Calming masterpost:

crisis/urgent support lines and sites

relaxation/anxiety relief

the quiet place project

music and sounds

comfort food

advice and tips

videos and movies

distractions etc

extras

Calming songs, playlists and instrumentals:

Calming/distracting Websites

Crafts and activities, easy and fun DYI projects

What to do when:

Meditation and breathing

Simple things

Make Something!

Other Nice Things

Calming/Relaxing Music:

“I don’t want to die, I just don’t want to exist any more” sounds mild if you’ve never experienced it, but it is in fact a horrible, violent way to feel.

How to Tell Your Friend That You Need a Break From Supporting Them

When I worked at a mental health crisis centre, I couldn’t believe how many people came to us, not because of their own problems, but because they were so lost in a friend’s pain that they couldn’t take it anymore. I saw a lot of people who were so worn down from helping someone else that they couldn’t sleep, eat, socialize or focus at work or school. They were consumed with guilt every time they put down their phones, went to sleep, or dared to enjoy themselves and have a good time. All because they had no idea how to set boundaries.  Helping your friends through a tough situation is a wonderful and noble thing to do, but it only works if you’re mentally in a place to do so. If you’re dealing with issues or mental illness of your own, you’re not always capable of being someone else’s shoulder to cry on 24/7. And that’s okay. Sometimes, you have to put yourself first. You can’t help someone else if you’re a mess yourself. You can’t save a drowning person with a sinking ship.  Telling a friend that you’re overwhelmed and you need a break is one of the hardest things you’ll ever have to do. Honesty is the best policy - don’t go radio silent on them, or avoid answering their messages. Be honest about how you’re feeling, and what you need from them. If you’re stuck on what to say and how to start the conversation, here are a few suggestions. Feel free to copy them exactly: It’s really hard for me to admit this, but I’ve been feeling like I’m on the verge of a breakdown lately. I love you and I care about you, but I need to take some time to take care of myself for a while.  I’m really concerned about you, but I honestly don’t know how to deal with this and I’m worried I’ll say the wrong thing. I really think that you should talk to a professional about this.  This is hard for me to admit, but I have a lot going on in my life right now, and it’s getting to be too much for me. Would it be okay if we talked about lighter stuff for the next little while?

You deserve more support than I can give you. I think you need to tell a close family member or professional about what’s going on. 

It seems like every time we talk about this, things are worse for you. I’m worried that my advice isn’t helping you at all, and I think you should talk to someone more qualified than me. 

I’m really worried for your safety, and it breaks my heart, but I can’t keep you safe all by myself. Would it be okay if we told someone else what was going on? 

I’m sorry, but I can’t answer my text messages 24 hours per day. I really want to make sure that you always have someone to turn to if I’m not available. Are there some other people you would trust with this? I can help you tell them, if you’re not comfortable doing it by yourself.  I hope these suggestions are helpful - best of luck to all of you, and make sure to put your own mental health first when you have to. 

My dash seems to have formed a theme tonight (from unrelated blogs that don’t typically reblog each other, which perturbs me.

Nobody gets this 😕

Nobody gets this and nobody gets how it can lead to a very scary place where you are completely unable to trust your recollection and a lot of people will take advantage of that when they realize it . It’s so hard.

Yeah I have this problem a lot

when somebody you know gets diagnosed with something you have

mentally ill people have to jump through so many hoops to be considered “good”. we have to be in therapy, we have to be on meds, we have to get up every day and overcome our illness every day or else we’re just being lazy. we’re not allowed to be ill unless we don’t show any signs of illness

shoutout to all my mentally ill people with memory issues who are shouted at and told they’re lazy and disrespectful for not doing things when/how they’re told to because they forgot because apparently that just isnt an appropriate enough justification for anyone

So there is a new movie coming out in January called Split (this is the trailer and could have potential triggers in it, stay safe) feel compelled to talk about. The short of it is a man with Dissociative Identity Disorder kidnaps three teenage girls for reasons not shown in the trailer. Theres talk of “The Beast” but its made unclear if this is a personality or an outside force.

There are several reasons why this movie is offensive to us who have DID, one of the major ones is we are consistently portrayed in a negative light, used for a cheap twist, or heavily dramatized with the main focus being on the “horrific abuse” instead of the person.

I’d ask you not to give money to this film, but if you want to go see it I can’t stop you, I can only inform you of facts about DID and what it is not:

What I’m trying to get across here is the trope of “evil personality” is false. Alters are not evil, they do not exist merely to cause destruction and are extremely unlikely to go out and hurt someone. An alter may have been told they are evil, and state this when they are out, but in reality it is something they were forced to believe because at the time there was no other option.

We are not dangerous. We are just trying to survive and live our life. Dissociative Identity Disorder is not a crutch for a writer to use to create a weak villain, or to do a cheap twist.

Some people say ‘just turn off the lights and go to bed on time,’ and this is terrible advice for people with depression and anxiety.

It’s actually caused me to hate going to sleep for the night. Seriously. I have chronic fatigue and a couple other conditions that make me tired all the darn time and I hate going to sleep and because I have this strong emotional reaction to it my brain and body will put a lot of effort into avoiding it.

Once you turn off the lights and get rid of all ‘distractions,’ there is nothing to think about. This leaves you easy prey for anxious thoughts, obsessive ones, and depressive spirals.

And, if you are depressed, the more time your brain spends in depressive spirals the sicker you will get.

One of the best methods of treating depressing is teaching people how to ID depressive spirals and figured out how to break out of them and avoid them. 

And for me, one of the best ways of avoiding getting stuck in a depressive spiral for hours is to not go to bed until I have reason to believe I’ll actually go to sleep instead of lie there trapped in one while my brain gets sicker and sicker for hours. 

