Thursday, October 10, 2024
Home Health & Wellness Mental Health

Mental Health

Mental health awareness

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The ideas of mental health and celebration might not typically be paired. But Amy Nelson, the programming coordinator at the Oak Bluffs library, has arranged an enticing array of free programs for Mental Health...

A Beacon: Between worlds

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The starkness of my new mental wellness still overwhelms me. Electroconvulsive therapy definitely seems like something worth looking into, though few people experience it as the panacea it has proven for me. It feels...

A Beacon: Working through the cycles

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It returned in much the same way as it always had, a little at a time, deceptively gradual. Three years ago, for six months, the medication I’d started on had worked beyond my expectations....

A Beacon: We’re in here

I had been wronged. The actual “what” is as immaterial now as it was then. After an exceptionally hard day, my wife greeted me with a barb that wounded me to my core. I...

A Beacon: Keeping the light

It was just another Monday at the clubhouse — Patriot’s Day, actually. We try to hit the ground running Mondays, to develop some extra momentum to carry us through the week. We’d gotten lunch...

A Beacon: Day by day

Not every day is going to be a winner. Mental illness is practically defined by its unpredictability. A person’s symptoms can follow a strict schedule for years, and then change without warning. Tried-and-true meds...

A Beacon: Labor of love

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In my past columns, I have spoken on Daybreak Clubhouse, its roots, its purpose. But, really, I haven’t even gotten started, because Daybreak is nothing if not for its members. It is our membership...

Taking an inward journey: Part 3

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“I know so many people who think they can do it alone They isolate their heads and stay in their safety zones Now what can you tell them And what can you say that won't make them...

A Beacon: ‘Let us be your allies’

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For much of my life, I was resigned to total disability. It’s a common enough story in mental illness the world over. Medication would work, until it wouldn’t, or it would feebly work. Or...

Taking an inward journey: part two

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“Watch out now, Take care, beware the thoughts that linger, Winding up inside your head, The hopelessness around you, In the dead of night…Beware of sadness” (From George Harrison’s “Beware of Darkness”) When last we left...

A Beacon: You are not alone

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Daybreak Clubhouse. I have heard many honest guesses as to what it actually is. A daycare is the most popular guess. A ritzy social club, that’s one of my favorites. The list goes on,...

Taking an inward journey: part one

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“Turn off your mind, relax, and float down stream…”  John Lennon borrowed, modified, and beautified these words from Timothy Leary’s 1964 book “The Psychedelic Experience” for his song “Tomorrow Never Knows,” which appeared as the...

Mental Illness: The attack, and the PTSD that followed

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We opened this series on mental illness with Hermine Hull’s touching piece about her struggles with depression (bit.ly/HHDepression). Last month, Martha’s Vineyard Times contributor Jonathan Burke, who lives with mental illness himself, reported on...

Mental Illness on Martha’s Vineyard: In the bunker

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We opened this series on mental illness with Hermine Hull’s touching piece about her struggles with depression (bit.ly/HHDepression). Martha’s Vineyard Times contributor Jonathan Burke, who lives with mental illness himself, has been writing about...

Mental illness on Martha’s Vineyard: Life and death with severe bipolar disorder

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The Times has run several stories on Vineyarders suffering with mental illness. For others, see: bit.ly/MVMentalillness Leslie’s husband suffered from bipolar disorder — a mental illness that can cause inexhaustible exuberance in someone, but also...

Mental Illness on Martha’s Vineyard: My anxiety disorder

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What word should I say? “Big” or “large”? Have I turned off the stove? Did I leave the door open? Is it locked at night? Am I wearing the “right” sweater? Did I drive...

An anxiety story: He just doesn’t talk

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Sam is 23 years old, and does not speak. He has an anxiety disorder called selective mutism (SM). He understands language, but he is unable to speak to anyone other than his parents. A...

Mental Illness on Martha’s Vineyard: On the run with schizophrenia

In his book, “People and Predicaments,” Dr. Milton Mazer described the study he conducted on Martha’s Vineyard beginning in 1961, which showed that incidences of mental illnesses were much higher on the Island than...

Mental illness on Martha’s Vineyard: Losing one’s life to food

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In his book, “People and Predicaments,” Dr. Milton Mazer described the study he conducted on Martha’s Vineyard beginning in 1961, which showed that incidences of mental illnesses were much higher on the Island than...

Depression: My story

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“For most Islanders, January to March are the difficult months,” wrote Milton Mazer 40 years ago in his book “People and Predicaments: Life and Distress on Martha’s Vineyard.” “There are periods when day after day, heavy low clouds oppress the Island, the sun gone, the night sky moonless and starless …”