recovery
Your illness does not define you. It's your resolve to recover that does.
How Mental Illness Affected My Life
TRIGGER WARNING: sexual abuse, self harm, suicidal thoughts. Throughout my life, I have struggled with various mental health issues. At a very young age, I faced trauma that no person should have to go through. Starting when I was just five years old, I had to learn how to begin coping with sexual abuse. For ten years, I worried about whether or not I would be able to sleep at night without my abuser coming into my room at some point while I slept. And I never told anyone, until about a year ago. I am nearly 21 now, and I still struggle with many things, because I was never able to healthily discuss what happened to me. I have never known how to talk about my trauma without making jokes about it, and unfortunately, that is not exactly the way to live after abuse.
By Linda Fitch7 years ago in Psyche
You'll Never Take My Sanity! Part 2
Have a look at the photo above, if you will. Then go take a peak at my previous journal—it's the same photo. But it looks different, doesn't it? It's a bit more colourful, because I increased the saturation on it since last time. Otherwise, it's exactly the same—but it seems so different. Mental health issues have a way of doing the same thing—anyone who has them knows this. Those who don't have them have a hard time understanding it—I know this because I was one of the lucky few who never had any issues until the last couple of years (although, as you read through these journals, you'll find that this may not be actually true). Hence, the example.
By Justin Foley7 years ago in Psyche
Accepting Weight Gain
It is the most difficult part of eating disorder recovery. Letting go of the sick and emaciated body that you spent years striving towards, the safety of a ribcage that sticks from under your bruised skin, and the comfort in listening to anorexia and her sickening demands. Your body changes day to day, meal to meal, as it tries to readjust itself to a regular feeding schedule and a substantial food intake. Bloating, cramps, stomach pains and no appetite are all part of the refeeding process. But what happens after that? When your body gradually remembers how to digest something other than diet soda, and you can see the numbers scribbled in the weighing room begin to increase. There is plenty of support to get you back in a healthy, strong and functioning body, but little to none when you are faced with dealing with the unavoidable weight gain, and the new body you begin to see in the mirror.
By Rosie Carlile8 years ago in Psyche
Understanding the Problem
I grew up in an Irish Catholic family with parents who were divorced and angry and with siblings who tried their best to survive like me. I don't think I ever understood my siblings until I became older and realized that they were trying to get by just like I was. Ever since I was little I was seen by my family as being the "bright" one, the caring, happy, smiling one which set me apart from my siblings and mother who raised us. I remember running free in the grass barefoot collecting pretty rocks and playing with bugs and tiny creatures in the back woods.
By Cat Dempsey8 years ago in Psyche
Self Harm
Someone once told me that self-harming is a coward thing to do. They said that it is selfish to do. That it's a choice. It isn't always a choice. I don't remember what day I picked up a razor blade for the first time. I remember the reason why I did, though. I remember the sting of the blade cutting into my arm. I remember the overwhelming feeling of relief that washed over me after each cut. The same relief I felt each time I picked up the blade and touched it to my skin. I got that same relief with the snap of a hair tie or rubber band against the skin of the wrists. You can't take a razor blade to school, especially when the school itself upped its security measures after a bomb and gun threat was found in the school. You can, however, wear a rubber band or a hair tie on your wrist, in your hair, or even just put it in your backpack or purse. No one thinks anything of it. I remember I used to discreetly snap it on my wrists between classes and sometimes during classes. It was so easy to hide the marks with a jacket.
By Tori Quintanar8 years ago in Psyche
My Emma
I measured my year in linoleum floors. In fluorescent lights, in the smell of rubber and artificial lemon air freshener; in narrow hallways silent except for the faint buzz of the heater. I measured my year by counting the beds occupied and the pairs of sheets needing to be changed over once morning came. I counted the clipboards thrust into my hands, tearful retreats to the stark, institutional public restrooms; in pitying eyes staring at my 2 AM, mascara-streaked, dark- circled face while I slumped over in the near-empty waiting room.
By Kaylyn Buckley8 years ago in Psyche
Your Health Matters!
So mental health is what we call a tent pole topic in 2018. More and more campaigns, blogs, Facebook pages proliferate, all encouraging people to open up, be honest, and just simply listen to others’ mental health concerns more. Although at the same time it is, of course, worth pointing out the advice one often receives is to stay away from photo-centric social media, lest we become envious, upset, or anxious that our lives don’t measure up to the lives of others.
By Richard Brind8 years ago in Psyche
