Mental Health
Strategy Guide 3114
"Breathe, take things a step at a time. Adaptation is the best strategy." - 3114
"Do and feel the right thing with kindness and honesty. What makes you feel alive, healthy, and happy?" - 3114
"Present tense is the best tense." -3114
A collection of learned experiences and strategies by 3114. These are not medical or professional advice. No data is collected or stored by me. If you want privacy on the web, use a VPN. Opera provides a VPN for free.If you are experiencing overwhelming emotions, thoughts, or experiences that feel out of control, press the button below to find out what to do.
Mental Health Questionnaire
Table of Contents:
Mental Health Activity and Information
Table of Contents:
Mental Health Strategy Key NotesTLDR of mental health strategies
Feelings DiaryWriting down about what you feel can be helpful in figuring out what to do.
Guide to Describe FeelingsEmotion wheels alone can be restricting, there are many ways to describe what we feel.
Present Tense Awareness CheckerCan be helpful for being aware about our present state.
Mental Health StrategiesDue to saving elements, scroll down to find information.
Did I Really Fuck It Up?A scale to check if your mistake is a big deal
How to Taper off MedicationPeople can have bad reactions to medications such as antidepressants. This website is dedicated to helping people navigate their way to the best course of action.
Tips and Tricks for Finding TherapyDue to saving elements, scroll down to find information
Warm Lines and Crisis LinesDue to saving elements, scroll down to find information
Easy Healthier Eating GuideDue to saving elements, scroll down to find information
Activity for Feelings, Images Edition
Can be an interesting experience, give it a try!
Other Resources (USA)Help topics such as:• Aging
• Anti-Racism and Not Relying on Police
• Coming Out
• Community-Based Crisis Support
• Conferences
• Criminal Justice Support
• Disability
• Domestic Violence
• En Espanol
• Gaming
• Finder Tools
• Global Nongovernmental Organizations
• Glossary of Terms and Definitions
• Health Care & Wellness
• ID Change Library
• Immigration, Detention, Undocumented Support
• Intersex
• Legal Support
• Legal Transition
• Mental Health and Community • Wellness
• Mutual Aid Funds and Public • Assistance
• Non-binary & Genderqueer
• Online Harassment
• Other Hotlines & Warmlines
• Self Care & Emotional Support
• Sex Work
• Shelter & Housing
• Social Transition
• Support Groups and Trans • Community
• Supporting a Trans Loved One
• Trans Fem, Trans Women, Femmes
• Trans History, Art, & Institutions
• Trans Masculine, Trans Guys, Masc of Center
• Veterans
• Work/Employment
• Youth, Students, & Summer Camps
1. Are you getting enough sleep, or sleep that is uninterrupted?
Sleep is very important for our brains. While we sleep, our brain goes through processes necessary for brain health. Not getting sleep or good quality sleep affects our mental and physical health.
Not a lot of people are aware their sleep is interrupted. Here is a list of causes and effects from the Sleep Doctor website.
To make sure you are sleeping properly, contact your primary physician/general practitioner and ask for a sleep study. They can also provide a sleep study at home, but in-lab is more thorough and finds issues home study cannot. Even the results can be normal, it's better to make sure.
If you find out you have sleep apnea, seek for an ENT's advice first if CPAP is too difficult. Oral appliances can be a good last resort.
For now, to lessen or avoid sleep apnea, sleeping on your sides can help. If you are a back sleeper, pregnancy pillows or wedges can be an option for you.
Your mental health will improve when your sleep is corrected.
2. Are you eating well?
(Make sure you're getting enough vitamin D. Correcting my Vitamin D deficiency helped with my mental health. Fish oil is also recommended by Surviving Antidepressants)Diet is an important thing for mental health. Avoiding too much carbohydrates and sugar can help a lot. There's a reason why they say, "You are what you eat." If you have poor nutrition and body health, it affects mental health greatly.
Take things a step at a time. Eat slower and enjoy the food without distractions. Lessen sweets and carbohydrates and include vegetables in your diet. You don't need to remove foods you enjoy, you just need to eat more healthy foods and vegetables.
