Entries by Marketing

Tips For Successful Family Therapy

For most my life, my mom and I have had a turbulent relationship. Vague reassurances from others that “everyone has family problems” never helped with our nonsensical fighting or how I felt. I never knew what to do, but I knew it had to stop. Family relationships are sometimes responsible for life’s biggest conflicts. They’re […]

Holiday Magic Is Made By Women. And It’s Killing Us.

I have yet to send out my Christmas cards this year, but the various steps necessary to complete this task have been weaving through my mind for months. I booked a session with a photographer at the end of August. I picked out and shopped for outfits for the entire family in October. In November, […]

Getting Older Veterans Proper Care

In an era of ongoing armed conflict, the impact of posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) is more widely recognized than it was 40 years ago when veterans were knee-deep in the atrocities of the Vietnam War. In fact, PTSD wasn’t even recognized as a mental illness until 1980. While the disorder is more visible today, we usually only […]

Making The 2018 Mid-Term Elections About Mental Health

Throughout NAMI’s history, mental health advocates have shaped laws, increased funding and promoted research to address the inequalities and injustices facing people with mental illness in our country. In the last two years alone, NAMI advocates sent hundreds of thousands of emails to Capitol Hill and made countless phone calls and visits to their representatives […]

Overcoming Stigma

I was sitting alone in the hallway of the Carter Center conference area in Atlanta during the 2012 Rosalynn Carter Symposium on Mental Health Policy. I had just finished being a panelist and talking about how employment and education helped me overcome the stigma associated with my depression. The conference was still in session, so I had […]

Shutting Down Five Misconceptions About Depression

When I first started opening up about my struggle with depression, I was fortunately met with a lot of support from friends and family. However, there were certain reactions that brought to my attention just how deep the misconceptions are about mental illness. I found myself defending my experience and struggle to the people I […]

How To Have A Healthy Relationship With Social Media

Social media has allowed society to become more connected than ever. Over three billion people around the world use social media to engage with others, access the news and share information. In the U.S. alone, seven out of ten people are active social media users. Some would argue that social media is inherently bad for our health. Recent research […]

5 Common Myths About Suicide Debunked

Suicide affects all people. Within the past year, about 41,000 individuals died by suicide, 1.3 million adults have attempted suicide, 2.7 million adults have had a plan to attempt suicide and 9.3 million adults have had suicidal thoughts. Unfortunately, our society often paints suicide the way they would a prison sentence—a permanent situation that brands an individual. However, suicidal ideation is […]

Communicating Is More Than Finding The Right Words

My last depressive episode left me completely isolated. I didn’t respond to messages for months. Since I didn’t know how long I would be depressed, answering the question “how are you?” became emotionally draining. Actually, that one question was why I stopped talking to people entirely. “How are you?” is such a knee-jerk opening line […]