Blessed are the depressed and anxious. Blessed are the poor and lonely. Blessed are those whose bodies are dying and who know their humanity.
Keep on.
self care
Twins?
Fraternal, not maternal of course.
Happy weekend, friends.
Join us
Dear Friends of NAMI,
We hope you’ll join us next Monday (March 24) for our monthly program meeting in Hemet at the Spirit of Joy Church, 3126 W. Johnston (corner of Johnston and Sanderson, near Hemet Wal Mart) at 7:30 p.m.
Dr. Sana Johnson-Quijada will speak on Stigma and ways to turn its negativity around, empowering people with mental illness and those who love them.
For more information, call (951) 765-1850
Please come!
Mt. San Jacinto NAMI
“One of American society’s primary methods for silencing…..”
Be The Person You Would Like to be Loved By
Guest Post from Melissa Lesofski.
Melissa is a single, professional, and educated woman who is speaking out about what it is for her, unmarried.
“I don’t think we should live up to a list of what others think we should be. Nor a list from a person we are dating. I think we should make our own and use it as our guide.
Make a list of all of the qualities that we want in a spouse (because ultimately that is the purpose of dating, to discover what qualities are important to Me). Should s/he be funny? Pretty? Christian? Confident? Etc etc. Then go back through that list and hold ourselves to the same standard. My thoughts were when I first did this was that I was never going to find who I wanted to be with if I didn’t hold myself to the same standards that I wanted from my partner….what if the person I end up with is making a list too?”
Does this not relate to us in any station? Be the person we want to be loved by. It sounds awfully familiar to us starting with Me, where everything does, where freedom is. Me, the wonderland where we actually have power to make changes. Me, to who whom we give, and then actually have something to give to others.
Question: How has growing your list improved your connections? What is on your list? Please tell us your story.
Self-Care Tip: Write a list of what you would like to do in your life to be the person you would like to be loved by. Be a friend to yourself.
Electroconvulsive Therapy – a student nurses perspective
Electroconvulsive Therapy – a student nurses perspective
What are you up to?
Hello Friends,
What are you up to?
Lately, I have been working on getting our ECT book done. I am spending more time with the kids, exercising less, quilting more, and eating tons of fruit as it is always in season and “going to waste” (which guts me to see) around our little property. I am still listening to tons of books from audible and I think that my portrait would show me anywhere anytime with earbuds in. It must annoy others. …What was that?
Let us know what you are doing.
Be a friend to yourself. Keep on.
Value Yourself
The room is dark, shades drawn for hours. Sandra stays unwashed in her blanket. Around her are gathering piles of laundry and stale air. Pictures have fallen over in their frames. Sandra hears her daughter, “Mommy, please get up now. Let’s get up Mommy. I want you to get up.” Sandra’s body feels like a bag of concrete and she tries to explain this to her seven-year-old. “I’m just so tired, Honey. You go play.”
Days and then months go by, like this. Some of them, Sandra is up and functioning. But mostly just. She finds her thoughts are not clear. It is hard to find words, let alone anything around the house.
“Who is this person?” Sandra thinks about herself. She wonders if her husband will leave her. He is trying to have sex less and less. They do not talk and she is pretty sure her last real orgasm was a year ago, Thursday. She cannot believe he even likes her when she dislikes herself so much.
Sandra is not treating anyone very well. She has lost what was in her bank and cannot account for her own value.
Our value is not a very politick thing to celebrate, to speak of, or to put at the front of the line, but we, individually are worth it. Sandra is worth it.
You are worth it.
Sandra was having trouble like this. She had been missing more and more work, for “sick days” and she was worried she would be replaced. “Who are these people?” she wondered about her colleagues, whom she used to enjoy, joke with, and compete with.
It occurred to Sandra, at last, that everything that was worth living for was only insecurely hers. She thought, if she lost them, she would die. She needed to get better. She wanted to get better. All the way better, back to herself, funny and sexy and showered. That would be real nice.
