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Communicating Is More Than Finding The Right Words

August 24, 2018 | By Keiko Purnell

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 to a conversation; most of us don’t even realize we’re saying it, or pay much attention to the typical response Read More

When kids with mental illness can’t live at home

January 31 Kelly Burch

Many of Christine Walker’s friends are just starting to help their teenage children plan to leave home, whether for a job, college or a gap year. But Walker’s 16-year-old son Schuyler has already lived away from his family for seven years, spending nearly half his life in residential treatment programs and schools for children with severe mental illness.

“When Schuyler was 7, that was when I had tried absolutely everything — every pill, every doctor, every diet, every Read More

Family Survival Guide

By Chris Aiken, M.D. | Feb. 06, 2017

“You seem like you’re walking on eggshells,” our family therapist told me with a wise nod. The image of cracked eggs under my bare feet was strangely comforting compared to what our family was really going through. We were living with mental illness, specifically bipolar disorder.

Psychiatrists don’t know enough about how to help families in this situation. I should know—I’m a psychiatrist myself. When mental illness hit my home, Read More

Understanding Psychotic Breaks

By Ryann Tanap | Mar. 20, 2017 

When you hear the phrase “psychotic break,” what comes to mind? Probably nothing good. In everyday conversation, the phrase carries a negative meaning for many because it’s perceived as a harsh and abrupt disconnect or “break” from reality—though it is more accurately described as an episode of psychosis.

Carlos Larrauri, for example, describes his experience with psychosis as more of a gradual decline, as opposed to a “break” occurring during a Read More

Help Build the Mental Health Movement

By Laura Greenstein | Mar. 29, 2017

Together, we are a movement. Our movement explains what it really means to experience mental illness. Our movement shows people experiencing mental illness that they are not alone and there is hope. While it’s a slow process, our movement is becoming louder and more persistent every time a celebrity speaks out, an article is published or an individual shares their personal story. Our movement is growing, strengthening and becoming more Read More