Positive coping mechanisms are ways of coping with stressors without making our lives even more stressful or making ourselves feel worse, they in fact, can help us solve our issues and help us to feel better. When it comes to positive coping mechanisms, it's not just about relaxing, meditating or exercising (although they are all … Continue reading Coping Mechanisms – Part 2
Coping Mechanisms – Part 1
We can use either positive or negative coping mechanisms to help us deal with issues, stresses or challenges we face daily and throughout our lives. These coping mechanisms can either help us get through those challenges (positive ways of coping) or they can leave us with the challenges left unresolved and us feeling worse (negative … Continue reading Coping Mechanisms – Part 1
Self-Destruction
I’ve mentioned in previous articles about how the old Emma used to be self-destructive and by this I mean I would purposely make bad choices that I knew would fuck up my life even more but of course that didn’t always stop me. Self-destruction goes hand in hand with many mental illnesses, such as post … Continue reading Self-Destruction
Mental Health May
I’m currently living a life that I didn’t think I deserved or even think I could possibly live but here I fucking am, my mental health has been incredibly important to me for the past couple of years now, managing and maintaining it has helped me to reach this point. I needed to do three … Continue reading Mental Health May
Boundaries
I’m going to skim the surface of a topic I don’t often talk about and that is my previous relationships and everything that goes with it. Boundaries, we create them before, during and after a relationship. The boundaries I have created were formed as a way of protecting myself from either experiencing a hurt/pain that … Continue reading Boundaries
Relapse Prevention
On my last session of CBT, my counsellor and I reviewed everything that we had covered throughout therapy and we created a relapse prevention for me to keep hold of in case I ever needed it after therapy. About mid-way through therapy I was beginning to become fearful of who I was going to turn … Continue reading Relapse Prevention
Self-Criticism
We all face criticism in our lives, whether we are receiving criticism from friends, family or ourselves and the criticism we receive is usually easier for us to believe which can then lead to low self-esteem, negative thoughts/behaviours and mental illnesses. What is self-criticism? Self-criticism is when you refer or point out your own ‘flaws’ … Continue reading Self-Criticism
Self-Esteem
Self-esteem is basically your opinion about yourself. If you have a high self-esteem you will probably think very highly of yourself but if you have a low self-esteem you will probably be very critical and negative about yourself so ideally you want your self-esteem to sit somewhere nicely in the middle of the spectrum. What … Continue reading Self-Esteem
Childhood Traumas
We all know that our childhood plays a big role in our adult lives and what we experience as a child can be carried with us into adulthood, so for a child to experience some sort of trauma, it’s damaging in many ways. I matured a lot quicker than my friends, other people my age … Continue reading Childhood Traumas
Alcohol & Loneliness
Throughout my teenage years and early twenties I struggled a lot with loneliness, it was sometimes worrying for me to be on my own because I’d use self-destructive ways to cope with it. I think the loneliness was linked to my depression as that is what mainly convinced me that I was alone, useless, annoying, … Continue reading Alcohol & Loneliness
