Blogs
There are three things we need to understand about grief because
grief is such a complicated process. Last week, staff at my apartment complex found one of my neighbors dead from an apparent heart attack. It's a common problem; I've lived there since 2009 and this is the fifth death of a resident since I've been there. My neighbors are complaining about the high death rate at this complex as they go through the grieving process alone. This made me realize there are three things we need to understand about grief.
Is it possible to have fun in sobriety? Once you get sober, you'll never have fun again, right? Leading a boring, sad life is a major fear for many problem drinkers that discourages them from seeking a program of recovery. But the myth that sobriety is dull is completely inaccurate. Here's how you have fun in sobriety.
While I, typically, discuss standard combat posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) as it is the most common, today I’d like to highlight a more rare form of PTSD caused by prolonged trauma – complex PTSD. Today I'll answer the question, “What is complex PTSD?”
It can be hard to get through a crisis with your self-esteem intact. Whether it be a major meltdown or a mini crisis, learning how to get through a crisis can improve your self-esteem.
Maybe it’s just me, but I find the bipolar depression after a hypomania to be much worse than your average, daily depression. Post-hypomania depression is the way you pay for a hypomania (at least for me) and hypomania is very, very expensive.
Potentially addictive or harmful qualities of addiction recovery programs are the source of heated debates across the country. One main debate is whether or not addiction recovery programs are more harmful than they are helpful. For instance, I was recently asked, "If addicts can become addicted to anything, doesn't that also apply to recovery groups?"
I had been discussing my binge eating disorder with a friend and they asked me if I could describe what a binge felt like, physically and emotionally. It took me a second to put my thoughts into words. Describing a binge to someone turned out to be a lot more difficult than I thought it would be. If only for the fact that you are describing mental illness and that takes a very discomforting amount of honesty to do. Here are my thoughts on what a binge feels like.
Creating a healthy patient-therapist relationship is critical to managing your recovery and wellness. If the patient-therapist relationship is healthy, a patient will feel comfortable sharing her thoughts and accepting advice. If it is lacking, a patient can feel alone and misunderstood, at best, mistreated, at worst. There are, however, ways to make sure your patient-therapist relationship is as healthy as possible.
Posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) support can be hard to come by. Many people -- especially those who haven't experienced trauma -- find it hard to relate to survivors and even harder to be supportive. While PTSD symptoms can make you feel like a freak (and look like one to those unwilling to learn how trauma changes your brain and creates PTSD symptoms) the truth is, there absolutely are people who understand and are even willing to support your PTSD coping and healing strategies.
To downsize your worry list and prioritize anxiety might seem like a strange concept, at least initially. After all, we want worries to disappear, not just to be downsized; further, why would we prioritize anxiety when we want it to go away? Ridding ourselves of anxiety is a process, and downsizing your worry list, and prioritizing anxiety go a long way toward taking back your life.
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...