   
Imagine yourself as the newborn
baby you once were. Whether you're a man, woman, teen, grandma - you've somewhere in time encountered the miracle of
a new born baby. The miracle of course is the fact that the baby is pure. It hasn't suffered anything. It's beautiful, perfect
in all of our eyes. We can feel the newness, the pureness of heart & the wonder of the moment of pure innocence.
Close your eyes
to picture the very moment that you were born. Maybe you know the story of your birth, maybe not. But if you have some
kind of idea, do you know who was in the room when you were born? Who was in the waiting room of the hospital? Who waited
at home for the phone to ring, saying that the time had come?! You were born! And what was the very first thing you did?
With your knowledge
of your birth moment right this minute - how does your personal birth picture make you feel?
What is the
first thing that everyone wants to hear when a newborn baby is born? The cry! Can you see the picture in
your mind?
And so it is with every
baby that is born upon the face of the earth. Did you ever think about your own birth? What were the circumstances of your birth? When you are thinking about your own birth, what are you feeling?
Each of us has a different
story. Each of us are unique. We all had different beginnings. It's this unique, individual beginning that we build
on. As a newborn baby we are perfect. We are an empty slate that will be written upon throughout our entire lives. This is how you must think of yourself as you go through the emotion & feelings pages.
This process is how
I learned that emotions & feelings were a vital part of personal growth & recovery. How can we emerge into a state of well being at a much later age, like me - beginning again at age 45!
How could I understand why I was the person I was at age 45 if I didn't go backwards & see exactly what was written upon
my empty slate - from the very beginning of my life?
It's not an easy task, but I challenge you to walk through each of the sites with me as I tell you my story & how you can go back to see
for yourself - how you became the person you are today & what you can do to begin a life full of understanding & well being - both mental & physical as you find your own wisdom!
I'm sure you can think of all the possibilities that the babies being born into the world today might encounter. What's being written upon their clean
black slates? Just as when you were born, every experience in every time is different. We're all individuals with our
own story, with our own unique journey.
When I began with the websites,
I began with the mental health site, anxieties 101. I was traveling blindly in determining what to do and where to go with the website!
It became apparent to me
after several weeks of counseling sessions that if I were to learn about mental illness - I would have to take personal responsibility for finding the information I needed to have. I realized that the system wasn't designed to give me what I truly needed. Therefore, I had to search the vastness of the Internet for my own information until I did have an understanding that I felt comfortable with. My problem was then, "how to use a computer and how to search the Internet!" I was completely computer and Internet
illiterate!
It took some time
for me to understand it all. I had NO clarity of thought. I had confusion, hurt & I felt as though I was stumbling through a thick fog. I was living in such turmoil & pain that
I wasn't able to start at anyone's beginning. I did the best I could under the circumstances I was dealing with. I had to wait for the medications to take hold to alleviate the severe symptoms of mental illness I was experiencing.
I also had to admit to myself that I was experiencing
mental illness. That's sometimes a tough piece of meat to cut through. I had to grasp at straws to find a starting point after
living one year in my bedroom - totally isolated from everyone. I had to "come back to life" so to speak & find some element of who I was before I
could go back to my beginnings - able to see the connections.
It's all connected. Your family history, your first, second & third year of life, pretty much establishing by then the actual personality, temperament (additional info concerning temperament click here) of the person you are today. Believe it or not... that's how it happens & if anything disrupted what might have been a "perfect" upbringing - who knows what might transpire.
Developing coping mechanisms when our needs weren't met, pushing through the parenting techniques of an untrained parent, dealing with not enough attention, too much attention, whatever happened... it
all has a bearing on who you are right now as you read my words.
And this is why I'm using this opportunity - the
fact that Lycos messed up one of the sites that is interwoven into the network - as a positive stepping stone to introduce to you all what I've learned throughout my
5 - 6 years of personal growth & recovery.
The first site I designed was titled, "anxiety understanding."
After awhile, the whole concept had to change because I use "free sites" offered by Tripod. There's only so much "free space" per site - &
I had so much information to share with everyone.
I had no idea in the beginning about how
much information I would need to ingest to acquire an adequate understanding of mental health & mental illnesses.
"anxiety understanding" evolved into anxieties 101 after I had the benefit of learning volumes about mental health & mental illness.
I'm not sure how I grasped the concept
of having to change the "whole person" to recover from mental illnesses, but I had read so many articles that stressed the importance of some basic lifestyle factors & the direct correlation between the mind/body connection.
I also learned that each age group & gender had
their own individual symptoms, problems & concerns that needed to be taken into serious consideration.
End result after many different attempts -
anxieties 101 is divided into 3 major sections:
How about self withdrawal, isolation from others?
anxieties 101: this site contains information concerning the following 3 basic topic groupings.
Mental Health & Mental Illness
Did
you realize that more than 1/2 the people recently polled believed that mental illness, i.e., depression - was simply a "state of mind" that one needed to "snap out of."
anxiety disorders
generalized & social anxiety disorders:
separation anxiety mentioned as well
caregiver anxiety
panic disorder:
information regarding panic attacks included
phobias:
specific phobias, social phobia, agoraphobia
- additional page linked off of this page: the phobia list
obsessive compulsive disorder:
mention of other obsessive compulsive
disorder (tourettes, etc.)
post traumatic stress disorder:
acute stress disorder
Since
depression is very often co-existing with the above anxiety disorders as well as negative coping mechanisms resulting from unresolved emotions & feelings, eating disorders, abuse & other forms of dysfunction, there's plenty of information regarding depression & other mood, or affective disorders included.
depression page: links to other depression information within the site - additional pages linked off of this page: bipolar disorder, mood & affective disorders
how it all works:
This page is
offered because I found the information very important in understanding mental illness & recovery processes, how your brain works, how your brain is linked to many subjects, etc. as well as a glossary of mental health terms...
The
more you learn about mental illness, the more you begin to realize about how prevalent it
is within different age groups. therefore, I've broken it down into different age levels on each of the following pages...
Age & Gender Groups
children & mental illness:
Topics
concerning children & mental illness as well as info concerning the currently being developed site, children 101 - this site can be accessed while being developed! Additional pages linked off of this page: parenting 101
teens & mental illness:
Different
topics concerning teens & mental illness for parents to look over as well as info about the teenscene site!
young adults & mental illness:
What
concerns young adults directly in relationship with mental health & well being, i.e., college, eating disorders & other issues?
men & mental illness:
What
concerns men directly with mental health & lifestyle,
parenting, job related issues?
women & mental illness:
What
concerns women directly in relationship with mental health, parenting, career &
other issues -separate page for women about hormonal changes & connection with mental illness?
seniors & mental illness:
What
concerns seniors directly in relationship with mental health,
life transitions & other issues?
Lifestyle
factors have a huge link to our mental health. Thru my research I found that I needed an education concerning
my lifestyle habits that had a great bearing on my well being, so I included lifestyle pages on this site as well.
Lifestyle Factors
lifestyle diet:
It's surprising to learn the ramifications of a nutritious diet in relationship with your mental health &
well being! The connection can't be denied!
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