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Entries Tagged as 'depression and mental illness'

8 from google

March 16th, 2010 · 1 Comment

my brain is still only functioning at 42.718% capacity (as opposed to the usual 60 7/8th) so i don’t find myself to be able to say much. what little brain power i had went to work today and another fabulous mental health chat on twitter. but i feel guilty for not blogging enough [...]

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Tags: blogs of note · creativity: poetry, art, etc. · depression and mental illness · eating disorders, body image & similar topics · interesting books · news and events · peace, environment, social justice et al · psychological research and other things academic

bon voyage to me

February 13th, 2010 · 6 Comments

hey everyone – if you’ve been wondering why i haven’t done lots of updates lately, it’s because i was getting ready for what is the most significant voyage for me since 33 years ago, when i took my 4-year-old son and emigrated from germany to paraguay.  my mother is moving into a seniors’ home and [...]

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Tags: depression and mental illness · general

weekly mental health chat on twitter

February 9th, 2010 · No Comments

@abeeliever from una vita bella on twitter just started a regular mental health chat on twitter (tuesdays at 9pm CST – hashtag #mhsm). for a taste of what happened there, go to my post on the MentalHealthCamp blog.

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Tags: depression and mental illness · the net

overeating – a neglected eating disorder

February 7th, 2010 · 6 Comments

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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Tags: addictions · depression and mental illness · eating disorders, body image & similar topics

eating disorders, depression and perfectionism

February 5th, 2010 · 5 Comments

by now you must have cottoned on to the fact that i really like therese borchard’s beyond blue: surviving depression and anxiety and making the most of bad genes.
one of the things she talks about in that book is her run-ins with eating disorders. in the chapter BMI (body mass issues) – depression in [...]

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Tags: depression and mental illness · eating disorders, body image & similar topics · interesting books

why people don’t talk about “mental illness”

January 31st, 2010 · 4 Comments

this is a guest post by one of my twitter friends, the barking unicorn.
“the only normal people are the ones you don’t know very well,” said alfred adler, a colleague of sigmund freud.
“most people live in a myth and grow violently angry if anyone dares to tell them the truth about themselves,” said robert [...]

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Tags: blogs of note · depression and mental illness · spirituality

stigmatization through silence

January 29th, 2010 · 8 Comments

you don’t have to spend a lot of time leafing through therese borchard’s beyond blue: surviving depression and anxiety and making the most of bad genes to find some mention of suicide. here, for example
i understand why people who haven’t experienced severe depression believe that a mother who commits suicide is extremely selfish and totally careless [...]

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Tags: depression and mental illness · interesting books · news and events

suicide and … what? do words make sense here?

January 24th, 2010 · 4 Comments

i’m sitting here checking my email after a lovely weekend away. my daughter is doing the dishes to hedley’s “for the nights i can’t remember”. my husband is exercising on the Wii.
and i just opened an email from an artists’ email list i belong to. norm tucker, a fellow vancouver artist [...]

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Tags: creativity: poetry, art, etc. · depression and mental illness

i have a dream – about mental health

January 18th, 2010 · 8 Comments

therese borchard, who wrote the fabulous book beyond blue, has a dream about mental health.  i think dr. martin luther king would be totally okay with her being inspired by his famous words.
i have a dream that one day i won’t hold my breath every time i tell a person that i suffer from bipolar [...]

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Tags: depression and mental illness · interesting books · news and events

depression screening on blue monday, january 18

January 12th, 2010 · 5 Comments

the CMHA (vancouver-burnaby branch) will be holding a depression and anxiety screening the evening of monday, january 18th 2010, which they call ‘blue monday.’ blue monday is traditionally the third monday in january, a date chosen because it occurs after the holidays but when the days are still dark and dreary, new year’s resolutions may [...]

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Tags: depression and mental illness · therapy

rising up to end stigma

October 31st, 2009 · 2 Comments

as you know, i am a proud member of the canadian mental health association. i am even prouder to announce that a participant advisory committee, that is, individuals who are using the services of the CMHA vancouver/burnaby branch, is hosting an event for people living with mental illness and those affected by it [...]

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Tags: depression and mental illness · news and events · peace, environment, social justice et al

how many suicides are ok, mr. minister?

October 26th, 2009 · 8 Comments

last week, the british columbia government (the one that pumps millions and millions of dollars into the 2-week olympics next year) made cuts “changes” to the budgets of about 90 (ninety!) health agencies in the vancouver coastal health region alone. the changes cuts will mean no harm to services, says minister kevin falcon.
it’s hard [...]

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Tags: depression and mental illness · news and events

mental illness awareness week 2009

October 10th, 2009 · 2 Comments

today marks the end of mental illness awareness week. here are some bloggers who wrote about it, and a poem

a rant against mental illness awareness week and the desire to decrease stigma around mental illness
about childhood schizophrenia, by a blogger who wants to set yo head straight
this week appears to be supported [...]

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Tags: creativity: poetry, art, etc. · depression and mental illness · news and events

rethinking mental health

September 28th, 2009 · 2 Comments

the robert wood johnson foundation has joined forces with ashoka’s changemakers to launch “rethinking mental health: improving community wellbeing”, a competition for new ideas and practices that challenge the status quo in terms of how we think about and address mental health care needs.
the foundation invites you to join this important conversation and put forward [...]

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Tags: depression and mental illness · news and events

invisible

September 19th, 2009 · 4 Comments

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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Tags: addictions · depression and mental illness