Take Your Pills Blog Archive

Hey, buds.

Thanks for checking out the Take Your Pills blog archive. I’ve decided to close the site and move the blog here—so it can be immortalized in a well-deserved spot in my writing portfolio.

Some backstory: Take Your Pills was a mental illness advocacy site that I founded and ran from 2017-2019. It was my pride and joy—honestly, still is. It was created for a few reasons:

-To give those living with mental illness a place to feel less alone.

-To educate allies.

-To destigmatize the behaviors exhibited due to mental illness.

-To normalize the discussion of mental illness—not just mental health.

In the blog you’ll find a few different kinds of posts:

-Self-Care Tarot: a monthly guest post written by Cassandra Snow.

-Trick or Treatment: a segment where I test out “wellness” products so you don’t have to.

-Therapy Thursday: A weekly video series held on my Instagram (via IGTV) where I share with viewers one tip I learned in therapy. I still record new episodes, which you can check out here.

and more!

Thank you so much for your willingness to get hella vulnerable with me! I hope you enjoy what Take Your Pills has to offer.

-Dom

PS: Need some more random Dom content? Check out a little blog shoutout from The BTWN here, and then visit Half the Story to see my mental health social media takeover.

January 2019 Self-Care Tarot: We Don’t Have to Like Everything.

HAPPY NEW YEAR ALL. Here’s hoping I finally learn to post shit on time in 2019. Expect some new posts, more Therapy Thursday’s on my IG, and a few published pieces out in the world this year. See you soon.

Check out what Cassandra and her cards have to say about this new year!

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The Page of Swords is all about sudden realizations, brash insight, and the unsettling feeling that these epiphanies just might change your life. As a new year rolls in this makes perfect sense regardless of our mental health status. Suddenly we are focused on what we want to do and where we want to go in 2019. Old dreams are released as new ones take shape. A lot of us are spending time analyzing what went right and what went wrong in 2018 and the answers to what we’ve learned and where we’ve been are likely to surprise even the most self-aware of us. The Page of Swords brings this insight kindly, if not peacefully, and with a reminder that anything that we cut out or that changes us now is for a long-term benefit that we’ll be grateful for later.

For those of us struggling to stay afloat because of mental health, the Page of Swords does show a rougher January. Change is sometimes harder on us than the general population, and January is no different where that’s concerned. The insights and realizations we get can cause radical mood swings or sudden upheavals in our moods. While deep down we might know this is part of our long-term life plan it does not feel good, and we do not like it this month. That’s okay. We don’t have to like everything. The self-care piece of this card says to do it anyway. Struggle through if you need to but do the inner work and listen to those moments when clarity drowns out the self-loathing clamor.

A Page of Swords can be taken incredibly straightforward too. January may be a month for new meds, a new therapist, or even a totally new mental illness emerging. These changes are easier for us, so just try to document how you’re feeling and what’s working so you can stay on top of your health. We all think we’re going to start the most nuanced journal practice ever in the New Year but go easy on yourself if you’re not a writer or journaler by nature. Start the year by adding a mood tracker (digital or paper) to your daily routine and look back at the past couple of weeks every week. If that goes well or goes well but isn’t enough, then we can add in other facets of journaling. The great thing about a mood tracker is it can be artistic or written, digital or paper, and it has the same effect: allowing us to trace the patterns of our mental health rollercoaster so we can make better decisions about our health moving forward. The Swords love patterns, and they love order. The Court Cards are mostly very concerned with autonomy. This simple practice meets both of these facets and helps you start off the New Year with some hope and excitement.

For more info on Cassandra and to book your own card reading, click HERE!

December 2018 Self-Care Tarot: Close That Damn Door, Beeb!

Hi from my busy ass that can’t even remember to post on December 1st. As you’ve probably noticed, I’ve been a little absent from my blog (aside from these epic tarotscopes from Cassandra) and social media. There’s no reason other than the fact that I’m still trying to learn to make time for this side of my life in addition to my work during the day. If any of you have any suggestions, leave them in the comments below or send me a message. Let’s see what Cassandra and her cards had to say about what’s in store for our brains this month.

