Major depressive episodes are part of the major depressive disorder that I live with every day; however, I experience seasons or phases when my depression is worse than others. When I go through these major depressive episodes, I know how important it is to work toward recovering from them. I've developed some coping skills and activities that work for me. I'd like to share them with you so that, when you face major depressive episodes, you, too, will have some strategies in place to help in recovery.

Each winter, the National Eating Disorders Association (NEDA) sponsors an event called National Eating Disorders Awareness Week, and it's almost time for this annual outreach to make its return in 2019. This year's NEDA Week 2019 is from February 25 to March 3, and the overarching theme of the event is "Come as You Are." As a nationwide movement, NEDA Week 2019 aims to confront the stigma of eating disorders, enhance the visibility of its epidemic scale, and point toward access to recovery. So as it approaches, here is a basic rundown of what can be expected from the National Eating Disorders Awareness Week 2019.

There are few things that make you feel more helpless than seeing a loved one suffer from self-harm and not knowing how to make the suffering stop. Suffering, in most cases, is out of our hands. It is not within our direct control. With self-harm, it can be doubly frustrating because not only is it something outside of our control, but it also something that we often cannot even comprehend. It is a suffering that's both foreign and cruelly over-familiar, affecting everyone from our closest friends and romantic partners to members of our family.

Long before modern-day medicine existed, Eastern approaches to health and wellness recognized the power of the mind/body connection. Meditation, acupuncture, and self-compassion were a regular part of caring for the mind and body. Today, both medical and mental health professionals understand more about the scientific connection between our physical and mental wellbeing. Recently, I've been doing some research on the power of the mind/body connection and was surprised to learn how deeply rooted they are with one another.

Last Monday, I realized I needed to change my self-talk too late. I was working on a project that had taken a lot of time and effort. It was a challenge to keep working at it, and as the day progressed, I became increasingly frustrated -- not with the work itself, but with myself. My inner dialogue became more and more negative, producing many thoughts that were discouraging and not helpful. The more I experienced these thoughts, the less focused I was on my work, and this made it really difficult to finish my project quickly. The stress of completing this project ultimately made me feel angry and annoyed with myself despite the fact that the challenges I faced were not my fault, but instead were the natural consequence of taking on a complicated project. What I didn't realize until afterward, however, was just how much I could have changed my self-talk to improve my mental state and productivity. 

Executive dysfunction is a major problem for most people with all kinds of mental illness, myself included. Executive function is the ability to organize and execute our thoughts and actions, and executive dysfunction is the opposite: scattered thoughts, missed deadlines, and intense frustration over everyday tasks. Accomplishing even the simplest of goals can require a Herculean effort with executive dysfunction.

Focusing on success in our lives is difficult because it is so easy to focus on failure when dealing with a mental illness such as schizophrenia. In fact, it is easy to focus on failure in life in general. I’ve experienced many failures recently. My wife and I bought an antiquated farmhouse in December and we hoped to have several rooms renovated by now. Instead, we are still working on demolition and cleanup as we endured a number of setbacks, and I continue to struggle with low energy and crushing anxiety.

Having a mental health recovery-friendly home is important because an important piece of mental illness recovery is feeling safe -- and if you're lucky -- relaxed. We can't always control our environment and surroundings, but I do think there are ways to arrange and organize your home to aid your mental health recovery. Here are seven ways to make your home more mental health recovery-friendly. They are not major changes, just simple ideas that might make a difference.

I love that being an aunt is part of my life. There are many reasons people enjoy having nieces and nephews. Some people love them simply because they are adorable. Personally, I love spending time with my nieces because they enrich my life. Read this article to find out about some of the things that my nieces have taught me and why I love living the aunt life.

Bipolar doesn't make you unworthy of love. I have a lot of trouble with that statement. I don't have trouble because I don't believe it -- I do -- I have trouble because I don't feel lit. I'm not sure whether I feel like life has taught me that I'm unworthy of love because of bipolar or my brain just made up that nastiness because of the depression, all I know is that it feels true. It feels like I'm unworthy of love because of bipolar.