Other Mental Health

🙌 Yes!!

Yep, I am Also your confidence booster!
&
Your cheerleader ( 📣 🙃🤭🙌🙌 another fun fact about me - I was the first freshman in my high school to make the Varsity football cheerleading squad And I Also was a cheerleading coach in high school for junior high school kids And I did all of that while also teaching dance and helping to run a dance school in high school too, while also continuing my own dance training daily because my first love since the age of 3 has always been the beautiful art of dance- or like one of my all time favorite Professional dance companies that I paid to see live in NYC was called- “Shaping Sound”.

Yeah, I Really miss those days of Energy.

These days, if I have any energy or let’s say the infrequent but still a huge gift of having more than a little energy, it’s funny in that I can recognize the immense difference in a blink of an eye.

Oh, yeah, and about the badass part of this quote image 👆
Not having energy and still doing all that I do, That is what makes me Badass, is how I look at it- after straightening out my Perspective and Reframing my Headspace.
And honestly without my onset of major depressive disorder at age 34 (I am now 52), I would never have really achieved Becoming Badass! And, I always admired Badass people of all kinds.

Always remember this whole hard thing called life and life transitions requires us to take on new, healthier Perspectives Always, And this is what I learned from the Headspace app is also called “Reframing” (best app in the world, at least when I used it daily in 2017 - 2019)

And I have specific, Large, photo album folders on my phone - 1 titled “Reframing Headspace” from my saved key takeaways from each Headspace course lesson I took (that Of Course I will be sharing with you in my group Resilience and Mindfulness) and I have another specific, Large, photo album folder titled “Perspectives” that Of Course I will be sharing with you in my group titled Resilience and Mindfulness)

To anyone seeing this post outside of my group - here is the direct link Resilience and Mindfulness and Join Us for So Much & because literally Everyone needs to learn both Resilience and Mindfulness (and, I don’t stop there with what goodies I share To Help YOU 😁🙃)

#MightyTogether #MentalHealth #ChronicFatigue #ChronicIllness #Disability #Anxiety #GeneralizedAnxietyDisorder #MajorDepressiveDisorder #DepressiveDisorders #Selfharm #SocialAnxiety #ADHD #Agoraphobia #MDD #MoodDisorders #MultipleSclerosis #IfYouFeelHopeless #MyCondition #CheerMeOn #ChronicFatigueSyndrome #OtherMentalHealth #MotorDisorders #ChronicPain #Mindfulness #Selfcare #FamilyAndFriends #Relationships #AnorexiaNervosa #EatingDisorders #BingeEatingDisorder #Arthritis #BipolarDisorder #BipolarDepression #Fibromyalgia #Caregiving #Cancer #CrohnsDisease #DownSyndrome #EhlersDanlosSyndrome #Epilepsy #Addiction #Lupus #EhlersDanlosSyndrome #BorderlinePersonalityDisorder #CerebralPalsy #ObsessiveCompulsiveDisorder

When you think of chronic pain and depression, you might assume they’re separate conditions. One manifests physically, while the other affects mental health. However, there actually is a complex interplay between these two conditions. Many people experiencing chronic pain also grapple with depression and vice versa.

Each condition can exacerbate the other. Chronic pain can lead to feelings of helplessness and isolation, potentially triggering depressive symptoms. Depression can amplify somatic responses, including migraines, IBS, back pain, and more.

The Link Between Depression and Chronic Pain

Depression and chronic pain often form a vicious cycle. Persistent pain can trigger negative emotions and depressive symptoms, while depression can manifest as unexplained physical discomfort, such as migraines and other somatic issues. This connection often creates a cycle between the two that can be difficult to break without effective treatment.

Quality of Life

Chronic pain can significantly impact one’s quality of life by depleting your energy, reducing motivation, and limiting daily activities. If you are engaging less with people, work, and life in general, it can intensify feelings of depression, further perpetuating this cycle. Depression can also make it harder to cope with pain, as it can reduce motivation and energy levels. Additionally, depressive symptoms can manifest as physical symptoms, including increased pain sensitivity and muscle tension, making it even harder to feel motivated.

Brain Pathways

When you are living with chronic pain, it can make it more likely to experience both pain and depression. This connection originates from underlying neural mechanisms involving specific brain structures, chemicals, and pathways. Increased pain intensity is often associated with a higher likelihood of developing depressive symptoms. Psychotherapy helps open new pathways in the brain that can help heal mental health and chronic pain issues.

Limiting Factors

Chronic pain can also limit physical activity, social interactions, and work productivity, leading to feelings of isolation and frustration.

Reduced physical activity and social isolation can serve to increase stress levels, which can further exacerbate both chronic pain and depression symptoms.

Treatment Strategies

Chronic pain generally includes more than just mental health treatments. However, people often underestimate the need for psychotherapy and attention to mental health when it comes to treating chronic pain, such as chronic migraines, back pain, IBS or other forms of pain. Old traumas can also cause chronic pain and lead to depressive symptoms in the present, as well.

