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I wasn't actually diagnosed with posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) when I started therapy. So years into my first therapeutic relationship I realized we were going nowhere -- fast. I'd gotten into therapy to learn how to live as a chronic patient, but what we were doing was talking and talking and talking about my trauma and the enormous fears I carried. I was mentally and physically deteriorating at a frightening speed. I needed to know how to find a good PTSD therapist.
If anxiety were a person, it would likely have narcissistic personality disorder. Anxiety shares many traits with narcissism, making it a card-carrying narcissist. To be sure, both anxiety and a narcissist are difficult to deal with, but they have other characteristics in common as well. Knowing what they are and how to deal with them can help tame narcissistic anxiety.
No one likes to be rejected. Unfortunately, lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and questioning (LGBTQ) people experience a lot of rejection and oppression that lead to depression and other mental illnesses. As a pansexual, I have experienced my fair share of biphobia and homophobia in the past. While it certainly isn’t easy or fun to talk about, raising awareness is the only way of abolishing discrimination towards the LGBTQ community and reduce the rejection queer people face and their depressions.
We live in a world easily saturated by the news cycle. Whether through television, radio, the printed word, or the Internet, information on current events is continually available. But being constantly connected to the news can take a toll on our mental health and depression can trigger depression.
Many people have a difficult time in finding an effective mental health counselor. The key is to find someone that will help you solve your current mental health problems.
It seems like every time anxiety strikes in the presence of others, helpful folks offer the same advice. Take a walk, get some fresh air, or count to 10 are quickly raised as solutions, with the person offering the advice thinking this is the first time we've ever heard that suggestion. Speaking from my own experience, I do the same things over and over. If your methods to relieve anxiety aren't boring you and are working, then there is no need to switch it up. But if you are looking for other ways to relieve anxiety, I offer five ways to relieve anxiety you've (probably) never thought of.
Sometimes “crying out” the pain of an emotional situation works. I just did it with a friend. She, lovingly, sat across from me as I cried about a situation that I find hard. And it worked. I did, actually, feel better after crying out my emotions. But once, a therapist told me to “cry out” my bipolar depression. Instead of fighting the depression and pushing away the feelings, he told me my bipolar depression should be cried out.
Putting yourself down can be damaging to your self-esteem and self-confidence. That includes the words you say out loud in addition to your internal negative self-talk. Negative thoughts and words can be very believable and they distort your perception about yourself. They impact on your sense of self-worth. When you talk negatively about yourself to others, the words have a greater effect. You’re also making it easier for others to put you down. The good news is that you can stop putting yourself down and build your self-esteem.
I have come to realize how important it is to specifically schedule time to focus on you. When you struggle with self-harm or a mental illness, those battles begin to take over your life. You cannot focus on hobbies and passions with as much ease because those busy, irritating thoughts are clouding your mind. The more you give in to the self-injury urges that surround you, the more time you give up that could have been benefiting your wellness and health. What you might want to focus on is more time for you and less time for self-harm.
Spirituality can be vital to recovery from mental illness. But, like many things, spirituality and mental illness is a double-edged sword. While belief in a Higher Power can aid mental illness recovery, unhealthy spiritual beliefs can make our mental illness symptoms worse. But what are some warning signs of unhealthy spirituality? How do we know if we have what one writer called "toxic faith?"
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...