dancing emotions – Page 2 – Depression Warrior

How to Change Destructive Thinking

09/11/2019 Laura Becker Comments 0 Comment

Hey, Warrior! Happy Wednesday! 🙂 I was just reading an email from a very wise, emotionally healthy woman, clinical psychologist Dr. Gail Brenner. I have two of her books. One is called The End of Self-Help: Discovering Peace and Happiness Right at the Heart of Your Messy, Scary, Brilliant Life, which I haven’t finished yet, but has helped change my outlook on things. Her newest book (2018) is called Suffering is Optional: A Spiritual Guide to Freedom from Self-Judgment and…

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Catching Depression Early

08/17/2019 Laura Becker Comments 3 comments

Photo by Marija Zaric on Unsplash So, I’m going through something interesting right now. On the one hand, I’ve been experiencing mood swings for the last couple of weeks. I’ve recently had a couple of REALLY bad anxious days. Yesterday was one of them. Luckily, I had a therapy appointment in the morning, so I attempted to work through it with Kim; unfortunately, I felt just as lousy when I left as when I got there. It was out of hand. I realize…

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Are you Accepting Your Reality?

06/27/2019 Laura Becker Comments 3 comments

Photo by Alex Lopez on Unsplash Hello, Warrior! 🙂 You know how sometimes you’re in a bad mood or feel depressed or anxious and you have no idea why? Yeah, I don’t feel that way today! In fact, I’m in a really good mood, despite the dark, rainy, thunderous sky. I love it when that happens! I WROTE A BOOK! You may or may not know that I recently had a book published! Sorry for the shameless plug, but I’m going to refer…

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I Was Suicidal as a Teenager

05/08/2019 Laura Becker Comments 0 Comment

As I explained in the previous post, May is Mental Health Awareness Month. Lots of organizations go the extra mile during this time to get the word out about how common mental illness really is – that we all know someone (or several someones) who have mental health diagnoses, even if we don’t realize it. The idea is to reduce the stigma associated with the term “mental illness” and take it for what it is: A medical condition. Our last…

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Teen Suicide – A Very Special Guest Post T/W

05/01/2019 Laura Becker Comments 2 comments

May is Mental Health Month in the U.S. It is the time of year mental health agencies, organizations, and individuals across the country fight the stigma surrounding mental illness even harder than they usually do. You are undoubtedly aware that teen suicide (and suicide in general) is a big problem here, with death by suicide being the second-leading cause of death in the U.S. for children ages 10-14 and ages 15-24, behind only unintentional injury. In 2017 alone, more than…

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Stop Punishing Yourself

04/25/2019 Laura Becker Comments 0 Comment

Photo by Priscilla Du Preez on Unsplash I’ve been having thoughts of drinking lately and, inevitably, it became an urge one day last week. I hate it when that happens. So I did what any normal, healthy, recovering alcoholic would do: I called someone who understands. She talked me down and convinced me that I needed to return to my sobriety support group. It’s a pretty big deal that I called her before I went out. In the past, I would go…

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Panic Attacks

04/11/2019 Laura Becker Comments 2 comments

Photo by Kat J on Unsplash Have I ever told you that I used to have panic attacks? No? Well, we’ll fix that today. Everyone experiences them a little differently, but they all suck the big one. This is what mine look like: Intense fear, feeling like the world is about to end, feeling like I’m “losing it,” hyperventilating, sobbing, and a very strong and rapid heartbeat. Sounds like fun, doesn’t it? Panic attacks are, in fact, pretty scary. The thought that you’re…

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MHM #6: 11 Low-Effort Self-Care Tips to Help You Feel Less Depressed

04/04/2019 Laura Becker Comments 5 comments

Photo by Milada Vigerova on Unsplash Every so often, I like to publish a post about general mental health care. So today, I bring you Mental Health Moment (MHM) #6. I’ve been feeling a bit run-down lately. I know a lot of it is because of the stress I’ve been under recently, but the other part of the equation is that my last round of TMS was in November. The effects of the TMS usually start subsiding after about five or six months,…

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Dealing With Loss

03/24/2019 Laura Becker Comments 3 comments

Photo by Andrew Neel on Unsplash As you may know, I started a data entry job a couple of weeks ago. Then we found out that my wife’s brother has terminal cancer. Then I got really sick for several days, and I’ve been in a lot of physical pain because of a nerve problem in my lower-lower back. Isn’t it funny how fast things can change? THIS IS NOT WHERE I THOUGHT I’D BE RIGHT NOW Due to the regular stress and…

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Is It Laziness or Are You Overwhelmed?

