advertisement

Blogs

I like to avoid tense situations in my everyday life. I enjoy living in a peaceful, harmonious, and stable society. Yet tense situations are an inescapable part of nature. Life-or-death struggles are ever-present, whether fighting over territory, for a mate, searching for food, or avoiding being eaten. In an increasingly civilized world, can intentionally engaging in tense and stressful situations benefit our experience of bliss?
My name is Daniel Lyons (they/he), and I am the new co-author of the blog "The Life: LGBT Mental Health." I am 36 years old and a transgender, queer, bisexual, non-binary person living in California with multiple mental health diagnoses. Throughout my life, I struggled with misdiagnosis and struggled to get adequate care for my mental health. Some of this had to do with being assigned female at birth and doctors not taking my symptoms seriously and underdiagnosing. Some of it had to do with diagnosis difficulty and the presence of multiple diagnoses. I can confidently say now I live with bipolar disorder, attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), and posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD). I also live with gender dysphoria, which I will talk more about in blog posts to come. It’s a complicated matrix of diagnoses, but I want to write this blog post for folks to know there is hope.
The question is, can you heal from verbal abuse? Verbal abuse is prevalent in many relationships. It does not choose age, skin color, or social standing. Instead, you can find this harmful behavior in various places, like the school playground, between partners at home, or even in the workplace. With such a widespread problem, is it even possible to heal from the negative effects of verbal abuse?
A lot of worrying comes with my schizoaffective anxiety. I am constantly worrying—ask anyone who knows me. Even someone who doesn’t know me that well knows that I worry all the time. And to top it all off, I blame myself for my worrying, even though it's anxiety-related. Here’s what it’s like.
I struggled quite a bit with procrastination when I was younger, and it wasn't until recently that I realized it had been associated with my anxiety. Not only does anxiety cause you to want to avoid tasks, but it also results in avoiding important tasks for as long as possible and completing them at the last possible minute. Anxiety can make you procrastinate.
Shame can trap people in a cycle of alcoholism and addiction. Often, this becomes a skewed internal dialogue where the sense of shame exceeds the inciting event. An example would be someone isolating themselves from their family or friends after a potentially embarrassing episode whilst drinking. Rather than suppressing shame or guilt, I believe that exposure by self-evaluation and reflection is the best way to avoid the cycle that links shame and alcoholism. 
Emotions make us human, but sometimes I wish I didn't feel anything. I believe life would be a lot easier without the ability to experience emotions and feelings.
Suffering from anxiety is hard. With all of life's challenges, it can be difficult not to let anxiety mold itself into an ever-looming monster in one's mind. I've had a habit of elongating my own suffering from anxiety with needless rumination, worrying, and dread. But why allow my anxiety to take away from all the other moments in my life?
Sometimes, the chaos of life feels so insurmountable that taking advice from another human just won't do—the wisdom needed is beyond the scope of mere mortals. In times like these, a vaster source is necessary. If you're secular and starting to get antsy at the sound of this, don't worry. I'm not talking about your typical humanoid deity. I'm talking about the ocean.
There are coping skills for breakups, but learning them took me a while. One of the things I hate most about the summer is that it seems to be my season of breakups. Every time it happened years ago, I felt like something was wrong with me. I lost hope in ever having a lasting relationship. My mind went to dark places for several months. This time, however, I have techniques to ease the healing process. Continue reading to learn about my list of breakup coping skills.

Follow Us

advertisement

Most Popular

Comments

Emma
Hi Natasha
Thanks for another great article! Although I wonder if there's at least an astronaut living with Bipolar.
I started Latuda (20 mg) in January 2020. I feel better than I have ever felt in my entire life before and after being diagnosed with BP.
I couldn't go back to life before bipolar disorder, because if I didn't always have it, I always suffer from mental illnesses like depression and OCD. But I definitely wouldn't go back to life before Latuda.
Blessings,
Emma
Rochelle
Hey I just want to say hi. I read what you wrote and felt like maybe you might could use some one to talk to. I looked up about cutting scars and the healing process and found this page. I've been going through some stuff with my husband and picked up scissors last night. I wasn't really trying to cut myself or do any harm, but yet this morning I have marks on my arm. I got to thinking as I read your post how I can see that if we don't have someone to talk to or ways to deal with the issues of life, how this could become an outlet. I'm sorry that you've had to go this route. Maybe your road here started like my incident last night did. Idk what brought you to where you are today. But I do want to say that I know, even in my mess with my husband, there's a better way. I'm not here to preach to you. I'm not a preacher. I'm just a lady who's a mom and a Nana. I love my family and would do anything to help them. And when I read your post, it made me want to reach out to you. So here I am. The better way to deal with things is this... his name is Jesus. He is the son of God. He came to this world and gave his life for our sins. He died and rose again 3 days later. He's alive and he cares about you more than anyone ever will or could. All he wants is for you to call on his name and talk to him. If you'll receive him, he will make things better for you. He cares about what you care about. He's never to busy for you and never has anything else more important that you. He's a friend that will stick closer than a brother. he will never leave you nor forsake you. He will be with you until the very end. Just call on him.
Again I'm not a preacher. I'm just someone who's life Jesus changed one day after learning about him and calling on him. I hope somehow I was at least a little help to you. If you'd like to talk, I'm here.
Sage
I have a blood test tomorrow and the vein the doctor needs blood from is the one covered in cuts, from my wrist to elbow and my mum will be in the room. my makeup doesn't hide well and my cuts are bumpy and hard to hide, even if my mums not in the room I'm scared the doctor will tell my mum I've been self harming
Rachel
I'm so grateful for finding you all here. My late mother was my best friend and we battled on together through domestic violence, death, birth, divorce, cancer and dementia. She helped raise my 3 sons all in their twenties now after their dad left when they were 5,3&2.
They are all high achievers and I'm very proud of them but I too feel like I'm walking on egg shells. They are critical, insensitive and hold me responsible for all the wrongs in the world. I also feel that I can't live my own life and all my choices and decisions are scrutinised. They hold their partners families in high regard and pander to all of their needs. I feel sad, lonely and often depressed after speaking with my eldest son. His partner is moody and demanding and I feel he takes it out on me rather than confront her. I'm 53, single, hard working and just want to start living a life without constant criticism and guilt. I've had enough! I think this generation are entitled, Narcissistic and very selfish.
Anonymous
I’ve been doing sh since i was 8, so it’s been really hard to quit. The best advice is probably to sleep so i hope this helps, i don’t really know what to say.