CRAZY: Easy & Proven Ways to Heal Yourself When You Feel Like Your Brain is Broken

By Darienne Garner

There are many different assumptions about mental health issues, making it difficult to understand what they entail. It's not as neat and clear cut as having a specific diagnosis and set of symptoms. Mental health issues are far more complex than most people realize and mean dealing with a vast range of complicated and contradictory thoughts and emotions. Living each day frustrated and hopeless, constantly wishing you could think, feel, and behave differently. Thinking your brain is irreparably broken and believing that you will never be able to cope and thrive like everyone else.

Whether you are stressed, anxious, depressed, angry, working through trauma, or struggling in some other way emotionally, there is good news to come!

This book breaks down complex topics into simple, tangible strategies that can be easily incorporated into your daily living. It draws upon the most well-researched and proven ideas from an ecological perspective: that is, biological, environmental, personal, emotional, and spiritual factors to improve your mental health.

Learn how to:

·         Tolerate distress.

·         Be more mindful.

·         Reduce overall stress levels.

·         Manage painful emotions.

·         Address negative thoughts.

·         Find motivation and purpose.

·         Live a happier, healthier life.

This book will transform the way you feel about yourself and reassure you that your brain is most definitely NOT broken! It will guide you away from just existing to empowering you to truly live your best life. 

 

• Language: English
• Publisher: Darienne Garner
• Release date: May 11, 2023
• ISBN: 9781738947034

Book preview

CRAZY

Easy & Proven Ways to Heal Yourself When You Feel Like Your Brain is Broken

Darienne Garner

© Copyright 2023 - All rights reserved.

The content contained within this book may not be reproduced, duplicated or transmitted without direct written permission from the author or the publisher.

Under no circumstances will any blame or legal responsibility be held against the publisher, or author, for any damages, reparation, or monetary loss due to the information contained within this book, either directly or indirectly.

Legal Notice:

This book is copyright protected. It is only for personal use. You cannot amend, distribute, sell, use, quote or paraphrase any part, or the content within this book, without the consent of the author or publisher.

Disclaimer Notice:

Please note the information contained within this document is for educational and entertainment purposes only. All effort has been executed to present accurate, up to date, reliable, complete information. No warranties of any kind are declared or implied. Readers acknowledge that the author is not engaged in the rendering of legal, financial, medical or professional advice. The content within this book has been derived from various sources. Please consult a licensed professional before attempting any techniques outlined in this book.

By reading this document, the reader agrees that under no circumstances is the author responsible for any losses, direct or indirect, that are incurred as a result of the use of the information contained within this document, including, but not limited to, errors, omissions, or inaccuracies.

A Note From The Author

In my experiences, there are a lot of resources out there to help people with anxiety, stress and depression. Many of them focus a great deal on why these experiences happen to some people, but seem to lack tangible, actionable things that you can actually do.

I endeavored in these pages to provide simple, easy to follow ideas of steps you can implement right away, to start seeing improvement.

I am a professional counsellor, and I have been in direct practice with clients since I began my career, and a great majority of my clients arrive for their intake session claiming they suffer with anxiety and/or depression, among other things.

Although there are clinical definitions of each of many of these disorders, and  are included in the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM), with several different categories and diagnosis, in my experiences, many clients that I see do not have a formal diagnosis by a medical doctor or psychiatrist.

Nevertheless, my approach to working with clients is based on their own perceptions, not necessarily some label placed on them by another professional. Formal diagnosis can be useful to identify an area of need, or a specific issue that needs to be addressed, but it is not a requirement in order for me to try and help people.

The underlying assumption in many of my ideas and suggestions is that our perceptions shape a great deal of how we live day to day. In other words, how we think, what we think about, and what we choose to put our physical and emotional energy into will shape the course of our day, and ultimately, our life.

If you focus only on what is going wrong in your life, things will appear to always go wrong. If you strive for perfection, you will consistently meet with failure. If you wait for others to change, so that your life is better, you will be waiting forever. If you consistently put others before yourself, you will never be fulfilled, content or truly happy. Self-care is not selfish.

I refer to myself as a generalist. Essentially, what that means is that I do not adhere to a single theoretical perspective and approach. I draw from many theories, ideas, approaches and perspectives to try and work with my clients to develop strategies and ideas that will work for them. I utilize strategies from Cognitive Behavioural Therapy, Dialectical Behaviour Therapy, Choice Theory, Acceptance & Commitment Therapy, just to name a few. Sometimes, I combine them, and sometimes I create or invent activities and strategies for my clients based on a number of them all at once.

With any self-help endeavor, I always tell my clients to take what speaks to you, and leave the rest. There will be many ideas that you find amazing and can't wait to try, and others that you will think won’t work, and that’s okay too. All I ask is that you give a strategy a reasonable amount of time before you decide whether or not it works. Researchers have shown that it takes approximately 21 days to form a new habit, so that would be a great place to start. Give a strategy 2-3 weeks of daily practice before you make a determination on its effectiveness.

