Category: Depression
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Life Lessons: Measuring Success Beyond Society’s Standards
At some point during the last few years, I experienced a light bulb moment and finally realised who I want to be during this next stage. I realised when I looked back, that society had indoctinated me to seek its narrow definition of success – where, ultimately, materialism is the most popular measure, in the…
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How to Support A Loved One Struggling with Mental Health Issues
With a decade of experience in this area, I feel an obligation to share with anyone in a similar situation the strategies that have helped us support our loved one and our own mental health along the way.
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Why Do Anti-depressants Still Get Such a Bad Rap?
I question the responsibility and wisdom of sensationalising the side effects of anti-depressants and potentially alienating the very people whose lives might be saved by them.
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Mental Illness: Why Love and Acceptance Must Be the First Line of Treatment
With love and acceptance – what I believe should be the first-line of treatment for people with mental illness – people like my son feel less isolated, judged and ashamed. Though “tough love” may be the gold standard approach to care for some mental illnesses, it is a risky choice and one that doesn’t necessarily…
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When You Don’t Feel Peopley Due To Anxiety
Mood-wise, I’ve experienced a bit of a crash over the past few weeks. That’s not unusual as you navigate menopause and anxiety, but it’s frustrating when I was about to launch myself into full holiday mode. Photo by Talles Alves on Unsplash I know stuff is serious when I’m not feeling peopley, because as a…
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Living One Day At A Time And Being Content With What We Have
A successful designer, seemingly with the world at her feet, takes her own life. Her body is found in her New York apartment with a note that will devastate her family and change the course of her young daughter’s life forever. One thing is certain: she achieved success in the way that the west determines…
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Ever Feel You’ve Lost Your Way?
I posted this meme on my Instagram page this week and it obviously resonated with my followers, so I thought I’d share it with you. I have a morbid addiction to allowing those “bad chapters” in my life cloud the good ones, and sometimes the clouds get really dark and fluffy, and no matter how…
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When It’s Time To Motivate Your ADHD Child, No Matter What The Psychs Say
One of the reasons I gave up my day job recently was to motivate Kurt to get back on track with his life. He’s had a difficult transition over the past two years since he left school and has suffered periods of depression and self-doubt at times, countered at other times by the ADHDer’s insatiable…
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Broken People
Wow! ‘Manchester By The Sea’. It’s unlike me to enthuse about movies on this site. Truth be told, it’s getting much harder to walk away from a movie and feel truly motivated these days, (Hidden Figures is an exception), so exhausted am I by the blatant ageism, objectification and sexism that Hollywood continues to get…
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Suicide, And Making Men Understand That They Don’t Have To Be Heroes
It seems a million shades of wrong to be preparing for Christmas drinks when a week or so ago another family lost their son, in his early twenties, to suicide. I cannot imagine their ongoing suffering as I worry about whether we’ll run out of wine or if I’ll poison everyone with my Thai chicken…
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‘Pretend You’re Good At It’
I’m reading “Furiously Happy” by Jenny Lawson, (aka The Bloggess) at the moment, upon the recommendation of Lana Hirshowitz, and although I initially struggled to decipher the twisting maze of her brain patterns, I’ve since tapped in and have found myself identify with the author’s self-professed craziness and daily struggles with anxiety. The book is…
LOUISA SIMMONDS 