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Books to Read to Understand Mental Illness
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Memoirs I recommend that were excellent for understanding mental illness from first-person perspective. All descriptions are taken from Amazon: Running with Scissors Running with Scissors is the true story of a boy whose mother (a poet with delusions of Anne Sexton) gave him away to be raised by her unorthodox psychiatrist…
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Why Psych Treatment Should Be Community Based
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The Hospital Setting Psychiatric hospitals are notorious for lack of funding and quality treatment of the patients. I spent time at both a juvenile and adult ward, and they aren’t any fun, especially when you’re in the frame of mind you’re in. Just in the nature of their structure, putting…
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What to Expect from Psych Meds
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This Med or That? I notice people posting in forums wanting feedback from others on the effectiveness of certain psychiatric medications. However, it should be well known that with psych meds, the effects and success of the dosages vary significantly from person to person. It’s by no means “one size…
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How Maintenance Keeps Me Sane
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I am by no means a “high maintenance” girl. I prefer my shoes flat, my nails untouched, and my hair usually ‘come as you are’. T-shirts and jeans, sneakers, and minimal makeup. What Maintenance Means To Me I have to be real: hygiene is still important to my maintenance of…
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Working with a Mental Illness
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Having a job has always been helpful to give me a sense of purpose and keep me focused. Since my husband is military and we move every few years, this has been a challenge I’ve risen to each time. From my first part time gig as a barista, to my…
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How Church Keeps Me Sane
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Sundays are Special When I recognized that Sundays were the days we attended church, I also keyed into the weather and found the sun had a way of shining brighter on those days. So it seemed. Maybe it was that it was the Lord’s day, and on those days I…
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Get a Social Life! (really, it’ll do you good)
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We live in a day where isolation is a norm. In our world of screens and social media, individuals are reporting high levels of feelings of loneliness. The research has shown that staying in our own little worlds is harmful. Interacting in person, face to face, is an innate human…
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Not Crazy, Creative
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In last month’s post, I briefly compiled a list of 9 self-care activities in 3 parts, here, here and here, that keep me from going back into a bipolar episode. In this post I’m digging deeper into the activity of creativity. The definition of crazy, as you probably already know:…
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How Exercise Keeps Me Sane
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It may seem boring to those who don’t run, but every morning I rise to the challenge of a run, it keeps my moods in check and my brain stimulated.
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How A Daily Schedule Keeps Me Sane
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It’s already 2:15 PM and I’m supposed to be cranking this post out today. I can tell you, I may not have gotten it done without my handy dandy schedule. It’s imperative that I keep a daily schedule planner to feel productive, get things done, and stay sane. Time is…