APA Mental Health Blog Party 2011 Roundup

Here is our roundup of posts from the Psych Central Blog Network that blogged about mental health today as a part of the American Psychological Association’s (APA) Mental Health “Blog Party.” Psych Central is the world’s largest independent mental health network run by ordinary mental health professionals. Each month, over 1.5 million people visit our site from around the world to learn more about better mental health and conditions like depression, bipolar disorder, schizophrenia, ADHD and anxiety.

Psych Central bloggers are some of the most dedicated and passionate people I’ve met in the field of mental health. Some are professionals, some are not, but all share one thing in common — they have a knack for writing about psychology and mental health issues with a dedication and enthusiasm you don’t see elsewhere. We love our bloggers — they are simply some of the best people you’ll ever meet (virtually!).

We’re proud to represent mental health and wellness awareness this day, in our own unique and personalized way. We’ll be updating this post throughout the day with new posts that are published from our bloggers, so stay tuned!

Artists and Mental Health
(The Creative Mind) – “Who in the rainbow can draw the line where the violet tint ends and the orange tint begins? Distinctly we see the difference of the colors, but where exactly does the one first blendingly enter into the other? So with sanity and insanity.” Herman Melville, “Billy Budd, Sailor” According to …

Drinking Or Drugging? 10 Reasons To Tell Your Therapist The Truth
(Therapy Soup) – It doesn’t matter how brilliant you are. If you are drinking or using drugs your therapist needs to know.

Five Life-Changing Mental Health Books
(Always Learning) – For Mental Health Awareness Day, I’ve picked out five of the most amazingly informative, life-changing mental health books I’ve ever read: Loneliness; Human Nature and the Need for Social Connection by John Cacioppo and William Patrick The Noonday Demon; an Atlas of Depression by Andrew Solomon Against Depression by Peter …

Understanding Emotional Eating
(360 Degrees of Mindful Living) – Emotional eating is misunderstood and often unnecessarily demonized. However, emotional eating — that is, eating to feel good, often termed “compulsive eating” — isn’t the problem. It’s emotional overeating and mindless emotional eating that can be both psychologically and physically unhealthy. Emotional eating works as a coping strategy and stress …

Excavating Your Mental Health and Finding Buried Treasure
(The Therapist Within) – “Mental health.” They sound like pretty dull words. And it seems we know best what they mean when things go wrong with them. We hear general statements about what mental health ‘should’ (or ‘shouldn’t’) look like for everyone. So it often seems like a kind of one-size-fits-all expression. But if …

The One Major Lesson I’ve Learned
(Mindfulness and Psychotherapy) – For this APA Mental Health Blog Party, I’m going to get right down to it. If there’s one major lesson I’ve learned it’s that we can’t always control what happens to us, but true freedom lies in cultivating the awareness to choose how we want to respond. Mindfulness is fundamental …

Happy Mental Health Blogging Day! Please Join Us in the Global Mental Health Movement
(ADHD in Focus) – It is so amazing how organizations are popping up all over the world helping all join forces to tackle mental health diseases.  I was privileged enough to speak in Athens, Greece a few years ago about iFred’s rebranding depression work, and learned from countries around the world just how important …

Mental Health Blog Party: Why Do I Blog About Mental Health?
(World of Psychology) – As part of May Is Mental Health Awareness Month, many of us here at PsychCentral are participating in a Mental Health Blog Party hosted by the American Psychological Association. Today, May 18, we are all blogging about mental health awareness. Here’s my contribution. Why do I blog about mental health?

Mental Health Month: 7 Ways To Advocate Like A Celebrity!
(Celebrity Psychings) – Every May since 1949, people all across the United States band together to shine a spotlight on mental health. We call it Mental Health Month, and we aim to increase mental health awareness and provide information about resources, educational tools, and support. Given that one in four Americans lives with …

Worshiping at the Shrine of a Really Good Shrink
(Real World Research) – I put myself into psychotherapy for the first time when I was a teenager, and have returned at various times over the years when I’ve been overwhelmed by whatever. But when a friend compared my attitude about therapy to a fundamentalist’s attitude towards religion — implying that it is unyielding and intolerant …

Bipolar Dad: Out of the Mouth of My Children
(Mental Health Humor) – Today, May 18th, 2011 is a very special day here at Psych Central! Collectively, many of the bloggers will be posting personal stories of their recovery during the day long Blog party. I thought I would take a different approach and let my 4  kids draw a caricature of me.  …

My Fall — The Beginning
(Adventures of a Bipolar Mom) – I vividly remember when my oldest son was born a horrific story of two teenage parents who had given birth to a little baby boy, killed him, and put him in a dumpster.  I was devastated.  I could not believe any parent could do that.  I didn’t understand it.  I …

The Stigma Of Eating Disorders & Setting Stereotypes Straight
(Weightless) – Eating disorders are serious biologically-based mental illnesses, which can affect anyone. They do not discriminate by age, gender, class, color, culture, size, shape or weight. They cause a variety of health complications, including heart problems, electrolyte imbalances and osteoporosis. Eating disorders also have the highest mortality rate of any mental …

