How do you celebrate?
When something great happens in your life how do you celebrate?
Here are a few things I do:
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I don't, but then again I'm suffering from dysthymia.
I had to look up dysthymia, but it sounds awful, I'm so sorry š«
I don't have PDD, but I do have a variety of mental health symptoms that overlap with the symptoms of PDD, and while I'm doing a lot better these days, I have previously suffered decades of depression, anxiety, and suicidal ideation that I wouldn't want anyone else to go through. š
If not celebration, what are ways that you cope or find joy?
I remember through those times rewarding / tasty food became a bit like a lifeline. I do not know your depression, but my depression was very anhedonic, so as a baseline everything was less enjoyable.
So I had a lot of "craving" behavior, seeking easy and quick rewards because I couldn't motivate myself to do much else and nothing was enjoyable anyway.
Cooking for others became a major coping strategy, as cooking for others triggered my sense of responsibility, which helped with the depressive / motivation issues.
Basically I could leverage stress to animate my unwilling flesh (even though it was, you know, stressful and awful), and getting good enough at cooking then setup a reliable pattern of rewards.
Eventually I noticed if I ate at restaurants too much or outsourced my cooking to something like prepared or frozen meals to save time, I became much more miserable and sank more into my depression - honestly cooking kept me alive in multiple senses.
Anyway, I wonder if you have something like that, not necessarily celebratory - but like a spring bubbling up from the ground that sustains you.
Short answer: I drum a lot in my session room.
But joy? That word is weird to me. I just do music nonstop these days and I hope I don't happily walk in front of a train. That's basically it.
I find a little "joy" whenever I listen to certain music, or I'm playing certain music.
That's it. Sorry my response isn't a lot more happy than you hoped for.
lol, I borderline worry I shouldn't talk to you because I think we have some similar afflictions and perspectives, and usually I steer things right into "yeah, why even be alive" territory ... that's not gone so well with some other folks so I try to be more ethical and aware about that potential now.
so yeaah, didn't expect happy - but I might have been trying to steer myself away from the dark places I typically would have gone, and it seems you got what I meant - the things that keep you alive. š
Music can be great, I taught myself the electric bass a couple years ago - that can be fun š