#recovery strategy

[positivelyqueer]

A friend once told me that when they are struggling with getting laundry done, she pretends it is her sworn duty to smuggle the young prince out of the castle to safety, disguised in a laundry hamper.

Now, when I am struggling with hygiene, I pretend I am part of a village with an annual festival, and I get one day a year to spend luxuriously at a bathhouse in preparation.

What my friend imparted on me was the skill of turning mundane tasks into fantastical adventures to make them more compelling and bearable.

So next time you need to go on a mental health walk, maybe consider doing reconnaissance for a secret underground organisation.

Next time cooking is too much of a chore, consider you ability to turn space station rations into a feast to the delight of your crewmates.

[ultimateassistanceforeldersl]

Hospital stays can be a challenging experience for anyone, especially for seniors. Leaving the hospital and transitioning back home can be just as problematic. That’s where home care services in Fairfield, Connecticut, come in. These services ensure a smooth transition, reducing the risk of readmission.

[healingpuppys]

How to cope with a trauma anniversary!

for some slight context, today is a very awful day for us, we have many trauma anniversaries, and though they seem to never get better throughout the years we have found a way to cope with some things!

Waking up

waking up the morning of a trauma anniversary can feel jarring, and sometimes at first you don’t realize it’s a trauma day, it’s different for everyone when they may realize! sometimes you can wake up and your body feels heavier, you may feel fuzzy, and gross; although these feelings are awful it’s very important to ground yourself, it’s ok to let yourself feel those feelings but don’t let it overcome you and cause you to spiral. A few grounding tips we have are:

find a comfort item, it can be anything! just something that brings you joy and comfort.

play a song or video that helps you calm down, focus on the beat and try to tap your fingers along with it

wrap yourself in a big blanket, for us personally it gives us a sense of safety when we most need it and it can be you’re safe space

these are just a few and of course there are plenty more you can use!

Flashbacks

Flashbacks are again a horrible and very painful experience. We also have things called ptsd induced hallucinations, where sometimes a flashback can trigger hallucinations and make life in the moment so much worse. if you experience these as well we have a few tips! even if you don’t experience these you can still use the tips!

reality check your self but not in a negative way, say things like “nothing can hurt me in this moment” “i am safe” etc.

distractions!! I know some people say “distractions won’t help you process through things” no, and a lot of people on a day like this don’t want or need to process anything, we are put in the mindset of trauma responses and are simply trying to survive the day, it’s important to have things that can ease our mind in those moments

comfort food, comfort food or drinks can always help and bring you away from a certain memory into another

calming or nice smells, candles or anything that has a nice sent can help distract the mind and sometimes put you in a different mind set

Eating

eating or getting hungry can be a struggle, for some they feel nauseous or sick at times during the day, which is completely normal! It is important to try to eat, and again if you can’t that’s completely ok there’s no need to feel shame in it just remember to hydrate and eat when you feel better! some tips to help one feel hungry or eat

Comfort food again!! comfort food can bring one out of a memory sometimes and into a happier or calmer one! and who doesn’t love comfort food!!

watching people cooking! it can sometimes be helpful for someone to regain hunger by watching others cook and plate some delicious looking food

Sleeping

sleeping can be hard on these days, for us we don’t get much sleep the night of our trauma date, but trust me it’ll make you feel much better.

Water/rain/forrest/wind sounds, they can be very calming and helpful to sleep, for us the forrest is one of our favorite places to be so we can sleep very soundly with noises of the forrest

youtube videos, something calming or funny as background noise can help someone’s mind relax enough to fall asleep

melatonin/prescribed sleeping meds, for some simple distractions won’t be enough so if you’re able we recommend taking something that can help you sleep

breathing/meditation! meditating is known to relax your body and mind also helping you clear tension built up in your body, we highly recommend this strategy!

though some of these things may not be helpful for some we hope to give people ideas and what personally helps us! remember lovely’s you’re valid, you’re strong, and you are all amazing! please remember to stay safe!!

