If prayer doesn’t work for you, then think what will help you spiritually get through what you are going through and come out the other end, feeling like a better person as a result of having your experiences in life. Nothing lasts forever, including the painful moments, so in your distress, instead of worrying and beating yourself up, do things for yourself that make you feel good, only you know what you need to get done in order to feel good again. Don’t wait for the good to happen to you in life, you have to be doing good things for yourself in order for things to start going well for you again. Here are some mental health tips for when youre in crisis:

• Text your therapist, your Mom, or your emergency contact.
• Call your therapist, psychiatrist, a hotline, or your attorney. 
• Don’t reach out to anyone new who may worry for you.
• Don’t text anyone who has the ability to hurt your feelings.
• Acknowledge that you are in distress and do your best to calm down.
• Don’t let things get worse, the more proactive you are the better things will get.
• Take your meds, get to a meeting, journal, stay active, go for a walk, talk to someone.

Every time I experience a mental health episode, I forget how painful the past was, and how long it takes to feel unbound from all the distress that mental health issues bring. You can unbind yourself from distress, you can unbind yourself from stress, you can unbind yourself from negativity, and you can unbind yourself from depressed thinking. Life is not all about being happy and smiling, you know its okay to be dull, boring, not charismatic, or unanimated, we all go through phases of lost enthusiasm, there is always time to enjoy the moment, even if its not right now, but don’t lose faith in yourself, even if you’re not like everyone else.

According to Michigan’s University Health Service one of their top tips for improving your mental health, is to break the monotony. [1] It’s never too late to start dealing with your problems. I found a great CBT app for “thought disorders” and all types of mental health issues with journal prompts. It really gets me going in the right direction, to accept my thinking, and really start thinking about the mechanics of my thinking and where things are coming from. All of that matters, when you go to therapy, if you’re like me you won’t have much to say or not know where to get started, if you are not prepared to speak with a list of things that have been bothering you, then no one can crack your shell or open up your bottle of things you are keeping in, and that’s totally okay to be that kind of person, private, keeping things to yourself. One day you will be like me, talking about everything and anything under the sun, and still stand on your two feet and say to yourself you know this is me, I know where I have been, and I know where Im going, and Im not going to allow these thoughts to keep me from feeling normal. You can let go and move on and heal, but the healing starts the minute you start being honest with yourself, and say you know Ive had this thought, I want to feel like this instead. Its possible, you can do anything you set your mind to, the point is to begin and get things started and not bottle up, and keep too much to yourself, it can be hard to sort through on your own.

We all have odd ways of coping, some of us clean our houses, and our rooms, some enjoy cooking and running errands, there is always something to do to keep your mind from becoming disorganized by thoughts or thinking, and some enjoy writing like me. The more you can do for yourself, the more independent you are, the more you have grown past all of those issues that are keeping you frozen at a standstill in life, there is a way out of that rut, and its starts with learning how to process your feelings and maybe sometimes change your attitude about things, there is always a way toward solution, you just have to find your way again. 

Reference:

[1] https://uhs.umich.edu/tenthings