Yesterday marked the end of National Suicide Prevention Week (September 8-September 14). I am choosing to write about it now because I couldn’t bring myself to do it during the week. Despite all the suicide prevention and awareness campaigns and the talk of decreasing the stigma by talking about suicide I still really can’t talk about my attempt at 16 years old.

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I remember when my former counsellor first brought up “sandplay therapy”. I thought it sounded ridiculous to be honest but I was willing to give it a chance. Early in 2013 the materials  were built, collected and ready to go and I had my first experience with sandplay therapy. Yes, I played with sand in therapy. And I had fun!

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For many, being diagnosed with a mental health issue or experiencing emotional difficulty is seen as being a deficit. Thinking of my own life I know I have felt that about myself and about other people with mental health issues. More importantly though I have seen how wrong that thinking is.

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A relaxation plan is a technique from Dialectical Behavioural Therapy (DBT). I address this post to not only your children but also you to, the parent. We can all benefit from a relaxation plan! The plan is what it sounds like, a plan to relax you or your child when experiencing overwhelming emotions which could lead to negative coping (ie: cutting or substance use). The goal behind creating a relaxation plan is as a first line of defense against and in dealing with overwhelming emotions.

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A distraction plan is a technique from Dialectical Behavioural Therapy (DBT). I address this post to not only your children but also you to, the parent. We can all benefit from a distraction plan! The plan is what it sounds like, a plan to distract you or your child from overwhelming emotions which could lead to negative coping (ie: cutting or substance use). The goal behind creating a distraction plan is as a first line of defense against and in dealing with overwhelming emotions.

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Borderline Personality Disorder (BPD) is not a label I shy away from most of the time. While I always identify as myself, first and foremost, I do not have a problem owning this diagnosis. The trick is, I do not see myself as sick, therefore the label of Borderline is just another descriptor I could use the same way I identify as a woman, for example. As my identity has developed I have discovered there are pros and cons of being Borderline.

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Though I have had OCD since I was a child myself, it kicked into overdrive with the birth of my first child. OCD is characterised by intrusive, often disturbing thoughts, followed by compulsive impulses. The thoughts are obsessive and often centre around intense worry of perceived harm or threat to self or loved ones. The compulsive impulses constitute an action in attempt to fend off or avoid that harm or threat. All of it is irrational, but automatic.

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Believe it or not there is more to mental health than meets the eye. For many individuals with mental health issues their identity, politics and treatment choices go beyond the current mainstream medical model. When I say medical model I mean things like psychology, psychiatry, medication, diagnosis and illness. In fact, there are at least 3 alternate mental health communities that offer hope, critique and action against stigma and discrimination. They are the Psychiatric Survivor Community, the Mad Community, and the Anti-psychiatry  community. 

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I’m certainly no expert on pets, but our family has had their fair share of creatures in our family. This summer we added three more kids to our family, of the goat variety. Pets can be a great tool to teach responsibility to kids, provide companionship as well as be a comfort during difficult times.

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I have been in therapy for little over a year and have recently decided that now is the time to end it. My reasons to end therapy are because I feel like I am prepared to handle things on my own and because I am not doing well with the path it is taking. We are going to have a final session to wrap things up and she told me that I am always welcomed back.

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In all honesty, I have not really experienced an outright stigmatizing comment due to my mental health status since I was a teenager. I have a feeling that may more be due to my behaviour change and emotional management than to people’s views of mental health changing (I get “but you look normal” a lot, which is seriously NOT a compliment). A few days ago that changed when I received the first ever stigmatizing comment on my blog, Pride in Madness.

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I take great pride in being a person with a mental health issue. When I was a teen and experiencing deep depression I always maintained that I had the right to be sick or the right to be me. Many people did not agree with me on either account. I didn’t fit the mold that my fellow peers had created for me and because of that I now know that I experienced mental health discrimination.

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I have been in 1 mental health professional led group and 1 mental health peer support group. I can say that without a doubt I prefer mental health peer support over mental health professional led groups. While mental health professional led groups serve a great purpose and are effective in achieving their goals it is mental health peer support that offers something special, especially for youth.

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Recent studies suggest that as many as 1 in 5 teens suffer from depression at one point in their young lives. Untreated, and poorly handled depression in teens, is a serious situation that can have both life threatening and life altering consequences.

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My son is a month shy of his 15th birthday. He’s a funny, sweet and lovable kid. He is also, as I write this, hospitalized at a local psychiatric facility for acute major depression.

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