mental health awareness

Mental Health Monday – 250

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Stuck between the idea and an ideal, somehow despite the advantages and privilege still remains elusive. I’m talking about our country, the United States, the great democratic experiment. It has never been perfect, and it has been idealized by the patriarchal class. It began, and remains today in many places and situations, with white men, landowners with money, wifely support, servants and slaves. That slavery was written into the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution, an irony and a tragedy if ever there was one. In thirty-four days is a celebration that I would normally be looking forward to, but the state of our government and the administration currently in charge is making it increasingly more difficult to get behind a “celebration” or an honoring of what we have been and what we are becoming.

How is this related to mental health?

Mental health awareness month officially ended yesterday, but our mental health awareness must continue – the awareness of how we’re feeling, how people make us feel, what triggers us, and how to cope with those triggers. At our house, we have four flags in the front along with a pride flag. I left the US flags displayed in honor of our fallen for Memorial Day. I’ve decided to remove them for June. I think Flag Day has been coopted by the current president as his birthday party, and I will not participate in that. At all. I plan to replace the flags for July 4th weekend and then remove them again until Election Day.

I feel for the people who say we have nothing to celebrate. Sometimes I believe that, but sometimes I see what good happens when people do good; without the cameras rolling, without the benefits of being seen, without heaped upon praise, simply acting because that is the right thing to do. That is what I believe this country can be. I was raised that way, and I hope I’ve raised my kids that way. The ideal of the idea of the US is the melting pot, the blending of many into one – e pluribus unum.

I’ll ignore the circus in Washington, D.C. for the next few weeks, although I won’t ignore the harm they’re doing, the persecuted, the shamed, the bigotry and racism abounding currently, and acknowledging this is nothing new, we’ve always had this. We’ve hoped for the best, and I hope and pray that we can rebuild, not rebuild what we had, but a stronger foundation, a stronger, more equal place for the world to come and to look to as my great-grandparents did, as my mother-in-law did. I want us to be what we can be, what we should have been all along.

I have memories of the Bicentennial, and I am going to make memories for the 250th. I want my kids to look back in another fifty years for the three hundredth birthday and see how far we’ve come. I can hope. I can encourage.

Regardless, take your mental health temperature, and see what you want out of the next few weeks, how you want to celebrate or ignore our country’s founding, how you can stay on your recovery course in the best possible way. Make your coping tools available so when triggered you have the mental space to reset. First and foremost, take care of you.

And for my own mental health, I can ignore Washington’s circus monkeys through this birthday and then get back on the protest wagon and fight for our democracy, repair what they’ve destroyed (including the Rose Garden and the East Wing and the Voting Rights Act and Roe v. Wade), and rekindle a better place for all of us. I have faith. We can do it. We can.

Mental Health Monday – Memorial Day

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Today can be a difficult day for several reasons, the least of which is the shitshow that’s the current US government administration. There are fireworks (triggers for those with PTSD, pets, etc.). There are ceremonies commemorating the dead military of past wars and conflicts. There are mattress and car sales, which often don’t correlate to the reason for today’s day off from work, as well as picnics, parades, and a sea of red, white, and blue.

I’ve had flags on my front lawn for several months and as we move closer to the 250th anniversary of our country’s founding, I wonder if I should keep them up considering the fascism and lawlessness going on at the White House and in Washington, DC.

I did decide to leave them up for this weekend. Memorial Day hits harder than the other patriotic days especially when we are still at war and our “commander-in-chief” is a stark, raving lunatic who collects assassination attempts like my kids collect Pokemon cards.

I will be doing five things to get through the day today, and hope to keep my mental health on an even keel:

  • Wear my protest shirt.
  • Begin reading Heather Cox Richardson’s Democracy Awakening: Notes on the State of America.
  • Spend some time going over my notes from my recent research trip for my book.
  • Spend time in prayer and prepare for my upcoming ten minute presentation.
  • Breathe, drink water, stay off the internet, and draw even if the drawings are doodles and intersecting lines in different bright colors.

What do you suggest for today to protect your mental health?

Mental Health Monday

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Things don’t always go as planned, and that’s okay.

The Mental Health Monday I planned for last Monday never happened.

You may not have noticed because I gave no preview; I’m trying to move away from the previews, but the planning was still there, it was on my calendar, I wanted to publish something weekly during this mental health awareness month – it just never happened.

Part of my mental health is having goals and following through on them, but also part of my mental health is allowing myself grace.

Grace to change my mind.

Grace to miss a deadline, and accept that especially if there’s a good reason.

Grace to let myself take time for myself to have breakfast after a doctor’s appointment and then go to work.

Grace to take my own needs into consideration, to put myself first, to consider my own priorites.

To accept my own importance.

To adjust for my own needs.

To sometimes save my spoons.

My recommendation to you today is to take a moment. Ask yourself what you want from today. Then try to let it happen.

And if it doesn’t…well, there’s always tomorrow.

