Blogs
Despite a seemingly simple definition, it can be difficult sometimes to draw the line between what does and does not qualify as a self-harm disorder. Excoriation, for example, involves purposely and repeatedly harming your own skin—but is skin picking really self-harm?
It can be difficult to release anxiety and reduce anxiety symptoms because anxiety is a total-body experience. It has a way of working its way deep into our body and slinking around our mind. Anxiety can be a painful experience, with a host of physical symptoms, negative thoughts, and unsettling emotions. It can make us feel both tired and wired, drained and agitated at the same time, as though we might jump right out of our own skin but collapse with exhaustion while we're doing it. I've discovered that a key part of managing anxiety and replacing it with a pervasive sense of calm contentment is to exercise in a variety of ways. Keep reading to learn about moving your body to release anxiety and reduce anxiety symptoms.
If 2020 was a terrible year for you and it made your depression worse, please know that you are not alone. Even as a mental health blogger with nearly two decades of lived experience, the past year has been one of the roughest years of my life.
I have a lot of books in my collection – several hundred at last count. Book collecting is one of my favorite pastimes – in my free time, I love to browse around the many used bookstores near me.
My son is now old enough that he overhears conversations I have with his dad about his attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), and he has questions. Explaining mental illness to my child feels like a balancing act. I want to be honest with him, but I want him to feel proud of himself, too. How do I go about making that happen?
In my last blog post, I spoke about how changing the viewpoint I took on my life, and my accomplishments helped to build my self-esteem. Taking a long-term view of my progress over a 10-year period showed that my trend, like that of the stock market, was upwards and to be celebrated. There's another example of changing my viewpoint that helped my self-esteem get stronger that I will share today.
It's the start of a new year, and you may have decided on setting some New Year's resolutions for yourself. This is a great way to start the year, and it is something I try to do every year as well. What I have found over the years is that it is not only a great thing to set goals for myself, but it is also a helpful way to control my anxiety.
In January, wellness culture tends to be more prominent than ever -- it seems as if the whole world becomes intent on creating a healthier, more productive version of themselves. For those with mental illness, this narrative can be damaging. My brother, who has chronic anxiety and depression, has often spoken about how wellness culture can leave him feeling frustrated and inadequate.
In this video blog post, I am going to share with you my favorite eating disorder recovery tool. Meditation, yoga, and walking are great ways to relax but they've never worked for me. The reasons they've never worked for me are largely personal, but they boil down to the fact that they lack what I perceive as incentives.
I support the positivity of setting goals for the year, but I've found that New Year's resolutions don't work for me. While living with borderline personality disorder (BPD), I have learned that I need to work consistently on the same issues every year. This process is constant and doesn't change with the calendar.
Where do we go from here? Most of the family thinks just to let her hit bottom and then if she reaches out to help any we can. Some want to just keep paying her bills and just let her sit in the house with no responsibilities. Never been on medication and impossible to get to her when she refuses to talk to ANYONE.
Help.
On the day we agreed to videochat to make things less awkward IRL she woke up with a migraine so we rescheduled to the day after, I made sure to assure her that it was okay and to take her time. Later that day, in the late evening we had a nice chat but suddenly she stopped replying, even though nothing had happened. The day after I texted her good morning and said I hope she was feeling a little better. she wouldn't open my texts.
A couple days after I sent her a longer text saying that even though I had only known her for a short time I care a lot for her and would like to know how she are doing, telling her I'm there for her, assuring her I'm not going anywhere even though things might not be very easy. She wouldn't open it.
A week later I sent a text saying not to feel bad about not answering and that I will be there when she is able to answer again. It's been two weeks since this and she still hasn't opened my texts. She hasn't been active at all.
I don't know what else I can do. I assumed she might have fallen into a depression. I have tried to just not think about it anymore, and I haven't that much but when I do it sort of kills me inside...