I have struggled with negative thoughts for as long as I can remember. Sometimes these thoughts have been about my views on myself, ill feelings about a situation or a person, or my thoughts about life in general. Hearing other people tell me to stop being so negative makes me feel as though my thoughts are invalid. However, through years of therapy, I have learned many truths about negative thoughts. Here are five lessons I have learned.

During my mental health journey, I have experienced the harmful effects of stigma with regard to learning disabilities and mental illness. In school, students bullied me for being the last person to finish tests. Therefore, I thought I was stupid. The stigma placed upon me by my classmates led me to shame (or stigmatize) myself. Thankfully, I have gained many strategies to stop self-stigma from controlling my life. Here are five techniques I use to stop self-stigma.

After I wake up in the morning, one of the first things I see is my reflection in the mirror. Like many people with depression, I don't always like my appearance. Years ago, I obsessed over it to the point that gaining a few pounds was enough for me to isolate myself. In this post, I recall my experiences with image struggles and how I have been learning to overcome them.

Even as a long-time writer, words do not always come easily to me. A major reason for this is that anxiety and depression give me negative messages. Depression tells me that no one will care about what I have to say. Anxiety tells me that other people will stigmatize me for my content. Regardless, writing is a huge part of my treatment plan. A few weeks ago, I came up with a writing exercise to help me appreciate and feed my passion. To learn about this exercise and how it helps my state of mind, continue reading this post.

About a month ago, I shared a post about my search for my biological relatives. At that point, I had talked to my biological uncle, Chris, on the phone. A lot of positive events have happened since then. Last Wednesday, I met Chris in person for the first time. In this post, I will discuss my feelings before, during, and after the meeting and how meeting my biological uncle improved my mental health.

Several years ago, I started reading books from the romantic suspense genre. One reason I chose this genre was that I craved drama and passionate love. However, I did not want a predictable ending with only one conflict. I wanted to ride several waves of emotion. Reading romantic suspense helped me develop insight into love and its complexities. Here are three ways romantic suspense novels gave me a healthy view of love.

As an infant, I was adopted by two warm and loving parents. They provided me with a wonderful childhood, good morals, a safe home, and a great life. But I faced some issues that my adopted family did not fully understand. Having never met my biological family, I wondered if my mental health challenges were genetic. Last year, I decided to dig into my biological roots and meet my birth family. In this post, I discuss my reasons for starting my journey recently and how finding my biological family has affected my emotional health thus far.

There are many reasons people have low self-esteem, some of which include hard times involving rejection, disappointments, loneliness, and unemployment. While it is normal to have negative thoughts, ruminating on them is not helpful. Instead, advocating for your mental health will help you find acceptance and self-love. Here are five strategies to implement when you are dealing with low self-esteem during difficult times.

Recently, I started becoming more intentional about using Meetup to connect with other writer groups virtually. Until last week, I had no idea that so many writing groups met online. On my day off, I signed up for three writing groups on Zoom. Being more active in my writing endeavors with other people has been helping me come out of my depression. Here are five reasons writing groups are positively impacting my mental health.

As the new year draws near, I cannot believe how fast time has passed. Time is something that has always triggered my anxiety. There are many milestones I would have liked to have met by now. There are many goals I want to accomplish by the end of the year. From experience, I know that putting too much pressure on myself only makes anxiety worse. So I came up with six ways to cope with anxiety when time becomes a trigger for me. Continue reading this post to learn more.