Blogs
Abuse affects our foundational thoughts - the ideas of who we are, what we're doing, why we believe what we believe. Manipulative abusers use every weapon against us - mental, emotional, physical - and leave us bleeding our souls onto the floors of our own homes. The damage can be so horrendous that when the abuser is no where to be seen or heard, the injury continues to grow, not to heal.
No where in this world is safe when your abuser's words run laps in your head, circling and creating negative thoughts. Abuse kills from a distance too.
Kate White writes about what living with anxiety is like. Natasha Tracy shares her experiences with bipolar disorder. New HealthyPlace blogger Jack Smith writes about life with depression. And last year Rachel McCarthy James joined us on the HealthyPlace Mental Health TV Show to discuss what living with OCD is like for her. But Craig Ludvigsen can tell us what it's like to have all of those disorders. It's called psychiatric comorbidity - the presence of more than one mental illness in one individual at the same time - and it can be incapacitating.
“ Half of the troubles of this life can be traced to saying yes too quickly and not saying no soon enough.” ~Josh Billings
Sometimes I feel immense pressure to do things I don’t want to do. Other people’s priorities end up being my priorities and then I wonder why I struggle with feeling overwhelmed. For some reason, there seems to be many things I should do. Or things I should want to do. Or things other people expect me to do…in addition to what I already have to do or want to do. Whether it’s because I want to be liked, seen as competent, like to have many interesting projects going at one time, or simply because I said “no” last time, there is tremendous pressure to give into other people’s requests, and say “yes”.
"I’m mad about sanity and wild about good manners." Taz Mopula
These are wonderful days to be whackadoomius! Awareness of mental health issues is at an all-time high, and those of us troubled by unruly squirrels have a cornucopia of resources to draw upon.
But it was not always thus. Medical care specifically targeted towards mental health is a relatively recent phenomenon, and while we all understand our indebtedness to giants like Carl Jung and Oprah Winfrey, lesser lights responsible for pushing the discipline forward are often overlooked.
Doctor Zick Meind Pfrawed is one of these unjustly slighted geniuses. Fortunately, a recent surge of interest in this complex, daring man has revealed that his contribution to the field of psychoanalysis is far greater than originally thought.
(Continued from Part 1 and Part 2)
I suppose for the past five years, I've been living in my little suburban cave, sheltered by Bob's elementary school and our middle-class neighborhood. I hadn't realized just how great a gap exists within our school district, or how many children like Bob are getting trapped in that gap.
Especially in the beginning, when a family is dealing with a loved one's mental illness, it's easy to become embroiled in the emotion of it all. In this television interview, I discuss the 5 points to remember about mental illness in the family.
This week, I want to share a poem with you that was sent to me by a client. Although she and I have been working together for only a short time, she has learned so much and is changing her life. It is truly an honor and privilege to help her finally understand her ADHD brain style, begin to feel more in control of the chaos, experience confidence and finally get things done.
My client is an outstanding individual who has struggled all her life with ADHD and didn’t realize why she felt so different and out of place. She is an intelligent, creative and determined woman who would not give up trying to find the answers to her challenges and as an adult with ADHD, is just now coming out of her shell to experience her own potential, gifts and strengths.
I’m an independent contractor. This means I sit in front of a computer screen, working at home, alone and writing all day. While this is the dream for many a writer, I can tell you it gets lonely. It’s tough not having work in an office where there are coworkers to chat with at the water cooler.
And this lack of socializing is particularly salient because I have bipolar disorder. I have a tendency to cocoon anyway, and then you take away the day-to-day interactions with people and I suddenly find that I haven’t talked to a person in real life in a week.
So I have to schedule in a personal life – whether I want to or not.
I usually choose a specific topic for these blogs and work to describe the importance of managing and accepting mental illness. Last week, I wrote a blog focusing on recovering from and recognizing depression. This week, based on my life currently, I want to talk about stress and the impact it has on those who live with mental illness. I am really struggling with this right now.
Finding the right ADHD medication is just like finding the right medication for any illness: your clinician evaluates your symptoms, administers diagnostic tests, and prescribes a medication; you take the medication and report side effects and changes to your ADHD symptoms. Together, you and your clinician work to gradually find the right balance. It can take weeks, months, even years. But what if the process was more efficient?
My point being, I'm right there with you. I hate the rollercoaster. I just want to live life without being in a state of constant fight or flight mode, only for his character to change and de-escalate and I fall for the person I fell for all over again.
Exhausting is a horrible word. The understatement of all understatements, if you will.
I wish there were better support groups for this kind of mental health condition.