Sandra took, what for her felt like, a desperate action. Sandra went to see a psychiatrist. It was not easy understanding her treatment options but basically they came down to, medications, psychotherapy, and stimulation therapies of which electroconvulsive therapy, or ECT, is the gold standard.
To grasp what these options meant, Sandra needed to think about how long it takes to respond to treatment, the chance of responding to treatment compared with not responding, either at all or only partially, and side effects. Because of knowing she was about to lose “it all,” (home, marriage, employment, possibly parenting rights, and more,) she decided she needed treatment that was the most likely to work and work fast. (ECT can be up to 90 percent effective in reducing the severity of symptoms.) Sandra did not want to gain weight. “I would rather die,” she said. And she did not want to get other medical problems from trying to treat another. (We call these iatrogenic, when a medical treatment causes another disease, such as an antidepressant causing obesity.) Because ECT allowed for all these, Sandra launched her ECT index treatment. She started in treatment even before she started having hope. Sandra took the action she was able to, toward her value.
This a a short story about Sandra, but her story goes on in a much richer, and pleasure filled way. I wrote her story to give you an idea of how someone who has never tried medication therapy may decide on choosing ECT as their first treatment effort when struggling with brain illness. Because of her value. Because of our value.
Question: When you explore your value, what would you like to do that more directly honors you? What does valuing yourself do for those you value outside of yourself? How can you show that you value others but caring for yourself? Please tell us your story.
Self-Care Tip: Care for yourself to care for others.
These Days
Holliday Classic
Today
Turkey trot
Yesterday
Question: What have you been up to?
Brain Stimulation Therapies – This was just too good to not share
Do This
Do this.
Hearing this phrase, command, suggestion can be, well, triggering. Please don’t run. This is just too good to miss.
My girlfriend, and mentor, Jessica Adams, was recently awarded “Kaia Queen, Fall 2013.” She is a marvel. An inspiration. A success and to be watched. Eyes right, troopers.
Jessica started exercising and eating healthy about ?three months ago. She stopped all alcohol, although she wasn’t a lush before :). To support her, her boyfriend joined in. They are now healthy, strong, and between then both, there are thirty seven pounds displaced elsewhere.
I have been in Kaia since a year ago now. I am no Jessica. I am a stubborn bit. I have gotten stronger and healthier and I love that my body is my own again. I am still in the unhealthy weight category though and thirty pounds higher than my high school weight – back in the day when river trips were a stage and self-esteem was more about that. Back when. So much distance between now and then. Sigh.
I looked at Jessica the other day and said, “Who am I to argue with that. I am going to ‘do this.'” Why argue with what works, I figure.
Jessica, sweetheart that she is, responded with a beautiful composition you might enjoy as well.
Jessica, courageous as ever, released her writing and name for us.
Way to go Jessica! We celebrate you!
Written:
On Oct 28, 2013, at 9:10 PM,
By, Jessica Adams
I haven’t forgotten my promise to send you recipes and tell you what I’m eating! 🙂
For breakfast I am going to make a green drink every day and add a serving of hemp protein. I have two faves: peanut butter chocolate banana and berry apple.
Peanut Butter Chocolate Banana Smoothie
1 frozen banana
1 cup almond milk
1 tbs peanut butter
1 tbs unsweetened cocoa powder
2 cups loose baby spinach
1 serving hemp protein
water to thin it out
ice to make it more icy if that’s how you like it
Berry Apple
1 apple
1/2 cup frozen berries
1 cup almond milk
2 cups loose baby spinach
1 serving hemp protein
water
ice
For lunch I am making a big salad and adding some legumes or grains to it. For example:
1 tbs olive oil
Juice of one lemon
salt & pepper
sliced green onion
1 cup garbanzo beans (or any legume)
3 celery stalks thinly sliced
1 tomato chopped
2 cups organic kale blend
I just play around with the ingredients depending on my mood. Tabbouleh would prob be really good to eat as long as it is more heavy on the veggies rather than the grains. Maybe have it on top of a bed of greens and squeeze extra lemon juice on it.
