This Comic Perfectly Explains Why Anxiety & Depression Are So Difficult To Fight
Tag: depression
Mental health disorders are common in the United States, affecting tens of millions of Americans each year, according to the National Institute of Mental Health. Yet only a fraction of those people receive treatment. Without treatment, mental health disorders can reach a crisis point.
Some examples of mental health crises include depression, trauma, eating disorders, alcohol or substance abuse, self-injury and suicidal thoughts. If you suspect a friend or family member is experiencing an emotional crisis, your help can make a difference.
Spotting the Signs
One of the most common signs of emotional crisis is a clear and abrupt change in behavior. Some examples include:
- Neglect of personal hygiene.
- Dramatic change in sleep habits, such a sleeping more often or not sleeping well.
- Weight gain or loss.
- Decline in performance at work or school.
- Pronounced changes in mood, such as irritability, anger, anxiety or sadness.
- Withdrawal from routine activities and relationships.
Sometimes, these changes happen suddenly and obviously. Events such as a natural disaster or the loss of a job can bring on a crisis in a short period of time. Often, though, behavior changes come about gradually. If something doesn’t seem right with your loved one, think back over the past few weeks or months to consider signs of change.
Don’t wait to bring up your concerns. It’s always better to intervene early, before your loved one’s emotional distress becomes an emergency situation. If you have a feeling that something is wrong, you’re probably right.
Lend an Ear
If you suspect your loved one is experiencing a mental health crisis, reaching out is the first step to providing the help he or she needs to get better. Sit down to talk in a supportive, non-judgmental way. You might start the conversation with a casual invitation: “Let’s talk. You don’t seem like yourself lately. Is there something going on?”
Stay calm, and do more listening than talking. Show your loved one that you can be trusted to lend an ear and give support without passing judgment. When discussing your concerns, stick to the facts and try not to blame or criticize.
Seek Professional Help
Reaching out can help your friend or family member begin to get a handle on an emotional crisis. But professional help is the best way to fully address a mental health problem and get that problem under control. You can explain that psychologists have specialized training that makes them experts in understanding and treating complex emotional and behavioral problems. That training is especially critical when an emotional disorder has reached crisis levels.
Psychologists use scientifically tested techniques that go beyond talking and listening. They can teach their clients tools and skills for dealing with problems, managing stress and working toward goals.
To help your loved one find a psychologist to speak with, you might encourage your loved one to speak to his or her primary care provider about available mental health resources in your community. If your workplace has an employee assistance program (EAP), that can be a useful resource and referral service. You can also find a psychologist in your area by using APA’sPsychologist Locator Service.
Concerns About Suicide or Self-Harm or Threats to Harm Others
No emotional crisis is more urgent than suicidal thoughts and behavior, or threats to harm someone else. If you suspect a loved one is considering self-harm or suicide, don’t wait to intervene.
It’s a difficult topic to bring up, but discussing suicide will not put the idea in someone’s head. In fact, it’s not abnormal for a person to have briefly thought about suicide. It becomes abnormal when someone starts to see suicide as the only solution to his or her problems.
If you discover or suspect that your loved one is dwelling on thoughts of self-harm, or developing a plan, it’s an emergency. If possible, take him or her to the emergency room for urgent attention. Medical staff in the ER can help you deal with the crisis and keep your loved one safe.
If you think someone is suicidal or will harm someone else, do not leave him or her alone. If he or she will not seek help or call 911, eliminate access to firearms or other potential tools for harm to self or others, including unsupervised access to medications.
The National Suicide Prevention Lifeline is also a valuable resource. If you’re concerned about a loved one’s mental state or personal safety, and unable to take him or her to the emergency room, you can talk to a skilled counselor by calling 1-800-273-TALK.
If you’re concerned about a loved one, don’t put it off. You can make the difference in helping your friend or family member get back on track to good mental health.