10 Ways to Improve Your Relationship Through Good Mental Health
(Partners in Wellness) – Today, May 18, 2011, the American Psychological Association has dedicated the day to blogging about mental health. Obviously, we blog about mental health every day around here on PsychCentral, but in honor of today’s celebration, here’s a list of 10 ways you can enhance your relationship through good mental health …

Mental Health Awareness Day: Battling Stigma through Science and Medicine
(Bipolar Beat) – As a psychiatrist, every day I encounter families struggling with mental illness, especially in their children whose lives range from disrupted to shattered as a consequence of these challenges. In these daily battles I’m most frustrated and saddened by the jaw-dropping lack of compassion surrounding me and my patients regarding …

What “Soft” Bipolar Looks Like
(Light, Laughter and Life) – So today’s the APA’s Mental Health Blog Party and I’m here to share a little about my own experiences with what’s often called “Soft Bi-Polar” or Soft Signs of Bi-polar. Like so many illnesses, there’s a broad spectrum of which to be positioned…. from having soft signs (a “little bipolar” …

Increasing Mental Health Awareness: Too Much of a Good Thing?
(World of Psychology) – Today is the American Psychological Association’s “Blog Party” in recognition of May being mental health month. The marketing effort behind designating a specific month a time to recognize and help increase awareness of a certain disease, disorder or condition is intended to help people learn more about various medical and …

Party in My Head
(Mentoring and Recovery) – When I first heard about the APA’s (American Psychological Association) Mental Health Blog Party, I thought, “Wha?!?” A blog party. That part was confusing enough. About mental health? And I thought there was bickering in my head about meanings before. So. A Mental. Health. Blog. PARTY. I decided I had to check this out. I learned that …

The Death of Mental Illness
(Guideposts to Happiness) – In writing this post, I may be crashing the American Psychological Association’s annual blog party. Naturally, I’m in favor of joining others to increase awareness and reduce stigma around psychiatric problems. But despite the spirit of solidarity, I’m perhaps an outsider, because I no longer believe ‘mental illness’ serves as …

Robert Duval in ‘Get Low’: The Lasting Power of Guilt and Shame
(Movies and Mental Health) – ‘Get Low’ (2009) starring Robert Duval, Sissy Spacek and Bill Murray, offers powerful lessons about the lasting effects of guilt and shame.

Has Your Therapist Ever Been In Therapy?
(Healing Together for Couples) – If you have even wondered if your therapist has been in therapy you may be surprised to find that the majority of mental health practitioners actually practice what they preach. A national survey of psychologists found that 400 of 476 or 84% of those responding reported having been in therapy. …

APA Blog Party — A Story Of Postpartum Depression and PMDD
(Family Mental Health) – [Postpartum Depression and PMDD – Hope For Help] Today I’m participating in the APA (American Psychological Association) Blog Party! I’m going to take my turn by telling my postpartum depression story and share some thoughts on the general topic of mental health. …

The Five Freedoms of Becoming More Fully Human — Virginia Satir & Mental Health
(Neuroscience and Relationships) – In celebration of mental health, today’s post honors family psychotherapist and social worker extraordinaire Virginia Satir. Recognized by many as “the pioneer of family therapy,” she developed her own approach, conjoint family therapy, in the 1960s, later known as the human validation process model or the Satir Change Model as …

I’m a Chick ADD — and Proud Of It!
(ADHD from A to Zoë) – Some of you know how I found out about having ADHD: my friend Chris, who is TOTALLY ADD, suggested I take an online test for it myself. The one test you DON’T want to Ace… Now, normally, I’m happy to ace a test. This one, not so much… The test …

Reasons to Live (Video)
(Channel N) – “I am alive because…” People share why and how they are alive now after dealing with suicidal thoughts.

Getting the Mental Health Help You Need
(Anxiety and OCD Exposed) – We are writing today in support of the American Psychological Association’s Mental Health Blog Party. Here’s to all of us who have chronic, acute, or occasional issues with mental health. That’s commonly thought to be 1 out of every 4 people. But to be honest, being human pretty much guarantees …

Bipolar Dad: Out of the Mouth of My Children
(Mental Health Humor) – Today, May 18th, 2011 is a very special day here at Psych Central! Collectively, many of the bloggers will be posting personal stories of their recovery during the day long Blog party. I thought I would take a different approach and let my 4  kids draw a caricature of me.

The High Cost of Stigma
(Dialectical Behavior Therapy Understood) – Good mental health is something that we all strive for.  Happiness in life has long been a pursuit of people in the West.  And yet, despite our desire for optimum happiness and good mental health, many feel unable to discuss psychological problems. In a recent interview, I talked with author …

Drinking Or Drugging? 10 Reasons To Tell Your Therapist The Truth
(Therapy Soup) – If you’re seeing a psychologist or counselor for a mental illness, the chances are fairly good that you also drink or take drugs that are not prescribed for you (or abuse drugs that are prescribed for you). The chances are also fairly good that your therapist has no idea that you are using alcohol or drugs. Many therapists in private practice do not take complete drug and alcohol histories when doing the initial or subsequent evaluations. If you ain’t volunteering the information, they won’t know …