Okay, you need to be honest with yourself. You have to face reality. There is no point pretending you are fine when you feel bad. Honesty is the best policy, right? (See below).

A few months ago I wrote this Post because I didn’t feel well. The previous few weeks had been difficult. I felt very tired and anxious regularly, got breathless frequently and started feeling a little depressed. 

What advice would I give somebody else? I would suggest looking in their MH toolkit if they have one. I wrote about the contents of mine on 29 January and 5 February last year. One of the contents was ‘Writing’. So that is what I am doing.

You may wonder what caused my mood to drop. Well I think it began with Covid. The initial flu/cold type symptoms passed but breathlessness and tiredness  continued. They may be exacerbated by my heart not functioning efficiently. I had some tests recently and my cardiologist said my hearts pumping action is only around 45% efficient and the Mitral valve is leaking.

So what was my plan of action?    

1 Write this Post.

2 Listen to my favourite music later. I find this very soothing in the evening.

3 I had an appointment with my therapist in 3 days.  

4 I had a telephone appointment with my cardiologist in 2.5 weeks.

5 I showed myself some self compassion. 

6 I started a new period of recording my mood scores.  

I now want to refer back to my earlier question about ‘Honesty’. One of the values that was instilled in me during my upbringing was to always tell the truth. I still believe in honesty although sometimes it can hurt. If you tell someone exactly how you feel the recipient may be upset. 

In dealing with MH conditions I think it is particularly important to be honest with yourself and others who are trying to help, for example, therapists. In my Posts I always try to be as honest as possible.

As Kate Middleton (now Princess of Wales) said:

“My parents taught me about the importance of qualities like kindness, respect and honesty and I realise how central values like these have been to me throughout my life.”  

Do you agree with my views?  Honestly?

Teg

A Moodscope member