Mental Help!

I personally believe that as a society we treat mental health help as though it is something to be administered and usually by someone other than ourselves, For example when people are dealing with mental issues a hugely typical and common response is "Are you seeing someone about it", I think that seeing this as one of few only options is a very limiting perspective and as such I want to invite you to consider another perspective (If you haven't already).

A psychologist studies information (The most current scientific understanding) of the way humans think and behave, Their role is generally to help other people with the knowledge they obtain and as such they carry that out through usually fairly expensive appointments, One problem I have noticed is that although they can teach and offer subtle reccommendations these are not a substitute for understanding the actual knowledge and the background of that knowledge, Knowing this kind of knowledge is what can help a person understand and learn about their own particular issues and thus helps them to be able to improve their situation.

Another point is that although we as humans have patterns in the way we operate and think, We also have an incredible diversity to that, I have learned that we are essentially all running our own system and because of this, Things that may work or be logical for one person may not be logical for another, This INCLUDES things that are sometimes scientifically illogical to some extent. The importance of this discovery is that the management of our own system is best achieved usually through our own ways, That is a large reason as to why I have decided to share an example version of my own tool which I call AFAR.

AFAR is an acronym which stands for Anxiety, Frustration, Anger, Rage. It is my own personal "Throw together" tool which I sometimes use when I am struggling with a situation that I have dealt with before and have come up with solutions for it which can help me, It also helps me in other ways. One of the core aspects of this tool is that it is personal to me, There are multiple reasons I have chosen to share it such as:
> To share ideas.
> To show a level of human vulnerability and self struggle including some of the ways I help myself with those struggles.
> To encourage the idea that you have more control over your own mental health than you may recognize.
> To encourage an amount of independent pursuit for the understanding of how you work and how you personally understand yourself.

One thing I have found extremely helpful for myself is remembering keywords and key phrases, These are usually things that help you to remember a useful concept or idea, My personally most effective one has been the phrase "Trauma thoughts", It is something that helps me to identify and flag thoughts I am having that are usually part of a trauma response. Of course to someone who has a minimal definition of that or their own understanding they won't see the value in such a simple thing hence why I bring you back to the importance of personalizing your own mental health strategies to what is effective for yourself.

I feel that this will be most helpful for people who may struggle with trauma and dealing with complex thought processes, As a disclaimer, bits and pieces of what is in this file are things I have picked up and or reinterpreted from reading books and included for my self hence I have listed most of the books at the bottom of the document.

Download AFAR example :

I also wanted to add that one of the best things you can do is to nurture a good support network, What I mean by this is relying on others when you need help and when they are willing to help you but also giving back where you can, To recognize that everyone is going through their own stuff, A support network sounds somewhat official but that can literally be friends, family, people you have met in your travels and people who are specially there for that reason such as therapists. It is probably the single most important thing I would say to help prevent suicide, It is f**king hard but you got this!

Helpful links