Tag Archive for: self care

Wait, is that considered self-harm? (NSSI Non-Suicidal Self-Injury)

TRIGGER WARNING: In this post, I will be talking about self-harm and self-injury. I think that one of the reasons why it was so difficult for me to receive an accurate diagnosis of borderline personality disorder is because I did not have any overt self-harm behaviors. It’s probably also one of the reasons why I […]

Emotionally Sensitive in an “Always On” World

Emotionally sensitive people can find it especially difficult to cope with society’s “always on,” always doing something, always multitasking expectations. Even droves of averagely sensitive people have found themselves burned out and turning to self medicating or prescription drugs to literally take the edge off of life and numb the overwhelm.  This can’t be the […]

The Shower as a Sanctuary: DBT Self-Soothing Skill

One of my favorite Dialectical Behavior Therapy (DBT) skills is Self-Soothing.  I went from a time in my life when I believed I was totally undeserving of feeling “good” to becoming immersed in this skill, to finding a balance. It is still my top go-to skill when I am feeling emotionally dysregulated and distressed and […]

Self-Soothing As An Adult

If we were very fortunate, as little children we were soothed and validated by our caretakers. When we cried, they held us and told us it would be okay. When we were frightened, we were reassured.All too often, those with Borderline Personality Disorder grew up in invalidating environments and did not receive enough soothing and […]

A difficult few days | Borderline Personality Disorder and PTSD

What do you do when you’ve been going along fine, feeling mentally well, and feeling stable — when suddenly, as if out of nowhere (though you later discover there was, as Dr. Marsha Linehan says, “cause”), you have an episode, and it feels like you’ve backtracked? This is going to be a long one. Writing […]