5 pieces of garbage you should throw out of your life

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I found this using Flipboard, it’s a really great app for finding things you are interested in. 

-Blessed be-

Depression and Eating Disorders: Mental Health and Your Weight

Depression affects every part of our life,

unfortunately even our weight. Hopefully, this article can get you on the right track.

I know for me, if I put on a few extra pounds, it becomes like a landslide. I step on the scale one morning and I am up 5 pounds, I get depressed about my gain and then I go and stuff my face. Repeat. But, that’s not all. There was a study done in the Netherlands that showed a scary link with obesity and depression. Obesity increases the risk of depression by 55%, and depression increases the risk for obesity by 58%! Wow.

The Relationship Between Depression and Eating Disorders

There are two eating disorders that are commonly tied to depression. These things are not your fault, and you should never beat yourself up if you have any of these disorders. Get help, talk to someone you know, message me if you like! I have suffered both disorders I am about to list, and would never turn down someone that needs a little bit of guidance and reassurance, or even just a friend.

Bulimia Nervosa –
Bulimia is when you either binge, then make yourself throw up, or you throw up after every time you eat, regardless of how much you have consumed. At least 50% of those diagnosed with bulimia have been also diagnosed with major depression. So, treating depression may help your recover from bulimia.

Note: Anorexia nervosa, on the other hand, is much less likely to be tied to depression.

Binge-eating Disorder-
Binge-eating is classified by the over consumption of food. This was and still sometimes is my biggest culprit. I will be wildly depressed over my weight, I will beat myself up all day and once I get shaky and sick from the lack of food, I will eat, and eat, and eat. One person shouldn’t be able to put away a large pizza, 3 or 4 pieces of cake and a bag of chips in one sitting. This is a real disorder and takes just as much effort to recover from as any other eating disorder.

A Tip for Weight Management
Those with depression tend to feel overwhelmed easily, so making sure that you move slowly with any change is key to sticking with it. I cut soda out for a week, then two, and eventually I stopped drinking it all together. After that, I increased the number of fruits and veggies I was eating, slowly over time. These little things can make a huge difference, with both your weight and your depression!

I know this wasn’t one of my more lengthy posts, but it is definitely something I wanted to touch base on. If you’d like to see more posts like this please let me know in the comments!

-Blessed be-

4 Great Ways to Overcome Anxiety

Before I tell you my tips for overcoming anxiety,

 

I must tell you, these by no means work all of the time. Sometimes, it’s so bad that you can’t make yourself follow these tips. I have days all of the time, where I can’t push past it, and I will have zero motivation to fix it, or I will be so caught up in an attack, that I am not thinking clearly enough to remember. The truth of the matter is, we are human. But, with a lot of practice and determination, one day I believe we can all overcome anxiety.

It seems like forever since I first recognized my illnesses. I am someone who is, when at my best, happy and full of joy and wonder. Honestly, sometimes maybe a little too much. BPD causes people to have much deeper and more intense emotions, so this is probably why. Because of BPD when anxiety hit… I was thrown to the ground. My whole world was devastated. Of course, I was a young teen, so my parents chalked it up to being ‘just hormones’ and ‘normal teen stuff’. This didn’t do me any good. How was I supposed to make them understand an illness that I didn’t even understand? Words like ‘dread’ ‘self-hate’ ‘suicide’ and ‘cutting’ where to strong of words. Even though I was terrified of how I was feeling, I couldn’t make my parents have the same fear.

All I wanted was to be hidden away at home so that no one could see who I was turning into. Yet, at the same time, I was so hurt that no one wanted to be around me. I went from a crazy eccentric girl that was, even though an introvert, usually the life of the party, to well…me.

I’ve lived with this, as one of my many issues, for over 11 years. Let that number sink in, because I’m not even 23 yet. Recently, I have been looking up ways to overcome all of my mental health problems separately. Here is what I found, when researching the process of overcoming anxiety:

1. Try to realize that anxiety is all in your head

It sounds simple to most, but for those that are living with anxiety, it can be damn near impossible to take control of your mind when the time strikes.

Anxiety can be a monster. If you ignore your inner voice when it is telling you something is wrong, that you need to take care of yourself. It will start to use physical symptoms to get your attention.

It is scary when you cannot breathe, or when you feel like you are going to be sick. But you must remember, this is your mind playing tricks on you. No matter how real it feels.

My heart races. Or at least that’s what I think it’s doing. I keep my Fitbit on my wrist at all times, so as soon as I think my heart is racing, I just take a quick look down and see that my heart is beating a relatively normal pace. And that once again, it’s only in my head. Another instance was I thought I was poisoned. I got really paranoid and actually thought someone poisoned me. I was weak, dizzy, puking, I thought my heart would be in the 200s. I couldn’t even control where my eyes were going. This is a good example of one of those times that I was so bad off, I didn’t even realize it was anxiety until TWO DAYS later.

So just remember, next time you are hit with an attack, just close your eyes and remind yourself, “I am okay. This is just a trick. I AM OKAY.”
2. Ask yourself what the message is and embrace it

Anxiety is your inner consciousness, telling you that you are hurting. So you need to embrace it and listen to what it has to say. This might seem daunting, but when you are panicking during an attack, it’s only fuel for the fire. Embrace it with love and show it that you are there to listen and begin to understand. Your anxiety is trying to teach you how to take care of yourself. Giving you a message that can teach you a better way of thinking, if you give it a shot.

So when the anxiety attacks start, replace your thoughts of “This can’t be happening to me,” with, “What is it that upsets me? What is the message I am trying to tell myself?”

3. Take time for yourself

Now that you know what anxiety is, you need to start taking action. This means spending time on yourself, by yourself, for yourself. Meditation is an excellent tool when it comes to fighting many mental illnesses. There are plenty of videos and apps out there that can help you zone out of the world and into your own soul.

You don’t have to clear your mind, you don’t need to be perfect when you meditate. Just breath, deeply and fully, then let your mind wonder. Guided imagery can be great, but I found it easiest to just start out with getting to know what’s in my own head, before adding in outside forces.

4. Force yourself out there

One of the hardest things for me with anxiety is interaction with others.
Even good friends.
I always feel judged and disconnected. This is why I started wanting to be alone. I was afraid to face these issues, and it only made my anxiety stronger.

If anxiety is new for you, it’s okay to avoid others for a little while, to really focus on yourself, but not the point of ruining relationships. And if you are an anxiety veteran, you need to push yourself harder than ever before. The longer you are secluded, the harder it will be to come back to the world of the living.

If you are finding to very difficult to leave your home, take baby steps. Visit family at their house, or maybe at a quite place in public. Keep doing this and prove to yourself that it is okay, and before you know it, you’ll start to enjoy going out more and more.

Additional tip:
A great way to refocus your anxiety attacks is by sipping on a drink or sucking on some candy!

Now you know what anxiety is and what you can do to overcome it, you are well on your way. Remember that you aren’t alone, there are many people out there dealing with anxiety too.

I hope that you were able to take away something to help you on your journey. Don’t forget, you are not alone, and I am here for you!

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-Blessed be-