How Can I Heal Faster? Mindset

In my last post, I described what the process can be like with the waves and windows pattern, and what to expect as your real, true self emerges. In this second part, I want to share what can help in the process.

What can help in the process of getting back to your normal self? If you are wondering, “Will I ever enjoy life again?” this is what I have learned from my own healing process of getting off psych meds and getting back to normal life, back to fully functioning and fully enjoying life.

There were some things that definitely helped me in my healing. There were some things that did not. These things tend to go in two categories.

2 categories: mindset and habits

One is mindset. The second is habits.

This post is about mindset.

Mindset: choosing what you can

It’s very important to know that even though you are having an automatically negative thought process, and that’s because of withdrawal, it is not your fault. That is part of this experience and it can feel outside of your control.

But one of the things you can do, and one of the things you can contribute to your healing, is choosing a healthy mindset and promoting a healthy mindset, even to your injured brain. You might be thinking, “How do I do that? That sounds impossible.”

Mindset is cultivating that healthy mindset.

Habits and routines can also help your healing process. They can promote your healing process. The thing we cannot do is control the timing of our healing. And that is really hard, especially if you’ve been living an adult life. You’re used to making choices for yourself. Maybe you have people depending on you. You have responsibilities and people looking to you. It can feel very helpless to not be able to control the timing of healing.

Acceptance

That’s where acceptance comes in.

Acceptance is accepting there are some things we cannot control, and there are ways we may disappoint others, and it is okay. It is okay to accept that we need a time of healing.

Acceptance can be a daily thing, and it can be a struggle. You might be in the early stages kicking and screaming, “This is not happening to me.”

But acceptance helps because then you’re not fighting the healing process. You’re learning from it, and you’re going to get the gold that’s in it for you.

Surround yourself with love and support

The second thing is to surround yourself with love and support.

This is where you get really honest with yourself. You look at who you’re surrounded with and whose voices are loudest in your life.

What you need right now is people who are going to accept you the way you are and love you. They’re going to love you through it. If someone is not able to do that, they should not be in your inner circle right now.

It’s not like you have to cut everybody off. You can put a pause button on relationships that are draining, or relationships that are not able to support you in this time of crisis. This can be a crisis time, and what you need is love and support to come through it.

If you have a friend who is really understanding, and you can pick up the phone and tell her anything that’s going on, and she says, “That sounds really hard,” and she’s able to meet you where you’re at, that’s a good friend to call.

Support can come in various forms. It might be a support group. Some people find amazing healing buddies through forums, and then they get off the forums but continue supporting each other.

It could be a friend who has been through something hard, so she knows how to be compassionate even if she doesn’t know exactly what this is like. It could be a mom, an aunt, a spouse.

You need someone who loves you, is supportive, and is cheering for you.

Nobody should be gaslighting you and saying, “That didn’t happen,” or “It’s in your head.” Well, yeah, it’s in my head. It’s my head that got injured.

Love and support are very, very important.

Speak positive messages to yourself

Next is to speak positive messages to yourself.

When we are in crisis, we often get a story in our head about what’s going on, and we repeat it and repeat it. That is also part of withdrawal because negative looping thoughts are part of withdrawal.

Your brain might keep replaying what happened, how you got in this situation, something that happened a long time ago, why you got on meds, or something that surfaced as you got off. You might think, “I never processed this because I was numb on the meds.”

Your brain can replay and replay and replay, and you can’t always control that. But what you can do is create positive replays to yourself.

If your brain is automatically going, “Remember this terrible, negative, horrible thing,” then you need a reel you can play too. You can say, “You know what, I’m also going to remember that so-and-so said she healed, and it took this amount of time.”

Give yourself positive examples. Repeat encouragement, mantras, beliefs. Things like:

• I am loved and I belong.
• I will heal.
• So-and-so healed.
• This has a purpose, there will be a purpose for this.
• I know someone who went through the same thing and they got better.
• I need help, and I’m going to find help.

Replay hopeful messages and messages of healing. Speak that over yourself again and again.

If you’re a person of faith, you can repeat stories and encouragement from your faith. For me, I’m a Christian, so there were verses and stories I went back to again and again. Things like, “If there can be a purpose in this, God is with me, God cares for me.”

Those positive messages we speak over ourselves are so important in healing, and they help your body believe you, and believe that you are going to heal.

When you get a window, marinate in it

When you have a window, relish it. Marinate in it.

You might say, “Wow, I had two hours where I was not in agony. I sat on the porch and I listened to the birds. I got to listen to the sound of the birds and enjoy the birds.”

Marinate in that. Repeat it to yourself. Include it in your mantras. Let it count as evidence.

When you marinate in that positivity, it helps that positivity take root, and it builds your confidence. You start to see, “You know what, I’m healing. That’s evidence of healing.”

Neuroplasticity

What we’re leaning into here is neuroplasticity.

Even if your brain is automatically negative, your brain can learn from you that:

• I’m safe.
• I’m loved.
• There’s hope for me.
• I am healing.
• There’s a future for me.

Keep speaking those messages over your brain. Your brain can feel like a sponge right now, waiting for something encouraging, anything hopeful.

So you keep feeding that in. You can say, “Last week I had a window. That’s evidence.” Or, “Last week I had a really encouraging conversation with a friend. That’s more evidence for my healing.”

Any positive belief or thought that comes into your head that you can repeat, repeat it and see it as evidence for your healing. Look for those evidences of healing. You’re building up a case for yourself. You’re leaning into neuroplasticity. You’re making the choices you can make to help your body heal.

That’s mindset.

Next: habits and strategy

The next thing to cover is habits and strategy. That'll be part three.