kishoano176-blog

[kishoano176-blog]

For my fellow Muslims who suffer from mental illness, I’d like to share a tip I learned from my wonderful counselor (who I miss so much now that I live out in the boonies and have no access to therapy services anymore).

She was non-Muslim, but upon learning that I was Muslim and learning a little about Islam and what I do during the day as a Muslim, ie praying five times a day, wudu, etc, she taught me to incorporate grounding techniques into my prayers as a way to keep consistent not only spirituality but also in my treatment of my OCD.

I tend to start missing prayer when I have an OCD related anxiety attack. So, she taught me to start using prayer when I’m having good days to teach myself to associate prayer with grounding techniques for when those bad days come. So, for example, every time you pray, either at the beginning, or the end, or both, do 10 deep breaths. Do some grounding techniques. The one she taught me was where you identify five things you can hear, five things you can feel, five things you can see and five things you can smell (if you can). And then, you go around again, this time finding four things of each, three things of each, two, one, etc. So, you do this during prayer (I usually do it afterwards when I do it) and you start implementing it before you have an anxiety attack. 

There is also another technique where you picture your problems written on the side of a train. In your mind, you see the train coming with your problems written on the side of it. You mentally watch the train go by, and then acknowledge the problem exists, but that you are not going to obsess over it, and then mentally watch the train go by, taking your obsessions over the problems with it. I tend to do that technique after making dua and talking to Allah about my problems, because then that helps me not to dwell after taking my worries to Allah and relieves my anxiety a bit.

I found this really helpful to help me not abandon prayer when I have a bad OCD day, or just a bad day in general, because I’ve associated my grounding techniques with prayer or dua, so now prayer is a calming experience for me, not just spiritually, but for treatment, as well. I’m not saying this is a perfect science or that you’ll never miss prayer again because of this, because I know those of us struggling with varying degrees of severity with mental illness will have some dark days. I’m just saying that this can helpful if prayer is something you would like to focus on while also coping with a mental illness. I hope it’s beneficial to someone out there.

[kishoano176-blog]

Do not look for my heart any more, the beasts have eaten it.

Charles Baudelaire, The Flowers of Evil (via the-book-diaries)

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me: gosh i have so much work to do i better get started

my brain: you cannot

me: why

my brain: you are feeling moderately upset, any attempt at productivity is futile

me: i don't see how-

my brain: cannot.

[kishoano176-blog]

Always defend your right to heal at your own pace. You are taking your time. You are allowed to take your time.

Unknown (via wnq-anonymous)

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Everything is fine and then suddenly I get overwhelmed with the feeling of “no one will ever love you”.

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morning routine.png

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I care too much, that’s how I get hurt.

(via love-diaries)

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Mark of the Vampire (1935)

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I believe in love and lust and sex and romance. I don’t want everything to add up to some perfect equation I want mess and chaos I want someone to go crazy out of his mind for me. I want to feel passion and heat and sweat and madness I want it all.

Barbra Streisand (via lovelustquotes)

[kishoano176-blog]

Me: I'm going through a lot, I should really talk to someone

Axiety&Depression: Isolate yourself from everybody and sleep instead

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I really just want a weekend away from everyone and everything, this dunya is so depressing

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What thing worthy of love can be found in me?

Franz Kafka, Letters To Milena (via love-diaries)

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O Allah, lift my heart, relieve my burdens, and make me of those who put their trust in You for all their affairs. Ameen

(via islamicrays)