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I'm demisexual—I'll explain. The first sign that I was on the asexual spectrum was back when I was in middle school. I remember driving in the car with my mom getting annoyed as I listened to the radio. Every song was about sex, love, or drugs. I didn't understand why the themes for music were so narrow. People could sing about anything, yet they would always sing about the same old things. I off-handedly said, "Why is every song about sex? Can't they sing about something else?"
People often hide their depression well. We don’t want to worry our loved ones. We fear being judged and stigmatized—even now when mental illness is much better understood and accepted than in decades past. We may see our disease as a weakness, something that we need to tackle alone. Maybe we’re in denial, hiding our depression not only from others but from ourselves.
Leaving verbal abuse behind is hard. Verbal abuse can be traumatic for individuals of any age, regardless of how much exposure there is to this harmful behavior. Of course, each person is unique and will react in different ways when facing verbal abuse. These responses can determine how effective it is to leave verbal abuse behind and move toward a healthy and happy life.
It's common knowledge that too much stress is bad for our health, but those of us with a mental health diagnosis can face another risk from stress, which is increased symptoms. As part of my self-care or lifestyle monitoring, I try to reduce how much stress I experience daily to manage anxiety and schizophrenia symptoms.
This year, I started training for a particularly ambitious fitness goal: a 10-day trek in the Himalayan Mountains. In October 2023, I will travel to Nepal and embark on the adventure of a lifetime, but first, I need to acclimate to hiking in extreme weather conditions at the highest altitude on earth. That's no small feat for someone who lives in Phoenix, Arizona, a desert with minimal elevation.
You may remember me as the blogger who wrote for "Work and Bipolar or Depression" or "Coping with Depression" here at HealthyPlace. While blogging on this platform has been a career highlight, I took time off from writing about depression for my mental health. Now that I am better, I feel grateful for the opportunity to write for "Mental Health for The Digital Generation." Although I wish I had never left, I know why I needed to do so: we live in a chaotic world where regular mental health breaks are essential.
In 1999, when I was in fifth grade, a police officer came to our school dressed in a Drug Abuse Resistance Education (D.A.R.E.) t-shirt. He was carrying a gun and wearing a stern face. Without any words, he communicated that using drugs led to extreme consequences. His lecture taught us that drug addicts deserve to be locked up. But criminalizing addiction turned out to be more hurtful than helpful.
Have you ever had a moment that makes you question every bit of recovery you’ve achieved to that point? I have—recently, I questioned my skin picking recovery.
Looking back at all my past problems from where I am today, it's often hard to remember just how low I felt. It's hard to remember the many years I spent stuck in a vicious cycle of anxiety, panic attacks, and obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD), not knowing if I would ever be able to break free and live a happy and fulfilling life again. There were intermittent periods of depression when I was unable to see any reason for existence. Thankfully, those days are over.
I have had many people talk to me about struggling with low self-confidence and negative self-talk and how hard it has been for them to train themselves to stop letting negative emotions control their lives. For years, I, too, struggled with these feelings. Self-criticism was a daily practice, and I would find fault in everything I did.
Dermaflage is flesh-colored, but you can apply makeup on top of it if you want to.
Dermaflage is flexible, so it will move with your skin as you walk around. If it’s a Christian camp you could also say that your get burned easily. Or you could say that your very religious and that you don’t usually wear reviling clothes, this would make sense and I say this a lot, you can wear light white cotton t-shirts under your summer short sleeves, and light blouses over your tops too, it can look very nice if you look it up on Pinterest, and tell your mom that everyone at the camps have long sleeved swimsuits
如果you are able to reconnect, you will need to set loving, but firm boundaries in areas where you may not have before. Ex. “It’s not ok for you to be disrespectful when you speak to me. If you are experiencing difficulty with emotions, we can take a step back and work through things in a positive way.”
You need to be in a place of strength and love for yourself where you can keep those boundaries, and you may need to set them often.
When you are calm, at a level of higher consciousness (unconditional love, compassion and forgiveness), you may want to approach them, and share that you understand they may need space and that you will respect that, but equally, you value them and your relationship, being out of contact hurts you and you’d like to work together to find ways to communicate in a safe way for both of you. Then ask them what are some ways they can envision that happening and what does success look like for them.
In the mean time, work on yourself to become the best communicator you can be. Do this for you and without any expectations of it having a certain outcome.
What has helped me recently is practicing forgiveness. I hold a picture of the person who has caused harm, while sending them unconditional love. I repeat the words “I forgive you” over and over, as I send them love.
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