[many-but-one]

Hello! I follow you on TT and here, you are amazing, and your stories helped us a lot to finally feel seen and not so alone. We are in therapy, we are trying to have a better life. We wanted to ask you about some coping skills that can help with repressed memories, flashbacks, so, we can try to work on them, maybe you have some that you can share (if that’s okay, and you are comfortable doing that)? Also, I wanted to know… how to help other parts to be more comfortable to interact with our therapist? For now there is one part that is working with them and processing some stuff. Abbé, we can help each other with this? Thank you. And I hope you are doing okay. Take care.

Phoenix system

Hey Phoenix System! Your most recent ask is actually what made us realize that we had a ton of asks built up that we hadn't answered, so thanks for that. I'll answer this one first.

Coping skills for dealing with repressed memories, flashbacks, etc:

Inner communication. Working on inner communication when you start feeling repressed memories, emotions, flashbacks, etc, coming on is necessary. Reminding parts that they do not need to keep reliving these things anymore (you already lived it once, you don't have to keep reliving it) and that it's 2023 and you are [insert age here] now can help keep parts grounded in the present. Will discuss grounding methods shortly. Also understanding why a flashback is occurring can be helpful in order to minimize them. Because remember, you don't *have* to keep living this stuff over and over, so working on figuring out why a part is reliving things is necessary to decrease the amount of things coming out. Are they flashbacking because of an external trigger? What is that trigger and how can we avoid it? Are they flashbacking because a part triggered them internally? Why did that part trigger that part internally? What is the motive behind that? Does the part believe that they have to keep reliving their trauma purposely? Why do they believe that? Is this part sending flashbacks to send a message? Are they angry? Do they feel ignored? This is a common thing for parts to do if they feel ignored. "You don't acknowledge my pain, so I'm going to show you my pain instead." (via flashbacks). Communicating with parts why a flashback is occurring and how we can minimize them in the future is imperative for eventual healing. Getting everyone on the same page that we are now in the present and not in the past will minimize flashbacks too. Easier said than done. We have been doing this part by part for nearly three years now and while we've made a lot of progress, we still have a long way to go. It takes time.

Grounding methods. Grounding in the present is very important to minimize how "deep" into flashbacks you go. These are usually engaging your senses in your current present day world to show that you are there in the present, in 2023 (or whatever year you are reading this). For us, holding bags of ice in our hands helps keep us from floating too far into dissociation land. Looking around the room (or outside space) and pointing out all of the red objects or green objects or whatever variety of object you feel like pointing out forces you to focus on the fact you are in THAT space, not the space that your mind is trying to take you to. Eating mints or cinnamon candies is also a very good grounding method for us, sour candy too. It's a harsh taste that's hard to ignore, and it's not something we were actively tasting during our traumatic experiences, so it can help remind us that we are currently in adult time eating sour candy/mints/cinnamon candy. If anyone else who reads this has grounding methods that work for them that they'd like to share, please feel free to add to this post.

Distractions. If all else fails, finding things to distract yourself when you start feeling the thought spirals come is important. These can be things like reading a book, watching a comfort show or youtuber, doing something hands-on like art, crocheting, or even lego building, etc, is a good way to stay distracted. While it's important to recognize or try to communicate with parts to try and keep yourself from going into trauma time, sometimes a system's communication is low, or it can be difficult to reach parts because your head is like a beehive of voices. Keeping yourself distracted with things that keep you grounded in the present time will be necessary until the moment passes. Because eventually it will pass, and then you'll be more clearheaded and able to address what happened later.

Journaling/video/audio recording things that you've seen in flashbacks. Writing poetry, journaling, speaking aloud, etc helps to put words to the experiences. Putting words to the experiences often helps lessen the emotional intensity of the experiences. This is why therapy is something that helps people. Putting words to experiences can help make the emotional impact of something easier to manage. For parts who struggle to use words or type or write, drawing pictures or finding pictures online to describe the experiences helps too. Something that we try to do with parts who are having flashbacks or who try to send flashbacks to explain how much pain they are in is encouraging them to put words or images to the experiences rather than sending flashbacks to fronters to explain how much pain they are in. It helps our parts immensely to have a place dedicated to only them to express their pain. This can be via tumblr blogs (public or private, however they prefer), google docs, a journal that is only for them, a discord channel in a private system server that is only theirs, etc.

