Living with mental disorders – The littlest Guide

It’s your life - your responsibility.

1. Depression

• Life’s a bitch.
• Depression will often stick with you forever.
• When you can’t find a way around it.
• Learn to adapt and live with it.
• It’s the little things.
• Drugs will make it worse in the long run.

2. Bipolarity

• Don’t give in to euphoria – it’s a nice feeling, not worth it.
  • Learn to control it.
• A depressive phase will follow after.
• Your lifelong problems won’t be solved by a single thought that changes everything.
• It’s a circle.
  • You can break it by recognizing it.
• The more dopamine is released during a euphoric phase, the worse the depressive phase will be.
• Drugs will destabilize you by artificially raising your dopamine levels.
  • Your brain adapts and produces less on its own.
• Find objectively recognizable patterns in your everyday life to distinguish episodes.
  • Spending habits? Have a look at your money flow.
  • Do you want to die or hug the world? – Neither is right.

3. Schizophrenia

• Do the voices refer to your own thoughts/actions?
  • If they have access to your thoughts or sensory input, they aren't real.
• Is there a real audio source?
  • Open/close windows, turn on music.
    • Does the volume of the voices change?
• Your brain might be interpolating them.
• Is the voice recognizable?
  • If this voice/person hasn’t been real before, it probably won’t be real now.
• Is it quantity over quality?
  • Do they talk more when you listen to them?
  • Do they talk less when you ignore them?
• Are you being paranoid?
• Drug abuse favors imbalance in dopamine levels.
• Do they induce fear or panic?
• Is it one or multiple voices?
  • Good cop, bad cop?

4. PTSD

• Give it time.
• Don’t run away.
• Don’t hide.
• Fight.

5. Eating Disorders

• Seek help.
• EAT.
• Drink a lot.
• Medication might help.
• Stop taking drugs.

6. Suicidality

• Seek help – that’s a serious problem.
• Don’t give up.
• Grow up.
• Change your life – make it worth living.
  • It’s easier than you think. (:

Nobody can help you by being a dependency you have to rely on. - it’s your life.