For dinners I am filling my plate with vegetables: steamed broccoli, cooked squash, greens (cooked or raw), beets, yams, roasted brussels sprouts…anything that sounds good. Then I am adding some legume, or tofu, or fish, or grain. For grains I usually eat quinoa.
I made some felafel patties ahead of time that are very tasty.
Felafel Patties
1 cup chickpea flour
1/4 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 tsp garlic powder, onion powder, coriander
1/2 cup hot water
juice of half a lemon
mix all the dry ingredients
add the hot water and lemon
let sit 10 min
then shape into small patties and fry in small amount of olive oil or coconut oil
Lentil soup is another thing I like to make ahead for dinners:
http://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/lentil-vegetable-soup-recipe/index.html
Spaghetti squash with black bean guacamole:
http://ohsheglows.com/2013/09/18/tex-mex-spaghetti-squash-with-black-bean-guacamole/
Any recipe from oh she glows is golden. I love her food! I think you would too 🙂
For snacks I am focusing on veggies rather than fruit. I pack a whole cucumber and bell pepper for snack at work.
On days when my neighbor isn’t gone in the morning (I peek out the window to check) I don’t like to run the blender because I am afraid it will disturb her. So I will probably cook myself a couple over-medium eggs and enjoy those with sauteed tomato and a couple corn tortillas.
Coffee in the morning. No creamers! Almond milk only. Green tea the rest of the day if I want it.
I don’t keep anything in my house that I will binge on. Such as: tortilla chips, nutella, any kind of sweetdelicioussaltysnack thing. Sometimes I even have to ban avocados and nut butters. I’ve taken down a jar of sunflower seed butter in two days before…ugh. I throw food away if I know it will tempt me. Actually…I have to sabotage the food first (dousing it in dish soap is one of my go-to techniques) so I won’t try to rescue it from the trash! Oh the shame! LOL. I do not keep gifts of candy or baked goods. I give them away before I even get home. I also only cook rice and noodles in single servings because I will binge on those too.
I’m training for the Avocado Half Marathon in Fallbrook that will be in February. So, I am running 5 days a week in addition to Kaia. Just easy pre-training runs so far; 3-5 miles.
I hope this is helpful 🙂 It is helpful for me to put it in writing so now I have to follow through! Oh…speaking of, I track all my food on myfitnesspal.com. My user name is yessicasue if you want to add me as a friend on there!
Ok Sana…let’s be strong and committed! One great day at a time. We can do it 🙂
Hugggggs,
Jessica
Related articles
- *Fuel Friday ~ lentil balsamic soup* (wasntjustthewinetalking.com)
- Meal Plan Recipes: Spaghetti Squash “Noodles” (dancersdish.wordpress.com)
Miami, Florida 84 F
Look at Carl!
U inspire us, friend. Keep on.
What have you been doing?
I have been quilting again!
What have you been doing in the space of your get-to-choose time?
Bank and Book-Keeping
Lathe operator machining parts for transport planes at the Consolidated Aircraft Corporation plant, Fort Worth, USA (1942). (Photo credit: Wikipedia)
We are like the national bank of our own nation. If we do not invest and do book-keeping, we get the great depression. But what does that mean? What is investing in Me? What is book-keeping? “I am not an accountant and I am not good with numbers,” we say.
We are talking about putting it in and seeing into when it is running low. Putting it in, well, it might be fun, intuitive, the best part of what makes life worth living, or it might feel like working nine to five.
How do we get money in our bank? We work. We work jobs we like, and ones we do not. This is not meant to be a discussion on the employment crisis we are in, but rather our basic needs. Basic needs, like energy, self-esteem, a desire to live, freedom, the ability to feel pleasure, think about those.
Have we considered them as our entitlement for being human? Are they a choice? Investing in me is the big and small, the easy and difficult of practicing accountability to Me.
One of the weaknesses of this primitive analogy is that it piggy-backs a cultural opinion of failure if we find our bank empty. Without spending time today on that, please accept the premise that emotions and behaviors in this discussion are not moral qualifiers.
