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Needing some support/advice #BipolarDisorder

#BipolarDisorder #Bipolar1Disorder #Medication #PsychiatricMedication #CopingTips #MentalHealth #MoodStabilizers

Let’s start with some background: as I’m sure many of y’all know or have experienced, figuring out medication with bipolar is no cake walk. I had terrible reactions to half a dozen SSRIs before anyone even thought “hey, maybe this person doesn’t have plain old depression. Let’s try something else.” And then I was allergic to the first two mood stabilizers they put me on (like deathly allergic). So when we finally found a medication I could take that worked and didn’t literally try to kill me, it was a huge relief. I have Bipolar I and, up till that point, I’d had no way of managing it, even aside from pharmaceuticals. Having a chemical mood stabilizer was amazing. My emotions were finally sorta “normal” — not alternating between “I am an immortal deity with ultimate power in this universe and beyond” and “my existence is so hopeless I might as well fade away into ghost-hood” with no in between. But there was one problem: now I felt disconnected. The medication dulled things so much I felt like I was experiencing the world through tinted glass — something I could see and hear, but couldn’t really feel, even physically, a connection to. Despite this problem, I knew that going off my medication would be far worse for my quality of life, so I kept on it.

Enter new information: I’ve been getting long, profuse, borderline dangerously frequent bloody noses consistently for months. Come to learn my mood stabilizer — the one that took over half a dozen tries to find — has been causing them. Now, excessive blood loss is not a good, so, three days ago, my meds dosage was reduced to start tapering off. And now my symptoms are reading their inconvenient heads. On the one hand, I’m finally feeling my creative spirit and connection to the energy of life again; on the other, I’ve never learned how to manage my Bipolar without medication and I’m having a lot of doubts about whether it’s even possible. So I need some help.

How have y’all managed or seen people manage Bipolar unmedicated? For those who’ve experienced withdrawal from tapering or going off medication, what are some ways you’ve managed the withdrawals and recurring symptoms? What are some ways to build support systems or some options for support systems that you’ve learned? I’d really appreciate any help y’all can give.

Much love ❤️

~Charlie

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Putting Mother’s Day in a Container #Selflove #MothersDay #ComplexPosttraumaticStressDisorder

“You have problems.” That was the last text message that my mother sent me. It was after she kicked me out for talking about my wife in front of her while on a week long visit to family back in NY.

It’s absolutely not the last time I’ve heard her voice in my head.

It’s there constantly. The shame and guilt I feel are whispered on a constant repeat in a voice that sounds just like hers.

I have been in trauma intensive treatment for my CPTSD for about a year now.

Today, I’m using one of the exercises I was taught by my therapist when I just couldn’t talk about my present without my mother’s voice interfering.

It’s a container exercise. I am imagining putting my mother’s last text to me, her voice guilting me about not calling her today, her voice shaming me about not having kids of my own yet, and all the other trash my head fills with, and I’m putting it into my “Peace Box.”

That’s what I call the box I imagine putting all of these negative thoughts into. My Peace Box is black, made of steel, has a dead bolt, a number key lock pad, and has chains around it keeping it shut with a heavy duty padlock on it. I do my best to imagine putting all of the negativity from my mom’s voice in my head into this box, put the imaginary box in a hole I “dug” in my yard, and walking away from it all. Leaving all the negativity inside of my Peace Box so that I can have…peace.

#peace #CopingTips

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We want people to feel less alone.

My friend and I host a Podcast called Creative Copes. It’s a labor of love- for ourselves, our own journeys and the compassion for others. We hope it becomes an aid for people in similar situation as us. We also have this idealistic approach of trying to end stigma and raise awareness about these conditions life has thrown at us by openly talking about them.
We set out to share our personal stories and how we creatively cope; with humor and with sprinkles of scientific studies that we have looked up.

We want YOU to feel less alone.
Honestly, we all want to feel less alone on this windy road that’s is chronic illness.

You can find us on Instagram @ creative.copes and on any listening platform just search up the name. Listen in, subscribe and message us. We would love some conversations with like-minded people.
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#Podcast #ChronicIllness #ChronicPain #Pain #Fibromyalgia #MyalgicEncephalomyelitis #Agoraphobia #Anxiety #SocialAnxiety #CopingTips #Endometriosis #MentalHealth #spinalinjury #OccipitalNeuralgia #Dysautonomia #ChronicVestibularMigraine #Migraine #Community #Disability #youarenotalone #Spoonie #SpoonieProblems #spoonielife #CheerMeOn

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Truly. Small things can be great too.

