Hearing you have an anxiety or mood disorder is a hard pill to swallow, not to mention the difficulties that come with the actual pill swallowing that occurs after the diagnosis. Medical science has yet to find a cure for mood and anxiety disorders, however the development of SSRI’s (Serotonin Selective Reuptake Inhibitors), and others like SNRI’s, NDRI’s and NRI’s it seems like there is light at the end of the dark tunnel.

However, for many this is only the beginning of the long and confusing road so this week we are introducing something new……. Medicine Mondays!!!

This come about as so many patients using anti-depressants for the first time do not know what to expect from their medication and what the possible side effects are. I will attempt to answer the most frequently asked questions when it comes to taking psychiatric medication.

Continue “Medicine Mondays!”

Because of my legs, I had no strength to stand or walk, so I sat at home for days! The first few days weren’t that much of an issue, but eventually the frustration started to build. It was horrible to sit and wait for my legs to gain strength again, so my optimism also started to flee.

I needed to make a plan to get myself out of the house to lift my mood, so I started asking questions: What could I still do physically where I don’t need to use leg muscles? Well, I still had my upper body strength, so I can use that as a start. Then the light bulb went on: ‘Wheelchair! I can still be mobile! Let’s go to the mall!’
For once, I didn’t feel guilty to park in the parking space for people with disabilities. I asked a friend that works in the mall to help me get a wheelchair. Once I was in it, the fun started! Continue “Wheelchair fun!”

I can’t sleep, not really. I constantly find myself in a state of anxiety. I’m snappy. I am in a type of freeze state. I’m feeling down and I consistently worry.

I have no doubt that there are many people out there who are nodding in agreement. Who are also feeling all these things or have experienced them before. I am describing the experience of having to deal with an event that is possibly life changing, but possess a great big, fat unknown factor.

People, we HAVE to learn! Almost every person has gone through some or other life experience, I should say worried through (not gone through) a life experience, only to look back at it and realize that it was not as terrible as we thought it would be. It didn’t have the impact we predicted. It was something that could be learned from.

Yet when we go through the next challenge in our lives we do it all over again. Continue “The Stress Coaster”

For many years I have seen myself as an extreme extrovert as someone who is constantly friendly and has a silly personality. The day I found out that I am in actual fact not an extravert, but very much an introvert, my whole world come to a standstill. I did not want to be known as the “shy” one. Does this now mean my funny and fun behavior was all a show? As I started reading more about the subject I learnt so much more about myself and that there are many myths out there regarding introverts.

One of the most significant things that this piece of information cleared up for me was in my spiritual life. I never really liked going to churches where there is a band and people singing and holding hands. I am much more the “be quite and listen” type and for so long a felt guilty for not being interested in the band and singing thing. So yesterday I was given a very interesting article regarding spirituality and this fact written by Lacy Ellman from the Huffington post.

I would like to share it with you…

      Continue “3 Spiritual practices you might already be doing”

This morning someone approached me to have a talk. The person explained to me that they are feeling very down. Then the person said “I’ve been battling my whole life and I can’t take it anymore”.

This got me thinking. We sometimes feel exactly like that, but I would like today, to remind you that even in the darkest and lowliest of times we all have some aspect of our lives that was at very least good. My colleague unwittingly assisted with this train of thought when I mentioned that I was having a down day. “Have you laughed today?” she asked. I did not answer but I had laughed. We truly need to do our best to stop focussing on all the bad and negative to the point where it seems that its so much more than the good and positive. We do need to count our blessings and find and identify the good things the positive elements, especially when we feel down.

Have you laughed today?

(If not ask why…)

Positive psychology is all the rage these days (okay it has probably been for some time) and to tell you the truth I have been drinking the Kool-Aid. One aspect of this that I find very interesting is that now it has become a science. No, really I have found article after article regarding the “science of happiness”, but what does this science say and how does it work?

After reading blog after blog and one web page after the other I have realized that they all say very much the same things just in many different ways. Some I have to admit have found very cute and interactive ways of saying it. One website I came across refers to it as happify (I found it to be a fun way of putting it). The happify website adopts an S.T.A.G.E framework which are basically five happiness skills that will help you build your happiness.

The five key happiness skills include: Savor, Thank, Aspire, Give, and Empathize.

Continue “Learn the science of happy”

Good day everyone!

I know a lot has been said regarding perception. Apparently not enough has been said though, because it remains a problem.

Perception in the sense of misinterpretation of intentions and /or perception in the sense of seeing something from the wrong viewpoint.

So many of us listen but do not hear. We listen with what we want to hear or what we think we should be hearing. Then we base feelings and actions on that! Frightening if you thing about it. How many decisions have we based on complete inaccurate information? Best remedy for this is to stop contemplating while someone is talking and to actually listen. Perhaps even add a summative question to show and check that you have understood correctly. Continue “Perception”

A few days back I came across this amazing article written by Merih Büyükcivelek. I found it very interesting as it spoke to me on a very personal level.

It spoke to me because I find being an adult as no joke, Sure it has it’s perks like you can drive yourself to where ever you want to go or buy things you like, right? Wrong, most of the time you are so tired you don’t want to go anywhere or do anything and you probably do not have enough money left at the end of the month, after paying all your ‘adult’ bills, to buy what you want.

I have heard many people talking about how they wish they could go back to the days where their biggest worry was what mom packed for lunch. 

However, the article challenges these thinking pasterns as it highlights how we tell ourselves that our life will be complete when our partner gets his or her act together, how life will be better when we get a nicer car, or when we are able to go on a nice holiday.

We convince ourselves that life will be better after we get married or have a baby.

Then we are frustrated that the kids aren’t old enough, and we’ll be more content when they are older.

After that, we’re frustrated that we have teenagers to deal with. We will certainly be happy when they are out of that stage.

Continue “The article that made me think”

Working in the field that I do I get confronted with grief quite often and even though I have received training on how to work with grieving individuals, there is simply no book or theory or even words that can simply take that pain away.

We all have met and supported a grieving individual. We ourselves might have gone through this painful process. However, we still do not always know what to do or say, words fail us most of the time and in the process of “helping” we may even cause more confusion and pain.

So today I would like to share a piece with you that gave me new insight into what to say and do to support someone dealing with a loss.

“I’m listening to a man tell a story. A woman he knows was in a devastating car accident, and now she lives in a state of near-permanent pain; a paraplegic, many of her hopes stolen.

I’ve heard it a million times before, but it never stops shocking me: He tells her that he thinks the tragedy had led to positive changes in her life. He utters the words that are nothing less than emotional, spiritual, and psychological violence:

“Everything happens for a reason.”
He tells her that this was something that had to happen in order for her to grow. But that’s the kind of bull that destroys lives. And it’s categorically untrue.

Continue “Things don’t always happen for a reason, the words merely sting.”

Every year on the first of January we make New Year’s resolutions – how we are going to do things differently in the New Year. Some would like to travel more, while others promise to visit family regularly.
But the most common resolution is to get fit and join a gym. On the second of January, we sign a contract and on the third we’re on the treadmill. But often, that resolution doesn’t even last till the end of the month!
I would say the reason for this is because we jump into a contract and it all sounds good, but I’ve seen that people don’t plan on how and when they will be able to get to the gym. Some are even keen to start at six o’clock in the mornings, but did not take into account that their job might require working late, going to bed tired at twelve in the evenings and having to wake up at five to be at the gym at six. Five hours sleep each day of the week is not healthy for anyone because sleep is very important. Continue “New Year’s resolutions”