I tend to naturally seek out sayings or lines from books and movies that bring forward some kind of message. Sometimes the message may be scary or upsetting. However, it’s the positive messages that always bring me to a thoughtful state. When I hear or read a good quote, I try to link it to my life in some way. Sometimes, I will write a quote down in a notebook or post it on Twitter or Facebook, just so I don’t lose it. When it comes to the struggle with self-harm, positive sayings and messages can help move an unsafe mind in a safer direction. However, it is up to the person behind the scars to see the message and move forward with it.

Words matter and female role-models mean more than you may think. The 'Ban Bossy' campaign brings more awareness to the confidence gap that keeps girls from being assertive and in leadership roles.

As if anxiety itself weren't bad enough on its own, it presents new challenges and frustrations when we decide to face it and get rid of it once and for all. Probably because anxiety disorders are so prevalent (together, they are the most common of all mental illnesses), there's a plethora of proposed ways to treat anxiety. Trying to decide what is best for you is itself anxiety-provoking.

Too much of anything is a bad thing. I’m sure by now that everyone has heard that alcohol abuse and addiction is extremely bad for you and can cause a number of adverse consequences. But what exactly do the effects of alcohol abuse and alcohol addiction (alcoholism) look like?

Are you looking for an all-expense paid holiday in the mental health ward of your nearest hospital? If that doesn’t sound like something that appeals to you, then I wouldn't make any changes to your mental health medications without your doctor's supervision.

In the world of mental illness and mental health there is a strange border territory where victims and criminals mingle, cause and effect chase one another round and round the barn, and responsibility is almost impossible to assign. I am speaking, naturally, of drug and alcohol abuse. In the eyes of some, drug and alcohol abusers are simply victims of their own hard-wiring, guiltless as the man who, strolling down a city sidewalk one fine spring morning, is crushed to death when the rope being used by non-union piano movers to transport a Baldwin upright into a 4th floor cold water walk-up apartment casts aside its amateurishly tied knots and surrenders to gravity. In the eyes of others, dipsomaniacs and drug abusers are merely self-destructive whackadoomians intent on beating the reaper to his work. There is little sympathy to be found among the members of this chilly community.

According to HealthyPlace.com (What Is Borderline Personality Disorder?), borderline personality disorder (BPD) can be caused by abuse or neglect by a caregiver. As a child, I experienced both. It was so bad that I went to college one thousand miles away from home. My goal was to get as far away as possible. But people can change. My parents and I now have a great relationship, in spite of my BPD.

Today I went and fed the seals. I fed the wild seals – not those in captivity – the best kind. They’re semi-tame seals as people feed them fish from the docks every day. They clap, and spin in circles, and splash, and jump to get the little frozen fish we offer. Their spotted coats gleam in the sun. Even the huge nails on their back flippers seem innocuous because they seem just so glad to see you. So, I knelt and fed the seals fish. And I giggled, smiled and screamed like a little girl when one soaked the left leg of my jeans (Why Animals May Help With Depression). I was encased in a bubble where just the seals, the frozen fish and I existed. And I completely forgot that I was depressed.

I often say, and write, that my eating disorder never defined me, not its diagnosis, nor the stigma attached to suffering through the illness. Even today, I'm open about the fact that I deal with food anxiety and no, I'm not ashamed of that either.

Recently, I wrote about motivation and the special needs child. The hardest thing to do while parenting a child with mental illness is to encourage motivation when we want it. Instead, parents find themselves battling their children to get them to do what Mom & Dad want them to do. I liken this to swimming against the current. If we look at our children as the ocean, we can see how swimming against the tide will do nothing but waste our time and energy. Not to mention frustrating us parents to no end. In my work, I've found one step helps in keeping special needs children motivated: let them volunteer.