As I wrote the book Perfectly Hidden Depression, I included over sixty specific exercises that would make reading it more of an emotional challenge, rather than one more chance to analyze. They are both action-oriented and reflective exercises and hopefully, you'd come away with a journal full of fresh insights, guidance on effecting real change in your life and support for taking risks.
So today I want to give you a taste of those exercises, so that you can get a sense of how this kind of change can be tried on for size. So many people want to change but start off with a plan that's way too difficult or hard to reach. Instead, these exercises are things you can do to help set yourself up for success – however it is that you would like to define that success. They include: creating a mantra, beginning to detach from shame, identifying emotions that are hard to feel, realizing underlying beliefs about worry and other feeling states, receiving positive recognition from others, and creating your own relationship graphic.
Our listener email is from someone who’s identified with perfectly hidden depression. But her specific problem lies with jealousy or difficulty as she tries to maintain a friendship with her ex.
You can hear more about depression and many other topics by listening to my podcast, SelfWork with Dr. Margaret Rutherford. Subscribe to my website and receive one weekly newsletter including my weekly blog post and podcast! If you’d like to join my FaceBook closed group, then click here and answer the membership questions! Welcome!
My new book entitled Perfectly Hidden Depression will be arriving November 1, 2019 and you can pre-order here! Its message is specifically for those with a struggle with strong perfectionism which acts to mask underlying emotional pain. But the many self-help techniques described can be used by everyone who chooses to begin to address emotions long hidden away that are clouding and sabotaging your current life.
And there’s a new way to send me a message! You can record by clicking below and ask your question or make a comment. You’ll have 90 seconds to do so and that time goes quickly. By recording, you’re giving SelfWork (and me) permission to use your voice on the podcast. I’ll look forward to hearing from you!
Image courtesy Pexels.
This month has been full of questions from all of you! So I'm taking today to answer even more of them! The topics are diverse. The first is from a man whose dreams haven’t been fulfilled and he’s almost totally given up that dream and is escaping through The second from a woman who’s trying to make a decision about revealing past sexual abuse. The third from a man who’s realizing that a lot of his anxiety comes from feeling like he’s always disappointing other people. And the last is from a woman who’s married and the cycle she and her husband are in sounds as if it’s rapidly becoming more and more volatile and violent.
Hopefully listening in will help you find your way in whatever you're trying to cope with. And I'll look forward to next week!
You can hear more about depression and many other topics by listening to my podcast, SelfWork with Dr. Margaret Rutherford. Subscribe to my website and receive one weekly newsletter including my weekly blog post and podcast! If you’d like to join my FaceBook closed group, then click here and answer the membership questions! Welcome!
My new book entitled Perfectly Hidden Depression will be arriving November 1, 2019 and you can pre-order here! Its message is specifically for those with a struggle with strong perfectionism which acts to mask underlying emotional pain. But the many self-help techniques described can be used by everyone who chooses to begin to address emotions long hidden away that are clouding and sabotaging your current life.
And there’s a new way to send me a message! You can record by clicking below and ask your question or make a comment. You’ll have 90 seconds to do so and that time goes quickly. By recording, you’re giving SelfWork (and me) permission to use your voice on the podcast. I’ll look forward to hearing from you!
Image courtesy Pexels.
Happy 150th Episode!! This is the last of the series on aspects of depression and today, we're talking about self-destructive habits and patterns. Depression is innately painful. It’s lonely. It’s dark. Sometimes you lose hope that you can find your way out. So, you can easily turn to self-destructive behaviors to gain some form of perceived control or escape.
Our focus will be on six, although we're completely leaving out substance abuse, which of course, is huge. Those six are: spending/shopping, bingeing and purging, restricting food/dieting/compulsive exercise, cutting, having an affair, and overly rigid compartmentalization. I’ll offer stories from my own patients and how they began to change their thinking about the escape routes they’d come to count on. And I’ll offer the question that I’ve used to help people begin to understand what function these behaviors are serving.
The listener email is from someone who believes her husband has PHD (perfectly hidden depression). But she asks, "Since he’s highly perfectionistic, how can I approach him?"
You can hear more about depression and many other topics by listening to my podcast, SelfWork with Dr. Margaret Rutherford. Subscribe to my website and receive one weekly newsletter including my weekly blog post and podcast! If you’d like to join my FaceBook closed group, then click here and answer the membership questions! Welcome!
My new book entitled Perfectly Hidden Depression will be arriving November 1, 2019 and you can pre-order here! Its message is specifically for those with a struggle with strong perfectionism which acts to mask underlying emotional pain. But the many self-help techniques described can be used by everyone who chooses to begin to address emotions long hidden away that are clouding and sabotaging your current life.
And there’s a new way to send me a message! You can record by clicking below and ask your question or make a comment. You’ll have 90 seconds to do so and that time goes quickly. By recording, you’re giving SelfWork (and me) permission to use your voice on the podcast. I’ll look forward to hearing from you!
Image courtesy Pexels.
Depression and anxiety turn up in several mental illnesses. Yet when there's a definite mood cycle -- when one energy level of mood becomes apparent, either a too up or too down, and then another eventually takes it place -- this can earn the diagnosis of Bipolar II Disorder if certain criteria are met. I'll talk about what Bipolar II is exactly and relay the stories of two people with Bipolar Disorder, Julie Kraft and Jennifer Marshall, both well-known advocates for talking openly about mental illness. And I'll focus on what are termed "triggers" and how to manage them, so that you learn how to take care of yourself during those times.
Our listener email is from a man in South America whose perfectionism drove him to try every new self-help technique out there, leaving him exhausted and confused. Maybe we should call it an addiction -- "self-helpism." His question is very thought-provoking and I hope you'll enjoy and learn from it.
Important Links:
Article from the Mayo Clinic on Bipolar Disorder
Article in Psycom on Julie Kraft and her book
Article in Psych Central on ways different people with Bipolar Disorder manage their illness
Jennifer Marshalls Blog : BipolarMomLife.com
You can hear more about depression and many other topics by listening to my podcast, SelfWork with Dr. Margaret Rutherford. Subscribe to my website and receive one weekly newsletter including my weekly blog post and podcast! If you’d like to join my FaceBook closed group, then click here and answer the membership questions! Welcome!
My new book entitled Perfectly Hidden Depression will be arriving November 1, 2019 and you can pre-order here! Its message is specifically for those with a struggle with strong perfectionism which acts to mask underlying emotional pain. But the many self-help techniques described can be used by everyone who chooses to begin to address emotions long hidden away that are clouding and sabotaging your current life.
And there’s a new way to send me a message! You can record by clicking below and ask your question or make a comment. You’ll have 90 seconds to do so and that time goes quickly. By recording, you’re giving SelfWork (and me) permission to use your voice on the podcast. I’ll look forward to hearing from you!