In my quest to stave off seasonal depression before it starts, I’m treating a chronic IT Band pain with a relaxing massage. Treating physical pain and illness helps reduce emotional vulnerability, and makes it easier to manage depression.
the therapist takes her own advice
This week, I was honored to be a guest on Selling the Couch, Melvin Varghese’s #1 podcast for mental health private practitioners. He asked me to talk about balancing my own mental health with the challenges of managing a therapy practice. We discussed everything from how depression shapes your mindset and how to change it to how shifting old beliefs about money frees you up to focus on the work.
February 23, 2013
Okay, so we have now entered the time by which I have failed most previous diets…only to restart them a few weeks later. I’m officially having PMS. I can feel it intensely. My ability to be satisfied with a salad…even a hardy salad with roasted vegetables and hummus is extremely compromised. My craving for carbs is intense.
To keep myself from eating an entire bag of pretzels, a whole loaf of bread or a dozen donuts, I’ve been satisfying my carb craving in little ways, one tortilla on fajita night instead of none, adding whole wheat noodles to my soup, etc. It’s been working for the most part until…
Yesterday, I took my almost 2 year old, Harry, to a playdate where pizza was served…Pizza I love pizza. It’s my favorite food. I once worked as a pizza delivery driver just to be around and eat more pizza…I loved that job. Pizza is the food I crave when I have PMS. So there I was, watching everyone eat PIZZA, and I was going to be strong, stick to my diet, not fall to temptation. That lasted about 10 minutes, and then I gave up and gave in. It tasted so good, and it made me so happy, and guess what, it was okay.
The world didn’t end, nobody died and it didn’t erase all of the progress I have made this month because I didn’t let it lead me to the traditional downward spiral. I didn’t then have chicken parm for dinner or go through a drive-thru for a midnight snack. It didn’t erase my all the progress I’ve made this month because it didn’t become a pattern of behavior. It happened, I enjoyed it, my craving was satisfied, now I’m moving on.
Rebekah Shackney, LCSW
P: 917-721-2257 | E: rebekah@rebekahshackney.com
