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Last night, I was on a bipolar discussion panel. People had a chance to write in questions and one of the questions we were asked was, "what is the best bipolar treatment."
Parents and environment impact the development of eating disorders. #EDA2014 become aware of how you can prevent eating disorders in your child.
My name is Erin, I’m 29-years-old, and depression is as much a part of me as my bones and organs. I’ve felt depressed my entire life, but until I finally reached out for help at the age of sixteen, I didn’t realize that I had an illness at all. I thought life was just extremely painful but that I felt pain deeper than most. I felt like I was terrible at coping with things everyone else found to be so easy. I felt bad and wrong and hopeless.
In a surprise move certain to send shockwaves through both sporting and psychiatric communities, the American Whackadoomious Association (AWA) has declared it no longer recognizes ice fishing as a sport and has officially designated it a form of mental illness.
In a press release carefully timed to coincide with closing ceremonies at the Sochi Winter Olympics, AWA Sports Awareness Director, Quimby Entwhistle, announced, “The AWA could no longer sit idly by and pretend that ice fishing is a sport in any way, shape, or form. You might say it became our elephant in the room, and the room was sitting on a frozen lake riddled with ever-widening cracks.
A secret is usually not healthy. But keeping a secret about your self-harm can be downright deadly. Today's the day I tell my story of self-harm.
When it comes to depression treatment, is outpatient treatment or an inpatient depression treatment program best for you? That depends. Once a person has been diagnosed with depression, his or her doctor should discuss the best options for care based upon type and severity of depression symptoms. Whatever care is prescribed, however, it’s vital for people to understand that there are no quick fixes for depression. It takes time to find the level of care that works best for each person. In fact, it’s not unusual to try a number of different levels of care in order to treat depression effectively.
There are a lot of things to do in the mix of healing the symptoms of posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD). Some treatments for PTSD require lots of time, money, support and attention. Those are the "big" moments of recovery that we research, save or borrow for, and place a whole lot of hope in the results we expect.
Balancing out all of the necessary big gestures in healing, however, are the small, free, solo actions we take when we're all alone. One of those options is a little thing called a meditation practice which you hear talked about all the time, but probably just as often don't commit to doing faithfully every day.
“Oh, she’s so bipolar.”
You’ve probably heard someone say this about someone they don’t like. You’ve probably heard someone use the term “bipolar” as an insult. It’s sort of in from a pop culture standpoint.
And while I don’t believe in taking offense when someone uses a term like “crazy” in a non-hurtful way, I certainly do take offense when someone uses a genuine illness and slings it like mud.
And while I’m perfectly capable of understanding that the person who said it is simply ignorant and it should have no effect on me, the fact is, hearing your illness being used as an insult is hurtful and it is hurtful to your self-esteem.
There's a rumor going around that my payee was fired because he was pocketing the money from his clients' Social Security checks. The results have not been pretty. Trust between staff and clients is on the skids, and people are borderline paranoid of losing more money. When someone asked, "Why do they take advantage of mentally ill people like that?", my friend Michael replied, "Because they can." It made me think about what happens when people with mental illness have encounters with the criminal justice system.
Not a day goes by without me feeling grateful about being able to share with you on this blog my lived experience with an eating disorder. The concept of giving back to others who stand where I once stood makes me very happy and truly helps me maintain my recovery.
I believe she will only be able to rid herself of her demons, and hopefully her BPD as well, when she's ready to confront the abuse of her father. If she can put the blame where it belongs, she may stop projecting that victim/perpetrator cycle on the present men in her life. These demons are a metaphor for the purgatory she has created for herself. That reality has consequences in the real world, but it need not be real in the tangible sense. Exorcising her demons will require the expenditure of real physical energy and probably the destruction of aspects of her personality. If this ever happens, and it's possible but not probable, then these demons will evaporate. They are only as real as one's personality is real. In short, reality is not the question, it's what you make of the things you feel to be real.