The Stigma and the Taboo The stigma around mental illness is experienced when a person associated with a mental illness is shamed by the people around them, such as their community. It affects sufferers of a given mental illness, and often even extends to their...
Bipolar disorder is a severe chronic mental illness that affects millions of Americans today. It is a complex disease with various symptoms that can cause a multitude of issues for those that live with it. What makes bipolar disorder even more complicated is the fact...
Let’s Get Started. Anxiety affects everyone on planet Earth, everywhere from San Jose, California to San Jose, Costa Rica. It’s a part of being alive. It’s part of the human experience. But, it doesn't have to be. At least, not to the extent it plagues most...
Extensive research has revealed that one in eight women develop depression at some point in their lives, which is twice the rate of cases compared to men. (1) But why is that? What makes women more vulnerable to this condition? Before explaining the significance of...
Many Asian Americans, especially Filipino Americans, struggle with mental illnesses such as depression, anxiety, and suicide. In fact, young Filipina women experience greater suicide ideation (45.6%) compared to other minorities (Javier et. al 2018). However, despite...
Scrupulosity, informally known as religious OCD, is a unique representation of obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD) that affects individuals from various religious communities. By definition, it is a variation of OCD where individuals are plagued with intrusive...
A few years ago I tried taking my own life. I jumped 35 feet onto concrete. My brother took his own life when I was 21 so I already felt genetically dispositioned. Right before I jumped I remember thinking all this was too much. I felt I had the weight of the world on...
Talk about Breaking Taboo, right? Perhaps it’s the case that most parents don’t quite understand therapy and all that it has to offer, but immigrant parents are particularly averse to the concept of talk therapy. Maybe it’s tradition, maybe it’s misconceptions, or...
A Word on Pill Shaming            There are a number of reasons that prevent people from seeking, and ultimately receiving mental healthcare. Clearly, structural barriers contribute to these cases (i.e. some tangible lack of access to medicine). More subtle but no...
drip drip drip drip The sound of my single serve coffee maker pours out a fresh cup this Monday morning. I start to write in my journal— a scale from 1 to 5. My therapist had me do this exercise ranking how I feel on any particular day; 1 being awful, 5 feeling like I...