I can’t think of any other type of health condition that has such polarized relationships with medications as mental illness. In some ways, to medicate or not to medicate has become a moral issue, with various involved parties taking a stance based on principle. Often, this stance is very broad, making sweeping generalizations. Public misconceptions […]
Our Complicated Relationships with Psychiatric Medications Read More »
The language people use when it comes to mental health matters. A lot of words are tossed around to describe who we are and what we experience, and in this post, I’ll consider some of the issues around labelling and mental illness and whether certain words are helpful or harmful. Role identities We all have
What’s in a Name? Labelling and Mental Illness Read More »
In A Series of Unfortunate Stereotypes: Naming and Shaming Mental Health Stigmas, author Lucy Nichol invites us to join her in breaking down stereotypes until we’re ready to say “Stigma? What a load of old shit!” I loved the no-BS tone, with expletives liberally strewn throughout (any time an f-bomb is dropped by page 7,
Book Review: A Series of Unfortunate Stereotypes Read More »
Talking about mental health is important, and getting conversations going about what mental illness really is requires opening up. Here are some ideas of places where you can share your mental health story on either an unpaid or paid basis. While sharing your story may seem daunting initially, it’s a really important way to work
Way to Share Your Mental Health Story Read More »
Sigh. This again? I’ve written before about documentaries that stigmatize psychiatric medications (A Prescription For Murder and The Age of Anxety). Now Netflix has released Take Your Pills, which looks at the use of stimulant medications for mental performance enhancement. I started watching this documentary and gave up in disgust. But after I read a
Take Your Pills: Netflix and Stigma Read More »
One of the ways that I try to fight misinformation and stigma around mental illness is by answering questions on Quora.com. For anyone who’s not familiar with it, Quora is a sort of free-for-all where anyone can ask or answer questions on any topic under the sun. Some of the questions are blatantly absurd, but
Gems of Ignorance & Mental Illness Stigma from Quora Read More »
Mental illness stigma comes from many places and in many forms. Stigma often invalidates the experience of those of us with mental illness. One way this can happen is by pathologizing normal human experiences. By this, I mean inflating the significance of “normal” emotions and minimizing the significance of mental illness to make it seems
Mental Illness Stigma and Pathologizing Normal Experiences Read More »
I have always been a big fan of the documentary program The Passionate Eye on CBC, Canada’s public broadcaster. Until now. On January 6, 2018, they aired “A Prescription for Murder?“, which was originally shown on the BBC. The program focused on James Holmes, the young man who shot and killed 12 people and injured 70
A Prescription For Murder? Read More »
How do issues like paternalism vs. autonomy affect the experience of being hospitalized on the psych ward?
Postcards from the Loony Bin Read More »
Let’s think about the phrases “it’s just anxiety” and “it’s all in your head”. Let’s unpack them and consider them in terms of what we know about the brain and the body.
“It’s All In Your Head”: Physical Symptoms and Mental Illness Read More »
