Category: Family
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Child Welfare Resources
Updated my Resources page, adding Child Welfare Resources, in preparation for tomorrow’s post about compassion and childhood trauma for #1000Speak for Compassion. Child Welfare Resources Prevent Child Abuse America Healthy Families America Child Welfare Information Gateway Child Welfare Related Organizations Mental Health America ~ Parenting
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Best Parents We Can Be
Friday, February 20, my #1000speak for Compassion post will address the trauma of child abuse and neglect, and specifically address the potential trauma of having a mentally ill parent. As a parent living with mental illness who strives to be the best parent I can be, I am sharing Mental Health America‘s excellent Parenting advice from mentalhealthamerica.net/parenting. Parenting Be the Best…
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NAMI Provider Education – Week Three
Saturday I attended the third class of NAMI’s Provider Education. Here I summarize, paraphrase, and quote the handouts from the NAMI Provider Education Course Participant Manual 2013. In the third week course we learned about the cascade of secondary traumas which occur when a family is left to cope with mental illness alone. Kitt’s Note: Stage…
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Ten Year Anniversary of Hospitalization
Ten years ago, two weeks preceding and including Valentine’s Day, I was hospitalized. Twenty years ago, I experienced a psychotic break during the same season: this season – the season of Lent. Though I do not attend church, this season moves me deeply. I could write more about seasonal affective disorder and how those of…
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So Easily Broken
Yesterday this “story” of mine was published on Stigmama.com at FICTION SERIES: So Easily Broken, Kitt O’Malley | Stigmama. Clearly, it is fictionalized autobiography. I simply wrote what surrounded me in third person. FICTION SERIES: So Easily Broken, Kitt O’Malley | Stigmama All around her books, binders, and training manuals piled. She had an article to…
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Structure
When my husband or son stay home because they are ill, I lose the structure around which I organize my day and my self. I need the book ends of bringing my son to and from school, having my husband go to work and come home. When they are home needing me, needing attention, needing…
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This Flu Really Sucks
My husband, son and I are sick with a flu that has lingered, waxing and waning since before Christmas. Now it has hit my son and me particularly hard. My husband has been dragging himself to work in spite of continued symptoms. To top it off, my laptop is sick with malware, so it has…
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Life Simplified
Using WordPress Reader Lists has simplified my life. There are a seemingly infinite number of excellent blogs to follow, read, like, and comment on. If you comment, I will respond. I “follow” those who follow me. Whether or not I read or comment, I do care. There are only 24 hours in a day, and I’m running…
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I do not whisper. I ROAR.
Originally posted January 11, 2015 on STIGMAMA.COM I do not whisper. I ROAR. Kitt O’Malley | Stigmama Motherhood has been transformational for me. I am NOW building a new foundation. My identity changed. Now it changes again. I have constantly reinvented myself over and over during my lifetime. Going from majoring in biochemistry as a…
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Dear Younger Me
You fuel your rage by seeing a psychoanalyst one to three times a week, exploring over and over how you had been abused as a child. You deepen your depression by studying psychodynamic theory in graduate school. Doing so defeats you and undermines your mental health. Yes, therapy will enable you to work through issues you have with your…