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Finding Self Love in Quarantine
This is a stressful time in the world. It seems that people are ready to snap at the drop of a hat. I’ve found that although we are distant, our reach through social media can start many arguments. During this time, we should be practicing self love. We can’t always influence people’s opinions, even when they’re hurtful. It’s important to distance yourself from negative attitudes. Put effort into your relationship with yourself. It always seems simple, until we start to focus on it. Here are some of my best tips for practicing self love during quarantine… Write Down What You Love About Yourself Before I go to bed and before…
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Confronting Fear and Anxiety
Confronting fear is something I aspire to do well. Currently, fear gets a hold of me all too often. It’s easy to let it in. Then without warning, it sets up camp in your mind and it feels impossible to evict it. Dealing with fear requires practice. There’s never going to be a time that we don’t experience fear. It’s what we do in the face of it that matters. In my life, fear can be a moment by moment experience. In the past, it’s been easy to lose my whole day to fear and anxiety. Now, I take it one step at a time. Some days are more difficult…
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Tips and Tricks for Dealing with OCD
Dealing with OCD is an interesting experience. For most of my life, I was unaware of the fact that my anxiety was obsessive compulsive disorder. Having intrusive thoughts is a normal part of life but for individuals with OCD there’s a hyper focus on them. I can spend literal hours doing mental gymnastics. I repeat phrases to myself and try to ensure my own or others safety. The reality of living with OCD can be somewhat harsh. The only way to truly beat or overcome OCD is to endure. This is a therapy known as Exposure and Response Prevention. The therapy consists of exposing yourself to your fear. Then you…
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Dealing With Endless Possibilities
In life there are so many scenarios that make you scratch your head. It feels like in mine there are new situations that pop up everyday. Right now, life is filled with questions. New diagnoses, new symptoms, and new questions are around every corner. Some of them are hopeful, terrifying or even grim. Dealing with these situations makes me stronger but it doesn’t come easily. Here’s how I deal with endless possibilities…. Hope I don’t care what anyone says, I believe there is always hope. It may not be what you want or what you think you need but there’s a reason it’s happening. Despite two years of continuous and…
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How to Build Your Support Network
Finding support can be a challenge. Depending on your support system and your mental state it can be an uphill battle. Fear not! I am here to tell you my tips in finding a support system. I am lucky. I have a very supportive family and a wonderful network of friends. Finding other individuals having a similar experience was a tough challenge. So I began my search for a bigger support network. Facebook groups and Instagram Social media is an excellent way to find others like you. You may be reading this because of Instagram or Facebook, if so, Welcome! I’m glad you’re here. There are great support groups on…
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A Terrifying Appointment
I’m writing this on Sunday but by the time this is up, the appointment I’m nervous about will have happened. This appointment is with an autonomic neurologist. It’s scary because I’ve had a couple neurologists tell me that my symptoms go far beyond POTs. This appointment is hopefully going to give me an answer about what is going on in my body. To be candid, what the neurologists fear is that I’m in pure autonomic failure. This diagnosis would not be shocking. It’s what I started to fear as my neurological deficits become more intense. It’s the confirmation that I fear. I’m already experiencing symptoms and naming them would create…
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What I Wish I Knew Before Surgery
A week ago, I got my tonsils removed. This was my second surgery, I had my gallbladder removed a year ago. People will warn you about a lot of things when going into surgery. Pain, recovery time, and the inherent risks you take when undergoing a procedure. I always feel like I’m signing my life away, I guess in some ways you are. Accepting the risks of surgery is terrifying to me. It’s terrifying for most people. Even though you sign that scary form and acknowledge that there is a laundry list of risks with fractions of a percent that everything could go horribly wrong, These are the things I…
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Goals for the New Year
Like most people, I have made several goals for the new year. Unlike most people, they’re achievable goals that are actually possible. I do believe in New Year’s resolutions, but I try to make goals for the year that will help me grow in several areas. Personally, mentally, and physically, are the key areas I focus on. Right now, I don’t have a job because of my physical health. That is something I can’t control so I don’t make a goal in that area. Same with school, because it’s on hold and I can’t control the future of that right now, I hold off on setting goals for it. Making…
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Taking Care of My Mental Health
One of the most common questions I get asked is “How are you doing, mentally?” It’s a completely reasonable question. Right now, everything I do revolves around my health. It’s a scary and turbulent time. At twenty, I’ve faced a lot of obstacles. This has caused me to develop different issues along the way. As I’ve said before, I have OCD. This is something I wasn’t aware of until several months ago. As a child, I’d often have intrusive thoughts. Anxiety would develop as a coping mechanism. I always assumed OCD was obsessive cleaning, handwashing, and compulsive behaviors. If I had OCD it would be very noticable. Given, most of…
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I Need Surgery
Anyone with chronic illness can tell you that you’re not immune to normal issues. When I first started to get in shape after getting diagnosed, I took to running pretty fast. This was soon after my physical therapists had taught me how to walk again with a normal gait. I set off with the goal that I was going to run a marathon. My plan was to run a 5k every month for eleven months. Then on the twelve month, exactly a year after my first 5k, I would run a half marathon. After my half marathon, I would take a year to train for a full blown marathon. With…
