Blogs
How does complex posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) interact with making new year resolutions? Society pressures us to make grand commitments for the new year related to how we will improve, maybe even completely change, our lives. Now don’t get me wrong, I think improving your life is a great thing, but the problem is, when you have complex PTSD, failing to commit to a New Year’s resolution can result in your year beginning with shame and depression.
Will your new year resolutions cause self-stigma? With the new year comes new resolutions. Many times those resolutions center around health and wellbeing, so it's no surprise people are making resolutions to overcome mental health struggles. But can new years resolutions create mental health self-stigma?
Most of us know a little bit about the midlife crisis, but have you heard about the quarter-life crisis? LinkedIn career expert Blair Decembrele describes the quarter-life crisis as "a period of insecurity and doubt that many people in their mid 20s to early 30s go through surrounding their career, relationships, and finances."1 A quarter-life crisis can be debilitating. To learn more about the quarter-life crisis and its effects on mental health, read this article.
As we start the New Year, I thought it would be a good time to address some of the things that active addiction steals from your life. Addiction is a thief of many things, and it is a horrible, ugly place to be. I know, because I have been there. It's a place filled with darkness, hopelessness, and despair, and given enough time, addiction will steal everything from you. During my drinking days, addiction stole so many things that little by little, my life became devoid of everything that I cared about.
Cold abuse, verbal abuse delivered without emotion, is familiar to many abuse victims. The film "I, Tonya," depicts the physically and verbally abusive home life of notorious Olympic skater Tonya Harding. Harding is best known for the scandal that took place in 1994 in which her husband, Jeff, carried out a plot to maim Nancy Kerrigan, her skating rival, prior to the winter Olympics that year. There is a scene in the film in which the teenaged Harding sits at the dining room table eating breakfast with her mother. She has a black eye, given to her by Jeff, her boyfriend at the time.
The intensity of my anxiety has me on a roller coaster. After a flare-up of my schizoaffective anxiety in September and October, my symptoms became really manageable again in November. I felt great. But then, when December came around, I started reeling in anxiety again. I’m not sure why I felt so good in November, or why my schizoaffective anxiety flared up again just in time for the holidays. But I have some ideas about why the intensity of my anxiety keeps changing.
Imagine being able to use anxiety-reducing phrases and feeling empowered to live your best life. Can words really have such influence? As anyone who lives or has lived with anxiety knows painfully well, anxiety is controlling and overpowering. It can shut down anybody, no matter who they are, how they live, or the hopes and dreams they hold dear. Despite this, there are many things we can all do to reduce anxiety and move forward. One such anxiety-reducing method is to adopt some empowering phrases, such as the ones below.
Sometimes you can't see a future with bipolar disorder. I get this. I really do. I have looked into the future with bipolar and it has felt like looking into an endless, black well. But recently, it occurred to me that you can see a future with bipolar disorder, and that future doesn't have to look completely bleak.
Could there be a good New Year resolution for the anxious mind? This isn’t a post about my specific New Year’s resolutions – those are personal. Rather, this is about New Year’s resolutions in general, and how they can be invaluable for someone with an anxious mind.
There are benefits to anxiety although my anxiety is debilitating at times. It prevents me from doing the things I want and should do. Some days it takes a lot of courage just to leave the house. Anxiety is a huge part of my life, and it's really difficult to think there could be anything positive about it. However, there are a few benefits to anxiety, and I hope this article can shed just a tiny bit of light in the darkness of those who struggle with it.
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.