New Years, new ideas, new things.
So, what say you to some new ideas for my blogging? I’m really looking for your responses, and yes, they will effect what I decide to do.
Important: I am Kate, not Ashley. I speak only for my posting. So, if you tell me I need to be making more ukelele videos, that’s nice, but I can’t sing, and you sure don’t want to watch me try to play music.
Idea One: A weekly segment on a single mental illness, how it can present, criteria for diagnosis, myths and misconceptions, and holes and flaws in the methods of treatment and diagnosis. This got pretty great responses on Twitter, so it’ll be happening. Ideas for the first illness are much appreciated!
Idea Two: Mental health skepticism! I keep meaning to do more of this, but it’s slipped by the wayside. There’s a lot of nutty ideas out there about psychiatric medication (Do SSRI’s cause suicide?), therapy (Rorschach, anyone?), IQ tests, and on and on. I’d like to talk more about that.
Idea Three: Asexuality. Fun fact: I am under the ace umbrella. I keep meaning to write a general post about it, or a more specific one about (A)sexual, an excellent documentary, recently released, but somehow I never finish.
Other things in no particular order: These are titles of pieces that I’ve been meaning to write about, or haven’t gotten out of my drafts, and still haven’t managed to. If you like anyone especially (or conversely, dislike anyone), I’ll take it into consideration.
- No True Scotsman, Apathy, & the Deep Rifts
- DSM 5 vs. DSM IV
- The varying levels of stigma associated with different disorders
- Alternative Medicine as Complementary Treatment: Still a Problem
- Making Your Conference Introvert/Social Anxiety Friendly
- People Who Benefit From Therapy and People Who Have Mental Illness: A Venn Diagram
Is there other stuff I’m leaving out that you’d like to see? Comment below! Also, it’s a new year, and I need more blogs to read–self-promote or promote other people!
Ashley's co-blogger is a third year student at Northwestern University who runs on coffee and snark. . At some point, she'd like to make people sit on couches and tell her about their feelings, but right now she writes in different places around the internet and makes silly faces when she doesn't know what to say. She's the president of her local Secular Student Alliance affiliate, and she is on the Secular Woman speakers bureau. Opinions do not necessarily reflect those of the Secular Student Alliance
17 comments
2 pings
Skip to comment form ↓
Miriam, Professional Fun-Ruiner
January 1, 2013 at 9:48 pm (UTC -4) Link to this comment
Oooh! “People Who Benefit From Therapy and People Who Have Mental Illness: A Venn Diagram” urgently needs to be written about.
Chana Messinger
January 1, 2013 at 9:55 pm (UTC -4) Link to this comment
No True Scotsman, Apathy, & the Deep Rifts, Alternative Medicine as Complementary Treatment: Still a Problem and Making Your Conference Introvert/Social Anxiety Friendly!!!
Tetyana
January 1, 2013 at 9:59 pm (UTC -4) Link to this comment
All of them! Personally, I like idea 2 and 3 the most. I think idea 1 might be too hard to do. For one, what we define as a particular “illness” is quite driven by the DSM, and I find that inherently problematic (though to some extent unavoidable), for obvious reasons, I hope. I would be interested in the history of particular mental disorders (how they were viewed, how people made sense of them, etc..)
Kate Donovan
January 1, 2013 at 10:01 pm (UTC -4) Link to this comment
Oh, I should have been more clear–I meant DSM diagnoses, and wanted to do part of each segment on flaws with the diagnosis
Tetyana
January 2, 2013 at 12:25 am (UTC -4) Link to this comment
Oh, I see! Yeah, that can be good.
Bruce Martin
January 1, 2013 at 10:08 pm (UTC -4) Link to this comment
Making conferences introvert-friendly, please.
Ashley F. Miller
January 1, 2013 at 11:58 pm (UTC -4) Link to this comment
MORE UKULELE VIDEOS
jeffjeffjeff
January 2, 2013 at 2:02 am (UTC -4) Link to this comment
Dueling Ukuleles.
Jason Thibeault
January 2, 2013 at 4:29 pm (UTC -4) Link to this comment
I’m imagining the first refrain of Dueling Banjos by ASHLEY I SAID ASHLEY NOT MIRIAM, followed by dischordant plonking by Kate. It amused me.
thebookofdave
January 2, 2013 at 8:04 pm (UTC -4) Link to this comment
I am appalled at the way we ceded the off-key ukelele genre to Victoria Jackson. You need to throw down the gauntlet, and make her fight for every inch of the stage. No more free rides!
deannajoylyons
January 2, 2013 at 2:14 am (UTC -4) Link to this comment
These are all very interesting topics and I would be excited to read any of them. I’d be especially interested to read more about Asexuality because I am particularly fascinated by the wide ranges there are to human sexuality.
Thanks, Kate!
Brad
January 2, 2013 at 3:02 am (UTC -4) Link to this comment
How to get it together enough to seek treatment when the steps necessary to obtain (rather than the treatment itself. phones and receptionists, not therapists and psychologists) it are precluded by the illness.
How to give useful information when you’ve had enough good days in a row to be able to show up, but also your memory has fuzzed on how bad it was three weeks ago so neither do you accurately remember, nor are you presenting. Preferably passive methods that don’t require effort on bad days.
Some follow up on the SSRI info, JT said they make his brain fuzzy, which sounds like it would trigger all sorts of bad things in people who value their mental ability. Like an athlete that can’t anymore due to injury.
A neologism less silly than the spoons thing. When one of the things we’re fighting for is to be taken seriously, being left with the name of a card game when trying to explain things isn’t helping.
mikmik
January 2, 2013 at 12:14 pm (UTC -4) Link to this comment
They are all important as hell, but I would really like to see this addressed: No True Scotsman, Apathy, & the Deep Rifts.
There is far, far to much of that shite A guid word is as easy sayed as a ill ane.
Kate Donovan
January 2, 2013 at 12:15 pm (UTC -4) Link to this comment
Given your comment, you might disagree a little with what I say
But yes, I’ll hopefully get that out within the month.
mikmik
January 2, 2013 at 12:25 pm (UTC -4) Link to this comment
A good word is not always called for, but we’ll see. Ahm joost guessin, what you’ll say. I like hearing about feeling, also
sheila
January 2, 2013 at 4:10 pm (UTC -4) Link to this comment
They all sound good to me, but #2 and the No True Scotsman thingy sound extra good.
psocoptera
January 2, 2013 at 5:27 pm (UTC -4) Link to this comment
Looking forward to it. Would recommend fact-checking the DSM-5 stuff as their website no longer has criteria on it and a lot of the reporting has been shoddy and error-filled (Time magazine, for example). You can usually call APA and get answers.
Psychopathology Sum-Up: Bipolar Disorder » Ashley Miller
January 9, 2013 at 7:58 pm (UTC -4) Link to this comment
[...] series! As per previous discussion, I will be published a big information blog about a specific mental illness on each [...]
Psychopathology Sum-Up: Types of Anti-depressants » Ashley Miller
February 1, 2013 at 4:46 pm (UTC -4) Link to this comment
[...] series! As per previous discussion, I will be published a big information blog on each Friday. Unfortunately, it’s midterms for [...]