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Ways to Break Out of a Cycle of Dependence or Addiction
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If you’ve started to notice that there are certain things or substances you turn to when you feel down or stressed, you could be starting to develop a dependence. And many dependences become addictions. So if you’re in that cycle right now, you need to think about how you can break out of it for the sake of your own general health and wellbeing. Here are some steps that should help you with starting to do that.
Be Honest About the Situation
First of all, you need to be able to face up to what you’re experiencing, even if that might be difficult. No one likes to admit that they’re experience dependence because too many people still see it as a form of weakness. Instead, it’s a health problem and should be treated as such. So be honest about your situation because that always has to be the first step taken.
Talk to Those Close to You
It can be difficult to openly speak about these problems with your family or close friends, but it’s something that you should really try to do. When you open up to people, you’ll be surprised by how much they can help you and how understanding they can be. Don’t just assume that they’ll judge your situation because that’s most likely not the case at all.
Identify Triggers
If you know what triggers you and sends you towards the stuff that you’ve become dependent on or addicted to, you can start to work on that source of the problem. For some people, it can be stressful situations or things not going how they planned. But it’s different for everyone, so give some thought to what has got you in this situation to begin with. It’ll really help you overcome it going forward.
Seek Professional Help and Guidance
If you think that you’re not going to be able to break out of this cycle without professional help and support, you should seek that help out as soon as possible. Places like https://www.rehabclinic.org.uk/ might be able to help you when you’re looking to break out of an unhelpful cycle or are experiencing addiction. The help you get will soon put you on a more positive path forward.
Create a Plan
Having a plan of action in place can really help when you’re looking to break out of your current situation. A haphazard approach is always a risky one because you’ll have no real structure to what you’re trying to do. Think about how the right plan can help you to overcome challenges and keep you on the right path no matter what else might happpen.
It can be very difficult to face up to and admit these kinds of problems, so don’t be ashamed of struggling to begin with. However, once you have the right help and you have a plan to get through the other side of this, you will start moving in a more positive direction which is just what you need.
Namaste xxx
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Efforts To Help Soothe Your Emotional Wounds Following A Death
Death is something that will touch each and every one of our lives. It pays to develop a healthy relationship to this sad occurrence before it happens, but also give yourself the space necessary to grieve and feel what you need to feel appropriate. When someone dies, it can be hard to force yourself into action. Often, many of us want to retreat to our families. But, in order to show respect to the person we’ve lost, and to try to seek closure on the affair, it’s best for us to respond to tasks, and to be useful despite the sad feelings in our heart.
The main efforts to help soothe your emotional wounds following a death are difficult to enact, but with the right people around you and the willingness to act in an admirable manner, you can do amazing things:
The Funeral
It can be quite stressful to begin thinking about the funeral the moment a relative or friend dies, but unfortunately the longer you leave it, the longer you will wait before that person is laid to rest. Follow their final will and testament to the T. You can achieve this with the help of local funeral directors and estate managers. Planning the funeral respectfully can happen through this lens. Not many people are experts in funeral planning unless they have been through the process previously, so it’s important to ask questions, to check your options, and to ask for help.
There’s no reason to do this all yourself. This task can help you and your family begin to come together instead of withdrawing from the social bond temporarily. If your relative hasn’t stipulated how they would like to be treated after death, consider putting it to a vote for the person’s nearest and dearest, burial or cremation. Sometimes, the choice is obvious due to religious beliefs etc. If you follow how you believe the person would have wanted proceedings to happen, and you express utmost respect, you are doing a good job.
Celebrating
This is not an easy time for celebrations. But you should find a way to. While the death is tragic and the loss will be felt on a profound level, taking the time to remember the good about a person can help you feel comforted, and that will pay loving respect to their memory. Sharing beautiful experiences you shared with that person with the family, or perhaps talking about silly moments you shared together, or moments you both smiled together can help everyone feel a small moment of levity. It can be hard to consider at the time, but someone dying in no way reduces the positive impact they had on the world, even if that impact was in small, humble but sincere ways.
Taking the good allows you to begin rememberance proceedings, and begin to seek closure after time. With the promise to never forget the memory of this relative, you can begin to seek your healing process with the family together, being there for one another, and slowly coming back to your own lives.
Following death, emotions can feel chaotic. With these two simple activities, you can begin to seek closure.
Namaste xxx
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Do you have SAD?
Hey everybody!
I have been sent this infographic by Betterhelp, an online counselling service. I have worked with them before and as you all know from a recent post of mine I suffer with this myself. I think it is incredibly important that people know the signs and symptoms so they can better take care of the mental health of people around them as well as themselves.
