Reasons to Stay Alive is by Matt Haig, a popular author with a whopping 243K followers on Twitter (including me). I believe this was his first book that delved into his own mental health; he has since followed up with Notes on a Nervous Planet (affiliate link). He explains that one of his aims with this […]
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Crazy. Psycho. Schizo. Nutbar. Mad. Retard. Lunatic. Loony tunes. Insane. F***ed in the head. Bonkers. Whack job. Batshit crazy. Certifiable. These are just a few examples, but when it comes to derogatory mental health-related terms, there are many of them and we hear them often. Sometimes, we even use them ourselves. A study by Rose
How Do You Respond to Stigmatized Language? Read More »
In this series, I dig a little deeper into the meaning of psychological terms. This week’s term is autonomy. While autonomy falls more under the umbrella of philosophy than psychology, it also has significant implications for mental health care. The philosopher Immanuel Kant identified several key elements of autonomy, including both the right and the capacity
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How to Stop Feeling So Damn Depressed: The No BS Guide for Men by psychologist Jonas A. Horwitz is a how-to guide for men to take on depression and win. The author explains that this book is for men with severe depression. I found the use of the term “severe” a bit unclear. It didn’t
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While this may seem like a bit of an odd topic, it’s something I’ve vaguely wondered about for a while. If orgasms get the feel-good chemicals flowing, might that have any sort of benefit for depression? And especially for single folks like myself – could masturbation have any positive effect when it comes to depression?
Master of My Domain? A Look at Depression and Masturbation Read More »
In this series, I dig a little deeper into the meaning of psychological terms. This week’s term is perfectionism. Perfectionism involves self-defeating thoughts and behaviours associated with unrealistic expectations of flawlessness. This causes significant levels of stress and feelings of failure, and it contributes to the use of maladaptive coping mechanisms. It can involve a
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This post was inspired by a recent post by a fellow blogger about the psychology behind excuses. I left a comment about distinguishing between reasons and excuses, and I thought the idea was worth some further expansion. Defining reasons & excuses The Merriam-Webster Dictionary defines reason as “a statement or fact that explains why something
Is Mental Illness More of a Reason or an Excuse? Read More »
My Wellness Toolbox by Ali Swift is a collection of the strategies that she gradually accumulated through her recovery journey after hitting her own rock bottom. Rather than preaching what does work, she shares what’s worked for her so others struggling with their mental health can get some ideas to try out for themselves. The
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Content warning: As the title says, I will be talking about privacy and completed suicide, and whether it’s appropriate to publicly release someone’s personal diary or other writings after their death. Please consider skipping this post if it could be triggering for you. The book Suicidal I recently read and reviewed Jesse Bering’s book Suicidal:
Privacy and Completed Suicide – Does It Matter? Read More »
From abuses in asylums to horrific “experiments” in Nazi Germany, the anti-psychiatry movement arose in response to perceived abuses within the mainstream psychiatric establishment. Yet has the movement actually brought about any sort of positive change for those people living with mental illness? Or has it generated more of an academic debate that’s had a
Is the Anti-Psychiatry Movement Helping Mentally Ill People? Read More »