Now, for how to help parts feel more comfortable interacting with the therapist, this is twofold.

One, that part needs to be able to trust the therapist. If they don't trust the therapist, they aren't going to want to talk to them no matter how much you try to convince them. You and your therapist need to have good rapport and they need to basically be able to "prove" to that part that they are trustworthy to speak to.

Two, you then need to also convince that part that the therapist is trustworthy. Hence the need for the therapist to "prove" they are trustworthy. Remind parts that therapists have rules that they cannot tell people outside of the room you are in what you speak about. If this therapist has played by the rules of the system so far, like agreeing when to drop subjects when parts don't want to talk about something, or not pressuring parts to speak when they don't want to (a therapist should never force a part to speak to them or force parts to talk about things they aren't ready to talk about) point that out to those parts and remind them that this therapist has had good boundaries with the system in the past, so it's likely those boundaries will continue.

Lastly, it takes time for parts to feel comfortable talking to a therapist. Some parts will be okay talking but won't want to share their name or what they do in the system. If your therapist tries to pressure parts to tell them their name, their age, or what they do for the system, that's not going to create a safe environment for parts. Parts will open up only when they feel comfortable enough to, and that is something the therapist has to create.

I hope this post helped! If anyone has any further suggestions to add, feel free. :)

[tenderbittersweet]

Creative endeavors, be they “ugly” or “perfect,” are great ways to self-regulate. Making something achieves several coping skill goals:

Redirecting your thoughts and emotions

Harnessing your energy for a “good” reason

Directing your feelings away from yourself and others and onto the “canvas” of your choice

Taking control of your thoughts and emotions

Choosing not to punish yourself

Proving to yourself that your work and effort can make something brand new and totally unique

Embracing your thoughts and emotions in a healthy, constructive, or creative way, which keeps you from ruminating

Allows you to reflect back on your creation once you’re out of the thick of it ->

What triggered the negative feeling(s) & thought(s)?

What were your mentally and emotionally experiencing?

How can you prepare yourself the next time you find yourself in a similar situation?

What boundaries can you put in place?

How can you communicate your needs?

When I say “create” something, you don’t need any sort of art supplies or tools beyond a pencil and notebook paper. Your “art project” can just be mindless scribbles.

If you want to use art supplies but have no budget for anything “nice,” resale shops sell loose bundles of crayons, colored pencils, and markers. Dollar stores have stationery sections, often with sample packs of brand name goods like Crayola.

You can make art from anything around you: books, magazines, newspapers, cards, envelopes, calenders, notebook paper, computer paper, paint, glue, pencils, markers, white out, pens, etc.

Speaking from experience, whatever you make will always be better than hurting yourself or others in the long-run.

[papermint-airplane]

I haven't had an intrusive thought that has caused actual panic in a long time. I've gotten really good at facing my intrusive thoughts and being like "you're an intrusive thought and I'd like you to go ahead and shut the fuck up". That sounds unhinged af but that's an actual legitimate strategy that therapists tell people with OCD and anxiety (like me) to use. And it works well after a certain point (getting to that point is its own battle though). Now I can shut them down fairly quickly so they don't cause as much distress as they used to.

Sometimes, though, some of them slip through my defenses and make me have A Very Bad Time™. This is one of those times.

Hit the cut if you're interested in how I combat these.

Last night, as I was laying in my bed trying to sleep, my OCDemon was like, "I'm going to ruin this bitch's whole life". I knew, I just knew that a car or low flying plane or something was going to crash through my bedroom window and game-end me right then and there. That is extremely unlikely to happen for multiple reasons I don't think I even need to enumerate to people whose brains don't hate them, but I was so sure it was going to happen and I was going to die.

