Now that you know what is happening with your body, mind, and health, planning a solution to help yourself for the future. If you are going to a mental health issue, write down all the sites, places, phone numbers, contacts you have used or contacted, so that if it happens again, you can refer to it with less effort. You can do as little as you can, even just putting all the emails into one folder in your mailbox and label it "self-care".
Why do we need to do so?
For international students, governmental policies, international student fees, healthcare coverage changes all the time. For newcomers, immigration policies, new policies, filling different forms, connections to our home countries, there are so many things we have to go through.
When our episode hits again, it will be exhausting to go over the policies, or even check the phone numbers to call for help. Our future self or even our friends will benefit from having this personal emergency plan.
Sometimes, we think we recover, or we think we have healed, but little things (such as exam periods) may trigger our imbalance of our mentality and we may need to reach out again. This is normal on the way of building resilience within ourselves.
Several things I have done to plan include
If ... happens, please
The more we try to help ourselves, the better and quicker we will heal.
Why do we need to do so?
For international students, governmental policies, international student fees, healthcare coverage changes all the time. For newcomers, immigration policies, new policies, filling different forms, connections to our home countries, there are so many things we have to go through.
When our episode hits again, it will be exhausting to go over the policies, or even check the phone numbers to call for help. Our future self or even our friends will benefit from having this personal emergency plan.
Sometimes, we think we recover, or we think we have healed, but little things (such as exam periods) may trigger our imbalance of our mentality and we may need to reach out again. This is normal on the way of building resilience within ourselves.
Several things I have done to plan include
- Move all the emails related to mental health into one folder in my email account
- Put my health coverage plan, health card number, healthcare providers information together
- Create a bookmark folder of articles, videos, websites that I will need to check
- Put people's contact information in my phone (save them in cloud in case I lose them) so that I know who to call
- Write an instruction for myself and for my close friend or families so that I can help myself and they can help me
If ... happens, please
- book an appointment with ....;
- send emails to professors and ask for extensions if possible;
- reduce amount of work and take a rest;
- submit medical appointments claim to....
- tell ... (someone I trust) what happened, so that ... can understand me.
- remember to eat vegetables, fruits, and healthy food; I must eat.
- do at least 15 minutes of exercise everyday, even if I will be sitting on a chair or laying in bed
- write journals
- tell my manager at workplace, so that she/he can understand (if only I feel comfortable telling her/him)
- watch ... videos (that will help me cope)
- remember that I can do it. I can improve. I don't have to be perfect. I need to accept myself. I don't need to add unnecessary pressure to myself.
- focus on what I can do.
- don't cry with sad music for more than 15 minutes...
- don't make serious decisions when I am crying
- go to ... meetup group/online chat group and talk about what happened
- colour-painting
The more we try to help ourselves, the better and quicker we will heal.