May is Mental Health Month. Yea! I'm a big advocate for mental health, as I am a veritable Vegas buffet of mental illness (depression, anxiety, OCD, and BiPolar 2). For the longest time I kept it a secret. I was afraid of the stigma that comes with mental illness. I didn't want people to shun me, or tell me to just be happy, or tell me it's all in my mind. Telling someone who has mental illness to just cheer [...]
Suicide Prevention Month September is Suicide Prevention Month. Maybe they choose September because summer has ended and that's always depressing. Who knows? National Suicide Prevention Awareness Month promotes resources and awareness around the issues of suicide prevention. NAMI, the National Alliance on Mental Illness has a ton of information and resources. Here are a few choice items. Please visit their site and learn more about suicide and how to help those in need. Wanting and trying to take your life [...]
Depression is a Quiet Bastard I while ago I decided to take the bag off my battle with depression. It was a secret I no longer wanted to keep. I've battled depression, anxiety, OCD, and BiPolar 2 my whole life. I didn't tell anyone mostly out of shame. Mental illness didn't seem like a "real" disease. In the past I hinted at suffering from it but was usually met with "heart in the right place but not at all helpful" sayings like [...]
National Depression Screening Day Today is National Depression Screening Day. I know. And you thought it was just Leif Erikson Day. Oh hvor feil du er, min venn. National Depression Screening Day was started in 1991 to help people learn more about depression and provide screening and treatment referrals for anyone concerned about it. It's a terrible disease fraught with stigma and shame but hopefully that is changing. Depression is more widespread than people know. It is more common than AIDS, cancer, and diabetes [...]
Here's the first (and possibly the last) installment of Facebook Friday. A collection of things from Facebook this week that made me laugh or smile. Benedict Cumberbatch Ice Bucket Challenge First up: Benedict Cumberbatch takes the Ice Bucket Challenge. He gets it not once, not twice, but five times. [embedplusvideo height="360" width="640" editlink="http://bit.ly/1pRmmSe" standard="http://www.youtube.com/v/YOa7ZjxRuKM?fs=1" vars="ytid=YOa7ZjxRuKM&width=640&height=360&start=&stop=&rs=w&hd=0&autoplay=0&react=1&chapters=¬es=" id="ep7287" /] The Holderness Family Baby Got Class You may remember the Holderness family from their viral video last year Christmas Jammies. Now the family [...]
Dementors Depression Depression. The name describes it. Sort of like "what's the color of an orange?" But I've had a lot of friends tell me they can't imagine what having depression is like. That's why I think we should rename the disease Dementors Depression. Foulest Creatures That Walk This Earth Dementors are those those crazy ass creatures in Harry Potter. You know, the ones who suck the happiness out of you. "Dementors are among the foulest creatures that walk this [...]
Yesterday I posted about my lifelong struggle with depression, anxiety and my Bipolar Express. Wait. Make that the Bipolar II Express. The reaction to that post was overwhelming. I had more hits on my website than I've ever had. Here's what I learned: Depressive Disorders Affect Nearly Everyone The number of people who said they struggle with depression, anxiety or Bipolar or struggle with family members or friends afflicted with a depressive illness was staggering. I had friends email me [...]
