Building mental wellness on a foundation of strength
Do antidepressants increase the risk of suicide? There are certainly people out there who are very vocal in insisting that they do. However, as is so often the case, the loudmouths don't tend to be especially well informed. The FDA black box warning Since 2004, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has required a… Continue reading Antidepressants and Suicide Risk
Sometimes you'll hear people argue that doctors don't know how psych meds work, and therefore they shouldn't be used. However, there's a lack of clarity to these statements that, at least in my opinion, casts psychotropic meds in an unfair light. What is the mechanism of action? If we're going to about how medications work,… Continue reading Do We Know How Psych Meds Work?
It's week 19 of the Working On Us mental health prompt series over at Beckie's Mental Mess. Please visit her post for guidelines on participation. This week's prompt As I did last week, I am requesting bloggers to write a narrative by explaining how this disorder has affected your lifestyle and overall well-being. I also… Continue reading Working On Us Week 19: ADHD
Why? Whatever the issue might be, and whatever might be happening to us, we always want to know why. (Note: you can read a bit more about that in my post on attribution theory.) For people taking psychiatric medications for mental illness, there's often a lot going on in both mind and body, and it… Continue reading Do You Tend to Blame Your Mental Illness or Your Psych Meds?
Borderline personality disorder (BPD) is a hard to treat condition that can cause significant distress for those living with it. While the gold standard for treatment is psychotherapy, specifically dialectical behaviour therapy (DBT), medications may also play a supporting role, and that's what this post will focus on. Antidepressants Antidepressants, particularly SSRIs, are some of… Continue reading Do Medications Help Borderline Personality Disorder?
Your Mental Health and You is written by Sandy Pace, whose blog I've followed for some time. He has a degree in psychology, lives with ADHD, and has experienced addiction. The book covers various areas of your life and your thinking where you could make changes to promote better mental health. It's immediately clear how passionate… Continue reading Book Review: Your Mental Health and You
In Own It: Make Your Anxiety Work For You, Caroline Foran aims to help you change your relationship with anxiety so that rather than trying to avoid it you can own it. The book isn't preachy at all, and feels like a chat with a good friend. The author takes a no-bullshit tone, and assures… Continue reading Book Review: Own It
Depression and Medications The emerging blogger series is a way to give mental health bloggers who are early in their blogging evolution the opportunity to have their work seen by a wider audience. It's also a way to introduce you as a reader to some new bloggers you may not have discovered yet. To start… Continue reading Emerging Blogger Series: Brenda
In many countries, direct to consumer advertising (DTCA) of prescription drugs is either prohibited or tightly restricted. The United States is a notable exception, along with New Zealand. For tv ads, the standard pattern is to talk about the illness, talk about the amazing benefits of the drug, and then provide the required long list… Continue reading Prescription Drugs and Direct to Consumer Advertising
Mediamodifier on Pixabay I recently watched the documentary Letters From Generation Rx on Amazon Prime, which looked at instances of people experiencing significant side effects while on psychiatric medication, including people who took the lives of either themselves or others while on psychiatric meds. One man featured in the film was a Canadian Member of… Continue reading Generation Rx – Weighing Medication Risks & Benefits