making progress – Page 2 – Depression Warrior

positivity rules!

Maybe I’m “Normal” After All

07/19/2020 Laura Becker Comments 3 comments

Well, hello there, fellow Warrior! I wanted to let you know that the focus of the Depression Warrior website will be changing ever-so-slightly. I’ve been feeling so much better lately that I changed the tagline to the site from “Fighting the Stigma of Mental Illness and Addiction” to “On Surviving Depression”. I think it sounds more hopeful, maybe even a little positive. It also better reflects what I write about. Now, onto today’s post! FEELING BETTER I was thinking yesterday…

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How to Create a Safety Plan

02/23/2020 Laura Becker Comments 3 comments

Photo by Ryan McGuire What is a safety plan, anyway? A safety plan is a document that lists everything you can think of that will keep you safe from harming yourself or others, or from dipping way down the continuum of depression. I’ve had one for many, many years. I now need to update it because I moved to another state and I need to rebuild my professional support team. Do you have a safety plan? It can be very…

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MHM #6: Low-Effort Self-Care Tips (re-post)

12/26/2019 Laura Becker Comments 2 comments

Photo by Sharon McCutcheon on Unsplash Every so often, I like to publish a post about general mental health care. With Thanksgiving and Christmas now in the rear-view mirror and a new year bearing down on us, I thought this would be a good time to remind you to pay more attention to your well-being than you usually do. Certainly, the holidays can bring out the best in people – their smile may be a bit brighter, their words a little less sharp,…

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It takes courage to have faith

The 2 Main Ingredients of Change

12/17/2019 Laura Becker Comments 2 comments

This is my first post in more than two months – sorry about that! I’ve been going through a lot of huge stuff in my personal life that I will explain someday. For now, I’d like to talk about dealing with change. MAKING CHANGES My whole world has changed completely over the last couple of months. I even moved back to my home state of Michigan, which I never thought I’d do. (Not that there’s anything wrong with Michigan; I’ve…

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Comfort: The Good and the Bad

10/01/2019 Laura Becker Comments 3 comments

Photo by Thomas Willmott on Unsplash I learned something new in therapy a while ago. I don’t recall what we were talking about, but the moral of the story is that feeling comfortable and staying in “the known” isn’t always a good thing. “THE KNOWN” IS COMFORTING As human beings, we are creatures of comfort. We get into our routines and habits and do the same things – day in, day out. And for the most part, this is fine. It gets…

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Recovering From Mental Illness

09/24/2019 Laura Becker Comments 3 comments

Photo by Dawid Zawiła on Unsplash Today’s post was written by Warrior Aimee Eddy. You can find her bio at the end of this post. Many people with mental illness feel like they are doomed to live their lives stuck in the midst of the depths of sadness, anguish, and torture of their sickness. It’s also a common misconception in society that people with mental illness can never get better. The truth is that most people who are suffering from a…

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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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MHM #8: 7 Signs You’re Seeing the Wrong Shrink

07/25/2019 Laura Becker Comments 2 comments

Welcome to MHM #8! Mental Health Moments are shorter posts with practical tips, suggestions, and other helpful things. I’m on my fifth psychiatrist since 2004, and I’ve seen many more during my hospitalizations. There are some great men and women in this profession who care about their patients and go above and beyond their duties for our mental health. But there are also some doozies out there that should be avoided at all costs. Picking out a pdoc randomly from…

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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…

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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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The Benefits of Staying Sober

03/15/2019 Laura Becker Comments 0 Comment

Alcoholism and drug addiction do terrible things to a person. But addiction is also a disease that affects family and friends. One of the most important things I’ve learned in recovery is that I can be the person I always wanted to be: thoughtful, responsible, caring, reliable, morally and ethically responsible. In other words, a good role model. I have heard hundreds – thousands – of others say the same thing. All of this actually makes life easier – it…

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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…

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Learning to Relax

02/20/2019 Laura Becker Comments 2 comments

Greetings from sunny Florida! You may know that I live in Minnesota, aka The Frozen Tundra. Well, this week, I’m coming to you from my mom and step-dad’s house on the Gulf side of Florida. They moved here from Michigan about 20 years ago and absolutely love it. I, on the other hand, can only take so much humidity. I come down once every couple of years for a break from the daily grind. What am I learning this time…

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I’m Getting Published!

02/07/2019 Laura Becker Comments 0 Comment

I realize it’s only the beginning of February, but I gotta tell you – I’m owning 2019 so far! As if it’s not cool enough having an article published in an online journal, this here blog was named one of the top blogs about depression by the folks at the MyTherapy app last week! (Go to their blog to read the very kind and humbling blurb they wrote about me.) And you know what? It’s getting even better. Way back in 2002,…

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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,…

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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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TMS: Week Three

10/22/2018 Laura Becker Comments 0 Comment

So, I just started week three of TMS today, and I have to say – I feel great! How often do you say that? “I feel great!” If you’re anything like me, it’s not very often. But I’m here to say that it is possible, even if you don’t think so yet. “SIGNIFICANTLY BETTER” I started feeling better after only four sessions; I had number 15 this morning. Last week, I felt pretty good, but today I’m noticing an even…

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TMS: Weeks One and Two

10/16/2018 Laura Becker Comments 0 Comment

Photo by Eric Ward on Unsplash Hello, fellow Warriors! You might have noticed that I’ve been MIA the last couple weeks. That’s because my old nemesis, depression, has come for a visit and settled right in. In my last post, I said I was feeling better. That was true – I was no longer suicidal and thought I was headed back to feeling “normal” (whatever that is). Alas, it was not to be. I should have known, since I was so down before…

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