Building mental wellness on a foundation of strength
Image by Michel Müller from Pixabay 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… 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 a… 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 Surprising Mental Illness Statistics
Anecdotes on Volunteering is a short book written by Mio Angelo of Mentally Ill in America that looks at how schizoaffective disorder has interfered with his desire to volunteer or work. The anecdotes are in relation to volunteering rather than stories of volunteer experience. At one point, Mio describes the book as one big therapy… Continue reading Book Review: Anecdotes on Volunteering
Caz of Mental Health 360º is the first person to be featured in the wounded healer interview series, featuring people with significant mental health challenges who also work in a mental health helping role with others. Tell us a bit about you, the helping field you’re in, and the mental health challenges you’ve faced. I… Continue reading Wounded Healers: Caz
I've seen ableism being mentioned on Twitter a number of times lately, and aside from the obvious meaning, it wasn't a concept I was all that familiar with in a mental health context. This post will explore what ableism means for psychiatric disabilities. An article on the Center for Disability Rights website describes ableism this… Continue reading Ableism: The Assumptions People Make About Ability (and Disability)
Image by Hannah Edgman from Pixabay With all the craziness going on in the world, elections have been on a lot of people's minds lately. The other day I started watching Chelsea Handler's new documentary special on Netflix called Hello, Privilege. It's Me, Chelsea. One of the things it touched on was voter suppression through rules around voter… Continue reading Voter ID Laws as a Form of Voter Suppression
Canadian Office of the Ombudsman for Mental Health Employers aren't supposed to discriminate against people with mental illness. In fact, it's often against the law. Yet employment discrimination happens, so what do we do about it when it does? Canadian human rights legislation In Canada, provincial human rights legislation requires equal rights and opportunities for… Continue reading Mental Illness and Employment Discrimination
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 Christopher G.… Continue reading Emerging Blogger Series: Christopher
Mental illness makes it very easy to focus our attention on what we can't do rather than what we can do. I also tend to disqualify (at least in relative terms) what I can do and place greater importance on what I can't. Many of my cans revolve around blogging and writing. Blogging and other… Continue reading What I can and can’t do