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 »
Do antidepressants work? There’s a lot of stigma around psychiatric medications, and plenty of people would argue that no, antidepressants don’t work. There are also people, that argue that medication is life-saving. Those are personal experiences, but what does the research have to say? A recent paper published in the Lancet, and reported on in
Do Antidepressants Work Better Than Placebo? Read More »
It was spring of 2017, and my depression had gotten worse despite being on plenty of meds. I decided that I needed to add in other elements to my treatment plan. I’d had some bloodwork done that showed I had elevated levels of inflammation as measured by something called C-reactive protein. I decided to talk to
Can an Anti-inflammatory Diet Help with Mental Illness? Read More »
A little while back I was reading a blog post that talked about Dr. Elaine Aron’s book The Highly Sensitive Person (affiliate link). I thought huh, sounds like I’m probably one of those. So I picked up the book from the library and had a read. It got me thinking about trait, illness, and all
Emotionally Sensitive, But Not-So-Highly Sensitive Person Read More »
We work so hard on our mental health, but sometimes we can get knocked down by an unexpected source—prescription medication. Sure, we all know that some street drugs can adversely affect mental health, but there are also a number of prescription medications for conditions totally unrelated to mental health that can trigger psychiatric side effects,
Medications That Can Cause Psychiatric Side Effects Read More »
We’re regularly bombarded with news of the latest scientific research findings, and sometimes it seems like you can find a study to tell you just about anything. My concern with news reporting of research findings is that many people (including members of the media) have relatively limited research literacy. Research literacy refers to the ability
Research Literacy: Understanding Results of Clinical Trials Read More »
