The road to long term recovery from mental health disorders is long, but not without reward. As we learn to manage life on life’s terms while coping with our diagnoses, we are able to witness first hand our remarkable development. If you find you’re being hard on yourself for not doing well enough, see if any of these small (and not so small) victories are making themselves apparent in your life. Remember how far you’ve come and use that as inspiration for taking each new step forward. You can do this!
Showing Up (and on time!)
Our depression kept us depressed. Our anxiety kept us anxious. Our paranoia kept us paranoid. Whatever our diagnosis, we let the entirety of our mental health disorder control our lives. Without the ability to cope and the tools to manage, we missed out on life day after day. Doing life was just hard. Some days, it is still hard. Treatment and recovery for mental health helps us learn how to take life on and show up. Being present for ourselves, for our families, and for the demands of life is a victory in mental health recovery. Showing up on time consistently may seem like no accomplishment for others but a huge success for us.
Staying Clean and Organized…
Depression can leave us without the motivation to get anything done. Studies have shown that a clean and orderly environment that is welcoming can help alleviate some stressful depression symptoms. Try mustering the inspiration to clean on an especially down day and be left with mess. Recovery for mental health means being able to get out of bed and clean our rooms or our houses; not just once, but day after day.
…Or Allowing For Mess
While pervasive mess might be a symptom of mental health disorders like depression, it is the bane of others. Obsessive compulsive disorder, for example, thrives on rules, lines, exactness, and tidiness. Recovery for mental health from OCD means allowing a little bit of mess in your life without feeling completely out of control.
Managing Finances
Financial management starts with getting a job. If we are able to get, and hold, a job, we are already in a tremendous victory. Learning how to tackle finances one step at a time is a victory with each move. Paying bills, having groceries, putting gas in our cars (having cars) are all major accomplishments.
Personal Hygiene
Daily practices of personal hygiene can be challenging in different ways for different disorders. We might be too obsessed with hygiene or we might not practice hygiene at all. A balanced hygiene practice is important for self care as well as general health.
Avalon By The Sea proudly boasts the title of being one of California’s only licensed facilities for treating mental health as a primary diagnosis. If mental health is preventing you from feeling victorious in life, help is available. For a confidential assessment, call Avalon today at 1-855-464-8492.
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