Mental in the Midwest

Daily Archives: August 7, 2014

oh yeah? my doc says I’m not crazy, but you’re a raging bitch

07 Thursday Aug 2014

Posted by Kat in Uncategorized

≈ 13 Comments

Tags

anxiety, bipolar disorder, goals, life, limits, meds, mental health, mental illness, moods, motivation, sleep, stress, the world is full of fucking idiots, work

10514718_834537193231939_6368957658722783305_nThe general consensus is that there really isn’t anything wrong with ME. Shrinky-poo actually went so far as to say to me, “so Mama, there really isn’t anything I need to be treating you for right now that I haven’t been treating you for over the last several years.” Which means, I’M FUCKING FINE. And I don’t go back until September.

Her professional opinion is that my anxiety is at an appropriate level and is being appropriately managed with the medications. She approves of the use of the Soma to assist with the muscle aches, and she said that while she wouldn’t have insisted that I start seeing T-Bone again, she doesn’t think it’s a bad idea. Hey, free pass off campus early to visit a cool old dude – I’ll take it.

I also showed her the flower girl pic on my phone and told her about the DBT skills I’ve been using to help supplement the meds and she expressed pride in my ability to do that. And she thought the picture was cool. So yeah, I’m doing everything I’m supposed to be doing.

SUCK IT!!!

10387579_281817861990362_4605080045246788674_n(sorry, I can’t resist)

My day was pretty ridiculous today, and sadly that’s going to be the trend for the next month or so. I didn’t even get enough time between meetings to be considered a lunch break, so I haven’t listened to the CD yet. I’ll try later. I did, however, manage to get myself on the treadmill already tonight.

faster

HOLY HELL, WHEN DID I GET SO OLD AND OUT OF SHAPE???

I walked a whole 15 minutes at 2.5 mph. When I got off, I thought someone had snuck in and replaced my legs with Silly Putty. Damn, that sucked. But at the same time, it felt good. And I will likely sleep better. My intention is to walk every week day evening, either while Josh is in the shower or while he’s at school. I’m going to work back up to longer times, but I know from experience that this will go better if I do it slow. But I did something tonight, and that’s what counts. So YAY.

funny-pictures-cat-offers-fist

At any rate, I’m still trying to figure out if it’s best to schedule posts ahead so that y’all get something every day, or wait until the evenings and hope that I have time to give you an update. If you’d like to leave your input on that, I’d love to hear what you think.

mental health organizing tips

07 Thursday Aug 2014

Posted by Kat in Uncategorized

≈ 18 Comments

Tags

mental health, mental illness, organizational skills for little squirrels, tips

organizational skills for squirrelsDon’t be confused, my little squirrels, it is Thursday. I thought perhaps I’d combine our typical Thursday “mental health” topic with the “organizing skills” thing that we haven’t done in awhile. Why not?

So, here are some of Mama’s tips for mental folks to stay organized.

Day Planner / Calendar

IMG_3393I keep my calendar in my phone these days, mostly because my work email and calendar are synced to it and I can add personal appointments to my Gmail calendar through the same app, but I did used to use a leather day planner similar to this one. A monthly view wouldn’t have worked for me, but everyone is different. The point is to find a system that you find comfortable and easy to use. If it’s not easy to use, you won’t use it. The idea is to have a way to keep track of appointments and tasks so that you don’t lose track of anything.

These don’t have to be expensive. There are places online where you can download and print templates that can be 3-hole punched and put in a binder. The great thing about that is there are ample opportunities to personalize your system for very little money, and express some of your personality while staying organized.

Keeping Track of Finances / Budget

yearly_budget_templateKnowing where the money is going is important for anyone, often it’s even more important for those of us who have extra medical bills to cover. You can setup a worksheet like this in a word processor, or, if you have a little skill with Microsoft Excel, you can setup a worksheet that includes formulas that add your totals for you and even calculate differences. There are also templates similar to this that you can download blank to print and fill out by hand.

What I really like about doing a budget sheet is that I can easily tell where our money is going, and where I can cut costs. I do ours in Excel, and I know just enough to setup the formulas. Well, I did.

Pill Organizers

317This is the organizer that I’ve started using for my morning pills. The spaces are the perfect size for the 3 pills I need in the morning.

