Also see
Anxiety Relief Solutions
Depression and Creativity
Mental health & fitness articles
Mental health topic pages
Why do we experience troubling, disrupting, and often self-limiting, emotions? For example, probably most of us experience anxiety to some degree, at some times. But it isn’t the same as being afraid of something tangible like falling from a thrill ride. Or is it? Morty Lefkoe explains, “An emotion is the experiential, chemical, and neuro-physiological [...]
The term “nervous breakdown” may be loose and non-medical, but still somewhat useful and descriptive. If it is extreme enough, the experience may get called a psychosis. One of the things that intrigued me in the story below is the symptom of “word salad” – which the Wikipedia page on Schizophasia explains is “confused, and [...]
I’ve always thought of meditation as something I have to do on the floor with my legs crossed, which is just too darn uncomfortable. In fact, I’ve experienced meditative states all my life and didn’t know it. Orna Ross writes in her ebook Inspiration Meditation: Towards the end of my first novel, Lovers Hollow, the [...]
According to research by professor Modupe Akinola of Columbia Business School and colleagues, negative mood-triggering situations and stress can in some ways enhance creative expression. An article on the research asks, “Where does creativity come from, and how can it be harnessed? “The answer may be a dark one, says Professor Modupe Akinola, whose research [...]
New research provides more neuroscientific explanation for the link between mental health/illness and creativity. A press release reports: “By studying receptors in the brain, researchers at Karolinska Institute have managed to show that the dopamine system in healthy, highly creative people is similar in some respects to that seen in people with schizophrenia. “High creative [...]
May is Mental Health Awareness Month. The National Institute of Mental Health site says “26.2 percent of Americans ages 18 and older suffer from a diagnosable mental disorder in a given year… 57.7 million people.” And that doesn’t include many other people who suffer from untreated or undiagnosed anxiety, depression and other mental health challenges. [...]
One of my stereotypes has been that athletes, especially men, are “tough” – physically and emotionally “less sensitive” and less vulnerable to mental health challenges. Not true, of course. Like many sterotypes tend to be, my presumptions have been based on common media depictions of athletes I’ve seen over the years – mainly the occasional [...]
Just what is ‘normal’ for a creative person? After trying clumsily to conform to what others consider normal for much of my life, I’m beginning to appreciate my own moods and personality. Are creative people like us ‘abnormal’? In his paper The Abnormal Psychology of Creativity, Steven James Bartlett writes…. Norwegian painter Edvard Munch, who [...]
As I discovered over the years in my own interactions with the mental health system, when someone with a creative personality is seen through the eyes of those who have a different temperament, such as scientists and doctors, the result can be mislabeling and misdiagnosis. People who are uncomfortable with extreme states are often, unfortunately, [...]
“Don’t compromise yourself. You’re all you’ve got.” Janis Joplin What reminded me of this photo and her quote was a recent obituary of the photographer Jim Marshall. He commented in the article: “Some people said I shouldn’t have published that picture of her lying back, with the bottle in her hand, but I’ll defend it [...]
Psychologist and creativity coach/author Eric Maisel, PhD says “The artist is often a drug and alcohol abuser. “The challenge for the creative artist stirred by [their] work and dream is to maintain mood equilibrium without resorting to mood-altering drugs. The social environment of the artist makes this challenge doubly difficult.” [From article Counseling Artists: The [...]
Many people have been helped by professionals who make use of the labels and categories of mental health issues detailed in the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, or DSM. But many critics question the institutionalized categorizing of so much human behavior as “disorder” instead of ordinary experience, healthy divergence or even aspects of [...]
Our Complex Love Affair With Designer Consciousness From Medical News Today The spectacular increase in the use of psychiatric drugs over the past 50 years involved what a University at Buffalo historian calls “a massive break with what we consider ‘normal’ mental health,” one linked to myriad social and cultural changes in America. “Happy Pills [...]
![Excessive Internet Use Is Linked to Depression [or not]](http://www.addictioninfo.org/content_images/internet3.jpg)
ScienceDaily People who spend a lot of time browsing the Internet are more likely to show depressive symptoms, according to the first large-scale study of its kind in the West by University of Leeds psychologists. Researchers found striking evidence that some users have developed a compulsive internet habit, whereby they replace real-life social interaction with [...]
Psychotherapist Sarah Chana Radcliffe practices emotionally focused therapy, process experiential psychotherapy, energy psychology, EMDR, and cognitive behavioral therapy. In this excerpt from a Shrink Rap Radio podcast, she talks about EFT (Emotional Freedom Techniques), Holosync and some other approaches to personal development and healing. See the post to hear an excerpt from her podcast interview: [...]
The film Poppy Shakespeare, based on Clare Allen’s novel, takes us down a cinematic rabbit hole into north London’s fictional Dorothy Fish day hospital where the clearly ‘sane’ Poppy, played by Naomi Harris, has been mysteriously committed to a compulsory day-program for the mentally ill. In a psychiatric Catch 22, she must prove herself insane [...]
Google+
Site author: Douglas Eby, M.A./Psychology, is a writer and researcher on the psychology of creative expression and personal growth, especially for high ability adults. He is publisher of the Talent Development Resources series of sites.
