Building mental wellness on a foundation of strength
My Beautiful Psychosis: Making Sense of Madness by Emma Goude is a gripping, up close and personal look at what it's actually like to experience psychosis. The author's honesty and complete openness quickly shatter any stereotypes of psychosis being frightening and dangerous. The book begins with the events leading up to the author's first episode… Continue reading Book Review: My Beautiful Psychosis
HealthyPlace "Mental illness is not a choice, but recovery is." While this image floating around on Pinterest originated with Healthy Place, I couldn't figure out the original source of the quote (if, in fact, it is a quote from another source), but seems to have been around for a while. Anyway, I don't really agree,… Continue reading Is Mental Illness Recovery a Choice?
My Heart's Song: Emotional Musings 3 is a book of poetry by Maria Pratico, who you may know from her blog Emotional Musings. She explains in the introduction that after a messy divorce, she realized that her purpose was to use her own experiences to help others heal. She describes the poems in the book… Continue reading Book Review: My Heart’s Song
The emerging blogger series is aimed at community building through giving 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 newer members of our community. This post is by Jodie of… Continue reading Emerging Blogger Series: Jodie – A Prisoner By No Crime of My Own
As members of the blogging community, we're already experiencing a form of peer support and seeing the benefits of it. It also exists in a more formal sense, with trained peer support workers (PSWs) forming part of health care teams. I wanted to explore that a little bit here. What peer support is The Mental… Continue reading The Role of Peer Support in Mental Health
The wounded healer interview series features people who've dealt with significant mental health challenges, and who also work in a helping role to support the mental health of others. This interview is with Maria Teresa Pratico Swanson of Emotional Musings. © Maria Teresa Pratico Swanson 1) Tell us a bit about you, the helping field… Continue reading Wounded Healer Interviews: Maria (Emotional Musings)
The emerging blogger series is aimed at community building through giving 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 newer members of our community. This post is by Shanon of… Continue reading Emerging Blogger Series: Shanon (Surviving Childhood Trauma)
Shame Ate My Soul is Susan Walz's personal story of rising above stigma, suicide attempts, addiction, and misdiagnosis, and eventually finding recovery. I've known Sue, who blogs at My Loud Whispers of Hope, since the beginning of my blogging journey. The book opens with a heartbreaking conversation with 2 of her 3 children, as they… Continue reading Book Review: Shame Ate My Soul
You hear quite a bit about mental health recovery, but what does that actually entail? An Australian National Standards for Mental Health Services document from 2010 defines recovery as: "gaining and retaining hope, understanding of ones abilities and disabilities, engagement in an active life, personal autonomy, social identity, meaning and purpose in life, and a… Continue reading The Moving Target of Recovery
My Bipolar Mind: Surviving the Chaos is by Samantha Steiner, who you may know from her blog My Bipolar Mind. This is her second book, and both are memoirs in the form of compiled blog posts. This book is based on 2018, and is laid out in chronological order. The book covers Samantha's struggles with… Continue reading Book Review: My Bipolar Mind: Surviving the Chaos