 What's going on here, welcome back to my channel. If you're new here, hi, hello, my name is Lydia and I make mental health videos here on YouTube pretty much every single day. This is the first video I'm filming in my new flat and I'm sorry that it's like this direction, I haven't finished unpacking yet but I wanted to sit and film a video because I've been working on it on every like train journey I've made. If you are new here hit the subscribe button, join that little family and I hope you enjoyed the video. So today I'm talking about how to coat with a relapse. I just wanted to put this in the beginning. Please remember that I am not a professional. I'm some 21 year old who talks to a camera. I think the first important thing for me to say in this video is to never be afraid of a relapse. It's hard to accept when you relapse. It's hard to accept the idea that you've relapsed when you're in recovery. It's devastating, it's upsetting, it makes you mad but never fear it because it happens to the best of us. Thinking more negatively if you're depressed and feeling suicidal or if you're extreme, if you're feeling psychotic, if you're feeling manic, just going to show them with racing thoughts, recklessness, extreme money spending. Obviously relapse looks different for everybody. Relapse with eating disorders, relapse with cell phone, relapse with drugs, relapse with alcohol. It's all different for everyone. No one experiences the same. How to notice a relapse? One, the way your thoughts are. Two, know the difference between mental and physical relapse. A YouTuber I follow called Envy Malice Mickey, her name's Mickey obviously not Envy Malice Mickey but her YouTube channel's called Envy Malice Mickey and I think what she does is amazing and I'd highly recommend her video as for you to go and check out. She made a video talking about the differences between mental and physical relapse and I think it's such an amazing video. I'll leave it linked in the description down below. You're not a failure if you... that's one thing that's written all over my notes is like you're not a failure and it's so true. Just because you relapse doesn't mean you're a failure. Movement illness, addiction, recovery in any way, shape or form, relapse is always a possibility and I think you have to keep that in the back of your mind like obviously no one wants to relapse. You know, no one wants to feel suicidal, no one wants to self harm. Relapse is always a possibility. These are hard things to deal with and hard things to overcome and hard things to cope with and you have to remember that it is somewhat part of process. Not everyone is going to relapse but the best parts do. I just want to say that relapse does not mean that you have failed at recovery. As long as you're working towards what your goal is, towards your recovery, towards your overall wellness, even acknowledging that you need to recover is a huge step in terms of recovery and the thing that most of us struggle with is believing in ourselves. Having self-belief is something that I don't have and I wish I did. Self-belief is something that we need to kind of move on in our lives and recover and work really hard on that process. The third thing I would say is how do you cope with it? To say you have relapsed, say you're caught after, God knows how many months actually happened to me a few weeks ago and I did make a video on that day. It is a bit true to rank so I wouldn't necessarily recommend it but I will also leave a link to it in the description down below. It has a mental illness. Anyone who self-harms, anyone who struggles with any kind of illness or anything can relapse. Relapse can happen even when you've been like, stay with self-harm even if you haven't self-harmed in years, it can come back and you do it and then you're just like, oh my god so many people out there are like, oh I feel like failure because I relapsed. The thing I want to say in this video is you are not a failure. I don't care what other people say, you are not a failure. Coping with it, what can you do? First thing, don't let it consume your every thought. Know yourself and know who you can reach out to. Maybe get like a contact book and write down people you can contact if you're in that point. I have a piece of paper with numbers on in my crisis box of people I can call if I'm struggling. Talk to someone because you know people want to see you succeed, people are there to support you. The importance of talking to someone is a big step because it acknowledges that you've done it and it acknowledges that you want to work on yourself. Sometimes we just need that little extra push and having it helping out. Relapse does not equal failure. So here are some things you could do when you're well to either help prevent relapse, to help you cope if you do relapse. It's all about coming up with preventative measures and you know putting things in place so even if you do relapse you can still continue your program. On my little list here I've got come up with a plan of what you can do when you're well. Let's call it a contingency plan. So say yourself harm, come up with what you do next. What are the next steps to get you back on track? Two preventative measures. If you're like me I used to do half to half something sharp all the time. The importance of me for me when I got rid of all them the first time was a such a big step for me and it really did mark the star of my recovery because I didn't have the means and I'm not going to go to a shop and buy a blade like I'm just not. Number three is to have crisis contact lists like I just said get an address book or get a piece of paper get the back of a receipt scribble down the numbers that you need and put it in a box. Like I sell crisis boxes over on my Etsy store and not to like Valpromo here but I'm self-promoting. I have an Etsy store where I sell mental health crisis boxes and I do fully customizable things so you can request things that help you in that situation. I also do ones that are similar to what I use. It helps me and hopefully helps you. Number four is to learn the signs of symptoms of what a relapse is like for you so notice if you're starting to like if your mood's going down make sure you know how to recognize that because recognizing it is the one thing that you need to be able to do. Recovery is different for everyone and like I said in the beginning I'm not a professional I'm not trained to be professional I don't pretend to be a professional I am a person who has lived experience and is currently going through stuff herself so that is all I do have for this video and if you are new here it would mean the world to me if you could subscribe. I know this feels a bit short and a bit like lopsided and badly framed and whatever I'm moving into my flat it's gonna be a mess for a video you know I'm sorry but I really want to get this video out there so yeah if you have any advice about recovery or what you do to cope in a crisis let me know in the comments down below because you know you could help someone so yeah thank you guys so much for watching and I'll see you in my next video