Mental Health

What I mean by "safe" are those that you can call when having a crisis that won't respond by calling the police.

Could be a chatline, too.

I feel like we've reached a point where a lot of people, myself included, have learned to distrust some of the typical suicide hotlines, due to past experiences. There's a need for something to fill this gap.

cross-posted from: https://sh.itjust.works/post/2430606

I told chat GPT to give me some prompts to help people with emotional processing/expression, and to get pretty weird/quirky, so some of them are kinda out there. I want that weird, stimulating creativity, but I'd like some help filtering out undesirable content/general bad vibes. Some of them also get a little trite, repetitive, or even just nonsensical, so it helps to filter those out as well.

There's a lot of them, but I told it to shuffle them for every person, so even if you just rate the first five or so it gives you it should help. My end goal is to narrow down to about 1/4 - 1/2 of each, so if you rate however many you do at about an 1/3 bad, 1/3 ok, and 1/3 good, I should eventually get a pretty solid list.

There's so many because I'm thinking about offering a daily challenge of one of each, and I want there to be almost no chance a patient will see the same one twice (I just feel like that would be really disheartening for someone stuck inpatient for a long time).

Feel free to share this around in any creative or mental health circles you run in!

• Writing Prompts
• Drawing Prompts

Basically, whatever you were using done fucked your brain.

Think about what used to make you happy before whatever you were using. Think about it. Did you like Sports? Did you like Music? Did you like writing? ANYTHING. What did you used to love?

I'll bet you can get through withdrawal easy. That's just two days twitching and sweating. Withdrawing is EASY once you've done it enough.

But what're you gonna do after? How are you gonna cope with the next SIX OR MORE MONTHS of ANHEDONIA??? How are you gonna cope with the fact that for months at a time nothing you used to love will bring you joy without the substance you've been abusing?

Let's talk about PAWS, ok?

I don't know what to do with my hands. I'm legitimately so nervous and self conscious when I'm expected to dance. I have a company party coming up and I'm seriously considering taking lessons. How do I get out of my head and enjoy myself?

I recently managed to find a new place to live and it was not an easy task. Even though the move isn't over yet, I felt like I deserve a small celebration.

This is a new line of thinking for me though. Very often when I had accomplished something in life, I didn't feel like celebrating. It felt like it was to be expected and now its accomplished, so why give it another thought?

It feels nice to celebrate my own accomplishments though. I've rewarded myself with a tasty meal at a restaurant and enjoyed it a lot.

How are you celebrating your own accomplishments?

I wrote a small piece on dealing with perfection paralysis. It includes 7 tips to focus on the things to do.

Archive link: http://archive.today/aEx7K

Should probably talk to my psychiatrist so I get a change in my medication. Every time I start many weird projects, feel like I can easily change the world or have invented something that can, need basically no sleep and/or get aggressively political (even religious), I know the drill... At least I'm not paranoid though. Hope the best for you all too <3 Also sorry if I've bothered someone these days, it really wasn't my intention.

cross-posted from: https://lemmy.ml/post/716981

Full report : https://www.toronto.ca/wp-content/uploads/2023/01/8e71-Toronto-Community-Crisis-Service-Jan-2023-Evaluation-Reportaccessible.pdf Relevant Teddit (Reddit) post : https://teddit.net/r/toronto/comments/10epbcg/toronto_community_crisis_services_6_month_report/

Let's not forget that while, I support therapy, I don't support abuse of it (for ableism).

What is a "Safety Plan?"

• It is a plan that YOU create for YOURSELF (and which only needs to be accessible to you.)
• It is a plan that addresses (and hopefully decreases) behaviors that:
  • You don’t like doing or feel bad after doing
  • Decrease your ability to connect with others
• Examples:
  • Self-injurious behaviors
  • Substance abuse
  • Binge-Eating
  • Gambling
• This plan may not continue working if you do not
  • Seek treatment for a known mental-health issue
  • Do not use the activities more often when you are calm than when you are distressed (THINK PAVLOV, a calming activity must continue being associated with a feeling of calm more often than distress to continue calming you).

What does a safety plan include?

• 3x ACTIVITIES to do instead of the behavior that disrupts your life
  • Listen to a specific song that calms you
  • Take a hot bath
  • Do a craft you love
  • Do a sensory activity you love like playing with clay or paint
  • Play with a pet that loves you
• 3x PEOPLE to contact who will always pick up the phone for you (as many backups as possible to avoid strain on any one person)
  • A partner?
  • A close friend?
  • Family?
  • A mentor?
  • Another associate from your socio-cultural or religious background?
• 3x Public SERVICES to Access in Case of Emergency
  • Your specific mental health provider such as a therapist, psychologist, or psychiatrist
  • Local Mental Health Board
  • Local Service for a specialty or minority background such as LGBTQ, POC, or Veteran.
  • National Mental health hotlines
  • National Specialty hotlines for the LGBTQ, POC, or veterans.
• OPTIONAL for people whose home is not a safe place, where can you GO to feel safe?
  • The library
  • A public commons like a statue or fountain
  • A national or state park area
  • A church or other charitable organization’s property
  • A friend or acquaintance’s property

If you DO come in contact with the involuntary mental health system, can you answer these questions? (You likely can't create these answers ahead of time so just write them out and leave blank spots for them)

• What behavior OF MINE did the mental health system concern themselves with? They usually worry about
  • Real or perceived threats to self
  • Real or perceived threats to others
  • PROFOUND inability to provide for one’s own safety (think naked in below-freezing temperatures or wandering into interstate traffic)
• What part of that behavior did I MYSELF have control over?
• What will I PERSONALLY do to prevent this problem behavior from occurring in the future?
  • Did I have a previous safety plan either formally or informally?
  • What safety plan could I develop to address this specific behavior?
  • How could I modify my safety plan to address this specific behavior?

