Category: Involuntary Hospitalization
-
Lynn Nanos Guest Post: Revolving Door of the Mental Health System
Thank you, Lynn Nanos, LICSW, author of Breakdown: A Clinician’s Experience in a Broken System of Emergency Psychiatry, for this guest post. As a mobile emergency psychiatric social worker in Massachusetts, I evaluate many patients who have learned that getting psychiatrically hospitalized is more likely when they don’t take their medication and attend psychotherapy sessions.…
-
Formatting My First Book
Been busy formatting my first book for publication. Problem is that while formatting it for Kindle ebook publication, I made changes. I can’t resist editing… So, my Scrivener project is different than my Word manuscript which is now different than what I formatted using Kindle Create. Oh, well. Guess that’s why each published version gets…
-
Review: Birth of a New Brain #PostPartumBipolar
Dyane Harwood thrilled me when she sent me an advance copy of her memoir, Birth of a New Brain: Healing from Postpartum Bipolar Disorder. (I pre-ordered it and was anxiously awaiting it’s October 2017 release.) Her memoir fills a much-needed niche in sharing the experience of bipolar disorder, peripartum onset (beginning during pregnancy or within…
-
Flight Back Home
Friday, July 15th Last Saturday, the day after we returned from Oregon, my mother was psychiatrically hospitalized for the third time since her stroke last November. Yesterday morning, I met with the treatment team at her psychiatric hospital. They do not think she needs long-term psychiatric placement. They believe her memory care community is the best…
-
Friday Was Tough
[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4V4YKeq88Qg&w=560&h=315] Note I’ve received feedback that my delivery in this video is too clinical and offputting. Forgive me. I’m trained as a psychotherapist. No doubt I use my training and jargon not just to understand, but to defend myself, to distance myself. Plus, I just like big words. Edited Transcript – “Ums” Removed Yesterday was…
-
I've Got This… Really, I Do
Since my mother refused post-stroke treatment, behavior I could not control, I’ve been really busy. Bordering on mildly hypomanic at times, yet surprisingly stable given all the stress I’m under, I gained a sense of control by learning what I can about those things I can control. Using skills I acquired in my careers in…
-
Time for Geriatric Psychiatric Hospitalization
Tuesday I took my mother from her stroke rehab to the hospital for a swallow test. When we returned to her stroke rehab afterwards, she refused to get out of my car. She went so far as to throw my car into park when I was driving toward the entrance. I warned her that her…
-
Why I Keep Away from Madness, Dyane Leshin-Harwod #MarchMadness
I love this post written by my dear friend Dyane Leshin-Harwood of Birth of a New Brain: Healing from Postpartum Bipolar Disorder for STIGMAMA.com. She eloquently and powerfully explains how she takes care of herself, how she pays attention to what feeds and nurtures her, and how she protects herself. She is my role model in self-care, in setting limits, in being…
-
Review: An American’s Resurrection
An American’s Resurrection: My Pilgrimage from Child Abuse and Mental Illness to Salvation by Eric C Arauz My rating: 5 of 5 stars On November 9, 2014, I had the pleasure of hearing Eric Arauz’s presentation on Conscious Storytelling at the International Bipolar Foundation’s Annual West Coast Meeting. He gave us each a copy of…
-
Eric Arauz
[vimeo 86542977 w=500 h=281] Eric Arauz How Written and Oral Storytelling Saved MY Life 2-12-14 8.58 AM from International Bipolar Foundation on Vimeo. Sunday I was particularly impressed by Eric Arauz‘s presentation on Conscious Storytelling. He gave us each a copy of his autobiography, An American’s Resurrection: My Pilgrimage from Child Abuse and Mental Illness…