Tag Archives: journey
3 Steps to Cope with Suicidal Thoughts During Recovery
When you have a mental illness, self-medication and addiction are a huge risk. With the current stigma against mental illness persisting, it can seem easier to simply handle your symptoms yourself. However, when you abuse addictive substances, there are always consequences.
Once you are in rehab and focusing on your recovery, you may notice your symptoms returning worse than ever before. This is the result of the addiction. Sobriety after a stint of self-medication can very easily lead to increased difficulties with your illness. All too commonly, this also means suicidal thoughts. Here are a few steps you can use to cope with suicidal thoughts as you work to overcome an addiction.
Get Professional Treatment
Your very first step needs to be seeking professional help. Self-medication often occurs due to a lack of proper treatment and should be corrected immediately. Without treatment, it becomes far more likely for you to fall back into old habits in an attempt to manage your symptoms.
As someone with a mental illness and an addiction, you are already at a greater risk for suicide than other people. By seeking help, you can reduce that statistic and avoid relapse. A quality treatment should be tackling both your addiction and your mental illness, not just one or the other.
Find a Healthy Coping Tactic
Other people use drugs or alcohol as more of a coping tactic than a treatment. If their depression, anxiety, or other illness is acting up, a substance can make you feel better for a short period of time. This habit evolves into a comfort item for whenever things get bad. For example, someone with anxiety may have abused alcohol to get through a social occasion. Suddenly, they are drinking every time they need to spend time with other people.
A positive coping tactic will help your brain replace the addiction. Rather than wishing for the substance, your brain will learn to reach for the coping method instead. Some great options might be coloring, cross-stitching, yoga, meditation, knitting, or doodling.
Reach Out
People undergoing a stressful time in their lives need the support of others. If you have close friends and family, find a way to reach out and stay in touch. Make sure you educate them on your problems so that they can be as helpful as possible during this time.
If you do not have many people in your life that you feel safe around, you may consider a support group. Support groups are wonderful because they are pre-educated friends who understand what you are going through and know how to help.
Handling suicidal thoughts is never easy but experiencing this problem in the face of addiction recovery and mental illness is even harder. It is important that you take the necessary steps to handle these thoughts and do not brush them off. Suicidal thoughts are very serious and require support and treatment to correct. So find help and reach out to loved ones or support groups. You do not need to go through this alone.
Chloe Pearson is a research specialist and freelance writer. She enjoys volunteering for ConsumerHealthLabs.com because she understands that in order for consumers to make the best decisions about their health they need reliable, well-researched information on which to base those decisions. And that’s precisely what everyone at Consumer Health Labs aims to do as they explore and interpret new health-related data and research.
Image via Pixabay by zachosine
Live on air interview Vertikal Radio as we conclude mental illness awareness week
Part 1
Part 2
Part 3
PART 4
Look who is featured in Upscale Magazine 👀💚 Thank you Upscale Magazine!!!!! #Grateful the awareness is spreading….
BESTSELLING AUTHOR YASSIN HALL FURTHERS MISSION AS PART OF NATIONAL MENTAL ILLNESS AWARENESS WEEK 2016
In recognition of Mental Illness Awareness Week (#MIAW October 2nd -8th 2016) Author Yassin Hall brings her mission of replacing stigma with education and healing to the forefront. She is a Mental Health Advocate, Educator, Motivational Speaker and Amazon Best Selling Author of “Journey Untold…Twisted Love: My Mother’s Struggle with Mental Illnesses”. Millions of Americans live with and are affected by mental health issues and conditions. Since 1992, the U.S. Congress enacted the first week of October as Mental Illness Awareness Week. An annual week fostering national unified conversation of advocates across the country to change the epidemic.
Born and raised on St. Thomas, U.S. Virgin Islands, Hall now based in Atlanta, Georgia is the visionary of a movement founded on her commitment to empower youths and communities facing mental health issues to cope and heal. Her mother’s public battle and unfortunate demise with mental illnesses birthed a huge obstacle that could’ve easily derailed her. Hall’s story is one of severe turmoil and eventual redemption of a child growing up on a small island community with a mother battling mental illnesses. “Journey Untold…Twisted Love: My Mother’s Struggle with Mental Illnesses” has become her platform to channel change in breaking mental illness stigma through acceptance, education and treatment.
She is the Founder and Program Manager of Milestones Moms Support GroupMilestones Moms Support Group, an entity providing support and resources to mothers who share similar unspoken experiences and challenges of raising a child suffering from some form of mental illness. Hall is a certified CIT & Mental Health First Aider, Dance Mom, Entrepreneur, Real Estate Mogul and Life Mentor. She has appeared on CBS and PBS Television in addition to working closely with the DOH to bring awareness to communities with many undiagnosed and untreated mentally ill. She has devoted her time, services and efforts to numerous organizations dedicated to this cause including NAMI (National Alliance on Mental Illness) and served as a Presenter on the organization’s behalf for “Ending the Silence”. Amongst her many other affiliations and work with mental illness in the Caribbean and U.S., she was recently announced as a distinguished panelist for Teachers of Atlanta 2017 Speakers. If you or someone you know may need anonymous online tools concerning help with mental illness or to join in this mission, please visit www.JourneyUntold.com
The Traveling Book – “The Evolution”
After many requests here I am at 11:24pm blogging. So tired but finding the the time to get into the world of blogging.
“The Evolution” of the Traveling Book Journey Untold
Did I ever see myself as a author? NO!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
So how did I write my story?
This lady, Lo’an Sewer
…who is also my cousin wrote this newspaper article about my accomplishments featuring my online women’s boutique store Let’s Journey into Fashion in November 2013. My book was not published until January 2015. Yeah a little over a year ago.
