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Surviving Tough Times

Everyone has habits -- both healthy and unhealthy habits. Healthy habits might be drinking enough water throughout the day. Unhealthy might be drinking excessively every night. Lately, I am finding that some of my past behaviors and thought patterns have contributed to some of my unhealthy habits today. To learn more about my discoveries and experiences with habits, continue reading this blog post.
I've found Valentine's Day affirmations helpful. For some people, Valentine's Day is full of flowers, candy hearts, thoughtful cards, fancy dinners, and romance. For others, it is a fun day to celebrate with family and friends. But for people struggling with depression or anxiety, this holiday can bring about feelings of loneliness, anger, and envy. It can be a reminder of heartbreak and loss. If you are going through a difficult time right now, here are some Valentine's Day affirmations for you.
The creation of art can help with depression. During the cold season, when I'm stuck indoors, it becomes tempting to spend a lot of time sleeping. This only makes me feel depressed. To combat this, I try to find fun activities that challenge my mind. This year, I discovered joy in diamond painting. To learn how this artistic hobby helps with depression, read on.
A few weeks ago, a friend asked me to edit an article that caused great stress and anxiety. I agreed to do this, not knowing how complex the text would be. After a few minutes, I stressed out about why I couldn't comprehend the content. My stress soon morphed into anxiety, pounding my head with thoughts like, "I'm so stupid, and If I can't edit this piece, my friend will be disappointed." I was tempted to give up and apologize to my friend. But before I did, I remembered that my stress and anxiety didn't have to consume me. To learn more about my experience with stress and anxiety and how I have learned to deal with them, continue reading this post.
I'm focusing on not drinking soda. Many people have different habits and addictions that they turn to during stressful times. Some common ones include social media, Netflix, alcohol, food, and drugs. In this post, I discuss how my habit of drinking Diet Coke affects my life. I also share four ways that I plan on using to stop drinking soda.
Self-awareness matters when dealing with anxiety. In the midst of anxiety, my mind creates a mess of thoughts. I cannot figure out when they started, how they began, or how to end them. This struggle sometimes leads to unhealthy temptations and behaviors. After nine years of anxiety treatment, I learned a very helpful skill to understand and change my thoughts and my behaviors when I'm anxious: self-awareness. In this post, I discuss four ways that my self-awareness around anxiety has improved.
Anticipatory anxiety is more severe than stressing out about a current situation. Clinical psychologist Sally Winston and master clinician Martin Seif define anticipatory anxiety as a fear of failure and other bad things that might happen in the future. As a result of anticipatory anxiety, many people avoid important tasks and new things. To learn about my experience with anticipatory anxiety and change and how I managed it, continue reading this post.
At some point, everyone experiences some degree of anger and sadness. Some people can control those emotions easily. For others, self-control is much more difficult. My anxiety and depression have caused me to lose control over sadness and anger verbally. In this post, I discuss my triggers for anger and sadness and how I am learning to deal with them.
In my experience, eczema and mental health can be linked. In my early to mid-20s, I enjoyed wearing makeup and scented lotions. I didn't think much about the chemicals in these products because there didn't appear to be a reason for concern. But when I was 27, I developed painful eczema rashes that changed my perception of chemicals and mental health. To learn about my experience with eczema and how it affected my mental health, continue reading this post.
There are coping skills for breakups, but learning them took me a while. One of the things I hate most about the summer is that it seems to be my season of breakups. Every time it happened years ago, I felt like something was wrong with me. I lost hope in ever having a lasting relationship. My mind went to dark places for several months. This time, however, I have techniques to ease the healing process. Continue reading to learn about my list of breakup coping skills.