Blogs
How do you know if you're addicted to your phone? Phones and tablet devices are rapidly becoming the most addictive substances in Western culture (What Is Addiction? Addiction Definition). The extent to which we use and rely upon our phones is staggering. We are rapidly becoming a society full of cell phone and social media addicts, thanks to fantastic developments in cell phone technology intended to improve our lives. The first step to abating the rise of phone addiction is to spread awareness about what it means to be addicted to your phone.
There is a stigma around suicide that says suicide is selfish. Despite all the conversations everyone has started about mental illness, despite any awareness campaigns and openness from people who have struggled, suicide is still a touchy subject (#SU4MH). It’s avoided and it’s looked down upon. Most commonly, suicide is called selfish. How can someone kill themselves and not think about the people left behind? How can someone only think of their own pain? But the idea that suicide is selfish is a product of stigma.
Occasionally, people tell me they're too busy to eat, even with binge eating disorder. But self-care is not about having extra time in your day to care for yourself, it's about designating time in your day to make sure you do the basic tasks you need in order to be healthy (Practicing Self-Care Is Hard But Vital For Mental Health). In this day and age we're all busy people, but eating regular meals is not a luxury. It's a necessity. Even if you're "too busy" you need to eat with binge eating disorder.
To focus on anxiety is not typically people want to do. To focus on anxiety is not typically advised to people who want to overcome anxiety. Of course, to successfully overcome anxiety and find inner peace, it's wise to focus on anything but anxiety. Ignoring anxiety -- paying attention to what anxiety isn't -- is a powerful way to train the brain to think about other things. However, there are times when it's actually helpful to focus on your anxiety; seriously.
Multiple studies link generosity to happiness. So, if you want to use an evidence-based approach to finding bliss, be generous and get happy.
For those living with dissociative identity disorder (DID), self-care -- even the most basic physiological and safety needs -- can feel like impossible tasks to fulfill, especially during times when self-care is most needed. If basic needs are unmet, this can hinder the healing process and make living with DID a little more challenging. You must meet your basic needs with DID self-care.
Mental illness and addiction runs through my family alongside codependency. Mental illness is hereditary, flowing through families, from parent to child, from uncle to nephew. Where there is mental illness in a family there is a heightened instance of addiction (Substance Abuse and Mental Illness). But we don't acknowledge enough that where there is mental illness and addiction in families, codependency is often passed down as well.
There are three things mental health professionals don't know about their clients because of stigma. Sometimes we're lucky and get a mental health professional who understands us, but many times we get a mental health professional who believes myths about mental illness or about mental health consumers. I've met many mental health professionals, and I would like for them all to understand three things: one, we're not children, two, we have an illness and not a character fault, and three, each case is unique.
How do you go about mourning a therapy pet in a healthy way? On Wednesday, my precious therapy rat Annabelle was diagnosed with pneumonia and abscessed lungs. I made the heartbreaking decision to put her to sleep. Now I am mourning the loss of a therapy pet (Coping With Loss: Bereavement and Grief). The loss of a pet can be just as painful as the loss of a human. In this video, I talk about what to do to mourn the loss of a therapy pet in a healthy way.
We all need to heal the shame associated with trauma and posttraumatic stress disorder. Trauma survivors and those of us with posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) often have a heavy feeling of shame attached to our trauma. Shame related to trauma is especially common in survivors of domestic violence, physical and sexual abuse, and rape. I have experienced shame related to the trauma that led to my PTSD, and it has been difficult to make sense of. It is something that I continue to work on in my PTSD recovery even now. Fortunately, there are some effective ways to deal with the shame that accompanies trauma and PTSD.
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.