To help cope with my mental disorders/physical problems

I made this on my own and with the help of Ari from Trevorchat (Just on the sheer chance that you see this - Thank you so much for helping me through that time, I really appreciate it <3)

If you find that these coping mechanisms can help you, please feel free to use them! <3

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If anything goes particularly bad or a spur of the moment feeling comes on:

• Drawing
• Dancing
• Singing
• Listen to music
• Take a calming shower
• Reach out to people for support and guidance

If I feel the urge to self harm:

• Read the helpguide
• Use the calmharm app
• Reach out to people for support and guidance

General stuff (Anxiety, depressive rut, etc):

• Grounding
  • Breathe deeply in through your nose and out through your mouth
  • Slowly look around and find
    • 5 things you can see
    • 4 things you can touch
    • 3 things you can hear
    • 2 things you can smell (Or 2 smells you like)
    • 1 emotion you feel
• Breathe along to this gif
• Sleep it off

Unable to sleep:

• Well first of all get your clonidine if it's bedtime, Domi.
• Asmr/binaural beats for sleep

Dissociation/detached

• Make lists
  • Try adding small easy to-do things. Be proud of whatever you accomplish.
• Cat and dog videos are bound to help
• Get some fresh air, try and go exploring wherever you can.
• Spend some time listening to music that lifts up your mood
• Try and make some time to read that book you've been wanting to read for ages.
• Have a go at writing in a journal and see if it helps you feel better
• Remember, you will feel like yourself again soon. This is only temporary. :)

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10 tips on how to work through feelings of social isolation

• Stop comparing your life to the lives of others. Absolutely everything you “know” about others is based on assumptions of a partial picture. We can never really know what goes on inside the mind and heart of another person, because what we show to the world is an edited version of ourselves. You know how it is: we put on happy faces and rarely talk about our pain even with those who are closest to us; therefore, what we see of others is really an incomplete picture. Comparing the complete picture of your life (which, of course, only you see and experience every day) to the incomplete picture of another person’s life is futile and stupid. Remember, just because you see a group of people laughing while hanging out together at a bar doesn’t mean they are all having a good time. Just because you see a couple locked in a loving embrace doesn’t mean they don’t fight beyond closed doors. You cannot and should not judge the quality of your life based on what you see of the lives of your friends or stories you hear in the media.
• Speaking of media, be conscious of what media you consume and how it affects your beliefs and feelings about your life. All media stories are witnessed, sifted, filtered, crafted and edited. Media stories are also partial pictures created to evoke a certain feeling or prove a specific point. By media stories, I’m not just talking about traditional television programs or movies, but I am also talking about “reality” television, blog posts and even Facebook pages. Things that appear in these formats are always edited to show a desired slant, even casual snapshots or off-the-cuff status updates.
• Allow yourself to feel your feelings of loneliness. It is OK to feel lonely. Loneliness is not unique to you, nor is it proof that you are weird or a social outcast. Loneliness is a natural part of the human condition. When you feel loneliness, know that you are not alone. Hopefully, this will help you feel less lonely.
• Find something you love to do and find a group of people who also love that thing and do it together on a regular basis. It really is that simple.
• Be patient. Friendships and strong, fulfilling bonds take time to develop.
• Volunteer to help people who have less than you do. Not only does helping people increase your opportunities to have meaningful social interactions, it also helps you to put your suffering into perspective.
• Transform negative thoughts with gratitude. If you keep telling yourself things like, “I am weird. I have no friends. I am alone. Everybody rejects me,” then your life will form to these thoughts, and you will create a socially isolated reality for yourself. You will look around and see only the things that reinforce your negative worldview. You will dwell on the person who ignores you, while completely missing the three other people who smiled at you. Instead of allowing your negative thoughts to become you, be grateful for all that you do have and put your focus there.
• Remember, emotions are like weather patterns passing through your mind. Just because you are lonely today, does not mean that you will be lonely tomorrow. Your future only resembles your past if you allow it to do so.
• Work through feelings of jealousy, hate and rage productively with a counselor, meditation, yoga or genuine prayer. If you find that you are unsuccessful in reducing your feelings of social isolation on your own, seeking help from a mental health professional, a spiritual teacher or life coach can help you make the life changes you crave. Do not let continued anger fester and get out of control.
• Get out and start interacting with people. Surfing the web, reading blogs or sending email is not interacting with a person; is not face to face interaction. They can be great building block for social relationship, however humans are social beings and need face to face interaction with people. If you feel socially isolated, more face-to-face interactions with other human beings can help.

