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Focusing our thoughts is a powerful way to reduce anxiety because we're taking charge of our thoughts. A frustrating thing about anxiety is that it seems to take over. It invades our thoughts and runs wild with them. All types of anxiety involve racing thoughts, and racing thoughts are unfocused thoughts. Or perhaps they are focused, it's just that they're focused on worries, fears, negative self-judgments, and traps we're stuck in. You can calm your mind and reduce anxiety by focusing your thoughts.
Consistent routines for depression management work for me, so I've learned to make and then stick with different routines. When my home and life run smoothly, then it's easier for my mind to stay on an even keel as well. I've found that the time and energy it takes to create routines for my depression and overall mental health are worth the effort required; when you maintain these routines, you will save yourself from a great deal of stress and from the dreaded overwhelming feelings of depression that can leave you unmotivated and unable to do anything. These routines help me manage depression, and maybe they can help you as well.
Positive affirmations in eating disorder recovery can be life-savers. "I am more than a body," is one of the most crucial eating disorder mantras to adopt because one of the harmful myths an eating disorder will urge you to believe is that physical appearance is all you can offer this world. But the truth is you are more than a body. Adopting positive affirmations in eating disorder recovery helps you heal, and here's what makes this one affirmation crucial.
I recently attended a rational emotive behavior therapy (REBT) training and I began thinking more about using it to reduce my own anxiety. Rational emotive behavior therapy, the first form of cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT), was developed by Albert Ellis in the 1950s. The REBT approach encourages us to dispute irrational thinking to develop healthy emotional self-regulation.
Sleep deprivation is a common complaint among people who experience posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD). Research shows that at least 50% of individuals with PTSD have experienced recurring nightmares, and the majority of people with PTSD report either difficulty falling asleep (sleep onset insomnia), or trouble staying asleep long enough to feel rested (maintenance insomnia). Even though sleep difficulties often accompany PTSD, their importance might be underrepresented. Knowing how to recognize the symptoms of sleep deprivation and how to manage them are useful tools in treating the symptoms of PTSD.
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.
Sometimes there is no way to avoid feeling like a burden because of your mental illness. Whether it is for emotional, physical, or financial reasons, the reality of mental health problems can be difficult to bear for both those who suffer from mental illness and those who consider themselves caretakers of those who struggle. For people who have a mental illness, feeling like a burden comes with a tremendous amount of self-stigma that is reinforced by the silent stigma of those who must bear the weight of the “burden” that mental illness causes.
Christmas is celebrated as a time of peace and joy, but for anyone coping with verbal abuse, the holiday season can be quite the opposite. Perhaps you're forced to spend time with a manipulative or criticizing family member you wouldn't normally see, or maybe the emotional vampire lives under your roof. Either way, verbal and psychological attacks can become more frequent and intense over the holidays, causing anyone in the firing line to become drained and withdrawn. Here's why abusers act worse at the holidays, and how to cope with verbal abuse when it begins.
While some people with attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) are wildly successful, a recent study has shown that there could be a connection between ADHD and homelessness. I am fortunate to have friends, family, and other resources to keep a roof over my head, if necessary. Still, I have a faint fear about ending up in a state of destitution. A large part of it is the sense of panic that comes with having ADHD, a creeping fear that, one day, your life will collapse around you. Because of that, it does not surprise me that some people with ADHD become homeless.
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...