Category / Guest Posts

by mentallyillinamerica

Waking Up Early – A Guest Post By Niraj Of niraj.home.blog

Niraj Of niraj.home.blog is making an appearance/guest post on my blog! I am grateful for his taking the time to write the following post. Thanks again, Niraj! 🙂

I have been told so many times how essential it is to get good night sleep. Feeling tired by not getting a good night’s sleep can impact your productivity for the next day. In particular, getting good sleep can have a positive impact on your mental health. However, I also think it is very important to wake up early. Waking up early impacts your life in so many ways, and in this article, I discuss the mental health benefits of waking up early. 

Waking up early helps with productivity. Imagine this situation where you have a train to catch to work at 8am. The first scenario is that you wake up at 6 am, and as a result, your first hour consists of having a healthy breakfast, completing your daily workout, and planning for the day ahead, whether that is at university or at work. You immediately feel good about yourself, as well as more relaxed, Now compare this to waking up at 7:45 am. You would have to frantically rush just to meet your train, and as a result you will already be stressed, not setting a good tone for the day ahead. Waking up early means that there is reduced rush at the start of the day. And more often than not, this can make you feel calmer and more positive for the day ahead, which normally leads to higher productivity. And higher productivity can help with your mental health.

Furthermore, waking up early helps with sustaining good eating habits in the morning. You may think that if you oversleep and miss breakfast as a result, then it isn’t a big deal. After all, you can always eat something later, and you can still sustain a healthy diet. But actually, there are more serious repercussions. When you sleep, your body partakes in a fast. Therefore, when you wake up and miss breakfast, your body is in starvation mode. If you miss breakfast, then you will be even more hungry. And when you are hungry, you typically crave more unhealthy foods. In summary, waking up early helps with eating well, which helps with your physical health, and good physical health goes a long way into ensuring good mental health.

Waking up early at a fixed time every day also helps with consistency, which is also really important for routine. From my experience, one thing that really helped me with my mental health was having a morning routine that would keep me organized. However, I could only maintain the morning routine if I woke up at the same time each day. And I had to wake up early every day so that I had time to complete my morning routine. If you can wake up early and at a similar time each day, it would help with building a consistent morning routine, which can really help with your mental health.

Waking up early is a habit that can take time to develop. In addition to sleeping relatively early when you can, it is also important to value your sleep more, and the time you sleep and wake up. We all have busy schedules and therefore our sleep may be in the last thing in our mind, therefore you may not think too much about the time you wake up. However, it’s important to remind ourselves of the benefits that it can have on our mental health, so waking up early is something that is worth putting effort into if you can.

I hope this blog post was helpful and gave you a good insight on why waking up early can be beneficial for your mental health. I know everyone’s situation is different and I appreciate that it may not be possible to wake up early all the time. But I hope there are some things that you can take away from this blog post that can help you with your mental health in the long run!

by mentallyillinamerica

What my Depression Is Like.

I just found this amazing blog! Enjoy this post…

Prose for the Masses

It is a guttural scream inside that no one can hear but me.

It is a million fireworks with their fuse set ablaze, waiting to light the night sky that is my soul. It isn’t darkness and sloth-like mobility. Not for me. For me, it is a spotlight on my flaws and insecurities, and I can’t seem to find the power cord to rip this truth from the wall.

My depression seeps in at moments when I beg it not to. Birthdays, anniversaries, or that Sunday you had planned brunch and a nice drive—guess I should have checked depression’s calendar that day. I guess I should have informed her that today I wasn’t going to put up with her sh*t, so she could skip the games between and just let me know my wants didn’t matter. Not now.

My depression is never geared toward a person or thing. Never meant…

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by mentallyillinamerica

Key Ways to Cope With Severe Mental Illness — A Guest Post For “My Brain’s Not Broken”

I originally wrote this guest post for www.mybrainsnotbroken.com. It was a pleasure working with Nathan of MBNB! Please check out his blog at the URL above. Thanks again for what you do Nathan!

Thank you to my fellow mental health blogger Mio for today’s post!

Guest Post: Key Ways to Cope With Severe Mental Illness — My Brain’s Not Broken
by mentallyillinamerica

How To Care For People In Your Life With Mental Health Problems [A Guest Post by POOJA of lifesfinewhine.com]

Thanks a million to Pooja of lifesfinewhine.com, for making this amazing guest post! I thoroughly enjoy Pooja’s lifestyle blog, and highly recommend that you check it out!

