Author: VKM

Categories
Mental Health

How Does Stress Affect Your Body? 

Your body is designed to handle small amounts of stress. You are a well-constructed machine with the capability to overcome most anything that happens to you on a regular day. But what happens when you’re not having a regular day or, as this pandemic marches on, you can’t even remember a regular day? 

Let’s take a look at how stress affects your body and what that means for you. 

The Anatomy of Stress 

A stressed body feels like a body under pressure. When you’re feeling stressed, you aren’t at your most effective. From the top of your head to the tips of your toes, each part of your holistic being responds to the chain reaction of stress. Every system of your body is affected. 

What Does a Stressed Body Feel Like?

Like many things, stress is, unfortunately, a holistic experience. You feel it in your core and every vital system to your survival. Let’s look at each of our primary systems, how stress impacts their function, and the way you experience its effect. 

Muscles and Bones

When stress begins to rise in your body, your muscles coil and prepare for the impact ahead. Carrying around the tension of that preparation can lead to cramping and extraneous pressure on your skeletal system. The way you carry yourself changes to accommodate the tight muscles caused by stress. 

Breathing 

Stress destabilizes the pace you bring air into your lungs. When your breathing is rapid, your body struggles to keep up with supplying those important tissues with oxygen. This may feel like shortness of breath, tightness in your chest, or even trigger asthma attacks in vulnerable people. 

Heart

Much like your breathing, your pulse picks up when you’re feeling the pressure of the world around you. Stress causes a hiccup in the coordination between the flow of nutrient-rich blood from your heart to your body. Over time, it can cause chronic inflammation in your arteries.

Hormones 

Your body recognizes stress by its hormone signature. Most famously, cortisol levels are associated with both your stress response as well as your kidney function and energy levels. There are other hormones that interact with your stress levels though. Adrenaline, glucose, and even testosterone levels are all responsive to the stress you experience. 

Sleep

Stress can keep you awake at night, pondering the worries and woes you didn’t have time to worry about in your waking hours. Stress-induced insomnia affects your circadian rhythm and can make it feel impossible to let your body relax enough to find rest. 

Skin and Hair 

Stress can make skin and hair feel dull and temperamental. From flaring existing skin conditions to causing hair loss, there’s no shortage of the way stress can impact some of your most visible body systems. 

Digestive

Also called the gut-brain connection, your digestive system is undeniably linked to the things you think and feel. It’s no wonder that stress can cause all manner of gut discomfort. Gas, constipation, and heartburn are some of the most commonly reported impacts of stress on the stomach.

Reproductive

With stress playing havoc on hormonal systems, it’s no surprise to find that it also may impact your reproductive system. From desire to menstruation, there may be a change in the familiar patterns of your body when you’re stressed. 

Immune

When your body is battling your stress levels, it’s a whole lot harder to fight off intruding germs and bugs. Your immune system feels the strain and it exhibits a weakened response to the outside world that can make you sick. 

Can stress cause long-term damage? 

Stress shouldn’t be left unmanaged or without holistic care, it needs to alleviate the fight-or-flight intensity of it.  Over time, the reactions your body experiences due to stress can wear on you. Long-term stress can lead to serious diseases of important bodily systems. 

Chronic stress can cause or contribute to a number of disorders. From direct correlation to a waterfall effect, there is evidence that it can also contribute to the development of substance use disorders.

It’s possible to be addicted to stress too 

For some, stress is something that drives the desire to numb that often precedes substance use. For others though, stress can be an addiction all its own. If all you know is adrenaline-laced intensity, relaxation may feel unsafe to your body. Stress addiction stands apart from substance use recovery but many of the treatments can overlap in how they engage your body to begin rewriting your healing. 

Identifying the cause of your stress and the effects you feel from it in your daily life can be a powerful tool to stop it in its tracks. Through a sustainable and consistent routine, you can develop the tools to reduce your stress alongside your road to recovery today. At Villa Kali Ma, we offer programs to help our clients combat the effects of stress on a holistic level. Connect with us today to learn more about how we help our clients heal and manage stress. 

Categories
Addiction Treatment

What Causes Addiction?

These three words, “what causes addiction” elicit such a divisive response in a question that seems to evade a clear answer. The cause of addiction continues to elude research for a finite answer, but we want to examine the information we can find- and the impact of holistically considering your existence for its sum instead of its parts. 

What does “addiction vulnerability” mean?

Put simply, addiction vulnerability is the term used to describe the risk factors that you’ve experienced that often lead to substance misuse. It’s important to know and understand so that measures can be taken to support potential addiction before it becomes a greater problem.  

When you’re vulnerable to something, there’s a higher risk it could impact you and, if it does, that it will be a more difficult battle to overcome. This correlates to the lifetime risk of experiencing addiction, though it doesn’t definitively determine who may or may not struggle with substance misuse.

