Building mental wellness on a foundation of strength
I mentioned in a recent weekend wrap-up that this was coming, and now it's here. As of today, I’m officially not a nurse any more. This isn't an abrupt transition by any means. I've known this was coming for a while now, and I’ve already been through a shuffling of role identities. My nurse identity… Continue reading An Identity Milestone: No Longer a Nurse
A recent post by Shira of ShiraDest about debt forgiveness got me thinking about some of the barriers that people living in poverty face when it comes to managing their finances. So, let's consider what it might look like to be living in poverty here in British Columbia, Canada, where I live. Provincial income assistance… Continue reading Poverty Can Be Very Expensive
I don't have the economics background to speak to the feasibility of universal basic income, so I won't try; however, after a conversation on the topic with Shira of ShiraDest, I wanted to explore the potential benefits for people with mental illness. What universal basic income is While various implementations have been proposed, at its… Continue reading Universal Basic Income: Benefits for People with Mental Illness
In this series, I dig a little deeper into the meaning of psychology-related terms. This week's term is the euphemism treadmill. Psychologist and linguist Stephen Pinker coined the term euphemism treadmill in a 1994 article in the New York Times. It refers to a process by which words that are used as a euphemism for… Continue reading What Is… the Euphemism Treadmill
The last time I worked a shift as a nurse was in November 2019. Since then, I've been unable to work because of my depression, and specifically because of psychomotor retardation. I didn't want to apply for disability until it got to the point that I was quite sure I wasn't going to be able… Continue reading Adventures Applying for Disability
Recently, I came across a post that was a myths vs. facts type deal on mental illness stigma. One of the myths identified was that people with mental illness are disabled. The blogger's response was that, on some days, mental illness could make it harder to work for some people, but there are also people… Continue reading Is It Helpful to Sanitize Mental Illness?
While doing some research for my upcoming book on stigma, I came across a 2004 discussion paper on Stigma and Work. It was written by Heather Stuart, a public health faculty member at Queen's University in Canada. It quickly became clear that the author's PhD in epidemiology didn't prevent her from having some strange attitudes… Continue reading Attitudes About Mental Illness That Make You Go Hmm…
I've never been a big social media person. Before I started blogging, I briefly had a Facebook account, but that didn't last long. Once I started blogging, I created accounts on Pinterest and Twitter. I started a new Facebook account, but deleted that pretty quickly because I just don't like Facebook. Last year, I created… Continue reading Depression and My Cooling Relationship with Social Media
You hear quite a bit about mental health recovery, but what does that actually entail? An Australian National Standards for Mental Health Services document from 2010 defines recovery as: ... gaining and retaining hope, understanding of ones abilities and disabilities, engagement in an active life, personal autonomy, social identity, meaning and purpose in life, and… Continue reading The Moving Target of Recovery
While I know that people tend to be somewhat skeptical of statistics, I thought it would still be interesting to explore some of the stats that are out there related to mental illness. Centre for Addiction and Mental Health (CAMH) These figures come from CAMH in Toronto, Canada, on their Facts and statistics page. Mental… Continue reading Some Statistics on Mental Illness Disability and Stigma
