Blogs
The phrase “get over it” is something the mental health community has heard and spoken out against many times (What Is Stigma?). In particular, we hear it applied to depression and anxiety, but likely because those are the two mental illnesses that are most spoken about. The problem is, even though we’ve discussed the phrase and the problems it presents, it’s still something we hear over and over again, which, to me, means it’s something we need to continue speaking out against. "Get over it" just isn't helpful advice for a person with a mental illness.
In my experience, anxiety and binge eating disorder (BED) go hand-in-hand. Through years of treatment, I have learned how to manage my anxiety and properly and to use positive coping skills which have freed me from the need to binge eat. I've found you can cope with anxiety with binge eating disorder.
What causes anxiety (Anxiety Causes)? It's a question nearly all anxiety sufferers ask. Anxiety can range from mild to debilitating; it can be a vague and general experience like existential anxiety, or it can be one of many different types of anxiety disorders. Anxiety can be temporary, intermittent, or feel like it's permanent (that feeling that it will last forever is one of the lies anxiety tells you). Regardless of anxiety's nature and type, it's natural to want to know what causes anxiety. Anxiety can indeed have causes. Does it matter what they are?
Dissociative identity disorder (DID) is just one of several diagnoses listed in the dissociative disorders section of the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM-5). Many people live with dissociative symptoms, but don't meet all of the criteria necessary for a diagnosis of DID. When this is the case, a different diagnosis -- other specified dissociative disorder (OSDD) -- can be more fitting. These diagnoses all have dissociation in common, so what makes them different?
A relaxed mind is a happy mind. It took me two months full of busyness and stress to realize that simple truth. I relaxed my mind and found it to be happy.
Did you know you can use humor as a mental health coping skill? I dabble in stand-up comedy, using stories combined with sarcastic comments from my life as part of the act. Recently, I did a show about my time in rehab in the state hospital system. The entire time was traumatic; I refer to it as the worst four months of my life (What the State of Indiana Doesn’t Want You to Know). But using humor as a coping skill for mental health got me through it, and enabled me to look back on it and see the funny things, such as the control freak staff member who posted a sign that read, "If you fart in the dayroom you will be marked for disrespecting staff and peers!"
The stress of premenstrual syndrome (PMS) and the impact on women's mental health is a topic that applies to women who fear this time of the month due to extreme emotional behavior and discomfort (Hormones and Women's Mental Health). A mental disorder, such as my diagnosis of bipolar, consists of high ups and low downs -- a disorder filled with extremes. The combination of PMS and a mood disorder is riskier than PMS without a mental disorder. Recently, I have noticed as I near menstruation, depressive thoughts and emotions intensify to an extent that concerns me. To add to the apprehension of this monthly upheaval, there are serious disorders related to PMS that have major impacts on women's mental health.
Getting the kids back to school can be exciting, but it is important to take care of a mentally ill mom during the back-to-school transition. Moms with mental illness, especially, need take care of themselves in the midst of this huge back-to-school family transition.
It can be hard to be a positive person but these three tricks will help you break free from negative thinking and feel more confident in just a few minutes.
Do you know how to start recovery from a mental illness trigger event? Ever since Katrina hit and I served as a relief worker, I have had a fear bordering on terror of drowning. My city, Indianapolis, just got hit by a minor flood. I do not have the words to describe how I felt as I sat on the table of a friend's business and watched the water rise to the lugnuts of a car across the street. Let's just say I'm agnostic and I was praying like my life depended on it (Pushing Aside Daily Mental Health Triggers is Tough). Events such as these trigger psychiatric symptoms and are called mental illness trigger events. The good news is there is recovery from a mental illness trigger event.
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.