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New Year, New Month, New Update!

I know we’re already halfway through the first month of 2022, but HAPPY NEW YEAR! I hope you all had a wonderful holiday season, no matter which you celebrate(d). How did the stress of the holidays affect your mental health? Were you able to come out of things mostly unscathed?   Christmas was actually a *lot* of fun for me this year! My husband and I went down to Columbus to see his family (who are all vaccinated and mostly boosted, save for one or two who were not at the gatherings we’d attended). We left super early on Christmas morning (and by early, I mean we were on the highway by 7:30am) and spent the night since we were visiting both sides of his family.   We had our annual gift exchange at his mother’s house, and everyone really enjoyed the presents that were given. The couples’ gift my husband and I received from his mom and stepdad was an automatic pasta maker, something we’ve been wanting for years and we were (and still are!) grateful that we’re now abl...
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The Holidays: Not Always Merry & Bright

Hello everyone!  I hope you are all staying safe and healthy, and that you've been able to enjoy 2021's holiday season.  I know this time of year isn't always pleasant for a lot of you, and for any number of reasons. I won't go into the details because if you know, you know. But I just wanted to use this post as a gentle reminder that even if you're having a grand old time with family and loved ones, not everyone is able to do the same.  Now, I also understand that sometimes people make the conscious decision to stay by themselves this time of year instead of gathering with a large group of people, whatever their reasoning may be (of course, we're *still* in a global pandemic this season so, I'm sure that's a driving factor for many!). Some of these folks are happy with it; others don't have a choice, and may feel extra lonely.  Reach out to those individuals. Even if it's just a quick text or DM to say a pleasant holiday greeting, I'm pretty...
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Mental Health Check-In + Get to Know Me

Hi everyone. I was worried that my monthly post was overdue, but when I saw that my last update was 11/15, I decided that posting three days later in December really isn't all that bad! I just wanted to check in to see how you're all doing; I know the holidays can be a tricky subject for some folks for a variety of reasons - and especially now that we're nearly two years into the COVID-19 pandemic, it's even more difficult when it's *still* not safe to visit loved ones.  As for me, overall, I'm happy to say that I'm doing very, VERY well.  I haven't talked about this yet, only because I wanted to share a bit of my own personal history with mental health to explain how I've reached this point in my journey.  *takes a deep breath* So... Back in September, I'd started what would be a three-month Leave of Absence from my full-time job because due to a number of reasons that I won't bore you with, my mental state was tanking through most of the su...
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November 2021: Seasonal Affective Disorder + My Personal Experiences w/SAD

Hello everyone!  I know I'm a bit late with this month's post; I was in a bit of a depressive funk for nearly two weeks, and I had very little to NO motivation to do anything besides what needed to be done around my apartment to keep my environment somewhat organized (even though my thoughts weren't).  ANYWAY, I actually wanted to use this post to discuss a common mental health problem that happens in areas that 'practice' Daylight Savings Time: Seasonal Affective Disorder (SAD).  I was actually aware of my SAD symptoms back when I was a teenager, and as far as I was aware, this term didn't exist back then. I was probably 15-16 years old when I'd noticed my bouts of insomnia increased during seasonal changes, specially between the fall and winters months. Also, I live near Cleveland, Ohio - so we already don't get a lot of sun outside of the late spring/summer months (which doesn't help things).  According to the  Cleveland Clinic , symptoms of SAD i...
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World Mental Health Day 2021 (October 10th)

TRIGGER WARNING: Mild discussion of self-harm and suicide is included within this post.  ~*~*~*~*~ Hi, friends.  I know it's been a while since I've posted in here. As you can imagine, therapy's kept me pretty busy this past month. I've shifted from PHP to IOP, so instead of attending 5 days a week I only have to go for 3 (Mon., Wed., Thurs.). I do like that schedule much better, because it's helpful to have Tues. and Fri. off during the week to decompress a little bit. Learning all of the information they give us - and processing it with our own experiences to understand them better - can be absolutely exHAUSTING!  But let me tell you, it's been SO. WORTH. IT!  Also, I wanted to give you all a heads up regarding my posting schedule.  Initially, I'd intended to post 2x per week. Aaand after going through my therapy sessions, starting a new medication (more on that later!), and chasing down my doctors to submit paperwork to extend my time off work past next W...
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Welcome to my Mental Health Recovery Journey

Hello everyone, and welcome to Mental Health with Mel.  My name is Melanie, but my closest friends and family all call me "Mel", which means you can, too! This is a blog I've been wanting to start for a while, but haven't had the guts to do it for fear of exposing myself TOO MUCH on the Internet. But after realizing that I post fairly regular updates about my own mental illnesses on Instagram and Twitter , I figured - why NOT start a blog? Maybe I can reach/help more people when I have additional space to go off on tangents and I'm not limited by a specified number of characters.  I'm not going to go into too much detail with this introductory post; I hope to use this platform as a way to chronicle my experiences with multiple mental illnesses, as well as my recovery efforts*.  And with that being said, I do want to be transparent and let you - my dear reader - know that I am currently in a Partial Hospitalization Program (PHP). I started on Wed. 9/1, and the...
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