Storied Mind

Some Rights Reserved by Onkel_Wart at Flickr Like many, I’ve been worried that the revision of Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, the source for all our diagnoses, could lead to what’s been called the medicalization of normality. But there are even more fundamental problems inherent in the classification system itself. It slots you [...]

Some Rights Reserved by Image Zen at Flickr I’ve heard of a number of off-label uses for antidepressants, but turning them into non-lethal weapons for crowd control is a new one for me. The Soft-Kill Solution in the March Harper’s describes research on the use of “calmatives” or central nervous system depressants for just this [...]

Just a note to point you to this new post at Health Central. I hope you’ll drop by and leave a comment.

Recovery from depression meant a lot of change in the way I lived, and cutting out the stress of a tension-filled job was at the top of the list. Once I had ended that life of constant pressure, I could feel the relief at the start of each day. A freedom and energy filled me, [...]

Some Rights Reserved by onkel_wart at Flickr An important part of my recovery has been exploring emotional memory when I respond so deeply to a story or song or even just a moment in a film that somehow reaches right inside. A feeling long held back flows out freely, even though broken away from the [...]

Some Rights Reserved by capsicina at Flickr A friend sends out a poetry email every Monday, and here’s what he sent this week. Pablo Neruda, toward the end of his life, was invited to read in Caracas, Venezuela, in the great national theater there. The theater was filled with people celebrating him as the icon [...]