Self-care

Gratitude is such a powerful coping skill ✨ What are a few things you can be thankful for today?
#MentalHealth #Agoraphobia #AutismSpectrumDisorder #Anxiety #BorderlinePersonalityDisorder #BorderlinePersonalityDisorderBPD #BipolarDisorder #ChronicFatigueSyndrome #CeliacDisease #Depression #AnorexiaNervosa #BulimiaNervosa #Selfharm #Selfcare #PTSD #Addiction #Recovery

I met a skeleton shortly after arriving in a new town, although I didn’t realize he was a skeleton at first. From a distance he looked like everyone else gathered in small circles, chatting, laughing, and signing. A friend pointed him out and spoke of him with a level of admiration that immediately caught my attention. According to local legend, he was one of the finest communicators in town. People described him as brilliant, logical, precise, and deeply knowledgeable about language. The way they talked about him, I expected to meet a master storyteller, the kind of person who could make an ordinary trip to the grocery store sound like an epic adventure.

Naturally, I introduced myself.

The first few minutes felt normal enough. He greeted me politely and answered my questions without hesitation. His signs were recognizable. His vocabulary seemed extensive. His timing appeared appropriate. Yet something felt strangely off. It was like listening to a familiar song played on an instrument that was slightly out of tune. The melody was still there, but something essential was missing. I found myself concentrating harder than usual, replaying sentences in my head and searching for clues that never appeared. The more he signed, the more puzzled I became.

At first I blamed myself. Maybe I was tired from traveling. Maybe he used a regional variation I wasn’t familiar with. Maybe I had simply missed a few signs. But as the conversation continued, a troubling pattern emerged. Every sentence seemed to arrive with exactly the same emotional weight. Questions felt no different from statements. Excitement felt no different from disappointment. Jokes landed with the energy of tax instructions. Even his stories felt strangely preserved, as if they had been sealed in a jar decades ago and only recently opened.

Then I finally noticed what my brain had been trying to tell me all along.

The man had no face.

Well, technically he had a face. It simply wasn’t doing anything. No eyebrows rose to mark a question. No eyes widened with surprise. No cheeks tightened to add emphasis. No mouth shifted to convey skepticism, amusement, or concern. The entire landscape of expression had been replaced by a permanent blankness. It was then that I realized I wasn’t talking to a communicator. I was talking to a skull.

Suddenly everything made sense.

The more I watched, the more evidence appeared. His hands were little more than thin arrangements of bone. Every classifier looked undernourished. Every description seemed to arrive missing half its details. When he described a mouse, it looked remarkably similar to a bear. When he described a bear, it looked remarkably similar to a mailbox. His stories contained events but somehow lacked scenes. They contained characters but somehow lacked personalities. Information moved from point A to point B, but nothing came alive along the way.

What fascinated me most was that the skeleton considered this a strength.

When I cautiously suggested that facial expressions carried important information, he dismissed the idea entirely. Expressions, he explained, only created ambiguity. Emotion distracted from facts. Personality cluttered the message. Storytelling wasted valuable time. In his view, language worked best when stripped down to pure information. He spoke about communication the way a minimalist speaks about furniture. If something served more than one purpose, it was probably unnecessary.

The longer he explained his philosophy, the more absurd it became. He reminded me of a chef who proudly removed flavor from food, a painter who eliminated color from paintings, or a musician who concluded that silence was the purest form of music. Every solution seemed to involve removing the very thing people enjoyed. Somehow he had mistaken the skeleton of communication for communication itself.

By the end of the evening, I understood why people found him so fascinating. The skeleton wasn’t frightening because he was a skeleton. The frightening part was the idea he represented. He had spent years dismantling communication piece by piece, removing expression, emotion, personality, nuance, rhythm, and human connection. Then he stood proudly beside the pile of bones and called it an improvement.

As I walked home that night, I thought about language and all the tiny things that give it life. The raised eyebrow that turns a statement into a question. The subtle smirk that transforms criticism into humor. The widening eyes that invite someone into a story. The countless visual details that carry meaning beyond words themselves.

The skeleton had spent a lifetime trying to perfect communication by removing everything that made it human.

And to his credit, he succeeded.

What remained was perfectly organized, perfectly logical, perfectly efficient, and completely dead.

👓 💀 🫱🏽‍🫲🏼

#Selfcare #MentalHealth #semicolon #Anxiety

It’s poetry writing time. ☺️✒️

For today’s challenge, write a five-line poem about how you’re feeling today. You’re free to write in whatever style or structure feels right to you, there are no rules! If you need some inspiration, here are some examples: you could write a free verse, acrostic, imagery, or lyric poem.

Here is @sparklywartanks poem:

Even as she opens her eyes with sunrise, she pushes through.

Her voice, a beacon of light. Her best, enough, as she gently soothes her inner critic.

One moment at a time—fleeting, like a race car finally crossing the finish line.

