Let me preface this post by telling you that when you live with a mental illness you know why it's so hard. It can feel impossible. But have you ever sat down and really thought about it? Thinking about things, writing them down, can allow us to make sense of something that is often complicated and hard to understand.

Okay, I've been itching to ask the question: Why do we call it a ADHD medication "holiday"? Are we in England?  "Oh, yes, capital, capital! Let's not take our Ritalin today and have a jolly good time!" For me, Wednesday of last week was anything but jolly good and it certainly didn't feel like a holiday.  I suppose, though, if we Americanized it to "medication vacation" it would be just as unhappy-making. Without ADHD drugs, I feel as if I've traveled to England only to watch BBC America!

This week, February 24-March 2, is National Eating Disorders Awareness Week in the U.S. In this video, I share the ideas behind NEDA Week, as well as how the stigma of eating disorders relates to the Stand Up for Mental Health Campaign on HealthyPlace.com.

A while back I wrote on a campaign that was working to change the face of mental illness. It presented real, live people with mental illness that challenged the assumptions that people might have about mental illness. Namely that we’re all unemployed, unsuccessful, useless crazy people. Now, I did have some problems with the campaign but I applauded their attempt to get people to realize that mental illness is about real people and that each person with a mental illness is an individual with all the possibilities of any other individual in our society. And I found myself putting my own face on mental illness, bipolar disorder, just the other day. I did it by using the phrase, “. . . people with bipolar, just like me.”

Addiction is typically seen as being a bad thing but is it possible to take the negative aspects of addiction and transform them into something positive? This video explores this idea. Watch

Like so many armchair activists and limousine Liberals, I watched the civil rights struggle unfold from the insulated confines of a bourgeois environment which, had it been any whiter, could have passed for Swiss. I never got any closer to Selma, Alabama than I’ve gotten to Salma, Hayek. However, with the naïve posturing and platitudinizing so essential to the clueless “occupy” lifestyle – as essential, indeed, as the mochalottelenyagrande from Starbucks – I cheered from the sidelines with each brave step forward. Those were heady, idealistic days when many of us actually did believe that America was going to catch up with its constitution and, as Dr. King phrased it with characteristic elegance, make good on a check it had written nearly two centuries before. Soon we would find out that forward progress in the world of spiritual and moral evolution moves at a glacial pace, if at all, like a circus elephant being pushed up sagging planks into a boxcar by a roustabout unable to recall what first attracted him to show business. But there were pivotal movements.

This morning, coffee in hand, I tried to think of a topic that might be a little bit easy to write. It's one of those days. I'm a little bit afraid I won't think of anything. And then this idea springs from somewhere in my mind that is clearly more awake than I am. It's not going to be the easiest, but it's something I have never explored before and, well, I guess it's about time. Irrational fear in mental illness can and usually does diminish as we recover.

I've been listening to some audio teachings by Brene' Brown, a leading researcher on the subject of shame. Shame - that feeling of not being "enough," not being worthy - is something that we with eating disorders are all too familiar with. Brene' says early on, "If you don't claim shame, shame will claim you." How many of our eating disorders and addictions began out of a place of shame? How many of us have allowed our shame to control our lives and for how long?

Learn how to help your child navigate challenges while helping them develop healthy self-esteem with these simple steps.

High expectations of yourself and others (and situations!) can keep you anxious by telling you you are inadequate, that things are out of control, and that you cannot handle them. This will start the spin cycle of anxiety. You will get anxious, anxiety will say "See I told you you couldn't do this!" and then more anxiety ensues feeding even more negative self talk. Your confidence goes in the toilet and which gives you more evidence you are a failure at life. Do you want to stop this spin cycle?