying doesn't bode well.
I'm hoping to drop the anti-depressants and diazepam soon, in a few months, because hopefully by then the combination of exercise, good diet and therapy will have all worked together to make me a bit more stable and less anxious on their own. I'm ok with medication as a short term solution, I don't like the idea of it being long term that much.