Tag: mental illness

Supporting Youth Mental Health: The Do’s & Don’ts

picture of adult showing emotional support to teenager

May is National Mental Health Month. This month is set aside to help raise awareness regarding mental health concerns. As we approach the halfway mark of 2021, the world is continuing its efforts to recover from the enormously stressful, bleak, and traumatizing impacts of 2020. People are coping with the continued threat of COVID-19 and …

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What’s in a Name?

The Social Security Administration has officially joined the club. Better late than never, you could say. In August 2010, the U.S. Senate and House of Representatives passed Rosa’s Law, which legally required the terms “mental retardation” and “mentally retarded” to be removed from all federal education, health, and labor laws. Just last month, the Social …

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Protecting the Mentally Ill in Prison

Imagine you’ve just been sentenced to prison. For a month, a year, 10 years, it doesn’t matter. What do you think would be going through your head? What the conditions will be like? Will you be safe from other inmates? How will you handle being confined? Can you survive without your friends and family on …

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How US Cities Sweep the Homeless Under the Rug

Recently I wrote a piece on Brazil’s forced eviction and razing of slums in preparation for the upcoming 2014 World Cup and 2016 Summer Olympics. Brazil’s efforts were an attempt at glossing over poverty in a major emerging economy that is about to be in the spotlight for the whole world.  It’s easy to pass …

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TIPS Project: When Attitudes Affect Actions

In the United States, schizophrenia is something that we fear. Ignore. Avoid. When we think of schizophrenia, our first thought jumps to an image of Jack Nicholson in One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest. Time and time again, the media portrays individuals with schizophrenia as crazy, violent, and dangerous. But it doesn’t have to be …

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Killing Genius

Over the past several weeks, I have gotten addicted to chess. I can’t get enough. I got my chess set that had been stashed away for years in my closet so I could play my Dad, played people online, and even stayed up until the early hours of the morning watching videos and commentary of …

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Heroic ‘Fin

Last Monday, after 3 months of labor disputes, the NFL lockout finally ended. Football nuts around the country (myself included) rejoiced. The threat of losing our favorite, most highly rated sport for an entire season was finally gone. We still have our best excuse to be unproductive on Sundays. Football is back, baby. I am …

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Giving Hope

In a few of my prior posts, I have discussed people who were unable to overcome mental illnesses such as depression or drug addiction. In today’s post, I’d like to share a more optimistic story. I will tell you about Dr. Marsha Linehan, an inspirational woman who overcame borderline personality disorder (BPD) and eventually developed …

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Read and Dance — Keep Your Mind Active

Like many people my age, I eagerly await this week’s release of Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows – Part 2. When I go to the midnight premiere on Thursday night, I will probably reflect on how much J.K. Rowling has given our generation. She gave us a hero to grow up with, stories to …

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