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Perfectionism is a double-edged sword. While it can help you achieve greater things in your personal and professional life, it can also lead to a never-ending cycle of self-criticism and low self-esteem. Perfectionists tie their self-worth to their achievements, and if things don't go to plan, they start feeling like they are failures which can destroy their confidence and even self-worth/ image.
For me, psychosis involves auditory hallucinations (hearing voices and sounds) and is the most dangerous part of my illness. The last time I went to the emergency room for symptoms of psychosis, the doctor asked me if I heard voices, and when I answered that I was, he asked an important question, "Do you do what the voices tell you to do?" And unfortunately, my answer was yes. If you can't immediately see the danger in this scenario, try to think of it this way, imagine taking orders from something that is not real. It's alarming. 
My eating disorder relies on selective memory in order to maintain a stringent foothold in my life. Selective memories are enticing and compelling. They can also be quite dangerous. In fact, as I have come to realize, the presence of selective memory is often the difference between making continual strides in recovery or free-falling back into a cycle of relapse. What do I mean by this, and how am I learning to combat it? Let me explain.
In the 15 or so years that I've lived with depression, I’ve built a metaphorical toolbox of techniques and relationships that help me keep the darkness at bay. Two of them are my dogs. Here’s how these bundles of fur and slobber help me cope with depression.
If you're a single person with bipolar disorder, surviving can be hard. Last time I outlined why this is in a piece about being alone with bipolar disorder, but this time, I'm focusing on successfully dealing with being a single person with bipolar disorder.
I’m Sammi Caramela, and I’m excited to join HealthyPlace as the new author of "Trauma! A PTSD Blog." I’ve lived most of my life in survival mode, but it wasn’t until I was in my early 20s that I realized I was suffering from posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) from early childhood trauma. Learning why I was suffering was crucial to healing from the extreme anxiety and depression I coped with on a regular basis.
Because I grew up with the label of shy instead of anxious, there are a lot of things I didn’t realize I do because of anxiety, and no one ever recognized them as anxious behaviors. It took me reading about them somewhere else or hearing someone else say them for the lightbulb to go off.
Two weeks ago, I embarked on a massive life change. Moving away from the town where I got sober to begin a new chapter flipped my world upside down. I had to face my fear of change and part ways with the people, places, and things that kept me grounded for three years. My comfort zone was demolished, forcing me to start afresh. 
Fear is an emotion I used to view in a negative light. However, understanding how fear influences my emotional state has helped me to harness its power and use it to my advantage. In certain situations, overcoming fear helps me achieve my goals, contributing to feelings of accomplishment, happiness, and a more vibrant life experience.
I have learned so many important lessons and revelations in the course of my interminable healing from anorexia, but one stands out above the others: I cannot take a day off from eating disorder (ED) recovery. Sometimes I want to, of course. Sometimes I'm convinced that enough time has passed since my life was at risk—or I have enough experience and self-awareness at this point—to ease off the accelerator and simply coast for a while. But I really can't take a day off from ED recovery.

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Elizabeth Caudy
Dear William, thank you for your comment. I can definitely relate to it and I'm sure a lot of other people can, too. Best, Elizabeth
Devils-Avocado
I have just read this and actually had a little bit of a tear up. I'm a Brit on a waiting list for ADHD assessment. I have always had trouble buying clothes (and other things). Everything has to be just, just, perfect...every damn detail. I used to do exactly as described in stores but online shopping has made this worse. If I'm looking for something I end up with bags of clothes bought online (100's of £'s worth) which I'll go round and round trying on for days before returning at the 11th hour. It drives my partner (and me too, actually) batty having all this stuff in the corner of the bedroom. Currently it's summer trousers...omg.
I wonder if potential ADHD-ness also has something to do with the way I obsess, to the point of tears, over what I'm wearing to certain key things/events that really matter to me: evening out, work thing, seeing old friends after a while. I have to allow extra hours to go through the wardrobe rotation. I have been known not to go if it's just not right.
Gg
Fight hard and support your son through this hard time eventually the truth will come to light and your son will be heard.
William morgan
I am diagnosed with Schizzoaffective disorder and the part of my sickness I hate the most is severe anxiety. It attacks me from the pit of my stomach to my brain. I get so afraid that something terribly wrong has happened. Also, I’m afraid to see or be seen by my neighbors at times. This is a difficult thing because I enjoy getting out of the house at times. My anxiety is worse in the morning after waking up. I have no social life at all because i shy away from any kind of human interaction because I have social anxiety also. I freeze up in fear and all I can do is listen to others around me talking, and I am in fear to talk or communicate with others.
Lynn
Hi Kathleen, I am a pastors wife with Bi-polar 2 and I hear how you miss hearing and feeling God as He once was. I hope by now he has found better meds. I’ve also found other causes to my mental illnesses that have helped them work better. Ie my copper levels were very high from Wilson’s disease brought on by a rare bacterial infection from farming called Whipples disease. When they were Chelated, I had 10 years of feeling so well. Also have found a gene that interferes with neurotransmitters that aid serotonin levels. And take TMG an amino acid that helps too, I’m only heterozygous of this gene but I wish I could remember more to help more. The last factor that’s affected my moods is having hyperaldosteronism… an adrenal disorder that can effect our ability to cope.
So a copper, zinc cerruloplasma blood test. Anything higher than 17 is symptomatic even though a bells curve in science has the level higher. The Bill Walsh institute is dedicated to these bio chemical issues. Not sure where in the states they are.
Then aldosterone renin ration for adrenals. … early symptoms are a higher diastolic blood pressure than normal. But eventually it leads to hypertension that seems resistant to meds.. took them ten years to do this blood test on me with hypertension.
Hope ruling out things means he gets a better hold on it. But sometimes my favorite bible verse for my low mood times is “And it came to pass”