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The World is about endings, and it is a very predictable December reading regardless of context. In the context of mental illness and self-care, The World speaks directly to what’s next for our healing and the ability to maintain our mental health. This year had a lot of ups and downs, and now we’re here at the end wondering what 2019 will bring. It’s natural that this kind and affirming end-of-chapter card would show up, but it’s not coming without bringing us some homework.

The World is specifically interpreted as coming to a successful ending or close, and it’s often discussed that for this ending to truly be successful you’ve got to go through and track and learn the lessons that life and the tarot were trying to teach you throughout 2018. Specifically, where our mental illness is concerned, this is a card of thinking through the tools in our toolkits that did and did not work this year. As we think about the effect our mental health has on the rest of our life, we need to think through what we learned about ourselves as employees or employers, as friends, as partners, as our parent’s children, as our cat’s mom, or any other role we fulfill in this life. What made us able to bring our best self-even at our worst-into a situation or relationship? What was NOT successful? I hate asking you all to relive ugly times from the past year, but it’s crucial as we do move ahead and move forward to review where we might have gone awry or if there were certain triggers or times in the year where our mental illness was not manageable. Once you have those answers, you can go into 2019 confidently.

The World is also sometimes incredibly literal. If your depression makes you isolate or poverty trauma makes you hesitant to travel, this card wants us to spend some of December breaking out of our shell and getting out into the literal world. Even if you’re broke, there are cheap and free things to do in your city or township, most likely, and getting out is the most important thing. This is especially true as SAD kicks in for the year as it does for so many people who are already struggling with their mental illness. It’s so tempting just to stay home because we’re low energy, but that’s almost never the right thing to do when it’s the season change that’s messing with those energy levels.

What I love about The World from this particular deck is that the person in the photo is sitting on top of the world, smug as can be. This person has lived through all of the advice I just walked you through and knows there are great things in the coming year if we can but learn and close the current chapters successfully. We don’t know what 2019 will hold and if we’ve had an unpredictable 2018 that’s probably making us as nervous as anything. This card promises that there are happy surprises and intriguing mysteries along the way. This month we should be prepping to embrace the best life, and The World have to offer, even if we know we’ll still hit significant speed bumps along the way. -Cassandra Snow

For more info on Cassandra and to book your own card reading, click HERE!

November 2018 Self-Care Tarot: Finally Some Goddam Stability

I have no idea how people balance their passions with a day job. That being said, my lack of understanding of this concept is the reason this is 6 days late. Here’s what Cassandra and her cards have to say about this month.

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I was very surprised to see the King of Coins pop up for our self-care tarot this November. Everything feels like it’s falling apart right now for me and so many people, and that includes my own mental health. I have felt underresourced and undercared for so much this year, and I know I’m not alone. The King of Coins promises a reprieve from all of that scarcity and pain as abundance and generosity move into our lives. This King is COMFORTABLE and knows how blessed he is, and that is the energy we are supposed to absorb and project throughout November. This card also promises financial success, forward movement in our careers, and lots of quality nesting time at home.

In terms of mental health, things should feel relatively stable this month and you should use that to build on your current treatment and self-care plans. It’s tempting to wait until things are bad to take those next steps towards trauma recovery or mental illness management but it’s actually the best time to do it because you’re thinking clearly and know what your long-term goals are. As your career advances and your pockets are more full, this might even be a good time to invest in yourself and your long-term health.

 This month still does call for the discipline required to manage said mental illnesses, because often times when things are stable we don’t want to think about our healing. We want to go blow a bunch of money on fun or pretty things and have fun with our friends. While it’s fine to do those things this month, we need to keep our feet on the ground and keep going on our emotional and mental journey, doing the hard work that’s required for long term growth (on top of spoiling ourselves a little).

 The King of Coins is a strong message to remember that we deserve success and comfort no matter what. With mental illness often comes low self-esteem and strained relationships, but this King knows who he is and has learned to work with it. Use the good energy this month to nurture those positive relationships with people who accept you just as you are. This energy can also be used to carve out space for comfort and relaxation in your home, which is always a critical self-care step that a lot of us skip over when times are tough. You’ve been working really hard to get better for a long time, and as mentioned earlier, this month promises a reprieve. You can see the light at the end of the tunnel now, and you can envision how beautiful things can be in your next stages. Remember that you’ve worked for this and earned this, and you owe it to yourself to enjoy it. -Cassandra Snow

For more info on Cassandra and to book your own card reading, click HERE!