Mental Health Survival Strategies
Firenze
Shipmate, Host Emeritus
in All Saints
The Way Things Are Going I feel a need to realign my customary way of living.
At the moment I tend to spend a lot of time sitting about, iPad on lap, looking at news and playing games for the most part. Even more so these past weeks as I've been weak and unwell. Housework and cooking have been at minimal levels, social life/going out non-existent.
Things that might help:
- become an electronic hermit as far as news sites are concerned
- Do some other activity first thing (I tend to wake/rise very early) rather than glom on to the internet
- Paint. Every day.
- Read.
- Do one domestic chore over and above the bare maintenance
- Improve eating - more fresh, more original.
- Go into the garden - there's always something to do even in winter. Or even just sit and look at nature.
I'd like to add finding some social activity/class, but previous attempts have not been too successful and of course I have Mr F to consider.
What are other people's moorings to sanity?
At the moment I tend to spend a lot of time sitting about, iPad on lap, looking at news and playing games for the most part. Even more so these past weeks as I've been weak and unwell. Housework and cooking have been at minimal levels, social life/going out non-existent.
Things that might help:
- become an electronic hermit as far as news sites are concerned
- Do some other activity first thing (I tend to wake/rise very early) rather than glom on to the internet
- Paint. Every day.
- Read.
- Do one domestic chore over and above the bare maintenance
- Improve eating - more fresh, more original.
- Go into the garden - there's always something to do even in winter. Or even just sit and look at nature.
I'd like to add finding some social activity/class, but previous attempts have not been too successful and of course I have Mr F to consider.
What are other people's moorings to sanity?
Comments
- I ditched Facebook. I know it can be a lifeline for many, but I wasted hours scrolling and became obsessive about posting. Not a good match for my personality. I've found I've got very obsessive since returning here. I need to be careful.
- People speak highly about working in gardens. I did enjoy my time in a bush regeneration project.
- I found walking a lifeline for me. I love nature and being there refreshes me like little else.
- Returning to church. This is very hard but it does help me. Please note I am not judging anyone who does not go -- this is for me. The texts of the services speak to me and the services are pretty much my only regular connection with God currently.
- Groups are helpful too -- but as you write it can be difficult to find a good match.
- Volunteering: I have 0 practical skills but can speak some level of English which I've used in volunteer roles with non-native speakers. It gets me out of my head and helps me feel part of something, where I engage with others (I'm a loner by nature).
My best wishes to all looking for moorings to sanity: a great phrase.
This morning I’m cycling through this, this, this and this.
Yes, there’s a theme there.
I’m typically a political news junkie, but I’ll be taking a break from that for awhile.
I've been vibing my way through retirement up to this point, but I think for the next little while at least I'm going to need some kind of schedule or routine so I don't loll in bed with coffee just doomscrolling every morning like I am now.
I've been listening to a lot of Jason Isbell music lately - will keep doing that.
What I really ought to do is walk a bit more. As long as the weather's fine, I enjoy my amble to the office and back, as the High Street is a nice place to be, but I've got a beautiful loch practically on my doorstep, and I ought to go and appreciate it more than I do. I realise this is about mental well-being, but I imagine that one might stem from the other.
My sleep has been poor so the last two nights I took a prescribed medication to see if I could notice any difference and my mood is definitely influenced by sleep.
To sleep I use podcasts - has to be uninteresting drivel, no music. My sleep is excellent. It would be rubbish without the podcasts, my brain is overactive. 🙂
Keeping away from news - apart from the headlines - is also helpful.
I play a little trad now and again on the saxophone - I think I like it as it is so entirely unfashionable (and one or two tunes are really stuck in my head - it doesn't get much better than 'All of me' for me). And there are some interesting trad-adjacent dramas to consider - 'Ed Riordan's Week' and (going much further back) 'The Beiderbecke Affair' both come to mind.
When I had my last mental health crisis (February 2022, the invasion of Ukraine collided with my post-lockdown low grade depression and an unusually bad seasonal depression and resulted in an extreme combination of depression and anxiety that lasted 4 months) I switched off the news and websites and had a break from any tense social media. I read cartoon books if I felt anxious (Calvin and Hobbes) and only engaged with happy viewing and discussion. I did a lot of meditation, including focussed courses on subjects such as sleep on the Calm App. This improved my troubled sleeping, as did the use of external ear plugs!
I find daily meditation helpful with the Calm app, especially when anxious. I have a great weekly yoga class but I am not disciplined enough to do this daily. I go for a daily morning walk for a mile or two to clear my head and psychologically prepare for the day, whether I am working or not. Getting outside is good for re-focusing my manic mind, as well as physically beneficial, and gardening is helpful as well. I’m also very good at saying no, whether at work or church or with friends.
I’ll admit to some tears while singing.
When we were done, the decision was made to scrap the planned postlude on Sunday and sing this instead.
So how's it going?
- definitely hermitting: local/national news only and not too much of that.
- Total fail
- Sometimes. Interrupted by ill health and not really back.
- A lot more reading
- Nope. In fact employing someone to do the above and beyond.
- Certainly buying more cookbooks - Chinese! Caribbean!
- What, in this weather?
But in all the more need because of further looming health problem for Mr F.
Praying!
So beautiful and moving, I meant to post before. Thank you, @Nick Tamen
❤️❤️❤️
Look to the left for thirty seconds, then to the right. Repeat until you feel calm.
It helps - moving your focus to peripheral vision helps stimulate the vagus nerve and takes you out of 'fight or flight' panic mode.
However, when one worry subsides, plenty to take its place. Horrible, scary dreams the last few nights.
I've realised, late as I do, I'm nothing if not dense, I'm on my hyper cycle of my bipolar. Money in short supply being spent, 2 to 3 hours of sleep most nights (waking alert and on the go from 6am to 8pm, 11:30pm one day!), thoughts a go...
Odd I can manage the depression side better than the mania. Anyone similar?
I’m normally fairly hypomanic and it’s very easy to not notice the slide into mania as it can be enjoyable. At least until it starts to spiral out of control and the insomnia becomes overwhelming.
Sorry to read of the major depression episode. I pray you are well, or doing okay at least, now.
I’m in the UK and January is not usually a good month for me but I have found Vitamin D improves my winter depression and makes it more manageable. I’m trying to be patient waiting for spring.
This morning I delivered a workshop on looking after your mental health for some professional doctorate students and one of things I said helped for me was reminding myself that my moods will pass and they are not permanent. I do what I can, when I can.
I read an interesting article on happiness and mental health today https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/c5ye6d43rqwo
I'm happy you've been able to manage work commitments and get help through dark/cold winters. God bless your work on workshops; may it be a blessing to the attendees: and you.
When I was coming home from work today just after 5 o'clock, it was decidedly un-dark, and there was the remains of what I imagine would have been a jolly good sunset.
Spring may not be quite round the corner, but it's definitely just a few streets away ...
ETA: my apologies to Climacus and other southern-hemisphere Shippies who are just coming into autumn.