cait 😳

in recovery <3

[lifeafterpsychiatry]

Coping 101 - a masterpost of down to earth resources

This post doesn’t contain links to many professional resources - it’s a list of coping tips from people who are mentally ill/disabled themselves and who all decided to share what has worked for them here on tumblr. In the last 7 months I have been sharing content created for and by mentally ill/disabled people on this blog - and to celebrate reaching 5000 followers, I have decided to collect all the best coping tips I’ve come across in one easily accessible place. Enjoy!

Managing emotions:

Letting go of emotional suffering via mindfulness.

DBT strengthening statements

Handling negative emotions

The “emotions are signals” method

The “mindfully recognizing emotions” method

Healthy perspectives on emotions

The “emotions are like hiccups” method

The “healthy outlets” method

Managing anxiety:

Coping statements for anxiety.

Breathing exercise gif

Breathing exercise gif 2

Things to remember when having an anxiety attack

The “just show up” method

The “panicky friend” method

Grounding techniques 

The “I can survive the next 10 seconds” method

The “distract your brain” method

The “you will be able to cope” method

Managing depression:

7 depression tips and why they work

Depression tips

21 tips to keeping your shit together when you’re depressed

Managing executive dysfunction:

The “might as well” method.

The “one step access” method.

Why self-discipline isn’t always the answer. 

The “use whatever works” method.

The “taking care of someone else” method.

The “june-bugging” method.

Tricks for pushing through executive dysfunction

The “do several things at once” method

The “accept your limits” methods

The “turn it into a game” method

The “anything worth doing is worth doing poorly” method

The “tricking your brain” method

The “untangling the spaghetti” method.

The “smaller steps” method

The “emergency cleaning” method

The “letting go of should” method.

The “my body is an animal I need to care about” method

The “fork theory” method

The “remove the barriers” method

The “half-ass things” method

Managing negative thinking:

Challenging cognitive distortions.

Finding alternative thoughts.

Challenging negative thoughts

How to get over past mistakes

Toxic positivity vs hope and validation

How to improve your self-esteem

Negative and positive cognitions

The “self neutrality” method

The “separate your negative qualities from your identity” method

Self talk to help end obsessions

Ten forms of twisted thinking + ten ways to untwist your thinking

Managing self care:

How to practice balanced self care.

Why hands-on hobbies are important

Ways to self-soothe

A list of mental illness workbooks 

Ways to start feeling again

How to get back on track after a breakdown

How to self-soothe and treat yourself

Types of healthy coping skills

The “parenting yourself” method

An interactive self care guide

The “don’t ignore your needs” method

Online self care

Making the most of therapy

Free worksheets for people who can’t access therapy

The “add good things to your life” method

Showering for spoonies

The “do what you can” method

The “it isn’t a waste of time just because it won’t cure you” method.

Self care cheat sheet

The “create something” method

Managing school:

Studying with anxiety and depression

Studying with mental illness

Coping with dissociation in school

Managing exam periods when you’re mentally ill

The “done is better than none” method

How to survive college

Managing urges to harm yourself:

What to do to when you’re suicidal

Questions to ask before giving up

Alternatives to self harm

Coping with suicidal thoughts

[prettybabysworld]

Not my photos!!! From Tumblr

[hel7l7]

[crimsonemotion]

Isn’t depression supposed to be some teenage shit that you grow out of? How am I 27 and still cut myself? How am I still just waiting for the courage to kill myself?

I’m too old for this shit and I’m tired of waiting for things to get better

[enby-life]

What if, and hear me out, people DO love you

Your coworker who loves when they get to work a shift with you, even if you don’t talk

Your cousin who’s relieved when they see you at family gatherings, who thinks you’re “the cool cousin” but hasn’t said anything out loud

Your classmate who thinks you have great taste, even if they’re too shy to speak up about it in class

Your childhood friends who remember you fondly

The waiter you tipped during a busy night

That person you complimented on the street

The little kid you waved to

The old woman you made small talk with

People love you, because you’re lovable. And you’re worthy of love. Even if it doesn’t feel like it sometimes

(Self depreciating comments will be removed at best, bluntly and remorselessly told to shut the fuck up at worst. Fuck around. I dare you.)

[system-of-a-feather]

Honestly, healing from chronic / childhood trauma isn’t pretty, it isn’t romantic, most of the time it isn’t some beautiful story of a perfectly innocent victim rising to become strong

A lot of healing from chronic / childhood trauma is realizing there is a lot of dirt, grime, hurt, pain, and problematic behaviors and beliefs that living in such an environment has instilled inside of you.

It is realizing a lot of things you thought were normal were not, and a lot of the things you’ve done that you thought were given truths and normal things about the world were false, not needed, and hurtful to others and yourself around you.