01/24/2019 Laura Becker Comments 0 Comment

Photo by Daniel Monteiro on Unsplash I often think of myself as lazy. This is not at all helpful. Do you do the same thing? I know better; I know I’m not lazy. I have good days and bad days, like everyone else. Some days, I have more energy than others. But I judge myself harshly for not getting “enough” done most days. LAZY V. DEPRESSED For many people with depression, one of our biggest symptoms is low energy. You know, loss…

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TMS Week Three, Part 2: A Setback

10/30/2018 Laura Becker Comments 0 Comment

So I had a setback in my treatment last week. Monday evening, most of Tuesday, and all day Wednesday, I was very depressed again. That’s never happened to me during TMS before. In the past, once I start feeling good, I’m good for about six months. It was scary. I thought maybe this time, the TMS wouldn’t work. DEPRESSION BE GONE! Since then, my mood has been steadily improving, though it’s slow going. I’m still extra-sensitive to any kind of…

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An Update

09/30/2018 Laura Becker Comments 0 Comment

I’ll be the first to admit that I don’t always know what I’m feeling. And, as well-versed as I am with depression in general and my own experiences with it in particular, it can still sometimes sneak up on me. Well, it did. IT’S BAA-AAACK I noticed it four days ago, after my experience at the hospital. The day after, I felt okay for a while, but then I started feeling depressed. It wasn’t terrible, it wasn’t the most depressed…

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Cue the Fatigue!

09/25/2018 Laura Becker Comments 0 Comment

Several years ago, I went through about five years of fatigue that, it turned out, had no medical cause. I finally decided it was all about the stress. I made some changes, felt better, and life went on. Well, here I am again. For the last month or so, I have felt that same almost-debilitating level of fatigue, and again I attribute it to stress. WHAT’S GOING ON WITH ME? Oh, all kinds of things! Chief among them? I am…

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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…

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A Lesson in Self-Worth

08/27/2018 Laura Becker Comments 2 comments

I’m not sure how to start this post off, so I’ll just dive right into it. You know that I have trouble with feeling worthy, feeling deserving of people’s attention and time. Don’t ask me why this is because I’m not sure. At this point, I don’t even know if it matters (but I sure am curious). Well, something happened this weekend that, in retrospect, gave me a feeling of worth. Let me explain. VISITORS FROM AFAR Four months ago,…

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balance, meditation, peace, focus

A Moment of Peace

08/14/2018 Laura Becker Comments 2 comments

I had a revelation last week. When I get depressed, I feel a hole in my heart, an emptiness. And when I feel anxious, I feel tingly – in a bad way – in the same place. But one day last week, I was sitting on the balcony, minding my own business, when I noticed the absence of the hole and the tinglies. I felt “full.” And it was awesome. It was peace, it was serenity, it was contentment –…

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Depression and Intrusive Thoughts

07/27/2018 Laura Becker Comments 0 Comment

**T/W – SUICIDAL THOUGHTS** (T/W = Trigger Warning) Well, it’s been about two weeks now, and I’m still feeling depressed. Actually, it’s getting noticeably worse. My fears that it won’t go away on its own (even after discontinuing the Wellbutrin), I’ll have to quit tutoring, and have to do TMS again are all looming on the horizon. Not to mention all the related issues. I have little interest in doing anything; my ability to focus and concentrate have gone…

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Is Depression a Choice? (T/W)

07/21/2018 Laura Becker Comments 0 Comment

**Today’s post is a little different. Consider it an Open Letter to those who think depression and other mental illnesses are a choice and that we can just ‘snap out of it’.** Most of my friends are really good people. In fact, that’s a prerequisite if you want to be my friend. They are open-minded, thoughtful, fair-minded, and they don’t judge. (Yes, people like that really do exist!) However, I do occasionally run into someone who is judgmental and…

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