One of the casualties of mental illness is often any kind of healthy social interaction. If we aren't careful, we can end up in a vortex of loneliness that serves only to make us feel worse about our mental health and cause our condition to deteriorate. Why do we, as people with mental illness, isolate ourselves?

My cat is 16 years old; that is 80 years old in human years. And while he could still be with us for years to come (hopefully), kitties, like humans, don’t live forever. And, quite frankly, when he goes, I’m going to lose it. Lose all my marbles – bipolar or otherwise. He’s been with me longer than any human. He’s who I’ve come to home to for a decade and a half. His daily rhythms synch with mine (or mine with his, you know, because he’s the boss). He means a whole lot to me. So I’m preparing for his death. I don’t know when it will happen, but one day, he just isn’t going to wake up.

I once remarked that 90 percent of the cases on Judge Judy could be avoided by remembering proverbs such as: "If it sounds too good to be true, it probably is." An Arabic proverb says: "Proverbs are the light of speech." Proverbs are important even when it comes to mental health treatment. Here are three sayings that mental health professionals would do well to remember.

The decision to medicate your child for a mental illness is often an agonizing one. Many parents that I work with struggle to find the balance between dealing with their child's behaviors themselves and letting someone help them. Medicating a child is not the easiest decision to make for some parents while for others it is the easiest thing to do. As a parent who does choose to medicate my child, I have to say that medication in and of itself, does not resolve behavior issues. Yes, medication does help, but I believe it to be a last resort option. Below are descriptions of some of the parents I've worked with. So would you choose to medicate or not to medicate your child for a mental illness?

The St. Patrick’s Day hype may be coming to an end, but we all know we will still see leprechaun decorations and Shamrock Shakes for another few weeks. Soon, we will see stuffed bunnies and Reese’s eggs covering the shelves even though Easter is not just around the corner. However, as you pass those four-leaf clover t-shirts on the clearance shelves, stop for a moment and think about your life. Don’t think about the negatives; think about what you are lucky enough to have.

I have spent the last 20 minutes unsuccessfully researching adult ADHD, using my library's medical journal archive and then, I did a plain Internet search. These are two of my least favorite things to do. I currently have no way to make it more enjoyable, but I bet you anything I'll come up with something useful by the end of this post. Please, read, learn and see thinking out loud happen in a blog post.

Depression can drain you of a lot of things: motivation, self-esteem, focus, decisiveness. The list is long (Why Live When You Feel Like Dying?). The very worst of these is when depression drains you of your will to live. I know. I've been there.

One cannot think well, love well, sleep well, if one has not dined well ~Virginia Woolf Food Choices. Yuck or Yum? Who decides what food you eat? Do you think of food as a ‘yuck’ or ‘yum’ decision? How does the food you eat affect your health? Food choices - when it comes to eating healthy, sometimes it feels like a battle between ‘yuck’ and ‘yum.’ Quite frankly, at times the idea of choosing healthy food seems quite boring and tasteless. We have all been there before, especially when we were kids. Remember your parents sitting a plate of peas, lima beans, and carrots in front of you? Did your taste buds say: ‘Yuck?' Mine did. Now, as an adult, my taste buds don’t find favor with peas, lima beans, and carrots. I choose not to eat them. Instead, I choose to eat spinach. My taste buds say: ‘Yum.’

My doctor told me his theory on there being a connection between types of sunlight and Adult ADHD last year. Blue light is what is often used in those natural sunlight lamps that a lot of people use for Seasonal Affective Disorder (SAD). The lamps are supposedly able to give you more energy and keep you less sad during seasons where you don't have as much access to natural sunlight. When summer comes around, those of us who are already hyped up, imagine what extra natural blue light can do for us ...

For as long as I can remember, I've felt sad and defective. So when did I realize that I needed help? I didn't always know I had depression. I actually didn't have a clue what it was until after my doctor gave me my depression diagnosis.