mental health

If it's okay for other people not to be okay, I have to give myself the same permission.

What Happened When I Stopped Saying "I'm OK" And Started Being Honest

If it's okay for other people not to be okay, I have to give myself the same permission.

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Mental health advocacy, one resource at a time.

Lovers & Fighters In America: Radio Host & Daughter Offer Their Expertise To Those Suffering From Mental Illness

The Lovers & Fighters of America' is a weekly column here at Ravishly featuring behind-the-scenes stories of inspirational people taking a

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"I don’t view my mental illness as something that gets in the way of a happy or meaningful future, but rather a practical reality of the life I live and plan to continue living."

I Don't Need To "Cure" My Chronic Mental Illness To Be Happy

I’ve been mentally ill pretty much my whole entire life, and it isn’t something I see going away any time soon. I don’t see that as an inherently bad thing.

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To make it work with methods that aren’t as conventional or effective (which most nonhormonal methods are not), you have to make a game plan and stick to it.

Navigating Contraception When You Have Mental Illness

I began to see my mental health go completely downhill. This led me to seek out a psychiatrist, who raised an interesting concern: she thought my birth control was messing with my depression. It’s not like I hadn’t been aware of the link between hormonal contraception and depression before, but it never occurred to me that these two personal realities could be connected.

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"Mental illness is hard. Being a person is hard. Don’t try to do it alone." | Image Credit: Rhendi Rukmana via Unsplash

The Obsessive-Compulsive Dame: Ask For Help

Mental illness is hard. Being a person is hard. Don’t try to do it alone.

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Being honest about myself, or my son. (Image Credit: Thinkstock)

Am I Only Successful Because Of My Schizophrenia?

I haven’t really written anything in a while.

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The upside of some serious lows... (Image Credit: Unsplash)

Can I Be Thankful For My Mental Illness?

t interests me that I can immediately think of the gifts of anxiety, panic, and even my spurts of agoraphobia. Being tense in body and mind, living with fear that feels real even though I know intellectually it isn’t, experiencing the migraines, chest pains and choking sensations — these aren’t things that lend themselves to my happiness.
Yet the compulsion to stay at home, brought on by edginess and unease outside, keeps me productive. Anxiety makes me communicative, even if just through electronic means. The worry about judgment pushes me to write better, to edit more thoroughly, to answer the voice in my head saying “You’re not good enough” with a defiant “Then watch me improve.”

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