#anxiety
“Forgiveness is for you and no one else”
Learning to accept yourself for what you have done or finding forgiveness for someone that has wronged you in the past can be difficult but it’s needed to move forward. At the end of the day, it is me carrying these emotions around which will constantly set me back with my mental health. Working through these feelings with a professional, I hope will help others find peace with the past.
“Sometimes I feel like I don’t deserve to feel joy or love when I’m depressed. It is still hard to accept this but I’m learning how to.”
Anonymous post. Thank you for sharing!
May is an interesting month for me. May consist of Mother’s Day, my mother’s birthday, and around the time she got sick that led to her death.
Over the years since her death, I’ve gone through multiple emotions with this month. Sadness because I missed her. Anger because she left me. Envy for those that still had their living mother.
The last couple years, I’ve been at a place of solace. I’ve accepted her death as it was selfish of me to want her here when she was physically suffering. I’ve found peace with accepting that she is at peace now.
People have asked me in different ways how I’ve dealt with losing my parents. It’s a process but you just learn to love and appreciate them in a different way.
May is Mental Health Awareness Month. Awareness is key to breaking the stigma that is associated with mental illnesses. This is also a time for people to share their stories of personally dealing with an mental illness or loving someone with an mental illness.
Awareness not only comes with education, but it comes with sympathy and/or empathy. To provide compassion or understand what someone is battling, will create more safe spaces for more people to be open about mental health.
This is one of the main reasons I started Mental Illness Taught Me. It allows me to share the good, bad, and ugly that comes with my own mental illnesses but also allow others to share as well. Sharing our stories, our victories and even our defeats allows a realistic picture to have honest discussions about mental health.
I encourage everyone to keep sharing. Please continue to share facts, stories and resources so hopefully we can get to a place where everyone feels comfortable being heard.
I know anyone that struggles with mental illness understands the battle between the rational and emotional mind.
I’m reading “Emotional Intelligence” by Daniel Coleman again. I remember one of my psychology professors recommended it to me in college while working with him during an independent study. If you are a psych nerd like myself or just interested in the topic, I highly recommend.
Parts of the book focuses on “first feelings, second thoughts” and as someone that struggles with intrusive, obsessive thought patterns it helps me understand how my mind works at times.
“…with emotion feeding into and informing the operations of the rational mind, and the rational mind refining and sometimes vetoing the inputs of the emotions.”
Therapy definitely helped me understand how to sort through and process intrusive thoughts because they used to turn into compulsive behaviors to soothe them. The behaviors were temporary fixes without getting to the root of the problem.
Reading this book again reminds me of how important emotional intelligence is with not only understanding ourselves, but also society as a whole.
It taught me to ask myself, “Is this a distress to be tolerated or a problem to be solved?”
Anonymous post. Thank you for sharing!
TW: death; suicide
Death can be a taboo topic, but it is an inevitable one. Within the past 2 weeks, I’ve had 5 deaths impact my life…
Checkout the website to read more.
“How do you define your mental illness?”
I like to ask people this because it’s interesting to see how they choose to define their mental illness. If they can’t, it opens the discussion of this. Yes, we can go to the diagnostic criteria, but I’ve posted in the past about how constricting this can be especially for treatment. If you haven’t, take the time to reflect on how you define your mental illness. I think this is important in breaking down the stigma because we all have a story to tell, but how we tell it is going to be different for everyone.
This is especially for the people that feel stuck in their recovery and struggling with making that “first step” towards treatment.
It is ok to be uncomfortable. Treatment is going to constantly test you. You will be pushed to places that you may have buried for years. I’ve spoken before about vulnerability and I feel like that was the hardest part for me. Something as simple as accepting hard truths was an accomplishment for me in the beginning.
If you are struggling at the moment, with moving forward or accepting treatment, what are your goals to move past it? If you have advice, feel free to share to help others.
https://mentalillnesstaughtme.com/2019/03/03/being-uncomfortable/
As a 2019 NEDA Collaborator, know that recovery is possible.
