By Some of the Most Important Pieces of Art Show Mental Illness One of the best ways to express living with mental illness is through art. In this article, I share a few pieces that offer a window into another person’s life. Conceptualizing how depression, obsessive compulsions, or psychosis might shape
Life as a Crisis Counselor on the Suicide Prevention Lifeline
This post is all about my experience volunteering at the Suicide Prevention Lifeline. While I’m going to refrain from getting into too many details, I will be talking at least tangentially about suicide throughout this post. There’s a chance that something may come off as triggering for certain individuals. Please
Want Better Workers? Protect Employees’ Mental Health in the Workplace
A century ago, workers’ rights were front and center in national discussions. Facing relentless work hours, dangerous and inhumane conditions, and minuscule wages, the people were getting ground to dust by their jobs. Advocates began speak up and push for change. Even if they didn’t use these words exactly, reformers
Therapy and Writing: Why I’m Better for Juggling Both
Around the time that I turned 18 and my friends went off to college, I started getting the dreaded question. The one we ask far too much to teenagers just stumbling into adulthood: what do you want to do with your life? For me, I’d already narrowed it down to
The World and You: The Bronfenbrenner Perspective on Mental Health
When it comes to our thoughts and emotions, everything feels extremely personal. That sadness? Our fault. This anxiety? Our responsibility. However, back in the 1970s, a social scientist named Urie Bronfenbrenner suggested that the world around us has an enormous effect on our mental health. Our society typically views mental
Three Reasons Mental Illness Is A Condition, Not Personal Failure
In every culture throughout history, there have been people operating in the “mainstream,” and folks that have been deemed outsiders. Anybody seen as “other” is at risk of being shamed and judged. Think of religious and ethnic minorities, non-cisgender heterosexual individuals, and people who are in some way ill. I’ll
A Very Special Welcome to this Mental Health Blog
As I write my first post, I wonder to myself… does the world really need another blog? A quick Google search shows that in the United States alone in 2019, there were more than 500 million blogs. The ever-expanding internet is jam-packed with content in every way. You want a
