May is Mental Health Awareness Month, which has become dear to my heart. If you’ve spent a lifetime fighting a battle no one can see, getting a chance to talk about it can be cathartic, especially if some fear or stigma prevented you from discussing it before. In my case, I simply didn’t have the vocabulary to describe what has been going on inside me for as long as I can remember, nor did I have any idea there was help available. Learning the language of psychology as well as its history and application gave me great relief and paved the way to finding a treatment that worked for me.…
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You Might Be a Veteran of Mental Illness If…
Mental illness is a lot more visible and acceptable to discuss now than it was even one generation ago, but it’s still no cakewalk living with it on a daily basis. So if your day-to-day involves popping pills (that were prescribed to you) and describing how you’re doing using terms that 300-level psychology undergrads haven’t encountered yet, this list is for you. If you haven’t wrestled with a disorder yourself, you might wonder what it’s like. There are plenty of articles out there that can fill you in on the science behind mental illness as we understand it. It might be a good idea to start there. But no list…
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Mental Illness: Things I Wish I Had Known
I will not attempt to fit 29 years of a life marred by mental illness into a single blog article. However, in the spirit of Mental Health Awareness Month, I would like to offer up a few thoughts that would have benefited me immensely as I navigated my own journey. I didn’t learn these things until I’d suffered through years of pain, shame, and confusion, avoiding help because I feared judgment. But maybe I can ease yours by offering what I’ve learned. If you’ve had even peripheral experience with mental illness, you’ve surely experienced your share of well-intentioned and negligibly researched advice on the subject. Here is a list of…