Remember, without change, nothing changes. Be brave, be strong, be diligent, and I can guarantee you will feel better than you did yesterday.

Feel free to adapt any suggestions to suit your needs. This book is designed to help challenge your perceptions, and move you away from negativity and to a better place.

Not only am I a professional who sees this every day in my practice, I personally also suffered with severe anxiety, recurring depression and enormous amounts of stress for as long as I can remember. So trust me when I say that I absolutely understand what these emotions feel like. I know how debilitating it can be, how much pain and sadness and inability to function comes with feeling this way.

The good news? I believe I have come out the other side of it. Although it never completely goes away, I have learned ways to cope and deal with my emotions so that I can finally be happy, healthy and content.

You can get there too, I have faith in you.

- Darienne Garner, 2023

TRIGGER WARNING:

This book is about mental health issues. It discusses various mental health conditions and symptoms, and it contains mention of sensitive topics like alcohol abuse, drug use, restrictive eating, self-harm, and suicide.

Table of Contents

Introduction

A Journey to Good Mental Health

How to Heal

Chapter 1: Feeling Broken

What It’s Really Like

Thoughts and Feelings

Problematic Behavior

Relationship Trouble

Helpless and Hopeless

The Good News

You Are Not Alone

A Happy and Healthy Life

Chapter 2: Mental Health 101

What Is Mental Illness?

Spotting the Signs

Different Types of Disorders

Mood Disorders

Depression

Anxiety

Personality Disorders

Borderline Personality Disorder

Treating Mental Illness

Cognitive Behavioral Therapy

Dialectical Behavior Therapy

The Light at the End of the Tunnel

Resilience

Chapter 3: Tolerating Distress

Controlling Impulses

The Problem With Temporary Relief

TIPP

Temperature

Intense Exercise

Paced Breathing

Paired Muscle Relaxation

Self-Soothe

A Box of Comfort

Improving the Moment

Imagery

Meaning

Prayer

Relax

One Thing at a Time

Vacation

Encouragement

Weighing the Pros and Cons

Distraction

Radical Acceptance

It Is What It Is

Chapter 4: Mindfulness

The Importance of Being Present

What Skills

Observing

Describing

Participating

How Skills

Nonjudgmental

One Mindful

Effective

Structured Mindfulness Practices

Grounding

Seated Meditation

Walking Meditation

Body Scan Meditation

Chapter 5: Relaxation Techniques

Breathing Better

Simple Breathing Technique

Box Breathing

Alternate Nostril Breathing

Autogenic Relaxation

Progressive Muscle Relaxation

Visualization

Relaxing Activities

Chapter 6: Emotional Regulation

Trust That Feeling

STOP

Stop

Take a Step Back

Observe

Proceed

Identifying and Labeling

Opposite Action Skill

Reducing Negative Emotions

Changing Unwanted Emotions

Replacing Harmful Urges

Cope Ahead

Chapter 7: Addressing Negative Thoughts

Thoughts and Beliefs

Automatic Negative Thoughts

Cognitive Distortions

Fact-Checking

Cognitive Restructuring

Dysfunctional Thought Record

A Worked Example

Cognitive Reframing

Positive Thought Replacement

Counteractive Self-Statements

Chapter 8: Journaling

Self-Reflection

Free Form

Writing Prompts

ABC Model

A Worked Example

Self-Monitoring

Activity Tracking

Mood Tracking

Thought Experiments

Play the Script

Chapter 9: Motivation and Purpose

Activity Scheduling

Scheduling in Practice

How to Decide What to Do

Behavior Activation

Categorizing Behavior

Helping Yourself

Goal Setting

Specific

Measurable

Achievable

Relevant

Timely

Finding Purpose

Value Engagement

Chapter 10: Problem-Solving

Finding Solutions

Brainstorming

Prioritizing

Values First

Worry Time

Ramping Up Relaxation

Ignoring Hypothetical Problems

Practical Action

Chapter 11: Self-Esteem

Why Is Self-Esteem Important?

Building Mastery

Mastery in Practice

Openness to Experience

Learning New Skills

Successive Approximation

The Power of Positivity

Affirmations

Gratitude

Self-Compassion

Chapter 12: Interpersonal Effectiveness

Social Creatures

Face Time

Interpersonal Effectiveness

Objective Effectiveness

Describe

Express

Assert

Reinforce

Mindfulness

Appear Confident

Negotiate

Relationship Effectiveness

Gentle

Interested

Validating

Easy

Self-Respect Effectiveness

Fair

Apologize Less

Sticking To Your Values

Truthful

Chapter