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Hey Yall -
Last year around this time I had a bit of a breakdown. This year is even more stressful, so I& #39;m taking some precautions to try and prevent that from happening again. I want to share some of those things here at the very least to encourage others to prep
Last year around this time I had a bit of a breakdown. This year is even more stressful, so I& #39;m taking some precautions to try and prevent that from happening again. I want to share some of those things here at the very least to encourage others to prep
I am by NO means a therapist or an expert. I& #39;m just a dude with depression and anxiety. So I& #39;m not giving you a list of things to do, but more a list of shit that I& #39;m doing. You should make your own list.
1) I& #39;m increasing my therapy visits. Usually do every other week but I& #39;m moving to weekly. Honestly, at the moment that may feel like overkill, but it& #39;s good to have that in practice before things go wrong.
2) I& #39;ve got several "happy lights" at my desk. These are certainly not a silver bullet, but in a place like Michigan (it is grey outside from now until late march) it helps you feel somewhat normal.
3) I got out of frequent exercise practice during the summer (in part because of how often I was able to be outside moving around). I& #39;m restarting a low stakes exercise schedule to make sure I& #39;m scheduled to move around a lil bit daily and more strenuous a few times per week.
4) Cutting down my workload. Work is infinite. I work very hard. It& #39;s fine for me to scale back a little bit to rest up a bit. That means pretty firm start and stop times daily and no work on weekends.
5) Cutting down on caffeine. I LOVE coffee. Sometimes the only thing getting me out of bed. But it& #39;s also pretty clear it doesn& #39;t help with overall anxiety and depression. Cap at 2 cups a day.
6) Buying lots of microwave/quick meals. I love cooking, but the things I cook take time and when i& #39;m down I often don& #39;t eat because I don& #39;t want to spend the time cooking. Nice to be able to just nuke a trader joes meal and eat that
7) I have a text loop of supportive folk that I check in with daily (like there& #39;s concern if I don& #39;t check in). That way I don& #39;t go very long spiraling alone if I spiral.
8) No phone in the bedroom. No doomscrolling at night.
9) Beefing up some of my hobbies. Writing more jokes, committing to more open mics, starting and hosting a trivia series, screenprinting. Things that I like doing that are fun and semi-public.
and 10) continuing to be open about how I& #39;m feeling. Important both to break down barriers about discussions of mental health and to help me process.
That& #39;s it. Go make your own list of 10 things. Do it before the time changes!
