A safe place to talk openly about mental health & illness
In this series, I dig a little deeper into the meaning of psychology-related terms. This week's term is Internal Family Systems therapy. Internal Family Systems (IFS) therapy is a type of psychotherapeutic approach that's based on the idea that the mind is naturally multiple, and we all have a system of parts. It's often used… Continue reading What Is… Internal Family Systems Therapy
ion In this series, I dig a little deeper into the meaning of psychology-related terms. This week's term is self-verification theory. Self-verification theory comes from social psychology, and it says that we want other people to see us the way we see ourselves. That might seem self-obvious, but what's interesting is that this applies even… Continue reading What Is… Self-Verification Theory
Here are a few things you may or may not already know about me. My first guinea pig Ghanoush and her sister Baba were my very first guinea pigs. I got them from a pet store, since I was too clueless at that point to think of going to an animal shelter. The pet store… Continue reading A Few Random Things About Me
I did my first big international trip (aside from a high school exchange trip to Japan) when I was 22, and that was when the travel bug firmly took root. From then on, each year I would take all my vacation time together in one block and do an international trip, other than the years… Continue reading This Was Me: My Travelling 20s & 30s
I've written about this before in more general terms (What Does the Self Consist of?), but in this post I'll try to get a little more specific. When dig down deep to the core, what is it that makes you, you? I think a major part of the foundation of who we are is the… Continue reading A Question of Identity: What Makes You, You?
Failure isn't fun. There's just no two ways about that. But what does that failure mean? I think that, particularly when mental illness is involved, it's easy to leap from "I failed at [X]" to "I'm a failure." But taking a step back, they're not really the same thing. Fear of failure Fear of failure… Continue reading Are You a Failure at a Task, or as a Person?
What is it that makes you, you? Is there even a self? Let's consider a few different approaches. Buddhism A fundamental concept in Buddhism is non-self. The word Anatta is used for the principle that "there is in humans no permanent, underlying substance that can be called the soul" (Wikipedia). The belief that there is… Continue reading What Does the Self Consist of?
I ask this question in this post's title because I know for some people their illness struck at a relatively young age, or there were always hints of what was to come even if the full-blown illness didn't hit until later. It wasn't like that for me. My first episode of depression didn't start until… Continue reading Were You Always Depressed or Anxious?