Blogs
Depression triggers come at unexpected times. We need to have quick and simple methods prepared in order to cope with these triggers in a healthy way. When I find myself suddenly faced with a depression trigger, I use the following methods to help me cope.
Almost every time I hear schizoaffective voices, I blame myself for hearing them. I know this doesn’t make sense, and I’m not being fair to myself. It also adds an element of guilt to an already difficult situation.
You may have heard that mindfulness calms anxiety. Sometimes, this can be hard to believe because mindfulness can seem like a trend, like just another passing fad that will soon be replaced by the next craze. Mindfulness has been a part of the human experience for thousands of years, so it has long surpassed "trend" status and has established itself as an integral part of wellbeing. Because mindfulness becomes something you do and a way that you are, you can embrace it and, by engaging in mindfulness, you can calm anxiety.
Have the attitudes and conversations around female body image shifted in the era of #MeToo? Is this movement helping to reinforce how bodies should be viewed and talked about? Has it encouraged women to love, accept, and embrace their own bodies, as opposed to self-deprecation and shame? Will positive changes take root, so that female body image is less distorted in the era of #MeToo?
The arts have played an integral part in my recovery from schizoaffective disorder. It all started with a five-week stay at a treatment center where I received my initial diagnosis. There was a lot of downtime at the center and I was frequently digging through their stash of art supplies. I had frightening visual hallucinations, and found it very therapeutic to draw them. When others could see what I saw, my hallucinations lost their power over me and I felt less isolated. A few drawings and painting turned into many which then turned into a more serious pursuit. Over the next several years I participated in group and solo art shows all across North America. Recovery is full of surprises, and my life was taken in a direction I would have never expected prior to my admission to the treatment center, the place where my recovery journey began.
When online, I generally avoid political discussions. Because so many of them are so prone to devolve into toxic shouting matches, I find it healthier to stay away. Today, however, I’m diving in headfirst. The country is still reeling in the aftermath of the shootings in El Paso and Dayton, and quite frankly, I’m pissed off. Once again, a certain segment of the population is refusing to budge on any meaningful discussion concerning gun control, and I’m just sick of it. If we don’t have meaningful action on gun control, this country is going to drown in anxiety.
After two instances of sexual abuse, I felt that my sexuality no longer belonged to me. Twice my body was treated as an object to be used by my abusers as they saw fit, first during my childhood at the hands of a family member, then later by a stranger on a train. Though I didn't realize it at the time, I accepted that my sexuality belonged to the men who I slept with and not to me. It took me a long time to confront this truth, and I still haven't deconstructed the many ways that these instances of abuse eventually brought me to my experiences with sex now. I decided to use this blog as a place to explore this.
When you go away to college for the first time, it can be overwhelming. You might not know many people going to your school, and you won’t know what to expect from classes. Some people drop out of college due to anxiety. Luckily, there are many ways to get through anxiety and excel during the first month of school. Read this article to learn more.
Depression is a common symptom of posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD). After someone goes through a traumatic experience, it's normal to feel sorrow, confusion, and anger--all of which can manifest into depression.
By adding gun laws, the main people who get gun access restricted from them are law-abiding citizens. In Pittsburgh, the local police department did a study on this with the University of Pittsburgh. They analyzed about 900 guns recovered from crimes in 2016 and found that approximately eighty percent of those were not legally those of the person involved in the crime. This rate will likely grow even higher if we ban handguns. The only result of banning guns is the removal of guns from law-abiding citizens. People who want to do wrong with the guns will still find ways to get the guns and do what they wish with said guns; the only difference between now and this hypothetical is that there will be nothing of similar power to stop them. Let's take a school for example. If someone for whatever reason decides to shoot up a school, they will likely try to get their hands on a gun in whatever way possible. Outlawing guns will not stop this, just like drugs, illegal sale and ownership will still happen. The shootings will only become more deadly, because there will be nothing to stop them. You think some rubber balls to throw at a shooter will stop them? No. Not as well as armed campus security will. If we have armed guards at schools and everyone knows it, shooting attempts will be few and far between. Even attempts that do happen will be much lower in casualties, most likely with the shooter as the only one.
So, if proposed laws are about stopping shootings, this is a much easier, more cost-effective, and logical solution.
In case you haven't come across them, here are a couple of blogs I've written on this topic:
https://www.healthyplace.com/blogs/survivingmentalhealthstigma/2015/11/romanticizing-mental-illnesses-feeds-mental-health-stigma
https://www.healthyplace.com/blogs/survivingmentalhealthstigma/2019/3/stop-romanticizing-suicide
I happy to chat about this more if you have other questions. :)