Someone recently asked me what fun things I have planned for the summer. Surprisingly, that felt like a loaded, triggering question. As a sober person who doesn't have a driver's license or disposable income, I get jealous and resentful when people talk about their vacation plans. The fear of missing out (FOMO) surfaces, and I feel excluded from that version of fun. 

Do you know that saying that other people’s opinions of you are none of your business? As much as I try to keep that in my head, that’s easier said than followed, and other people's perceptions of me trigger negative thoughts.

Today I'd like to share the challenges I face balancing weight loss and avoiding becoming "hangry" (hungry plus angry) with schizoaffective disorder.

You can still find a negative stigma around mental health and medication treatment for many individuals. How others perceive them with the knowledge that they use pharmaceuticals can be negative. However, there is not one right answer, and medication treatment needs can change significantly throughout the healing process when recovering from verbal abuse. 

I'm anxious for my first session with the personal trainer I hired to coach me for a Himalayan trek I'll be doing in about six months. It's quite unlike me to invest in an exercise program financially. Usually, I just lace up my sneakers and start running until I can't summon the energy for one more step. I even forget to stretch my muscles beforehand sometimes (terrible habit, I know).

I've learned something about anxiety and conflict. For fear of the discomfort that accompanies conflict, I will often try to do my best to avoid any situation that might result in opposition, tension, or some sort of disagreement.

I had never heard of gambling addiction being a possible side effect of aripiprazole (Abilify) or any other drug. That's why I was shocked to read the headline, "Patients given aripiprazole 'should be told of gambling addiction risks'" in "The Guardian." I consider "The Guardian" to be a source of reliable and fact-checked information, so I looked into it further. It turns out that many people have now recognized that a possible side effect of aripiprazole is gambling addiction.

Dopamine and setting goals are links, and so are important in depression. In spite of what the popular "treat yourself" culture would have you believe, when it comes to battling depressive swings, setting goals and striving towards them remains tried and true. When we're feeling blue, self-care and self-compassion are important, but face masks and chocolate will only get us so far. If you're stuck in a rut, it's possible that what you need isn't less responsibility but more. 

As we age, we become more self-conscious, and things about us that never really bothered us, like the shape of our nose, eyes, or height, become something we can't get past. This is common in teenagers, and why we must build self-esteem in teenagers and children. For the longest time, I felt my nose was ugly. It isn't a button nose which, according to society, is the perfect nose shape, and I always tried hiding it, even in pictures. I have managed to overcome this through the help of my friends and family, and now I love my nose and don't care what others say about my nose's shape or anything else about me. In this article, we will look into the various ways to build self-esteem in teenagers and children.

At times when devastation from earthquakes exists and legislative restrictions against women and minorities are rampant, I view eating disorder (ED) recovery as superficial and inconsequential. Why should I bother to prioritize my own mental health when so many others lack access to the most basic, essential resources? Who cares about some trivial anxiety in the wake of countless horrific tragedies? I know that's not the most constructive inner monologue, but these are my thoughts on ED recovery when the entire world feels heavy.