General lifestyle treatments for depression

Major depression is one of the major leading causes of disability in developed countries according to the Surgeon General. Just as it takes lifestyle changes to lose weight and keep it off, lifestyle changes can work in treating depression.
Some of the lifestyle changes needed are bright light therapy, avoid negative thinking, and and regular, restful [...]

Sharing recovery

Yesterday I had an interview. The interview went well. Not as I had thought, but it turned out ok.
What really made the day turn out good, was my journaling class and what happened afterwards.
I teach a journaling class. We are in the 5th week of 8 lessons. We have the lesson, then read excerpts from [...]

Life in recovery

My life has gotten very busy lately. Too busy in some ways. You should see my to-do list. It is scary. I have a planner I get from my school that has a place for my to-do list, my hourly schedule and my goals for the week. Then there are monthly goals, etc. It is [...]

Self-confidence

I listened to the second part of a teleseminar today. It was very interesting seminar.
To accomplish anything you have to believe three things:
1. You have to want it.
2. You have to believe you deserve it.
3. You have to believe you are destined for it.
I thought that was a very interesting philosophy. It could be applied [...]

The Day the Voices Stopped

I am reading a memoir by Ken Steele and Claire Berman. It is about Ken Steele. He was schizophrenic. He died in 2000 from heart failure.
It is a powerful book.
It is very detailed about how the health care system was in the 60s and 70s. Fortunately, the mental health care system has improved a bit. [...]

Ice Breaker

Today I gave my first speech at Toastmasters. I was so nervous. I did ok. I even won a ribbon for speaker of the day. I was so excited. I called my boyfriend, my daughter, and then my mother. <G>
This may not sound like something dealing with mental health recovery, but it is. Let me [...]

Doing a 120

Today I had to do the 120 for my son with his PSR. PSR stands for Psycho-social-rehabilatation. He meets with his PSR for six hours a week. They work on different things on his treatment plan.
Today we reviewed his treatment plan to see where he had improved and where he still needed work. It was [...]

Finally finishing

We are finally finishing our unit for school today. We have been on this unit for a long time. I have reached burn out status some time ago on the topic. I am so glad we are finished. So is my son.
He has some learning challenges so it takes him longer to learn things. I [...]

Keeping a positive attitude

Keeping a positive attitude is key to making it in today’s society. It is the key to recovery. There are some days when it is almost impossible to keep a positive attitude. Murphey’s Law seems to run riot around the place. No matter what I do, or did, I couldn’t seem to keep a positive [...]

Nutrition may be the guide

Doctors these days don’t know a lot about nutrition. (Not meaning any disrespect.) In the past, most of the knowledge was about herbs and nutritional remedies. Now, it is pharmaceutical knowledge.
The trend is turning I think. I hope. There is a growing number of “alternative” remedies around. It is considered “alternative” if you consider nutrition as [...]