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Everyone needs to learn to respect themselves and stop letting others take advantage of us. Just the other day I noticed that I was about to let someone take advantage of me. It may not have been on purpose, but the gal at the checkout overcharged me for an item. I felt this strong sense of unfairness and asked her nicely to change the price. She apologized and fixed the mistake.
This may sound like a simple example, but the truth is, each time you stand up for what's fair, you respect yourself. When you stop allowing others to take advantage of you and respect yourself, your self-esteem improves.
Pilots’ mental health is a hot topic and stigma surrounding pilot's mental health is an important point to highlight. I am an airline pilot and mental health advocate. Let me tell you my experience with aviation, mental health and what I know about flying, stigma and being a pilot with a mental illness.
This quote has made me consider if mental illness really is the barrier to success we imagine it to be:
Success is not final, failure is not fatal: it is the courage to continue that counts.
Throughout my life I have found myself in positions that I thought would break me entirely. I have sat in my room with no door, surrounded by debts, destruction and bowls of my own vomit. I have laid in a hospital bed, covered in tubes and wires – desperate and alone. And I have crouched on the floor of mental institutions, rocking and trapped, painting bloody smears on the walls from the masochism of my own fingernails. But has all this mental illness been a barrier to success?
Getting diagnosed with binge eating disorder can be challenging because coming to terms with any diagnosis of a mental health issue can be difficult. After you're diagnosed, you might be feeling a lot of different things, all of which are normal to feel. It's important to remember that you are being treated for a psychological problem and that with treatment and personal accommodations, you can live a great, productive, happy life after your have been diagnosed with binge eating disorder.
Coping skills for posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) caregivers are important. Recently, I received a simple, single-lined email from a man looking for an answer to an important question: "What is the best coping skill I can use to help someone with PTSD?" As any caregiver knows, supporting a friend or loved on through PTSD can be a thankless, challenging, and patience-sapping process. There are, however, ways to help the job be clear, focused and proactive. If you are a PTSD caregiver or know of one, share these coping skills for PTSD caregivers.
Existential anxiety is an all-encompassing form of anxiety and stress that is present in a nagging way when we try to make meaning in life simply because, as humans, we exist. That’s a fun concept, isn’t it? We experience anxiety, stress, strife, worry, and even panic simply because we are alive. Being alive is certainly a wonderful thing, but existential anxiety can put a damper on it (this might be an understatement). Why does mere existence cause us dissonance and different kinds of stress, and can it go away? Can we make meaning in our lives despite this existential anxiety and stress?
Military sexual trauma is a risk factor for posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) and other mental illnesses; and, unfortunately, sexual trauma is unusually common in the military. The Veteran’s Administration has implemented universal initiatives for the screening of military sexual trauma, but is this enough to help veterans who experience sexual trauma and PTSD?
There are similarities between panseuxality and bisexual which really came to my attention after a previous post I wrote about the differences between pansexuality and bisexuality garnered some debate and even anger from bisexuals. Some bisexuals have stated that my post was wrong and even rude. Perhaps I did not clarify my views on the issue clearly because I do not hold any disregard toward bisexuals, especially since I used to identify as one for a very long time. I hope this post helps to explain my views on sexuality, the complications of labeling oneself and the similarities between pansexuality and bisexuality.
Delaying your self-approval prevents you from having a healthy self-esteem. You might be waiting for something to happen before you approve or feel good about yourself. For example, it might be losing that excess weight or having that perfect job, partner, dream home or more money. A healthy self-esteem is regardless of your circumstances and it's important to approve of yourself regardless of those things. Delaying self-approval is effectively delaying life and it's disempowering.
Mental health is related to the struggle for gay rights. Unless you've been living under a rock for the past few days, you've heard that my state, Indiana, has passed S.B. 568, the Religious Freedom Restoration Act, a law allowing people to discriminate against lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) individuals in the name of religious freedom. On Saturday, I marched with about 3,000 of my new best friends to protest this, even though I am not part of that community. I marched because I understand that mental health has a connection to the struggle for gay rights. Here are three cases where the struggle for gay rights is directly relevant to mental health.
I believe she will only be able to rid herself of her demons, and hopefully her BPD as well, when she's ready to confront the abuse of her father. If she can put the blame where it belongs, she may stop projecting that victim/perpetrator cycle on the present men in her life. These demons are a metaphor for the purgatory she has created for herself. That reality has consequences in the real world, but it need not be real in the tangible sense. Exorcising her demons will require the expenditure of real physical energy and probably the destruction of aspects of her personality. If this ever happens, and it's possible but not probable, then these demons will evaporate. They are only as real as one's personality is real. In short, reality is not the question, it's what you make of the things you feel to be real.