Blogs
What is dating like for me as someone open about my life with bipolar 2 disorder?
Anxiety in romantic relationships, for better or worse, complicates love. I’ve had a variety of significant others. Some partners were supportive of my mental conditions, while others were not sympathetic to any significant degree. I’ve had to deal with many problems, such as rejection and anxiety about the state of my relationships. Though anxiety complicates my romantic relationships, it doesn’t make romance impossible for me.
“Emotional contagion” occurs when we mirror the strong emotions of those around us whether those emotions are negative or positive. As a parent of a mentally ill child, it can be difficult not to "catch" our child’s negative emotions. By employing a few tools, parents can avoid the downward spiral of emotional contagion and help their melting down child find a way back to the positive.
Eating disorder support keeps you from feeling alone in the world. Connecting with others who are experiencing or have experienced the same things as you is a great way to get through these feelings of loneliness caused by the eating disorder. Learn about how to find eating disorder support.
Sometimes it feels as if your body isn’t yours because of bipolar medication. It feels like the medication takes over your very being. It feels like you no longer have a human body but, rather, a collection of drug-related effects. This particularly happens when you’re getting on medications or tapering off medications, but really, bipolar medication can make you feel like your body is not your own at any time.
I have low self-esteem and schizophrenia (schizoaffective disorder). Unfortunately, I often feel very low self-esteem. I don’t know if it’s because of my schizoaffective disorder, but the schizoaffective disorder sure doesn’t help.
How does social media make you depressed when spending time on social media can be a fun way to pass time? Social media can be an efficient way to stay in contact with friends and see what’s going on in their lives. It can be enjoyable to share what’s going on in our own lives. But when we’re depressed, it can be easier to just stay in and spend time on our social media sites rather than rather than spend time offline, e.g. going jogging outside or meeting up with friends in person. Yet when we’re already feeling depressed, social media can cause us to feel even more depressed. I’ve discovered a few reasons for why social media makes you depressed and what you can do about it.
Going to substance abuse treatment benefits addicts and makes your life so much better. I know that it did for me. It was a life-changing experience that improved nearly every aspect of life I can think of. Addiction controls how one thinks, feels, and behaves. That makes it nearly impossible to stop using without professional help. It is often recommended that people who are addicted to drugs or alcohol attend an inpatient addiction treatment facility. Making the leap from addiction to recovery isn’t easy, but it brings with it many significant benefits that are hard to overlook. Consider these 10 ways that substance abuse treatment benefits your life.
Is it anxiety or a medical condition? It can be hard to tell because anxiety can feel miserable throughout the entire body, and symptoms can be frightening enough to cause people to wonder if they have anxiety or a medical condition. Not knowing what your symptoms mean can increase existing anxiety or cause new anxieties and worries. Of course, that can worsen physical symptoms and that, in turn, increase worries. Worrying whether you have anxiety or a medical condition can become a vicious cycle of worry, physical discomfort or pain, and worsening mental-- and physical health. Knowing what medical conditions share symptoms with anxiety can help you sort out the healing approach that is best for you.
Self-compassion and self-esteem both help us develop ourselves and create wellbeing. But some psychologists argue that we should focus on practicing self-compassion because it is superior to building self-esteem.1 Dr. Kristin Neff is a well-known proponent of this view. She believes that trying to raise your self-esteem can lead to major downsides, including narcissism, anger and resentment. But while it may be true that we could all benefit from self-compassion and should avoid these drawbacks, this doesn’t mean we should ignore self-esteem. It can still play a vital role in our wellbeing.
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.