How do you stay strong?

[N a t]

Physically, mentally, both?

What do you do to take care of your mind and body? I want to see what people have to say because I want to take better care of myself. I'm sensitive and I'm on medication for my anxiety, and overall not that physically fit. I was getting help from professional for a little while but didn't really improve. Just wanna try some new things out for myself and learn from others so I can find out what works for me!

Especially now that the entire planet is stressed!

 

[Chloebug44]

I know all about anxiety and mental instability. Me and both my parents have anxiety and me and my dad have depression. If you ever need anything please feel free to message me I love to listen and give advice!

 

[pamelarose]

I was on medication as well for a while. It really helped me calm down so i could focus on how to improve myself. Every time i get anxiety or feel like I’m becoming unnecessarily down I immediately try to counteract those thoughts with a different way of thinking. That can either include looking at the positive or making a joke out of it (yay for dark humor!!). Physically has always been a slight struggle. I’m a skinny girl who feels detached with her body, but i remind myself every body is beautiful and has it’s own quirk that makes it unique and gorgeous (seriously love moles, stretch marks, uneven eyes - all of it). And i try to focus on what is more important which is who i am as a person and how i strive to become even better. In summary, it’s really changing how you think which is very hard, but the outcome is so relieving.

 

[N a t]

I know all about anxiety and mental instability. Me and both my parents have anxiety and me and my dad have depression. If you ever need anything please feel free to message me I love to listen and give advice!

Thank you! I'll take you up on that offer if I need someone to talk to! I'm pretty stable for the most part. The medication helps and luckily my anxiety is much less severe now that I'm on it. I haven't had a panic attack in a while but I'm one of many essential employees still working and on top of that, I don't think I've ever really been a tough person so sometimes things just get to me too easily. I'm trying to be tougher though, for many reasons! I'm going alright since we just finished our weekend but I might borrow your ear once my work week starts haha!

Post automatically merged: May 10, 2020

I was on medication as well for a while. It really helped me calm down so i could focus on how to improve myself. Every time i get anxiety or feel like I’m becoming unnecessarily down I immediately try to counteract those thoughts with a different way of thinking. That can either include looking at the positive or making a joke out of it (yay for dark humor!!). Physically has always been a slight struggle. I’m a skinny girl who feels detached with her body, but i remind myself every body is beautiful and has it’s own quirk that makes it unique and gorgeous (seriously love moles, stretch marks, uneven eyes - all of it). And i try to focus on what is more important which is who i am as a person and how i strive to become even better. In summary, it’s really changing how you think which is very hard, but the outcome is so relieving.

Thank you for the beautiful comment! It really is hard to break a certain mentality sometimes and the pandemic is really hard for everyone, even with my family and the forum and my games, I still find myself feeling pretty low some days. I also have a hard time just accepting compliments which in all honesty i love to get because of my low self esteem. I have an amazing girlfriend and just don't understand what she sees in me but I'm trying to feel better about it and understand her point of view! I've gotten a lot braver when going to work too, and taking all of the precautions that we are is making meets fearful of the virus. I'm certainly not ignorant in regards to it, but I feel confident that I won't get sick and I won't get my loved ones sick either as long as I try my best.

I'm always looking to improve myself somehow though, i wanna live my best life!

 

[Blueskyy]

Well during this quarantine time I found myself not taking care of myself. I was not exercising enough and drinking too much. Almost 40 days ago I started finding home workouts on YouTube to do each morning, allowed myself 0 alcohol, take walks outside often, and even try to find time to take a siesta. The last little nap I had was almost meditative. I was having very nostalgic feelings but they were all positive. There’s something really great about going to bed tired and waking up the next day with enough energy to get things done. I got sick of wasting my days away because I felt horrible.

 

[Chloebug44]

Thank you! I'll take you up on that offer if I need someone to talk to! I'm pretty stable for the most part. The medication helps and luckily my anxiety is much less severe now that I'm on it. I haven't had a panic attack in a while but I'm one of many essential employees still working and on top of that, I don't think I've ever really been a tough person so sometimes things just get to me too easily. I'm trying to be tougher though, for many reasons! I'm going alright since we just finished our weekend but I might borrow your ear once my work week starts haha!

I’d like to be there for you I hate antidepressants and anxiety meds so I have panic attacks almost everyday and I’m sensitive too and all that mess... heck I had a panic attack yesterday because everywhere I turned in Walmart there was a person! I totally understand where you’re coming from. I just try to constantly distract myself and my brain pushes the negative side on me so I try my best to find good in any and everything. And as for physical I’m not sure. I’m a chuck myself but I’m not overweight. Used to hate myself but I’ve kinda expected my thick thighs and little belly

 

[pamelarose]

You’re doing a great job. Steps like those are exactly what will fulfill you in the long run. you’re so sweet for looking out for your loved ones as well ;-; and bless you for working during these hard times. I saw someone get snarky with a hardworking employee at a pizza shop today and it broke my heart. Y’all necessary workers deserve way more praise! I also think everyone gets a little insecure when with a loved one, but focus on bonding and having the best time you can with her. Don’t let the fear overcome you and strike it back by having a fun time (she wouldn’t be with you if she didn’t see a spark in you )

 

[Corrie]

I just cry all the time and distract myself with my writing.

