Honestly, I feel a bit like a fake lately. Here I am sharing tips and skills, and I’m barely holding it together. At least, from my view I’m barely holding it together. A friend recently said, “You’re holding yourself to some crazy standards thinking that you aren’t enough.” Well, perhaps. I hold myself to the… Read More Freeform Friday: Taking my own advice
So often when something troubles us, we shove it aside and keep pushing forward. A broken heart, dissatisfaction with a job, stress from any source, anger, fear, all those emotions just get pushed into a corner together. We tell ourselves we’ll deal with it later and focus on things we feel have to be done.… Read More Top Skills Thursday: Recognize what hurts
Executive dysfunction can originate from a variety of sources. Depression, anxiety, ADD/ADHD, illness, and even being overtired. It’s crippling when it hits, even if it passes in a day. For those who live with it, it can become a level of hell especially when combined with a society that calls it “laziness.” The first skill… Read More Top-Skills Thursday: Executive Dyusfunction
Have you ever avoided doing something because it scared you? I’m not talking, “That thing made me feel so nervous!” I mean, “my heart was racing, I couldn’t put words together, and my entire body was shaking!” I’m going to bet you have, because every single person on the planet has had that happen at… Read More Top Skills Thursday: Be Brave In Small Ways
Sometimes, when I look around at my life and my current state of mind I get frustrated, but also encouraged. That sense of encouragement is really important right now, as I fight the depression. It’s all about knowing that while I feel like a ship left behind on a dried up lake… I know that… Read More Freeform Friday: Looking at reality
I’m going to start today with a visual example to explain why we should reframe things sometimes. The following image is one I took, and I’m going to frame it in two different ways. In this first image, there’s not a lot to see. Some scruffy grass, maybe a mildly interesting pattern, but overall, not… Read More Top Skills Thursday: Reframe
In a CBT session the focus is on a target area. How a patient thinks, feels, and reacts to a situation or thought is causing problems in their life. There may be multiple target areas, but usually only one is addressed in each session. The first step in CBT is to address core beliefs about… Read More Therapy Tuesday: CBT – Core Beliefs
I’ve had a frustrating realization, and I decided to share it with everyone here. My reason for it isn’t to garner sympathy, but to show how I use the skills I write about. This post may be long, and I’ll put a TRIGGER WARNING here that I’m going to be discussing the ways depression and… Read More Freeform Friday: My battle with depression
I focus a bunch on the skills to manage anxiety. My reasoning for this is anxiety, left to build itself to a peak, leads to depression. I first noticed this cycle within myself and have had multiple therapists confirm that it is common. Today, I’m going to focus on a skill to help with depression.… Read More Top Skills Thursday: Affirmation
A friend of mine said something mildly self-deprecating one day. I said, “Don’t talk that way about my friend!” She stopped, looked at me in surprise, and then laughed. She’d heard that line before. The ways we talk to ourselves can be small expressions of irritation, and sometimes they can be downright abusive. We wouldn’t… Read More Soothing Sunday: Give Yourself Compassion
Kambry Ellis 