Ask a patient in a psychiatric facility

[emjay]

Been there, done that.

You should try writing, if you have a knack for it. Or maybe even keep a journal. Try practicing lucidity, or try out meditation - I'm sorry I didn't know about those when I was in the loony bin.

Good luck.

I've tried journalling, I don't have much of a knack for it, but I see the value of it.

I think writing is one of the most therapeutic things you can do, not just journals but any thoughts, ideas, theories etc as they come. It helps to get things out of your system so they don't get bottled up and exaggerated in your head and it also helps your ideas to evolve and expand. I've never been in a psychiatric ward but I've had my fair share of depression and anxiety, and writing was the single most beneficial thing I ever did to help me. I wrote for years analysing and theorising about every aspect of myself that I could think of, being mindful and setting myself little experiments to give me even more to analyse, and came out of it with a much greater understanding of myself and a deep love for all the psychology, neuroscience, and philosophy that helped me get there. Then, going back through the ringbinders full of pages, months or years later, I found myself filling the margins with notes and seeing my ideas evolve with each pass or just looking at some of them and thinking 'how could I have been so naive?'. Basically my writing evolved and it kept on evolving and it became so emotionally sacred to me - so much of myself tied up in it. I used to do it as a lifestyle... all the time... but I haven't done it for a while now. Somehow it just fulfilled its purpose and I didn't need to do it any more. Instead I think I just carry it around with me in the form of my outlook on life that it helped shape and create. I still write occasionally but it's not the same. I do miss it, but I think most of the ideas it created are now so deeply rooted in my thinking that there wouldn't be much left to explore and it would lack the sense of curiosity and excitement it had the first time round because of that. I can't recommend it enough to you, or anyone else, as a way not just to deal with anxiety and depression but to know and understand yourself. It was simply the best thing I ever did and without it I think I'd be a completely different person now.