She told me back in 2013 “you have an inspirational story that can help others and you should write a book”. With a very stern NO! because I simply thought “who would care to read about my life of pure emotional turmoil and shame?”
Many times she said to me “people would care” insistently I said, “NO!”
Couple months later she asked again, but this time she was specific! She said “Yas you should write a book and it should be about your mother’s mental illness.”
Well, with my blood broiling and almost to the point of feeling “oh hell to the no!” “I was NOT going to write a book about the very SHAME & PAIN that plagued my life and now she wanted that book to be my 1st book!!!!!
Inside I felt insulted like good grief will this horrible plaque of mental illness just PLEASE go away!!! You see for most of my life I had been afraid to know the entire truth. Not just the truth regarding my mother’s illness but facing my own truth of turmoil inside.
I told her rather bold & abrupt NO I AM NOT WRITING A BOOK ABOUT MY MOTHER and ended the conversation over the phone.
To be continued….
A unique guest article on battling anxiety and addiction — and winning
4 Reasons to Share Your Personal Journey with Others
If you’ve struggled with alcoholism or severe depression with thoughts of suicide, you know too well the feelings of being utterly alone. Even if you have family and friends who love you, spiraling into the depths of depression, alcohol abuse, and suicide make you blind to your own value. It can leave you feeling as though your loved ones would be better off without you around.
Having gone through such a journey and emerging a stronger, more resilient person allows for an opportunity to share that journey. Sharing your story can be one of the most meaningful things you can do, not only for your own recovery, but for the benefits of others. Here’s why.
- Sharing your journey helps you connect with your community. The setup of an Alcoholics Anonymous meeting has been dramatized on television so many times: One individual is selected to stand up and speak, beginning their statement with, “Hi, my name is Joe, and I’m an alcoholic.” It’s very recognizable. The intent behind this is the first step in the 12-step program to recovery, which is admitting that you have an addiction and that you are powerless over it.
This serves another critical purpose– introducing yourself to the community that will support you throughout your recovery. Welcomes are often warm and encouraging for those who may be attending their first meeting or are just beginning their journey to recovery. People sharing their personal journeys can connect attendees with each other, and raise awareness that they are truly not alone.
This mutual sharing of stories cultivates an atmosphere of trust and acceptance. It’s this effect that often makes support meetings such as those of AA feel like a safe haven for those suffering with addiction or mental illness.
- Your personal story enables you to support and inspire others. For those who have been through the process and achieved successful recovery, the story that follows often inspires others who are just beginning their own journeys. For an alcoholic who has suffered from severe depression and even thoughts of suicide, hearing stories from those who have walked this difficult path and emerged on the other side is often the inspiration they need to keep going.
You can share your story beyond a setting like an AA meeting. Many recovering alcoholics, people who have suffered from mental illness or suicidal feelings, and family members of those recovering have started blogs, some of which have grown to become virtual recovery communities. Whether in an online setting or an in-person meeting or support group, peers in recovery take comfort in knowing that they will be met with understanding and compassion.
- Sharing your personal story could save lives. Sharing your story through a blog or a stand-alone article can be as therapeutic for you as it is inspiring for others going through similar circumstances. An alcoholic or someone contemplating suicide may read your story and be inspired to seek help, realizing that recovery is truly possible.
When someone is near rock-bottom, or in the deepest depression, they may be unlikely to venture out to seek help or even pick up the phone. But because the Internet enables anyone to connect with and share information with anyone around the world, it’s now possible to seek out options for help anonymously.
A powerful story of recovery can be a lifeline for someone about to make a terrible and drastic choice. Your words could be the single influencing factor that makes them change their mind – even for one day. That could be the day during which that person decides to reach out for help. They may decide to call a helpline for immediate assistance, or admit to a loved one that they are struggling with alcoholism, depression, or thoughts of suicide. The power to save lives through sharing your personal journey is immeasurable.
- Improving your feelings of self-worth and recognizing your value. There are many benefits to your peers in recovery groups, or others with similar struggles, but sharing your personal journey benefits the storyteller as well. The recovery journey is often a long road as well as a pivotal period. Sharing this with others gives meaning to what you’ve gone through. Your journey may have the ability to impact and influence others to make a change for the better. It may also help you remain grounded and offer perspective on the importance of continuing your ongoing recovery.
Telling your recovery story can also help you find your voice. As Jay Boll, Editor in Chief at Resources to Recover, explains, “Writing about a difficult period in your life can help you organize the chaos of past events in the structure of a story with a beginning, middle and end, and a moral you can learn from. It allows you to think about the events of your life and express them in a way that makes sense to other people and ultimately to you yourself.”
Above all, your story is important. Being able to inspire other people who are experiencing similar struggles, and encourage them to take action to change their lives is a gift. That’s why friends and loved ones are often unable to reach their loved ones who are struggling with addiction or depression – the mutual experience is the key to inspire someone to change course.
It may seem uncomfortable at first to share your personal recovery journey. However, once you realize the power that your experience has given you to transform lives, it’s a gift that you cannot leave unutilized.
Chloe Pearson is a research specialist and freelance writer. She enjoys volunteering for ConsumerHealthLabs.com because she understands that in order for consumers to make the best decisions about their health they need reliable, well-researched information on which to base those decisions. And that’s precisely what everyone at Consumer Health Labs aims to do as they explore and interpret new health-related data and research.
Image via Pixabay by rudamese
The Traveling Book
From 2015 this memoir has traveled around the world….everyone tells me “Yas you should write a blog” of course my response is genuinely…”I wish I had the extra time”….I guess I will find the time…stay tuned for the adventures of The Traveling Book – Journey Untold
Yassin Hall Mental Health Advocate Educator Motivational Speaker End the Stigma Awareness Amazon Best Seller Author Entrepreneur CEO Founder Special Needs Mom 