Mental Health Monday – Awareness Month

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This past Friday, Mental Health Awareness Month began.

I never really thought about my mental health. I had things I felt – anxiety, sadness, too much of this, too little of that, and I never looked further. I was too young, being organized isn’t a bad thing, eating four M&Ms at a time isn’t problematic. The list goes on, and it ranges from what sounds like nonsense to what can grow into real issues, not just for me but for the people around me. My mental health issues don’t fall into illness categories, not everyone’s issues do. Sometimes we dismiss it as idiosyncrasies, or cousin Jane is just like that, it’s a preference. Our mental health affects not only ourselves, but the people around us especially if you live with family or friends, have work colleagues, hobby partners, etc.

Again, until I became suicidal to the point that I noticed a problem and addressed it with my doctor, it was overtaking all of my thoughts. Until then, it fell into the characterization of a shrug, something I do, and something I just live with.

Once I was diagnosed with severe depression and anxiety, I could look back all the way to childhood and see things that I did and felt that I thought were “normal” or things that I was blowing out of proportion with no genuine reason for feeling how I felt. One example of this was when my parents were out of the house. We lived in a split level, so there was a short staircase near the front door, and I sat on those carpeted steps in a heightened state of anxiety waiting for them to get home. Was I six? Ten? No. I think I was sixteen and much too old to be in this state because I was alone in the house. I’m not even sure I was alone in the house – I have two siblings; they may have been home, but it was nighttime, and my parents were not.

I have been on medication since 2012. Medication was not the only answer, but I consider it a large part of my recovery. Medication is not a dirty word; there is nothing to be ashamed of in taking medication to regulate your brain. I take medication for my diabetes and high blood pressure, and no one questions why I take pills instead of just “feeling better” or “calming down”.

Here are five things to do right now or when you wake up or just before you go to bed or whenever you want to do them. You decide what works for you. I was on the phone with someone for my job and I had tried to say something pithy, intelligent, and comforting and what I said was whatever works for you is – *long pause*, well, it’s whatever works for you. I don’t know if it’s intelligent, but it is certainly pithy. It’s also true. I can suggest hundreds of things to do, ways to think, lists upon lists of how to get through the day, but in the end,whatever you decide works for you is what works for you.

Here are those five things that work for me:

  1. Close your eyes and breathe. Through your nose and out of your mouth.
  2. Read a book. Any book.
  3. Color or draw. You don’t need to be an artist. Doodle. Scribble. Something mindless and colorful. Try it for five minutes.
  4. Turn off social media (unless turning it off gives you more anxiety). Not permanently. Turn it off for five minutes. Maybe ten or even fifteen. There is nothing happening online that can’t wait five to fifteen minutes.
  5. Drink a tall glass of iced cold water. Hydration is always the right answer.

Have a good week.

The Mental Health Monday posts for this month will also be crossposted on my Substack.

Mental Health Monday – Do What You Can

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I try to post these Mental Health Mondays during the awareness months, like mental health awareness in May and suicide prevention awareness now in September, and throughout the year when I’m feeling that I need some reminders and tips to keep moving forward.

In this month of suicide prevention, I do post more about mental health than suicide prevention or ideation. That is mostly because despite the desperate need that brings some of us to the brink of suicide there is also the mental health aspect that affects us all in one way or another, at various times, whether we are officially diagnosed or in therapy for other reasons. We all have those  moments that life is just too much.

My suicide ideation came at a difficult time in my life, full of stress and downturns, and other despairs. Or did the stress, downturns, and despair come out because of the suicidal thoughts. Mental health is inextricably linked and often mental health and chemical imbalances result in physical health deteriorating.

I came through it.

You can also come through it.

Some days are better than others, but when the day begins again, each tomorrow is a new day, a new chance to start again, a new opportunity to be better and to make it better, whatever that ‘it’ is in your life.

I’d love to hear some of the ways that you make it through to the next day and begin again.

For some of my ways, look back at the mentalhealthmonday tag; search it in the search box on the left-hand sidebar or click on the tag below.

Let’s help each other. Getting through the tough times is the first step, and every step after that is a success.

Mental Health Monday – A Day Late or Just When It’s Needed?

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Last week, I mentioned in my list to put together your mental health toolbox. Each tool will be different for each person. We may use the same techniques sometimes, but we may not use them for the same reasons. One of the reasons I like to share how I cope is to show how much it changes from when the tool is needed.

First, here is the link to a previous post about Coping Skills and a Toolbox: Coping Skills Toolbox. I found this on Tumblr many years ago, and have found it to be a great resource on its own as well as foundational  for my own added tools.

Second, this is a graphic from my friend’s facebook:

(c)2025

There are so many ways we can rest, and so many different ways we need to rest that it’s important to have that reminder. I know I often think I’m tired, but my rest isn’t helpful. Perhaps, I’m focusing on the wrong rest.

