A different sort of self-care..

anxiety, depression, GP, growing up, happiness, love, medication, mental health, self-help, teenage, tips, university, wellbeing

Meg's Mental Health Blog

Wednesday 27th Feb 🌞

Self care isn’t just about lush bathbombs and facemasks, it can be taking a day off from emails, taking the bus instead of walking or making yourself breakfast for the first time in months.

As you will be able to read from my personal diaries, I’ve really been struggling these last few weeks as I feel like time is ticking and everything is moving too fast but I’ve decided to try and seize some control back and vow not to submit another piece of coursework late this semester (and I mean after my extension finishes kind of late). Nobody is going to get me out of this cycle, there’s no ‘saviour’ so I’m going to have to do it myself and here’s how I plan to.

I’ve made a list of self care orientated tasks I honestly believe have the potential to change my life and…

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run away with me

happiness, happy, life, love, negativity, reflections, sad, sadness, worry, writing

The Impostor Syndrome

goal setting, letters to my unborn child, paperoligarch, school, success

The Paper Oligarch

Impostor syndrome – [also known as impostor phenomenon, fraud syndrome or the impostor experience] – is a psychological pattern in which an individual doubts their accomplishments and has a persistent internalized fear of being exposed as a “fraud”.

“Despite external evidence of their competence, those experiencing this phenomenon remain convinced that they are frauds, and do not deserve all they have achieved. Individuals with this syndrome incorrectly attribute their success to luck, or as a result of deceiving others into thinking they are more intelligent than they perceive themselves to be. While early research focused on the prevalence among high-achieving women, impostor syndrome has been recognized to affect both men and women equally.”

Symptoms: Impostor experience may be accompanied by anxiety, stress, or depression and is associated with thoughts such as: “I must not fail“, “I feel like a fake“, “I just got…

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Things that get in the way of socializing

Like most people, we want at least someone with whom we can talk. We want a friend to cry with, or even laugh with. We need a deep connection with another human, to feel loved and validated.

Unfortunately, we have a few things that get in the way of socializing.

https://thebipolarwriter.blog/2019/04/08/yall-are-crazy-and-thats-okay

proving the cheery people wrong

cheery, happy, pessimism, pessimistic, realist, realistic, rejecting the cheery

I Conquer Suicide Everyday

One thing I’ve realized is that I have this weird need to prove the cheery people wrong. The ones that are always trying to end cap something with *well at least* and *let me send you cat pictures to cheer you up*.

I don’t really know for sure why. I don’t mean to be a debbie downer. I’m not actually. But with them, it’s almost as though I am on purpose. Like I’m a complete realist. I don’t tell them what’s going on with the rose -colored optimism and a lift up on the end. I tell them with the exact opposite. The grim, straight-laced reality version. I’m working but it’s still not enough. I have great feedback but don’t know how to make it into an income stream. I’ve got a ton of bills that need to be paid yesterday and no idea how they will be. Yes, the…

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Begin again

design

Feeling Like I’m Disappearing

Anxiety, Boundaries, Depression, Disability, Disappearing, Expectations, Family

Diary of an Emotional Wreck

I wonder if anyone else ever feels this way?

Lately, I feel as if I’m losing myself, as if I’ve lost myself. I don’t feel like a person anymore, but the services I perform for my family. I’m a cook, housekeeper, a dishwasher, etc.

My husband works in a factory, I’m disabled so I’m at home. Even though I’m disabled, it’s become my responsibility to take care of everything at home. I cook, wash dishes, do laundry, all the housework, most of the yard work, take care of the pets, balance the checkbook and take care of finances. I literally serve my husband his dinner in his recliner nightly. On top of all of that I manage my son’s social services and now my husband wants me to get a part time job to help bring money into the house. I don’t feel like a person anymore, I feel like…

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Let’s Talk Mental Health… and Let’s Also Listen

BellLetsTalk, mentalhealth, active listening, bipolar, bipolar disorder, listening, mental health, mental health conditions, mental illness, needs, radical acceptance, self care, thriving, wellness

Sound Mind

In the wake of Blue Monday on January 15th, Hi, How Are You? Day on the 22nd, and the #BellLetsTalk campaign on the 30th, I have been thinking about how to engage more deeply in our mental health conversation this month, and throughout the rest of the year.

I try to ask questions that open up the conversation further like “How are you?…Really?” “How did _____ make you feel?” “Are you talking to someone regularly?” I also make a point of talking about and embracing the full spectrum of mental health care, from “safer” topics of everyday self-care, to acknowledging how immensely frightening suicidal thoughts or full-blown psychosis can feel. (I know, I’ve been there).

Talking with courage and embracing vulnerability by sharing openly is an important first step, but a way to engage more, is to actually listen to each other. When we talk about mental health…

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Highly Sensitive Person

A highly sensitive person is someone who “experiences acute physical, mental, or emotional responses to stimuli.”

https://thebipolarwriter.blog/2019/03/11/being-a-highly-sensitive-person

When Depression Makes You Feel Helpless

Bipolar Depression, bipolar disorder, bipolar one, depression, depression cycles, mental health, Mental Health Recovery, mental illness

The Bipolar Writer Mental Health Blog

Depressed & Alone

My last depression cycle, which started in January and didn’t end until late February.

Despite the feelings that I had to deal with during the cycle, coming out of the fog has really helped me reflect on my feelings during this turbulent time. One sense that seems to always be intensified when I am dealing with depression–being alone in this fight.

I know “in this fight” I have all of my fellow mental illness suffers that I can turn to when I am depressed, and I always do by writing blogs to make connections. Depression has been my oldest companion in this life, and it is the longest relationship that I have ever had (granted it is one of those on again, off again things.) Depression always leaves me with thoughts about being alone.