A saw a post on this topic recently on Wellbean Blog, and I wanted to jump on board with a post of my own. Toxic positivity is essentially the idea that happy and positive is the only right way to be, and therefore, people need to cheer up, look on the bright side, think positive, … Continue reading You Don’t Need to Be Positive
The Anxiety Skills Workbook by Stefan G. Hofmann uses a cognitive behavioural therapy approach to help you better manage your anxiety. One thing I liked was the cautionary note in the introduction that the book wasn't intended to address suicidality, severe depression, or problematic substance abuse, and anyone experiencing those should get in touch with … Continue reading Book Review: The Anxiety Skills Workbook
The emerging blogger series is aimed at community building through giving mental health bloggers who are early in their blogging evolution the opportunity to have their work seen by a wider audience. It's also a way to introduce you as a reader to some newer members of our community. This post is by Lara of … Continue reading Emerging Blogger Series: Lara
Why is everybody talking about non-medical masks in the last few days? The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) in the US released studies showing that the coronavirus was being transmitted by patients who were asymptomatic. It was known all along that some people were infected but asymptomatic, but new information indicates that they … Continue reading To Mask or Not to Mask
I got thinking about this a little while ago when I was commenting on a post by B of Convolute Me. I had mentioned that those of us who are okay with dying are unlikely to be the ones actually taken down by the COVID-19 pandemic. While that may sound suicidal, it's not meant that … Continue reading Life Isn’t (and Never Was) Fair
In my depression-free days, my brain felt like a finely tuned machine. I could handle multiple tasks efficiently and effectively. I've always been organized, but when I was well it was helpful rather than necessary. I performed better when I was organized, but it wasn't a crutch. If non-depressed brain was skiing black diamond runs, … Continue reading Compensating for Depression Brain
I would guess that most of us, at some point or another, feel insecure about our blogs, especially in comparison to other bloggers. Going down that comparison road is the freeway to Crazytown, so there's got to be a better way – a sort of healthy blogging report card. Reflecting on how your blog is … Continue reading A Blogging Report Card
Here's what happened in my life over the past week: Thanks to Rory from A Guy Called Bloke for gifting me a compliment this week for my post What is… Herd Behaviour. My week was dominated by a sinus infection. The snot monster I mentioned last week expanded its facial footprint to encompass and enter mouth, … Continue reading Weekend wrap-up
In this series, I dig a little deeper into the meaning of psychology-related terms. This week's term is competitiveness. From an evolutionary perspective, competition is hardwired into us; living beings need to compete for limited resources in order to survive. For most of us, though, that isn't too much of an issue, and the competitive … Continue reading What is… Competitiveness
It's not uncommon to hear the term high functioning getting tossed around to describe people's mental health conditions. But is it a term that's meaningful or useful? To clarify, I'm not referring to people describing their own level of functioning in a way that feels right for them. I'm all for people using whatever language … Continue reading Is High Functioning a Useful Descriptor for Mental Illness?
Alert and Oriented x3 by Leif Gregersen II, a book about living with a psychotic illness, is offered as a free download from the author's blog, Mental Health Coping Skills Blog by Leif Gregersen. The author has schizoaffective disorder, and this book focuses on his most recent hospitalization, which he describes as being unimaginably painful. … Continue reading Book Review: Alert and Oriented x3
Being a hermit is supposed to be a bad thing, but it's made it a whole lot easier to adjust to COVID-19 and the social distancing restrictions. Over the last year, I've really struggled with psychomotor retardation (slowing of movement) with my depression, and that made it hard to get out and do anything. So … Continue reading Pandemic Life as a Pre-Existing Hermit
Good Days and Bad Days: I Don’t Have To Like It, I Just Have To Live With It is a book about living with schizoaffective disorder, written by Mio Angelo of Mentally Ill in America. He's offering it for free; just contact him via his blog. His determination is quickly apparent in such statements as: … Continue reading Book Review: Good Days and Bad Days
It seems like quite a few people haven't been able to like or comment on people's posts. It may be an issue with your browser settings. If you’re using Safari, go to “Preferences” in the “Safari” menu, then the “Privacy” tab. “Prevent cross-site tracking” needs to be unchecked. In Chrome, go to “Preferences” under the … Continue reading PSA on Problems with Liking/Commenting on Blogs
A blogging friend recently decided to call it quits with blogging, and it got me thinking about how important it is to keep the assorted shoulds at bay so that we can keep blogging sustainably. Shoulds re. what to write about You may come across articles that tell you what you should write about in … Continue reading Blogging Sustainably