I am limited.
This is my reality.
I only have so much energy to go around and I need to pick and choose what to spend it on. Always having to keep in mind that I cannot overdraw my account. I need to balance my ‘checkbook’, if you will, to make sure I don’t go down to zero either, because then I might not have enough for the next day.
(Obviously I am not perfect at Pacing as I find myself doing too much on occasions as I get impatient with my limitations. Overall, I’d say I do pretty well with it.)

So what do I choose to spend it on? Well, some mundane tasks need to be done like laundry or light cleaning, so I spread it out over a few days. I work within my boundaries which I have somewhat figured out by trial and error. This is part of Pacing.
Now, I am a very lucky Gal to have a super supportive husband and three kids that help me with some of the heavier chores, just would like to point that out.

When the Mundane Pragmatic stuff have been taken care of I choose to spend my energy on stuff that fills my heart and soul with contentment. Whether they’d be Creative Coping Strategies like painting, drawing, forest bathing, expressive writing or listening/making music (now the latter depends fully on headache pain levels but within my capacity, music will always have a part in my life) or just being with my family in the moment.
I also am a half of a duo who talk about exactly this in podcast we have named Creative Copes- A labor of love for ourselves and hopefully an aid to others.

This is what I spend my energy on.
Things that matter to me; that settles body and mind and makes my heart pumping blood.
I am not all knowing and cannot be Worldly Great: I am clearly not meant to be a main figure in changing the world lol.
But I can do Small things in a Great Way, for myself and others, and hopefully someone can pick up what I am putting down and feel more inspired to get up every morning and meet the day head on. Love and light ❤️
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#pacing #CopingTips #MECFS #Fibromyalgia #ChronicHeadaches #ChronicIllness #Spoonie #spoonielife #MyalgicEncephalomyelitis #Anxiety #Agoraphobia #ChronicPain #dynamicdisability #ChronicPain #Pain #Acceptance #Grief #TheMighty

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I know, I know… but here it is. Consider it.

We are two friends both with chronic and mental illness, who decided we wanted to bring to the forefront, and open up real conversations about, how we are coping with our diagnosises. We use humor, personal experiences and scientific studies with what can potentially help; has helped; and what we are willing to try to stay sane in the midst of what we’ve been saddled with by life.
We’re also doing this to try to end stigma, raise awareness as well as discourage toxic positivity and ableism to take more root in society.

We would love your support and also your input on what coping skills you all use- join the conversation! Follow us on instagram @ creative.copes and on your favorite listening platform and comment away! The more we talk, the more mainstream it will become.
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#keeptalking #jointheconversation #jointhefight #RealTalk #EndTheStigma #Raiseawareness #MentalHealth #physicalhealth #Ableism #Toxicpositivity #copingstrategies #CopingTips #beyourownadvocate #ChronicIllness #ChronicPain #ChronicMigraines #ChronicVestibularMigraine #Fibromyalgia #GeneralizedAnxietyDisorder #SocialAnxiety #Agoraphobia #Dysautonomia #CrohnsDisease #Endometriosis #RaynaudsPhenomenon #MyalgicEncephalomyelitis #ChronicFatigue #OccipitalNeuralgia #wecandothis #LetsDoThis

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Toxic positivity

Pondering Toxic Positivity this morning and how many around me, friends and family, have responded with such when it comes to my #ChronicIllness . Is it a learned/generational/cultural/societal thing we grow into, I wonder? That the knee jerk responses are expressions where we encourage the avoidance of all negative emotions and deny, minimalize, invalidate authentic human emotions? (It can occur with oneself as well- that inner voice telling you “you should be grateful..” in situations where you’re upset. )
I can shrug it off because I am good with ‘It’s Okay to Not be Okay’, but I am curious now where it stems from..
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#Toxicpositivity #Ableism #ChronicPain #MentalHealth #Anxiety #CopingTips #Fibromyalgia #ChronicFatigue #Agoraphobia #PanicDisorder #GeneralizedAnxietyDisorder #Dysautonomia #chronicmigraine #Migraine

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Languages #CopingTips

How do you cope with stress or your mental illness? I love languages ❤️

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Polyglot- A Coping Skill

Hi. Hola. Hallo. Ciao.

I love learning languages. It’s a great coping mechanism. Who else uses languages to cope? I’m working towards becoming a polyglot. What’s your goal?

Thanks. Gracias. Danke. Grazie.

#CopingTips #Languages

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#Anxiety #Depression #Sadness #CopingTips #AnxietyTips

Heyy
How do you guys cope with your anxiety so that it doesn’t affect your daily life or moods? Just pour in some tips id love to know💕💕

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