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 Savannah of … Continue reading Emerging Blogger Series: Savannah
I've read and reviewed some great books written by members of our blogging community, so I wanted to share them with you again in a nutshell version. Click the book covers to be taken to my full reviews. This week we have Sandy of F*ck Stigma, Mathew of Blog of the Wolf Boy and Janet of … Continue reading Blogger Book Reviews in a Nutshell: Sandy, Mathew, Janet
Just to get things started, I will say that I am "mentally ill", I "suffer from" depression, and I'm a little bit "crazy", although the degree varies over time. Now that we've got that out of the way, there are a lot of people who like to take a stand against language that is thought … Continue reading “Rules” for Talking About Mental Illness
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
Sometimes as part of anti-stigma campaigns you'll hear rules that we shouldn't say people are bipolar, schizophrenic, etc. The thinking goes that phrasing it this way puts people in a little box in which they are primarily (or only) defined by their illness. Yet at the same time, you'll find many bloggers referring to themselves … Continue reading Are You Your Illness?
Today is World Mental Health Day (the 27th annual), and this year's focus is on mental health promotion and suicide prevention. The message from the president of the World Federation for Mental Health, which organizes World Mental Health Day, states: "The object of making suicide prevention the theme of World Mental Health Day in 2019 is … Continue reading It’s World Mental Health Day
The idea of labelling people as attention-seeking is not unique to mental illness, but it's certainly something that seems to come up an awful lot. The labellers might be friends and family, but unfortunately, they may also be health care providers. I work as a nurse at a mental health and addictions facility. One of … Continue reading The “Attention-Seeking” Label and the Attitude it Reflects
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 Lacey of … Continue reading Emerging Blogger Series: Lacey
"Drug-seeking". "Med-seeking". They're labels with very negative connotations that are often tossed around quite freely when it comes to medications with the potential for abuse. They tend to be applied most readily to people take pain medications or psychiatric medications. The notion of people being drug-seeking is heavily laden with judgment and stigma. After all, … Continue reading No, We’re Not “Drug-seeking”
The Universal Declaration of Human Rights was proclaimed by the United Nations in 1948. I thought it might be interesting to take a look at some of the articles contained in it from the perspective of someone with mental illness, and throw in some assorted other observations as well. Text in italic font is the actual … Continue reading Human Rights and Mental Illness
The concept of intersectionality was first proposed in 1989 by black feminist researcher Kimberlé Williams Crenshaw to represent the many different layers of social stratification that can combine to disadvantage people. This includes factors like race, sexual orientation, social class, age, disability, and gender. Expanding on this concept, sociologist Patricia Hill Collins described the intersectional points … Continue reading Intersectionality and what it means for mental health
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 Tshidi of … Continue reading Emerging Blogger Series: Tshidi
NIMBYism is a fascinating phenomenon. NIMBYs, or people think that something is okay just as long as it's Not In My BackYard, cover discrimination with a thin veneer of civility and acceptability. Among the many manifestations of this is with regards to social housing, including supported housing for people with mental illness. NIMBYs' arguments may … Continue reading NIMBYism and mental health housing
It's time for another week of Working On Us, a series of mental health prompts from Beckie at Beckie's Mental Mess. Please see her post for more details. Prompt #1 – Questions: How do you deal with the Stigma surrounding your mental disorder/illness? The stigma that I've experienced has come in spurts rather than … Continue reading Working on us – mental health prompt
While there is debate over the roles of biological susceptibility and psychosocial factors in triggering the onset of mental illness, it's also worth giving some thought to how the illness experience is shaped by social factors vs. biologically-based symptoms. Once we are ill, we experience symptoms that are influenced by neurophysiological processes, regardless of whether … Continue reading The Social and Biological Factors in Mental Illness