With depression and COVID-19 swirling around, it is easy to forget the one thing I can control. Approaching my first anniversary of being diagnosed with MDD, major depressive disorder, I am glad that I have learned many coping statements for depression. This and other tools have given me a firm foundation as I build my new life with my disease. Now I am adding in the … [Read more...] about I Get to Choose My Attitude
WRAP
Counting Down, While Everyone Else is Adding Up the Days.
I’m seeing more and more articles with headlines: Day 18 of Self-Isolation. It starts with a dire warning, “The kids broke the toaster.” Then they go on to tell you about how the kids are doing beyond the toaster and the baking they have done. All of this is important in their lives and is mildly amusing at times. My interest in COVID 19 stems from being deemed an … [Read more...] about Counting Down, While Everyone Else is Adding Up the Days.
I Don’t want to be Closed Off
Non-essential businesses are closing. The mall attached to where I work is closed. It is an eerie sight. With gates down, access is limited to the occasional security guard making the rounds. And at first, there were custodians cleaning the floors and seating surfaces. At another local mall, Chick-Fil-A has a tent set up near a mall entrance door. They are doing … [Read more...] about I Don’t want to be Closed Off
With Depression in Full Bloom, I was a Mess Last Year.
I guess in many ways I still am. I am learning how to live with depression after avoiding facing it for over 43+ years. I had a whole system in place to protect myself from the truth. I lived through at least four major episodes before winding up in the hospital a year ago. That marked the turning point in my relationship with depression. Now I am on a first-name … [Read more...] about With Depression in Full Bloom, I was a Mess Last Year.
There are still doors my keys do not open
The problem is not all or nothing. Although it feels like that when I am stuck, immobile and indecisive. Once the day gets going, I am better equipped to use the tools I have learned to meet and defeat problems as they come my way. Between SMART Recovery, WRAP training, Peer Support at On Our Own, meetings with my therapist and psychiatrist, I have learned so much about … [Read more...] about There are still doors my keys do not open