I have lost 20+ pounds due to severe anxiety.

Everyone says I look great. Do you know how it feels not to be able to swallow a mouthful due to being so anxious? Decidedly not great.

Imagine telling a cancer patient who has lost tons of weight that they look great? I don’t think so, that would be appalling.

But because I look and act normal in front of people, they don’t realize I have any illness at all.

Anyway, that is the lot of people with mental illness. No sympathy, no get well cards.

Just hell sometimes.

Love this. Easy to say though. How do we end the stigma? Be more open about our illnesses? Education about mental illness? Not feeling ashamed that we have an illness?

We have come so far from patients being chained to rooms in mental wards.

We still have a long way to go.

Yogic breathing helps fight major depression, study shows | Technology Networks
— Read on www.technologynetworks.com/neuroscience/news/yogic-breathing-helps-fight-major-depression-study-shows-284759

Schizophrenia has long been blamed on bad genes or even bad parents. Wrong, says a growing group of psychiatrists. The real culprit, they claim, is a virus that lives entwined in every person’s DNA.
— Read on discovermagazine.com/2010/jun/03-the-insanity-virus

Wow! Incredible!

What a dozen years of testing deep-brain stimulation (DBS) in seriously depressed patients has taught Dr. Helen Mayberg about the brain, and about how to optimize DBS. Clues about how resistance to treatment can develop over time.
— Read on www.bbrfoundation.org/content/cloud-has-been-lifted-what-deep-brain-stimulation-tells-us-about-depression-and-depression

Letting go of certain things can open the door to true contentment in life.
— Read on www.psychologytoday.com/us/blog/what-mentally-strong-people-dont-do/201811/10-ways-mentally-strong-people-gain-inner-peace

A new study identifies bacteria in the microbiome that could produce neurotransmitters and potentially influence activity in the brain
— Read on www.smithsonianmag.com/science-nature/scientists-find-possible-link-between-gut-bacteria-and-depression-180971411/

Don’t Miss These Internationally Recognized Bipolar/Depression Experts  at ISBD Sydney 2019
— Read on mailchi.mp/37a528ef16b7/isbd-2019-proposal-submission-deadline-is-days-away-1837153

Malarchuk: There should be no shame having mental illness – TSN.ca
— Read on www.tsn.ca/radio/toronto-1050/malarchuk-there-should-be-no-shame-having-mental-illness-1.1249564

In terms of T. gondii, compared to a control group, the blood work revealed individuals with the infection were almost 50 percent more likely (odds ratio 1.47) to be diagnosed with schizophrenia disorders compared to those without an infection.
— Read on www.sciencealert.com/mind-altering-cat-parasite-linked-to-schizophrenia-in-largest-study-yet

“In terms of T. gondii, compared to a control group, the blood work revealed individuals with the infection were almost 50 percent more likely (odds ratio 1.47) to be diagnosed with schizophrenia disorders compared to those without an infection.”