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I am a firm believer in the healing power of service; I've found it helps with my borderline personality disorder symptoms. In the years that I've done service, I've learned many things--for example, the week I spent in Haiti straight out of high school taught me I didn't know jack about how American foreign policy affects the poor, but I digress. Three lessons I've learned are: you get back what you give, someone always has it worse than you, and helping others brings us closer to our Higher Power.
Help! I can't decide what to watch! I woke up this morning, after a raft of disturbing dreams, and I realized in short order I had some extra bipolar depression to deal with. I realized this when I sat in front of my television and couldn’t decide what to watch. Or if to watch TV at all. I had a whole whack of programs recorded in front of me and every one felt “wrong.” I stared at the TV. I stared at the computer. I couldn’t make the commitment to pick up the computer nor turn to a TV show.
One of the most important actions to be taken in eating disorder recovery is to talk back and say ‘No’ to the voice in your mind, while fighting against the disease. My co-author Jess pointed this out in last week’s post. Of course, this is easier said than done, and I can only empathize with you if you find yourself struggling with it, since it's a situation I had to go through, and still experience at times when I’m having a rough day trying to maintain my eating disorder recovery.
I have been working on my executive functioning (EF) skills during my week long break from school. How have I, chock full of adult attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), accomplished this? Well, by practising the steps of EF: planning, organizing and only then completing a task. I began, and completed, one project over break and am currently in the middle of my second (which I sadly won't finish for quite some time).
Depression and alcohol can be a dangerous combination. Drinking alcohol when you're depressed can worsen your depression. Similarly, drinking alcohol when you're in depression remission can seriously jeopardize that remission.
A relationship is, in essence, a connection with another individual and in our daily lives, it can come in many forms. A relationship may be described as familial, romantic, a friendship, an acquaintance, collegiate, or professional. Let’s face it, relationships have a colossal impact on our lives. Some can be uplifting and others can be discouraging. Can you think of any of your existing relationships that zap your energy and wear you down?
When you feel the need to self-injure, it takes a lot of self-control to push away the emotions and temptations connected to those urges. When you’re angry or upset and you turn to cutting or burning, your mind focuses on that mark and it is difficult to see anything else clearly.
Sometimes, all you need to prevent self-harm urges is a few minutes with a pet.
Want to know the secrets of confident and successful people? Here are 10 tips that make them powerful and self-assured.
There is legislation in the United States that prevents people from being discriminated against based on an illness - and this includes mental illness. So, then, there should be no discrimination against those with bipolar disorder in the workplace. Right?
![Recovering from an eating disorder requires one crucial word: no. Saying no to your eating disorder can move you further along in your recovery.](/sites/default/files/styles/blog_listing/public/uploads/2014/05/saying-no-eatig-disorder-healthyplace.jpg?itok=Vz_3tPWz "Saying "No" To Your Eating Disorder")
I've talked some before about how eating disorders take over your head - whether that be what you are doing and eating that day, or how you compare to the girl across the room. I can say now, nine months after discharging from inpatient and residential treatment for anorexia, that the voice of the dictator is far quieter than it has ever been. At times, it's even disconcerting - it feels as though I've lost a part of myself, or perhaps as if my best friend was giving me the silent treatment.
Please let me be clear: I am not trying to glamorize my eating disorder. Far from it (and that is a topic for an entirely different post). I am simply marvelling at how I have come to this point, which felt impossible just a few short months ago.
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.