How Do You Describe Yourself When Facing Mental Illness?

Here's what's happening on the HealthyPlace site this week:

• How Do You Describe Yourself When Facing Mental Illness?
• Most Popular HealthyPlace Articles Shared by Facebook Fans
• From the HealthyPlace Mental Health Blogs

How Do You Describe Yourself When Facing Mental Illness?

Mental health challenges can be difficult enough on their own. They become daunting when we beat ourselves up because of them and describe ourselves harshly, negatively—and unfairly. Looking beyond the mental illness symptoms can feel impossible, and people come to describe themselves pretty cruelly.

When "I'm depressed" replaces "I live with depression," or "I'm inept around people" replaces "I'm experiencing social anxiety," people begin to internalize their mental health challenges. This self-labeling leads to other negative descriptions such as "loser," "worthless," and more. Using harsh descriptions affects the way we think about ourselves, feel about ourselves, and interact with the world. (Combat Negative Self-Talk with the Three C's)

Mental illness is something people deal with; it is not who people are at their core. Separating yourself from your mental health challenges is an important step in describing yourself accurately and kindly.

• Examine who you are beyond what you're dealing with.
• Catch yourself using negative descriptions, and change them.
• Use this formula: "I may have social anxiety, but I am _______ or I can_______.
• Keep a self-description journal to jot down and return to these empowering descriptions.
• How do you describe yourself when facing mental health challenges? Are you describing side effects of the challenges, or are you describing your true self?

How do you describe yourself when facing mental health challenges? Are you describing side effects of the challenges, or are you describing your true self?

Related Articles Dealing with Mental Health Self-Stigma

• Living with a Mental Illness and Self-Stigma
• Stop Being Overly Critical of Yourself
• Stop Putting Yourself Down and Build Self-Esteem
• Self-Talk: Managing Your Inner Voice
• Change Negative Thoughts into Positive Self-Talk
• Self-Compassion and Positive Self-Talk
• The Difference Between Stigmatizing Mental Illness and Labeling It

Your Thoughts

Today's Question: Today’s Question: What helps you describe yourself in a realistic, positive way?  We invite you to participate by commenting and sharing your feelings, experiences and knowledge on the HealthyPlace Facebook page.

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Most Popular HealthyPlace Articles Shared by Facebook Fans

Here are the top 3 mental health articles HealthyPlace Facebook fans are recommending you read:

1. 6 Tips on How to Find a Great Mental Health Counselor
2. Practice Self-Care on a Budget
3. PTSD and Fatigue: Is It Normal to Feel So Tired?

If you're not already, I hope you'll join us/like us on Facebook too. There are a lot of wonderful, supportive people there.

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From the HealthyPlace Mental Health Blogs

On all our blogs, your comments and observations are welcomed.

• Three Creative Ways to Be Calm When You Have Anxiety
• Feel Confident Now: Ask Yourself These 15 Questions
• How I Learned to Overcome Seasonal Affective Disorder
• Age Related Anxiety, Or What Should I Have Done Already?
• Common Alcoholism Stereotypes Enable Denial
• Three Things About Alcoholism I Wish I Knew Before Treatment
• Implement Extreme Self-Care for Depression
• When Corporations Promote Mental Health Stigma
• Identify Your Shame Triggers So They Don’t Control You
• Wintertime Self-Care for Binge Eating Disorder
• Schizoaffective Disorder and Dealing With a Crisis
• PTSD Recovery: Avoiding Avoidance
• Trade The Lies of Mental Illness for Real Love from Family
• Dealing with Denial in Dissociative Identity Disorder
• 11 Ways to Maximize Productivity and Gain Confidence
• The Best of ‘Breaking Bipolar’ 2015

Feel free to share your thoughts and comments at the bottom of any blog post. And visit the mental health blogs homepage for the latest posts.

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