disorder
The spectrum of Mental Health disorders is incredibly vast; we showcase the multitude of conditions that affect mood, thinking and behavior.
The War Inside of My Mind
Borderline personality disorder (BPD) is a frequently overgeneralized condition. Stereotypically, individuals with BPD are seen as impulsive and moody with outbursts of anger; however, while impulsivity and intense emotions are possible symptoms of BPD, they are not applicable to all. There are 256 possible representations of BPD, and stereotyping individuals with the disorder marginalizes those who exhibit these “stereotypical” symptoms. It also further silences those who do not present in a way seen as “typical” of BPD.
By Ashley Nestler, MSW6 years ago in Psyche
More Storm Than Girl
Prologue: Mom, I can't do this anymore. It hurts to even get out of bed. When I wake up in the morning I'm angry that I did. I have to force myself to get up. I have to force myself to keep breathing. I have to force myself to pay attention in class and eat and be active. That's not what life is. Life should be something to be excited about, not a forced act. I've been feeling like this for a long time. I've wanted to leave for a long while. I'm just so fucking tired.
By Lexus Jacobs6 years ago in Psyche
PMDD & Coping with Isolation
I recently polled my Facebook followers asking them what they turn to first when the PMDD rage hits. The results showed that most women choose to isolate. Since we feel we can't control our responses, perhaps that is indeed the best way to avoid trouble.
By Cheeky Minx6 years ago in Psyche
CPTSD
I have CPTSD, which means I flashback to trauma on a regular basis but wind up using my very basic EMDR knowledge to ease the pain. I have learned however, not to repeat the trauma by dumping people who do not help me. As I write and as you read, I'm working on listening to Youtube videos about CPTSD. CPTSD gives you many a panic attack/flashback at the same time. Your perceptions are pretty much distorted because you have a high stress existence. I do show good judgment often enough with my way of doing things, including my need to take my medication daily. I had to get around my family's "you can't see a psychiatrist" rule in my 20s. Then at 28, I was like, wait a minute, I have control over my medical care, they hate it, and so off I went to see a psychiatrist.
By Iria Vasquez-Paez6 years ago in Psyche
Mental Health Coping Skills Vlog
Hello Dear readers. I have been breaking with convention a bit and posting things of a slightly different nature as you may know. There have been a couple of things going on, one of them is that I have been experiencing a fair bit of stress lately. The funny thing is that the stress seems to stay in my blankets. Namely, I feel stressed about facing the world but if I can get up and get dressed I stand a much better chance of facing my problems and at the very least leaving the house to try and do them. Last night was kind of a special night for me because I love to participate in 5-minute live story readings for cash prizes, and the theme for the story was 'disability'. I couldn't have picked a more perfect theme, I loved the idea of talking about my illness and where it took me. The main problem was that I had to make it as though I were telling a story, even though my story was pretty much completely non-fiction. I won't go too much further into it, I thought I would try and post a relevant photo first and then paste in the text of the story I wrote in case any of my readers would like it. Once again I strongly encourage any regular readers to write me with any questions, I can even keep the responses anonymous, and I have no problem even doing some heavy research to answer any questions you have. I think the biggest thing I can say is that once you find a good medication and have a stable life, you can then go into things like a life-skills group where they teach you to better communicate with others, then perhaps once done this successfully, a person who has been in a hospital for a long stay for psychiatric reasons can look into part-time education (and I often recommend distance learning, especially if you are a little older), bettering themselves, keeping their lives low-stress, and then when you are ready move to the next step of finding normal employment. I think this is a time when volunteering is really good because a lot of employers like the idea that you will work for nothing (just kidding) and many other advantages like filling in any large gaps of time in your resume. So, here goes, picture below and then at the bottom of today's message I will paste in my winning story. Take care everyone!
