• Is Music Helping You Get Through?

    ByMikeM Reading Time: 2 minutes

    Speaking, again, for myself, when I get frustrated with world events, work, or whatever might be irritating me beyond belief at the moment, a good bit of loud music can help me express that and just get it out of my system so that I can then continue on with my life. I find myself getting more and more irritable if I haven’t found a way to express the frustration that I may be feeling at any particular time until it eventually shows up in maybe ways I would rather it doesn’t. So, when I find myself getting more and more frustrated, out come the headphones, and a little punk rock, until I feel better. 

    And, really, there is a lot to be frustrated about in the world right now, let alone our individual lives. If some loud music helps me deal with that, so be it. So, let’s at least fill our lives with some music. It certainly can’t hurt. 

    What impact does music have on your own emotional well-being? Have you thought about the role it could play in self-care?

  • Sharing – 5 Amazing Benefits of Blogging about Mental Health

    ByMikeM Reading Time: 2 minutes

    I’ve had people refer to me as someone who is surprisingly self-aware. I don’t really think of myself that way, but what I do know is that reading and writing about mental health topics, as well as my own experience in therapy, provides me with constant reminders about the importance of mental health, and how that information either resonates with me, or doesn’t, and why.

    I don’t think our current culture really encourages that kind of behavior. We are encouraged to be busy, productive, constantly hustling and then showing it off on social media. Self-reflection? Ha! No time for that.

    But there should be time for that. Without knowing ourselves, how can we even start to care for our own mental health?

  • Sharing – Conspiracy theories are a mental health crisis

    ByMikeM Reading Time: 4 minutes

    As a society, we have, rightfully, tried to move away from doing those things, but we haven’t really gotten better at helping people build resiliency. Is it any wonder that we had an epidemic of anxiety, even before COVID-19? We’ve kind of left people with an uncertain world, in which anything can just randomly happen to anyone, while leaving intact our belief systems that teach us that the world is fair.

    It’s not. It’s not even close, and yes part of the reason it isn’t fair is that there are bad people in power doing bad things, but even if we could rid ourselves of that as much as possible, (and we should), the world would still be a random place where random things happen, for no good reason.

    There would still be natural disasters, accidents, and yes, even abuse and crime. There would still be people with disabilities, mental and psychical, and there would still be victims. Because we’re human, and being human is kind of messy and random.

    That’s not going anywhere. The challenge is to find the resiliency to live our lives anyway. This is where we’ve failed too many people, and where we have failed ourselves, finding comfort in false “explanations” instead of facing the hard truths.

  • Sharing – How To Support Your Depressed Friend When You’re Depressed Too

    ByMikeM Reading Time: 2 minutes

    As you know, I’ve been quick to share links and even write about what your depressed friends need, and how to help people struggling with their own mental health. What I’ve come to realize more and more is that I am also struggling, and failing at being a very good friend for many of these same reasons. I’m burned out, I’m tired, I have little mental energy beyond just getting through each workday, and taking care of myself, for reaching out, chatting, or virtually meeting up with people.

    In short, I am experiencing exactly what Annie is talking about. I want to reach out and be supportive to my friends, but I haven’t recognized my own struggles. No, I don’t believe I am depressed in a major way, but I’m definitely suffering from anxiety, stress, and it’s exhausting me.

    That makes it hard to be the supportive one in any relationship, even though I want to be.

    To combat that, I’m going to be reviewing this article a few times, and thinking about how I might still be supportive, and how maybe people in my life be supportive of each other.

  • Sharing – New Study: Sleep Is Literally a Deep Clean for Your Brain

    ByMikeM Reading Time: 1 minute

    Having trouble with stress and anxiety? The suggested solutions often require adding even more to our to-do list. Meditate, practice mindfulness, do acts of self-care, etc. But we often forget that maybe the most important act of self-care is getting enough sleep.

    Don’t even get me started on the fitness industry and the number of people who talk about “earning your food/sleep” through exercise. Argh!

    This study would indicate that sleep is not something you want to mess with. Simply getting enough would help us with our mental “junk”. No, it won’t cure depression or eliminate symptoms of bipolar, or any of the other things that some of your friends will, unfortunately, suggest, but it does serve a core function for the healthy functioning of your brain, and that is certainly one place to start making things better, no?

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    Would Everyone Benefit From Having a Therapist?

    ByMikeM Reading Time: 2 minutes

    She goes on to document the appallingly low percentage of people who manage to get therapy, as well as the difference between white patients and minorities. She then goes on to talk about this in the context of the quote above, which I had not considered previously. If finding a therapist is truly like dating, and it is in my experience as well, how do we not only make sure that therapy is available, but that there is more than one to choose from?