advertisement

Coping Skills

Stressful life events play an enormous role in mental health issues; the connection between stress and mental illness is strong. There have been a few stressful events in my life that have really affected my mental illness symptoms. Moving, college, and motherhood have had the biggest impact on me. Some of these events took place before I was diagnosed with schizoaffective disorder and bulimia, and some took place after. Here’s what happened and how I coped with these stressful life events.
A daily journal becomes a powerful tool when it comes to mental illness recovery because it allows you to get out of your head and onto paper. Oftentimes when someone is recovering from mental illness, they spend a lot of time alone or feeling lonely (even if they are around other people), and he or she is usually in his or her head with his or her thoughts. When you are able to write down your thoughts, your feelings, your beliefs, and what you are going through, something magical happens. You find so much clarity and peace in that practice, one of the many mental health benefits of journaling. Keeping a daily journal will aid your mental illness recovery.
Have you ever wondered what it's like to hear voices? Hearing voices is a classic symptom of schizophrenia. The bad news is, they're sheer torture. The good news is, medication can help--I haven't heard voices in several years. But for those of you who wonder, here's what it's like to hear voices.
While not an official mental health diagnosis, video game addiction is very real (Addicted to Video Games). This is embarrassing to admit, but I did nothing yesterday but play a Facebook game. I began to question whether I had a video game addiction and how to recover from it. Here are some signs that help to recognize a video game addiction and tips on how to recover from it.
My therapist will be taking a leave of absence for most of January due to major surgery. We spent the last session planning what to do since we won't be meeting for about a month. I have other people on my treatment team I can check in with, but not everyone is so fortunate. This made me realize it might be a good idea to write about how to deal with a therapist's absence.
Seasonal depression exists but so do seasonal depression remedies. Seasonal depression exists in my part of the world, where winter brings with it subzero temperatures and short hours of sunlight. This can make even the most chipper of us feel down. Whether it's winter blahs or full-blown seasonal affective disorder (SAD), it's not fun to experience, and sufferers want to get better quickly. I've recently had a bout and here's my three things to try for seasonal depression.
If your holiday is making you depressed, you should know this is actually pretty common. While it is a mental health myth that the suicide rate goes up during Christmas, that does not negate the fact that many people find the holidays to be a drag. It's okay to feel that way--holidays are a stressful time, and our culture demands a "perfect" holiday so anything that falls short may seem like a personal failure (What Is Holiday Depression?). But the good news is you don't have to have a "perfect" holiday, and there are things to try if your holiday is making you depressed.
Do you know how to cope with self-harm thoughts? Self-injury is a highly stigmatized behavior that is common among people with borderline personality disorder. Self-injury is never a healthy coping skill, and people thinking of self-harm should fight against it by using healthy coping skills. But what healthy coping skills should one use? Here are ways to cope with self-harm thoughts.
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!"
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.