As a caregiver and mental health advocate, I keep my eyes and ears open for news and discussions related to mental illness and stigma. There seems to be an influx of news stories recently, and the good news is that these stories are not being circulated on the heels of a tragic event or situation […]
Guest Post: The Breaking of all that was Whole
Today’s guest post author shared that he wrote this piece after reading the Tao through several times. In it, he explores the things in our lives that we create that brings about separation and disconnection from each other. It also speaks indirectly about the battles, the breaking, that can occur within each of us; good versus evil, sickness versus […]
Ghosts of Christmas Past
Christmas time, as the song goes, is a time of joy and cheer. For me, it serves as a reminder of a specific Christmas season four years ago; the year that everything changed. It was a major fork in the road for me, and as Yogi Berra says, “When you come to the fork in the road, take it” and take it I did.
Peer Pressure
***My hope is that this post will help parents and caregivers better understand the role that peer pressure can play in an adolescent’s mental health crisis, especially where cutting is involved*** One of the most startling experiences during my son’s mental health crisis was the realization that within his adolescent peer group, mental illness […]
Speaking Up
The following post was originally published on the Childhood Bipolar Project site on June 28, 2014. As you read, think about this… how often do we ignore that voice inside us that says something is not right, this doesn’t feel right to me or this doesn’t honor my needs? And why do we ignore? Food […]
Yoga, Hip-Hop and Healing
Over this past weekend, I had the opportunity to attend a yoga conference in the mountains of Vermont. Perhaps, upon reading this, your mind went right to a visual of hippie flower children running around the mountainside Namaste-ing each other. And you know what? You’d be right on! Oh, but it was so much more […]
Unexpected Memories
On a recent morning, I was driving to an early meeting when I hit quite a bit of traffic. Living where I do, we can be anywhere from the suburbs to the city within 20 minutes; during normal “rush hour” it might take 27 minutes. But on this morning, traffic was stopped. I flipped on […]
Fighting Stigma
Last week, I had the honor and privilege to share an original essay on shattering stigma as part of the Stigma Fighters series on oldschoolnewschoolmom.com. Sarah Fader created Stigma Fighters as a safe place for people to share their stories about living with mental illness. Sarah not only has created this non-judgmental space for others […]
Shattering the Stigma
Today, Far From Paradise’s latest post is being featured over at OldSchoolNewSchoolMom.com as part of their Stigma Fighters series – You can read it in full here. ****Head on over and show some love! Stigma Fighters is a blog series where real people with mental health issues are sharing their stories in order to combat societal stigma. Human beings […]
How Big is your Brave?
I am participating in Diane DeBella’s #iamsubject project http://www.iamsubject.com/the-iamsubject-project/. Here is my #iamsubject story. “I want to see your brave, show me how big your brave is” – Sara Bareilles At certain points in life we are all presented with opportunities to be brave. There are many ways to be brave but none tougher, […]