Unfortunately, there is still a lot of stigma around mental health and people that suffer from mental illnesses. There is a lot of lack of proper information when it comes to mental health as well as a lot of misinformation. This makes it very difficult for not only those suffering from mental health problems but those that have people in their lives that suffer from mental health problems. Here are some ways to help people in your life that is suffering from mental health problems

Just be there– Sometimes just being there for them can have a huge impact on someone’s life. Try to listen to them when they want to talk or help them with the little things that they feel like they may not be able to do on their own. It may not be possible to be there for them all the time but just do your best to show them that you care and are ready to lend a helping hand if they ever need it. Having someone there to support you and listen to what you have to say is a really great feeling and it can really make a big difference.

Try not to be judgemental– when someone with a mental health problem comes to you looking for some support try to be open minded. You may not understand exactly what they’re going through or how they feel but that does not mean that their feelings are not legitimate. Often time’s people with mental health problems will experience things that other people may not understand and feeling judged for that can be very difficult for them. So try to listen to what they saying and put yourself in their shoes instead of making them feel like there is something wrong with them for being the way they are.

Be positive and supportive– when you are suffering from a mental health problem you already feel pretty negative and the last thing you want/need is to be around people who make you feel even more negative. Try to surround them with a more positive energy- remind them about the good things in life.

Encourage them to seek professional help– sometimes being there for them and trying your best may not be enough. Of course it’s definitely not your fault. However, you can still help them by encouraging them to seek help from a professional. They may benefit more from talking to someone who is trained to help people with mental health problems and it can literally be lifesaving in some cases. Sometimes people suffering from mental health problems may not even realise that there’s a problem as they may be high functioning but people around them may see the signs. If you see signs that someone needs professional help be sure to encourage them to seek help.

I want to thank Mio for letting me post on this amazing website! I hope you enjoyed this post and found it informative. If you did feel free to hop over to my blog lifesfinewhine (www.lifesfinewhine.com) for more posts about mental health (emphasis added).

by mentallyillinamerica

I Have Schizoaffective Disorder… So, What Is That Experience Like?

I did a guest post for Mental health 360° today, of which I am proud. It was great fun, and it was a joy working with Caz!

Here is the guest post in its entirety:

https://mentalhealthfromtheotherside.com/2020/04/17/living-with-schizoaffective-disorder/

Caz has a lot to say about mental health herself, as a Mental Health Nurse, with designations in Mental Health First Aid and Mental Health Armed Forces Instruction, among others!

Again, it was great working with Caz.

Check out her site at:

https://mentalhealthfromtheotherside.com/

Below is an abbreviated version of the post I did.

Thank you!

For me, my thoughts are oftentimes quite muddled.

I have confusion much of the time, and when I am clear on my thinking, that is a bonus—something worthy of celebrating!

Usually though, my days are spent listening to music, blogging, being on social media (for my blog), and writing.

I try to stay off of places like Facebook, because I just end up getting upset with others. And, I don’t want to put myself (and everyone else) through that!

I also have to stay away from politics as much as possible too, as nearly all types of politics are triggering.

So, again, I listen to music, blog, spend time on social media for my blog, and write.

And, that’s my typical day!

But, what do I think about? What are my thoughts like?

Pinning my thoughts down isn’t always easy.

Much of the time, I have skewed and warped views or “delusions,” about anything and everything.

“Hallucinations” are also prevalent—where I hear voices—that typically say or yell disparaging things.

I will even have full-blown conversations (a lot of times without my even realizing I am doing so), that focus on things that are largely invasive, and that have a negative undertone to them.

Like, I think a lot about how (I believe) my blog is garnering a lot of negative attention from important people (i.e. the government or people connected to the government), who may somehow use the things I write about, against me.

And, I am in competition with these conversations, in order to have a healthy stream of thoughts (which I don’t 100% of the time get to experience).

I do get lost or stuck a lot with my way of thinking, and as I’ve said, I basically am tasked with interrupting those invasive conversations, as they are unhealthy and unkind.

I deal with all of this stuff every day, but interestingly enough, I do have some amount of happiness and confidence within myself and with regards to the life I live.

That didn’t happen overnight either. In fact, it took all of 20 years to figure out that I can also feel good, while in the midst of psychosis.

What the turning point for me was, was figuring myself out and what I believe, and then slowly introducing the notion of being in an intimate relationship, which I feel that achieving that has been my biggest stabilizing force.

I also feel that relationships (in general) tend to be very elusive to many people living with severe mental illness.

If we could all just begin to look at our mental illnesses as something that we just have, and find ways to challenge ourselves amid them aka try to make our life experiences somehow better, I think that we will win the battle against our diagnoses!

Perhaps that is wishful thinking for a lot of us, and maybe it is, but I always believe in doing something, that places me in an upward and onward direction!

And, yes, it is quite tough!

But, I have noticed that specific improvements do occur, when I am overtly challenging myself and my current levels of insight.

So, how do you feel when you are challenging your mental health experience? Especially as it pertains to wrestling control of your symptoms?