Identifying addiction vulnerability can help to track risk, monitor progress, and proactively safeguard against dangerous risk-taking behaviors. There’s not yet a comprehensive idea of everything that contributes to someone’s addiction vulnerability, but neuroscience is working to develop an inclusive picture to try to inhibit risk where possible. What we do know is that there are three main factors that contribute to primary addiction vulnerability.

The three-factor model of addiction 

Most research concludes that a three-factor model of addiction is the most supported inventory of risk we have right now. While these factors do not account for every person who misuses substances, and can’t be an exclusive guide to what someone may experience, it does offer a glimpse into understanding how addiction occurs. These factors consider what you experience (exposure), where you grow (environment) and what you’re made from (genetics). Let’s take a closer look at each of these.

Environment

When you live in physical or emotional spaces that create high-stress scenarios, your environment may contribute to addiction risk. This doesn’t simply refer to the geographical location of your lived experience, but also the tone of the spaces you take up and the interaction of others around you. 

The mind is neuroadaptive, meaning that when something bad continually happens to induce stress or adrenaline, your mind will begin to rewire itself to help you cope. Above all, your brain is working hard to help you survive. Sometimes the way it goes about that is by creating a desire for escape or clinging to experiences that help you to forget your trauma or dull the pain of a difficult environment. 

Genetics

You’re born with a universe of science coded into your bones. Every cell in your body carries the map of what you’re made of—your genetic code. Inherited from the people who gave you life, your genetic makeup can play a part in the cause of addiction. 

There’s a lot of contention around just how much genetics play into addiction risk, and reports claim it’s somewhere between 40-60% tied to the risk of substance misuse, with an even greater risk to those born to people who struggle with addiction. 

It’s difficult to separate the added risk of having addicted parents from other factors like the exposure it brings, but there is no doubt that the science of your cells can contribute to the cause of addiction.

Exposure

This one ties heavily into the two that came before it, strengthening the case for your environment and genetics even as it expands on them. What you see happening around your formative years helps to develop your sense of acceptable behavior. 

From the risks you take to the values you hold, you begin to develop your sense of behavior based on what you are exposed to. Was drinking commonplace in your home? Were you exposed to drug use in the media you watched or social circles at school? These things are all a part of the exposure factor of addiction.

You are not a product of your risk, you can find healing 

There is no formula to determine who will develop an addiction, or how we can help precisely. This is because we are not formulaic beings. You are not a series of numbers to be put into a machine and output an exact answer. You are a spiritual, emotional, and incredible being made up of not just these parts but so many others that cannot be measured. 

There is no moral failing or finger of blame to point at those who develop addiction in their lifetime, and you will find no fault placed for the things that have happened to you. We are not here to judge, but we are ready to help you heal and understand how you got here. You deserve support. You deserve answers. We are here to offer both.

Categories
Co-Occurring Disorders

“Addiction and”: 5 Common Co-Occurring Disorders

When you’re struggling, it can be difficult to determine what to ask for help with first- or even how to ask for help at all. Substance use disorders are one of the most commonly co-diagnosed disorders, meaning they’re often diagnosed with one or more other conditions that work alongside addiction to create the symptoms you experience. This makes it difficult to identify where to begin or what you’re feeling. 

As a holistic recovery facility, Villa Kali Ma specializes in identifying and responding to each aspect of your treatment as it impacts you now and into the future. Below is a list of the struggles we most often see as co-occurring disorders and how they impact your relationship with addiction. 

Eating Disorders

So much is out of your control when you’re struggling with addiction that it’s no wonder some people find solace in creating that control elsewhere—like food. Eating disorders impact the lives of nearly 10% of all Americans at some point, and they’re the second highest cause of mental illness-related death (second only to opioid overdose). Even in the statistics, a relationship seems plausible. 

Eating disorders include anorexia, bulimia, binge eating disorder, avoidant food intake, body dysmorphia, and pica. When you’re struggling to control the urges and intake of substances at the height of addiction, it can feel almost gratifying to instead begin to control your food. Some people may suffer from more than one eating disorder, just as others suffer from multiple substance use difficulties.

Mood disorders

The most well-known mood disorder is bipolar disorder, which is characterized by prolonged periods of mania and depression- vastly differing mood spaces where your responses may be unpredictable, and your inhibitions may be directly responsive to those moods. Other mood disorders like major depression are also common, and the correlation between the two is so high that there’s a mood disorder distinctly related to addiction called substance-induced mood disorder.

Often, people begin using substances to alter their perception of an experience. As it tumbles out of control, many people are simply chasing the effect they initially found in their substance use. Mood regulation may become more difficult as bodies become used to the substances put into them and eventually both unresponsive to and reliant on them. 

