Unbreakable

If you're like me, you're here because you're having trouble sleeping. Many people who experience anxiety or depression are quite often awake until the early hours regardless of how tired they are. I've decided to do a mindfulness/self help post of the tips I use to help me to sleep. I'm hoping that in the future I'll feel brave enough to do some mindfulness videos on YouTube! Make a bed time Try to get yourself into the habit of going to bed and walking up around the same time each day.  Limit your naps If you do have to nap, try napping midday rather than in the evening. Evening naps will interfere with sleeping at night. Create the mood Dimming the lights or even listening to some calming music in your bedroom half an hour before you want to sleep can induce a state of relaxation before bedtime. Try some bedtime mindfulness too! Use your bedroom as a bedroom Your bedroom should be a space of relaxation. Using your be

Can food really help our mental health? I know from my own personal experience, any time I start eating lots of junk, my mood plummets. I don't know if this is due to the food I am eating or if it is in fact, due to a personal gravitational pull towards those types of food when my mood is low. I just know that my mind suffers when I don't eat well. As I am not a doctor (yet!) I can't really offer an explanation as to why or his food can affect our mood, all I can offer is advice and tips for you to explore your own relationship between your mood and food (if I'm honest, my mood isn't great today so I don't have much energy to sift through the evidence, sorry) Do you eat regularly? Skipping meals or going for a long time between meals can affect your blood sugar. Low blood sugar can leave you tired, irritable, anxious and with a low mood. If you can, try to eat slow releasing energy food such as: Oats Protein Whole grains Nuts and seeds If you

I first met my partner 8 years ago. The second I saw him I knew I was in love. That very second I told myself that I was going to marry him and i was going to have his children. I didn't tell him about my mental health at first, I had such a sense of grandeur due to being addicted to drugs, I didn't even think that I had a mental illness at the time. After a while, I left the drug scene, lost all the "friends" I thought I had and for the first time in a long time, I was alone and isolated. Eventually the happy façade I had put on, the walls I built to keep me protected, fell. Man, that caused me so much devastation to the point where I had no idea how to climb out of the rubble. My partner saw the change in me. When I once kept myself clean and polished, the cracks began to show in my appearance. My make-up was pushed to the back of the closet, my nicer clothes laid in a pile on the floor, my roots were inches long. I just didn't care anymore. He stayed with m

After losing my benefits and being found 'fit for work' by the wonderful DWP (department of work and pensions), I'm now having to find full time work despite 50 pages of medical history, 2 supporting letters from 2 separate doctors and a letter from my health visitor. As I like to keep my blog unpolitical, I've decided to write about working when you have mental health problems rather than the demoralising and unjust work capability assessments sick and disabled people are forced to have in the UK. *and breathe* According to the Mental Health Foundation  mental illness is the leading cause of absence in the workplace. For most people returning to work, bullying, having to go back to work too soon and exacerbation of their mental illness plays an important factor when deciding to return to work. So what do we do if we have no choice but to go back to work due to loss of finances? From my personal perspective, I think the only thing we can do is try, but with pe

The post I was supposed to share earlier, I'm sick today so I'm sorry for the delay. I'm currently sat on my bedroom floor using the local BT WiFi hotspot, my child tax credits haven't been paid, I've run out of electric so my electric is off. It's going to be a difficult weekend with a three year old. I've never given it much thought before but what does it mean to me being female living in poverty? This week has been a hard one. I've been in a position of having no money to buy gas or electric before but I've always somehow managed to scrape through. The reason this week has been hard is because I've had my period. Because I wasn't paid my child tax credits, I haven't been able to buy any sanitary products, this week I have felt disgusting, shamed and just generally unclean. This week, I learned that toilet roll would become my best friend. I'm not really too sure where I'm going with this post as it really is just a sp

It's a bit of a no-no when writing about something you don't fully understand. Today I'll be heading into that territory, some what. I'm feeling guilty about the balance of the blog and I'm feeling a little fraudulent that I'm not sticking to the intent I originally set out to portray. I always wanted this blog to show my journey with mental health and how I deal with it. I also wanted to give tips on how to cope when the dreaded black cloud strikes. I'm feeling guilt that I'm not taking my own advice and I'm becoming a hypocrite. Do you ever feel that way? You give out good advice but as soon as it comes down to taking said advice, you can't do it? Now into the no-no territory, I believe I could be disassociating. I don't know much about it which is why I don't feel I should write too much about it. I've just bleached the kitchen floor and didn't want my daughter in there. I told her to go into the living room and she h