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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. Schizophrenia, voices, combined with suicidal ideation, is even more 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 selective memory in my eating disorder? 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 these depression coping tools are my dogs. Here’s how bundles of fur and slobber, known as dogs, 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 "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 about my anxious behaviors.
Two weeks ago, I embarked on a massive life change in sobriety. 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.
Yesterday, I noticed an eyelash on my finger. I asked my husband Tom if wishing on eyelashes amounted to magical thinking, even though I already knew it did. I just wiped the eyelash away instead of wishing on it. I am trying to stop most forms of magical thinking.
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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Mary-Elizabeth Schurrer
Hi C.W.

Thank you for reaching out. I am so sorry to hear that you are in such distress. I know it can be difficult, but please consider seek out a mental health resource that can assist you. HealthyPlace's list of hotline numbers is a useful place to start. Here's a link to find the contact information: https://www.healthyplace.com/other-info/resources/mental-health-hotline-numbers-and-referral-resources.

Sincerely,

Mary-Elizabeth Schurrer
HealthyPlace Comment Moderator
Kim Burnicle
I just left my adult kids. They live 4 hours away and we spent thanksgiving week together. I noticed on the drive home I felt depressed and lonely. I got the feeling they were happy to see me go and they don’t need my anymore. I know they love me but I also think they don’t like me. They often use a tone of voice with me that leaves my feeling stupid and irrelevant. It’ll take me days to “get over” this sadness.
Ebony
it's currently summer and my family always goes swimming and it would be weird if I suddenly didn't as only my parents know about my self harm. my scars go all the way down my thighs and shorts don't cover them however they are purple red scars and I don't really know what to do.
Robb
In my experience: with larger companies: they do not care about self-harm or suicide. If it dont happen there, they dont acknowledge it. When you try to share self-harm tendancies, they will ignore it at best, or blacklist you at worst. We really should feel safe discussing fatal disorders like this at a place we spend 1/3 of our lives. But thanks to spree shooters and human apathy, if you share depression, suicidal feelings or self-harm feelings: you are branded a threat. Remember: HR works for the company, not for you.
Vladislav
Thank you a lot for this blog! It was really helpful for me.

After reading this I started to look at self-harm as something more serious, stopped to cover my scars and got some help. And other advices were really helpful in my journey. And now I almost a month clean.

Again, I really want to say thank you for this blog and videos!