So, if you suspect someone around you might have SAD, or you think this infographic describes how you feel please go and check out these articles sent to me by Betterhelp and never be afraid to seek help and the great thing about online counselling is that you can fit it around your schedule.
Just click the picture to be taken to the infographic
Essential Chronic Illness Dos And Don’ts For A Full Life
The defining factor of having a chronic illness is that it never leaves you. You may go through periods when it isn’t so bad, and also have periods where you suffer more than usual. Therefore, it is incredibly important to know what to do in the harder times as well as the good ones to preserve your energy and health. A topic that you can read more about below.
Do set yourself goals.
One thing that can be useful for those of us with chronic illness is to set goals to work to. Of course, it can help to do this in a slightly different way than others would.
What I mean is that you have goals for the good days where you push yourself a little more, and also targets for the bad days where you do things that are not so strenuous or demanding, and that have more restorative effects.
Don’t ignore the warning signs.
Next, when you suffer from a chronic condition, you get pretty good at recognizing the warning sign of a relapse. However, it’s vital that you always listen to these signs and use them as a message from your mind and body that needs extra care.
In fact, for some suffering from chronic conditions the severity of a relapse can be mitigated by recognizing the warning signs early and seeking out additional medical help.
A particular example of this being addiction, where the re-emergence of the use of the desire to use substances suggests that an additional stint in rehab is necessary to strengthen the patients’ resolve. Something that if caught early enough can prevent a relapse before it has even begun.
Do be compassionate.
Compassion is a vital to skill to have when you suffer from a chronic illness. In fact, I think that it is something that living with this type of condition can teach us to have both for ourselves, and for others.
Of course, it’s not always easy to direct compassion to yourself, especially if you are frustrated, tired, and in pain. Although one thing that can help is to write a statement that reminds you that you are suffering from a condition and that it affects your normal range of function, as this can help you to realize that it is not your fault.
Also, the Buddhist practice of Metta or loving-kindness is an excellent way of developing a more loving heart towards ourselves. You can even find a guided meditation to help you complete the practice here.
Don’t be unrealistic.
Lastly, when you suffer from a chronic condition, it’s important to be as realistic as possible with what you expect from yourself on a day to day basis. Don’t compare yourself to others whether they have your illnesses or not, but learn to be able to feel from the inside where your limits and boundaries are, and be OK with that.
After all, no one else is living your life or has the particular challenges that you have to face. Therefore, by learning to be realistic, you can help yourself live your life to the full, without putting any additional strain on your body and mind.
Namaste xxx
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What does life after illness look like?
For a lot of people, the moment that they discover the news that they have some kind of long-term or chronic illness, it can often feel as though the whole world is crashing down around them. It can make a lot of things feel pointless and as though there’s no real purpose in moving forward at all. Of course, that’s obviously not the case. Long-term illness is far from a death sentence and many people go on to live incredibly happy and fulfilling lives after being diagnosed. However, that doesn’t mean that there aren’t adjustments to your life that need to be made. With that in mind, here are some things to think about in a life after illness.
The boring stuff
One thing that you’ll want to get out of the way as soon as possible is all of the boring legal stuff and other paperwork that you inevitably have to deal with. Whether you’re filing an insurance claim or going through a company like The Specter Partnership to get compensation if you’ve been a victim of malpractice, it can be tough to motivate yourself to deal with any of it. However, doing it as soon as possible means that you can get on with your life without having to have those things constantly hanging over your head while you’re trying to adjust.
Moving forward
For a lot of people, when they get back to their normal life they’re faced with one question: now what? It’s okay to feel a little lost, at least at first. After all, you’re dealing with a big change and it’s understandable that you might expect the rest of your life to reflect that. But the truth is that life goes on no matter what and it’s up to you to try and go on with it. Think about the changes that will be needed in your life but also focus on the things that are staying the same. Before you know it, you’ll feel like things are right back to feeling the way they used to.
Asking for help
No matter kind of situation they find themselves in, there are some people who simply cannot stand the idea of reaching out to anyone in their lives for help. However, doing this is actually one of the bravest things that you can do. There is no weakness in needing help from others and if you refuse to ask for it, you’re just going to end up making your own life a lot harder than it needs to be.
It’s incredibly important to understand that there will almost certainly be days where you just want to hide away and give up. It’s okay that this happens, it’s a natural part of dealing with something as difficult as a long-term illness. The key is to keep your eye focused on the present moment and living every second as well as possible. It’s okay to get knocked down from time to time, as long as you keep getting up again.
Namaste xxx
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