What is a Mental Health Resource Toolkit?

What is a mental health resource toolkit? When I think about a toolkit, I immediately think of tangible items like hammers and nails, but it is so important when we think of a mental health resource toolkit that we think about non-tangible things like yoga and breathing exercises in addition to the easier to think of tangible items. A mental health resource toolkit is your imaginary box of strategies in order to navigate mental health crises.

As a person who has faced covert narcissistic abuse and assault from their spouse for the duration of a 9 year relationship, I have been diagnosed with PTSD by three different mental health professionals. I often have flashbacks of events that happened between myself and my ex-husband as well as panic attacks in response to certain triggers like:

• Loud noises
• Being around men that I do not know
• Seeing people wearing gun holsters or guns stuck in their waistbands
• Seeing cars that look my ex-husband’s car
• Being near the neighborhood where he lives
• Etc.

The unfortunate thing is that my family lives within 5 minutes of my ex-husband and his family, as does the student that I tutor multiple times a week. With that in mind, when I was still living with my parents after I ran away from my home, I was having severe panic attacks multiple times a day. I had to find strategies to put in my toolkit to help me manage these intense physical reactions. I have worked in therapy for the last 6 months and continue to do so to create and expand the resources I have at my disposal when I hit a crisis moment. These crisis moments absolutely still happen, but I am more capable of finding some sense of control when they do.

Who Needs a Mental Health Resource Toolkit?

If, like myself and many others out there, you have or are facing any of the following, I highly recommend working to create your own resource toolkit. This can be done either individually or with the guidance of a therapist or other mental health professional.

• PTSD and other anxiety based disorders
• Depression
• Bipolar Disorder
• Personality Disorders
• Autism & Sensory Processing Disorder
• Recovering from Addiction
• Recovering from an Abusive Relationship
• Navigating Adversity of any Kind

Why is this Important?

When our brain is faced with adversity it reacts in a way that is designed to protect us from danger. We all react to this by wanting to fight, flee, or freeze. When I face a trigger or see something that reminds me of my ex-husband or the abuse I faced at his hand, I tend to flee and then hide (not great when I am not in danger, like when I am in my apartment and start panicking because my upstairs neighbor dropped something with a bang).

Our brain’s reaction is a critical part of our human instinct to survive, but it can cause changes to the wiring in our brains and the ways that certain chemicals, like cortisol, are released throughout our bodies. These chemicals can alter the way that we feel and how we perceive the world around us and can lead us to not properly take care of ourselves.

We have to be able to take care of ourselves in order to live our best lives and be the best version of ourselves. When we are in the middle of crisis it can be challenging to pull ourselves out of that situation and we need strategies that help root us back in the present and allow us to feel more in control of a situation, even if it is outside of our control. I had no control over anything that was done to me or taken from me, but my toolkit has helped me to find some sense of control amongst the chaos around and within me. Your toolkit will be able to provide you with a plethora of strategies that you can utilize to help bring that sense of grounding and control back to your life.