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Mental Illness x Art This weekend I came across a song that’s been living rent free in my head since I saw it. It’s not a new song, but I only just found out about the artist recently. The song is called “Hi Ren,” and it’s by Ren Gill, usually known as just Ren (link […]

I can still hold them accountable, while understanding that they had a context and a history and trauma in their past too; they could have done their best with the circumstances they had AND their best could’ve been not good enough; I can empathize with them and still know that they mistreated me.

It’s very easy to go from sending the message that you’re there for someone when they’re in need, to sending the message that you’re only available when they’re in need.

Learning to Let Go This weekend I wasn’t able to read much of my current book, Atlas of the Heart by Brené Brown, but I did spend a lot of time with my new puppy Milo, which was mostly characterized by flip-flopping between “OMG you’re so cute!” and “OMG Milo please just cooperate!” He doesn’t

The idea of dialectics is that there are many aspects to any one thing, and that there is a middle path that we can take, rather than seeing things as all great or all terrible, all painful or all wonderful. Dialectics is essentially the idea that the world is not black and white, but a full spectrum lies in between, and that the things that we face in our lives are usually somewhere in the middle of the spectrum, not on either end.

The first week of my DBT program as well as reading Brené Brown’s Atlas of the Heart have inspired me to work on staying connected to myself and my emotions, which means leaning into the negative feelings like shame, fear, disappointment, rejection, and abandonment. It’s been exhausting and painful, but nonetheless it has been rewarding.

“What we regret most are our failures of courage.” – Brené Brown, Atlas of the Heart, pg. 53

The DBT Mindfulness Scale Today’s the end of the first week of group, and I think it’s gone pretty well. One of my favorite things that I’ve learned this week is about the DBT mindfulness scale, also known as the subjective units of distress scale. Like I mentioned previously, the basic components of DBT are

  I started my new intensive outpatient program (IOP) this week on Monday. It’s a dialectical behavioral therapy(DBT)-based curriculum. For those who are unfamiliar, here’s a brief breakdown of what an IOP is, and what DBT is. An IOP is basically what it sounds like – intensive outpatient therapy. Instead of going to individual, one-on-one