Kitt O’Malley

Author: Kitt O’Malley

  • Why I Dread October

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    Next week (Oct 5-11, 2014) is Mental Illness Awareness Week. Spread the word on social media here: http://www.mentalhealthamerica.net/MIAW2014.

  • Time to Build a Book?

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    Brief recap of the past week in reverse chronological order, just like this blog. Note that the second bullet point is where I discuss whether it is time to build a book: This morning I got my haircut and decided to flip my part and show my bit of gray. I’ve earned that gray these…

  • Happy Anniversary!

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    WordPress just wished me a Happy Anniversary! Today is my one year anniversary blogging. Hurray! The process of blogging, of writing, of networking with other writers both in “real life” and online has shaped me over this past year. I now feel intellectually engaged, emotionally supported, purposeful and hopeful. Yes, hopeful. That is HUGE. I…

  • Not My Last Advocate Post

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    This is far from my last advocate post. I haven’t even gotten started. In My Last Advocate Post, Susan Zarit of Bravely Bipolar makes the case that we who live with mental illness must organize and speak up. I strongly agree with her concluding points and have added details of my own based on my experience. We lack psychiatrists…

  • To conceive or not to conceive – Is that really a valid question?

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    Thank you, Edel Williams of Placid’s Place for this blog post. When I was pregnant with my son, I was under treatment for depression, but was not yet diagnosed bipolar type II. That diagnosis I received when he was two. We ended up deciding not to have more children, not because we feared passing on…

  • NAMI Week Ten

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    This was the last week of NAMI Peer-to-Peer Recovery Education Program ©. Last class agenda: Revisit BRIDGES Consumer Stages of Recovery. BRIDGES, Building Recovery of Individual Dreams and Goals through Education and Support, is a NAMI Tennessee copyrighted program that provides education and support to persons diagnosed with a mental illness. Here are the BRIDGES Consumer Stages of Recovery…

  • HeForShe 2014

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    UN Women Global Goodwill Ambassador, Emma Watson, delivered this powerful speech (transcript here) on September 20, 2014 for the HeForShe Special Event at United Nations Headquarters in New York. Take action, visit: HeForShe.org Emma Watson pointed out that sexism not only hurts women, it hurts men. Men often do not reach out for mental health services…

  • Dialectical Behavioral Therapy (DBT)

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    The idea behind DBT, which I have never done as a therapist nor as a patient until I attended NAMI Peer-to-Peer Recovery Education Program ©, is to hold opposing ideas together to learn acceptance and more nuanced thinking as opposed to black and white thinking. Marsha Linehan, PhD developed DBT. According to The Linehan Institute: The…

  • The Bipolar Blogger Network

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    Thank you, Raeyn, for adding my blog to the Bipolar Blogger Network. Please visit the Bipolar Blogger Network and check out their feed of member blogs under the Read Along menu header. What a wonderful way to find and network with other bipolar bloggers! The Bipolar Blogger Network is the brainchild of a couple of friends bemused by the…

  • ‘You Don’t Know’ & ‘I Am the One’

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    Susan Zarit of Bravely Bipolar posted this video clip from the 2009 Tony Awards Performance of ‘You Don’t Know’ and ‘I Am the One’ from the Broadway musical Next to Normal on her blog post Another Sleepless Night. The video clip had me in tears. No doubt others living with mental illness and their families will find the performance…