1) meds. after last month being absolutely awful for me (injury, sickness, losing my job), and crying every day for a good two weeks i was told to increase my Lexapro dosage which has helped a lot
2) blocking out the bs. someone on this app told me that when it comes to being an advocate for others, you have to be one for yourself first. if you aren’t mentally sound, then you will most likely not be able to fulfill what you can for others or burn out. i had to come to some realizations lately about politics, international affairs, and the privilege i have to sadly, step back. because when i pay too much attention then i get thrown off. there are things in life you can’t control and coming to terms with that and watching from the sidelines is okay. that’s all to say i try my best to avoid negative stuff when it is forced on to me. i give myself an hour out the week to get informed a bit and tune it off.
3) healthy distractions. find things that make you calm. you don’t have to do something that creates a product or anything. just do something to calm your mind. for me that’s my comfort tv shows
May 22, 2025
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Ok, this might be controversial. But when I was in my early 20s I would wake up every morning and read the news. I was also at the time suicidal. I had to stop reading or watching the news. Get offline for a little bit, become a little more ignorant. Because you can’t help the world if you’re dead, you can’t help the world if you‘re paralysed by misery. It’s doesn’t have to be forever, it’s just for right now, just for a bit while you let yourself climb out of misery. During this break from it all first try to actively participate in your recovery (I went home to see my sister and my dad - which involved admitting to my family how bad it was which in itself was massive, it also involved telling my uni I needed extensions, asking for help from a dr, letting my friend Alice look after me, trying to eat better etc). Then if you’re starting to feel a little better, you can begin to start actively participating in your community and in theory. contrary to popular opinion, you don’t need to be plugged into exactly what it going on it the world everyday to be active and involved! This can look like reading books on political theory or community building (read some Bell Hooks, Angela Davis, Marx whatever!). It can look like exactly what royallmonarch said in his response! Honestly sometimes now I switch off from actively engaging in the news, and I still can feel involved because I have enough knowledge of my own beliefs, understanding of some theory, and involved and passionate friends that I will almost always know what’s going on and important through them. literally what is the point in knowing everything when you can’t possibly act on everything? People online saying you have to witness the most horrific acts of society in order to understand the world seem to me to be people who clearly don’t have as strong a sense of empathy as you or I have! (Also side note: for me important things for my recovery from years of depression and world-related anxiety involved getting of hormonal contraception, a steady and good therapist who I could see for years rather than in like 6 weeks bursts, getting a correct diagnosis and medication, and moving home to be with my family. Nothing happens in isolation, so many things shift and one day you suddenly realise it’s better. I truly believe the fact that you want to feel better is a sign that you can.) xxx
Jun 29, 2024
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I honestly accept despair as it comes even if it is hard. I learn to cope by creating a schedule so packed I have no time to think about the reality. It works for a moment but ultimately I just try to take despair as a temporary feeling. The feeling can be distracted but will never fully go away no matter how much I fight it. Allow despair but don’t let it consume you watch movies, work on hobbies, write a random story or sit on a bench. simple things can ease despair.
May 22, 2025
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man i wish i could tell you. i have felt so scared and demoralized for the past two weeks- my grades are dropping, my anxiety is spiked. but i did talk/cry to my therapist about it yesterday, and she talked/cried too a little bit, and it was very refreshing to drop this front and hear from another sane person about how scared we were for ourselves and our loved ones and everything we hold dear about humanity.
she pointed out that it’s better not to suffer alone, and we should be talking to as many people as we can about our fears and supporting each other.
she pointed out that consuming news 24/7 will probably kill you, and to set a realistic limit- like checking every other day, and if a headline makes you feel scared, force yourself to read the whole article because headlines are designed to trigger a response and oftentimes reading the entire article will reveal things aren’t as bad as you thought.
she pointed out that feeling guilt over the privilege to look away from things isn’t productive, and to acknowledge your privilege and use it as best as you can, and that shutting down from an overwhelming amount of information isn’t helpful so we all need to be taking breaks and taking care of ourselves (as crazy as it sounds right now).
speak out loud to your anxiety as if it were a separate entity. ground yourself with the facts of the situation. are you in immediate mortal danger? probably not. there are probably objective positives and negatives to acknowledge and getting through and above your emotion might help you navigate the day.
otherwise, hold your loved ones close, make art, boycott evil corporations, speak out wherever you can, be compassionate- i feel so powerless but if we all hold on to our integrity, who knows what could happen. maybe truth and equality will prevail. it might be ten years from now but things, god willing, can get better. and i hope it does when people wake up to the class struggle that is happening right now
Feb 5, 2025
Top Recs from @chiawase_
idk how i came across this in my daily wikipedia surfs, but something about this painting just amuses me so much.
my first impression was this looks fairly modern in a way, possibly because of the composition and how she made her features so light and bouncy. it oddly made me think of disney when i looked for longer. then i see it was made in 1909 😂
this painting can transcend times and i wouldn’t truly know when it was made unless i looked more closely at the objects around the subject. but even that can be a stretch as vintage items can be popular amongst anyone and they can just have their vanity setup look like this.
i tried looking for photographs of her online but alas nothing came up with certainty.
Apr 27, 2025
Feb 10, 2025
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when you’re bored, ever just get the urge to take a walk, do yoga, or work out in some other way?
May 3, 2025