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Amanda_HP
If you're wondering what it's like living with bipolar disorder, or a serious mental illness, here is one of the most illuminating lines on the subject that I've come across:
"It explores the difference between a sick brain and a mind left trying to cope with it."
It was written by Natasha Tracy, describing the focus of her new Breaking Bipolar blog on HealthyPlace.com.
It is not hard to find someone willing to treat an eating disorder patient. Most therapists, social workers, doctors, and dietitians, with no particular specialty in the topic, will accept patients with anorexia, bulimia and other eating disorders. I've heard of a chiropractor, a massage therapist, and an astrologist taking charge of this life-threatening illness as well.
As parents and loved ones, I think it is really important that we do everything we can to make sure patients get care from clinicians who specialize in eating disorders. Further, it is our job to make sure these specialists are using evidence-based treatment methods.
Go to the ocean. The ocean may have been calling or I might have simply been talking to myself. But somewhere in my head a voice said, "go to the ocean."
I went because I thought the warm sun might feel good on exposed skin. Skin that hadn't felt a breath in weeks.
If you confide in people about your social anxiety, sometimes they don't know how to act around you in an anxiety triggering situation (Social Anxiety triggers). The last thing I, or I am guessing anyone, would want is for the loved ones in our lives to feel like they have to walk on eggshells around us. I can sense when people do that and it makes me feel handicapped. I came up with a few tips for our friends and families so they can have a better idea of what helps in an anxious situation and what just makes things worse.
The worst thing about ADHD epiphanies is that they are wonderful in the moment, but do we remember to follow through with them? I mean, it's all well and good to decide "Hey! People like me better when I don't knock them over," but have you stopped doing it? I can come up with 17 startlingly innovative ADHD epiphanies a week, but do I do anything about them?
After my last post, where I commented on my fear around being bipolar in public, a discussion came about regarding attitudes, and how I’m the same as everyone else. Well, I beg to disagree. I’m crazy. And the implications of that are undeniable.
I'm off to Salzburg, Austria soon to attend and speak at an Eating Disorders conference. I've lost count of how many I've attended now, but this is the longest distance I've traveled to one.
Social anxiety is so deeply intertwined with our self-esteem and how much we value ourselves. An interesting concept I found in The Anxiety and Phobia Workbook, by Edmund Bourne, Ph.D., is called your "Personal Bill of Rights". The idea is that we all have rights as human beings. Sometimes, we either forget or we don't realize that we have them because we weren't taught them as children growing up.
If we can realize these rights plus also learn to exercise them, then we can build a more assertive attitude. The result is we respect ourselves enough to be conscious of our basic human rights. Here is the list:
Are you doing everything you can to fight off the effects of adult ADHD? Is it possible you have more fight in you than you realize?
Amanda_HP
HealthyPlace has the largest narcissism site on the internet: Malignant Self-Love: Narcissism Revisited. Thousands of people visit every month.
I mention this because we are constantly flooded with emails from victims of narcissists, mostly women, who are emotionally beat up and mentally dragged down after being in a relationship with a narcissist. While reading through these emails, I've often wondered what attracted these women to men with narcissistic personality disorder and led them to stay; even at huge emotional and financial costs. Those who were lucky enough to escape are still reeling, trying to delve through the aftermath. For answers to "why?," we are turning to this week's guest, Sandra Brown, MA.
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...