Examples of places to keep a safety plan:

• fridge
• wallet
• phone home screen

HELP! THERE'S A THING I DON'T HAVE 3 OPTIONS FOR!

• Well I reckon you know where to focus your recovery now, don't you? Start with the first listed option you don't have enough items for and find some things/people.

cross-posted from: https://lemmygrad.ml/post/322331

Hey comrades, I hope this doesn't break the rules but I needed someplace to rant to sane people. I know how well threads like this go over on R*ddit. Due to some hefty psychological abuse during my childhood, I suffer from bad social anxiety. Until very recently I couldn't even talk to strangers via phone, Discord, or Email.

It took me so long to realize that I needed help and even longer to gather the strength to seek it that I am 25 now and only started getting better slowly. I just feel like it took me too long and now recovering is meaningless. I never went to any parties or clubs because I couldn't and I also didn't have romantic connections.

The thought of asking someone out terrifies me. I am completely clueless in dating matters and overcoming this seems like an impossible roadblock. It feels like I am already too old to have no clue about relationships and I will be definitely too old once I get over my fear of approaching someone. I don't want to be alone forever. I don't want to become some weird incel creep but I also feel like I already crossed the point of no return. And yet I feel silly for worrying about this. I know a lot of you have far greater problems in life. Me complaining about having social anxiety and being single just shows how good my life is if this is truly my biggest problem but I still can't shake it.

Sorry that this rant is so uncoherent and leading to nothing I just had to get this out in an environment that is actually supporting and understanding.

Edit: thanks everyone for the kind words. I was shedding some tears while going through your replies. I was that deeply touched. I count myself once again lucky to belong to such a kind and caring community (can't believe libs call US red red fascists) and I now feel much better about myself. I feared I was alone in my fight, and even though I haven't met a single one of you in real life, I now know I am not. I will get around to answering everyone of you but it might take me a day or two.

CW desire to be dead!

Recently, there was another one of those tweets that was truly not intended in the direction I gave it in my mind: The right-winger is outraged that, according to a media report, not even 50 percent of young people in Germany would be willing to defend their country in times of need and threat. Response of the Left: What am I supposed to defend, please? What difference does it make to me whether I pay my rent to the German conglomerate or to the Russian oligarch?

And here I was very quickly at my reflections on the society with which I actually do not want to share a planet, a life. When I read articles for outsiders about 'what’s going on inside of a depressive head', I often read that these people like me generally do not want to stop living - they just don't want to live in their current situation anymore. Yes, to the end it is true somewhere: In a society in which we work together to save the climate, compete on how we can put an end to hunger and bad working conditions once and for all, and help to ensure that those who come after us will have a better, simply a good life, less work, no more harm to animals and weakened people – yes – in this utopia, and occasionally in some novels, there is this community that I recognize is worth defending.

Back to the here and now? Homo homini lupus. Our finance minister has just called for more overtime at work to save 'our' 'prosperity' in this dire situation. Our head of state is philosophizing about introducing a 'service year' for young people to give something back to 'our' society in life. The majority of the over-aged society is enthusiastic and I don't understand why this duty doesn't exist rather for last-, than for first-time voters. Marriages, family homes and whether to live with 1, 2 or 3 children in the future? All these worries are passé for last voters - I think if, then 68 would be a good age to 'give something back to society'.

The psychologist is so fond of asking why I didn't seek support sooner with my 'negative thoughts'. I gladly provide many explanations, but none of them satisfies either of us. The less we beat around the bush, the less my answers satisfy him.

And the further I spin this thought today, the more likely I am to come out with more questions that others have in a different context: What am I supposed to defend here, please? What fight am I supposed to be fighting? My doubt about existence is not based on the longing to escape a situation I’m in, but to escape human society as a whole. Staying to do others a favor by doing so? Working so as not to let the overall work of society collapse? The psychologist may not be able to hear me moaning anymore - others have real problems, I agree with him – I just can't see our, the human society anymore. And there I really do not see how he, how anyone could help.

Our goverment is currently thinking about how they can make it more difficult for people who want to pass away, to ‚easily‘ pass away. A misunderstanding, for my part. I don't want to run away from something, I just don't see any reason at all far and wide as my horizon goes, to stay.

Read the text here: https://write.as/peace-labor-may/militant-altruism

Read the text here: https://write.as/peace-labor-may/everything-changes-constantly-continuously-nothing-is-ever-the-same

I just wanted to share the book, which finally set me on the way to recovery, after an year and a half of suffering from anxiety, panic attacks and depression.

Btw, if anyone needs my advice on these conditions, write back, I'm willing to help!

A little reminder for you, comrades.