Healthy food is not restricted to salad, you can roast or barbecue vegetables like broccoli, cauliflower, brussel sprouts, onions, garlic, etc. For non vegetarians or vegans, white meat (i.e. poultry like chicken and turkey) and fish are good options. You can ask a nutritionist or dietician for recommended and cheap recipes.
Recommended recipes subreddits:
r/EatCheapAndHealthy
r/slowcooking - easier way to cook. You toss in ingredients in the slow cooker, wait, and eat.
Airfryer is an easy and delicious way to cook meals. They're like a mini oven.
Recommended content creators (CC) in YouTube that provide a variety of easy and cheap recipes. Their recipes aren't solely by country, just information:Alex Food - American CC
EatsByRamya - American CC
Josh Cortis - The Meal Prep Manual - American CC
Joshua Weissman - American CC
No Recipes - American CC
TryMyChow - American CC
Yummy2555 - Bangladesh CC
Katy Seats - British CC
Middle Eats - British CC, middle eastern recipes
Mary's Test Kitchen - Canadian CC, vegetarian friendly
Sheldo's Kitchen - Canadian CC
KWOOWK - Dutch CC
How to Cook Smarter - Croatian CC
Felu - German CC
Gulsumun Sarayi TV - German CC
Healthy Recipes - German CC
Lecker Schnell - German CC
So Lecker - German CC
My Lockdown Rasoi - Indian CC
Ruby Bajpai - Indian CC, country based recipes
Cooking Haru - South Korean CC
delicious day - South Korean CC
ddulgi - South Korean CC
Haeum Cooking - South Korean CC
Table Diary - South Korean CC
Lezzetli Taam - Turkish CC
Melissa Mir - Turkish CC
Pratik Yemek Tarifleri - Turkish CC
Pazanda Zamira - Russian CCKnow a recommendation? Email me by clicking the envelope icon below.
3, Are you being kind to your emotions and staying in the present moment?
We have walked through different paths of life, and each path has importance.
Our feelings, thoughts, and experiences is who we are. There is nothing wrong with feeling things such as anger and sadness, the problem is how we see it as and how we treat them. Like physical health, we also have emotional and mental health and they matter.
Remember Inside Out? There is a very important lesson from the movie. Spoilers for the movie below
________________Joy keeps forcing Riley to be happy, but what Riley needed the most is to be sad. When Riley was allowed to cry, she was able to process what she felt, allowing herself to grow as a person.
_______________
Our body needs to experience feelings to learn what is right. Mistakes are necessary to learn and grow as a person, making sure we avoid ones that is harmful to ourselves and others.
Many of us use too much emotional energy to do tasks unconsciously, which can burn us out fast. Try your best to not use too much energy. Balance is key.
To treat what we feel, we should accept, be kind, be honest, and be righteous (do the right thing) to them. This is the best thing we can do for ourselves and our relationships. A strategy you can use is to accept the feeling gently, identify, express or change in a healthy way (example: saying no with emotional honesty to avoid something is also a healthy thing to do), and conclude.
The best tense is present tense. Not past or future, but present. Looking to the past and the future is not bad, the problem lies on how long we stay there. Experiences we have affect how long we stay on these tenses.
Having an episode is a really harsh experience. Things are going to be alright, that will pass. Go to a safe space and a loved one can help you get through them. Let's be kind to ourselves and our emotions.
There is a complex or basic reason/logic for your feelings, thoughts, and experiences. How do we figure that out if we are confused by them or don't know how to treat them? That's where mental health professionals come in. Seeing problems in third person is easier than being in first person, because we have been desensitized from a lot of information from being in first person.
A mental health professional trained themselves to study about human thoughts and psyche for years. They are people with degrees or certified training. The problem usually lies on finding a good fit.
Here is the first step what people should actually do:
Contact your insurance to seek psychological testing. Many people just jump straight forward to a therapist who doesn't have your specialty. When they give you options, check each medical group/mental health professional rating on a search engine like Google. If they have a poor rating, you might want to check the comments why they are rated like that.
After you get tested, they should recommend you therapist with specialties.