I fought it the way I've been taught. Facts and logic, baby. "My bedroom does not face the road". Check. "In order for a plane to hit my house, they'd have to be flying so low that I would hear it coming and have time to respond in some way". Check. "I need to sleep. I have work tomorrow and there's nowhere else for me to sleep. I have to be here." Check.

It didn't work right away. It never does. I had to keep going over and over it in my head while forcing my body to lie still. At this point, the fight or flight mode had already kicked in. I was shaking, feeling irritable, feeling scared, heart beating super fast and skipping beats, sweating, all your classic physical symptoms. I wanted to get up and get as far away from that bed as I could, but I held myself down. I kept repeating the facts. "You're not in any danger. Nothing is coming through that window."

Eventually, I relaxed enough to sleep but it must have been fitful. I don't remember anything because I was zonked out but I woke up to my sheets and pillows halfway on the floor so I must have thrashed around like a dying fish all night.

I am exhausted and I'm still feeling a heightened sense of anxiety, but it's way more manageable right now. I just keep wanting to check the news which is unfortunately an OCD compulsion of mine whenever I'm feeling anxious because I guess my brain wants a reason to be anxious. Wouldn't ya know it, this shitty world loves to give it those reasons. Lucky me. I am fighting it as much as I can. My rule is no checking more than twice a day (I will literally do it hundreds of times during a bad flareup) and if it gets too bad, I have to text my therapist. I'd rather not bother him off-hours so this means I'm fighting my existential dread with my fear of being a nuisance lmao.

This is rough and anyone else going through this, I am right there with you. It sucks not being able to trust your own thoughts. It sucks having to fight your own body. If I had a cure, we'd all be fucking cured right now. But all I have is an arsenal of techniques that work just barely at best and not at all at worst. All you can do is keep fighting.

I need a nap.

[domosapien]

Daily Chore Hacks for Mentally Ill Girlies

Breaking down essential daily tasks into smaller, more manageable steps can be particularly helpful for those of you who are overwhelmed or struggling with mental health issues like depression:

1. Personal Hygiene

Showering: Instead of a full shower, use baby wipes for a quick cleanse or just wash the face and underarms with a washcloth. At the very minimum, try to clean your PTA: pits, tits, and ass. (If you have a large chest ykwim.)

Teeth Brushing: Start with mouthwash or chewing sugar-free gum if brushing feels too demanding. Rub your teeth with a damp washcloth. Gradually work up to brushing when you feel capable.

Hair Care: Use dry shampoo instead of washing hair, or simply combing hair can be a start. Throw it up into a bun if you have long hair so it doesn’t bother you. Avoid hats as they’ll make your hair get dirtier faster. Alternatively, shave your head or cut it very short! Less work.

2. Eating

Cooking Meals: Start with simple tasks like making a sandwich or a smoothie, or even eating pre-packaged snacks. Buy nutrition shakes like pediasure or soylent and take your vitamins. Drinking your meals is so much easier when you’re depressed and tired. At the very least, try to get enough protein.

Grocery Shopping: Create a small list of essential items, or order groceries online for delivery to avoid the stress of going out.

3. Cleaning

Tidying Up: Focus on one small area at a time, like clearing a desk or making the bed.

Dishes: Wash a few dishes at a time instead of the entire load. Alternatively, use disposable plates and cutlery to reduce the load.

4. Exercise

Physical Activity: Begin with stretching or a short walk when you feel like it. Listen to uplifting music while you do so. Gradually increase duration and intensity as comfort grows.

5. Work/School Tasks

Homework/Assignments: Break down tasks into smaller parts. For instance, start by reading one page or writing one paragraph. Use the Pomodoro Technique: 25 minutes working followed by a 5 minute break. Change the times if you feel you need to. No one’s stopping you from working for 10 minutes and taking a 20 minute break.

Emails or Administrative Tasks: Set a timer for a short period and only focus on this task during that time. The Pomodoro technique also works here.

6. Social Interactions

Keeping in Touch: Send a text message or make a brief phone call instead of feeling pressured to engage in long conversations or meetups. Make a discord server or group chat for your friends to keep in touch so you only have to send one message at a time. Avoid other social media.