Bulimia was the master over me for many years. As professionals provided inadequate treatment, my parents over the years reached out to many organizations. NEDA was one of them.
I will always be grateful for this organization and the resources they provided my parents when the research wasn’t there on minorities and eating disorders.
Feel free to click the link below to read more of my story. Also, feel free to share this post and graphics. ❤❤
I have a friend that has schizoaffective disorder and we talked about the aftermath of an episode. Episodes include depressive, manic, mixed, psychotic, etc. You go through them at weeks (or months) and at times all you were trying to do is stabilize enough to make it through them.
You survive it but now you have to deal with the aftermath. This could be the missed phone calls/emails, debt from excessive spending, or things that were just once an priority that took a backseat.
My friend explained it as cleaning up the residuals and I feel like that fits perfectly. You are trying to repair, fix, clean, get back on top of everything. Ironically, this can sometimes lead to another episode if you don’t have a plan or support through it.
How do you deal with the aftermath? I would love to hear your thoughts on this.
“I’m a recovering drug addict and have learned to accept my own journey. I looked at someone else’s successes and would get disappointed when I didn’t live up to them. Once I realized I was still using addictive behaviors, just not with drugs, I was able to be real with myself. I’m now 2 years drug free and I want others to know it’s hard, but possible.”
Anonymous post. Thank you for sharing!
https://mentalillnesstaughtme.com/2019/02/17/my-own-journey/
Through years of therapy and recovery, you learn different coping techniques or skills to manage your symptoms. Over time, you saw results and they were proven effective. You remain hopeful and dependent on them.
Then one day, it no longer works. You give it time, try to make it habitual, but it still doesn’t work.
I’ve learned with trying to manage my mental illnesses that I have to be flexible with ongoing management. What worked before may not work later.
I would love to hear your experiences or thoughts regarding this.
Oh the rabbit hole I fall into when I overthink, especially when I rationalize things to fit my current state of reality. I’ve learned how to step back and try to process situations rationally. This can be tough when you have impulsive/obsessive thought patterns, history of psychosis, or other factors that can cause rumination or detachment from reality.
Click the link below to read about the coping technique I use.
Feel free to share what your mental illness has taught you! You may submit anonymously if you wish.
“That I am responsible for treatment even if that treatment is simply working on self awareness and discipline. Mental illness has taught me that it is not an excuse; it is something to work on.”
Nettie was diagnosed with Obsessive Compulsive Disorder and Major Depressive Disorder. After 7 years of therapy, those diagnoses stemmed directly from Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder.
Thank you for sharing! Check out the link for her info.
This mostly goes for myself, especially with self-talk and rumination associated with anxiety. When I learned how to set boundaries for myself and not overthink, I’m more productive with myself and also being there for others. For me to constantly go over this in my head, at times, leaves me “stuck” causing more issues. I’ve learned to accept my decisions and stand firm in them.
Is this something you are still working on? If you have mastered this, what helped you?
https://mentalillnesstaughtme.com/2019/01/13/without-explanation/
One of the most frustrating things, when I started therapy, was trying to find a cause/trigger/etc. I was in my early teens, so I can understand the reason for this. This continued to frustrate me over the years especially trying to explain to people my mental illnesses or how certain episodes can just happen…no rhyme or reason. Read more at:
https://mentalillnesstaughtme.com/2019/01/06/without-a-cause/
New year, new me? Probably not, but that’s me being realistic. I’m in a comfortable place right now. Physically, mentally, and emotionally. The only things I really want to achieve are to write and experience more. If you are making resolutions feel free to share!
https://mentalillnesstaughtme.com/2019/01/01/happy-new-year/
I posted this around this time last year. Reminder that your mental health is important. Do what you can to maintain it and do not feel guilty if you need space. Your first obligation will always be to yourself.
