Lisa & Kube wish you a great transition into 2026! (Patreon)

Hi @all,

I wish you all a great start into 2026, and I’d like to draw a short conclusion! This will be less about GTS stuff, though—just some words of advice and thanks I’d like to share with you.

In short: For me personally, it was a pretty hard year, especially the first half due to mental health issues, as those who have followed me since early this year might remember.

But I managed to pull through. Thanks to a lot of help from friends, family, and many of you, I’m on a good path to recovery.

At this point, I can only advise you: Once your mood drops so much that it affects your body—like through loss of appetite or libido—seek help as soon as possible. Your rational thinking gets hijacked by mental health issues pretty quickly. In extreme cases, this “convinces” you that there’s no way out of your doom-filled thought spirals. Like you uncovered a bad truth that you will never recover from. Do not believe your own head during this time. This is the illness speaking.

I sincerely wish that no one who reads this ever experiences the depth of the chasm my brain fell into from January to May.

And in the very unfortunate case that it does happen, here are a few things I experienced myself that helped me:

It gets better if you seek help and prioritize your well-being during that time. There might be work or chores left undone during that period, but the work you do on yourself is far more important—and already taxing enough.

Unfortunately, it’s a marathon, not a sprint (the first thing I learned). You may feel like you fell into the hole from one day to the next, but I later realized my mental decline into depression had started at least half a year earlier before it got really bad. Never be angry with yourself for “not noticing it sooner.” That’s just your inner critic piling on another unjustified blame. But I promise, from my own experience, that it will get better!

Mornings are usually the toughest for people with depression or anxiety disorders. Unfortunately, our body kills two birds with one stone here: cortisol, our stress hormone, is also the one that wakes us up. During mental illness phases, it’s often upregulated to uncomfortable levels. If you notice everything feels easier in the evening or at night, that’s another sign that what you’re going through is also (or maybe mostly) chemical—because cortisol drops at night to let us sleep.

The way out of depression is unfortunately not a straight line upward, but you can make it close to one. Some days may be harder, or even several in a row. Don’t look for things you might have done wrong—just learn to accept it. Accepting it doesn’t mean “deal with it”; but fighting it only increases the mental pressure. This is a tug-of-war you cannot win, so at best, don’t engage in it.

Exercise is a great helper, even just a little. I’m not talking about daily sweaty workouts. Since this year, I’ve been going to a yoga class once a week (Vinyasa Yoga or Yin Yoga)—Vinyasa being the more active one, while Yin is very meditative. Or for something very easy at home: Progressive Muscle Relaxation. Just search on Spotify for a 15- or 30-minute audio guide and follow it. (PMR is more for calming down than for exercise per se, but it helps a lot.)

I started cooking for myself. Before this year, I mainly ordered food or ate at the cafeteria at work. But because of (or thanks to?) the awful hospital food, I began cooking. It started with simple “fix” products like this: https://www.amazon.de/Maggi-Fix-Frisch-Tomate-Mozzarella-Auflauf/dp/B01519A9X2

Simple recipes with all ingredients listed—an easy start. From there, I began “upgrading” my instant ramen. No longer satisfied with just noodles + flavor powder, I now usually add 4–5 toppings each time: eggs, black mushrooms, pre-grilled chicken, seaweed, or spring onions.

I actually developed such a desire to show off my newly acquired (basic-level) cooking skills that I made the soup for this year’s family Christmas dinner. So for my 34th Christmas, I was part of the cooking team—and I was genuinely happy about it. My friends even got me an Asian cooking course for my birthday. (Imagine telling that to the me from one year ago!)

Another thing that worked very well for me is writing therapy. Simply write down in the evening what went through your head that day or what’s currently on your mind—full stream of consciousness. Don’t give a shit about grammar or spelling. Just write it (with pen and paper, not on a computer). I try to focus on my worries or triggers to process them better. Usually, after 3–4 days, I’ve successfully climbed out of a mental dip. Note: It’s about consistency here. Do it daily, but don’t aim for long pages or stories.

Accept medication if needed. Some people dislike the thought, but mental illnesses are like other diseases in this regard: you can treat them, and they have chemical causes or are at least heavily worsened by chemical imbalances. I currently take four meds each day—one antidepressant, one for generalized anxiety disorder, and two over-the-counter ones that target similar things. Meds are crutches: they may not heal you on their own, but they give you the mental clarity to work on your issues. For some lucky people, they’re all that’s needed.

Get your PC out of your bedroom if possible. Until this spring, I had my PC in my bedroom—it had been that way since my teenage years. Now my bedroom is mostly just for sleeping, and my body knows it. My brain has adjusted: entering the bedroom means calming down, not being active on the PC. It also really helped my motivation to cook, since my oven is now just 2 meters to my left from where I’m writing this. Wearing pajamas again when sleeping was another helpful signal to my body to wind down.

Thanks to all these tips and tricks—and ongoing therapy—I’ve recovered enough already to create things like GBC and the other projects from this year. I was able to relaunch the monthly requests on Patreon and take on other commissions—something I absolutely couldn’t do earlier this year. (And my normal daytime job as well of course!)

Thanks to you and this community we share, I recovered from something my own brain deemed impossible in January/February. So can you! The first and most important step is to admit that something is wrong and that you need help. Don’t believe your own doom thoughts when you’re feeling bad.

That’s all from me to everyone who read this far. I wish you a great start into 2025, far away from any mental health struggles.

Best, Biggi1