Skinny Hobbit of Growing Into Myself recently did a post on ring theory, which I hadn't heard of before. I was curious to learn more, and one of the sources she mentioned was an article on ring theory in the LA Times. Ring theory was developed by clinical psychologist Susan Silk. After having breast cancer … Continue reading Ring Theory – How to Support Grieving People
Social phobia, also known as social anxiety disorder, can be a crippling condition that makes it extremely difficult to be around people. It affects around 13% of the population at some point during their lifetime. A key element of the condition is a fear of doing something that will result in humiliation. That's not me. … Continue reading Why It’s Hard For Me To Be Around People
I recently commented on another blogger's post and mentioned that depression makes me hard to love. From their response, it seemed like they misinterpreted where I was going with that, so I thought it was worth doing a post about. I've written before about how I used to conceptualize separate well and ill selves. My … Continue reading Does Mental Illness Make You Hard to Love?
The Year of the Introvert by Michaela Chung is a book that is wholeheartedly pro-introvert, and takes that stance that introversion is not a limitation. The tone has a motivational, coaching style as the author encourages you to embrace your authentic self. The book defines introverts as "people who gain energy in solitude and lose … Continue reading Book Review: The Year of the Introvert
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 Kacha of … Continue reading Emerging Blogger Series: Kacha
I had originally planned to use the feature image within this post, but just this morning I came across the photo above and LOVED it. Introversion and extroversion are personality traits lying at opposite ends of a spectrum. Some people fit with one extreme or another, but many people fall somewhere in the middle. Introversion … Continue reading How Common is Introversion?
This is mostly a rhetorical question for me, since I don't have kids and most likely never will, but how would you teach your kids about sex? My parents never gave me a sex talk. I first found out about sex from a book about the human body that my parents gave me that they … Continue reading What Would You Teach Your Kids About Sex?
I think we've probably all felt the urge at one point or another to give advice. We see the situation someone is in, and can't help but think if they only did X then things would be so much better for them. Chances are most of us have also been on the receiving end of … Continue reading Thoughts on Giving and Receiving Advice
The ways we can connect with others have changed a great deal since I was a kid in the 80s. Technology is light years ahead of where it used to be, which makes connecting easier in some ways, but mental illness likes to get in the way and put up roadblocks. Back in the 80s, … Continue reading How do we connect with others?
In this series, I dig a little deeper into the meaning of psychological terms. This week's term: Codependency We hear about codependency often, particularly in relation to addiction. What does it actually mean, though? GoodTherapy's website says: "Codependency involves sacrificing one’s personal needs to try to meet the needs of others. Someone who is codependent has … Continue reading What is… Codependency
Yes, that's right, I'm guilty – I'm a ghoster. Ghosting is not a nice thing to do to someone, but are some forms of ghosting worse than others? I would like to propose two different types of ghosting: offensive ghosting, which serves to actively reject another person, and defensive ghosting, which is done for the … Continue reading I admit it – I’m a ghoster
This post is only loosely associated with mental health, but it's a topic I wanted to explore anyway. I hope that this isn't offensive to anyone, and my intent is not to criticize anyone's belief system. I was raised in an atheist family, and never set foot in a church as a child. As I … Continue reading What’s God got to do with it?
We live in a society in which coupledom is not only the norm but the expectation. However, there are a lot of us that don't fit into the neat and tidy boxes that the world expects. Just because someone isn't your standard cis-gendered heterosexual monogamist vanilla-sex married with kids kind of person doesn't main they're … Continue reading The Single Girl Life
A while back I wrote a post about unsuccessfully trying to find forgiveness for those who have harmed me and done so much damage to my mental health. Shortly thereafter, I first heard of the song Praying by Kesha in a post on Deanna's Dark Diary. I've had that song playing on heavy rotation since then, … Continue reading Forgiveness – a follow-up
A little while back I was reading a blog post that talked about Dr. Elaine Aron's book The Highly Sensitive Person. I thought huh, sounds like I'm probably one of those. So I picked up the book from the library and had a read, and it got me thinking about traits and illness and all … Continue reading Not-so-highly-sensitive person