If you find yourself struggling with a mental illness, it can be difficult to know what to do to help yourself. Living with mental illness is a heavy burden to carry, and there are usually no clear solutions.

The common treatments tend to be medication and psychotherapy, however, there are simple techniques you can add to your daily routine that can make a big difference to how you feel. If you’re able to find an effective coping mechanism, it can have a huge impact. Here are some tips and strategies you might find useful.

Know Your Limitations

If you’re living with a mental illness, it’s vital you understand and accept there are going to be things you can’t cope with or perhaps don’t do as well as other people. You might not be able to deal with stressful situations as well as other people. It could be that you can’t achieve very much in one day. Rather than concentrating on what you can’t do, focus on your strengths. You might not get very much done, for example, but you are very meticulous in the things you do achieve.

Practice Deep Breathing

Countless experts offer this up as a suggestion, but that’s because it really works. Breathing deeply is a great way to calm yourself down if you’re feeling anxious. Try this little exercise when you feel your heart rate rising. Breathe in for five seconds and then hold it for three seconds before breathing out for seven seconds. Repeat several times, and you’re sending a message to your brain that everything’s OK and you don’t need to panic.

Seek Professional Help

There are professionals you can reach out to when you feel in need of support or want to receive a diagnosis. Don’t be ashamed about asking for help. If you want to know more about sober living Hollywood CA, Epiphany Sober Living has centers where you can stay during your recovery.

Mindfulness

This is a technique that helps you become more self-aware, feel calmer and less stressed. It can also help you choose how you respond to certain thoughts and feelings and cope with difficult or unhelpful thoughts. Various techniques are used to bring your attention to the present, and they usually revolve around focusing on your body and breathing.

The 5 Senses Technique

This is a technique that uses your surroundings to help ground you when you’re feeling particularly anxious. Rather than focusing on one particular thing, you run through things that are influencing all five of your senses.

It could be the sound of someone’s voice, the feel of the surface you’re sitting on, the smell of coffee brewing, the taste of the gum you’re chewing and the movement of a car passing by.

It only takes a few seconds to run through all your senses and it helps to keep your focused on reality.

Recovering from mental illness isn’t something that happens overnight. You have to use all your strength to keep fighting your symptoms. The four tips mentioned above can help you feel stronger and more able to face the daily battle. Take them into consideration and they’ll change the way you feel, and you’ll be better able to live your life.