Why don’t I feel like myself? (+9 Practical solutions)
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The Optimistminds editorial team is made up of psychologists, psychiatrists and mental health professionals. Each article is written by a team member with exposure to and experience in the subject matter. The article then gets reviewed by a more senior editorial member. This is someone with extensive knowledge of the…
In this current post, we will be explaining why you don’t feel like yourself. In addition to this, we have also listed a number of simple and easy ways through which you can start to feel like yourself again.
Why don’t I feel like myself?
You may not feel like yourself because of high stress levels. When your stress levels go up, so does your anxiety and this can cause you to feel that you are no longer yourself or are not the best version of yourself. Some main reasons why you may not feel like yourself are:
Certain milestones in life
Certain milestones or even big changes in life can make you not feel like yourself. For instance, moving out and going to college can be a very stressful thing for many people. High stress levels caused by changes like this can lead you to question yourself.
Sudden traumatic incidents
Sudden traumatic incidents in life can also make you doubt yourself and your identity as a person. For example, witnessing a crime or a death in front can often lead to high stress levels and keep you feeling very unlike yourself for a long period of time.
Grieving loss
Dealing with loss can also lead to high levels of stress. Often, behavioral responses to grief and loss can also lead a person to feel that they are not their best selves for a certain period of time. The good news is that these feelings often go away by themselves.
This grief can refer to the feelings of loss when someone loved departs from us through death or through some other means. But it can also refer to those feelings of hurt that you may experience when you lose a job or some special physical object in your life.
Failing to achieve goals
Failing to achieve certain goals, especially important ones like career goals can also make you feel that you are not your best self. This becomes even more potent if the goal was something very important to you since this can mimic the symptoms of grieving an important loss.
Mental health conditions
Certain mental health conditions can also make you feel unlike yourself and make you feel disconnected from reality. Examples of mental health conditions which can mess with your sense of self are:
- Depression
- Anxiety
- Bipolar Disorder
- Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder
- Depersonalization Disorder
Ways to feel like yourself again
If you don’t feel like yourself for some reason or the other, there is an indefinite number of things that you can do to reverse the effects. Some ways that you can use to feel like yourself again have been discussed in the following section.
Make a list of happy things
One of the things that you can do to start feeling like yourself again is to simply make a list of happy things. These can be your favorite activities, foods that you like, characters that you love, anything.
As you make a list of your happy things, you will find yourself becoming happier as your mind turns towards positive things. You will also find reinforcing points that help in creating your unique identity as a person.
Try meditating often
You can also try meditation as a way of getting back in touch with your inner self. Through meditation, you can say goodbye to the busy rush around you that interferes with your inner peace and find better grounding in your own identity.
Meditation can be practiced through many ways and you don’t necessarily have to go all yogic in order to use this technique to feel like yourself again. You can try meditating in your own happy zone, whether it is your bedroom, your garden, the beach or even with a group.
Take a break from social media
While social media is definitely helpful in many ways, it can also leave you feeling disconnected if you use it too much on a daily basis. Taking a break from social media can help you reconnect with yourself.
If you are finding it hard to take a complete break from social media, you can try limiting your use of it through a time limit every day. You can also try uninstalling your social media apps and replace them with something more informative.
Try deep breathing
Short-term coping strategies like deep breathing exercises can also help you feel like yourself again. These can be particularly useful if your loss of sense of self comes because of anxiety or panic attacks.
Deep breathing can be as simple as inhaling through your nostrils, holding your breath in and exhaling through your mouth. You can also try using devices or even activities like blowing bubbles to help you in this.
Practice self-care and self-love
Self-care and self-love activities are extremely beneficial when it comes to finding yourself again. This is because high stress levels are often to blame for a lack of sense of self. When your mind and body feel more pampered and taken care of, your stress levels go down.
Self-care and self-love can refer to simple activities like regular exercise or even a great skin-care regime. You can also try activities like bubble baths or treating yourself to something nice in the shopping mall to instantly uplift your mood.
Say goodbye to negative people
Sometimes it is not the negative self-talk that brings you down and causes you to lose sight of yourself, but the very people around you. This is especially true if you have surrounded yourself with too many negative or toxic people.
Cutting out negative people from your life can immensely benefit your mental health and bring you a lot of inner peace. And also, in the absence of toxic people, your self-esteem thrives, thereby improving your self-identity.
Practice creativity
Taking part in creative activities can also help you feel like yourself again. This does not necessarily mean that you should become Picasso overnight, but simply looking at art and appreciating it can also help.
You can also try actively participating in creative activities every day since creativity is an end-product of your own identity. For instance, you can start cooking more at home, or making art projects for your living room or simply joining an art class.
Practice sleep hygiene
Proper sleep is another important factor for mental health. If your sleep is suffering, your stress levels will automatically shoot up, leading you to feel unlike yourself. You may also feel that you are not giving your best at work or in your daily chores.
For this, you can simply include more habits of sleep hygiene in your routine. For example, taking a warm bath before bed or investing in a weighted blanket. When the quality of your sleep improves, so will your self-identity.
Go to a therapist
Finally, you can also see a therapist. Going to therapy can not only help you in venting your troubles and problems in a safe manner but can also help you learn more about yourself and your behavioral patterns.
Certain forms of therapy, such as Cognitive Behavioral Therapy, can also help you unlearn negative patterns and mental languages which you might have learnt before by default. You will also be able to appreciate your uniqueness in a better manner through regular therapy.
Conclusion
In this current post, we have explained why you don’t feel like yourself. In addition to this, we have also listed a number of simple and easy ways through which you can start to feel like yourself again.
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