The first time I ever heard of ayahuasca was when I was travelling to Peru and my brother asked if I was going to use it. After looking it up, I dismissed it as one of his cockamamie ideas (btw I love the word cockamamie). But I’ve heard more about ayahuasca since then, and I’ve […]
Does Ayahuasca Have a Role in Mental Health? Read More »
Here are some great #TEDTalks related to #depression and #preventsuicide
TED Talks on Depression Read More »
Talking about mental health is important, and getting conversations going about what mental illness really is requires opening up. Here are some ideas of places where you can share your mental health story on either an unpaid or paid basis. While sharing your story may seem daunting initially, it’s a really important way to work
Way to Share Your Mental Health Story Read More »
Sigh. This again? I’ve written before about documentaries that stigmatize psychiatric medications (A Prescription For Murder and The Age of Anxety). Now Netflix has released Take Your Pills, which looks at the use of stimulant medications for mental performance enhancement. I started watching this documentary and gave up in disgust. But after I read a
Take Your Pills: Netflix and Stigma Read More »
In the last few years, I’ve had some traumatic experiences that had a significant impact on my life overall. In terms of how I conceptualize trauma responses, what matters the most is how the mind/brain processes the trauma. That processing can range from adaptive to disordered (i.e. PTSD). While I don’t have PTSD, I still
Creating a Trauma Account Read More »
Mindfulness for Bipolar Disorder by Dr. William R. Marchand lays out specific areas for mindfulness practices that be useful in managing bipolar disorder symptoms. Much of the book would also be applicable to other mood disorders. I believe mindfulness can be a really helpful thing to incorporate into one’s life; however, along with the good stuff
Book Review: Mindfulness For Bipolar Disorder Read More »
We’ve all heard of the “chemical imbalance” explanation for mental illness, and in particular, depression. While this term has supported the argument that mental illness is actually an illness, it’s also a gross simplification of mental illness in terms of what’s actually going on in the brain. I wonder if perhaps this terminology is no
Is Chemical Imbalance a Useful Simplification of Mental Illness? Read More »
One of the ways that I try to fight misinformation and stigma around mental illness is by answering questions on Quora.com. For anyone who’s not familiar with it, Quora is a sort of free-for-all where anyone can ask or answer questions on any topic under the sun. Some of the questions are blatantly absurd, but
Gems of Ignorance & Mental Illness Stigma from Quora Read More »
Mental illness stigma comes from many places and in many forms. Stigma often invalidates the experience of those of us with mental illness. One way this can happen is by pathologizing normal human experiences. By this, I mean inflating the significance of “normal” emotions and minimizing the significance of mental illness to make it seems
Mental Illness Stigma and Pathologizing Normal Experiences Read More »
The Book of Joy: Finding Happiness in a Changing World is the product of a week-long series of discussions between His Holiness the Dalai Lama and Archbishop Desmond Tutu. The meetings were held at the Dalai Lama’s residence-in-exile in Dharamsala, India. Much of the book is presented as a dialogue between the Dalai Lama and
Book Review: The Book of Joy Read More »
