My main request when visiting a psychologist after my illness (and I am diagnosed with schizophrenia) was self-confidence. In general, I didn’t stop thinking and understood what a deep hole the disease had thrown me into: it was scary just to communicate with normal people. After an illness, you find yourself in a sun-baked desert - there is no one around, but you understand that you must live on. And how to do this? Much later I came across this exercise “Self-Confidence Map” - draw yourself, a little person, and write around the characteristics that you give to yourself. This gives a clear idea of ​​what you are like for yourself - and in which direction you need to move further. After - when the characteristics are written - we choose the desired and unwanted ones. We have to work with this: develop the desirable sides and accept (or fight) the undesirable ones. This exercise helped me a lot: I soberly assessed my strengths and weaknesses, and realized that I can move on with my life. At first I had to plan every day, and thank myself if the day was a success, but also not scold too much if everything didn’t work out. In general, the cornerstone of self-confidence is self-love; this is the most important thing that every person should have. Love and self-esteem. As for the exercise, take the time to write down how you want to develop or, on the contrary, remove some feature of your personality. But you shouldn’t “remove” too much from yourself. For example, I am naturally shy - and I struggled with this character trait for a long time until I realized that I myself love shy people more, not upstarts, because they seem kinder and more interesting to me. Therefore, don’t be too quick about it – look carefully at the picture you got – and you will understand in which direction you need to move in order to understand and love yourself as much as possible. In general, any illness brings a new vision of life to a person’s life, and I I can say with confidence that I began to appreciate my own life much more and learned more about myself during schizophrenia. Nothing is given for nothing, but if you feel sorry for yourself - or give up on yourself - then you can lose the taste and joy of life. I never forget that we have one life, and I am grateful for the people I love nearby and for the fact that God gave me a second chance in life. I wish you self-love! And if you are facing severe mental illness, please contact!