Trusting Yourself, Others When You Live with Mental Illness

Here's what's happening on the HealthyPlace site this week:

• Trusting Yourself, Others When You Live with Mental Illness
• How to Develop Trust When Mental Illness Takes It Away
• From the HealthyPlace Mental Health Blogs
• Video: Bipolar Dating Insecurities and No Favors Please
• Most Popular HealthyPlace Articles Shared by Facebook Fans
• Mental Health Quote

Trusting Yourself, Others When You Live with Mental Illness

A common complaint among people living with mental illness is that trust becomes very difficult. Many different types of mental illness, each for their own unique reasons, can make it difficult for people to trust themselves or others. For example,

• anxiety disorders make people overthink things, questioning thoughts and feelings
• psychotic disorders bring confusing hallucinations and delusions that can lead to an inability to trust
• borderline personality disorder causes instability and fear that make trusting hard to do
• depression leads to low self-esteem which erodes trust

How to Develop Trust When Mental Illness Takes It Away

You can develop trust in spite of mental illness.

• Being mindful of what’s going on right now keeps your thoughts and feelings in the present. Trust happens in the present rather than in the past or future.
• When talking to others, listen fully to their words. The mind makes assumptions and jumps to conclusions, which leads to mistrust. Attend to the content of the words instead of your thoughts about the words.
• Believe in yourself. Every day, do something small that is just out of your comfort zone. By building small successes, you are building trust in yourself.

Trust is an ongoing process, something that can be strengthened over time. Know that mental illness is playing tricks, and take steps to develop trust anyway.

Related Articles Dealing with Trust

• With Anxiety, Are Your Thoughts Trustworthy?
• Bipolar Disorder — Can You Trust What You Feel?
• How To Trust Yourself and Feel Confident Making Decisions
• Trusting Your Therapist: Some Practical Approaches
• Therapy’s First Obstacle: Trust My Therapist? No Way!
• Developing Trust in Addiction Recovery

Your Thoughts

Today's Question: In what ways has living with a mental illness hindered your ability to trust yourself or others? We invite you to participate by sharing your thoughts, knowledge, and experiences on the HealthyPlace Facebook page and on the HealthyPlace Google+ page.

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From the HealthyPlace Mental Health Blogs

On all our blogs, your comments and observations are welcomed.

• The Guilt of Bipolar Even When Tragedy Occurs
• How I Struggle to Pursue Creativity with Depression
• Change Is Necessary for Growth: Goodbye to ‘Living a Blissful Life’
• Are You Powerless Over Your Addiction? Here’s How to Know
• Living in PTSD Recovery and the Myth of a Cure
• What If Mental Illness Stigma Never Goes Away?
• Change Your Self-Esteem and Improve Your Life
• With Bipolar, Failure Is Always an Option, Failure’s Not Bad
• Is Trauma Necessary for Dissociative Identity Disorder (DID)?
• Mental Illness Disability Benefit Slashed in Proposed Budget
• Work Around the Negativity Bias to Ease Anxiety
• Coping with the Suicide of a Friend

Feel free to share your thoughts and comments at the bottom of any blog post. And visit the mental health blogs homepage for the latest posts.

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From HealthyPlace YouTube Channel

Bipolar Dating Insecurities and No Favors Please

I have bipolar depression (bipolar 2) and I’m out there actively dating. One thing I deal with is my insecurity about my medication induced weight gain. The second thing I constantly come across is guys who think they’re doing me a favor by dating me since, you know, I have a “disability” aka bipolar disorder. Now that’s really crazy!.

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Most Popular HealthyPlace Articles Shared by Facebook Fans

Here are the top 3 mental health articles HealthyPlace Facebook fans are recommending you read:

1. EMDR Therapy as PTSD Treatment: A Closer Look
2. Stigmatizing Words: Excoriation Is More Than a Habit
3. H.O.W. Virtues of Recovery from Alcohol Addiction

If you're not already, I hope you'll join us/like us on Facebook too. There are a lot of wonderful, supportive people there.

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Mental Health Quote

"Nobody ever tells you that emptiness weighs the most."

Read more depression quotes.

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