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As a writer, I’ve found creativity is one of the first things to be affected when my depression rears its ugly head. Depression makes it harder to motivate myself to write and harder to express my unique creative voice—the thing that brings me the most joy.
You may have heard some variation of the famous saying, "perspective is everything." While many people believe this is a good life philosophy, I disagree. Perspective is vital, but it is not everything.
As I tried to come up with a topic for this blog post, my mind spun a web of negative thoughts. I realized that the deadline for publication was looming. Like many weeks, I scolded myself for procrastinating. Then I started thinking about unrelated issues like my work performance, unmet goals, rejection, friendships, and relationships. Depression tortured me with lies that I will reveal in this post. Here are five of the lies my depression has told me and what I have learned from them.
I’ve never described it in these terms, but I hacked my skin-picking disorder. Excoriation disorder used to control every aspect of my life—physically and emotionally—and I was certain I’d suffer forever. Today, I can share with you that this is far from reality. I might have skin picking disorder, but it doesn’t have me.
For a very long time, I wasn’t comfortable with myself. During my journey to healing, I quickly realized that it’s a lot easier for us to make friends with strangers than our own selves. It took me such a long time to make friends with myself and slowly learn to love who I am. Now that I’m here, I hope to help as many people as possible find their way to self-love.
Recently, I have noticed a disturbing diet-talk trend whenever I am with a group of women. Last week, for example, someone at my job said they eat less than 1000 calories while dieting. Another is preparing for her upcoming wedding by eliminating all carbohydrates. Constantly, I hear things like, "I'm trying to be good, so I'm not eating sugar," or "I was so bad last night because I ate ice cream."
In a perfect world, it would be nice to avoid adversity altogether, but unfortunately, everybody has to face unfavorable circumstances at some point. However, dwelling on adversity only leads to dismay, and focusing on the potential positive outcomes in any situation is much more likely to work in your favor.
When facing repetitive verbal abuse, you may wonder if abusers can change and become loving and supportive people. Can a verbally abusive person change and stop using hurtful words and intimidation on others? Of course, the answer will depend on the individual and their dedication to embracing change.
My schizoaffective disorder tells me a lot of bad things about myself and makes me think I’m a bad person. Here are some of the ways that I feel like a bad person because of my schizoaffective disorder and how I fight back.
It's hard to be happy when you struggle with anxiety. Anxiety, in and of itself, contradicts happiness. If you think about it, when you're happy, you're experiencing positive emotions. But when you're anxious, you're experiencing fear, uncertainty, worry, and doubt.

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Elizabeth Caudy
HI, Brooklyn-- Thanks for your comment. I am sorry you struggle so much with OCD and washing your hair. But kudos on finding creative ways to do it anyway! I know that's not easy. I wish you well. Elizabeth
Mary-Elizabeth Schurrer
Hi LAA,

Thank you so much for reaching out to share your experience. As the blogger here at "Surviving ED," as well as someone who has dealt with anorexia for almost 20 years (the last five of those years spent in eating disorder recovery), I can empathize how you feel. I know how much courage and vulnerability is takes to be honest about where you are currently at in the healing process. I also know how uncomfortable it can be to submit to the advice of a therapist or nutritionist when you have been living with the mindset and behaviors of an eating disorder for so long. The ultimate decision to heal is yours, but I would encourage you to continue seeking out the help of trained clinicians and listening to their expertise. I understand this is hard, but I want to commend you for making an effort. If you would like more information or resources, please check out the HealthyPlace Eating Disorders Community page (https://www.healthyplace.com/eating-disorders) or our list of confidential hotline and referral numbers (https://www.healthyplace.com/other-info/resources/mental-health-hotline-numbers-and-refer…). Once again, thank you for sharing.

Sincerely,
Mary-Elizabeth Schurrer
"Surviving ED" Blogger
Fynn
yeah. someone outed me to my teachers and now they are gonna call home and im terrifed
Haille Lien
To Chrissy M.-I am 15 and just made my First Holy Communion this past sunday,May 21st,2023 in the class of 7 year olds. I was dressed as a little girl also in a short sleeve,poofy,knee length communion dress and veil with gloves,lace anklets and white patent leather shoes.After my bath,i laid naked on my bed and mom baby powdered me then pinned a 10 ply thick cloth diaper on me,then put white,crinkly,adult size rubberpants on me over the diaper,followed by a plain white tee shirt and tucked it into the waist of the rubberpants.I put the lace anklets and shoes on next,then my dress and veil were put on me next.I felt very pure and little girlish in my outfit and when mom brought me out to show dad,the rubberpants crinkled under my dress!! At the parish before the ceremony,several of my friends remarked how cute i looked as a 'little girl' and they lifted up my dress and checked out my diaper and rubberpants. Even some teen boys saw the diaper and rubberpants under my dress and told me i looked cute!At my party,my dress was also lifted up and every saw the diaper and rubberpants! I felt very little girlish!
Brooklyn
I have OCD, and a lot of my intrusive thoughts and compulsions are about my hair. I pull my hair out, but what relates to this article is I am afraid of washing my hair because I have intrusive thoughts of when my hands get wrinkled from being wet they are softer, and I imagine them getting cut all over from washing my hair. For this reason, I can’t wash my hair normally. I always wash my hair in a separate shower from washing my body to avoid any unnecessary time to get my hands wrinkled. When I am washing my hair I wear plastic gloves and I use hairbrush to wash my hair. I just picked t the shampoo on the brush and act as if I am brushing my hair. This fear also makes me afraid of swimming because I don’t want to touch my hair, and I feel embarrassed every time I use the back of my hands to push hair out of my face.