Mental Health Moment #11: 15 Ways to Keep Depression Away Now That Spring is Here

05/14/2021 Laura Becker Comments 0 Comment

Image credit: Ryan Searle on Unsplash Welcome to MHM #11! Mental Health Moments are shorter posts that include tips and suggestions for getting through your day without letting your depression get you down. I tend to be a bit wordy in my regular posts; MHMs are my attempt to be a little more palatable for those who don’t want to read longer posts. And now, onto the show! Spring has sprung and we’re on our way to a nice-looking…

Read More Read More

Thoughts and Feelings Cannot Hurt You

02/17/2021 Laura Becker Comments 7 comments

Image credit: George Pagan III on Unsplash I used to think that everything I told myself had to be true, that the stories I told myself (like that I was no good and I was damaged) were factual. When my brain would tell me that I was always going to be depressed – and it told me that constantly – I believed it. And when it told me, “You don’t deserve to be loved; you are not worthy,” I…

Read More Read More

My Plan for Mental Wellness

10/22/2020 Laura Becker Comments 4 comments

Image credit: Glenn Carstens-Peters About a month ago, I was feeling quite depressed. And since my depression had been in remission for a while, I was surprised. Despite knowing from experience that I would eventually feel better and be able to get through my days without feeling that damn hole in my heart, I still felt distraught. Depression makes you feel like it’s never going to get better, that you will always feel that way. It is the nature…

Read More Read More

MHM #7: 12 Fun Ways to Combat Depression and Anxiety

05/16/2019 Laura Becker Comments 4 comments

Welcome to Mental Health Moment (MHM) #7! This post is all about fun (and mostly free) things you can do to combat your depression and anxiety or even keep them at bay. I’ve seen lots of lists of ways to keep yourself busy and distracted, but for the most part, they lack an important ingredient – fun! So I thought I would make up my own list of things you can do fairly easily when you feel depression or anxiety…

Read More Read More

Going Back to Work

03/09/2019 Laura Becker Comments 2 comments

Photo by Helloquence on Unsplash I started a temp job this week. If you’ve been following my journey, you know that I hadn’t been able to work since I had ECT in 2005 until last spring, when I found a temporary (seasonal) part-time job. Well, it’s that season again, so I’m doing the same kind of work as I did last spring – scoring questions from standardized tests taken by students in grades 1-12. That’s a good thing, because I really liked…

Read More Read More

My Year in Review – Plus, What’s Up For 2019

01/06/2019 Laura Becker Comments 0 Comment

So, I haven’t written much in the last two months, and I wanted to let you know that I’m okay. Exhaustion has crept back into my daily life, which means that I’m too tired to write (I often go take a nap instead). Hell, sometimes, I’m too tired to feed the cats! (But I do – no cat goes hungry in this household.) Despite some rough patches, 2018 was a pretty decent year. Even Christmas wasn’t too stressful this year,…

Read More Read More

How to Get Unstuck When You’re Feeling Down

09/05/2018 Laura Becker Comments 2 comments

I woke up at 6:30 this morning, after about seven hours of sleep. An hour later, I realized that I was feeling down. Please do me the favor of letting me explore this with you. WHY DO I FEEL THIS WAY? I don’t know. That’s the wonder of mood disorders. I’ve been feeling pretty good lately – I’ve even done my yoga three mornings in a row and plan on doing it again after I write this. I don’t want…

Read More Read More

Routine. Wait, no, Making Decisions!

08/06/2018 Laura Becker Comments 1 comment

Depression has a way of creeping into my life when I’m not keeping myself busy. You too? I’ve played with different kinds of routines over recent years, and they do help. But damn, they’re hard to stick with! For some reason that I will never understand, I always seem to quit doing the things that help me feel better. OBSTACLES So I get overwhelmed pretty easily. It hasn’t been happening too much lately, but over the last fifteen years or…

Read More Read More

Kick Your Depression in the Ass!

06/09/2018 Laura Becker Comments 0 Comment

I’m not sure I know what to write today. A week ago, I was feeling pretty decent. But, for the last four or five days, I’ve felt “down”. That’s what I call it when it’s not just sadness, but it hasn’t met MY criteria for “depression”. And then, today happened. I was okay in the morning; then I had therapy, where I confronted some feelings I’ve been trying to avoid. FYI – avoidance doesn’t work. WHEN IS IT “DEPRESSION”? I…

Read More Read More

Re-entering the Workforce After a 13-Year Absence

05/17/2018 Laura Becker Comments 0 Comment

If you’ve been following my journey over the last year, you know that I haven’t been able to work since my ECT treatments in 2005. Well, that’s changed. Four or five weeks ago, I went to a “recruiting fair” (in quotes because there were only 4 people there) for a gig scoring standardized tests. Two weeks ago, they contacted me and offered me (and 79 others) a three-week project. I took it. MY NEW GIG So, I’ve been attempting, half-assedly,…

Read More Read More

Dealing With Negative Thoughts

04/13/2018 Laura Becker Comments 0 Comment

image credit: Wright Angle Marketing Negative thoughts. We all have them, right? But people with depression, anxiety, and addiction issues tend to have them more than the general public. And sometimes, they linger. THE SNOWBALL EFFECT & NEGATIVITY Yesterday started out pretty well. I was in a decent mood and looking forward to a productive day. But then I went to the dentist to get fitted for my permanent dentures, only to find out an hour later that my…

Read More Read More

Depression + Introversion = Loneliness (sometimes)

03/02/2018 Laura Becker Comments 4 comments

There’s a huge difference between being “alone” and being “lonely”. Merriam-Webster online defines alone as “separated from others” or “exclusive of anyone or anything else.” There are a few other definitions, but these are the ones I’m focusing on today. I can dig that. In fact, I am, without a doubt, an introvert – I prefer to spend much of my time alone. Mostly, it doesn’t bother me. When I’m alone, it’s quiet – and when it’s quiet, I have…

Read More Read More

Addiction: How to Survive the Urge to Use

01/11/2018 Laura Becker Comments 0 Comment

“One day at a time.” Even if you don’t attend a 12-step group, I bet you’ve heard that saying plenty of times. And it’s true. If you think about it, tomorrow never comes. In the world of physics, it’s impossible. It is always today. “Tomorrow” is really just a concept. Every morning you wake up, it’s today, right? You can’t wake up and it’s somehow yesterday (unless you’re Bill Murray in the classic movie Groundhog Day). It’s always today. So…

Read More Read More

Progress, Not Perfection

04/24/2017 Laura Becker Comments 0 Comment

It’s been a long, hard, dangerous road, but here I am. Life isn’t perfect by any means, and I’m not always in a good mood. But I’ve felt a hell of a lot better this last year and a half than I have maybe since I was 14. That was 34 years ago. That’s a long haul. Over the years, I have tried just about everything to feel better. Unfortunately, I have a little asterisk next to my diagnosis that…

Read More Read More

Depression Warrior

On Surviving Depression

Browsed by
Tag: being productive