{"id":1681,"date":"2017-03-23T16:45:44","date_gmt":"2017-03-23T22:45:44","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/pastorbrad.blog\/?p=1681"},"modified":"2017-03-23T16:45:44","modified_gmt":"2017-03-23T22:45:44","slug":"7-things-to-do-when-despair-is-creeping-in","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/freshhope.us\/es\/7-things-to-do-when-despair-is-creeping-in\/","title":{"rendered":"7 Things to Do When Despair is Creeping In"},"content":{"rendered":"

Over the years, I have found that having hope is crucial in being able to live well.\u00a0 That is, believing that I have a future, and a purpose for my life has been the one key factor that has enabled me to regain my life back.\u00a0 But, to be honest, hopelessness far too often is lurking right behind me like a very dark shadow waiting to block out any ray of hope.<\/p>\n

Hopelessness is an enemy<\/a> that I must hold at bay, avoiding it at all costs.\u00a0 It comes about quickly if I fail to see a future and a plan for my life.\u00a0 Hopelessness quickly gives way to despair and then the despair gives way to depression.\u00a0 And suddenly I can find myself in a deep dark bit that overwhelms into emotional pain, isolation, and no will to get up and live.<\/p>\n

Hopelessness is an enemy that I must hold at bay, avoiding it at all costs.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

It is a \u201ccancer\u201d that damages my soul and can lead me into the darkest deepest despair possible.\u00a0 It would be all too easy to embrace this-this familiar enemy of hopelessness. So, every day I take great care to keep this \u201ccreeper\u201d of hopelessness away. It takes daily focus for me to remain hope-filled; knowing that my life has meaning and purpose.\u00a0 I have a future and so do you.\u00a0 You have a future and a purpose!\u00a0 Even all of the pain that you and I have experienced due to having bipolar disorder has purpose.<\/p>\n

For me, knowing what hopelessness that is caused by a depressive mood looks like for me has been crucial in learning to live well.\u00a0 What are the early signs? How quickly do I spiral down?<\/strong>\u00a0 So through the years I have developed a workable plan for me when even the slightest bit of hopelessness rears its ugly head.<\/p>\n

So, these are the seven things that I pay attention to when I feel even the slightest bit of despair creep in (Please know, that these seven things may nearly impossible to do if hopelessness has had a grip on you for some time.<\/em>).<\/p>\n

At the early signs of hopelessness\/depressive thinking or feeling:<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n

    \n
  1. Let your doctor and therapist know at the first signs of it. Don\u2019t wait!<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n
      \n
    1. Let key family and or trusted friends know. Don\u2019t wait.<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n
        \n
      1. If you have a WRAP plan <\/a>or another type of wellness plan, start to work it.<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n
          \n
        1. Not talking about your feelings of hopelessness will cause you to bottle it up inside you and it will begin to have even more \u201cpower\u201d over your thoughts and feelings. You need to talk about it.\u00a0 Get it out into the open.\u00a0 Talking will release some of the very real pain of hopelessness.<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n
            \n
          1. Work hard at not isolating. Isolating empowers hopelessness. Continued isolation will affect your brain\u2019s ability to problem-solve and thinking differently.\u00a0 (There\u2019s actual research out there on this: isolation brings can cause an inflexibility to the brain to problem solve.) Call or text friends; don\u2019t go to them, have them come to you.\u00a0 Send out an SOS to whomever even if that is all you can do.<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n
              \n
            1. If you have a peer specialist that is working with you be sure to let him or her know. If you do not have one, find out where in your community you might receive the services of one.\u00a0 Having a peer support specialist <\/a>is particularly important to do if you lack a support system through friends and family.<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n
                \n
              1. Spend time reading Scripture or inspiring literature and listening to things that inspire you and fill you with hope.<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n

                If you\u2019re not struggling with hopelessness currently, then I would strongly encourage you to develop either a WRAP plan or a wellness plan for living well.\u00a0 After all, you and I both know that\u00a0having a mental health diagnosis, hopelessness (a depressive state) is too often lurking around like a sick predator of our living well in spite of having bipolar.<\/p>\n

                And yes, no matter how hard we might fight against hopelessness sometimes our brain chemistry fights against us.\u00a0 And that\u2019s why medicine is imperative in our daily battle to live well in spite of a mental illness.\u00a0 If you have a mental illness, your brain like mine, malfunctions.\u00a0 So, I do everything within my power to keep my brain chemistry as \u201cstraight\u201d as possible. Not only do I take my medicine<\/a>, but I also choose to have hope, which helps my brain chemistry.\u00a0 I don\u2019t dare allow my thinking to go \u201csouth\u201d for even the least bit of time.\u00a0 So, I count on my medicine working, and I do my part regarding how I think.<\/p>\n

                How about you? What do you do to fight off hopelessness?\u00a0 If you\u2019re feeling hopeless what are you doing about it? What keeps you going even when you feel like quitting? What preventative steps do you take to ward off depressive thinking?<\/strong><\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

                Hopelessness is an enemy that I must hold at bay, avoiding it at all costs. It comes about quickly if I fail to see a future and a plan for my life. Hopelessness quickly gives way to despair and then the despair gives way to depression. And suddenly I can find myself in a deep dark bit that overwhelms into emotional pain, isolation, and no will to get up and live.<\/p>","protected":false},"author":34,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_mi_skip_tracking":false,"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[1],"tags":[34,402],"class_list":["post-1681","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-hope-and-encouragement","tag-mental-health","tag-recovery"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\nFresh Hope for Mental Health - 7 Things to Do When Despair is Creeping In<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/freshhope.us\/es\/7-things-to-do-when-despair-is-creeping-in\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"es_MX\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"7 Things to Do When Despair is Creeping In\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Hopelessness is an enemy that I must hold at bay, avoiding it at all costs. 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