Anxiety Disorder 

Anxiety may sound like it belongs in a category with mood disorders, but anxiety is a state of being, not a mood. Rooted in feelings of powerlessness and overwhelming fear of a particular trigger, anxiety disorders come in a few forms. The most common are generalized anxiety, panic disorder, and phobias (a debilitating fear of a particular thing). 

When anxiety presents alongside substance use, it’s often a tactic to divert the feelings anxiety brings on into something else. Anxiety is uncomfortable, and worry can be consuming. The physical impact is tiring and overwhelming. For those who also use substances, an anxiety attack may be self-medicated with their substance of choice. This often makes the two feel not only co-occurring but so intricately linked that they can’t fathom how to handle the anxiety without the substance. 

Attention Deficit and Hyperactive Disorder (ADHD)

For brains that move so quickly, you often feel like thoughts are shooting stars instead of ideas, substance use can be a respite of calm. ADHD creates a struggle of executive dysfunction and energy in a race to participate in your life at a stable speed. When combined with the use of substances, they may feel like a way to sit down, slow down, and actually get something done. 

Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD)

PTSD makes you 14 times more likely to experience substance abuse disorder—and it’s really no wonder that these things are co-diagnosed. After experiencing trauma, life can feel like a battlefield. Finding any and everything you can to cope with the intrusion of trauma responses that occur in daily situations may feel like the only way to get through it. 

Using substances as a coping mechanism may feel like the only option, but they are tools that can be weaponized against you as they contribute to heightened responses that may worsen your PTSD. 

Getting the holistic help you’re hoping for is possible

Tangled symptoms and fear of failure may be holding you back, but it doesn’t have to. There are options to support all of your needs, and there is no need for you to choose just one. When you’re ready, Villa Kali Ma will be here with options for the recovery you need, no matter what’s co-occurring in your world.

Categories
Mental Health

Sleep Deprivation and Mental Health: How to heal the relationship between them

Sleep is closely connected to mental health in every way. Being deprived of rest can amplify your mental health struggles. Anxiety, addiction, depression, PTSD, and bipolar disorder are all exacerbated by lack of sleep. 

From the way it makes you feel to the physiological processes that happen on a holistic scale, your sleep is a critical part of you.  Without adequate rest, you may struggle to hold on to new information or recall familiar information. When we feel out of touch with the memories and moments that connect us to our sense of identity, it can perpetuate feelings of frustration and anxiety that may have been present prior to the sleeplessness.  

Before you can act on improving your sleep, let’s take a look at how sleep deprivation may be showing up in our mental (and physical) health. 

Feeling the Fog & Other Symptoms of Sleep Deprivation

During the waking hours when you’ve gotten less than ideal sleep, you may feel fuzzy or a step behind the rest of the world. You’ll be wasting precious energy reserves wading through the roadblocks of exhaustion when you’re not getting enough rest and it may lead to feelings of frustration, irritability, or broken concentration. Those foggy frustrations are just the beginning of the relationship sleep has with mental and physical health symptoms. 

If you’re experiencing sleep deprivation, you may be impacted by 
  • Exacerbated depression
  • Increased Anxiety
  • Irritability
  • Inhibited cognitive function 
  • Elevated blood pressure
  • Depressed immune system
  • Muscle fatigue 
  • Feelings of lethargy 

Sound familiar? It doesn’t have to be. 

Sleep deprivation impacts the lives and minds of each of us in different but indelible ways. We want to help you understand what’s happening in your mind when the sandman won’t bestow you with quality sleep, and how you can be your own bedtime hero. 

Let’s take a look together at how sleep deprivation and mental health are related so you can improve both. 

Factors Related to Sleep Deprivation & Mental Health

Quality and quantity

It’s not just the amount of sleep you get that’s tied to your mental health. The quality matters too. When you sleep poorly, you’ll feel every struggle more deeply, amplifying anxiety and deepening depression on the days those snoozing minutes just don’t add up. 

Less sleep means more mental health distress, and more mental health distress is likely to keep you awake at night. The compounding nature of the relationship between sleep and mental health is an ouroboros that’s consuming your energy in so many ways. 

Environment 

Consider the way you’re sleeping and how much you’re allowing yourself the space to get quality rest. Turn down the tone of the world in the hours before you go to sleep. Give yourself a barrier of relaxation and choose an activity that promotes feelings of calm for you. Reduce your exposure to noise and lower the lights but don’t move toward the bedroom until you’re ready to commit to sleep. 

If you can’t sleep, it’s important to get out of bed and choose another activity until you feel tired again before returning to bed. Laying in bed awake restarts your circadian rhythm and you may struggle to fully relax, creating a playground for awake thoughts during sleeping hours. 

