Blogs
As conversations surrounding mental health continue to garner traction and societal acceptance, shows like "Euphoria" are pushing the envelope in terms of the brutality of mental illness portrayed on television. Although intense at times, in my opinion, the show's strikingly raw and vulnerable portrayal of mental illness is carving a path for more acceptance and relatability surrounding the topic.
A New Year’s resolution this year turned into an exciting photo project, and it’s doing wonders for my schizoaffective disorder. Here’s how photography is helping my schizoaffective disorder.
Children are highly sensitive to their environment. I believe that a child's mental and physical health can be directly affected by their surroundings. Knowing this, we must do something to help children who are exposed to verbal abuse during this critical stage of their lives.
I wish more of my friends knew how to support me in sobriety in the early days. One of the most challenging parts of sobriety for me is having to explain myself to others who do not quite understand the seriousness of addiction or substance abuse. I have grown more comfortable with this throughout my time with sobriety, but I know the difficulties of turning down an invitation to the bar because you do not want to feel triggered. Or the internal shame and anger that comes after hearing someone say, "Just one drink won't hurt."
Whether you're dreading a spring break beach trip or a long, hot summer full of pool party potential, swimsuit season can be daunting for anyone with scars, but especially those of us whose scars were self-inflicted. Let's talk about how to hide self-harm scars in swimsuit season—and whether you really need to.
There are some days when I am feeling particularly anxious that it feels hard to do much of anything, and feeling accomplished is practically impossible. Creativity is usually the first to go – anxiety tends to lead to intense bouts of writer’s block. But even outside of creativity, which is hard even when one feels okay, it can be hard to feel like doing much of anything.
I am an identical twin. For most of my childhood, I was viewed as one-half of a package deal. In fact, my sister and I resemble each other so strongly that, as small children, my mom painted our toenails two contrasting colors just to tell us apart. We were known as The Twins, a source of fascination to those around us. I rarely encountered other sets of identical twins in those formative years—until my first experience at a residential eating disorder treatment facility. Twins were not uncommon there, which has me wondering: Is there a connection between eating disorders and twin dynamics?
Early March is a pretty tough time for me. It's the anniversary of my accident and always leaves me reflecting on the mistakes that led me to that point. Today, I'd like to share the value I found in forgiving the past to take control of my present.
Binge eating disorder makes it hard to stay present. For example, have you ever noticed yourself feeling distracted or disconnected throughout the day? I experience this often, especially when I'm trying to check off my to-do list. It sometimes feels like having tunnel vision. My hands move while I'm thinking about what I have to do next. The time I spend in this zone-out space feels like a blur.
One of the hardest things that I have found about dealing with anxiety is the second-guessing that happens when making decisions. It becomes so hard to make decisions because I find myself wondering if it's the right choice or the wrong choice. Then, when I make a decision, I second-guess it and question whether I should have made a different choice. The problem with that is, even if I had made a different choice, I would still question that one anyway. As a result, my thoughts will spin out of control, and my anxiety will overtake my logical thought process.
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...