When you are smack in the middle of a ridiculously frigid winter, you are bound to have health issues thrown at you. Cold weather brings forward the flu, sinus congestion and severe agitation with trying to stay healthy (especially when nothing seems to be working). When you are sick and struggling with stopping self-harm urges, it can be a battle trying to switch the focus from harming your body to helping it. But you need to remember that your health is important. In the battle of self-harm versus sickness, healing the sickness needs to win.

Vyvanse (lisdexamfetamine dimesylate) is a medication that was previously used to treat attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), but Vyvanse is now being marketed as the first and only Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approved treatment for moderate to severe binge eating disorder. Although there are some concerns when it comes to taking this pill, it's a great opportunity for those suffering from binge eating disorder to have another treatment option to utilize. Also, the additional research will help progress binge eating disorder treatment options in the future.

I grew up in a household that threw around words like "accountability" and "free agency" right along with "dinner time" and "brush your teeth". I was constantly told that I had the right to make my own decisions and my own mistakes. Because that was what God wanted; that was why I was alive -- to make my own choices, be my own person and to ultimately end up dwelling in eternal, celestial bliss. Because that was the fine-print, the unspoken stipulations: they were the loop-holes. I could make my own elections – provided they were correct. I could be my own person -- on the condition that I was the right one. And I could live however I wanted, as long as I followed all of the rules and abandoned my individual self-confidence.

Some people believe that adding the word “addiction” to any vice is a cheap ploy to excuse bad behavior. But the fact is, that any dopamine-releasing activity can be addictive, and this includes sex. Here are seven signs of sex addiction.

I am having one of those days where my depression is so impenetrable that I can't believe I'm able to sit upright. It feels like the force of my traumatic past is colliding with a bleak future that promises nothing but the same amount of pain. Yet here I am, sitting at my laptop, writing. How is this possible?

Sometimes, we experience anxiety because of an anxiety trigger.  People can be diagnosed with different types of anxiety disorders, each with specific symptoms and causes. Additionally, people can experience situational anxiety where something in particular causes anxiety symptoms to flare. A student might experience test anxiety severe enough to negatively impact performance or a parent's anxiety might become heightened and nearly debilitating when he/she thinks about the various harm that could come to the child. The anxiety that is triggered by something can be painful, limiting, and downright awful, especially when one can't avoid anxiety triggers.  Equally painful, limiting, and downright awful is when anxiety strikes without a cause whatsoever. 

It's hard enough to decide to seek mental health treatment, but when you factor in delays, it's even more daunting. When I was discharged from the Army, they gave me a 30-day supply of my psychiatric medications and a list of mental health providers in my area (I am not eligible for Veteran's Administration (VA) benefits because I wasn't in long enough.) It took me three months to get in to see a psychiatrist in private practice--I was lucky. It can take up to a year to see a psychiatrist at the VA.

I think it’s hard to have healthy self-esteem when you have bipolar. Sure, you can have grandiose self-esteem when you’re manic or hypomanic but that’s not the self-esteem you carry with you into everyday life, nor is it particularly healthy self-esteem. No, I think people with bipolar have low self-esteem because of their illnesses.

There are many people in my life who understand the difference between being afraid and having a panic or anxiety attack. They are educated enough to know there is a big difference between fear and anxiety and for that I am very thankful. However, I also have people in my life who think both are created equal. They believe, and often strongly, that both those feelings are just different levels of the same base emotion – fear. Here is how I explain to people that I’m not afraid; I have anxiety.

This past week brought a lesson in how vital self-care is to mental health and mental health recovery. Self-care can be overlooked when we are suffering from depression or experiencing other mental illness symptoms. I have a dear old friend who many consider the sweetest person they’ve ever known or may ever know. This dear woman has always been the type who will go to the ends of the earth to help people, and not just friends and family.