Routine 

When it comes to healthy sleep, routine reigns supreme. Develop a plan and schedule you can commit to then stick to it. Think about what makes you feel sleepy, or prepared for sleep. Maybe it’s yoga or a breathing routine to calm your body, or a playlist that soothes the busy thoughts in your mind. From there, consider how you can incorporate the self-care and daily preparation you need to do. Think of it as a route that you take to sleep- your calm commute if you will. This routine will signal your body that it’s time for sleep, and as time goes on, it will be easier to shift into rest once it begins. 

Napping for better sleep 

Limiting naps or long lie-ins can be helpful in filling your sleep deficit. That doesn’t mean Naps of 15-20 minutes are great for a refresh that doesn’t leave you feeling tired after, and naps of around 90 minutes give you enough time to complete an entire sleep cycle. The struggle comes when you nap in that interim period- naps of 30-80 minutes can be disruptive to your sleep patterns and establish broken cycles that you struggle to regulate in nightly sleep. Those kinds of naps should be avoided for a more blissful bedtime. 

Categories
Trauma

Symptoms of Trauma in Adults

When you’ve been through something (or are going through something), it may be difficult to know if what you’re feeling is related to the trauma you’ve experienced or if it’s just part of the experience of being you. 

Understanding the root of the symptoms you want to change or heal can offer you a lot of leverage in overcoming the ways that trauma impacts you as an adult no matter when it happened. So let’s talk about it. 

What exactly is trauma? 

Though the official definition of trauma implies that it must be something massive and terrible, there are levels of trauma just like anything else we experience in life. Trauma may be a life-defining terrible event you can’t shake like destruction or disaster. Alternatively, trauma may be a series of small things that changed the way you perceive your own safety. 

Holistically, trauma is any event (or series of events) that compromise your ability to differentiate between risk and security. It can occur at any time in your life and persist for any amount of time beyond the event itself. Trauma is an insidious emotional reaction to an experience. 

Trauma is the great pretender 

One of the most difficult things about trauma, and the symptoms of having experienced it, is how variable the way it shows up may be. For some, they may push their trauma so far away that they experience amnesia around the event. They can’t even recall what happened, nor correlate their responses to it. 

Symptoms of trauma in adults span every system of the body as wholly as they stretch across lived experiences. Below, we’ve covered some of the primary symptom groups that adults who have experienced trauma may continue to face. 

Dysregulated moods 

When something has happened to you that makes it difficult to feel safe in your emotions or physical environment, your moods may suffer. From depression to anxiety or even bouts of manic productivity, mood dysregulation is a trauma symptom that can have a major impact on your daily life. 

Substance use disorders 

Drowning reality in drink or drugs may seem like the best or only option when you’ve been through something you can’t confront. Whether the trauma you’ve experienced was ongoing or a one-time thing, and no matter when it occurred, it can be difficult to get through it when you don’t feel you have the tools to get through it. For some, substance use is a way of coping and for others, it simply represents escape. 

Trouble with sleep 

Insomnia, nightmares, and broken sleep are all common symptoms of trauma in adults after a traumatic experience. If you’re reliving terror and powerlessness every time you close your eyes, falling asleep can feel like walking into battle every night. 

Hypo- or Hyper-arousal

Whether the trauma you’ve experienced makes you feel constantly on edge or frozen in time, trauma may cause trouble regulating your existential equilibrium. You may feel the need to overcompensate, overproduce and over plan in an attempt to control the risk in your life. Alternatively, you may experience no motivation for anything and find the idea of even trying to be utterly overwhelming. 

Relationship complexity 

Having healthy relationships can be especially difficult for those who have been a victim of harm as a part of their trauma. Whether it was childhood trauma, sexual violence or other physical or emotional violations, trauma complicates things. You may struggle to let people in, feeling lonely as a result. In contrast, some people cling to their relationships at the expense of their own security.

Physical illness 

Trauma takes up physical space in the body. The toll of trauma may lower your immune system, cause stagnant pain in joints and body systems or cause chronic pain. Trauma has been linked to GI manifestations of anxiety as well as stress. 

Flashbacks 

Perhaps the most well-known symptoms of trauma in adults is flashbacks. Revisiting the things that haunt you lead to feelings of helplessness as you relive a waking nightmare with little control over when it comes on or when it will end. Flashbacks are often a cause of retraumatization and occur in many types of trauma. 

How can we help? 

You may not know where to begin in unraveling the tangled mass of shadows trauma casts over the light in your world, especially when it has led you to addiction’s doorstep. But that’s okay, you don’t have to know. At Villa Kali Ma, we have a broad range of therapies and tools we can use to help you create a precision map out of the darkness of trauma and the ways it’s driven you to cope. Together, we’ll navigate your pull towards substances day by day to create a customized recovery plan focused on the holistic experience of being you, through trauma and beyond. Call us today. 

