Category: Uncategorized

I was inspired by a song today, and I thought it would be the perfect introduction to today’s post.

The Mental Illness Stigma – We’re All in This Together

On the outside, you look normal–maybe even happy. You could also have a happy life full of people that love you, a job, a car, and a life that is decent to the outside world. None of that means that you are not fighting an invisible illness on the inside.

With mental illness for most the fight is in silence behind closed doors. It happens in your mind, and you fight a war. Battles are fought and lost, and most people have no idea. You’re different, and your brain just works differently–that makes you afraid. This is what I like to call the stigma.

Let’s face it. When we first learn that we have a mental illness, it is easier to believe…

The last 12-months have been tough. Really tough. It’s been the hardest year of my life.  

In sharing my truth here, I feel that writing a long, detailed description of the difficulties I’ve undergone isn’t wholly necessary, although a further exploration of life lessons learned might well follow in due course –

For now, I can tell you that I have been dealing with the potential breakup of my marriage, my dad dying from cancer, severe problems in my job and an ongoing recovery from substance addiction. Despite trying to help myself via  regular visits to the Doctor, counselling and prescribed SSRIs I was slowly but surely falling into a deep black hole. Combined, these problems took me to the very edge.

During this year there have been days where I felt like I’d been sucker-punched in the stomach. Left with a deep, emotional pain, heavy and dense, stretching…

It has been some time since I have written.  With summer in full swing and my children all home for vacation, I found I was spending too much time writing and checking the blog and it was becoming a distraction from what is most important in my life: my family.  So I chose to take a break.  But, with everyone back in school, I am feeling the need to create and to express myself.  I am glad to be back.

I’ve written frequently about self love and wanting to improve in this area.  I have been grateful to make significant progress in this area over the past couple of months.  To share a brief update, I had some adjustments to my thyroid medication which significantly improved my depression.  This has helped me in many ways.  I no longer have a constant negative dialogue going in my mind.  I feel optimistic…

We are all human, and no matter our upbringing, family, education, or life choices, we all encounter struggles, heartache and negative influence, and its so very easy to fall into the trap of overlooking the beauty, kindness, gratitude and love that not only exists in this sometimes unrelenting world, but in ourselves.

We, as humans have the tendency to stick our nose in our own book, and we inherently believe that the script of what others portray on the outside is their actual truth, when in reality, “faking it to make it” is the game they play just as well as you. There were many times in my life that I would assume the perfect life existed in everyone’s else’s story, there were princesses and handsome princes that didn’t have the fire breathing dragon that burned me on more than one occasion. I would hurt so deeply that I couldn’t…

I am saddened by the two celebrities, Kate Spade and Anthony Bourdain, that died by suicide last week. However, I am glad it has increased the discussion about mental illness and suicide. I wish people would discuss the severe epidemic of mental illness and suicide before celebrity suicides occurred, but at any rate we are talking about it finally.

After listening to people speak about mental illness on the news and other places, I have come to the realization that most people do not have a clue what mental illness is. Too many people have said that these two people who died by suicide had everything going for them and had everything to live for and yet they were not happy.  These comments make me think that people really don’t get it.

Mental illness is not a choice. Mental illness is not a character flaw. Mental illness is not always…

Step right up, folks! Step right up!

Come feast your eyes on this marvelous tonic; right here, right now. What you may think is a simple bottle is actually the most secret of formulas from the Jungles of the East; from the hand of Marvelodijiling, the famed Healer and only man to live past 200 years of age without a health problem of any sort.

This is The Cure for Depression.

It is, indeed. You may shake your head at me, madame. You may wonder at the authenticity, young sir. I assure ALL that this product is exactly as it says. One simple dose each day will GUA-RAN-TEE to rid you of the woes of Depression.

…And if that sales pitch convinced you, then you and I need to have a long talk.

Actually, we can have a really short talk: Depression doesn’t work like that. For one, it isn’t “cured.”…