change therapy

unhealthy habits and demographic changes are combining to place an unprecedented burden on the health-care system that may not be manageable, the heart and stroke foundation said in its 2010 annual report on canadians’ health.
so says the CBC about an alarming increase in heart disease and the potential for heart disease, adding `most of this [...]

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“don’t give a panhandler money! he’ll only buy drugs!” we’ve all heard this.
today i gave a hefty amount of money to the guy who always sits in front of my neighbourhood supermarket. the parking sign pole against which he was leaning was shaking because he was shivering so hard. i made [...]

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i’m doing NaNoWriMo again this year, this time determined to do all i can to make it to the 50,000 word count. so my blog posts may be sporadic, or short and sweet, or both. like this one. only it’s not sweet.
at a walmart in lethbridge, told by a friend:
a drunk native [...]

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invisible illnesses are, by definition, not seen. there are two parts to this: the (un)seen, and the (non)seer. i’m not sure that invisible illnesses are in fact invisible.
the man with chronic pain sits on his bed at 3:00 am, a gun in his mouth, ready to pull the trigger. he makes sure [...]

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for a while now, i have been working part-time for the mennonite central committee in richmond. i’d get on the 49 bus to granville street, and then take the 98 B-line down granville. granville is one of the older streets of vancouver, and that stretch down to the fraser river is lined by old trees, [...]

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a buddhist metta prayer for mothers who do not fit our stereotypical image. the throwaway mothers, the bad mothers, the ones we point our fingers to.

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here is part 1 of my presentation at MentalHealthCamp on the topic “blogging yourself home – writing, blogging and creativity.”
i’ll present it as if i was talking at the presentation and treat you, dear readers, as if you were participants in the workshop.
here we go …
when i was a little girl, there were these tiny [...]

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the following is an excerpt from carolyn myss’ fascinating “gallery of archetypes”. most of us can recognize ourselves in one or more of these archetypes, or typical ways of being in the world. in her descriptions, carolyn myss tells us about the positive as well as the shadow (some would call them negative) [...]

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here is another interview with someone recovering from an eating disorder. this person used to eat too much, and has been and still is dealing with it by going to overeaters anonymous.

isabella: “you’ve come a long way, baby” – how long HAVE you come? what’s changed?
OA person: how long have i come? i [...]

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here is the last instalment of my conversation with joanna poppink. this is part of a series of interviews about different topics in eating disorders.
originally, i was going to tack the answer to my last question on to the second part of the interview. however, i realized that the answer to this question [...]

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yesterday i told you about coping digitally, a panel discussion about mental illness and social media that i’ll be part of at this year’s northern voice blogging conference here in vancouver this coming friday and saturday (february 20 and 21, 2009). it was airdrie’s idea to begin with; the other person who will participate [...]

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this is part 2 of this month’s buddhist carnival. part 1 is here.
the wild mind and the wise body
i like this article by the wild moods that takes the actual here-and-now feelings and sensations of mental illness and uses them to get in touch with mental health
… take a second to think about how [...]

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a guest post by the 12-step buddhist:
how do you feel now that barack is official? i’m still in shock. waiting for a big news release about some kick ass exec orders reversing idiocracy. one of the big questions for me is how to practice buddhism and the principles of 12-step recovery around politics. on [...]

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welcome to two years of the carnival of eating disorders!
yes, it’s been two years as of today. here’s how it all started:
if you’re not familiar with blog carnivals, you may think this is an odd name – this link here will tell you more about blog carnivals. this carnival contains articles [...]

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i’m back from kelowna, after a somewhat tense 6-hour drive (some stretches were a bit treacherous), followed by one hour’s worth of snow shovelling.  so i’m going to go to bed now and will cede this space to someone else, creativity coach eric maisel.  here he talks about his new book, creative recovery:
creative recovery, the [...]

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