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I get exhausted from interacting with my friends and family due to my social anxiety, even though I love them. I find it very difficult to interact with people for a long time. This extends as far as to be exhausted by texting. However, my family has learned how to handle my social anxiety in a way that benefits all of us.
As far as years go, 2020 has been difficult in a great many ways, but it's also taught me a lot about my eating disorder recovery. I expected a year like this one to break me; I was almost waiting for it. I'm not going to lie: there were some close calls.
For most of my childhood, I used reading to cope with trauma. This might not sound like a bad thing, and it wasn't entirely, but it came with a couple of big problems. Coping mechanisms develop as a way for us to protect ourselves, to survive despite threats to our wellbeing or identity. However, these coping mechanisms can get in the way of real connection.
The year 2020 is finally coming to an end, so inevitably, New Year's resolutions are looming on the horizon. Being self-harm-free might seem like a huge commitment and a lot of pressure to put on yourself from January 1st. However, if you break it down into smaller tasks that feel both achievable and not too overwhelming, living self-harm-free can become a realistic goal.
One important thing for folks to realize is that mental health struggles don't take a holiday. Given the year that 2020 has been and the on-going restrictions on gatherings across the globe, I imagine that it may be easier to see than ever before, with the holidays looking different than usual. All the same, I wanted to take time to comment on mental health struggles during the holiday season and how mental health stigma factors into that.
Why should you focus on your breath during holiday anxiety? Well, even in the best of times, the holiday season heralds in more than just the new year -- it can bring a lot of anxiety too, and focusing on your breath can have some amazing benefits.
I know firsthand just how much of a challenge it can be to prioritize eating disorder recovery this time of year—or even in general, for that matter. So if your commitment to healing is wavering at the moment, I want to share with you five reasons why I believe that eating disorder recovery is worth it. This is not to minimize the pain or turmoil you might feel, but I do hope the list below inspires and encourages you to continue on the path to reclaiming a healthy, empowered life. Eating disorder recovery is no simple feat, but I can tell you from experience, the outcome is so worth it.
I didn’t set out to become a mental health advocate until my late teens and early 20s when I was diagnosed with schizophrenia and then schizoaffective disorder, bipolar type. I would like to share my advocacy journey with you.
The road to recovery is never a simple, straight path forward; it curves unexpectedly, and sometimes we find we must backtrack before we can make progress. No matter what point you're at in your own journey, a self-harm coping box can be an incredibly useful tool to help you navigate and stay on track in your recovery from self-harm.
Anxiety and stress are similar in nature. They both are typically unwelcome invaders intruding on our lives, rudely disrupting our inner peace and calm. Because they are related, people often use the terms interchangeably. Technically, there is a slight difference between stress and anxiety. For each of us in our daily lives, though, does the difference really matter? Read on, and decide for yourself.
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...