Of all of the lessons I've realized as a parent of a child with mental illness, the biggest parenting lesson has been that kids need all of the encouragement they can get. Bob is the product of an unplanned pregnancy, but he has been my best accomplishment. Why? Because I've been able to be the parent that I needed as a child.

Every day, I make small choices which greatly impact the maintenance of my bulimia recovery. One of these choices starts with thinking ahead in the morning on the meals I plan to have throughout the day; while another is being mindful of the inner dialogue I have about my self-image and how it relates to my eating habits.

About 7.7 million adults and 20% of children and adolescents suffer from severe mental illness. Severe mental illness is chronic and requires sustained treatment. Mental health has become the most politically charged topic of today but despite attention, one population remains unrecognized. The overwhelming neglect of parents, families, and caregivers is what led me to write my first book. I have always been aware of systemic barriers. But I wasn’t aware of the great divide between parents, families, and caregivers and mental health professionals, services, or even advocacy groups. (Parents of Mentally Ill Children Have a Long and Difficult Journey)

I had some time to kill between class and my train home on Friday and I spent it watching youtube videos. A waste of time, you say? Nay! I watched videos about Adult ADHD and one in particular by Dr. Russell Barkley about the fact that Adult ADHD is NOT a gift. But, Dr. Barkley, we've been told for so long that ADHD isn't only a bunch of junk that makes it hard for us to focus, but it's something that helps us to be more creative and really good and different things. What is the meaning of this?

We've just turned our clocks back marking the end of daylight savings time. While the nights will be darker sooner, the mornings will be brighter. For a short while. The truth is, with the end of DST comes the season for Seasonal Affective Disorder (winter depression).

When you’re feeling down in the dumps, you stop believing in yourself. You start to think that you don’t have the strength to push forward or that no one will care if you do. We’ve all been there and felt this way, but some of us have found ways to climb the ladder out of that hole. For self-harmers, it tends to be a little more difficult to step on that ladder.

One-third of all Americans believe mental illness can be cured by prayer and Bible study alone, but among evangelical Christians, the number jumps to one-half. In the video, More Than Borderline blog author, Becky Oberg, discusses the need for education about the realities of mental illness.

As I mentioned, I recently took a trip east to see some family. In addition to 5-hour plane rides and meeting a long series of people I didn’t know, there was also the three hour time change to contend with. In other words, there was a lot of things that could, and did, mess with my bipolar. Now, like many people, I’m quite good at handling stressors in the moment. I can travel and meet and charm with the best of them and I can say it mostly went very well. The trouble, though, is upon return. Upon return I feel like I’ve been hit by a bloody truck and act pretty much the same way.

Happy Halloween, y'all! While I always greatly enjoy seeing what the kids in the neighborhood dress up as, there is one thing I am less excited to see in disguise: my eating disorder. Symptom switching is your eating disorder's way of sneaking back into your routine. In the past 14 years, one thing I have learned is this: the eating disorder never stays the same.

Effective psychotherapy requires a substantial degree of trust, which can only occur when the client-therapist relationship feels sufficiently safe to both parties. With victims of psychological trauma, achieving this sense of safety and trust can be a truly difficult barrier to productive therapeutic work. Let's look at some of the reasons for this. But, first - why do this? Because it is all but impossible to solve a problem you don't understand, and this problem must be solved. That this is possible is verified by the thousands of people who have actually done it, each in their own manner, but all in the same general sorts of ways. It is important to see a path to the mountain top, if that is where you wish to be. Let's look at how and why that path can be hard to find.