By Leif Gregersen6 years ago in Psyche
Locked inside my head
It was another day in the life of a “normal” teenager. I put normal in quotations because what even is normal. I guess you could say I was a typical teenager. It was the summer after high school graduation. I was still trying to decide if college was for me or what I was going to do with my life. I visited a local community college to see what my options were. After that I was in route to see my girlfriend at the time and bring her some lunch. Earlier this day we had a fight and I wanted to make it up to her. Anyways, I was driving along and started to feel extremely paranoid. I started having intrusive thoughts that someone was following me. I pulled over into a gas station and the thoughts began to sound like voices. Voices asking for help inside the gas station. Then I heard what I thought was god or someone telling me to go inside the gas station and help these people. I went inside and asked who needed help and the people inside looked at me sideways. Like I was crazy for lack of a better term. I started panicking and went back to my car. The tears came and my breathing quickened. I was having a panic attack for the first time ever in my life. I didn’t know that’s what it was at the time so I called my mom to ask her for help. I believed I was having a heart attack or something and was dying. I told her about the voices and that god was talking to me. She told me to stay put and she was coming to get me. While on the phone with her a man walked up to my window waving money at me. I think he thought I was in trouble and needed it. Thinking about it now I wish I could thank that man. But I was too manic to even recognize his generosity. My mom arrived and transported me to a place called the stress center. Once I got there things become a lot fuzzier so the details are blurry. I’m going to try my best to describe my experience. The man that questioned me at the stress center was a big man with a deep voice. I truly believed he was god and he was testing me. Very scary delusion, thinking I’m sitting across from god. After our discussion they admitted me into the actual hospital on the psych floor. They ran so many tests to figure out why this was happening. From my point of view it felt like I had died and gone to hell. I was seeing and hearing many different scary things. I saw shadows and demon faces in my hospital window. At one point I thought the devil was in the room with me. The tv was sending me messages on how to get out of this hell. I started reading the Bible and praying. So many different insane thoughts went through my mind. It’s like I was locked in this alternate reality. Ultimately I lost touch with reality and became a completely different person. I’m sure my loved ones would agree with that. Their experience of the whole matter is completely different than mine. I’d like to interview them and get their point of view one day. The reason I’m telling this story is to put it out there for others to relate to and possibly educate others on what it’s like for me to experience psychosis. Which is what was happening to me. This was just the first psychotic episode I’ve had. All together I’ve had 3 episodes. Back to the story. After a week in the hospital I was put in the inpatient unit of the stress center. I spent a couple weeks there recovering and getting back to myself. It took a while to recover and my brain was never the same after that traumatic episode. At this point the doctors still didn’t know what was wrong with me. But this was the first sign of my bipolar. At the beginning we all believed it was a one time thing caused by stress and my drug usage. Sorry if this didn’t make any sense. Hopefully you learned something or related in some way. Life was never the same after this. This disorder for me is debilitating. Every person with bipolar disorder has a different experience. If you made it this far thank you for reading and reach out to me with any questions you may have. I’m not the best writer so please excuse any mistakes I made. Also I’m always here as support for anyone struggling with mental illness or just life in general.
By Lindsey Weber6 years ago in Psyche
Does the Weather Affect Your Mood?
Winter is here, and we all know what that means! Shorter days, longer nights, and colder weather. For many of us this is our least favourite time of year, except you know.. the holidays!! But for some of us the winter weather affects our moods and lifestyle.
By Miranda Kukavica-Wilson6 years ago in Psyche
Borderline Personality Hell
For 21 years I’ve struggled to express my emotion in a calm and collected way, I began writing my thoughts down and sending them to my family and friends so for once they could understand a little into what’s going on in my head. For those who live with bpd this isn’t a story on how I turned my life around and become in control, so if you’re needing an inspiring story or some reassurance this is not for you. This is to express the pain, anger and confusion people with bpd feel every single day with every choice they make, from choosing what to wear to making plans with a friend, decision making is hard and not as easygoing as we once thought.
By Sheridan Taylor6 years ago in Psyche
Disassociating
For those of you who don't know much about me, or don't know who I am at all, I would tell you but I can't promise you that I truly even know who I am myself. One thing that I do know for sure is that I do a lot of disassociating - disconnection and lack of continuity between thoughts, memories, surroundings, actions, and identity. This agonizing mental disorder consumes my life.
By Samantha Brinker6 years ago in Psyche
