Holidays and mental illness

The holidays are here upon us. It is a time of cheer for many of us. But it can be a time of stress for those of us with mental illness. I thought I would offer some tips to get along with those with mental illness during the holiday season.
1) Don’t talk down to them. [...]

Mental illness and humor

I was at a Toastmasters Conference a short time ago. It was for a Humorous Speech Contest. There was this contestant who made a speech about his mother was had a mental illness. The audience laughed through out the speech.
I was highly offended. I felt this speech was in bad taste and very inapproapriate for [...]

Back again

It has been quite a while since I posted. Life has been extremely busy. As you know, I started back to school. This past July I started working on my Masters degree at Capella University. I love it. I have really enjoyed all that I am learning on developmental theories and abnormal psychology. I have [...]

Confronting the Past

I read an email from this list I am on this week about a lady who wanted to confront her abuser. She had been told to keep quiet from her mother. No one wanted the dirty laundry aired. The lady wanted to move on in her recovery.
I told her she needed to say something so [...]

An ending and a beginning

I finished my second semester of psychology classes this week. I was so glad. Taking 17 hours was a heavy load. I will not do that again. Today I filled out the application for Capella University where I will finish my Master’s degree online.
I am so excited. To finally be working on my dream of [...]

Setting Goals

I spoke last weekend at the District Toastmasters Conference in Idaho. I was an educational presenter. I spoke about setting goals in life.
The presentation went real well. The comments were positive. The one thing that most didn’t like was that it was too short. I had too much information to cram into 45 minutes.
It felt [...]

The Wreckages of the past

This past spring break we drove to TX from Northern ID to see my mother. She is in bad health. I went to say my goodbyes to her. She has dementia.
It was really heartbreaking seeing her in that state of mind. She has no peace of mind. She is filled with regret over the past. [...]

God’s Perfect Timing

I have to share with you what happened this past Thursday. I made a terrible grade on my math test, the worse I had ever made. I was very upset. After talking to the teacher about it, I found out my mistake.
After leaving, I almost didn’t go to my sign lesson with this Deaf Pastor, [...]

Acceptance

Acceptance is a biggie in my life. It is what keeps me going in my recovery – both mentally and in my recovery from alcoholism. I have to accept what life throws at me or I will end up relapsing.
I found out yesterday morning that my mother was put in the nursing home Monday morning, [...]

Co-occurring Diagnosis

I thought I would talk about co-occurring diagnosis today. I have been researching the topic in one of my psychology classes. The statistics are very high for the co-morbidity of mental illness and addiction such as alcoholism or drug addiction.
According to NAMI information, the statistics are as high as 50%. Some of the research I [...]