Need cheering-up suggestions

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I have been growing increasingly depressed, and today just can't stop crying. I used to smoke cigarettes as a way to numb my feelings, but I quit smoking a few weeks ago. I'm trying to find other ways of cheering up, but need some suggestions.

The conditions are that - I can't leave the house, and I have no access to television, but do have internet TV and DVD player.
I also have btownBZ whom I can order around.

Any thoughts?

The Great Cat God would tell you what to do... but She believe you already know the answer.

The only thing that works for me, when I get that bad, is that I stop expecting anything of myself. I go into survival mode and just do the basic necessities... food, bathing, clothing.

Cigarettes have a MAO-B inhibitor plus nicotine. Which is why if you ever used nicotine
replacement products you likely did not get the same pleasure from them as cigarettes.

The anti-depressant effects from MAO-B inhibitors is not very high in my opinion. I used 10 mg deprenyl(a MAO-B inhibitor) daily for along time lessor amounts for many more years.

Some people/studies claim combining with a dopamine precursor its has a greater effect
(such as phenylalanine).

Its possible your in a group of people likely better to respond to dopamine boosting drugs since you had good effects with cigarettes. Have you ever tried the drug wellbutrin?

I can't believe I'm going to suggest this, but... have you ever tried playing the online video game called World of Warcraft? I don't know you so it might not SOUND like something you would be interested in, but I think that even if it doesn't, you would probably find that you really like it.

When I'm depressed (and I do mean clinically depressed, not sad) it helps me a great deal. It's easy to do, it absolutely inevitably makes you make friends with people, and it's always interesting and fun because it offers an incredibly wide variety of activities. It gets your mind off real life. It's a whole new world. It's fun and appropriate for anyone over the age of ~14 who feels comfortable with computers.

It requires a computer with a relatively decent video card (it DOESN'T have to be top-of-the-line; just not 7-year-old utter crap). It's addictive, though!

Edit: The more I think about it, the more strongly I want to recommend it to you. I think a lot of people on this site play it. Give it a shot!! If you want any details on how to get started, let me know.

Last edited by Esperanza on 02 Apr 2007, 8:13 pm, edited 1 time in total.

Get creative. Maybe get involved in making your own cards...or pictures. I always found cross stitch and embroidery very relaxing and you get a nice picture at the end of it. Either that, or get into video games. I only have to start playing Kingdom Hearts for a little while and it cheers me up as it is just so escapist and you can become someone else, even if only on a screen. Writing is another good way...or helping others. I always managed to take the attention of my own misery when helping others, and more often than not, realised I was able to give them good advice for their similar situations, yet not take it myself.

Chat is good too... not sure if you have msn, yahoo, AIM or google chat, but it is sometimes nice to just talk to someone one to one in the present.

you can also try the chat room here. that cheers me up sometimes.

My 8 and 10 yr olds have been playing WoW non-stop for days . They're on day 6 of the free trial. My son has an undead level 11 warrior.

Online shopping: spending money on things you don't really need always helps. I got an old Jornada 720 in the mail the other day from an auction, that helped. I would have preferred a graduate school acceptance letter, but, eh, better than a rejection.

Research things you are interested in online. (wikipedia, the great time-waster that isn't a complete waste of time.)

Online games: Not just WoW, but even stuff like the Yahoo Games stuff (That's still around, right?) Chess, checkers, cards, etc. And people to play against.

Browse youtube for entertaining videos. The "300 PG version" clip on there is amusing. The College Saga clip is fantastic if you have any interest / knowledge of basically any older RPG / Zelda-like game.

Like others already said, talking to people can also help, be it on the forum, through PMs, over something like AIM, in a chat room, etc.

It's not the game itself that I would think is inappropriate for someone 8-10; it's the people within the game. I hope they chose a PVE, non-RP server! The people on PVE servers tend to be more family-friendly. Cybersex is rampant on RP-PVP and RP-PVE servers, and people are not quiet or private about it.

Once your son reaches level 20 he will be venturing to new areas within the game where the competition with other players will become more vicious. If he's on a PVP server, the behaviour of players in these "contested" zones can be cruel, and it might be a lot for a younger child to handle. I've heard horror stories about the way younger children react to the inevitable in-game harassment.

He'll probably also join a guild eventually. You might want to be careful about who he associates with. People generally do not censor the things they say in the game, and they can't tell whether they're talking to a 40-year-old man or a 10-year-old boy. Although people of all genders and ages play WoW, statistically speaking the average WoW player is a 20-something man, and people tend to assume everyone they meet in the game is 20+ and male.

urm... it occurs to me that you might want a glossary:

RP = Role-Playing, where players talk and act like they're living the game. Some people REALLY get into it.
PVP = Player vs. Player, where players kill each other in contested zones. This is called "ganking" and can be extremely stressful if you're on the losing end of the fight and you're trying to get something done. PVP servers attract people who delight in making other people miserable.
PVE = Player vs. Environment, where players always have the choice to opt out of player vs. player gameplay. PVE servers attract gentler people.

That's good advice, you could also try some gardening, plant a tree in your backyard, take care of it.

how about creat stuff? and sell it in sites like ebay or etsy.com

I use Wellbutrin for bipolar disorder. While I never smoked, I'm aware that the EXACT SAME medicine is used in Zyban, a medication to help people stop smoking. I also checked up on Wellbutrin in Wikipedia, and it is primarily a dopamine-reuptake inhibitor. Anyway, people often get a bit crazy when they try to stop smoking; the nicotine is INCREDIBLY addictive. It's not really your fault; it's a normal neurochemical reaction to nicotine withdrawal. Hope this helps.

One thing that is often missing in some online descriptions of Wellbutrin is in case of its anti-depressant action its likely mostly due to secondary metabolites that are potent
noradrenaline re-uptake inhibitors.