Categories
Wellness

Exercise And Mental Health

Exercise can change more than your physical body. Did you know you can move your way to more bountiful mental health? We don’t just mean yoga either (though we love it- and believe that it’s an important part of healing)! Many kinds of exercise can be a powerful benefit to shaping your mental health to reflect a more holistic relationship with the body you nourish with movement. 

Create movement your way

There is a nearly limitless way to engage in exercise routines that fuels your fulfillment. From dancing in the kitchen while you cook or trail running to yoga or high-intensity workout routines, there are options to make it what you need. You can move your body in the manner of your choosing. Your exercise can take place at the discretion of your schedule and through the everchanging scope of your personal needs without ever being questioned about its validity. 

Exercise can reduce your risk factors for co-occurring disorders 

Two of the key ways that exercise supports a healthier relationship with your mind and mood are by helping to improve your sleep and focusing the mind on reducing the power of intrusive thoughts. Better sleep sets you up for a healthier frame of mind, and the feel-good hormone boost exercise provides can reduce lingering anxiety and help you rewrite your response to your mental wellness. 

Imagine a day spent in nature, hiking a mountain with stunning views and rugged terrain. When you fall into bed that night, you won’t have so much energy to focus on the niggling anxieties that linger in the quiet. By exhausting the energy reserves in your body, there is a decreased risk of insomnia as you fall into bed for sleep at night. 

Similarly, is it possible to dwell on the lingering fog of burnout when you’re trying to remember a complicated series of asana in your yoga class? Breaking the hold of those thoughts on your focus reduces the risk of anxiety playing havoc with other mental health symptoms. 

Additionally, exercise can reduce blood pressure and resting heart rate while increasing your body confidence. These things can align to minimize stress on the body and body image, both of which can improve your physical and mental health. 

Exercise is not a mental health solution; it’s a holistic tool 

Any age. Any movement. Any body. No matter the exercise you choose, it won’t solve your mental health concerns. It won’t cure your depression or alleviate your compulsions. It’s not meant to fix anything, but it can help. Moving your body productively in a manner that feels good to you is a way to reconnect with yourself so that you can rewrite the relationship of wholeness that feeds your future. There is no single way to do this, and there’s certainly no easy one. But a beautiful place to begin is one focused on using the tools that support you now and can grow with you into the future. 

Your holistic being is incredibly responsive to the things you use to fuel it. When you change your diet, your body notices in systematic response to the way you’ve chosen to engage with it. It’s like a conversation: your taste buds signal the stomach, which employs the digestive process, and your body begins the myriad of processes that break down your food into usable nutrients and energy. 

It does much the same for your mind when you exercise. The uptick in heart rate and engagement of your vascular system signals a waterfall response that triggers different hormones to prepare and engage with the way you’re using your body and its energy to move through your exercise. 

You can’t get it wrong

Exercise has something to offer everyone for body, mind, and spirit because no one can get it wrong. There is infinite value in entering a space of healing with the knowledge that this is your choice, and you can create the way that looks and feels for you. From scheduling to activity, your relationship with exercise as a tool for your mental health is yours to cultivate in the ways that feel best for you. 

You are choosing to move your body to support your mind, and that choice puts the power of change back into your hands- exactly where it belongs. You are capable of changing your life, one step at a time. With the boost in brain power and sleep that moving your body can provide, you will have more space in your life to focus your energy on changing the things that do not serve you so you can celebrate the things that do. 

Categories
Mental Health

5 Myths About Bipolar Disorder

Bipolar disorder is a mood disorder that alters your brain chemistry, resulting in extreme and unstable moods. These extreme fluctuations, and the slow cycling between them are that set bipolar disorder apart from mood swings make it difficult for the body to adjust to what you’re feeling, resulting in an inability to live holistically with unmanaged bipolar disorder. Taking charge of your health and cultivating a healing relationship with your mind is empowering, but it may feel scary or confusing to do so with so much misinformation littering the helpful finds. 

Whether you are looking to destigmatize your own experience with bipolar, understand a loved one’s diagnosis or make sense of the impact bipolar disorder has had on your life, let’s begin by separating the fact from the myth with us below. 

1.) Myth: There’s one kind of bipolar disorder.

Fact: There are currently four specific types of bipolar disorder. 

According to the DSM-5, the symptoms of bipolar most commonly occur in four ways. 

