Busyness is a coping mechanism. An act of escapism. An emotional numb.
Slow down. Take up space. Feel all the feels. Confront your trauma. Let your journey hold your hand while you heal yourself. To heal is to touch with compassion with which you previously touched with fear.
Be brave enough to heal yourself, even when it hurts the most. Please, just take the first step toward overcoming.
Are there any rules when it comes to fighting depression? Yes, two:
✨️ Let it change you for the better.
✨️ Let it leave you stronger than you were before.
What’s helped me?
This routine was designed specifically for my mental health needs. Please consult a licensed psychiatrist to help manage your journey.
1. Track my triggers and symptoms: Depressive episodes can often leave people focusing on the negatives and discounting the positives. To counteract this, people with depression can keep a positivity journal or gratitude journal. This type of journal helps to build self-esteem and confidence.
2. Therapy, therapy, therapy: private one on one therapy, group therapy, and support groups provide unified stability and comfort. You’re not alone, and please always know that.
3. Challenge my negative thoughts: Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT) is an effective therapy for those with depression and other mood disorders. CBT proposes that a person’s thoughts, rather than their life situations, affect their mood.
4. Practicing mindfulness: Retraining your brain to appreciate the present moment and find the positive in the now.
5. Exercise: Exercising is extremely beneficial for people with depression. It releases chemicals called endorphins that help improve your mood.
6. Avoid alcohol: Alcohol is a depressant and can prove a potent trigger to low mood, especially in individuals prone to bipolar disorder or mental illness. Alcohol ultimately masks the problem instead of dealing with it at face value.
7. Eat a healthy diet: Eat a balanced diet. Try to eat a balanced and nutritious diet. A healthy diet produces a healthy body and a healthy mind.
8. Sleep: Please prioritize sleep. Lack of sleep exacerbates depression. Develop a soothing bedtime routine that sets you up for restful nights.
9. Changed my medicine regimen: Seroquel (Quetiapine) is no longer a part of my medicine routine. After careful consideration, it was discovered that the Seroquel was counterproductive to my stability.
10. Get in nature: My safe space has always been in nature with my dog. It’s peaceful, magical, and very beautiful. It’s definitely my favorite act of self-care and my favorite place of solitude.
You’re not broken. You’re becoming whole.
Cheers to the fighters
who overcome
battles every day
that no one
else sees.
Remember – even the strongest souls get exhausted. The strongest human beings, the ones who laugh the loudest and hope the hardest. The ones who are always there for others, those souls often need people there for them. So, please check on your kind friends. Check on the people in our life who are tender, the ones who are always open to give so much of who they are for those who need it. Check on the people in your life who love with every ounce of their being, who feel deeply and care deeply, and try to fix and mend and make sure that those around them are okay. Please, just check on the people in your life who are brave and who are soft for this world. Check on the people in your life who protect others at all costs because those souls need protecting, too. Those souls need to be reminded that they deserve the love they keep giving to everyone else.
-Bianca Sparacino
Thank you all so much for your love, encouragement, and prayers as I’ve been seeking extensive outpatient psychiatric treatment for my depression. I’m truly overwhelmed with your well wishes. Every day I am getting stronger and better.
With everything in me, thank you. 🩷
Matthew 11:28 NIV:
Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest.
I’m taking a step back to continue stabilizing my mental health and work through my depression. I’m not okay, but I will be.
Sending so much love to anyone else on their healing journey. Please remember, you’re not broken, you are becoming whole.
xoxoxo, Sonique 🩷
Quite honestly, these days, not many people or things are sweeter. My safe space of vulnerability is within. I hope you find your safe place. Elevation requires separation.
I don’t post my philanthropy efforts for credit or applause. Helping others is my responsibility as a human. I post my philanthropy work because #ActionInspiresACTion.
Happy 31 years, FMLA!
President Bill Clinton signed the Family and Medical Leave Act (FMLA) into law on February 5, 1993. The FMLA was a key part of Clinton’s first-term domestic agenda.
The Family and Medical Leave Act (FMLA) is a federal law that gives eligible employees up to 12 weeks of unpaid leave per year for certain family and medical reasons. The FMLA also requires that employees’ group health benefits be maintained during their leave.
The FMLA gives eligible employees the right to take unpaid, job-protected leave for certain family and medical reasons. The law also allows employees to continue their group health insurance coverage under the same terms and conditions as if they had not taken leave.
“Having FMLA cover my absences for severe anxiety and depression has been life-saving. It provides a layer of protection as it pertains to my job security and, overall, allows me to freely stabilize my mental health while maintaining my employment. It’s truly a win-win.”
The FMLA is administered by the Wage and Hour Division of the United States Department of Labor.
April 28, 1991 – January 30, 2022
Civil litigating attorney who often did pro bono work. Fashion blogger who taught women how to dress professionally and affordably for the office. Two-time Emmy-nominated television correspondent. Crowned Miss USA in 2019. Just to name a few. But even with her multiple awards and a long list of prominent accolades behind her smile and success, was high-functioning depression. A battle she unfortunately lost by committing suicide two years ago.
⚠️ Trigger warning. ⚠️
On January 30, 2022, Cheslie died by suicide by jumping from the 29th floor of The Orion, a 60-story apartment building in Midtown Manhattan where she resided.
April Simpkins is on a mission in turning her pain, grief, and loss into purpose. Advocating for mental health awareness all in the name of her daughter Cheslie. I invite you to watch April’s emotional and personal interview back in 2022 with the Red Table Talk. Where April reveals Cheslie’s chilling final text message, her previous suicide attempt, her battle with depression, her heartbreak, and her journey through mental instability.
Thank you so much April for your advocacy and bravery.
Her memoir, By the Time You Read This: The Space Between Cheslie’s Smile and Mental Illness, is scheduled for posthumous release on April 23, 2024.
Pre-order here.
Rest peacefully angel. Your advocacy and life were not in vain. May your legacy continue to bless us all.
“You’re ‘serial killer’ organized.” Blurted out my baby brother Quincy as he walked through my cute and quaint New York-style studio apartment.
Those are the sentiments I have heard from family and friends over the years. Little did most people know, I couldn’t help myself.
Obsessive-Compulsive disorder (OCD) is defined in the DSM-5 as excessive thoughts (obsessions) that lead to repetitive behaviors (compulsions).
Obsessive-compulsive Disorder is characterized by unreasonable thoughts and fears (obsessions) that lead to compulsive behaviors.
A typical treatment plan will often include both psychotherapy and medications, and combined treatment is usually optimal.
Back in 2016 when I was diagnosed, I was afraid, truly I was. With the help of my psychiatrist, medications, and therapy, I am less triggered and am able to live freely and live a manageable life with my condition. I’m here to tell you that you can as well. You just have to want it.
I wish you so much love on your journey. 🩷 You’ve got this!
