Clik here to view.
The Little Things; A Double-Edged Sword with Psychosis
For me, the little things have been a big part of getting healthier from schizoaffective disorder. There were a number of little things that I was doing right but also many that I needed to improve...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Philosophy and Life Events: Keys to Psychosis
Bipolar disorder has been a major part of my mental health journey and one of the more difficult components to this has been depression. Until recently I didn’t know the extent of the negativity I was...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Elements of Thought Broadcasting
Feeling like my thoughts were being broadcast to the world was a really difficult symptom to deal with during and after my episodes of schizoaffective disorder. Before my second hospitalization, I...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Insights Into Referential Thinking
Referential thinking to me is the idea that everything everyone was saying or doing was in direct relation to me. With psychosis, there was a process and a way of thinking that was ego-centric, and it...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Forgiving the Psychiatric System
In a writing group I’ve been a part of for over eight years, I was reading an article I’d written about how terrible psychiatric care has been over the centuries. I talked about my own personal...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Interpersonal Dynamics With Family and Friends
From ages 19 to 24 I spent most of my time in isolation as a result of being in episodes of schizoaffective disorder and/or their aftermath. Being alone all this time caused me to develop strange...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Implicit and Explicit Messages With Social Trauma
During middle school and while living in a fraternity in college, being a part of abusive interpersonal dynamics was incredibly damaging and created a good portion of my psychosis. Sometimes people ask...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Social Dynamics With Stigma
Dealing with mental health stigma is a day to day struggle which follows me wherever I go. There’s so much stigma within our society, that it’s engrained in the culture, the language, the way people...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Disclosing a Diagnosis While Dating
Getting back into the dating world about a year ago after having schizoaffective disorder for thirteen years has been a new and interesting challenge. I did have a girlfriend about four years ago for...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Stigmatizing Medications – A Societal Problem
During my childhood, I had a cognitive impairment which inhibited me verbally. I felt like the majority of situations and conversations I was in were really difficult for me whereas everyone else knew...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Double Binds and Friendships
One major component of my mental health recovery has been working on eliminating double binds. A double bind is typically a situation where you’re only given negative choices with negative consequences...
View ArticleClik here to view.
The Red Truck
It was the beginning of February and the ground was covered with snow. As I walked to class at my new college I stared through the fog that the cloudy, unseasonable sixty-degree weather had created....
View ArticleClik here to view.
Autonomy and Family Dynamics
During my episodes of schizoaffective disorder, my parents frequently canceled plans with their friends due to my mental health. They didn’t know how to address this with their friends and eventually,...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Stigma & Self-Stigma: Barriers to Living a Full Life
With stigma, there’s an assumed inferiority people have had while interacting with me. Even for myself, I have my own self-stigma that contributes to this feeling of inferiority at times. Over the...
View ArticleClik here to view.
The Stadium
“When should I tell her I have schizophrenia?” My buddy Ken and I maneuvered the golf cart through the hills and valleys of Pine Valley Golf Course. Both shots were in the fairway. “I dunno man. Just...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Power Dynamics in Psychiatric Care
I remember having a conversation with someone who mentioned how only fifty years ago people were still performing lobotomies and other experiments and how that was considered psychology. This person...
View ArticleClik here to view.
My Mental Health Energy Crisis
Over the years I’ve noticed some drastic differences in my energy levels while living with schizoaffective disorder. There have been a number of problems regarding energy in my mental health journey...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Hearing Voices and Seeing Visions: A Normal Human Experience
Having been someone who has heard voices and who frequently gets visions and also having been a facilitator of a Hearing Voices Network Group for nearly three years there are a number of things that...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Language and Interpersonal Dynamics With Psychosis
Learning how to talk about mental health struggles can be a really difficult process, especially if you haven’t gone through them. There are different languages for talking about mental health....
View ArticleClik here to view.
Grieving Losses From Mental Illness
With having had mental illness over the years there’s been a great deal of loss that’s occurred. Sometimes loss is associated with life and death, however, having had schizophrenia for fifteen years...
View Article