Tag: mental health

Coping Skills

~ Sephira ~ Leave a comment

ofcourseitsmyhead:

So, if you’re willing to help a friend out, I’ve realised something.
When I am at max capacity, and I cannot continue functioning at the current level of ability, I can do one of two things:

I can fall into a nonepileptic seizure
or
I can shut one or more functions down, to conserve energy

The easiest ‘function’ for me to shut down is speaking. I’ve been doing it for years, and it’s quite helpful in surviving overwhelming situations. Most recently it helped me finish grocery shopping without having a panic attack, which was super useful.

BUT

If I do this, it then leaves room for an unintended but unfortunate consequence: Nobody can converse with me. So, my husband and I picked up small, key phrases in American Sign Language so that I can still communicate back, but I don’t have to speak. It’s quicker than typing something on a screen, and I can still portray emotion fluidly and get my point across effectively as long as I’m understood.

So if you’re a friend, and you’re local, consider watching some videos on ASL. You don’t necessarily have to practice the gesticulations, but if you know the words I’m going to be using with my hands and body, it’ll help us all carry on a conversation when my voice needs a break.

And then, I won’t feel left out! 🙂

~ Sephira ~ Leave a comment

thebibliosphere:

Spoonie and other chronic illness health reminder of the day: if all you can manage to make or eat today is “junk” food, then good job, you fed yourself. That’s the main thing. You need calories, your body needs them for energy, and you deserve to eat them, however you manage to get them. I know it’s not always ideal, but sometimes you just gotta eat.

So sick and tired of seeing “it’s really simple to eat your way healthy” posts, especially from other people with chronic health conditions who should know better. Yes, Susan, I know how simple and easy it is to make nourishing bone broth, but are you also going to stand in my kitchen for 8 hours while it simmers, do everything else I need to do today, then strain it out, clean up everything and feed it to me too? Oh you managed to make huge batches of it while you had energy and are now able to pull it out of the freezer? Well aren’t you profoundly lucky to be able to do that.

Stop shitting on people who can’t. 

And if I see anymore of y’all posting “honestly people who don’t even try to eat healthily deserve to stay sick” posts I’m going to climb out of your garbage disposal like Truth hauling ass out of her well and smack you with your own ladle, so help me gods.

Stop it. You should know better than this. It’s a fucking fucked up fact that “good” food is a luxury for a lot of sick and disabled people, who are often under employed or relying on welfare to survive. It is so absolutely fucked up that not everyone can afford fresh groceries every week or has the means to cook them. But don’t you dare try to imply it’s because they’re not trying hard enough and deserve to be sick. What the fuck is wrong with you. Go sit in the corner.

I’m done spoon feeding you human decency for the day.

to ADHD students:

~ Sephira ~ Leave a comment

adhdphysicist:

• I’m proud of you. The education system works against us at every turn but you’re still hanging in there, and that’s amazing. 

• Long term goals are lovely but they won’t motivate you. ADHD brains know two times: now and not now. Long term goals fall under “not now”, so if you try to use them to motivate yourself your brain won’t buy it. Some things that help me get motivated: using coloured pens, bringing a tasty drink like juice or pop to my desk, playing music I can sing along to. 

• Get. Diagnosed. With an official diagnosis, you can access accommodations through your school. You don’t have to struggle through school being held to neurotypical standards. You can get things like extra time on tests, extensions on assignments, access to digital copies of textbooks so you can use text-to-speech software, the ability to write tests and exams in a smaller room with fewer distractions, noise cancelling headphones during tests. I live in Ontario so I can’t guarantee all of these things in other places, but you’ll never know what accommodations are available to you until you apply for them. 

• Work for the amount of time that you can. You can only handle five minutes? Do work for those five minutes. You can stretch it out to fifteen minutes today? Awesome! It’s excruciating for us to get work done without it being a crisis, I know. But doing work in small increments every day goes a long way. Doing nothing because you can’t work as long as a neurotypical is just going to leave you with more work to do the night before. 

• Keep fidgets and/or stim toys at your desk. If you get overwhelmed or can’t focus, grab a fidget and allow yourself to just sit and fidget for a little bit. Tactile stim toys are my favourite since they’re very grounding for me.

• Try not to beat yourself up for what you didn’t get done earlier. This is a hard one but it’s so so hard to get anything done while you’re upset with yourself, especially for us ADHDers who get easily caught up in emotions. You have a disability. It’s not your fault that you couldn’t get it done earlier. You’re working on it now and that’s what’s important. 

~ Sephira ~ Leave a comment

hyperelasticzebra:

Hi friends, it’s Ali! I moved accounts yet again, so have reposted my spoonie masterpost. Hopefully this one will spread like wildfire like the original (: Love and spoons ❤ xx

WHAT IS A SPOONIE?

A spoonie is a person, living with one or more physical or mental chronic illness or disability, that identifies with Christine Miserandino’s Spoon Theory.

SPOONIE FOUNDATION WEBSITES
SPOONIE ILLNESS INFO
SPOONIE TIPS, HELP, & ADVICE
SYMPTOMS LISTS OF CHRONIC ILLNESSES
SPOONIE REMEDIES & TREATMENTS
SPOONIE SCHOOL-RELATED
SPOONIE MISCONCEPTIONS
  • “I have a chronic illness, therefore I am disabled.” not always true!
  • “I’m all alone.” false! see below. 
INTERACTING WITH SPOONIES
SPOONIE STRUGGLES
SPOONIE CLICHÉS
SPOONIE MEMES
SPOONIE VIDEOS
SPOONIE PETITIONS

none for the moment…

THINGS TO DO ON A LOW SPOON DAY
SPOONIE DISABILITY
SERVICE DOG RELATED
AVOID ABLEISM
SPOONIE ITEMS
INTERACT WITH FELLOW SPOONIES
MISCELLANEOUS
AWESOME SAUCE SPOONIES ♥
CREDITS & OTHER INFORMATION

Last updated 25th May 2015 @ 17:10 EST
Updated when possible (updated version here ♥)
Please reblog / like only — do not edit. Thank you.
Message hyperelasticzebra to add a blog, article, or post to the list.

I try my best to find as many spoonie blogs and posts to add to this as possible, but if I have missed you, your blog, or a helpful post, please let me know! I don’t always have the spoons or time to search for articles pertaining to specific illnesses.

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Maven – health & wellness designed for women.

~ Sephira ~ Leave a comment

sephiraallen:

Free healthcare for International Women’s Day (March 8, 2018)

Every day, millions of women are held back because they lack access to quality healthcare. Well, not today.

We’re celebrating International Women’s Day by waiving fees on all women’s health appointments on Maven. Video chat with OB-GYNs, pediatricians, therapists, nutritionists, and more—at no cost, from wherever you are.

Maven – health & wellness designed for women.

~ Sephira ~ Leave a comment

gryphyl:

piplup-commander:

I feel like the line between “fluffy uwu self care” and “get your shit together self care” is thinner than people seem to think. Like, sitting in a quiet space with a book and maybe some twinkly fairy lights gives me the spoons to go call my damn doctor like I’ve been meaning to. Bath bombs or shower steamers make me feel content and/or sparkly, which gives me confidence to go out in public. (Plus, I bathed.) I dye my hair funky colors so if I feel like people are staring at me I can say it’s at that instead of whatever my anxiety wants it to be. 

The two are not mutually exclusive, is what I’m getting at, and I never see that mentioned, just either “self care is being nice to yourself” or “self care is kicking yourself in the ass to function for a few hours”. Kick yourself in the ass with niceness.

Gotta get your emotion-focused coping before you do your problem-focused coping.