There’s a certain scorn reserved for people who diagnose themselves with mental illnesses–people who, based on their own research or prior knowledge, decide that there’s a decent chance they have a diagnosable disorder, even if they haven’t (yet) seen a professional about it. I understand why psychologists and psychiatrists might find them troublesome. Nobody likes …
Category Archive: mental illness
May 04 2013
Criticizing Psychiatry Without Throwing the Baby Out with the Bathwater
So, I read this article in The Atlantic called “The Real Problems with Psychiatry” and…I’m torn. The article is an interview with this guy Gary Greenberg, a therapist who has previously written a book called Manufacturing Depression: The Secret History of a Modern Disease and has now followed that up with The Book of Woe: …
Apr 27 2013
Living With Depression: Strength
[Content note: depression] Half a year ago I started a series of posts about living with depression in order to help people understand what it’s like to have it beyond just the DSM symptoms that you always hear about. Then I moved to FtB and got super intimidated and didn’t want to write it anymore. …
Apr 14 2013
Lessons I Learned From Depression
[Content note: depression] People struggling with mental illness (or any sort of illness, or anything crappy, really) are constantly exhorted by well-meaning people to find the “silver lining” in their experience. This often takes the form of tropes about “learning who your real friends are” or “learning how to fully appreciate life” or “understanding what’s …
Mar 26 2013
All These Years I Thought I Was Just Lazy
[Content note: eating disorders/weight loss stuff] My arms are on fire. When I woke up this morning I felt the burn immediately. I’ve been stretching and moving them around all day, simultaneously wincing and savoring the feeling because it tells me that I’m getting stronger. I’m on spring break right now and have been taking …
Mar 14 2013
Does Telling People to “Think Positive” Actually Help? An Informal Survey and Some Protips
Positive thinking is the bane of my existence. Not because I can’t do it, but because I’ve so often been exhorted to do it in the most unhelpful of ways. I’m someone who prefers to talk mostly about the neutral or negative aspects of my life to friends and family because I don’t want to …
Mar 09 2013
Blaming Everything On Mental Illness
The Associated Press has revised their AP Stylebook, the guide that most journalists use to standardize their writing, to include an entry on mental illness. Among many other important things that the entry includes, which you should read here, it says: Do not describe an individual as mentally ill unless it is clearly pertinent to …
Feb 06 2013
[guest post] We Need To Talk About Incest Survival
[Content note: incest, sexual assault, self-harm, eating disorders] Someone I know and respect asked me to publish this anonymous guest post. -M Mia Fontaine wrote an article in The Atlantic recently about the incest problem in America. Although we talk about sex scandals, stranger danger, and the abuses of the Catholic Church, as a society, …
Jan 14 2013
LGBT Celebrities Do Not Owe Coming Out To Anyone
Everyone’s got an opinion on Jodie Foster’s speech at the Golden Globes last night. If you haven’t seen it, here’s a video with a transcript. In the speech, Foster spoke affectionately of her ex-partner, with whom she raised children, and explained that she “already did [her] coming out about a thousand years ago back in …
Jan 01 2013
Six Months
Every New Year’s Eve, I write a post about the year that’s about to end. When I was younger, I mostly used these posts to talk about significant things that had happened to me (getting a boyfriend, losing a boyfriend, getting into this or that program or college, and so on), explain what I’d learned …
About the Author
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- "Sticks and stones may break my bones, but words can make me think I deserved it."“Sticks and stones may break my bones, but words can make me think I deserved it.” - xkcd: Sticks and Stones […]
- On Useful and Not-So-Useful Definitions of RacismOn Useful and Not-So-Useful Definitions of Racism: Richard Dawkins, whose Twitter feed never fails to amuse, has lately been discussing racism–specifically, against white people. Dawkins sounds eerily like my high school self here–desperate to stick to his own definitions of things and reject the definitions of others, all while claiming that everyone needs […]
- In which I have zero patience for sexism and mansplaining on my Facebook Wallpiedpi: No country for Reddit/MRA arguments. The article being not-debated is here. The thing that sucks the most is that this is one of my good friend’s fiance… And she actually liked the article when I posted it. IT’S SO WEIRD WHEN PEOPLE TALK ABOUT SOMETHING I WROTE AND THEN I COME ACROSS IT. […]
- WHO THE FUCK IS IN BOTH A RADICAL FEMINIST MEETUP AND A PUA...WHO THE FUCK IS IN BOTH A RADICAL FEMINIST MEETUP AND A PUA MEETUP […]
- "It's not about gender.""It's not about gender.": Sea turtles (superfamily Chelonioidea) are found in all of the world’s oceans except the Arctic. They spend the majority of their lives in the sea, but females return to shore to lay eggs. All seven surviving species of sea turtle are on the endangered species list. Like many marine animals, they are threatened by oil […]
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Two things to keep in mind:
1. I am bad at answering lengthy emails. Sorry!
2. I may ask you for permission to blog about our correspondence. However, if you are harassing/abusive/trollish, then I no longer have to ask you for permission. Proceed with caution!
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