Here are some ways people approach the confluence of depression and chronic pain together:

Pain Management: Medications, physical therapy, and other interventions to manage pain

Psychotherapy: Psychodynamic, psychoanalytic, and somatic-based therapy to work through depression, traumas, or other mental health struggles that may also be manifesting in the body.

Medications: Antidepressants and other medications to manage depressive symptoms, depending on severity

Lifestyle Modifications: Regular exercise, healthy diet, and adequate sleep are a few things that can help improve mood and reduce pain.

Mind-Body Techniques: Mindfulness meditation, yoga, and emotional regulation exercises can help with physiological stress and help with emotional grounding.

By understanding the connection between chronic pain and depression, you can take a more rounded approach to your wellbeing. When I work with people on the mental health side of chronic migraines (which often includes depression and anxiety), one of my specialties, I generally recommend that you have physical support as well, whether it's a neurologist, and/or alternative approaches. I find that the combination of various treatment options helps to address the depression and chronic pain cycle together.

#Depression #Migraine #ChronicPain #Anxiety #MentalHealth #IrritableBowelSyndromeIBS

Life experiences, especially during childhood -- though not only from childhood -- significantly shape your daily functioning moving forward into adulthood. Childhood is a critical period for developing essential coping skills you use as an adult. However, adverse experiences, or trauma during these formative years can disrupt your ability to build important skills and respond effectively to various life situations as adults.

There is a deep connection between childhood trauma and the social anxiety that can develop (and strengthen) into adulthood. Emotional mistreatment or abuse in childhood can have a way of distorting your overall sense of security and safety in the world, leading to issues such as substance abuse, anxiety, and depression.

Understanding Social Anxiety

Social anxiety is generally experienced as an intense feeling of stress and worry around social situations, including fears of being criticized, judged, shamed, rejected, bullied, or otherwise interpersonally mistreated. Socializing isn't fun, it's perceived as a threat. It can be incredibly crippling for many people, to the point of completely isolating away from social situations.

Unlike shyness, which usually fades as one becomes more comfortable in a social setting, social anxiety tends to persist and have a more widespread impact. The fear experienced in social settings is often not aligned with the actual threat. You may find yourself sweating, or your heartbeat increasing, or stomach discomfort, or other physiological symptoms. You're essentially in fight-flight-freeze mode as if you actually are facing a true threat. You may not actually be bullied, shamed, judged, or rejected, but when you've had enough experiences growing up in these types of environments, your body and emotions are ready to react to the potential attack that the past has shown you, regardless of what may be really happening in the current situation.

How Childhood Mistreatment Can Lead to Social Anxiety

Adverse childhood experiences and traumas can significantly increase the prevalence of mental health struggles later in life. As a child, you're still developing skills and coping mechanisms for life’s stressors. This makes you much more emotionally impressionable to what is taking place at the time.

Stable and supportive connections with parents and general caregivers helps create a sense of security and safety in the world. However, when trauma is inflicted by the same people who are supposed to be nurturing and protecting you, this makes it really hard for a child to develop a strong sense of emotional resilience in life. Your world becomes constantly preparing for attack. It essentially disrupts secure attachment and can lead to longer-term effects, including developing social anxiety and other mental health difficulties as an adult.

Emotional Abuse, Neglect and Social Anxiety

Emotional abuse and neglect tend to set the foundation for social anxiety. Abuse and neglect in childhood almost automatically spikes your sensitivity and awareness of potential shame and rejection, which is at the core of social anxiety. This can have a way of making you feel you have to be more careful, or less authentic, and constantly looking out for how the other is perceiving you in an interaction, and overall spending a lot of energy trying to avoid the landmine that will lead to the attack. (This is one reason while people with social anxiety often feel exhausted after social interactions).

Impact on Relationships

When the impact of childhood emotional mistreatment goes unaddressed, the wounds tend to grow over time and be reinforced by avoidance, which usually increases social and emotional difficulties as adults. Trauma and violation created by parents, in particular, can eat away at your overall sense of safety, support, and self-worth in the world. This can lead to a variety of issues with anxiety, and also depression.

As you grow up and into adulthood, the social insecurities coming from adverse childhood experiences may show up in a number of ways, including:

Anxiety

Panic attacks

Isolating yourself from others

Low self-esteem and self-worth

Coping mechanisms that are often unhealthy (such as substance or alcohol misuse, or sexual acting out)

Relational and interpersonal difficulties beyond social anxiety (such as dynamic issues and friction in close relationships)

And others not listed here

Social anxiety often leads to avoiding social situations as a whole, and only reinforces isolation and feelings of inadequacy. It's a defeating cycle. Avoidance tends to breed more avoidance. If you struggle as an adult with social anxiety, or with any form of anxiety, it is possible to overcome the challenges of painful childhood experiences and have more meaningful relationships in your life. Moving forward just takes one step.

#Anxiety #MentalHealth ##SocialAnxiety #Depression ##Trauma #neglect #Abuse