What are some of the things that you do which affect your mental health badly?

  This is a series of post answering questions posed by Kevin's daughter.  I asked permission to answer each of these questions as if I was answering my adult children.  I will also include a link to Kevin's answer. (I don't read his blog until after I write mine.)


http://voicesofglass.wordpress.com/2014/10/02/what-are-some-of-the-things-that-you-do-which-affect-your-mental-health-badly-qtapwmi-day-21/



21. What are some of the things that you do which affect your mental health badly?

My first reaction to this question is which comes first the chicken or the egg?  Insomnia wrecks havoc on my thinking and mental health.  Unfortunately, insomnia is a symptom of PTSD.  Stress wrecks havoc on mental health....but that is true for most people.  Saying yes to too many projects.  Again this is a problem with poor boundaries so it is hard for me to sort out which are symptoms of PTSD and which are things I do to make things worse.  Chocolate and binge eating certainly makes things worse but eating chocolate also helps me feel better, temporarily.  Heavy sigh.

I truly believe that every person with mental health issues or not have a variety of habits that create a negative impact on our lives.  That is why each year, New Year's resolutions are set to stop bad habits that make living more difficult.  I chose to set goals rather than New Year resolutions since I hate the sound of breaking them on January 2nd.  Goals are something that I can reset and keep moving toward even in baby steps or crawling.  Life is tough enough without making things harder on myself but that doesn't stop me from doing things that slow my progress.  I used to think change would happen in weeks.  Now, I accept the glacier concept of thing changing in years.  

I posted this, went to bed, got back up to add one piece.  The worse thing I did was denied that I had a problem.  Denial kept me from finding healthy solutions, counseling, and accepting the challenge life gave to me.  Accepting I had mental health problems was the first step to finding healthier solutions.