Category: depression and mental illness

depression and exercise

exercise – it works for depression is the title of a post i wrote for brainblogger the other day. it is about a large-scale study, the SMILE study (standard medical intervention and long-term exercise, conducted at duke university), which found that vigorous exercise three times a week for half an hour or forty-five minutes reduced… Continue reading depression and exercise

… and when and why is it ok to talk about mental health?

still thinking out loud … when and why do people get to talk about mental health? there seem to be certain circumstances that make it more acceptable or easy to talk about mental health. as i am writing this i am telling myself that i need to be careful not to sound too cranky. “the… Continue reading … and when and why is it ok to talk about mental health?

who gets to talk about mental health?

on may 18, i asked here on this blog, on twitter and on facebook what you think i should talk about at the upcoming mental health camp. this ended up being the winner: who gets to speak up about mental health? in the process of coming up with a useful definition for mental health, we… Continue reading who gets to talk about mental health?

mental health: get thee to a spa!

a little guest post by anne from creative fusion about the perhaps unlikely-seeming connection between mental health and spas: get thee to a spa. so a friend of mine ordered me several weeks ago. driving in incessant toronto traffic, organizing mentalhealthcampTO, putting in volunteer hours on another committee, keeping up with the never-ending to-do list… Continue reading mental health: get thee to a spa!

psychologists, mental illness and stigma

today please visit over at brainblogger, where i talk about research on how some psychologists view people with mental health issues, especially those with schizophrenia and borderline personality disorder.  interesting points that are being discussed in the comments are the place of diagnosis and the importance, or limits of, of objectivity.

help me! what should i talk about?

raul and i are gearing up for vancouver’s second mental health camp, the conference about the intersection between mental health and social media. i’m hoping to give a presentation there. last time the topic of my session was blogging yourself home – using blogging to find a voice, a place, a community. would you help… Continue reading help me! what should i talk about?

may 2010 buddhist carnival

it’s a day late but here it is: my monthly buddhist carnival, serving up interesting little tidbits from the buddhist blogosphere. we always start with a poem. how bitter, how blue is the anger! at the bottom of the light in april’s atmospheric strata, spitting, gnashing, pacing back and forth, i am asura incarnate this… Continue reading may 2010 buddhist carnival

mental health advice: tell me what you think

the other day i received a phone call from william (not his real name), very distressed. he was in the psych ward, on his third week now. “i gotta get better, i gotta get better!” he kept saying. his hospitalization had been preceded by a good six weeks of progressively worsening mental health. anxiety, depression… Continue reading mental health advice: tell me what you think