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21 tips to keep your shit together when depressed

• Know that you’re not alone. Know that we are a silent legion, who, every day face the solipsism and judgment of Happy People Who Think We Just Aren’t Trying. There are people who are depressed, people who have been depressed, and people who just haven’t been hit with it yet.
• Understand that the Happy People are usually acting out of some genuine (albeit misguided) concern for you, that it’s coming from a good place, even if the advice feels like you’re being blamed for your disease. Telling you these things makes them feel better, even if it makes you feel like shit. (If they insist on keeping it up, see #12.)
• Enlist the help of a professional. See your doctor. You need to talk about the ugly shit, and there are people paid to listen and help you find your way to the light at the end of the tunnel.
• Understand that antidepressants will only do so much. They’re useful, they’ll level you out and give you the time you need to figure out your own path to getting well. They can be helpful. There are lots to choose from. They may not be for you, and even if they are, they take some time to kick in. Conversely, they may not be for you. Work with your doctor.
• Pick up a paintbrush, a pencil, an activity you got joy from in the past and re-explore that. Or, sign up for the thing you always wanted to try. There is a long history and link between depression and creativity. It’s a bright light of this condition, so utilize it to your best advantage.
• Eat nutritionally sound, regular small meals. If you’re having trouble eating, try to focus on what you’d like to eat. I went through a whole six week episode of tomatoes and cream cheese on a bagel twice a day. Not great, but it was something – helpful context, I’m a recovered anorexic. Conversely, if all you want to do is scarf down crap, try to off-ramp it by downing a V-8 and doing #9 for 15 minutes, and see how you feel. Chucking your blood sugar all over hell’s half acre is going to make you feel worse.
• While you’re doing #3, get some bloodwork done. If you’re low on iron or vitamin D, or if your hormone levels are doing the Macarena… these can all contribute to zapping your energy or switching your mood to Bleak As Hell.
• If you’re in bed and the “insomnia hamsters”, as I like to call them, are on the wheel of your head, watch Nightly Business News on PBS. This has the effect of Nyquil. Swap out your coffee for herbal tea. If you just cannot sleep, try the next tip….
• Learn how to meditate. Start by focusing on your breathing. Not sleep, not thoughts. In through the nose, out through the mouth. Meditation is focusing on being present in your body, not careening around in your brain. It may not be as good as sleep but it will give you some rest and recharge you.
• Face a window as often as you can – at work, at home. Look out into the world. Watch. Observe. Try to find something you find pretty or interesting to focus on. And, handily remember that one in five of those people out there feel the way you do.
• Cry. Better out than in. Sometimes it’s not convenient or career-enhancing to cry, so find a private place as best you can and let the tears go. Carry Kleenex and face wipes and extra concealer if you wear makeup. You can always claim allergies.
• Any “friend” who resolutely believes that your depression is because you’re lazy, because you’re not trying hard enough, who blames you for not bootstrapping out of it- that friend needs to be cut off. Polite (#2) is one thing, but there is a limit. You don’t have to explain, you can just not respond. You feel badly enough, you don’t need their “assistance”.
• Limit your time with people who drain you. You know who they are. Often you don’t have a choice- but you can put the meter on. And, subsequently, be aware of what you’re asking of those close to you.
• Everyone has shit they’ve got to deal with. What you have been saddled with is your shit. Recognize, just as you’re not alone, you’re also not unique. The grass may look greener, you may be jealous or envious of others who don’t have to deal with depression, but you likely do not know everything that’s going on with them.
• Let go or be dragged. This is an old Buddhist saying. It’s a very useful way to frame aspects of depression. Betrayal, anger, fear… letting go is a process – often a painful and difficult process - but it’s ultimately going to show you the path out of this terrible place. Repeating the mantra can help when you’re feeling gripped by these feelings.
• Wear clothes that make you feel confident. It takes as much time to put on nice clothes as it does to put on sweatpants. You will want to wear the sweatpants. Fight the urge. The whole “look good/feel better” campaign isn’t limited to cancer and chemotherapy. Or women.
• Avoid fictional drama and tragedy like the plague. No Grey’s Anatomy, no to The Notebook, or anything that won a Pulitzer prize. You’ve got enough going on In Real Life. Comedy only. Or trashy stuff. Old episodes of WonderWoman? I’ve got the box set. Mindless drivel, like the latest CGI blockbuster. Or clever, funny books. David Sedaris. Jenny Lawson. Fiction exists to elicit emotion, and the emotion you need to express most right now is laughter.
• Simple exercise, if you can. It can be something as simple as taking the stairs up a flight or walking around the block. It doesn’t have to be elaborate, it doesn’t have to involve climbing a mountain or running a marathon. Baby steps.
• Depression will lie to you. Depression will try to tell you what others are thinking. That you are unloved and unworthy, that others think little of you or don’t care – or even wish you harm. You are not a psychic. Keep repeating that. “I am not a psychic”. Repeat. The only way to know what another person is thinking is to up and ask them.
• If you are well and truly losing this battle, reach out to someone. I’ve been the random friendly-but-not-close person who has fielded the occasional outreach. I like to think I’m not judgemental and generally resourceful, and others have thought the same, so they called and asked. You know someone like me. And they will help you.
• Forgive yourself. I’m writing out all these tips, and I can’t always muster the strength to even stick my nose outside, or walk up the stairs, or eat my vegetables. Today, I got outside for ten minutes. I will try again tomorrow. And I will try again the day after that.