Working Through Medication Changes
Have you ever had a bad reaction to a medicine? Or maybe it took you a bit while longer to get adjusted to a medicine that you needed to take to make your life...
Category: Educate Yourself
Compassion Fatigue in the 24 Hour News Cycle
I feel like every day I learn about another new tragedy in the world. Often, it’s horribly sad, wrong, and immoral that this is happening, but it happens anyway. The mainstream news channels will...
Summer Book List
I absolutely love to read and feel like it is the greatest way to take a mental health break and get lost in a book. Books are a great way to relax your mind,...
Cognitive Distortions: All-Or-Nothing Thinking
A technique that I have been trying to implement in order to have more control over my thoughts in times when I am anxiously overthinking is to identify what those common thoughts are. Many...
Be More Productive
It always seems like there is a never-ending to-do list. This list can be memorialized in your mind palace, various techy gadgets, or on paper. We all need this list to keep track of our many tasks and obligations related to school, work, family, and friends. Sometimes, it can feel good to always have something to work on or even to look forward to. I always feel a sense of accomplishment when an item is checked off my to-do list. While it gives me the motivation to keep pushing forward, this can become excessive and detrimental if I do not set boundaries.
Taking Breaks When They Are Needed
I want to share the importance of taking breaks and accepting when you need a break. We often overwork ourselves. And to be honest, that is totally okay! I always feel like I’m in a state of overworking myself, tired, anxious, and in the horrible stages of burnout. That is all before I started taking breaks and building them into my day-to-day routine. Breaks are a good way to switch your brain on and off from different tasks and practice self-care.
Right After a Diagnosis
“You take Tylenol when your head hurts. You take those pills to stop your tummy from hurting when you eat ice cream. How is it different to take medication to make you feel better when you’re down?” My boyfriend said this to me today after I told him about the conversation that I had with a school psychiatrist.
Sorry that I Say Sorry Too Much
Something that has come from my anxiety and affected my life greatly is my tendency to apologize too much, even in situations that do not warrant an apology. I did not realize that I was excessively doing this until my family and a significant other pointed it out to me. The significant other said that it seemed as if I was weak and self-conscious if I kept apologizing for everything. This was a huge wake-up call to me. It made me take a step back and look at the root of the issue.
Grappling With Anxiety – What I Have Learned
Anxiety often feels like a battle between your mind and your heart. Your mind is telling you to “stop worrying, stop worrying, stop worrying,” while your heart continues to beat faster and faster, as if it welcomes the worry. I used to try and always deny the anxiety I would feel, whether it was during a performance, or before presenting to a class, or the anxiety I get when socializing. But I came to realize that denying your anxiety only makes it worse, causing it to fester and swell into what feels like a little green anxiety monster living inside of you. It’s not something you can continually repress or shoo away.