That Kind of Mother: Parenting With Depression
if there’s anything i’ve learned about dealing with mental illness, especially depression, it’s never about having one big breakthrough and then living happily ever after. i think i expected that from myself which only caused me to hate myself more when relapses happened.
but what it is -actually- about is saving yourself over and over, picking yourself back up after each fall and not letting it keep you beat. and that’s not a hopeless thought. it’s freeing to know that recurring depression is perfectly normal, and i am not a failure when it kicks me in the teeth. so long as im surviving and seeking help, i am still winning. you HAVE to redefine what success in mental illness means in order to stop beating yourself up.
If you know someone who’s depressed, please resolve to never ask them why. Depression isn’t a straightforward response to a bad situation; depression just is, like the weather. Try to understand the blackness, lethargy, hopelessness, and loneliness they’re going through. Be there for them when they come through the other side.
It’s hard to be a friend to someone who’s depressed, but it’s one of the kindest, noblest, and best things you’ll ever do.
Stephen Fry (via onlinecounsellingcollege)
Think for a second
Imagine with me.
You’re an athlete. You’re gearing up to run the next 5k in your town.
You get there, and your number’s on your chest just like everyone else. You’re at the starting line, just like everyone else.
Bam, off goes the start signal.
Suddenly, you feel a little funny. Everyone else around you is gaining a lead they shouldn’t otherwise gain. Even the little old lady who does this for fun is now almost 50 feet in front of you.
But you keep pushing, right? You’re bound to catch back up, you’re an ATHLETE.
You pump as much of your strength as you can into your legs. You’re using what feels like every ounce of effort you have in you to just get your legs moving. All the while, that lead that everyone has on you is getting bigger and bigger…
People are suddenly farther and farther away…
You keep going You have no choice. You’ve GOT to finish. And you do.
But that’s when you collapse from exhaustion. Everyone around you is looking at you now, very concerned, wondering what could possibly have gone wrong, you were fine yesterday. You looked fine even the whole time you were running! What could POSSIBLY have happened?!
You can fill in the blanks with any invisible malady you like: heart problems, asthma, fibromyalgia, sciatica, what have you. But it’s SOMETHING that nobody can see. It’s something even YOU didn’t see.
Welcome to mental illness.
EVERY DAY is that 5k. Waking up in the morning is the start signal going off, and no matter how much energy we could put into something as simple as making breakfast, suddenly everyone else around us has their day’s tasks half way done and we’re still standing in the kitchen choosing eggs or bacon as though our lives depended on it. And sometimes, it does.
Eating is a chore. Standing up is basically like asking us to climb a mountain. Taking care of ourselves is tiring. Let alone taking care of someone else, if we need to.
That collapse at the finish line of the day could be a panic attack, it could be a fit of tears, it could be the mounting and exploding feeling that you’re a failure, you’re worthless, why do you even bother. It could even be an angry and persistent suggestion that you should just kill yourself so you’re not wasting space.
And let’s not forget, we didn’t do this to ourselves. We couldn’t have predicted this, we aren’t just sitting there asking for people to pamper us, in fact sometimes that makes us feel WORSE.
And at the end of the day, quite possibly the best thing you could do is hold us, tell us it’ll be okay, and just listen.
Most often, there’s no rhyme or reason to our thoughts. I was a straight A student for a long time and if I got less than 80% on ONE test, I flipped out and resigned myself to failure. But anyone else would’ve been like ‘Sweet, I passed!’ People tell me I’m doing well at work, and I’ll just focus on that one mistake I made two weeks ago and oh well, I’ll get fired tomorrow.
We DO NOT DO THIS ON PURPOSE. And it’s not as easy as saying ‘Oh just stop being so hard on yourself.’ That’d be like asking your athlete self to just grow some new lungs/muscles/heart valves and you’ll be fine.
We know you want to help. ❤ And most of us appreciate it SO MUCH, OMG THANK YOU. But sometimes, cuddles, blanket forts and movie binges are enough to keep us going. We don’t need to talk or reason things out all the time.
[Image description: Speech bubble: But you don’t look like someone who has depression.
Below, three grey cats. Cat #1: Since depression is an illness that primarily affects your mental health, the symptoms often aren’t visible.
