How to Cope with Job Loss When You Have a Mental Illness

By Jennifer Steele

Losing a job is difficult to handle and the challenges it presents can be overwhelming and devastating, especially for someone with bipolar disorder, depression, an anxiety disorder or other mental illness. It is important that you don’t lose your motivation or allow yourself to get discouraged. If you don’t know what to do or how to remedy the situation you may make some choices that have negative repercussions for months or years to come. The following strategies will help you avoid common pitfalls associated with job loss.

1. Address your emotional challenges.

Typically, when a person loses their job unexpectedly or unfairly a majority of his/her decisions are based on his/her emotions. Negative emotions tend to lead them astray and when this happens they have less power to change their situation. Therefore, negative emotions need to be addressed first and foremost.

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10 Tips to Help Yourself

By Jane Framingham, Ph.D.

Improving your mental and emotional health usually isn’t just a matter of setting your mind to it. You need a roadmap and some ideas to help you get started. This article will provide you with some tips to help you get started.

1. Accept yourself
We’re all different, but the one thing we have in common is that none of us is perfect. Many different things, including our background, race, gender, religion and sexuality, make us who we are. Everyone has something to offer and everyone is entitled to respect, including you. Try not to be too hard on yourself.

2. Get involved
Meeting people and getting involved in new things can make all the difference for you and for others. Join a club, meet up with friends, do a course there are many things to do if you look around. Not only will you feel better, but you will benefit from supporting others too.

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Complications of Bipolar Disorder

Behavioral & Emotional Effects of Manic Episodes
A small percentage of bipolar disorder patients demonstrate heightened productivity or creativity during manic phases. More often, however, the distorted thinking and impaired judgment that are characteristic of manic episodes can lead to dangerous behavior, including:

• Spending money with reckless abandon, causing financial ruin in some cases
• Angry, paranoid, and sometimes violent behaviors
• Openly promiscuous behavior

Such behaviors are often followed by low self-esteem and guilt, which are experienced during the depressed phases. During all stages of the illness, patients need to be reminded that the mood disturbance will pass and that its severity can be diminished by treatment.

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25 Simple Tips to Improve Your Health and Fitness

The quality of our lives is determined by the quality of our health. You can have all the money in the world but if you go through your day feeling tired, fatigued or weak, you can’t be living your life to the fullest. Here are 25 quick tips to increase your health and fitness:

1. Diets are evil
Because of their temporary nature, diets don’t work. The people who do lose weight end up gaining it back again once they come off the diet. Instead of dieting, try to change your lifestyle. The changes you make to the way you eat should be sustainable for the rest of your life.

2. Get rid of the junk food
The easiest way to ensure that you don’t eat the food you shouldn’t is to make sure it isn’t available. Go through your fridge and toss out all the junk food. Next time you go grocery shopping, make sure that you don’t buy more.

3. Make use of healthy snacks
Having a snack between your meals is a good idea – as long as they’re healthy. Stock up on fruits, veggies, nuts and seeds. Have them readily available for whenever you might feel hungry. This means both at home and at the office.

4. All carbs are not created equal
While carbohydrates are a necessary part of your diet, there are some that do more damage than good. Avoid white carbs wherever possible and switch to the whole-grain alternatives.

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