At the end of the summer, I rented a house on Cape Cod for a family vacation. My 21-year-old son Ryan joined my daughter, Liz, and I when he returned from traveling with friends in Europe. It was clear he hadn’t slept for days. At dinner, he was anxious and rambled on and ...
I slept a lot. I woke up each day wondering how soon I could go back to bed. Sleep medicine became part of my daily routine, and I didn’t see how this change was problematic. After all, it was just a lifestyle habit changed to cope after losing Preston. When I got the cal...
As a mother of two Millennials, I’ve noticed differences between their generation and mine. Like how they prefer to spend money on travel, amazing food and experiences rather than physical things like homes and cars. These aren’t negative qualities—just different. Ther...
When I was a kid, I avoided being in the spotlight. I would get knots in my stomach when I participated in class or spoke publicly on behalf of a student organization. However, it got easier as I got older. In college, a professor asked me to perform at an event on campus...
“True terror isn’t being scared; it’s having no choice in the matter.” This quote from John Green’s new book, Turtles All the Way Down, is a simple but powerful insight into the book’s major theme: Obsessive Compulsive Disorder ( OCD ). In this book, Green takes read...
At any given time, more than 1 in 5 adults is experiencing a mental illness. While treatment is effective and vital to recovery, art can also help. Theater is an art form I find particularly powerful. It can educate, empathize and make us feel understood. The lyrics a...
It started when I was 13; unbeknownst to me, I was dealing with depression and anxiety. During seventh grade, I was bullied quite a bit. I can clearly remember one time—a few girls were verbally ganging up on me at a lunch table in the cafeteria. Since I was cornered at th...
“The problem with verbal abuse is there is no evidence,” Marta shared. She came for help with a long-standing depression. “What do you mean, lack of evidence?” I asked her. “When people are physically or sexually abused, it’s concrete and real. But verbal abuse is amorph...
For over a decade, I’ve struggled with food and body image. At 8, I started worrying about how my body looked. At 10, I discovered Weight Watchers and my seemingly endless cycle of dieting started. Then, at 15, my eating disorder started. As a dancer, my world has always ...
Self-harm is difficult to understand because it goes against the natural human instinct of self-preservation. Maybe that’s why some people react to it in a negative, judgmental way. They can’t imagine ever being in a state of mind where they would hurt themselves, so th...
Have you ever looked at someone and noticed a series of scars on their wrists? Did you make a face or pass judgement about that person without knowing who they are or what they’re going through? Likely. Of the many symptoms of mental health conditions, self-harm is one...
I hear comments all the time: “My place is so perfect. I’m so OCD.” “No, it has to be neat and clean. I’m so OCD.” “You should see how I organized my Star Wars collection. I’m so OCD.” I was born with Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder ( OCD ). I struggled throughout m...
When I met Renee, she told me she was nervous all the time. And, she was cutting herself. Most people struggle to understand why someone would harm themselves. Many parents have asked me: “Why would my child do something like that?” “Doesn’t it hurt?” “Why can’t they j...
Each year, SAMHSA holds Prevention Day as an opportunity to share best practices and data with professionals who work day in and day out to end the cycles of substance use disorder sweeping our country. It’s usually a chance to learn what “preventionists” on the front li...
It is widely accepted that if you have a health problem, you would see a medical professional who specializes in that problem’s proper treatment. If you have high cholesterol or are at risk of a heart attack, you see a cardiologist. If you have digestive problems, you see ...
We all know that education is incredibly important for a child’s development. But did you know that the time between toddlerhood and the teenage years (also known as “middle childhood”) is actually the best period for learning? According to anthropologist Benjamin Cam...
There’s recently been an incredible chain reaction that inspired millions: A connection between three men who never dreamed they had something so personal in common. I heard about it one day in March after presenting NAMI Ending the Silence (ETS) at a local high school....
At least 1 in 5 school-aged children is affected by a mental health condition. The two most common conditions among children and adolescents are anxiety followed by depression , but children can have other difficulties that affect their ability to fully take part i...
One of the worst feelings in the world is feeling like you’re all alone. Feeling like nobody could possibly understand what you’re going through or identify with the deep, drowning pain you feel. Throughout my life and journey with mental illness, I’ve felt this way mor...
I have Dissociative Identity Disorder (DID), formerly known as Multiple Personality Disorder. DID is an extremely complex psychological disorder characterized by the presence of two or more distinct identities that repeatedly take control over my behavior. I like to refer t...