When it comes to the pandemic, there are many lenses through which we can view this pandemic. There are many perspectives on what it’s like to experience such a thing, and those thoughts and feelings are based on so many things – age, sex, gender, race, religion, location, etc. Today, I want to talk about the pandemic from a mental health perspective.
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Five Reminders For When You Feel Restless
In the past few weeks, I’ve been feeling a little more restless than usual. I’m not sure what’s brought on these feelings, but I was able to recognize that they’re something that can be dealt with and managed – just like the symptoms of anxiety and depression that I experience every day. I haven’t discovered my go-to techniques and activities for dealing with restlessness, but I have learned a few things that have helped me overcome these feelings. That said, here are five reminders for when you’re experiencing restlessness.
Continue readingWhen Anxiety Leads to Restlessness
Sometimes, anxiety is like an itch you can’t scratch. You know it’s there – you can sense it, feel it, even acknowledge it if you’re able – but you feel helpless to do anything about it. I’ve experienced this feeling a few times here and there during the past week, which is what I want to talk about today.
Continue readingWhy We Need More Than “Checking In On Your Friends”
TW: This post discusses suicide and suicide-related topics.
Continue readingWhy There’s No Wrong Way to Ask for Help
The more I learn about depression, the more I come to terms with the fact that there will always be more to learn. In fact, it’s likely that there’s so much more I don’t know about my own depression than what I’ve learned over the past decade. I write that to say when we talk about mental health, knowledge certainly is power. But sometimes, it can also be something that leads to shame and stigma. Even though depression is complicated to understand and difficult to unpack, there is no shame in experiencing it. But reducing the stigma around mental health is so much more than saying that – it’s also encouraging difficult conversations that unfortunately, most people don’t want, or don’t know how, to have.
Continue readingThe Challenge of Anxious Thinking
I’ve often thought about the phrase, “the mind works in mysterious ways.” I’ve heard it since I was a kid, and it’s been offered up for everything under the sun as an explanation for why people do the things they do. Since I’m naturally curious, those types of answers have never been satisfying to me. Mostly, this phrase felt like a catch-all to use when people didn’t feel like pondering why something was the way it was, even if they couldn’t figure out a reason why. Our minds certainly work in mysterious ways, and there’s one specific way I’d like to investigate today.
Continue readingModifying My Approach to Therapy
I’ve been to…a decent number of therapists over the years, and though I’ve found short-term success with a few, I’ve never been able to find long-term success. Part of that is the transitions I’ve made in life (high school to college, and then college to post-grad can make that difficult), but part of it is also that I had no long-term goals with therapy. I didn’t always know what I was doing with therapy, but I few years ago I made a goal for myself to create a more sustainable and reliable approach to therapy, and I’m proud to say I’m close to achieving it!
Continue readingGaining the Self-Confidence to Choose
As someone who experiences depression on a fairly regular basis, I struggle when it comes to the concept of choosing. I forget about my power to decide, and how those choices can directly impact my well-being. After so many years of experiencing mental illness, the power to choose feels like a theoretical concept at this point, but I don’t think I’d realized just how much I was limiting myself until the pandemic hit. Remembering the power to choose can go a long way toward building up confidence and self-esteem, which is why it’s an extremely important thing to remember when you’re experiencing mental health challenges.
Continue readingMental Health Can Be A Positive Term
By and large, writing about mental health isn’t a “fun” activity. A lot of the experiences I write about are challenges that I or other people have faced in the past. Most of the research I do is to signify to others that mental illness is a concern for people of all ages and demographics, and having honest discussions about that will help shrink the stigma and help people get help when they need it. Since I experience depression on a weekly basis, I understand how my attitude toward mental health and wellness can be a little pessimistic, so I’d like to turn that around today. Depending on the context, mental health can absolutely be a positive term – and here’s how we can do that.
Continue readingDigging Into the Mental Health Toolkit
I’ve written about my dislike for wintertime before, but a new thought popped into my head as to why this time of year isn’t great for me. We know about seasonal affective disorder, shorter days and colder nights and all that, but there’s another big reason that I don’t love this time of year. I have several activities and hobbies that I do that relieve/help me manage my mental health challenges, and the winter is one of the most challenging times because it limits what I can do.
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