Category: Mental Illness
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Father's Day Bits and Pieces
We plan to do some mountain biking today. When my husband and son do steep downhill runs (downhill mountain biking), I just have enough time to drop them off at the top of a mountain and pick them up at the bottom. Hopefully today, if we ride (they went on a very long ride Friday…
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Brain Dead
All three of us – my son, my husband and me – are sick with a virus of some sort – flu, perhaps. Exhaustion I already felt now worsened by deep fatigue achy muscles, nausea, and headache. My brain just is not working. Pulling up the wrong words. Not able to construct thoughts. Still, took…
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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…
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Do We Have the Right to Die?
Upon reading Try Harder with Your Mental Illness by Henrietta M Ross of The Triumphant Weed, I remembered a topic that has been on my mind lately—whether we have the right to die. Though I preach hope and advocate that people try treatment instead of taking their lives, I wonder whether it is reasonable to decide…
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Happy Anniversary
My husband and I have been married for 19 years, together for 22. Marriage is not always easy. We’ve weathered hard times. Well worth it. He has my back. Life is hard. Living with a mental illness makes it even more challenging. Helps to have someone there for emotional and physical support, someone to make sure we…
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Early Dating Dialogue
Setting: Southern California beach town. Newly dating couple on a casual date. Female Protagonist: 31 year-old female former psychotherapist recently moved back with parents after a mental breakdown, now working as a temporary file clerk. Male Protagonist: 35 year-old male civil engineer, highly strung as are many engineers. Recently relocated to Southern California for engineering…
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Fighting Stigma Saves Money
Rand Study: Investment in Social Marketing Campaign to Reduce Stigma and Discrimination Associated with Mental Illness Yields Positive Economic Benefits to California
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Just Finished My CE's!
Just completed my continuing education (CE) for my California Marriage and Family Therapist license (LMFT). To renew my license this time around, among the courses I took, I chose the following three timely and emotionally charged ones: Older Adults and Mental Health, School Refusal, and Chronic Illness in Children. Yes, I’m firmly in the Sandwich Generation, parenting a sensitive adolescent while…
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Bipolar Disorder and Neurocounseling
My experience with psychotherapy supports the findings that we can “rewire our brains.” In cognitive therapy, I learned to stop negative thoughts and suicidal ideation, rewrite those thoughts and replace them with more accurate ones. In therapy I’ve learned to reframe my life experiences as meaningful – as preparing me to be a better mother, wife, and daughter,…