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Topic Tuesday: The positive side of mental health difficulties closed

NikNikSenior Contributor08 Sept 2014, 12:18 pm AEST

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*

JTSenior Contributor09 Sept 2014, 7:36 pm AEST

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

Yes, a shift in thinking and perspective. Life is no longer quite as expected but that doesn't mean it's wrong or over.

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

deckofdreamsCasual Contributor09 Sept 2014, 7:38 pm AEST

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

Thanks NikNik for solving the disappearing post issue.

This was my post from earlier

Just finished preparing my meals for tomorrow

My experience has taught me a lot. It allowed me to really explore things and see things in a way I would have never considered before. For example, I used to think that when I died I would literally rot in the ground and be mulched up by worms and then that was it. Now I believe there is so much more to life than just our physical bodies. I guess you could say that my experience gave me an opening into spirituality.

Mania was a like a fast tracked way of getting to know myself, having it all laid out there.

I truly feel blessed.

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

JTSenior Contributor09 Sept 2014, 7:38 pm AEST

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

We had pizza tonight so everyone in this house is now happy. Except the dogs who got no pizza.

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

deckofdreamsCasual Contributor09 Sept 2014, 7:39 pm AEST

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

JT I'm glad your family don't feed dogs pizza (unfortunately I can't say the same for some of the members of my family)

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

JTSenior Contributor09 Sept 2014, 7:44 pm AEST

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

One of my dogs thinks she's a goat. I'll have to be sure to put the box in the bin otherwise she'll settle for that. My dogs are spoilt rotten on a species appropriate diet - they eat so much better than us! I have that gee you should've cooked a real meal instead of caving into requests for junk lol

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

BatGuanoSenior Contributor09 Sept 2014, 7:48 pm AEST

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

karma,

in an acute presentation where the person is in crisis I would use first-aid measures

once the basics are met, then and only then does the person become capable of objectivity

a smart fellow called Maslow made a 'heirarchy of needs'

with the idea that the more doo doo is hitting the ventilation the less clear-headed we are

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

DebbiCasual Contributor09 Sept 2014, 7:52 pm AEST

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

When all seemed hopeless and could find no positives I would cling onto one thought: 'you are not alone'. Many others feel the same. I wasn't so weird or strange for having such a long struggle with MI. This gave me great comfort and helped me to keep going keep trying, not to give up.

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

NikNikSenior Contributor09 Sept 2014, 7:55 pm AEST

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

10 mins to go!

So far we have touched on

1) positives/ gifts / superpowers you have gained from your experiences (ps: WOW!)

2) How those have impacted the people around you in a positive way

3) Advice for people who may not necessarily feel that there are any positives to their experience

Any last thoughts on any of these areas?

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

Alessandra1992Senior Contributor09 Sept 2014, 7:55 pm AEST

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

Those huge changes are based around my 3 vital needs, to be someone, to be at home and to be going somewhere.

These changes came from my support group listening to my problem, giving me a practical task and some program to learn to help support the changes I was working on.

I regular thank the universe and all deities small and large and cross cultural, that I found Grow when I was unwell.

It was through mutual support and self activation that my group supported me in learning new ways of behaving, how to check my thinking "to go by what I know and not by how I feel" and change of relationships through improved communication skills.

I learned from Grow "that if a thing is worth doing! it's worth doing badly for a start, and while you're improving."

That is quite a freeing wisdom to live by because we are not expected to be perfect, we are expected to need a lot of practice in changing our ways and removes the trap of perfectionism.

Perfectionism being the curse that can completely cripple you from doing anything if you know it won't be perfect.

What else did my MI teach me? Well patience is one. Perserverance is another. And I am grateful that my life would not be this good if I hadn't been unwell..

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

JTSenior Contributor09 Sept 2014, 7:56 pm AEST

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

You know it's funny. I would think "you are not alone" or "there's others worse off than you" and they would give me an internal boost but god help anyone who said either comment to me. Usually because those people really didn't give two hoots about me and just wanted to say something.

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