Skip to main content

Yesterday's Mountain

What does your depression look like? How do you fix your face? What can you do to overcome?

I woke up to another dreary day. My sight was off as if my glasses were smudged. The fog was thick. My dogs got  me out of bed. They impatiently sat next to me. They took turns pouncing on the edges of my bed to lick me and get me up which is our norm nowadays. Eventually, I gave in to their requests and took them outside. 

    Afterwards, I distanced myself from them to crawl back into my dark cave. Swiftly, I fell into a deep sleep that was a three-hour nap as usual. This was my first nap of the day. Later, I would retreat into another long nap.

    What does your struggle look like? For me, it's struggling to get out of bed. Struggling to manage my hygiene everyday. Struggling to fix my face with the proper mask. Struggling to keep the common areas tidy. Struggling to improve my mood. Struggling... And, struggling some more. Yet, I recognize that I can't sit and cry about my reality, I must get up and try to have a good day.

    Finally, I reached out for help. I texted my doctor. Shared a snip bit of my struggles with oversleeping. I called my sister and explained my dilemma - I'm on two anti-depressants, a mood stabilizer, and antipsychotic, but still struggling. How many antidepressants do I need? How many times does my doctor and I have to tweak my medication cocktail?

    She explained my root issue - excessive ongoing stress. My mind struggled to function because my body couldn't keep up the pace of driving on empty anymore. My medication couldn't combat the effects of stress anymore. Therefore, my body tries to regroup and reset my mental abilities through oversleeping. My sister and I talked for hours.

    My problem was the overload of stress and my solution was hope. I prayed. Then made the decision to have a good day. A friend called, twice. The second time I answered. I fixed my mask and raised the pitch of my voice to sound chirpy- it worked, I sounded well like "my usual self." My presentation over the phone allowed me to walk through the fog onto clearer paths.

    Reaching for my lifesaver I started performing thoughtless tasks. I cleaned up, listened to music, and took a walk around the block to turn my day around.

    Finally, if you're struggle looks like mine I encourage you to practice 7 coping tools:

1. Continue your medication regimen

2. Seek professional support

3. Check-in with a loved one

4. Exercise

5. Rest

6. Meditate, and consider having a

7. Fur baby to get you back on your feet again

    Lastly, don't let the weight of stress make you fold. Seek support, stay on your medication routine, get adequate rest, keep moving, and cling to hope. There may be countless bad days but there are several wellness tools to turn them around into good days. Remember depression is a symptom but hope is the antidote.

Comments

Popular posts from this blog

by A Guest Blogger: For Addicts, Recovery Means Creating a New Life

If you’re struggling to maintain your sobriety, you aren’t alone. There are millions of fighters just like you working toward reclaiming their lives from drugs and alcohol. There are a few common traits that many successful recovering addicts share. Keep reading to find out what they are and how you can follow in their footsteps. They establish new patterns You can’t continue to live your life the same was you did when you were using. You must change and adapt to your newfound sobriety. Consider a career change; many recovering addicts find they have more success by starting their own business. One career that is easy to enter is dog walking. As a dog walker , you’ll reap many rewards including getting to spend time with dogs, which can actually boost your recovery efforts and stave off depression. Dogs have been used as part of a treatment plan for users as young as 11 and come with the added benefit of helping you stay physically active. Plus, being with

No, Please, That's Not Me

Prior to my diagnosis of paranoid schizophrenia I did some things that I am not proud of. Now that I look back on things I blame my illness for my poor judgment. I am by no means condoning the behavior I carried out, and will share with you here. I will provide a few instances where my behavior was unlike me and caused an uproar. This post shows how schizophrenia affects other people. This post is for the family members and friends of people with schizophrenia, or showing bizarre behaviors. First, I asked my mother permission to give my friend a statue that was in my mother's house. My mother agreed to give my friend the statue, however, I took her permission a step further to get rid of what she had at my discretion. At the time I did not live with my mother who was away on a business trip. My mother buys and sells things so she had a lot of collectibles, antiques, and other interesting stuff. While my friend and me were in my mother's house my friend saw a lot of stuff that s

What Is Remission?

Remission is the absence of symptoms for at least six months with the support of medication. In other words, a doctor who has never seen you before may not diagnose you as a person with schizophrenia anymore. Remission is also high functioning in several aspects of life, living independently, goinig to school or to work, and socializing with other people. However, this does not mean the patient is cured or the illness has went away, the illness is still present, however, under control. Remission is achieved with the assistance of medication. "Published studies suggest that 10% to 20% of people with schizophrenia have remission of their illness as they get older, 20% get worse, but in a large majority (60% to 70%), the course of illness remains relatively unchanged." To reach remission it is recommended that you aim for a stress-free environment. Therefore, do things to relieve stress such as journaling, exercising, talking to friends, listening to or creating music, making a