Recently, I was talking with someone on Twitter and she was concerned about the side effects of psychiatric medication X. I asked her what her starting dose was for the psych medication and she said 15 mg. Now, I’m not a doctor, but I can tell you two things: That is ridiculous. That will certainly make the patient stop the medication early due to side effects and never even find out if it works.

I'm not sure, are you? Ask yourself the loaded question: "I have a mental illness. Am I really sick?" When I ask myself this question my mind conjures up this: "No, sometimes life just gets a bit tough, but doesn't it for us all?" And then my inner psyche rambles on about how the disease of mental illness, the 'sick' part of it, is nothing like, say, a broken leg or bout of pneumonia. But that's not the point.

Self-esteem boosters are a good way to begin your journey to building or improving your self-esteem. When you are feeling insecure, nervous, or lacking confidence and self-esteem in a situation, your body language reflects it. Remember the first day of school when you were growing up? Were the confident kids the ones looking down at their shoes, mumbling, and standing shrugging their shoulders? No, they were the ones who were smiling at you, inviting you to sit with them at lunch, and walking around the halls with a purpose. Think about how this plays out in adulthood. Do you walk around like the shy kid who gets pushed around in a crowded cafeteria, or the self-assured, student who has no problem raising her hand in class and making new friends?

Hi! I’m Andrew Foell, barely 40 and diagnosed with adult ADHD in my early thirties. I prefer to be called Drew. Somewhat characteristic of many people with adult ADHD, I refer to myself as a “jack of all trades and master of some.” That segues into some of my credentials: I earned a Master of Arts in Instruction in the late nineties and have taught secondary English and developmental English—a supplementary class for students with ADHD and other diagnoses. Currently, I work as a literacy tutor, again serving similar populations. I am a member of our district-wide PBIS (positive behavior interventions and supports) implementation team, and I believe strongly in early intervention. Research and writing are personal passions as are mental health and mental health advocacy.

Savvy marketers everywhere understand that branding is an essential element of market domination, sustained growth, and “share of mind”. Put simply, your brand is your customer’s opinion of you, a complete set of assumptions which influence every interaction.

Sometimes we feel as if we're getting worse instead of better. Sometimes we feel as if we're in more pain, not less. This is due to emotional thawing.

Schizophrenia, as horrifying as it may be, gave me a glimpse into alternate realities and showed me another world that defies and transcends the physical world in which we live. Before contracting the illness, I considered myself to be a man of science, rationality, and skepticism. My training and education within the sciences demanded it. It was during these studies that I became entrapped in my first psychotic fantasy.

Worry can have our anxiety all up and out of control, and worry never helped one person. Last week I posted a vlog: Love and Fear, The Only Two Emotions.  Today's vlog picks up on that theme and lets us know how to love someone rather than worry about them.

Something triggers a bad day. A poor night’s sleep. Receiving bad news. Stress at work. Relationship worries. It could be anything. We would hope that if we are going to be upset, it would stick to that one trigger and we can figure it out and get over it. But it doesn’t work that way, does it? Depression is a sneaky little monster that whispers negative, depressing thoughts in your ear, feeding and fueling itself, and pretty soon you are not just thinking about what triggered you, you are spiraling, going round and round in your head about every other thing that has ever gone wrong in your life. Depression Monster wins again.

“Medication levels the neurobiological playing field.” Biederman, J., & Spencer, T. (2002) After receiving a diagnosis of adult ADHD, the most commonly asked questions people have are around ADHD medications. Despite the fact that we have been using the same psycho stimulants to treat ADHD for over 60 years, and have studied them over and over again for effectiveness, short term and long term side effects and contraindications, doubt remains. In order to help provide some answers, dispel some myths and help people stay at choice around their ADHD treatment options, here is a synopsis on three of the top questions and their answers around ADHD medication.