A safe place to talk openly about mental health & illness
In this series, I dig a little deeper into the meaning of psychology-related terms. This week's term is adaptive vs. maladaptive coping. I use these terms a fair bit, but I don't think I've ever actually explained them. One way of characterizing coping strategies is as being adaptive or maladaptive. Adaptive strategies make things easier… Continue reading What Is… Adaptive vs. Maladaptive Coping
In this series, I will dig a little deeper into the meaning of psychological terms. This week's term is resilience. In its most basic sense, resilience means rebounding or springing back. The American Psychological Association (APA) describes it as "the process of adapting well in the face of adversity, trauma, tragedy, threats, or significant sources… Continue reading What Is… Resilience
I got thinking about this after reading a post a while back by Cynni Pixy. Sometime's it's easy to assume self-care is just bath bombs and spa days. As lovely as they may be, they're just a small part of a much bigger picture. Let's start with a couple of definitions for self-care from Google… Continue reading Self-Care: More Than Just Bath Bombs
In this series, I dig a little deeper into the meaning of psychology-related terms. This week's term is autistic burnout. Autistic burnout is something I'd only heard of quite recently, and I was curious to learn more about it. It's a concept that's discussed a lot among autistic communities, but it hasn't been well researched.… Continue reading What Is… Autistic Burnout
In this series, I dig a little deeper into the meaning of psychology-related terms. This week's term is the shame compass. I first heard of the shame compass quite recently in a post by Zoe of Serious Mental Health. It was first described in 1992 by psychiatrist Donald Nathanson, and it identifies four different types of… Continue reading What Is… the Shame Compass
I don't currently do therapy and haven't had a lot of success with it in the past, but I'm very pro-therapy in general. I've picked up a collection of therapy tools from CBT, DBT, and various others that are handy to pull out of the toolbox as needed. This post is a sample of a… Continue reading Therapy Tools for Mental Health
Your Wellness Toolbox by Ali Swift is a follow-up to her first book, My Wellness Toolbox, which I previously reviewed. Both books are based on her own experience of what has helped with depression and anxiety. This book contains 14 new tools, including descriptions of the circumstances struggling with her mental health in which the… Continue reading Book Review: Your Wellness Toolbox
In this series, I dig a little deeper into the meaning of psychology-related terms. This week's term is the stress bucket model. I first heard of the term stress bucket several months ago in a post by Caz at Mental Health 360º, but it's been around for a while. It looks like it's best known in… Continue reading What Is… the Stress Bucket Model
In this emerging blogger post, LaDonna of Perspective on Trauma writes about looking within in the midst of the COVID-19 pandemic. WordPress Photo Library/Pexels.com It’s been a strange time for all of us over the last several months. As we “stay at home” or “shelter in place (no matter our political background or accompanying belief… Continue reading Unchartered: Looking Within During Unsettled Times (Guest Post)
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, depression… Continue reading Compensating for Depression Brain