Third, my old standby is watching Supernatural. Supernatural came into my life at a time of heavy crisis, and it is a comfort show for me. What is your one comfort that you can always return to?

Share any tools that work for you, so we can help each other through the big and little events that turn us upside down and around.

Mental Health [Monday] Tuesday

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As I’ve done for previous Mental Health Mondays, this Monday got away from me. And a day late doesn’t end the world. I think that is an important lesson to remember when things in our days get out of hand. I had three things to do yesterday and realized early on that one of them would need to be abandoned. That came with some regret, but I cannot bi-locate (yet) so choices were made. The day was still a time crunch and a lot of driving, but while I didn’t’ get something posted for yesterday, I did remain steadfast in my awareness of my mental health. I knew that I’d need to eat throughout the day. I knew that I’d need to sort out what was for dinner and get the groceries. I knew I needed to plan for the rest of the week, both at home and at work since we’re all “losing” a day to my son’s college commencement. My brother is taking the day off from work to be there, and my daughter is splitting her shift so she can be there and stay for lunch. I should get a cake, but if not, it will be okay since he’s already planning on going to the movies that night with friends. The point is, we all have stuff that comes up in the middle of our carefully laid plans, and how we adapt to them is the basis for how our mental health goes that day and possibly some of the days that follow.

It’s okay to take a break.

We watched Rogue One last night after finishing the Andor series last week, and I only spent time at the very beginning thinking about all the work I needed to be doing on my computer including this post, but I let it go.

Sometimes you can let it go.

And it’s also okay to not be okay.

Take a break.

Read a book.

Watch a movie.

Listen to music.

Stare into space.

It’s all good. Or it will be.

Mental Health Monday – Focus

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I made a small graphic thinking about what helps me focus when things get to be too much.

(c)2025

I began to think about where I begin my mental health awareness. How do I become self-aware and how do I keep on track and moving forward?

These four squares came to me in simple ways. They are both simple and entrenched in my way of being. They are my touchstones. They are not necessarily yours. You will find your own touchstones and ways to cope with whatever comes up daily.

In a similar vein, I’d like to share an exercise that I did on a recent retreat with the Dominican Sisters. The main topic was time and how time affects our priorities and ways we can use to change them and shift where we spend our time. While this retreat wasn’t geared towards mental health and awareness of mental health, time plays an important role in how we perceive our mental health challenges and push and pull until we’re being intentional with our time and our mental health, emphasis on health.

Below I explain the exercise, and hope to come back to it in a couple of weeks. I plan to think my own choices and perhaps begin again.

Continue reading

Mental Health Awareness Month

Green rubber bracelet with the words: Mental Health Awareness Month, resting on a wooden, finger labyrinth
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An Overview of the Month Ahead

Today is the first of May. It is the first day of Mental Health Awareness Month.

Mental Health Awareness Month has several facets. The two that I find most helpful are

  1. make the outside world aware of what mental health is, what struggles we all face, what can be more difficult struggles some of us face, and letting go of the stigma, encouraging talk and sharing coping tools.
  2. Make yourself aware of your own mental health. Where do you struggle? What are some of your coping plans and tools for getting through a rough patch? Or even just an annoyingly mediocre patch? What’s in your toolbox that still works for you?

In other words, assess yourself, share your struggles, challenges, and successes and be there for others in explaining mental health, coping, and the ongoing recovery. Be there for yourself and for others. Some days you can only do one of those, and that’s okay.

Beginning on Monday, I will be publishing a weekly column called Mental Health Monday. I have done many of these throughout the previous several years. Search through the tags to see older but still valuable approaches and coping tools. Sometimes, we forget and rereading and reestablishing some of them again is a valuable tool.

Reassessment in recovery, I find, is ongoing.

None of the strategies and coping tools that I post this month are intended to suggest you forego medication alternatives. I take medication – both prescription and supplemental, all with my doctor’s input and approval. I wouldn’t be here without medication. Don’t let anyone shame you for taking care of yourself. Just like getting from point A to point B, there are many different roads to travel. Very rarely is there just one way, and one (or more) of them is the right way for you. Changing direction is okay, too.

Recognizing a better way and adapting.

Just as a counter has a take a penny, leave a penny dish, in mental health, take a strategy, leave a strategy.

We are all here to help each other.

The tag “mental health monday” is your dish to choose from.

I’ve always thought of my depression, anxiety, and mental health struggles as a journey – a period of recovery with no tangible cure; only moving forward in my mental health, my mental space, my mental recovery.

This is my path and sometimes we cross paths. This is us crossing paths and offering insight, motivation, and ways to keep getting through.

Mental Health Monday – Being Okay

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Or not.

I didn’t bring my sweater.

I don’t need my sweater, but a covering is part of my security. I can put it on to hide and take it off to be open. No one knows this; it’s just for me.

What’s important to you is important to you.

It’s okay to have stuff just for you.

And it’s okay to be not okay.

Have the best day you can today.