A safe place to talk openly about mental health & illness
I Will Not Be My Mental Illness: Let's Recover Together by Karina Pommainville-Odell, a fellow blogger, is an invitation for the reader to join the author in working on a better life with mental illness. The book's tone is friendly and encouraging, and positive in a realistic rather than over the top way. Chapters are… Continue reading Book Review: I Will Not Be My Mental Illness
Winter Dragonflies wrote quite a while back about creating your peace. It made me think about the relationship between non-acceptance and suffering in the context of mental illness, and I started this draft that I've finally gotten around to writing. Mental illness isn't fun, that much is clear. How we relate to illness, wellness, and… Continue reading Non-Acceptance, Suffering, and Mental Illness
From Famine to Feast: My Thoughts About My Eating Disorder is the first book by K. Michelle Pahl, who you may know from her blog, From Famine to Feast – The Journey. The book includes her twelve most popular blog posts, and they were definitely popular for a reason. Together, they offer remarkable insights into… Continue reading Book Review: From Famine to Feast
Bottled Memories by David Ritter is a short book (40 pages) of poetry capturing both active addiction and the process of recovery. While the poems relate to his own experiences, there are themes many others will relate to, including the lure of "one more," "praying to the porcelain throne," and doing the walk of shame.… Continue reading Book Review: Bottled Memories
Action for Happiness I'm definitely not a fan of the whole toxic positivity business, and no, happiness is not a choice (or at least not always). But a while back I stumbled across the Action for Happiness website, and I like their style. I was looking through my journal and came across the 8 pillars… Continue reading Action for Happiness: More Than Just “Choose Happiness”
This post is by Burnie of Quash Stigma, Not Fat. Why you should keep going 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”… Continue reading Emerging Blogger Series: Burnie (Quash Stigma Not Fat)
My Beautiful Psychosis 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 of psychosis. When she… 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 this mental illness recoveyr quote (if, in fact, it is a quote from another source), but seems to have been around for a while. Anyway, I… 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
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