This is week 2 of a 5-part series that I'm doing on some of the most common mental health conditions. For last week's post on depression, click here. Generalized Anxiety Disorder It's safe to say that if you're reading this, you've experienced some form of anxiety (worry, fear, dread) in your lifetime. Generalized Anxiety Disorder (GAD) is one of the...[ read more ]

There's no doubt that obesity carries with it a ton of health risks; however, for today's article, I want to focus on the mental health consequences of fat shaming. I was surprised to see a piece in the most recent issue of Psychology Today on this topic. Within the article, the writer discussed how plus-sized people tend to face verbal...[ read more ]

I love a provocative title and Ron Powers' book, No One Cares About Crazy People, doesn't disappoint. Today, I'll share some of the insights that I gained. In the 60s and 70s, mental health policy changed drastically in the United States. Due to the expense of the Vietnam War, funding was cut for the mental health institutions that tended to...[ read more ]

Today is an exciting day! My friend, Ashley Peterson has just published her second book, Making Sense of Psychiatric Diagnosis: Understanding the DSM-5. The DSM-5 is basically the mental health bible. Therapists, psychiatrists, nurse practitioners, and clinicians use the DSM-5 to organize psychiatric symptoms, known as diagnoses. Ashley's book can be summarized as, "The DSM-5 for Dummies." I wish I...[ read more ]