Bipolar I is a manic-dominant episodic mood disorder, while bipolar II is marked by experiences of both hypomanic and depressive episodes. Cyclothymia is characterized by symptoms similar to bipolar disorder and is classified as a milder subtype of erratic cyclical periods of mania and depression. Lastly, bipolar not otherwise specified (NOS) has the hallmark bipolar symptoms of unpredictable and extreme mood shifts but doesn’t quite fit any typing. 

2.) Myth: Bipolar is just a fancy term for mood swings. 

Fact: Bipolar Disorder is a chronic disorder of mood episodes. 

Mood swings are a cycle of human experience. People move through the world responding to the things they see and feel. Those responses create moods, and those moods may change quickly but typically last minutes or hours. When you live with bipolar disorder, mood episodes that last for days or more often weeks are a draining part of your lived experience. It is not something that happens to you occasionally or cycles past quickly, but something that you live alongside constantly. 

3.) Myth: Treating your bipolar disorder will kill your creativity. 

Fact: Your art is not a product of your struggle. 

While mania may make you feel like you’ve had a stroke of genius, there is no sustainability to manic episodes. Receiving treatment that makes you feel empowered can hone your artistic instincts, but it doesn’t change who you are or what you’re capable of. You can strip back the unparalleled ferocity of disordered moods to cultivate controlled chaos that allows you to use your creativity in ways that feel best for you.

4.) Myth: Bipolar disorder is curable. 

Fact: Bipolar disorder is treatable. 

There is no cure for a disordered brain response to the hormones that influence your mood. Diagnosis is a phenomenal first step to controlling the power your mood episodes have over your daily life, however. Alongside possible treatments from a physician for symptoms of bipolar affecting your health, treatments for mind, body and spirit can help to align and balance your response to mood episodes. Even still, you may still experience symptoms of bipolar and there is nothing wrong with you if that’s the case. 

5.) Myth: Bipolar disorder is rare. 

Fact: Bipolar affects millions of people. 

Over 2.5% of the world’s population are diagnosed with bipolar disorder, and there are undoubtedly many who remain undiagnosed. There are a number of factors that increase the likelihood of developing it, notably having a family history of mood disorders. You are not alone in experiencing the difficult and often confusing symptoms of bipolar disorder, and connecting with others who can relate to your experiences may be a cathartic part of your healing.  

Living with any mood disorder can be fraught with confusion and frustration. Particularly when you are living (or learning to live) with bipolar disorder, fighting the uphill battle against myths and misunderstanding feels like a lot. It is a lot, but you don’t have to do it alone. 

Community is key for feeling supported as you navigate the struggles (and strengths) of your unique bipolar experience. Whether you are struggling with co-occuring conditions like substance use or just looking to be understood, developing supportive relationships is key to flourishing with bipolar. 

Your experience is unique, tailored to who you are and what you need as a holistic person.  The treatment you seek for your bipolar disorder should be too. Being honest about the experiences you have with bipolar, the struggles you face and the healing you’re hoping for are all within reach when you begin to untangle the myth from fact. Your bipolar disorder is not your identity. There is hope, and Villa Kali Ma is here to help you heal. 

 

 

Categories
Mental Health

How to Improve Mental Clarity (5 Tips to a clearer mind)

You’re sitting at your keyboard preparing for that meeting in 10 minutes and you know exactly what you need to accomplish before it starts, but every time you return to your task you find yourself refreshing your email. You don’t need your email. Indeed, you don’t even need your computer for this task but you’re caught in the loop of brain fog and struggling to accomplish anything beyond the immediate. 

Feel familiar? Us too.  

The daily mix of routine and upheaval can be a battle of wills between body and mind. If you’re struggling to find the clarity you need to win that battle today, we’ve got you covered. With five tips to find your way through the fog and a variety of programs to support you, let’s clear the haze together. 

1. Get the rest you need

Everyone has differing opinions on how much sleep we need to be successful and well rested. Both sleep deprivation and sleep cycle disruption can contribute to the feeling of brain fog that invades your waking hours.

If getting 8 hours doesn’t feel attainable or isn’t doing the trick, try focusing on the quality of sleep as well as finding ways to rest your body and reset. By reducing pre-bedtime screen exposure to focus on relaxation and lowering the temperature, you can create a more ambient resting space to make the most of your sleep. 

2. Connect with nature 

That sweet, sweet vitamin D does us all a little good but even if the sun isn’t shining, getting outside can be a powerful way to sweep away the dust in your mind. Increase clarity by going for a walk to get your blood pumping and take in the world around you as you go. 

Plan a hike to that summit you’ve always wanted to see or go explore a forgotten corner of your local beach. Spending time in less structured spaces and engaging with the beauty of the world around you is a powerful way to create a clearer consciousness. 

3. Focus with mindfulness 

Our mindfulness practices give a boost to body, mind and spirit. Both mindfulness and meditation can help you to  increase your focus, productivity and blood oxygenation levels- all a part of a clear mind. 

