There are seven elements necessary to write targeted affirmations to cure anxiety. Some of those elements are clearing your limiting beliefs and reconstructing the story you tell yourself. Discover what the elements are and how to craft affirmations to cure your anxiety.

Last week, one of the Heal My PTSD support group members heaved a big sigh and asked, “Is it normal to fluctuate between seeing progress and going back to square one? Is that part of PTSD recovery?”

For more than two years, I wrote about my struggles with anorexia nervosa and the associated depression and anxiety that came with it on HealthyPlace's Surviving ED blog. I was proud that I was unfailingly honest about my thoughts, fears, and actions while attempting to recover from an eating disorder. I felt that was the only way to connect and help others, and I didn't regret it. Until recently.

In the presentation I give to schoolchildren, I mention that, at various points in my history, I self-harmed. I cut myself. It’s a dirty truth, but there it is. And not surprisingly, one teen asked me today, “Why would anyone cut themselves?” Good question. Whole books have been written exploring this question and there is no single answer to why people self-harm. However, as to why most self-harm: it seemed like a good idea at the time.

When Delay is Deadly When I was kicked out of the Army due to my mental illness, they gave me a 30-day supply of medication, a list of mental health services in Indianapolis and a "good luck, ex-soldier Oberg". Unfortunately, it was going to take three months to get in to see a psychiatrist. I've since found that other people have the same problem--it's so common that CrisisChat.org has an article about what to do while waiting for mental health services in their mental health library.

Let's do the math: mental illness = positivity. Right? Well, usually not, but it works in our favor to try to find positive aspects when recovering from mental illness. I'm going to break this down into the three stages of recovery we all go through.

Should taking bipolar medications bother me? Psychiatric medications, including bipolar medications, are at the center of many controversial debates. Many people feel as if taking bipolar medications daily means that they are completely dependent upon them, while others believe that medications are necessary for their bipolar disorder treatment.

Feeling triggered during social events? So am I! Eating disorder triggers seem to come from every direction, but is there anything you can do about them?

Intimate partner violence has been called the “hidden variable” in the lives of older adult women (65 and older). In our youth-driven culture, it can be difficult to think of older women as the victims of domestic violence, spousal abuse, rape, or emotional abuse, chiefly because it is uncomfortable for us to consider the elderly as romantically and sexually active. These are younger women’s problems, goes the popular attitude, and media and social services directed at victims of IPV seem to concur. If you’ve ever thought this way, you’re not alone. Studies have shown even physicians are reluctant to ask older women about domestic violence, particularly sexual abuse.

People associate so many experiences with food. I remember what I had at so-and-so's wedding and how happy my grandmother's strawberry shortcake makes me feel. There are so many good things about food. And, then, there's the way that ADHD medications make you feel about food. Those feelings? They tend to not be so good ...