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recovery

All the posts published.

Media

Interview with The OCD Stories Podcast

September 11, 2016

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Posted by Mark

I sat down with Stuart from The OCD Stories for another wide-ranging interview (you can find the first one here) on a …

September 11, 2016

Posted by Mark

Be yourself

There are no OCD sub types or themes. Only OCD (and llamas).

June 12, 2016

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Posted by Mark

It’s very popular in OCD patient communities, and in mental health communities in general, to get stuck on labeling superficial symptoms. But …

June 12, 2016

Posted by Mark

Be yourself

Want to succeed with your New Year’s resolutions? Build the boat first.

January 4, 2016

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Posted by Mark

If you’re starting off the new year with plans to make changes that will support recovery from mental illness, be honest about where …

January 4, 2016

Posted by Mark

Blog

First episode of The OCD Stories podcast

December 10, 2015

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Posted by Mark

Stuart Ralph has launched a podcast to go along with The OCD Stories site, all about exploring OCD and recovery from OCD. …

December 10, 2015

Posted by Mark

Blog

So you think you can’t recover from mental illness… (video)

September 6, 2015

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Posted by Mark

Ruminating on reasons you can’t recover because your symptoms are different or you have very unique circumstances that prevent you from …

September 6, 2015

Posted by Mark

Blog

Beliefs, judgments, desires, compulsions…

August 7, 2015

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Posted by Mark

When we’re struggling with mental illness, it’s often the compulsions that get all of the focus, both when we’re trying to …

August 7, 2015

Posted by Mark

Blog

Don’t make unhappiness a prerequisite for happiness

July 9, 2015

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Posted by Mark

When we’re struggling with mental health issues, they can come become a filter that defines how we see the world. We …

July 9, 2015

Posted by Mark

Blog

How to Deal with Intrusive Thoughts (video)

July 6, 2015

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Posted by Mark

When it comes to dealing with horrible, weird, upsetting, terrifying intrusive thoughts or whatever else your brain is throwing up when …

July 6, 2015

Posted by Mark

Be yourself

Mental Illness is Like Drowning (video)

March 15, 2015

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Posted by Mark

When I say that mental illness is like drowning and building better mental health is like learning how to swim, I’m …

March 15, 2015

Posted by Mark

Blog

The Failure Creed

November 13, 2014

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Posted by Mark

I will fail because trying not to fail has only made things worse. I will fail my assumptions about other people and …

November 13, 2014

Posted by Mark

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🔥 #tweet #recovery #mentalfitness #mentalhealt

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#tweet #recovery #mentalfitness #mentalhealthnotes #mentalhealth #psychology #therapy #change #depression #OCD #ACT #anxiety #intrusivethoughts #mindfulness #goals #mentalhealthawareness #psychiatry #healthcare

I do not remember why I wrote START HERE on the ma

I do not remember why I wrote START HERE on the manuscript but perhaps starting with an understanding that the absence of fear is not the presence of happiness is a good place to begin any moment/day/week/month/year/life.

#mentalhealthnotes #mentalhealthquote #mentalhealth #recovery #bookwriting #writing #writersofinstagram #authorsofinstagram #psychology #fear #anxiety #happiness #youarenotarock #themindworkout #mindfulness #emotionalintelligence

You're tending that garden up there today. What is

You're tending that garden up there today. What is all is that gardening going to produce?

#mentalhealthnotes #mentalfitness #gardening #thinking #ruminating #judging #recovery #psychology #mindfulness #compassion #gratitude #practice #mentalhealth #drawing #writersofinstagram #manuscript #youarenotarock #themindworkout

Where are you going in this moment? Even if you're

Where are you going in this moment? Even if you're only doing stuff in your head, it's taking you somewhere!

This is a page from when I was editing THE MIND WORKOUT. There were many changes before the final version.

The most recent edition of my mental health writing workshop started up last week. It is awesome to connect with people on their writing adventures. The group of writers in the workshop is so talented and I hope they enjoy navigating the wilderness to wherever they want to take their creative energies.

When we sit down to create, it's another opportunity to ask: where are you going?

#writing #creativity #mentalhealthnotes #mentalhealth #themindworkout #youarenotarock #psychology #therapy #goals #editing #writersofinstagram #recovery #writingworkshop #manuscript

I tested out a light therapy lamp! Video up on You

I tested out a light therapy lamp! Video up on YouTube now. Have you ever used a bright light therapy lamp? Was it huge? Did it do anything? Was the lamp SAD?

#sadlamp #lighttherapy #mood #research #technology #mentalhealth #Amazon #shobogenzo #Dogen #morning #winter #psychology #circadianrhythm

Mindlessness is hard work. You've got to be in two

Mindlessness is hard work. You've got to be in two or three or four places at once. You time traveler! No wonder you're exhausted.