Cat #2 (looks similar cat 1): There is no such thing as a typical depressed person. Depression can affect people of all ages, genders, races, backgrounds, etc.
Cat #3 is wearing a black mask and red cape! Cat #3: Although I do think it would be cool if we all got a free costume.]
What would your costume be?
I feel as if the gods are giving me the cold shoulder & my luck has left me. But I’m also bi polar, have PTSD & an anxiety disorder. I can’t tell what’s just in my head & what isn’t. I feel lost. What can I do?
My perspective is colored by experience and, well, my viewpoint as someone with Borderline Personality Disorder (which has some similarities to Bipolar and PTSD, among other things, enough that they get confused for one another) and with anxiety disorder. And psychosis, too. So take from this what you will.
My experience, and I’ve seen this mirrored with some other people who struggle with mental health, is that when things are extra stressful, all of that makes a whole lot of “noise” and you’ll feel abandoned. If you can normally see spirits, you won’t see them. If you can normally “hear” spirits, you won’t. You’ll overlook signs, or see signs that aren’t there that confirm your worst fears because your anxiety will be ramped up because you’ll be weirded out by the fact that you want reassurance and that sense of the gods being present just isn’t there.
What I’ve always done is realize that it’s unlikely I just got abandoned (unless I have a good, solid reason to suspect I’ve pissed a god off, like breaking a specific oath that I remember or something), that it’s just a normal swing of bad luck, and concentrate first and foremost on self-care and doing what work I, personally, can take care of, one step at a time. It’s really disconcerting to feel that the gods aren’t there, but it’s more likely that you’re just so stressed out that that static noise is completely drowning out your normal sense. They’re there, you are just having trouble perceiving it. Keep talking to them, keep asking for help, but also work to help yourself. When you feel a bit calmer, your sense of presence should come back.
okay if you suffer from anxiety, or depression, or even insomnia, or you just feel shitty all the time, listen up you little shit because what i’m about to say might just help you like nobody’s business
you see these motherfuckers right here? these crayons are like little sticks of wax joy that will never fail to help you in your time of need. these are your buddies right here. You don’t meed a million crayons like me, I just happened to buy these the other day for another project and then loved them so much. any crayons will do.
{colored pencils work too, but you want some crayons because that’s what works the best. don’t ask me why, but you feel 3000% better coloring with crayons than you do with colored pencils or even markers. IT BRINGS BACK THE CHILDHOOD INNOCENCE OR SOME SHIT LIKE THAT}
tl;dr just get some crayons i don’t even care what brand if you want to be a disgusting little shit go ahead and buy RoseArt you just need crayons.
okay, so it’s really simple. you just color. if you have a coloring book, awesome. if you don’t, look up some stuff on google and print it. get stuff that makes you happy, like your favorite disney princess or cartoon character. just type in something like “little mermaid coloring pages" and you’re good to go
now, here’s the best part. grab a crayon and just fucking go for it. don’t even think about anything else, just focus on coloring the picture however you want it to be and don’t stop until you’re completely satisfied with it. when you’re done with that one, color another one.
i promise, by the time you’ve finished coloring to your heart’s content, you’ll feel so much better. i have no idea why it happens, but coloring with crayons just lifts your stress away, even for a little bit. keep some blank coloring pages on hand and your box of crayons close to you for easy access should you really need it one day.
pro tip: when coloring, spill your crayons out
just take your time and spill all of them out from the box and then like run your hands over them and kinda mess the pile up because that shit is the most orgasmic feeling in the world i don’t know why but it just is
okay, i hope this helps. and if anyone looks at you funny or says that you’re too old to color with crayons, don’t get angry just pity them because they think that there’s an age limit to happiness and they obviously don’t remember how awesome it is to color so just offer them a crayon and if they don’t take it, well, sucks to suck
bringing this back because it’s the only thing that’s gotten me through this summer
Literally this is one of the most helpful things for me
Yep. This works for me, and worked really well with many of my clients when I did social work.
Holding the Bowl 