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Topic Tuesday: The positive side of mental health difficulties *closed*

Topic Tuesday: The positive side of mental health difficulties *closed*

Hi everyone,

Welcome to Topic Tuesday!

Last week when we closed the poll we found that overwhelmingly people wanted to discuss the “gifts” or “positives” that have come from their mental health difficulty or experience with mental illness.

Around the forums I have seen many discussions about these 'gifts'. Some have discussed how mental illness has increased self - awareness, other discussions have touched on how their experience has helped others.

What have some of the positives or gifts that have come from your experiences?

57 replies

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In response to: Topic Tuesday: The positive side of mental health difficulties *closed*

Re: Topic Tuesday: The positive side of mental health difficulties *NOW OPEN*

hey JT,

maybe you're worth a bit of time, a bit of space, worth treating like a human being

correct me if I'm wrong

I dare you

In response to: Re: Topic Tuesday: The positive side of mental health difficulties *NOW OPEN*

Re: Topic Tuesday: The positive side of mental health difficulties *NOW OPEN*

I'd still rather be a rainbow lorikeet 😉

I would dare you, but that might be against the rule

In response to: Re: Topic Tuesday: The positive side of mental health difficulties *NOW OPEN*

Re: Topic Tuesday: The positive side of mental health difficulties *NOW OPEN*

Oh dear.. I'm getting lost... people turning into Rainbow Lorikeets...

🙂 🙂

What advice would you give someone who may not necessarily feel that there are any positives to their experience?

In response to: Re: Topic Tuesday: The positive side of mental health difficulties *NOW OPEN*

Re: Topic Tuesday: The positive side of mental health difficulties *NOW OPEN*

Funny you mention superpowers. Let me introduce you to my alter ego, Super Jen

In response to: Re: Topic Tuesday: The positive side of mental health difficulties *NOW OPEN*

Re: Topic Tuesday: The positive side of mental health difficulties *NOW OPEN*

Advice: Sometimes it takes a little time between the experience and the positive feelings. It's okay to feel like crap sometimes, the best way to overcome this is to take a long bath (I love long baths) and then know that whatever happens, the sun will rise and set and the world will continue. I believe what was said about "changing" ways of thinking is critical too!

In response to: Re: Topic Tuesday: The positive side of mental health difficulties *NOW OPEN*

Re: Topic Tuesday: The positive side of mental health difficulties *NOW OPEN*

My post.
It vanished.

To view life differently has been one of the main gifts of experiencing MI.
And it also allowed me to experience the following 3 changes:

Change of thinking and talk
Change of ways and
Change of relationships.

All of which I am thankful for having been through so much crap as I was taking life way too much for granted before I experienced MI. A humbling experience to say the least, and one where I learned what friendship means and how important it was for me in my recovery..

In response to: Re: Topic Tuesday: The positive side of mental health difficulties *NOW OPEN*

Re: Topic Tuesday: The positive side of mental health difficulties *NOW OPEN*

Would you say, its about adjustment, and a perspective that is on a strengths focus, as opposed to what's missing, wrong, or lost? This takes a shift in thinking, a process.

In response to: Re: Topic Tuesday: The positive side of mental health difficulties *NOW OPEN*

Re: Topic Tuesday: The positive side of mental health difficulties *NOW OPEN*

I would, and frequently do, tell them to stop and think of 3 positives for every negative. It's human nature to obsess until we find the answer we want and unfortunately some of us focus on the negative and lose sight of the positive. It's very hard to move forward when you keep looking backwards.

In response to: Re: Topic Tuesday: The positive side of mental health difficulties *NOW OPEN*

Re: Topic Tuesday: The positive side of mental health difficulties *NOW OPEN*

I wouldn't expect everyone to see a bright side

sometimes all you can do is be with a person in their suffering

and say 'it gets better'

and order pizza

its hard to be pessimistic with a full stomach

i think I've missed dinner

In response to: Re: Topic Tuesday: The positive side of mental health difficulties *NOW OPEN*

Re: Topic Tuesday: The positive side of mental health difficulties *NOW OPEN*

Such good advice deckofdreams! So true - it takes time between the experience and the positive feeling.

Alessandra - they are huge changes! How did those changes come about.. did you just decide those changes... did they just appear one day.... or did you find you were just naturally making these changes? Or were they very conscious choices?
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