In a recent article in Time magazine, Maia Szalavitz suggests that “Pro-Ana” blogs and websites can actually help some anorexics. On the periphery of Szalavitz’s argument, I can agree with much that she says, however when it gets to the core, I have to disagree with the fundamental principles of what she is suggesting.
recovery Archive
29 Aug 2012
My Experience With Alcoholics Anonymous And Early Sobriety (Ava)
Sobriety is a different forest, and one I am picking my way through carefully. The level of commitment that AA seems to require is daunting, as is the god issue. But I have seen people speak there that moved and affected me in a way that was more beneficial than any serenity prayer. Balancing cynicism and nihilism with the all-to-clear possibility of death, I’ve relapsed this month but I’m trying to embrace the program without losing myself. When I relapsed, my wife yelled at me to give her the rest of the bottle of vodka, and all I could say was, “I want something to myself, that is mine.” I gave her the bottle. I want to believe I have other things to hold onto, but the glacial heft of a glass bottle is a hand held.
28 Aug 2012
My Partner With Borderline Personality Disorder (Hanners)
It is my pleasure to introduce the newest series, “My Partner With…” to QueerMentalHealth.org. Relationships can be a challenge for anyone, though they can be especially difficult when they are impacted by mental health issues. It is my hope that we can help others understand how to approach a partner’s mental health concerns. I’m starting this series off by talking about the issues that come up for myself and my partner, who has Borderline Personality Disorder.
If you were to get all your information about Borderline Personality Disorder by going to online support groups for partners of people with this condition, you would learn the following:
- Borderlines are always abusive
- Borderlines are always in denial
- Borderlines never take responsibility for their actions
- Borderlines will love you one minute, and hate you the next
- Relationships with borderlines are notoriously unstable
20 Aug 2012
My Experience With Borderline Personality Disorder (Breyonne)
I am a 33 year old woman. I received a diagnosis about a year and a half ago of Borderline Personality Disorder. At first I didn’t really understand what it was. I thought, Isn’t what I have more serious than that? I was pretty sure I had something else, something more recognizable. Something I’d actually heard of, for instance. Turns out it’s serious enough. On top of the shitstorm of feelings and thoughts I have on a daily basis, professionals are reluctant to treat people with BPD. We’re notorious for being ‘hard to deal with’.
01 Aug 2012
My Experience With Recovery (Breyonne)
Seven years ago I got tired of living my life the way I was. I couldn’t stop drinking, smoking, eating or doing drugs. I was sick constantly. I was living in harmful situations with toxic people, and each and every day was exactly the same. My only respite was to go out and get loaded again.
13 Apr 2012
Gluten-Freedom, Down with Dairy, Up the Health
I have been vegan for over 6 years. Being vegan definitely evened out a lot of things for me including mood swings and a lot of health problems. All of those extra animal hormones, and if you believe in that sort of thing, all of that suffering from their treatment, was no longer entering my body.
13 Feb 2012
On Chemical Imbalances and Drug Culture
I have been thinking a lot about drug culture lately and how many medical communities’ and societal groups’ abuse of the “quick fix” solution for everything creates fear and sickness in so many people. I think of how it fits in with the fast paced, competitive capitalist culture many of us live in, resulting in more time for working to get more or to survive and little time to heal oneself. As many readers know, one of the first solutions to many health issues we are offered is medication. We are bombarded with medication ads on television, in waiting rooms of doctors offices, and often from the doctors themselves (at least in the U.S. where I live). However, it is not simply the advertising that factors in. It is the fear. A culture of fear that teaches us if we stray from the mainstream medical solutions for all illnesses- drugs and expensive procedures- at best it will not work and at worst we will get far worse and die. This is not reality.
18 Jan 2012
Mixed States and Dangerous Gifts
Triggers: suicide, massive mood swings, depression, mixed states, angry rantings of a crazy person, premonitions that would likely be labeled psychosis by a psychiatrist, raw unedited emotional writing, car accidents
I clicked on the suicide prevention link at the top of the home page before beginning to write here. I am not close. I know too well what close is. But I have every thought listed on that page. I wanted to write about the horrors of mixed states. I am in one. But how can I write about one when I am in one without broken fragments or run on sentences that won’t make sense to anyone.
16 Jan 2012
My Experience with Schizophrenia (Coda)
Trigger warnings for description of psychotic episodes and a suicide attempt, in detail, and violent imagery.
I have Schizophrenia. I find certain words can lose their sting when we just come out and say them. So I’m saying it. I live with Schizophrenia. This is my story.
09 Dec 2011
Redefining My Dreams
A terrible crime has been committed, a brutal murder. The suspect? Mental Illness. The victim? My dreams. In the past 3 years, I have gone from a successful professional with a promising career and a wonderful loving partner, to an emotional wreck, unsure if I am even able to hold down a full time job anymore.