Blogs
My name is Virginia Boyles and I am one of the authors of the Work and Bipolar or Depression blog on HealthyPlace. I was first diagnosed with depression and generalized anxiety disorder when I was 16 years old in 2007. My struggle with mental illness has inspired me to help others with similar experiences empower themselves to make healthy choices. I believe that the more open we are about our struggles with mental health, the less mental illness stigma we face, and therefore, the more we have the social support we need to thrive.
Hobbies can calm anxiety, and I use them as self-help in my daily mental health struggles. A friend recently asked me what alleviates my anxiety. I quickly quipped that I’m always anxious, and then I realized that isn’t exactly true. My passions—music, reading, and writing—may never make me rich. But these hobbies allow me to calm my anxiety and are valuable mental health self-help tools.
Remember this binge eating recovery tip for the new year: Take small steps every day. The dawning of the new year tends to make us feel that once midnight strikes we need to make big changes right away. The issue with this can be that it is all too much, too soon. This is the same when it comes to your binge eating disorder recovery. Small steps every day will help achieve the lasting changes you desire.
New year anxiety can be a problem when you're thinking about the future. Beginning a new year can be very stressful. You'll hit more milestones. You'll experience triumphs and setbacks. So it's understandable that the first month or so might shake some nerves. Here are some ways to cope with new year anxiety.
So often during the day I tell myself to, "Calm down," but this isn't because I'm buzzing around my apartment, it's because of my bipolar inner restlessness. Telling me to calm down would be natural if I was climbing the walls, but sitting still on my couch doesn't seem to be the time to do it. And yet, I do it all the time. It's very real and very necessary. Inner restlessness in bipolar disorder is real and it's necessary to know how to deal with it.
How do you know if you are an alcoholic? What makes a person an alcoholic? Perhaps you're wondering because the start of a new year often brings reflection on the past as well as hope for the future. It can prompt a person to make resolutions to be healthier, and that may be motivation to look at whether he or she is an alcoholic. Addiction to alcohol, or alcoholism, is not a one-size-fits-all disease. There isn’t a blood test for it, it doesn’t consist of a specific number of drinks per day, nor can someone decide that you are an alcoholic for you. Whether or not you are an alcoholic depends on a number of conditions, the biggest being the effect that alcohol has on your life.
Usually, I can figure out the reason for hearing voices. I hear schizoaffective voices a lot. This week, I heard them two days in a row. That’s never happened before. But I think I know why my schizoaffective disorder made me hear voices two days in a row.
Weekend depression turns out to be real. I noticed a few years back that while the rest of the world seems to live for the weekends, when I was depressed, the weekends would often make me feel even more depressed. I’ve discovered some reasons for weekend depression and what we can do to feel better.
This is your year to find ways to reduce anxiety. Most likely, you’ve been working on doing so already, which means you have a head start. You may have already experienced successes, and you can build on that momentum this year. You might also have experienced setbacks and difficulties getting rid of worries, fears, social anxiety, racing or obsessive thoughts, and the myriad effects and symptoms of anxiety. This is why it’s important to celebrate a new year. A new year is symbolic of a fresh start. You can learn new ways to reduce anxiety in 2018.