Since I’ve been having major issues with not being able to fall asleep lately, I’ve been up at night browsing the Internet more than usual. My nightly routine has been as follows: write, push dog off keyboard, look at Facebook, write, look at Pinterest, push dog off keyboard and write a little bit more. During those in-between moments, I started remembering how dangerous the web used to be during my days of self-harm. You can find anything on there. You can find pictures that trigger self-injurious behaviors and websites that support those behaviors. There are websites that support stopping self-harm – such as healthyplace.com. However, do those websites overpower the negative ones for those who are curious self-harmers?

Look, it’s not uncommon for you to feel melancholy, energy drained and gloomy during the winter season. The winter blues can become seasonal affective disorder (SAD), so if your winter blues includes SAD symptoms, see your doctor. But, if SAD isn't involved, you can lose the winter blues with a few self-help tips. Here are my favorite ways to lose the winter blues.

Life is weird. That is one statement almost everyone can agree to be true. Nothing is normal about the lives we live, even if we follow the same boring schedule day after day. Even for those who think they have their lives planned to perfection, something out of the ordinary will happen to rearrange that agenda. Something is bound to happen to shake your life up and when it does happen, will you be ready? Will you have those handy dandy coping skills ready to go? Will you stand with a smile and stay positive? We’re all human and many of us won’t be ready to pull coping skills out from our pockets right when we need them.

Are you looking for love in all the wrong places? Perhaps you're single and searching for that soul mate. Maybe you're in a happy, committed relationship, but still feel like you want something more. No matter what your relationship status, looking for love starts with looking inwards. Looking for love involves looking at your self-esteem and confidence. It's more about the relationship you have with yourself than anyone else. Love attracts love; negative feelings attract more negative feelings. You may be looking for love, but what are you really attracting?

It's winter where I live. Apparently it's winter lots of places right now - a time for dark days and dark thoughts. I know a lot of people who are in trouble right now, and tempers are just a bit short, mine included. And now we have to deal with horses. It's about "healing" PTSD, you understand. Oh, you don't? Yeah, I have the same problem.

Thought manipulation and alien persecution are common themes in delusions associated with schizophrenia. I wrote this poem several months after I was off my schizophrenia medication and believed that celestial beings were controlling my thoughts. In essence, these other worldly entities were the puppeteers of my ideas and actions, and I was their marionette. It was a truly terrorizing experience that many people with schizophrenia endure.

If not properly treated, chronic depression can cause a significant number of problems in all areas of your life. Depression can last for weeks, months, or in some cases even years. This leaves an individual in a state on constant sadness, fatigue, and just overall run down. In addition to the underlying symptoms, depression can increase the risk for a number of other problems to develop. Before you know it, not only are you trying to cope with the sadness but you are facing financial problems, social problems, and physical problems as well.

The idea that fear and anxiety are tightly woven together is widely accepted by mental health professionals. I agree, and you might too. But is anxiety only the fear of fear itself?

I have a brain disorder. A real brain disorder. It’s not made up. It's called Tardive Dyskinesia and it was caused by antipsychotic medications that I was prescribed to help control my bipolar disorder. And the kicker? I don’t believe I ever had bipolar disorder. I haven’t been depressed, suicidal, manic, psychotic or anything but happy since I got off my bipolar medications. It was the best decision I ever made in my life. I just wish I had made it a little sooner.

I’ve been writing about bipolar disorder and mental illness for 11 years. Eleven years. It’s been a long road. And during that time I have heard a lot of people say a lot of horrible things about people with bipolar disorder. In no particular order, people have accused people with bipolar disorder of being: violent, manipulative, self-centered, selfish, abusive and many other negative things. Certainly, if I bumped into a person with those characteristics, I wouldn’t want to be in a relationship with him or her. However, are people with bipolar really like that? Should people with bipolar disorder be in relationships? (I'm Bipolar: Will Anyone Ever Love Me?)