A lot of people want a healing story that is inspiring and beautiful - with a clear abuser and a clear victim - someone who was clearly 100% perfect, innocent and never did anything wrong in life and someone who was clearly 100% evil, intentional, corrupt, and malicious. The hero / villian story of trauma, abuse, and recovery is so much easier to digest both for others and the person, but the reality is - living through hell instills and causes people to learn things that aren’t 100% perfect and innocent.

No trauma survivor or victim deserves what happened to them, nor did they ask for it in any form, but it isn’t abnormal for one to unknowingly after growing up and living in an environment that was dangerous, harmful, and painful to learn things that aren’t the best in the general world.

Trying to heal, mistakes will be made, a lot of unlearning and relearning will happen. People - especially children and teenagers who grew up in these environments - will likely reenact what happened to them or use defensive mechanisms that aren’t the best that they got from assuming the world is like their home.

Many will do things that aren’t “okay” or are “problematic” because that is all they know. This isn’t to say it is okay or excusable. This isn’t to say you should forgive anyone who did this to you.

This is to those who did bad things in the past that they punish themselves for, hate themselves for, the bad things they did due to being young and in a stage of survival.

The past does not define you and you were young and living by what you were taught growing up. You are not a horrible person because of how you learned to live. Who you are is found in the present and the future and in what you do now and what you do later.

You can and deserve to forgive yourself and your younger selves for what had happened when you knew little more.

You aren’t horrible or terrible. 

Being young is hard

Being a teen is hard

Having trauma is hard

Having chronic trauma is hard.

Being young and growing up in an environment conducive to chronic trauma is even harder.

You deserve and are allowed to forgive yourself and move forward and heal.

You deserve to heal just like anyone else.

[borderlinebubbles]

[siickangel]

“you’re so quiet” bro everyone ignores me and nobody cares about what i have to say

[bpd-posi]

some tips for those with BPD thats not just ‘go outside’ and ‘do yoga’: 

If feeling angry, restless, or splitting negatively:

Punch a pillow

pace around

scribble on a piece of paper till it all rips up 

throw something heavy, or lift something heavy 

Listen to loud, angry music and scream sing along with it 

scream in general. screaming is good for the soul

type all of your angry thoughts out into a notepad as they happen (you can review these later when thinking rationally)

if feeling depressed or lonely/needing attention you cant get:

Go for a nap. Your body honestly needs a lot of energy to deal with having bpd 

watch something upbeat but mind numbing. ASMR videos are our favourite! particularily the channel ninos home and tysytube restorations. Something that  is relaxing and engaging

Make sure to check if you’ve eaten, and try to eat a snack if you can. Hunger can have a huge impact on your mood. 

Try to clean yourself a little bit if possible. Dry Shampoo, wet wipes, and baby powder are your friends. even just changing your shirt can do wonders 

if you can, open a window. fresh air genuinely does help but going outside takes a lot of energy. if you cant do that, see if you can open your blinds to let some sunlight in 

if you can, take some vitamin supplements. a lot of people are lacking more than they think and it can have a large impact on mood 

try to work out some time to spend with your fp, or other friends and loved ones. people with BPD need a lot of attention, and it’s okay to ask your friends to provide some if you can. 

If you’re feeling dissociative or spaced out:

clap over and over till your hands tingle 

take a cold shower, or put your face in cold water 

Chew ginger or eat something spicy 

Drink something nice, and warm like hot cocoa and try to describe the flavour of it in as many words as possible

Do a grounding technique. Count 5 things you can see, 4 things you can touch, three things you can hear, two things you can smell and one thing you can taste. 

General tips: 

I highly recommend people with BPD keep some sort of mood diary and write down their tiggers if they can. documenting your thought process when splitting, or when having mood swings, is very important for being able to prevent future breakdowns in the future 

None of these things will actually fix or cure your depression, or anger issues, and especially not your BPD. These are just the things that help me, and the things I know help others with BPD. 

[traumavnts]

It’s what I do best

[caloriedevils]

me right now oops

[hel7l7]

[s1n-unt0uched]

i am mourning everything i could’ve been if you hadn’t emptied me from the inside

[equivocations]

late fall evenings in Seattle.

[the-moonlight-calls]

[theirdelusion-deactivated202106]

[typecleverusernamehere]

Love! having a traumatic experience and literally having to go to work right after because we live in a capitalistic hellscape!!

[quillkins]

you ever feel like your trauma isn’t valid enough to talk about?

I’ve never told anyone about what I went through and I know it’s bad but I’m just scared

other people with trauma tend to deal with it at a young age, mine only happened a year ago

other people with trauma tend to be put through repeated pain due to someone that was supposed to care for them, while I only have myself to blame for what happened, it’s no ones fault but my own

I am literally such a bad person, and I feel like my truama would never be taken seriously because it’s all my fault

yeah it classifies as truama, I’ve looked at all of the qualifications and definitions and they all match up, but I still just feel like a prick who’s taking attention away from the people who suffer more then me :/

[caloriedevils]

me too and i hate it