(Re) Chic

This article on "The Mighty" really spoke to me.  It talks about people who are high functioning but still have a mental illness, like me.  I am a (fairly) productive member of society, I work a 32-hour a week job, sometimes I even work on my extra day off.  I cook dinner for our house nearly every night, (even when my husband gets home earlier #sometimesbitter).  But I suffer from depression and anxiety.  Even on days when I feel like I'm dying on the inside (or sometimes the outside) I get up and go to work, I make dinner, I swiffer up more dog hair than is possible for our one dog to shed.   So when a “high-functioning” person asks for help or admits to himself and to someone else his struggles, it takes a lot of bravery. These people have worked every single day to build a “normal” world for themselves are terrified of admitting mental illness, and when they finally do and are met with rejection, little understanding and no empathy When I tell p...

I am ashamed to say that I did not post anything in honor of Suicide Prevention Week.  However, today I was shown this website curated by The Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration.   It was shown to me because you can order publications on particular Mental Health and Substance Abuse topics that interest you.  You can find articles on everything from alchohol abuse to workforce trends and I think its fantastic that there is such a great free resource for people out there.  There are also over 70 articles on Suicide Prevention which is a great link to use this month as last year there were more suicides in Warren & Clinton County in September than any other month.  So if you're at all interested in any of these topics I highly recommend checking out SAMSHA's website I know I'll be ordering some things!

I have an interview tomorrow at the Helpline of Delaware and Morrow Counties! I'm so excited about the idea that this opportunity could provide to share about my own experiences with mental health and suicide! But I'm so nervous! Think lots of good thoughts for me!

So it may be May 19th and the day to blog about mental health was yesterday.  But May is Mental Health month and its never to late to talk about busting down the stigma and negative feelings associated with mental health.   I was diagnosed with depression and anxiety disorder when I was a junior in college.  I had had symptoms and signs of depression since I was in middle school and I had been suicidal since I was a high school student.  All of this was a secret from my family: the appointments to a therapist/counselor, my inability to get out of bed, my skipping class, my emotional sadism, etc until I was a senior in college and things got so bad I decided to give in and get prescribed a medication.  I had to tell my parents because I was still on their insurance and figured the questions would start coming when the insurance statement from the doctor's visit.  I told them, got prescribed a medication and tried to move on.  They didn't take it w...

For those of you who don't know me very well you may be surprised that I'm writing about this topic.  May is Mental Health Month and I think this is HUGE!   I was diagnosed with depression when I was a junior in High School however, the signs and symptoms had followed me around for a majority of my life.  I truly believe my life has been saved through treatment and I want to encourage anyone who feels they need help to seek it out! 1 in 4 adult Americans live with some sort of treatable mental illness and not all of them are getting help!  So if that person is you or someone you love make sure you do them and yourself a favor and SAY SOMETHING!  SEEK HELP!  ITS OK!   Check out Mental Health America's website to learn more about 1 in 4 or go to www.liveyourlifewell.org to find hints and tips to help you deal with stress and have a better more productive life.   Check out previous and future posts for more about my own mental health...

In the craziness that has been my last 2 weeks I had completely forgotten that this week is Mental Illness Awareness Week and in honor of that I was perusing the MIAW website and found the following Vlog post that really reminded me of something that I had been forgetting recently. "Medecine and therapy are not enough you have to make your mental health a priority." And Marie (the vlogger) is completely right and I think in the rush to do great things at work and to get as much into my day as I can I've been forgetting that.  So here's to Mental Illness Awareness Week and a reminder that your mental health should come first.  

I was diagnosed with Depression when I was a Junior in college.  However, I had known that I needed to seek out help as early as High School but I avoided seeing a therapist or getting prescribed medication because of my family's "suck it up" mentality that I had grown up with.  I knew that my parents would never be able to accept me taking medication for depression because they did not (and still do not) see it as a real disease.   That being said I find this article from the New York Times incredibly frustrating.  While I commend these scientists for working on a problem that truly does need to be focused on and their creativity in thinking about a problem from another angle the idea that depression is a GOOD thing and that people with depression should be happy because its an adaptation to make them live better lives is simply ridiculous.  Depression is a disease that KILLS people.  If that is a diagnosis of an adaptation then isn't Cancer also an ...