Coming Out Crazy
Information
| Blog Name: | Coming Out Crazy |
| Url: | http://thestar.blogs.com/mentalhealth/ |
| Language: | English |
| Topics: | Mental Health, Recovery, Language |
| Description: | Sandy Naiman's bi-weekly, award winning Toronto Star blog explores many issues of emotional and mental health and well-being – with a focus on recovery and special attention to the language of respect these issues and we deserve. For 30 years, she was a staff reporter, feature writer and columnist for The Toronto Sun. Now, while teaching at Seneca College, she continues giving inspirational keynote speeches, is a passionate mental health advocate and freelance writer. At Seneca, she teaches Women's Studies and in November 2007, she was asked to develop and teach Seneca's first Community Service course called "Leadership in Society for Students Who Want to Make a Difference." She is currently teaching and continuing to develop her course with her fourth semester of 58 students on two campuses in Toronto and Markham. This course is one of her many passions. Others include her dashing darling husband, her two championship Dandie Dinmont Terriers. Her mental health advocacy and keynotes that have taken her all across Canada and into the U.S. – since she began formally "speaking out" in 1998! She's candid and often very amusing about her 49-year psychiatric history, multiple misdiagnoses and how she has not only overcome but thrived despite the serious emotional trauma of living with episodes of psychosis linked to mania. How else to help people understand and empathize! In March 2009, she gave a keynote to the medical students, Class of 2012, at her alma mater Queen's University in Kingston, Ontario, during their Mental Health Awareness Week. One point she always stresses is – we're all a little crazy from time to time, aren't we? This never fails to elicit nervous laughter. And it's time we viewed our madnesses less seriously. There's always a little something about being a little crazy that's funny, isn't there? As far as she's concerned, we're all "Next to Normal"... each and every one of us. True? |
| Popularity: | 128 Followers |
Blog Feed
Psychiatrists & Stress...
No one will ever know exactly what snapped in the psyche of U.S. Army Major Nidal Malik Hasan, but something surely did. How else can you begin to fathom why this highly-trained medical doctor and psychiatrist started blindly shooting innocent young soldiers at close range on yesterday afternoon at Fort Hood, Texas – the largest military base on U.S. soil.I'm not making excuses for his unspeakable behaviour. But what happened? Was he sleep-deprived?
No one will ever know exactly what snapped in the psyche of U.S. Army Major Nidal Malik Hasan, but something surely did. How else can you begin to fathom why this highly-trained medical doctor and psychiatrist started blindly shooting innocent young soldiers at close range on yesterday afternoon at Fort Hood, Texas – the largest military base on U.S. soil.I'm not making excuses for his unspeakable behaviour. But what happened? Was he sleep-deprived?
Stresssssssssssssssss!
Until last week, I had no idea how mentally, emotionally and physically debilitating stress could be. Good stress. Bad stress. It doesn't matter. Stress is distressing."If you get the H1N1 virus, there is a very good chance you'll die," my kidney transplant coordinator told me on the telephone early last week. "It's so fast."It wasn't available yet in Toronto. No one was dispensing it. "And the rules seem to be changing every day," she added.
Until last week, I had no idea how mentally, emotionally and physically debilitating stress could be. Good stress. Bad stress. It doesn't matter. Stress is distressing."If you get the H1N1 virus, there is a very good chance you'll die," my kidney transplant coordinator told me on the telephone early last week. "It's so fast."It wasn't available yet in Toronto. No one was dispensing it. "And the rules seem to be changing every day," she added.
Coming Out Crazy wins blog award
I was crying and shaking in Dr. Bob's office this morning after an overly long hiatus between psychotherapy sessions when an announcement went out onto the Internet and into my email mailbox.Had I known at the time, I would have saved my psychiatrist half a box of Kleenex. But I didn't. Instead, I made a month's worth of standing appointments because I've been overly stressed out lately and then left his office, as always, feeling 100 lbs. lighter. That's the power of talking therapy with him for me.My husband picked me up and while we were driving home, on a whim, I pulled my iPhone out of my purse to check my email ... and there it was –
I was crying and shaking in Dr. Bob's office this morning after an overly long hiatus between psychotherapy sessions when an announcement went out onto the Internet and into my email mailbox.Had I known at the time, I would have saved my psychiatrist half a box of Kleenex. But I didn't. Instead, I made a month's worth of standing appointments because I've been overly stressed out lately and then left his office, as always, feeling 100 lbs. lighter. That's the power of talking therapy with him for me.My husband picked me up and while we were driving home, on a whim, I pulled my iPhone out of my purse to check my email ... and there it was –
Hope and Recovery...
Tomorrow I have a 9:30 appointment with my psychiatrist Dr. Bob. It's been too long.The last time I saw him was on Monday, September 1, almost two months ago. Before school started. Everything was going tickety-boo. Since then, it's been a rather rocky ride. Up and down. I'm overdue for a 60-minute session with him and I always feel 100 lbs. lighter when I leave his office. I'm counting the hours. He's been out of town and my killing teaching timetable this term at Seneca has taken its toll.In exactly 24 hours, I'll be sitting in his plant-filled office across his desk, eye-
Tomorrow I have a 9:30 appointment with my psychiatrist Dr. Bob. It's been too long.The last time I saw him was on Monday, September 1, almost two months ago. Before school started. Everything was going tickety-boo. Since then, it's been a rather rocky ride. Up and down. I'm overdue for a 60-minute session with him and I always feel 100 lbs. lighter when I leave his office. I'm counting the hours. He's been out of town and my killing teaching timetable this term at Seneca has taken its toll.In exactly 24 hours, I'll be sitting in his plant-filled office across his desk, eye-
A Shared Reflection...
Hi, Hello, Good Morning, Good Evening, Good Day...Today, I'm doing something I always ask my students to do, but I rarely do myself, anymore.I'm writing a reflection on October 22, 2009.Let's just say, for once, I'm taking some time to look inside my crazy mind. Writing a review. Critiquing one day.It is also a gift to myself. We all need to give ourselves gifts. To take care of ourselves. So let's say that today, I am sharing with you, my team, my support, my inspiration, my "friends" – the community we've become –
Hi, Hello, Good Morning, Good Evening, Good Day...Today, I'm doing something I always ask my students to do, but I rarely do myself, anymore.I'm writing a reflection on October 22, 2009.Let's just say, for once, I'm taking some time to look inside my crazy mind. Writing a review. Critiquing one day.It is also a gift to myself. We all need to give ourselves gifts. To take care of ourselves. So let's say that today, I am sharing with you, my team, my support, my inspiration, my "friends" – the community we've become –
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