#mindfulness #mindlessness #mentalhealthnotes #mentalfitness #mentalhealthquote #psychology #recovery #meditation

From last night's Twitch stream on cutting out pho

From last night's Twitch stream on cutting out phone checking compulsions. You can check out the full stream saved on Twitch (markwfreeman). But this is a message that applies to recovering from any mental health challenges: don't make it about fighting and defeating something. If success and happiness depend on defeating problems, the brain will happily supply more problems! To leave the mental illness behind for good, it can really help to focus the work on where you're going and what you want to build and create in life.

#recovery #Twitch #mentalfitness #mentalhealthnotes #mentalhealth #anxiety #depression #fear #OCD #BPD #psychology #therapy #ACT #values #success #goals

Look past the superficial topics of the fears. Wha

Look past the superficial topics of the fears. What's the consequence you're afraid of. For example, all of the fears above are about the same fear of losing control of living and being ourselves. The brain will happily jump from one to the next, trying to help us tackle all of the different ways our fear could come true. Instead of playing whack-a-mole, I found it most useful to stop the game and make changes around my fears about control: learning how to embrace uncertainty, stick to values proactively instead of reactively trying to control things, shift the focus to creating things I'm actually in charge of, and to trust myself. I don't have to trust that things will work out well. I can trust myself to handle whatever happens. It could be a disaster! I will handle that :)

#recovery #trust #acceptance #mindfulness #control #mentalhealth #mentalfitness #mentalhealthnotes #panicattacks #relationships #anxiety #control #solipsism #certainty #depression

The brain loves to pull this trick I like to call

The brain loves to pull this trick I like to call "differencing". It's a clever way for the brain to convince us back into the old compulsions and habits. It's all about us judging a feeling (or possibly more terrifying: the absence of a feeling 😱) as DIFFERENT 😱😱 and then we start comparing it to other feelings, checking if it's Real™ 😱😱💀, at which point the brain has already got us caught up in lots of compulsions, so then it's super easy to just start doing even more compulsions.

So for taking care of our mental health, it can really help to have any feeling. Physical feelings, emotional feelings, no feelings--these are feelings we can feel (or not feel) while we do actions that matter to us.

#feelings #emotions #compulsions #psychology #recovery #therapy #goals #feeling #recovery #mentalhealth #mentalfitness #acceptance #mentalhealthawareness #anhedonia #anxiety #depression #intrusivethoughts #solipsism #depersonalization #derealization

It's very doable. So let's make those skills acces

It's very doable. So let's make those skills accessible wherever and whenever people want them.

#recovery #mentalhealth #tweet #psychology #therapy #digitalmentalhealth #reminder #accessibility #healthcare #designthinking #mentalhealthawareness #youarenotarock #mentalfitness

It really helped me with recovery to first conside

It really helped me with recovery to first consider where I want to go in life and use that to understand the skills to work on. Sometimes, when we learn it's useful to cut out compulsions and not avoid triggers, we create even more anxiety about doing recovery "right" and we devote ourselves to chasing down every trigger. But then the triggers are still in charge! And it's a lot like saying you're scared there could be a snake under a rock in the forest, so instead of spending the day on the beach where you want to be, you spend all day in the forest turning over every rock. But are those rocks on your path? Or is this just more fear? Trying to control a feeling you don't want to see again?

Where are you going?

#triggers #mindfulness #mentalhealth #recovery #psychology #therapy #compulsions #anxiety #fear #mentalhealthnotes #reminder #questions #goals #mentalfitness

We carry around unhelpful beliefs like they're car

We carry around unhelpful beliefs like they're carved on our spleens! But look critically at the beliefs at work in any moment of your life, in relationships, in your communication, your work, your self talk, your goals... Are they helpful to you? What would be a more useful belief to support you going where you want to go in this wilderness?

#mentalhealthnotes #mentalhealth #reminder #beliefs #goals #limits #psychology #therapy #mindfulness #recovery #change #transformation #intrusivethoughts #fear #anxiety #depression

thepathtochange

RT @PsychNiles: I spent 9 years studying anxiety disorders and treatment, but I still struggle to help when someone asks me how to find a g…

Yesterday

- thepathtochange

RT @Valseverett: As an ACT therapist, if I see one more TikTok about controlling thoughts and unlocking/hacking our minds from pseudo menta…

Yesterday

- thepathtochange

RT @thepathtochange: It's entirely possible to recover from mental illness diagnoses like OCD and depression and ditch the diagnoses. Yes,…

Yesterday

- thepathtochange

RT @Cheryl_Gumption: @thepathtochange Following Mark Freeman's advice in 'You are not a rock' on mindful working and it's really paying off…

Yesterday

- thepathtochange

February 24, 2021

SAD Lamp / Light Therapy Review
January 11, 2021

Online Mental Health Writing Workshop
November 19, 2020

Life after recovery

recovery | MARK FREEMAN