Blogs
Christie Stewart
One of the biggest misconceptions about self-injury is that only females self-injure. This could not be further from the truth! Males self-injure too, in fact new research suggests it could be far more common than most people think. This video blog will give facts and insight into self-injury in males.
What made you seek help for mental illness? Your answer could help people who love someone with mental illness because one of the questions I get more than any other is asked by loved ones. In short, people want to know how to help their loved ones get help for a mental illness. Some people want to know how to make their loved ones accept treatment. Some people want to know how to make their loved ones follow through with treatment, like take their medication. And some people just want to know how to convince someone that they have a mental illness.
I’m dealing with people who love someone with a mental illness who is refusing help, for one reason or another.
So I ask you – what made you get help for your mental illness?
I sort of wanted to title this post, "Hormonal Changes Women Experience Throughout the Month Impact our Mental Illness"--AKA PMS. Now, I could not do this for a couple of reasons: That's a bit wordy and first and foremost I want men to read it too.
I will never forget buying my first house. It was a suburban rancher set in the bucolic splendor of Bucks County, Pennsylvania. Bucks County, for those who don’t know, was home to William Penn. It is bordered on the east by the Delaware River, indeed, the famous incident depicted in a painting familiar to all schoolchildren - General George Washington recklessly standing up in a moving boat at winter as he and his intrepid soldiers cross the Delaware – happened there.
Bucks County is also where one finds New Hope (and who among us isn’t looking for New Hope?) a quaint tourist town dating back to colonial days that flourished because the ferry located there facilitated trade. Two centuries later New Hope would gain a different kind of celebrity as the summer residence of New York’s smart artistic set including painters, playwrights, composers, humorists, actors, fops, poseurs, and social butterflies.
My wife and I were able to afford it because it was a disaster area – the real estate agent described it as “tenant abused” – the victim of a “hot divorce”. This was an understatement, like saying that Dresden in 1945 “needed some TLC”. But the setting was remote and lovely. Our next door neighbor was a large dairy farm, our neighbor across the street was a horse farm where racehorses were bred and raised, and our down the street neighbor was a big-time cocaine dealer who lived in a massive geodesic dome and flew everywhere in his private helicopter.
Many with low self-esteem lack self-respect. It really irks me to see someone get emotionally steamrolled, taken advantage of, or bullied by someone they care about. This is so frustrating to watch, let alone be the one who is abused.
‘Do the thing you fear most and the death of fear is certain.’ – Mark Twain
The best selling book Feel the Fear And Do It Anyway by Susan Jeffers is a must read for anyone suffering with anxiety. Her pearls of wisdom are never ending, and she helps the reader build the confidence they need to act.
Since your trauma have you noticed that the smallest decisions have become ENORMOUS????
Since your PTSD symptoms surfaced, have you noticed that even the tiniest choice seems to exacerbate your feelings of panic, anxiety, fear and apprehension?
If you answered ‘Yes!’ to either of these questions you are soooo part of a crowd (a/k/a: you are not alone!).
Last week, I met Mel, the crisis counselor from the 10th level of the Nether Regions. Short version: a medication dosing error combined with hormones put me in the Crisis Intervention Unit. Mel's job was to talk to me--and I learned that sometimes counselors just don't get it. She nearly reduced me to tears and I seriously considered asking her to stop talking to me. I left feeling worse than when I went in.
Alcoholics Anonymous and Narcotics Anonymous have helped save the lives of literally millions of people over the years. There are 2,133,842 AA members worldwide according to a January 2012 published report on the AA website and approximately 280,000 members in the NA fellowship worldwide.
There’s always been a double standard in mental health when it comes to schizophrenia. If you suffer from depression, are you a depressionist? Then why should a person who suffers from schizophrenia be a schizophrenic?
I believe she will only be able to rid herself of her demons, and hopefully her BPD as well, when she's ready to confront the abuse of her father. If she can put the blame where it belongs, she may stop projecting that victim/perpetrator cycle on the present men in her life. These demons are a metaphor for the purgatory she has created for herself. That reality has consequences in the real world, but it need not be real in the tangible sense. Exorcising her demons will require the expenditure of real physical energy and probably the destruction of aspects of her personality. If this ever happens, and it's possible but not probable, then these demons will evaporate. They are only as real as one's personality is real. In short, reality is not the question, it's what you make of the things you feel to be real.