To The Overcomers..

[trying2movefwd]

To those who have overcome almost daily ideation, how did you overcome it?

 

[JEKBreatheandBelieve]

It has an ebb and flow for me. I will go through periods of ideation and then periods of no such thoughts. For me, I remind myself that I have gotten through the hard days before and I will get through these ones, too. I don't always believe it though. I also remind myself of small to big things that are coming up. For example, I have a trip coming up next week that has been keeping me going for a month or so. I also have projects on the horizon that I want to do and take part in. So I can't say that I have overcome the ideation, but I can deal with it better most of the time currently. And the most powerful things for me would be the sitting with the emotions/thoughts and reminding myself it will pass and then, reminding myself of what I have to look forward to. Some days the "looking forward" to might mean something more like a responsibility like taking my cats to the vet, but I try to have things planned like sewing projects or a trip or going to the library to keep me going so I can get through those ideation days. And even though this is a really hard time of year for me, it's helping so far. I am hoping it continues as the time gets rougher. Hope something of this helps you and if not, know that you aren't the only one still struggling with ideation.

 

[Snowflake]

I don't think I have really overcame it....yet. It's a daily thought...like a habitual thought. Some days I can minimize it others not so much. I have learned to break my day down into segments as short as hours and even minutes.....trying to think about something that's upcoming, such as an appointment or a meeting or a home visit. When I do this it minimizes those ideations but they are never really gone-

 

[Crow]

Comes and goes for me these days. When I was able to disconnect a little and say to the thoughts, "oh, you're here again. Okay..let's hang out." the thoughts got less and less intense and eventually less frequent. These days I'm usually able to call my T just to have someone know what I am going through.

 

[Sideways]

@Snowflake nailed my experience. After about a decade of ups and downs with SI, I recognised that it had become habitual. It was my go-to response when things got shit.

I wouldn't say that I've overcome it, but the longer I just act in spite of it, keep living in spite of it, it has increasingly less potency, and lingers for shorter periods of time.

For me, a lot of my recovery has been like that. Depression in particular. Waiting for my head to come around, to start feeling better, just wasn't working. So if I feel like I can't get out of bed, I force myself to anyway. If I'm thinking SI again, I do something else. It's much less of a problem than it used to be. So fake it till you make it actually seems to be working for me. Head's still screwed, that'll take a lot longer to fix. But the SI and Depression are withering away.

 

[Deleted member 541]

I've had SI for 50+ yrs, and I still haven't figured out how to overcome it. Like others here, I think it comes and goes, depending on how much crap you are dealing with on certain days, weeks, months.