I developed the habit as a kid of having a book on me at all times, bringing three books to school to ensure I wouldn’t run out, so I had something to occupy my brain to stop it from dragging itself down.

I just spent thirty minutes lying still with all lights out. That was a terrible idea and I will now be up even later trying to calm down and undo the damage when I could have spent that thirty minutes reading something or doing something else to wind down and calm my brain enough it wouldn’t go and stick its fingers in an electrical socket the instant I left it alone. ‘Free hands do the devil’s work’ definitely applies to sick brains. It is now 4:40am. I do not need to stay up even later than I would have otherwise. 

And this kind of thing is why I have developed a Pavlovian avoidance of trying to go to sleep unless I’m certain it’ll be over quickly and relatively painless. I’m already sick, I don’t need to get even sicker and feel any more pain. 

Sensory Kits (Part 1)

This is the first post in a multi-post series about sensory kits. I figured a lot of you probably know about these already, but this might have ideas you hadn’t previously thought of? Idk. 

What are they?

As you may know/figure out due to the self-explanatory title, a sensory kit is a group of items that help mitigate sensory overload and its related issues. It can include comfort items, communication aids, and fidget/stim toys, to name a few. 

How do I make one?

This part is highly subjective and individual! It depends on how big you would like your kit to be and what occasion you will be using it for. 

Container- 

For a small sensory kit, use a pencil case with a cool texture or pleasing design. It can be placed in a small bag if needed or carried by itself. These are good to leave by the door to grab quickly in case you’ve forgotten sensory items that might be helpful at your destination or during your trip there. You can also keep them in a car, locker, desk, or any random place.  

A medium sensory kit will have as many items as the small one, only with larger items such as a water bottle, medium-large sized stuffed animals, book/art supplies, or technology (such as a handheld game console or tablet computer). This kit can be kept in a drawstring backpack or small cross-body bag. Like a small sensory kit, it can also be placed in a larger bag.  

A large sensory kit will be kept in your living space. This one is not kept in a container and can include large/difficult to transport items such as a weighted blanket, balance board, spinny chair, or exercise ball. 

Items to include- 

When thinking of items to put in your sensory kit, consider all of the senses. For our purposes, let’s pick seven: (potential items to include for that sense are in parentheticals)

Visual- sight. (glitter ball, glitter wand, cellophane bubble stick, stim toys in pretty/soothing colors, mirror, colored flashlight, bubbles, sunglasses)

Auditory- noise. (noise reducing earmuffs, earplugs, acoustic filters, headphones (noise cancelling or other), noise-isolating earbuds, music player, tiny music box that requires you to turn the handle)

Tactile- touch. (virtually every stim toy- tangles, twiddle, stress ball, etc., soft fabric/ribbon, stuffed animal, soft art/makeup brush)

Olfactory- smell. (essential oils, scented lotions, coffee beans, tea bags, face masks, gum, mints)

Gustatory- taste. (food, chew toy, mints, gum, water bottle with iced tea/drink that tastes good)

Proprioceptive- sense of where your body is in space. (weighted/pressure vest, lap pad, putty, chew toy, exercise band)

Vestibular- movement. (This can be hard to fit in a little kit.) (movement suggestion cards- rocking, jumping up and down, skipping, running, flapping your hands/arms. Make a deck out of index cards/half index cards, shuffle, pick a card, and do the thing on it!) 

Other helpful items to include could be: Communication device or notepad and pencil, hand sanitizer, tissues, coloring book/art supplies, book/magazine, cell phone/computer, handheld gaming system, other comfort or distracting items, especially when the kit will be used in a stressful environment.

Hope this helps, and if you have any other suggestions for items please let me know! If you want to share your sensory kit you can submit a post through the main, I will be putting some of mine up soon. 

cr1tikal has ocd??????? holy shit

this is like… wow

tired of your boring old regular depression? try DOUBLE DEPRESSION

everyone: “but youre doing so well in college”

me: i am literally dying i dont know who i am and im a shell of myself. i cant remember one thing i did last week, everything is a blur and i some how simultaneously sleep all the time and never sleep 

dark synapses show me the illegal serotonins

dissociation! in three exciting flavors:

- Endless Apathy - i have replaced my flat screen TV with an even bigger, flatter screen. it’s a wall! it only has one channel. fascinating. nothing is fucking real. - my mind is telling me Death but my body is telling me 3 AM Mania-Induced Craft Project

when you go from a bad situation into a better one you may collapse exhausted and unsure what to do and full of grief, you may need time to regain the ability to do things as yourself or motivated by anything other than terror, you may need time to process or mourn or fall apart in ways you could not before,

and people may use this as proof that the old situation was better for you, proof that you need to go back, and it is not proof that it was better for you or proof that you need to go back

!!!

It’s so incredibly common to “fall apart” when you’re finally safe. You no longer need to stay so tightly coiled in on yourself, you can finally leave survival mode and process your trauma. You’re not holding yourself up by sheer terror anymore and suddenly the damage that terror has done to you becomes immediate and obvious. 

This is so important. Don’t go back. Things are already getting better, even if it doesn’t feel that way.

Super Human. A short superhero comic about depression or something. Art by Stephen Morrow. Written by Johnathon O. Lyon. Lettering by boy Roland.

If you’d like to buy a hard copy of this comic, or just want to talk to John about literally whatever because he’s super down for that, hit him up at [email protected].

You can also check out John’s afterword HERE. If you want.

I drew and colored a short comic written by @johnathonolyon that @boyroland lettered, please read it, enjoy it and share it!