Research shows that repeating positive self-affirmations over time, along with other treatments, can help with developing a more positive attitude towards yourself and the world around you.

Here are the ones that I use daily for the conditions I live with: ADHD, Anxiety and Depression

I wanted to create a list of things that can be easily done for those of us who are looking to make this quarantine period productive, especially for those who struggle with depression and anxiety when motivation is fleeting. It’s so hard not to focus on the bad stuff!

In this blog, I detail ideas my community and I came up with during one of my live streams for things to do during quarantine to avoid COVID-19 panic and feeling cabin fever.

Although I am extremely fortunate in my life right now with how my family understands my mental health challenges, my prior family would shame me for being “needy” or “too sensitive" making it important that I made my self-care inconspicuous. That’s why I wanted to offer a list of gifts that are incredible on their own, but great discrete mental health helpers too.

“You just need to get out more,” is not a solution to mental illness. That is not how our minds work. Unbalanced chemicals and similar issues will remain with you, no matter where you are. Yes, getting out there helps your mind reach new spaces, and for some, might even be the long-needed jolt, but that is by far, not the case for all.

During an episode after another celebrity passing from suicide, the community of Mxiety On Twitch wanted to put together their symptoms (or red flags) that let them know something might be wrong. Here is that list, it is by no means conclusive but might be a good start for those who want to know what to look for in their loved ones who live with depression.

At the end of the day, please confer with your doctor and do not diagnose yourself based on this list alone.

Although I’ve made posts in the past about what’s helped me get through anxiety, I still find “any advice about what I can do for anxiety,” to be the question I am asked the most on and off stream. So I created a set of quick tips that I have learned. 

Depression: the exact symptoms vary from person to person, but the isolation comes standard. There are plenty of good articles out there about finding solutions for the excessive lows that accompany this mental illness, but this one will be a bit different. I will not tell you what you’re doing wrong, and I will not tell you that you HAVE to do XYZ to feel better.

Online, you are not just a content creator but also a community leader. After over a year, 50+ interviews, and countless hours of preparation, combined with my training as a mental health first aid provider, a NoStigmas ally, and an Ambassador for Takethis.org, I’m at a place where people solicit my advice and help on how to advocate for mental health.

Eventually, we realized the only place that two nerds like us would spend a long time traveling to would be Japan. We always assumed it was an impossible trip due to our chronic illnesses. Between the two of us we share a basket full, and Panic Disorder is included in my husband’s portion.  

Having chronic, diagnosed depression and anxiety means sleep is often an elusive concept. It also means that’s it’s incredibly crucial I get my full rest, otherwise the exhaustion makes it a lot harder to tackle the following day’s intrusive thoughts.Here’s the list of best practices I have collected over the past ten years that have helped me cope. I hope something in the following list resonates and perhaps even helps.

Before I broke up my goals, I was facing a roaring river, attempting to run across without drowning or getting hurt. With each goal, it was as if I set a stone. Once I jumped onto that stone, I placed another one before stepping forward. And so on, until I was on a path, with so much determination, that there was no way I was returning to the same shore. Even if I am not sure what is on the other shore, I knew I wanted to start moving towards it.

We've reached the end of 2017 the Anxiety Relief series (for now). Anxiety sucks when I am trying to walk outside and enjoy a nice, summer day. Or when I am in the checkout lane trying to leave a store. But it’s more frustrating when I’m in a crowded subway or about to enter a job interview. On days when my brain chemistry is all out of whack, anxiety doesn’t care what I’m doing. It just sucks.

Image by: VIKTOR HANACEK for picjumbo

Alright, I’ve made a few posts (See Part One and Two ) about my Anti-Anxiety Kit at this point. It’s a summarized list of things (physical and emotional) I have used over the years to help cope with my symptoms as they happened. When I started running, I would lose breath after a 100 yards and fall to my knees, dizzy without oxygen. I got upset and cried because I just wanted to jog. Running was supposed to help me learn how to breathe and make my anxiety better, but instead, it felt like it broke me.

Cover Photo by Emma Simpson on Unsplash

All it takes is being around too many people and, in the words of the wise Jack Sparrow, “we have our heading.” And it’s direction is down.

To cope, I have subconsciously been collecting an Anti-Anxiety Kit: a combination of things and ideas that help soothe the bad moments and distract my mind from itself. In case it helps someone else, I wanted to share it here. Considering we have Christmas just around the corner, it seems timely!

To manage, somewhere in the back of brain, I have been putting together an Anxiety Kit.  It’s a combination of things that I have used to help soothe the bad moments, to distract my mind from itself and avoid the grand finale—a panic attack. It’s a combination of coping mechanisms I have found in workbooks, heard from my therapist, or brought to me by friends. In hopes that it will help you too, I wrote them all down.