If you’ve never practiced mindfulness before, it may seem quite simple. Focusing inward on the breath and acceptance of whatever comes can be trickier than meets the eye. If you find yourself struggling, stepping out of your comfort zone and trying a group practice may help hone your mindfulness skills. 

4. Eat more brain fuel 

You already have to eat, so you may as well make that food work for you.  What we eat becomes a part of who we are and how we think. Balancing your diet to include the things that help superpower our brain function will maximize clarity without an active task to add to your schedule. 

Your brain is made primarily of fats, so a healthy dose of omega-3s will replenish and support your busy brain cells every day. Add a bit of caffeine for a supercharged boost to energy – make it green tea to double up on beneficial brain food. Last, focus on antioxidant intake from a variety of foods like blueberries, oranges, turmeric, or even broccoli for a colorful edge. 

5. Anchor yourself with awareness

Whether it’s awareness of the task you’re creating or awareness of your limitations, being aware of what may crowd your mind helps to lessen the burden. Distractions that creep in gives them the element of surprise, which can add to the stress, so give them breathing room for 5 or 10 minutes a day.

“Every day, stand guard at the door of your mind, and you alone decide what thoughts and beliefs you let into your life. For they will shape whether you feel rich or poor, cursed or blessed.”

– John Rhone

 

Stay aware of the shape of your task. Providing some structure to your headspace (and your schedule) by putting a hard limit on how long those distractions can take a front seat can help you to navigate them with more control. 

Clarity is more than concentration 

There are so many facets to the things that go on in our mind. From conscious to unconscious, we move through millions of moments and processes every day. Some linger, creating a condensation of complication that can gather into a haze and keep us from feeling our best. That doesn’t feel great, especially when you’re busier than you want to be and still have so much to do. 

You have the power to lift the fog and clear your mind. With the tools we’ve learned together and the many you arrived here with, clarity is already within your grasp. For more support or individual guidance, reach out to us today. 

Categories
Substance Abuse

Confronting Substance Triggers in Media 

Have you ever flipped on a favorite show or read a scene in a book you’ve been anticipating, only to be confronted with a reference to substance use that hits you right in the chest? The reference or exposure may be casual, often the “spice” on a scene instead of the point, but you’re sweating and feeling a little bit too crowded in your skin. 

Being confronted with our triggers in the media we consume is often uncomfortable, but when you’re in recovery, it happens a lot more often. Maybe you’re okay with it most of the time, or you’ve learned to gloss over it, and this time it’s just too much. Or maybe, you’re still learning. Either way, support and validation in this situation are both essential, and you should know: there’s nothing wrong with feeling uneasy about seeing these things, even in the media. Let’s talk about some of the reasons this happens and ways you can navigate it to support your recovery—both physically and emotionally. 

Early influence 

From a young age, we see drinking and smoking in the media we consume. In some scenarios, it’s depicted as the villain or in a somewhat accurate light, but the majority of the time, it just exists as a normalized part of the world. Drinking is, at best, just something that people do, and, in other programming, it’s glamorized as something to aspire to. The cool kids drink, the alt kids smoke, and later on, it’s the central theme of glamorous or exciting events in the lives of characters we’ve come to love. 

This early exposure was ingrained well before substance abuse found its way into your life, and those connotations have stuck in your mind. You see it now from the other side of the lens and feel a conflict that never existed for you before: the nostalgic normalcy and the ache of your reality in recovery. 

While you can’t banish those early impressions, you can focus on rewriting them. Practice validating your own narrative when you feel that insidious nostalgia rising with reminders like: 

  • Drinking wasn’t fun for me, and I have fun doing ___. 

Fill the blank with an activity that makes you feel good about yourself. 

  • Drug use isn’t glamorous, and my own experiences matter more than fiction. 
  • It’s okay for others to have these experiences even when I didn’t. 

Ultimately, you take up the most space in your own life, and you don’t have to reframe your thoughts if it doesn’t feel comfortable. It’s always okay to turn the channel or put down the book if the behavior makes you feel unsafe. 

Festive frustration 

The holidays have a way of making us all feel a bit less level, after all, and as we take the slow slide into sweater and stress weather, things that normally feel okay can be a bit trickier to navigate. Maybe the celebrations ask you to spend more time with loved ones you don’t see often or relationships that were a part of your life during active substance use. These things may pull your awareness right up to the top of your emotional meter, making it that much more apparent when the wine bottle goes around at Thanksgiving dinner or when you hear the ninth commercial for beer on the radio during your holiday gift shopping. 

The exposure can feel like an endless assault on top of the emotions of the holidays themselves, and when stress runs so high, it’s more difficult to look away when you feel its influence more acutely. 

