Blogs
Posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) recovery (and the actions it requires) often incites a lot of fear. It has to: creating change always takes you into uncharted territories that can make you question yourself. Frequently, the pain of facing difficult things, plus the exhaustion of attempting to break free from what’s controlling you will put you in situations that bring on a big feeling of “I can’t handle it.” This moment and feeling are the essence of fear in PTSD recovery and there are good reasons for feeling it.
The causes or the effects of anxiety: which came first: the chicken or the egg? Anxiety has both causes and effects. It seems straightforward, but to those of us who have experienced it, it’s not always so clear which comes first, the causes or the effects of anxiety. It can be a frustrating chicken-and-egg conundrum.
![Writing for Coping with Depression has been an amazing journey. I am sad to say goodbye but I remind people that writing can keep us connected.](/sites/default/files/styles/blog_listing/public/uploads/2015/04/woodland-656969_6401-325x216.jpg?itok=2jcbtaAW "My Last Article for "Coping with Depression"")
It’s hard for me to believe, but my time writing for the Coping with Depression blog has come to an end. I started this journey because I believed that we can help one another by sharing our stories and our experiences about depression. Today, I’m more convinced of that than ever.
Ruminating can harm your mental health recovery because when you "go over in the mind repeatedly and often casually or slowly" you compulsively remind yourself of what is wrong. It's negative thoughts compounded by repetition and habit, making rumination dangerous. People with depressive and other mental illnesses often have a similar trait: many suffer from excessive and compulsive negative thoughts that distort reality. Thus, rumination involves an endless loop of negative thinking that can exacerbate depression and other mental illnesses.
Bipolar symptoms can get out of control and sometimes we need to consider safety tips for bipolar. These safety tips can apply during a bipolar mania, hypomania or depression. When we implement a series of these bipolar safety tips, I call it being on a self-imposed “bipolar lockdown.”
I have learned, over time, that a positive attitude can lead to blissful living. Elation comes rushing out from deep inside my soul when I have feelings of happiness, which is much more often in my daily living than not. How is it that it comes so easily? It's naturally an extension of an attitude and having an instinctively positive attitude can bring much more joy and bliss into your daily living.
Unfortunately, abused people often believe certain lies. No one wakes up one day and says, "I think I'll fall in love with an abusive person." Many people in abusive relationships report that there was no violence until the relationship was well-established. At this point, conflicting emotions come into play--and emotions can be powerful and confusing. The fact that abused people believe lies makes the situation even more complicated. Here are three lies abused people believe.
Alcoholics often wonder if it's safe to eat food cooked with alcohol. After all, alcohol is used to cook many foods: pasta sauces, chocolates, jams and even cakes. Recovering alcoholics are often faced with the question, is it safe for me to consume this food or not?
Traveling with a child with mental illness presents unique challenges. My son, Bob, lives with bipolar disorder and social anxiety. Traveling used to be so difficult we avoided it altogether. Now, after years of learning the hard way, I can offer some tips for traveling with a child with mental illness.
In dissociative identity disorder (DID), communication between alters (alternate personalities) is the key to a person’s well-being. With DID, a person may have one or many alters, all working together to form the whole of who the person is. I have formed a couple of ways of working with my alters to create communication within dissociative identity disorder between alters.
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...