Mental Illness

Prescription for Murder documentary screenshot

A Prescription For Murder?

I have always been a big fan of the documentary program The Passionate Eye on CBC, Canada’s public broadcaster. Until now. On January 6, 2018, they aired “A Prescription for Murder?“, which was originally shown on the BBC. The program focused on James Holmes, the young man who shot and killed 12 people and injured 70 …

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I'm Actually Getting Stupider: Cognitive symptoms of depression

The THINC-it Test for Cognitive Symptoms of Depression

Despite what the title might suggest, this post isn’t about me being self-critical. I’ve been struggling for months with cognitive symptoms of depression, and on a daily basis I notice that it impairs my overall functioning. But it’s not something I’ve ever had much of an objective sense of, until I tried the THINC-it test. …

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Psych Meds 101 series: Anti-anxiety meds, antidepressants, mood stabilizers, antipsychotics, and sleep meds

Psych Meds 101: Medications for Sleep

The Psych Meds 101 series on my perspective as a mental health nurse, former pharmacist, and person with depression. This final post in the series focuses on sleep meds. While some of these meds are primarily for sleep, many have other uses as well. The choice of medication for any given person will be based …

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Feeling Like a Stranger in My Own Family

I never would have thought that I would feel like a stranger in my own family. Depression changed everything, though. The present story I spent Christmas with my family this year. It was a small gathering – just my parents, my brother, his fiancee, and me. Except it didn’t feel small; it seemed like there …

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Mental Health @ Home book review: Birth of a New Brain

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 …

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