Rising from the Ashes of Depression
Sometimes it’s nice to have a visual reminder of our own strength and resilience
Mental Health
Book Review: Birth of a New Brain
Birth of a New Brain chronicles author Dyane Harwood’s journey with postpartum onset bipolar disorder. The story’s rich, vivid descriptions draw the reader along on the intense roller coaster ride of the author’s illness experience. Many elements of her story will be hauntingly familiar to those whose lives have been touched in some way by bipolar …
Postcards from the Loony Bin
How do issues like paternalism vs. autonomy affect the experience of being hospitalized on the psych ward?
Depression – When Taking a Shower Is Like Climbing a Mountain
Sometimes mental illness means you have to reframe the goals you set for yourself
Psych Meds 101: Antidepressants
It can be really useful to understand how medications work, as it can make both the therapeutic effects and side effects make more sense. As a mental health nurse, former pharmacist, and psych med-taker, this is a major area of interest for me. This is the first of a series of psych meds 101 posts …
Let’s Talk About Sex (& Mental Illness)
What do mental illness and sex have to do with each other? Quite a bit, actually, both in terms of the illness itself and the medications to treat it.
Do I Look Fat in this Seroquel? Psych Meds & Weight Gain
Society is obsessed with how we look, and in particular what size we are. Even people who are generally quite polite feel entitled to comment on our weight and body shape, without having any idea what the backstory might be. In the case of mental illness, there is often a great deal of backstory.