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Self-care is critical for parents raising children living with mental illness. As parents, we tend to put our child's needs ahead of our own. This doesn't work. I've put together a list of eight self-care tips for parents of children with mental illness.
Reminiscing without self-harm can be hard but you can make memories without scars. With the social media today, practically every step you take is recorded. Whether you are tagged in photographs from the night before or you tweet about the meal you had, life is not a secret anymore. Technology has made it so you cannot forget some of the memories from your past because, well, they may show up on an app or in an online journal or blog you forgot about. Sometimes the most difficult memories are the ones that crush you without warning and reminiscing about these memories can cause self-harm.
Alcohol and self-injury definitely don't mix and can lead to serious consequences. As you may know, self-medicating is a way many people with mental illness deal with the symptoms of their disease. I have fallen into this trap multiple times with heavy drinking. Of course, choosing to self-medicate over a doctor-prescribed treatment is never a good idea, but alcohol can intensify our feelings when we are already suffering from the addiction of self-harm. We may hurt ourselves worse than we ever thought we could, which is exactly what I did.
Binge eating disorder can control your life -- if you let it. It is a major mental illness that can lead to an entire host of problems in a person's everyday life. There can be periods of relative calm where the problem is not at the forefront of a sufferer's thinking every day. But there can also be days where the struggle is too much to bear and things quickly get out of control. At times binge eating disorder did control my life.
Mental illness can damage relationships but you can repair relationships damaged by mental illness too. When you have a mental illness it can be difficult to maintain all kinds of relationships. Symptoms of unchecked mental illness are often the very factors that cause rifts in relationships between two healthy people. But it is possible to repair a mental illness-damaged relationship. As repairing your relationship with, and feelings about, yourself takes time, so does rebuilding the trust of loved ones and the closeness you have with others.
Alcoholism in the military is a big problem. Ask any man or woman who serves in a branch of our armed forces, and they will affirm that there is a drinking culture in the military with high expectations. No matter what your position, title, or unit, it seems that most of the military lifestyle revolves around alcohol. While the military didn't directly cause my alcoholism, the lifestyle and drinking culture of the service didn't protect me from it either.
Just like there is stigma around mental illness, there is also stigma when it comes to mental illness treatment center locations. Several years ago, an Indianapolis hospital closed, leaving a large vacant building. A drug and alcohol treatment center wanted to move into the abandoned hospital. The problem--said building was a few blocks away from the Indianapolis Children's Museum. During the public hearings on the proposal, the Children's Museum vigorously denounced the idea, citing concern for the children. The building remains empty. Was the outcry necessary or was it an example of mental illness treatment center location stigma?
Paralyzing anxiety is a very descriptive term. Anxiety can be paralyzing, almost completely shutting us down. Any type of anxiety can insidiously take over our thoughts, increasing our fears to the point where we want to shut down and hole up. Worries can make us feel as though we are stuck and can’t go on. However, there are ways we can move despite this paralyzing anxiety.
Anxiety disorder can damage your health in subtle, hidden ways that are not immediately apparent. While most of us are familiar with the more obvious health risks associated with anxiety disorder (sleep disorders and mental health, for example), anxiety can chip away at your physical health in little ways that can have a significant, cumulative impact over time. There are many hidden ways that anxiety disorder can damage your health.
Self-image is defined as “the idea one has of one’s abilities, appearance, and personality.” While it’s normal to occasionally have doubts about one or all of these things, when your internal monologue is predominately composed of an extremely negative narrative, it becomes impossible to enjoy life and other mental health issues can be exacerbated. Use these five habits to improve your self-image daily.
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.