While you can’t turn off the celebrations or the season, you can prepare yourself for the exposure by bringing your own drinks or taking charge of the conversation to mention your sobriety so that it doesn’t feel like the elephant in the room. Being open about how you’re feeling with someone you trust will also help you to feel less overwhelmed by the prevalence of substances in holiday media. 

Exposure to parts of your history in a glamorized or socially celebrated spaces that you respect can feel chafing at best and triggering in other instances. There is no one size fits all solution in protecting your recovery and rewriting your relationship with a media culture that glamorizes something so personal to you. Still, there are many routes you can tailor to your situation to find one that fits. At any stage in the journey, we’re happy to help supplement your coping tools and navigate these constant confrontations so that you can feel confident in your own life, your recovery and that Netflix guilty pleasure you don’t want to stop watching. 

Categories
Mental Health

How To Get The Most Out Of Therapy

Therapy is the multitool of healing. With various shapes and applications, there’s a suitable fit for everyone, but finding the right fit for you and figuring out how to get the most out of therapy can be entirely different processes. 

Maybe it’s your first time, and you’re feeling overwhelmed, or you’re just starting back, and the thought of establishing such a relationship again feels overwhelming to you. Or maybe the expanse of possibility- and your role in it- is the very thing holding you back from beginning at all. 

There are many things you can do to contribute to the benefit of your therapeutic experiences. The most crucial part is that you’re here and you’re willing, but we want to help you build on the knowledge you can bring into the therapeutic relationship to ensure you leave feeling as empowered as possible. From session to session to the overarching tone of your healing journey, you deserve to feel prepared. 

So, how can you get the most out of therapy? 

Be accountable 

Taking responsibility for your actions as well as your attitudes and emotions is a valuable part of the therapeutic process. Accountability is the process of recognizing the gravity of your consciousness in the way you exist in the world, even when that gravity feels uncomfortable. This may mean accepting fault for wrongdoing or bearing the knowledge that the way you engage with those around you altered the situation you encountered in a way that wasn’t ideal. 

It’s not all hard revelations, though. Accountability also means accepting the positive consequences of your presence or actions. Being accountable for the knowledge you bring or the value of your impact on situations that grew or expanded because you were a part of them can help you identify strengths and develop those skills to be a more comprehensive part of your worldview. 

Embracing accountability as a required part of your healing will help you to help yourself by seeing the places you could respond to old feelings or experiences in new ways. In turn, this will create the space for your therapist to help you build your skillset at recognizing those opportunities for growth and the tools to unlock new potential for your compassionate accountability to serve you positively. 

Embrace curiosity 

An element of the curious lingers in the unfamiliar. Often, we grow to recognize this with resistance or suspicion. Some of us may experience new things with an edge of defensiveness. Embracing the unfamiliar in all its formats can help you expand your holistic perspective beyond your most hopeful daydreams by embracing the possibility hidden in the mundane. 

 

What if I am bad at this?  ⟶ What if this is a hidden strength?
What if my plans go wrong? ⟶ What if my plans go right?
What if it’s painful?  ⟶ What if it’s liberating?
What if no one likes me? ⟶ What if I find space to belong?

If you’ve ever experienced anxiety, you’re familiar with the power of the “what if?’. By inviting curiosity into your therapeutic spaces, you can re-shape the impact of “what if?” by offering it a connotation of wonder. Curiosity can be a powerful way to engage your imagination as an active part of reshaping your reality when you allow yourself to flourish in the safety of therapy, guided by an expert who is there to support you through the experiences you have. 

Speak up 

You are your most powerful ally. Using your voice to communicate clearly and concisely about what you need and how you feel is an important tool you can use to guide your therapeutic experience. If you know what you want from therapy or have specific goals, share them. Suppose there’s something that’s not working or you think could be going better. In that case, it’s okay to initiate a conversation about re-evaluating those elements to ensure they’re an ideal fit for where you are today. Maybe the space you occupy on your recovery journey has changed, or the emotions you’re experiencing have been impacted by something you couldn’t have anticipated. 

No matter what it is that’s weighing on you, good or bad, you are a powerful advocate for your needs. Through therapy, you’ll learn how to use it, and here is the best place to exercise its power to ensure you are getting the most beneficial support possible. 

Show Up, Authentically 

The most valuable tip we can offer you is to be authentic. Show up as your whole self for the whole time. From the very start, it’s key to ensure your therapist sees all sides of your personality. Resist the urge to downplay your strengths and gloss over your flaws. You are here to grow, and judgment of your character has no place in a holistic healing relationship. When you bring your authentic self to therapy, you invite the therapist into the vulnerable spaces where healing begins so it can take place most holistically. 

You have the power to shape your healing journey, and we’re here to help along the way. 

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