There are three ways to find therapists:1. What insurance provides
2. What the psychological testing office or another therapist recommends
3. Psychology Today
A good therapist is a one that acknowledges and validates your feelings, helps you with your problems, and won't judge you. You need to feel heard and learn something you can use in your life. Otherwise, therapy is useless. If a therapist is telling you to avoid your feelings and problems, cancel your next and future appointments, they are a bad one.
If you are not satisfied with one therapist, find another one that works with you. Create a checklist of therapists you find until you meet one that works for you.
Talking to someone really helps a lot. There are warm hotlines you can use in the meantime. They are people who will listen to you, be there, and won't judge you.
Warm Hotlines for USAIf you know a warm hotline from a country, feel free to email me by clicking the envelope icon below.When considering medication, you can try checking out GeneSight. A DNA testing kit that can be helpful with medication compatibility. Ask your doctor if this is right for you.Let's be kind to ourselves, and also allowing ourselves to have healthy feelings. Different strategy for different situations.
To get some relief from crisis for now, try the T.R.U.E. method:
T - ouch something tactile like grass or a tree bark. Nature is better
R - ise and stand up if you haven't already
U - seful slow breathing. Breathe slow that helps.
E - xercise. Physical activity helps. Standing up and moving legs and arms is a good start. High activity exercise can give better results.
Drink some water and get some fresh air. If you cannot go outside, you can open your windows.
People react to medications very differently. If you do not want to take medication when applying for Intensive Inpatient Program (also called admission to mental health hospital), ask your crisis hotline or nearby mental health hospitals if you can refuse.
If you do not want to be admitted, you can choose for Intensive Outpatient Program, or IOP. You get the same treatment as being admitted, but you live in your own home and visit the hospital on a schedule.
If you aren't comfortable with your crisis hotline and just need someone to talk to, Warm Hotlines are available for free that can be used everyday, some 24/7. You can use multiple ones if you used up one service for that day.
Crisis Hotlines National and InternationalWarm Hotlines for USAAnother source of Hotlines for USALGBTQ Hotlines for USA
If you have hotlines for other countries, email me so I can include it here.
When considering medications, you can try checking out GeneSight. A DNA testing kit that can be helpful with medication compatibility. Ask your doctor if this is right for you.
Make sure you are not vitamin deficient. Vitamin D deficiency can worsen mental problems.
You are not alone. Your feelings, thoughts, and experiences are important and valid. Recovery is possible.
Feelings DiaryYou can buy a cheap notebook, or type down on your phone. Writing down with your hand gives better results.Format Example:
_________________________Date:Emotions I had today: (i.e. content, normal, relieved, surprised, etc.)Thoughts I had today: (i.e. rick roll, number of toe beans a cat or dog has, the color green, etc.)Experiences I had today: (i.e. ate chalupa at taco bell, now my behind was a shower faucet spraying brown all over the toilet seat.)OrEmotions, thoughts, and experiences I felt today:What happened today? What do you think about these feelings, thoughts, and experiences? Choose if you can describe them individually, grouped, or both.
______________________
If you need to add other helpful questions, feel free!
Guide to Describe Emotions
This guide is for the English language, but can still apply for other languages.When describing emotions, adjectives and nouns help us describe what we feel.For example, you feel good today. Happy isn't good enough on it's own to describe what you feel. Instead, you can say cheerful, cheeky, a bit of a troublemaker, like Rick Astley on that cool music video, like the color purple, etc.There are many ways to describe what we feel. If you have more suggestions let me know, you get credit!
Present Tense Awareness Checker
Being reminded to stay in the present moment is very helpful to be more aware. This function works with mobile phones and PC. You can also work with small notebooks if you check it often.An example of a notification:Recommended time duration: 1 min to 2 minHow are you doing? What is currently going on with you and around you? Empty your mind, close your eyes, feel the present moment, and breathe slowly. Touching something that has strong texture like grass is very helpful.
Mobile:
For Android, you can use Notification Maker by Valentin Wagner.
For iOS, you can use Yapp.
PC:
For Windows 10, create a schedule on the Microsoft Calendar and enable notifications on your desktopOpen Settings (Keyboard shortcut: Windows + I)
Go to Settings > Notifications & actionsIf you have any guide for Mac and Linux let me know!