 

[AC-Kristin]

I suffer with anxiety and depression, not really due to the plandemic going on but from general anxiety. I don't really use meds, I just take natural stuff, vitamins, along with aromatherapy. I been keeping my mind clear the best I can with drawing, reading, and playing AC.

 

[DinosaurDumpster]

Not officially diagnosed or anything fancy for my anxiety, but from what I see I handle things pretty differently.
Most of the time I distract myself with my favorite videos or shows online. I've never really taken care of myself, either. Would probably make me more stressed out about my self image. I also draw and play video games to cope, since for me, it really cheers me up when I've just been yelled at since i'm so afraid of being yelled at.

 

[Xara]

i suffer from anxiety, depression and paranoia and find it hard to stay strong a lot - i’m medicated and will hopefully be receiving psychiatric help in july but there’s not much else besides from that. to stay strong mentally, i do my best to take my meds daily and focus on the good things in my life and the things that make me happy - my cat, animal crossing, books, etc.

life is difficult a lot of the time and there’s always going to be negativities and so you just have to do your best to focus on the good - i know that’s such a cliche and is useless when things are really bad, but even in the middle of awful times, there’s always at least one good thing that exists ;v;

 

[Luxsama]

I suffer from depression, anxiety and PTSD from childhood trauma (years of mental/physical abuse and neglect). I got diagnosed for it but never seeked professional help which Im currently working on. It gets really bad when I forget my iron supplements bc I'm anemic aswell. Whenever something triggers me I try my best to remove myself from that situation and remind myself that people aren't here to hurt me, it can be hard most times but what can you do (even if its someone just raising their voice at me could send me to tears). I always try to keep my emotions and mentality in check so I prevent myself from taking it out on others.

I take my vitamins and workout daily, play videogames and just doing whatever I enjoy. Overall just focusing on me b/c nothing else should really matter (atm at least, I'm still young life has barely begun).

And just like xara says, just focus on the good things as hard as that can be and sometimes you just need to breakdown and cry and that's fine as long as you get back up

I constantly remind myself that I'm not a burden to anyone and neither is anyone else

EDIT: also communicating with the people around you is important

 

[Chibiusa]

Journaling helps me release things I'm unintentionally bottling up so that they don't get released all at once. That and changing tasks often so I don't start to dwell.

 

[Midoriya]

By focusing on others and helping out others. I stay strong and derive my strength from both the support of many other people and by supporting many other people. To be frank, I stopped caring about focusing on myself years ago. That’s not to say I don’t care about improving as a person. I have improved a lot as a person, especially in the last four years of my life at university. I just don’t see why I should get to be happy when there’s so many people that aren’t and when there is so much suffering in the world. If I only have one chance to live, I’ll dedicate the rest of my days to helping those in need and making sure people are happy. By beating back the darkness in this way it makes me happy too. That’s real strength.

 

[brockbrock]

Guided meditation helps me immensely. I bought a lifetime membership to Calm when it was on sale and sometimes just the background white noise is enough to keep me calm most day’s. Music is another escape for sure.

 

[Croconaw]

I’m really sensitive. I talked about my sensitivity a bit in another thread! Watching motivation and positivity videos helps me stay mentally strong. I think a positive mindset is very important. Having a positive attitude can literally be the difference maker in whether or not you accomplish your goals. After all, success is 99% attitude. I try my best to cut negativity out of my life. Sometimes I have bad days and allow myself to have bad days, but I’m back to positive thinking the very next day. We all have bad and non-productive days, but it’s how we respond to them that really matters.

 

[KatieLavender]

for me, whenever i get upset i turn to reading or netflix just anything to get my mind off of it, i also found that journaling helped me unreal amounts, just being able to let all of your emotions flow out onto a page, and its super amazing to look back at to see how you have grown as a person, its just a beautiful process

 

[Bowie]

I find that my mental health affects my physical health more and more the older I get, so I’m trying my best to take care of myself physically. I feel like that’s super important. Get enough sleep, drink lots of water, wake up early enough that I have some downtime before work, little things like that.

More recently I’ve been trying to force myself to eat and not just rely on caffeine, as it’s so tempting sometimes just to avoid breakfast completely when I feel anxious to the point of vomiting first thing in the morning.

 

[Antonio]

Denial, lots and lots of denial.

 

[Pondo]

Pure spite. The universe thinks it can fling all this dirt (for lack of a more fitting word) at me and think I’m just gonna take it and not fight back? Medication or not, I’ll make it through life and show the universe what a tough cookie I — along with my lovely friends who help me pick myself up off the ground when the tough times beat me down — am.
Even the little things help my mood, like washing the dishes when I need to (or just have the urge to), making my bed after waking up, picking up my cat and hugging her (albeit usually when she doesn’t want a hug), etc. They all amount to some happiness (or satisfaction), and it helps, especially on the worst of days.
“At the very least — I’ve done this much.”