Before my alarm even goes off, I wake up and I’m unhappy — I know my retail job is making my depression much worse.
I feel this heavy, dark energy underneath my skin that’s trying to escape from my chest.
I look at myself in the mirror one last time before I leave my house.
Although I’ve lived with mental illness my whole life, I am not a medical professional. If you need help finding a mental health care provider, call 1-800-662-HELP (4357) or visit BetterHelp to talk to a certified therapist online at an affordable price. This post contains affiliate links. You can read my full disclaimer here.
Anxiety is a constant underlying feeling that I have. Running an online blogging business is so stressful, and I’m always thinking about how much work I have to do the next day.
To make matters worse, my sleeping schedule isn’t even consistent. Most days, it takes forever to fall asleep. Other days, I wake up in the middle of the night in a panic.
It’s such a vicious cycle, because anxiety doesn’t let you sleep and not being able to sleep only causes more anxiety. Between my anxiety and depression, I hardly ever get a good night’s sleep.
Good thing I have a list about the things you can do before bed that just might make it a little easier to fall asleep and stay asleep.
There comes a time when our relationships become routine. We get married, have 10,000 babies, and lose the spark we once had. We wake up, say hi to each other, go to work, come home, say hi again, and go to bed. Then we get up and do it all over again the next day.
This is something I try very hard to avoid. I never want to lose that spark.
The best relationships are when you get along like best friends. I can honestly say I have never been bored in my entire relationship of four years.
For cereal, just laying in the dark is entertaining enough. Me and my boyfriend try anything to keep the other one laughing.
Here’s a list of 30 unexpected ways we’ve had fun in our relationship.
Several years back, my best friend gave me a copy of 14,000 Things to Be Happy About. She kept one for herself, and we spent the day reading the list out loud to each other. We decided that we would highlight the ones we relate to.
Whenever I’m having a really crappy day, I tend to look at the book right before bed. Not only does it help me sleep, but it helps me feel at peace.
And to this day, I still find more reasons to highlight.
So, it’s about time I decided to make my own personal list to reminisce on things that make me happy on a bad day.
Although I’ve lived with mental illness my whole life, I am not a medical professional. If you need help finding a mental health care provider, call 1-800-662-HELP (4357) or visit BetterHelp to talk to a certified therapist online at an affordable price. This post contains affiliate links. You can read my full disclaimer.
WARNING: This post is graphic in nature and can be very triggering to those who self-harm.
I am no expert at managing self-harm. In fact, up until recently I was battling a severe self-harm addiction.
This post contains 6 tips I’ve used to help prevent self-harm. Unfortunately, maybe not all of these are going to work you. And what might work one time may not work the next.
But please, please do not give up. Always try your best to keep fighting. Relapses happen. We’re all human. That’s why it’s important to remember that every day is a new beginning. Always remember, the sun must set to rise.
Look below and see how I’ve been able to beat my self-harm addiction:
Although I’ve lived with mental illness my whole life, I am not a medical professional. If you need help finding a mental health care provider, call 1-800-662-HELP (4357) or visit BetterHelp to talk to a certified therapist online at an affordable price. This post contains affiliate links. You can read my full disclaimer.
WARNING: This post is graphic in nature and can be very triggering to those who self-harm or have previously done so.
Update: I am now one year self-harm free!
My self-harm addiction started when I was about 14 when I had a couple of permanent markers laying around next to my bed.
With anticipating hands, I pulled the cap off of a blue colored permanent marker and let the chemicals burn up my nostrils. My hand did the rest of the work by writing words of self-hate all over my upper thighs.
Because it’s not easy to wash off permanent marker, the words would stay on my body for days at a time, reminding me just how worthless I felt. When the words finally disappeared from my legs, I would follow the same self-destructive pattern all over again and write down more and more words.
I made sure that I would stick to the areas above my knees, because I would have to wear my gym uniform every day at school and, you know, I didn’t want anyone to “feel sorry” for me.
This pattern soon became so normal that I remember almost being excited about my secret, and I even started to like seeing the top of words poke out from underneath my gym shorts.
But just as quickly as this pattern started, the gratification of hateful words wasn’t enough for me anymore.