7. Mental Health Care

Mindfulness or Relaxation: Cannot recommend this enough. Begin with a few minutes of deep breathing or listening to calming music. No screen time; just you and the music. Gradually try longer sessions of meditation or relaxation exercises as you need to.

8. Sleep

Bedtime Routine: Start with dimming lights and avoiding screens an hour before bed. Use a lamp instead of the ceiling light. Focus on one relaxing activity, like reading a few pages of a book or spending time cuddling with a pet. Put on some fluffy socks, some cozy jammies, make a hot and sweet beverage for yourself, etc. Make going to bed pleasant and relaxing for yourself.

If you battle insomnia, try herbal remedies like melatonin or CBD to help counter it. Avoid caffeine after noon. Go to bed an hour early so you have more time to unwind privately.

The key to managing your mental health and essential daily tasks is to make the tasks smaller! Take everything day by day. Don’t worry about the future; focus on the now and how you can make your own life easier and more pleasant right now. It’s the least you can do for yourself.

[onhoude]

Qian Qiu (volume 1), Yan Wushi:

[maxcuntstappen]

OKAY BUT OSCAR BEING P8????? i love that australian muffin, he has done so well

[ivygorgon]

AN OPEN LETTER to THE PRESIDENT & U.S. CONGRESS; STATE GOVERNORS & LEGISLATURES

Say NO to Loony-Bins: Immediate Action Required for Inpatient Psychiatric Care

2 so far! Help us get to 5 signers!

The current model of inpatient psychiatric care, which primarily focuses on safety and crisis stabilization, falls short in promoting sustained recovery. The prevalent emphasis on ultrashort lengths of stay often overlooks the need for comprehensive treatment plans.

A proposed model of care advocates for rapid diagnosis, goal-setting, and treatment modalities before initiating treatment, organized into three distinct phases: assessment, implementation, and resolution. This approach emphasizes individualized treatment and active patient involvement in treatment planning, addressing critical psychosocial aspects that are frequently neglected.

As we strive to reform the mental health care system, it's imperative to prioritize effective, recovery-oriented treatment strategies. This includes ensuring patient comfort and preferences are accommodated within reason. Considering patient preferences, like comfort items (such as safe stuffed animals; Share-Bears, if you will) and rescue medications (like melatonin,) is essential to upholding rigorous standards of care and safety.

Let's advocate for reforms that enhance patient-centered practices while adhering to established treatment guidelines and advancing recovery-oriented care.

Say no to “loony-bins;” those archaic relics that should be relegated to the distant past.

📱 Text SIGN PWORPV to 50409

🤯 Liked it? Text FOLLOW IVYPETITIONS to 50409

💘 Q'u lach' shughu deshni da. 🏹 "What I say is true" in Dena'ina Qenaga

[unwelcome-ozian]

[familydocblog]

Rebuilding Resilience After Losing Your Home to a Fire: Lessons from the Maui Wildfires

Dive deeper into the journey of rebuilding resilience after losing your home to a devastating fire, using the Maui wildfires as a poignant example.

Introduction The recent wildfires in Maui have left extensive devastation, destroying homes and upending lives. For those who have lost everything, the road ahead is long and challenging. Rebuilding physically is one feat, but reconciling emotionally can be even more difficult. In this article, we’ll explore the multitude of challenges individuals face after losing their homes to fires. Drawing…

[casbitchh]

i think i hauve shin splints

[jessahmewren]

For all of us who have it, you are seen.

[conscious-love]

bellalovecoach ~ Instagram

[artisticdivasworld]

Emotional Abuse and Neglect – Understanding and Healing

Emotional Abuse and Neglect: A Silent Epidemic Emotional abuse and neglect are often overshadowed by their physical counterparts. However, their impact can be just as devastating, if not more so. Unlike physical wounds that heal over time, the scars left by emotional trauma can last a lifetime, affecting a person’s mental health, relationships, and overall well-being. What is Emotional…