Today I would like to share a personal story. When I was a kid, I loved to read. I mean, I loved to read. I brought books out to recess, I stayed up late with a flashlight under my covers, I watched almost no television. I think it was the fifth grade when my schoolContinue reading “Giftedness: Anxiety With Better Branding”
Tag Archives: Mental Health
You’re Grounded: The Problem with Punishing Self-Harm Behavior
(Content warning: this post talks about self-harm in general terms.) I’ve talked before about the challenge of conceptualizing behavior as a symptom of mental illness. This is especially challenging for parents when it comes to discipline; on the one hand, you can’t make symptoms go away by punishing them, but on the other hand, ifContinue reading “You’re Grounded: The Problem with Punishing Self-Harm Behavior”
How Do We Talk About Suicide?
Obvious content warning: this blog post talks about suicide in a non-descriptive way. Mental health is hard to talk about. Although we’ve gotten better over the years as a society, there is still a huge stigma, especially around suicide. Suicide is a symptom, just like heart failure is a symptom, but suicide gets talked aboutContinue reading “How Do We Talk About Suicide?”
What Do Risk Assessments Look Like?
Content/Trigger Warning: Suicidal Ideation September is Suicide Awareness Month, so my best friend, Cirien, helped me create a mock risk assessment. Many people wonder what it looks like if you tell your therapist you are having suicidal thoughts that you don’t want to act on, so I created this video to show how I respondContinue reading “What Do Risk Assessments Look Like?”
Thoughts On Self-Diagnosing
Many people struggle to acknowledge when they are having trouble with their mental health, and this happens for a few reasons. First, stigma about what it means to have mental illness can put people in denial about their symptoms. They don’t want to be labeled “crazy” or “unstable.” Second, mental health is health that relatesContinue reading “Thoughts On Self-Diagnosing”
The Chicken or the Egg: Depression and Withdrawal
One thing many people already know about depression is that people who are depressed often withdraw socially. While it’s true that social support is an important component of alleviating depression, this sometimes gets misconstrued as, “If I want to help my loved one, I need to force them to be in social situations.” You mightContinue reading “The Chicken or the Egg: Depression and Withdrawal”
The Case for Primary Care Therapists
Stigma continues to be a serious problem in mental health, and anxiety about what it means to have a therapist can be a huge barrier to someone seeking services. Although we all have different life experiences and many people do not experience mental illness as defined by the DSM-5, every single person alive has anContinue reading “The Case for Primary Care Therapists”
Bubble Breathing
Breathing is probably one of the most basic things we do every day. We breathe constantly and without thinking about it, but when we get upset, our breathing changes. When someone feels scared, angry, or anxious, their breathing tends to get faster and more shallow, and we often don’t even realize this is happening! FastContinue reading “Bubble Breathing”
Coming Soon: I Don’t Want to be Bad
I am excited to announce that I’ve decided to self-publish my manuscript! I’ve been compiling worksheets and interventions that I use with kids and parents when the child has behavioral problems. I Don’t Want to be Bad helps parents understand their role in the child’s behavior and help the child learn to express and copeContinue reading “Coming Soon: I Don’t Want to be Bad”
Don’t Forget to Take Your Meds!
Happy Sunday to everyone! I created a video to review and talk about a product to help people with executive dysfunction remember to take their medication. Check it out! Here’s the TimerCap you see in the video, which can be purchased directly from their website!