Blogs
When you have bipolar disorder, advocating for your health is even harder. And honestly, doctors are often to blame for this difficulty. Not all doctors are the same, of course, but many treat people with serious mental illness in ways different from other patients. Learn why it's so hard to advocate for your health with bipolar disorder and what you can do about it.
If you have Googled ways to improve your productivity and motivation or read career and personal development blogs, you've probably seen the phrase "eat the frog" at least once. Coined by Brian Tracy, an acclaimed personal development author, it is a famous metaphor. To quote Tracy, it is "your biggest, most important task, the one you are most likely to procrastinate on if you don't do something about it. The key to reaching high levels of performance and productivity is to develop the lifelong habit of tackling your major task first thing in the morning."
I’ve told you about how exercise helps with my schizoaffective anxiety, but what I haven’t shared is the fact that my schizoaffective anxiety can make exercise stressful. Here’s why.
Arguments can be a regular part of an intimate relationship. However, when these arguments escalate, the line between a difference of opinion and verbal abuse can be unclear. There can be subtleties that point to verbal abuse and have no place in a fight with your significant other.
I’ve written for this blog for a few years, and in that time, I’ve given a lot of advice for what I think are good strategies for keeping one’s anxiety under control. For that reason, It would be easy for anyone reading this to label me an “expert,” even though I don’t have the academic credentials to be labeled as such.
I've been overwhelmed recently. My social world is reopening post-pandemic, my work is busy, and I'm back at college in the evenings. While these are things that I'm very grateful for, having such a busy schedule leaves little space for me to relax and regulate myself. Last week, my boss said something to me that completely challenged my perspective. She suggested that I take all the supportive skills I've learned from my caring roles (both for my brother and in a professional context) and offer them to myself.
Many workplaces say their employees' mental wellbeing matters, but not all workplaces are built the same. Some promote mental wellness but don't deliver, whereas others do. With starting a new job, I feel for the first time like I'm someplace where my workplace actually cares about mental wellness.
If you experience intense mood swings and start behaving out of character, it might be easy to blame it on a mood disorder. For instance, if you have skipped classes several times, you might say that it was because of your anxiety. While that was probably a huge reason for it, there could be more specific reasons as to why your anxiety increased. The things that stimulate a negative change in your thoughts, behaviors, and actions can be loosely thought of as your triggers. Identifying your triggers so that you can deal with them is important for you to manage your mood disorder symptoms and increase your quality of life. To learn how to recognize and deal with your triggers, continue reading this post.
Codependency can look different ways for different people. For me, an effect of codependency was losing sight of what I actually wanted, as opposed to what choice would make me happy.
I just celebrated my first marriage anniversary. When I was younger, my borderline personality disorder (BPD) symptoms were so intense that I struggled to maintain long-term, healthy relationships. However, I have adopted some strategies to keep my marriage and myself healthy.
I read this book many years ago, just as I was entering the turmoil of remembering, questioning and doubting myself all the way (as I'd been covertly taught over a lifetime). I happened to mention to my two sisters one day, "This is so strange but I've been diagnosed with PTSD." Both my sisters surprised me by responding, "Me too."
THEN I happened upon an old book manuscript that my now deceased father had written (not published), wherein the protagonist was obviously based upon himself and he rapes his "fiancee," who had my unusual name. Yes, truly.
Then I made myself look at the peculiar memory I always had where he violently threatened me but somehow I had never been able to recall what came before or after the episode. I had to admit that was a bit strange.
The pressures and powers to forget sexual abuse are great, both in family and society. In fact, I've come to the sad conclusion that the vast majority of survivors never really deal with their childhood wounds (a neglect for which there are always repercussions).
To critique an encouragement of people trusting their intuition in such matters is really getting the prescription dangerously wrong.
Thanks!