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Amanda_HP
The upcoming HealthyPlace Mental Health TV Show is for adult women. Our topic is: What to Do When Earlier Attempts at Eating Disorders Recovery Have Failed. Some 10 to 15 percent of women suffer from anorexia, bulimia, binge eating or maladaptive eating attitudes according to a new study from the Université de Montréal and the Douglas Mental Health University Institute published in the International Journal of Eating Disorders.
My kids are taking a bath. The sound of gurgling water fills our little apartment. The dishwasher hums loudly. My youngest is crying. Today, everything feels like it's crowding in on my psyche. I applied my positive thinking approach until the moment that I screamed for my youngest child to get into bed for her nap and then I collapsed.
Douglas relates his first week on the job at HealthyPlace.com and requests readers share their first week experiences.
One of the ways I've learned to manage my ADHD is to utilize the beeping & booping power of gadgets. Between my iPhone and my severely packed iCal appointment calendar, I have more alarms going off than a fire station during fireworks season. I even change the alarm sounds periodically to keep them fresh to my ears. Otherwise, I’d tune them out. ToDo lists and sticky notes are also used in abundance to help me remember to do the important things. I have them all over my Dashboard and Desktop, as well as on the dashboards and desktops of the real world.
Now I can sit back and reflect on those early days of my bipolar life.  I lived each day in fear of the next. I mostly feared that I was going crazy. I feared that my sanity was to be taken away from me easily. I feared that I would end up in a cold, confined padded cell.
I believe low self-esteem plays an extremely large role in social anxiety.  In my head, I have to be this perfect person and have my life all together. Therefore, when scary social situations creep into my trying-so-hard-to-be-perfect life, a vicious cycle begins. I worry so much that people will think less of me if they found out about my anxiety and panic attacks. I worry about worrying! Which then only makes the situation more scary and on and on it goes.
My name is Douglas and I've been diagnosed with ADHD for ages. I was ADHD before the Space Age, then during the Computer Age, and now in Old Age. I missed being diagnosed with Minimal Brain Dysfunction when that was all the rage, but did score Hyperkinetic in the 70s, which was not nearly as exciting or cool as being telekinetic.
Amanda_HP
We get a lot of email at HealthyPlace.com every month. I mean thousands of emails. Besides answering emails to help people, I sift through them to gauge what's on people's minds. One topic that comes up frequently is alternative, natural, complementary treatments for depression, bipolar disorder, eating disorders, schizophrenia --- well just about every mental health condition out there. A significant number of people who write us about alternative mental health treatments are interested because they don't like the side-effects of antidepressants, antipsychotics, antianxiey, or ADHD medications and are hoping that natural remedies, like herbs or supplements, or some alternative therapies such as neurofeedback or yoga will do the trick and relieve their unpleasant psychiatric symptoms.
Years ago, I tracked my anxious thoughts in a journal to define my triggers and reduce my negative thinking. Triggers are fears or situations that bring your anxiety to a heightened state. For example, speaking in public, riding in elevators, writing a check, or driving on freeways may trigger anxiety for some people. Eating in public around others has always been a big trigger for me.
I was diagnosed with bipolar 1 on October 6, 2006. I remember the date like it’s my birthday. It’s the day my whole world collapsed and I became a person I didn’t recognize. I was branded, disgraced and humiliated (Living With Mental Illness and Self-Stigma). It was I who took in the online questionnaire to my psychiatrist, hoping that I was wrong.

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Comments

Anonymous
Hi! I'm 14 and I, for some random reason, always feel the need to hurt myself when I'm mad. I don't even need to be mad at myself, just angry in general. I don't believe that I'm suicidal but I just wanna slap, punch, or cut myself when I'm mad. This has been a feeling that I have felt (When angry) for years now. Even when I was, like, 8 years old. Which is concerning to me. Does anyone else relate or is it just me?
Adam Selvan
I am a man with bipolar and Tourette syndrome, and I take all sorts of medication along with it, so I am not ashamed. I am not afraid of it. We only live day today along with it. We do our best and we strive to succeed.
j
I find Normalizing it the best option as well. I say things like "It's not you - I just have a super-high startle response"
I wish I could control it a bit better but I refuse to beat myself up over it either.
:)
PS
I can relate. I've tried so hard to make my partner, brother and best friend to understand so hard. But everytime they're like," oh it's nothing you're just overthinking" or "you think so negative, just think positive". Seems like the only persons who should understand are the ones, who don't wanna understand.
Seems like I will have to "pretend" to always be happy and cheery even though I don't feel like it, that too in my own house and close places. It's so exhausting and disappointing. I don't even know what to do next!
Mandy Thompson
I am 17 and one of my close friends 14 year old sister made her First Holy Communion this past sunday,May 5th.I went to her party in the afternoon and she was dressed in the traditional,poofy,sleeveless,knee length communion dress and veil with the lace socks and white shoes.She was acting somewhat aloof and didnt seem very happy! I asked my friend why her sister was acting that way and she told me that sis got into trouble the week before and acted like a two year old,so their mom and dad made her wear rubberpants with babyprints on them under her dress as her punishment! She lifted up the front of her sisters dress and showed me,and sure enough she had the babyprint rubberpants on!!