The Overcoming Avoidance Workbook by psychologist Daniel F. Gros aims to help you stop avoiding and start living. It takes a transdiagnostic approach, meaning it focuses on specific behaviours rather than the diagnoses in which they occur. The cover says that it’s for anxiety, depression, or PTSD, but the focus is on anxiety and depression. […]
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Mental illness can certainly feel like it ages you, but is the combination of aging and mental illness something that’s visible from the outside? Does mental illness make you look older than you actually are? Changes over the years For a good chunk of my adult life, I looked youngish for my age. Not as
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In this series, I dig a little deeper into the meaning of psychology-related terms. This week’s term is histrionic personality disorder. Histrionic personality disorder (HPD) falls within the DSM-5‘s cluster B of dramatic/emotional/erratic personality disorders. The primary characteristic is a pathological level of need for attention. People with this disorder are often charming and enthusiastic,
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Britney Spears has been in the news recently after the New York Times released its documentary Framing Britney Spears. It’s on Hulu and FX, which I don’t have access to, so I haven’t watched it. Still, I wanted to talk about the concept of conservatorship in relation to mental illness, because Britney represents an unusual
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Perhaps there are things you want to do, or think you should do, but they’re just not happening. How hard do you push yourself to try to get ‘er done anyway? Do you keep trying even when it becomes clear there’s no way it’s going to happen? I can think of a few factors that
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Nobody’s Normal: How Culture Created the Stigma of Mental Illness is written by Roy Richard Grinker, an anthropology professor at The George Washington University. Autism and cross-cultural psychiatry are listed as areas of expertise on his faculty page. He’s the father of an autistic daughter, who he refers to a number of times throughout the
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People with mental illness can come up against stigmatized attitudes within mental health care, but having a mental illness diagnosis can also make it difficult to access appropriate care for physical health issues. A recent CBC News story provides an example of a man whose physical issues were written off because he was just a
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In this emerging blogger post, Burnie of Quash Stigma, Not Fat writes about persevering in eating disorder recovery. When the going gets tough in eating disorder recovery, you have to keep going. I’ve found myself doubting the recovery process many times, and when i’m in this place I return to my “why choose recovery” list.
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For anyone who needs to take medications for a chronic condition like mental illness, dealing with side effects may end up being part of the reality of taking meds. The pros should always be outweighing the cons, but the right balance can be hard to find. No side effects is possible All medications have potential
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Sadly, there are plenty of incompetent mental health professionals and other helpers out there. A degree, a professional designation, and other mental health credentials are indicators of a certain level of knowledge and skill; however, that doesn’t stop someone from having a bad attitude, having their head too far up their ass to do anything
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