Posts tagged mental health
Julie is weaning herself off antidepressants and the withdrawal symptoms are worse than the depression.
Thoughts On Liza Long’s Viral Post, “I Am Adam Lanza’s Mother”
Chances are, if you spent any time on the internet this weekend, a blog post originally titled “I Am Adam Lanza’s Mother” came across your radar. The piece was originally posted on the personal blog of writer Liza Long (pictured), a mom living in Boise, Idaho, who is obviously not literally the mother of Adam Lanza, the 20-year-old man who has been identified as the shooter in Friday’s elementary school massacre in Newtown, CT. Long, however, is the single mother of 13-year-old boy she calls “Michael” in the piece, an apparently deeply troubled kid who has hard to diagnose mental health and behavioral and developmental issues that Long believes are similar to those had by Adam Lanza and the other young white men who have committed mass shootings in recent years.
“I live with a son who is mentally ill,” she writes. “I love my son. But he terrifies me.” A photo of Michael accompanies the piece, which has since been cross-posted on such high traffic websites as Gawker and Huffington Post.
True Story: How To Reclaim Your Sex Life After Surviving Sexual Assault
One in every five women has been sexually assaulted. And most of those assaults happen before the age of 25. I am a woman.
I’m 25 years old, and I am part of the 20 percent of women who have been raped. It’s one of the hardest things I’ve had to accept about myself, and it’s one that’s not frequently talked about.
I could continue to lay in bed for hours and hours every day and only experience life with all the colors drained out of it. I could carry in my chest the darkness that at once felt heavy and hollow. But I refused to believe that was the only option. As much as I felt stigmatized and strange for feeling a way everyone else seemed not to, it served as a sort of inspiration. This is a riddle for me to crack; this is a puzzle for me to solve. It took a long time to feel not just not-sick or neutral, but happy. I’m not going to sugarcoat it and pretend it was quick or easy. Constructing a liveable life for yourself is one of the most difficult things I know. I had to do a lot of pruning in my social circle: taking away or putting-at-arms’-length the energy drainers, whether they were acquaintances, colleagues or family members. I had to decide only to work for people who treated me with the respect that I deserve (and then find those people and get them to employ me). I had to make wiser decisions about dating and then, when my heart got broken anyway, dust myself off and try again. I had to take better care of myself: getting the right amount of sleep (not too much or too little), doing talk therapy, not drinking or using drugs to make myself feel better, eating more healthfully and regulating my moods with anti-depressants. When I do all these things, I feel not-sick and neutral. And lately, because I am very lucky, I feel happy.
Let’s Go Ahead And Add This To Our Lengthy List Of Things To Have Anxiety About ...
Girl Talk: How I Became A Problem-Solving, Cheerleading, People-Pleasing Caretaker — To A Fault - The Frisky
Science Looking To Ecstasy To Treat PTSD Sufferers - The Frisky
7 Tips For Finding The Right Therapist - The Frisky
#1 Pick your issue. We’ve all got more than one, but pick which one you want to focus your efforts (and potentially limited money for therapy appointments) on. Are you depressed, anxious, traumatized? Do you need help learning good coping skills, or recognizing danger signs in a relationship? Therapists often specialize in a particular focus like eating disorders and body image issues, or compulsive behavior and addiction issues, or domestic violence recovery. You’re gonna be happiest with a therapist who specializes in your area.
