Mental Health

Blog Carnival Edition for January 10, 2007

Happy new year, everyone. We may be entering a new year, but we don’t need to wait hundreds of days to get that “brand new feeling.” We have a new chance every second and every moment of our lives to renew, to make different choices, and to decide that we deserve a joyful life. May your 2007 - and every moment - be joyful and healthy.

Here are my selections for our first carnival of this new year. I thank all of you who have taken the time to contribute. I also want to thank Marja Flick-Buijs for her lovely photograph you see with this post; it’s called “center abstract”.

Please keep in mind that entries are selected on relevance to the mental health topic - preferably from an individual experience. Starting this year, some entries that are selected for the blog carnival will also be linked from within Jane’s Mental Health Source Page under the appropriate category. This will help visitors find your articles long after the carnival has published.

Linda Freedman’s Empathy, Boundaries, and Getting Dirty shows us a rare glimpse of what mental health professionals go through when they are helping people. Good therapists make a connection with their clients, so that the clients can speak from a place of trust and get the help they need. This connection can come at a price.

Scott Lee’s Overcoming Emotional Attachment accomplishes two things: the importance of self-accountability (i.e. I don’t deny the chemical imbalance, and I also don’t deny that I do have choices) and an introduction to the mechanics of “letting go.” We throw “letting go” around like a catchphrase, but many of us don’t actually know how to “let go.” The sedona method can be a good complement to any healing process. I have attended an introductory seminar in the past and have the book and CDs on the method. Thanks for sharing with us, Scott.

Hal Sommerschield, Ph.D.’s Always Sick At Christmas Is a Signal raises an important question: can an illness become an identity - even a purpose? There are cases where we can grow attached to our labels for one reason or another. One day, we become so used to this attachment that we begin to believe that “we are our sickness.” When that happens, healing can only take place when we get to the core of this phenomena and realize that at some point, we began to believe that having a condition gets us something we deeply want (often love).

GNIF Brain Blogger shared a mother’s relationship both with her son and with other family members whose compassion and patience have bounds. In Staying the Course Prescribed for Major Depressive and Bipolar Disorders: A Family’s Journey Thus Far, Patti Wilson-Herndon talks about her son’s major depressive disorder and possible bipolar disorder condition, and how she has learned not to be as emotionally affected by less-than-understanding family members of her son’s condition. GNIF Brain Blogger also explains THE book in psychiatry: The Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, DSM.

I checked out Silent Bipolar Professional’s blog as soon as I received the post for the carnival. I see a lot of potential in this fledgling blog, and I hope Silent BP continues to share via this blog. Silent BP’s blog remind us that many who suffer from bipolar disorder lead productive lives and make tremendous difference in society. Yet Silent BP believes that anonymity should be encouraged, as our society likes to compartmentalize people, and “There is no reason to expose yourself to the groundless scorn of strangers, co-workers, and the like.” Thanks and keep on writing, Silent Bipolar Professional.

Darren Hayhurst is someone who had experienced depression and wants to share some of the lessons he has learned at The Mind. Darren probably writes as he would converse with you, and you can feel Darren encouraging you to beat depression with “the right help.” This is also a new blog, likely focused on personal development. Similarly, Randy Ynez writes about personal development and shares how anxiety and excitement are both sides of the same coin. Please keep in mind that the article is not discussing anxiety as a medical diagnosis.

Isabella Mori writes wonderful articles on mental health, and her seasonal storms is a gem. I love her analogy of an “emotional storm”. I hope we can take note that self-isolation comes very easily, and sometimes without our noticing it. When I was in the throes of depression, I was isolating myself quite a bit. Isabella shares ways we can “safely” connect with others and extricate ourselves from dangerous isolation.

Lyman Reed decided to go back on antidepressants again. He writes about his decision and how many self-help schools of thought look down upon modern medicine as one big conspiracy. Medications harm as well as help, which is why medications are strong stuff not to be meddled with. I’m as enthusiastic about the laws of attraction as many who love personal development. I’m also trained as a scientist. I find that some celebrity speakers can make gross generalizations about modern medicine as if nothing good as come out of it. This can do harm to those who can be helped by modern medicine but don’t seek help because they follow whatever a “guru” says without critical analysis of all the facts. I have enjoyed many of Wayne Dyer’s books and CDs, but I bet modern medicine saved Dyer’s life when he suffered a heart attack and had to be treated by doctors.

This concludes this edition. Please submit your articles to the next edition here. Please keep in mind that I get overwhelming responses for each carnival, and will enforce selection criteria of relevant topics to mental health (as medically relevant to depression and bipolar disorder and not only positive thinking). I give preference over first-person experiences.

To comment on this carnival, please click on this post’s permalink and scroll down to the comment box. Thank you!

Until Next Time,

© 2008 by Jane Chin, Ph.D. (email) All Rights Reserved.
Abstract logo images by Asif Akbar