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Northern Wyoming Mental Health Center Inc.

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Mental Health Recovery

Lifestyle

SAMHSA

The space where you live, your home, can affect how you feel. Perhaps you need to make some changes in your living space or living arrangement or find a different place to call home. The following questions may help you decide if you need to make some changes in living space.

  • Think about your lifestyle. Do you try to do too much every day?
  • Do you take on more than you should?
  • Do you often find yourself rushing from one thing to another and not enjoying anything?
  • If you answered ?yes? to some or all of these questions, what makes your life this way?
  • What could you do to make your life more peaceful and calm (for example, take a relaxation course, take two days off every week, save time for yourself in the evening, ask others to take over your responsibilities from time to time, set aside time every day to do things you enjoy)?
  • You can?t take good care of someone else until you first take good care of yourself. However, you may be like people who focus their attention on others and don?t take very good care of themselves. You may find that you are so busy taking care of others that you don?t have time to address your own issues. You may be so busy taking care of others that you neglect personal hygiene tasks that would make you feel better-things like a regular shower or bath, washing and styling your hair, trimming your nails, brushing and flossing your teeth, changing your clothes, or even getting dressed (you may feel so badly about yourself some days that you never get out of your night clothes). Are you always taking care of others and not taking care of yourself?
  • If so, why?
  • What could you do to be sure that you take good care of yourself (for example, say ?no? from time to time, ask others to take over your care-taking responsibilities from time to time, put yourself first, make a list of things you need to do for yourself everyday and do the things on the list)?
  • You may have more things than you need. All these things may make your life difficult to manage. If you have too many things, you will lose things more easily, your space will be cluttered, and maintaining these things may take time and energy that you would prefer to use in other ways. Do you have so many things that it makes your life difficult to manage?
  • If so, describe the problem.
  • What could you do to resolve this problem (for example, throw things away, give things away, have a tag sale, clean out one space at a time keeping only what you need, enlist the help of other people you live with, have a moratorium on getting new things)?
  • There may be people in your life, at home, at work, or in the community, who make your life difficult-who seem to rob you of your serenity. For instance, when they are around everything feels hectic and chaotic, or very loud. Do you have people in your life who make your life difficult in some way?
  • If so, who are they?
  • What could you do to change this situation?
  • Like everyone else, you need time alone to do the things you want to do and be the way you want to be. Do you have enough time alone to just ?be? and to do the things you enjoy doing by yourself?
  • If not, how could you arrange to get some time alone?
  • Doing things that are fun and creative will improve the quality of your life and enhance your sense of well-being. These are the kinds of things you ?get lost in??like reading a good book, doing a craft project, or playing with your children. What kinds of things do you enjoy doing?
  • Do you spend enough time doing these things you enjoy?
  • If not, how could you arrange to spend more time doing these things?
  • You need time to relax and to relieve stress. Sometimes the events and circumstances of our lives make it hard to do this. If you are unable to relax, you may notice that you feel badly. This can cause physical and emotional health problems. Do you take time to relax every day?
  • If not, what could you do to relax (for example, listen to a relaxation tape, take a relaxation and stress reduction course, read a book on relaxation and do some of the exercises, set aside time each day to sit quietly and think about pleasant things)?
  • Do you feel that you are getting good health care?
  • If not, what are you going to do about it?

Sourced in July 2017 from:

Center for Mental Health Services
Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services
Administration
5600 Fishers Lane, Room 15-99
Rockville, MD 20857
SMA-3718

 

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