Here WEGO!

I was sitting around last Wednesday, I can’t exactly recall what I was doing with precision, when what should I get alerted to in my Twitter feed but this little gem:

Look, we’re a Finalist in the category of Best Ensemble Cast!

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The desert of my soul

Stripped of all flesh and bare to the bone.

– alone in the tundra,

gelid winds cut like a sharpened stone.

Oh, the unbearable pain of the exposed, tortured soul.

February 2013: Mental Health and Life Paths

For this month’s Let’s Talk About topic, I think it would be interesting to discuss how mental health has influenced the roads we’ve traveled in life.

As an example, I’ll narrate a brief version of my life journey, a journey I’ve discussed in much more detail on my personal blog.

For most of my life, I ignored my mental health issues and got along fine, doing well up through college.

Dead Man Walking – Health Anxiety Strikes Again!

Writing a Safety Plan

When I started creating a Wellness Journal awhile back, I found I didn’t have some of the “required” ingredients on hand, including a Safety Plan and a Wellness Plan. Fortunately, plans can be developed as needed, right?

I started with a little research and quickly learned that there are a number of different contracts and plans meant to improve accountability and interventions in mental health crisis situations.

Did you get to work this morning?

Did you get to work this morning?  Then you accomplished a monumental feat.  Does that sound crazy?  I mean, you get up and go to work.  Simple, right?  No.  In fact it takes several steps.  If you are depressed, or even just plain tired and burned out, each step is a hurdle in itself.  Here’s an average overview of my morning.

6:00 A.M. The alarm goes off.  You have to crawl out of bed.  Out from under the warm covers.  Don’t hit snooze, it will only make it worse.

A Quandary: Mental Illness, Public Safety

Due to quite a few recent tragedies, debates about mental illness have been prominent in the public eye. Perhaps they aren’t as visible as, say, gun control laws or Lance Armstrong’s shadiness, but they have quite a presence.

The debate is couched in terms that express “concern” for people who are mentally ill, and no doubt many commentators do feel concerned about people with mental illness.

Willkommen!

Hi there!  Well, gosh, what on earth can I say to all of you?  First things first, for those who don’t know me, my name is Ruby, and I’m the admin of A Canvas Of The Minds.  Before I get into the finer points of the setup here, though, I’d like to offer a proper greeting.  I guess as each of you fall into one of three distinct groups, with a little overlap (you’ll see what I mean in a sec), I need to say three distinct things.