Recovering Your Mental Health: A Self Help Guide

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Recovering Your Mental Health:
A Self Help Guide

The information in this booklet is from studies designed to find out how people who experience psychiatric symptoms deal with these symptoms and help themselves feel better. The researcher and the study participants are people who have been told that they have a psychiatric or mental illness. Not all of these ideas work for everyone--use the ones that feel right to you. If something doesn't sound right to you, skip over it. However, try not to dismiss anything before you have considered it.

The opinions expressed herein are those of the author and are not necessarily those of the Center for Mental Health Services.

Have you been told that you have a psychiatric or mental illness like depression, bipolar disorder or manic depression, schizophrenia, borderline personality disorder, obsessive-compulsive disorder, dissociative disorder, post traumatic stress disorder or an anxiety disorder? ___ yes ___ no

Or do feelings or experiences like those that follow make you feel miserable, unsafe and get in the way of doing the things you want to do?

feeling like your life is hopeless and you are worthless
wanting to end your life
thinking you are so great that you are world famous, or that you can do supernatural things
feeling anxious
being afraid of common things like going outdoors or indoors, or being seen in certain places
feeling like something bad is going to happen and being afraid of everything
being very "shaky", nervous, continually upset and irritable
having a hard time controlling your behavior
being unable to sit still
doing things over and over again--finding it very hard to stop doing things like washing your hands, counting everything or collecting things you don't need
doing unusual things like wearing winter clothes in the summer and summer clothes in the winter
believing things like the television or radio are talking to you or that the smoke alarms or digital clocks in public buildings are taking pictures of you
saying things over and over that don't make any sense
hearing voices in your head
seeing things you know aren't really there
feeling like everyone is against you or out to get you
feeling out of touch with the world
periods of time go by when you don't know what has happened or how the time has passed--you don't remember being there but others say you were
feeling unconnected to your body
having a hard time keeping your mind on what you are doing
a sudden or gradual decrease or increase in your ability to think, focus, make decisions and understand things
feeling like cutting or hurting your body
feeling like you are a "fake"

___ yes ___ no

If you answered yes to either or both of these questions, this booklet is filled with helpful information and things you can do to feel better.

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