The behaviors that bring bank might be any number of things, exercise, diet, marrying God, sleep, taking prescription medication, ECT, using CPAP, avoiding violent content, Love magic, and so forth. However, to do these things with most success. Pursue them through the framework gifted to us via genetics, what came to us by way of temperament. That is style, form, and inspiration.
Temperament provides for us, like a great uncle’s inheritance. Going with that style of personality will tap into what was put aside for us without any work on our part. It is a fortune each of us have. This is in compliment to what bank we work for, as described above.
There are many ways we receive that we do not work for. Love, for example. But the choice to receive may not come easy. The choice to pursue what is freely given to us, to unwrap a gift, to open an envelope that carries our uncle’s will, to receive Love – the choice is ours. The choice can be as difficult or more so than hours in a sweatshop.
How do we get money in our bank? We work and we receive.
So this is what “bank” is and book-keeping at FriendtoYourself.com, and maybe it is as interesting as tax season but I thought revisiting it might lend balance. Keep on.
Question: What is your bookkeeping activity? Please tell us some of your story.
Self-care tip: Work and receive actively.
Kaia girl spotlight! – Yay ;)
How and Why Did I Choose Psychiatry?
Just wonderful.
FYI – Coursera
From Sheila Hillis with NAMI:
I’ve found a learning resource that I thought some of you might be interested in. Have you heard of Coursera? It’s an online learning resource with many many courses offered by colleges and universities–all for FREE.
Charmaine Williams, will be teaching from the University of Toronto, and the course will cover mental health and mental illness from the perspective of promoting mental health. There will be an emphasis on the social factors, how our experience of mental illness is influenced by them, and many aspects–services, practices, and policies–will be explored.
To enroll in Coursera, you do need internet availability and a browser that will support the video lectures. Additional readings are optional, and a certificate can be earned by completing the class, doing the homework assignments, and taking quizzes. BUT, I think, you can also just listen to the lectures and read the online readings and still enjoy the learning without feeling the pressure of “going back to school.”
Check out Coursera at www.coursera.org.
Thanks–Sheila Hillis
Mt. San Jacinto NAMI
NAMI Riverside Group – connection
The NAMI Western Riverside Peer Support Group will have a special guest speaker, Sana Quijada, M.D. Dr. Quijada will speak on the bio-psycho-social model in approaching self care. We are inviting all that want to come.
Date: Thursday, May 30
Time: 6:00 P.M.
Location: 4095 County Circle Drive, Riverside
Besides speaking, Dr. Quijada is author of the book, Friend to Yourself: Sleep, and the principal writer on the blog, http://www.FriendtoYourself.com. She believes that self-care is not weak but rather courageous. It brings us to humble accountability for our lives, not seeking to erase our history but still reminding us that we are free to start over any time.
Dr. Quijada is a board certified psychiatrist having completed psychiatry and fellowships at Harvard Southshore. She is currently the medical director of two facilities, the Loma Linda University Partial Hospital Program of Murrieta and the University Surgery Center, Department of ECT. She is known for her focus on being a friend to yourself.
The mission of FriendtoYourself is to define, teach and learn self-care, attack guilt, stand up to shame, live as we choose despite stigma and work harder than we ever have on perhaps the hardest job of our lives.
I hope you’ll consider joining us in this special speaking event.
Amanda Wilbur
NAMI Western Riverside Affiliate
Riverside Peer Support Group Facilitator
What do you think they need to hear?
Hello, Friend to Yourself Community!
Please let me know what you think these fine folk need to hear from us? It is our chance to talk to college pre-med students!
This is the caption of our invite-letter:
Dear Dr. Quijada,
Thank you for participating in MDCN 204: Introduction to Medicine at —-University. It is my pleasure to have you join our lecture series this year.
Students are very excited about the prospect of meeting a physician and learning more about medicine. For many of them this is a firm choice and they would like to add to their knowledge base, while others are simply exploring medicine as a possible health career. Many students in the class are freshman, but several are sophomores, and juniors; a few of them are seniors.
I am really looking forward to hearing your thoughts, questions, if you were them, and recommendations.
Thank you friends. Keep on.