She can't wait for her Friday finish line.

Maybe then she'll get a full night's rest, and her mind will finally quiet down.

#52SmallThings #MightyPoets #CheckInWithMe #Selfcare #MentalHealth #Disability #ChronicIllness #ChronicPain #RareDisease #Anxiety #Depression
#Autism #Parenting #PTSD #BorderlinePersonalityDisorder #BipolarDisorder #Fibromyalgia #Lupus #MultipleSclerosis #Migraine #Spoonie

This tip is one of the most helpful ones I've learned on my healing journey. I hope it's helpful for you today.
#ADHD #AnorexiaNervosa #Anxiety #AutismSpectrumDisorder #Addiction #MentalHealth #BorderlinePersonalityDisorder #BipolarDisorder #BackPain #IrritableBowelSyndromeIBS #ChronicFatigueSyndrome #CeliacDisease #Cancers #Depression #Epilepsy #EatingDisorders #EhlersDanlosSyndrome #Endometriosis #Fibromyalgia #Lupus #LymeDisease #MajorDepressiveDisorder #Mania #PTSD #PanicAttacks #PanicDisorder
#RestlessLegsSyndrome #Schizophrenia #Selfcare #Selfharm #SocialAnxietyDisorder #TouretteSyndrome #Trauma #SuicidalThoughts

Writing poetry is like going on an endless adventure in your mind, and the best part is that there isn’t a "right" or "wrong" way to travel.

One day you could write a poem about how you’re feeling, and the next one could be about your favorite food, or even a cherished memory you have. The beauty of poetry is giving your creativity permission to take the lead!

Mighty staffer @sparklywartanks says she enjoys creatively describing her mental health symptoms in her poems as well as celebrating any victories she’s had.

What are your favorite topics to write about? ✍️

#52SmallThings #CheckInWithMe #Selfcare #MentalHealth #Disability #ChronicIllness #ChronicPain #RareDisease #Anxiety #Depression
#Autism #Parenting #PTSD #BorderlinePersonalityDisorder #BipolarDisorder #Fibromyalgia #Lupus #MultipleSclerosis #Migraine #Spoonie

It was a 🌧️ day here in PA and this quote reminded me that without the rain, we wouldn't have the gorgeous spring flowers.

Life is like that. Without the hard times, we wouldn't be able to appreciate that good times.
#AutismSpectrumDisorder #ADHD #Agoraphobia #Anxiety #BorderlinePersonalityDisorder #BipolarDisorder #BackPain #CeliacDisease #ChronicFatigueSyndrome #CeliacDisease #Depression #Epilepsy #EatingDisorders #AnorexiaNervosa #BulimiaNervosa #Fibromyalgia #Grief #Hemophilia #Headache #Migraine #NarcissisticPersonalityDisorder #Narcolepsy #ObsessiveCompulsiveDisorder #PTSD #AutonomicDysfunction #PanicDisorder #PanicAttack #MightyTogether #Selfharm #Selfcare

Family and Friends is a support group for partners, spouses, siblings, adult children, parents, cousins, aunts, uncles, guardians, caregivers, close friends and other family members of individuals with a mental illness or any mental health challenge.

This group provides opportunities to share valuable coping strategies and practical information that helps you support your loved ones experiencing mental health challenges.

💻 If you'd like more information or would like to join, you can find the link here. Virtual groups are every 2nd and 4th Tuesday, 6 to 7:30pm Eastern Standard Time. Closed captioning is available:
naminycmetro.org/programs/family-friends

🗺️ If you are in the New York City area, in person groups are every first Tuesday, 2-3:30pm ET at the NAMI-NYC office. Check the link above for more information. ⬆️

If you have any questions, feel free to comment below!

#Parenting #GeneralParenting #Caregiving #BipolarDepression #BipolarDisorder #PTSD #ComplexPosttraumaticStressDisorder #Schizophrenia #ADHD #ChronicIllness #SchizoaffectiveDisorder #BorderlinePersonalityDisorder #Anxiety #ObsessiveCompulsiveDisorder #Depression #MentalHealth #Selfcare #EatingDisorders #CheckInWithMe #CheerMeOn

Mighties, let's get on the creativity train and talk about poetry this week! 🚂

Whether a simple free verse poem or ones filled with metaphors, smilies, and analogies, poetry can be a tool to creatively express your thoughts, feelings, and ideas. Some may find it beneficial to use this creative method to get their point across while others may prefer the more direct prose approach.

Do you use poetry to express yourself? Let us know by answering "true" or "false" in the comments below!

#52SmallThings #CheckInWithMe #Selfcare #MentalHealth #Disability #ChronicIllness #ChronicPain #RareDisease #Anxiety #Depression
#Autism #Parenting #PTSD #BorderlinePersonalityDisorder #BipolarDisorder #Fibromyalgia #Lupus #MultipleSclerosis #Migraine #Spoonie