36025My bedtime pills go in a larger version of one of the straight ones, and Josh uses one of these for morning and another for night.

The beauty of using some form of pill organizer is that there is never any confusion about whether or not you took your pills. Anything we NEED to take goes into these. My PRNs are in separate containers because it’s up to me if I take them or not, but I only ever carry as many on me as I’m allowed to have. My brain is just too busted at this point to keep track of too many things.

One of my absolute favorite things about using the pill organizers is that I always know that I’m going to run out of something well in advance. Most of my meds are on perpetual refill and the pharmacy just does that for me and then sends me a text, but filling my pills a week at a time gives me a very clear picture of whether I’m running low on something. This is crucial for Josh because 2 of his meds are controlled substances and can’t be “grace” filled like mine can.

Taking pill organization one step further, I keep all of the bottles of pills in the medicine cabinet in the upstairs bathroom. They’re all in the center section and they’re separated – the top shelf is mine, middle is Josh’s, and the bottom shelf is for vitamins and other pills we don’t take regularly. This makes it easier when we go to fill pills.

Filing System

organized-filing-cabinetThis is a family thingy pictured here, but it was so pretty I just had to use it. Anyway, the idea is that any paperwork you need to hang on to – bill statements, papers from any of your docs, warranty info for the car or electronics, etc. – needs to be organized and kept in a safe place. If you don’t have a file cabinet or a file drawer in your desk, you can get free-standing file boxes. If you are just starting to get organized like this, take your papers and start making piles of like things. Once you have all of your piles made, you can make folders from there.

Depending on your insurance situation, saving the paperwork you get from the doc’s office and the pharmacy can be crucial. Having a well organized file system makes it easier to find the paperwork you need when you need it.

Those are the 4 biggies for me. What other organizational tips do you think are especially important for us mental folk?

Recent Posts

  • go here
  • A Little Help For a Great Friend
  • changes are in the air
  • when life hands you lemons…
  • quickie update
August 2014
M T W T F S S
 123
45678910
11121314151617
18192021222324
25262728293031
« Jul   Sep »

Archives

  • January 2017
  • October 2015
  • July 2015
  • June 2015
  • May 2015
  • April 2015
  • March 2015
  • February 2015
  • January 2015
  • December 2014
  • November 2014
  • October 2014
  • September 2014
  • August 2014
  • July 2014
  • June 2014
  • May 2014
  • April 2014
  • March 2014
  • February 2014
  • January 2014
  • December 2013
  • November 2013
  • October 2013
  • September 2013
  • August 2013
  • July 2013
  • June 2013
  • May 2013
  • April 2013
  • March 2013
  • February 2013
  • January 2013
  • December 2012
  • November 2012
  • October 2012
  • September 2012
  • August 2012
  • July 2012
  • June 2012
  • May 2012
  • April 2012
  • March 2012
  • February 2012
  • January 2012

7 weeks of weird 25 songs 28 day challenge alcohol anxiety award bipolar disorder blog for mental health 2015 borderline personality disorder building a life worth living building rome cartoon craziness challenge challenge christmas crochet DBT death depression divorce drawing Evie Cat family food friends getting creative getting healthy goals grateful health hormones hypomania kids knitting life limits love meds mental health mental illness money moods motivation music nano poblano normal organizational skills for little squirrels patterns pretty/shitty projects prompted post quitting smoking random shit that falls out of my brain recipes school seasonal affective disorder sex share your world sick simplifying skin conditions sleep stress stress management suicide taking charge of my finances tardive dyskinesia tattoos team pepper therapy the world is full of fucking idiots top 10 top 10 tuesday weight loss when good meds go bad work

Create a free website or blog at WordPress.com.

Privacy & Cookies: This site uses cookies. By continuing to use this website, you agree to their use.
To find out more, including how to control cookies, see here: Cookie Policy
  • Follow Following
    • Mental in the Midwest
    • Join 1,085 other followers
    • Already have a WordPress.com account? Log in now.
    • Mental in the Midwest
    • Customize
    • Follow Following
    • Sign up
    • Log in
    • Report this content
    • View site in Reader
    • Manage subscriptions
    • Collapse this bar
 

Loading Comments...
 

You must be logged in to post a comment.