The Mindstorm

Category: stigma

  • Turning a Stigmatizing Experience Into A Positive

    Did you read over the weekend about Palmer Advertising in San Francisco, and the ad they put on Craigslist? No? Apparently they are looking for a business development person in the Stockton, California area and the ad, along with job description and required experience, listed this line: “The successful candidate will have … Sanity. If…

  • Hero

    I’m floored, honored and proud! Tim was selected by ABC News as one of their Eleven Heroes of 2011 for his fundraising work for NAMI. I am proud of how far he’s come and his committment to help other teens with mental illnesses.  And a big thanks to ABC News for helping raise awareness and…

  • Pitiful?

    I’ve heard and read a lot of accounts lately from parents and caregivers about other adults either giving unsolicited parenting advice or making crass comments about special needs kids when they are having a difficult time in public. I’ve got to be honest – this is one of the biggest reasons I built a ‘moat’…

  • Advocate or Hardass? NABPM / NaBloPoMo Day 9

    There has to be a fine line between being an advocate and fighting stigma, and being a killjoy.  I still don’t think I’ve found it.  Here’s an example: a friend recently posted a link to a t-shirt on her she thought was funny, but is clearly poking fun at a mental health disorder – in…

  • Stigma and Sophie’s Choice Part 2 – NABPM / NaBloPoMo Day 7

    Continuing from yesterday, I do think mental illness has a caste system.  The disorders that are seen as less scary or less threatening to anyone but the person suffering are at the top.  The farther down the scale you go, the more misunderstood the illnesses become.  They culminate at the bottom of the list with…

  • Stigma and Sophie’s Choice – NABPM / NaBloPoMo Day 6

    I watched Sophie’s Choice the other day.  It’s an amazing movie of a tragic and painful story and while I admire the film it’s one of those I have to steel myself up to watch because the story and subject matter, World War II and the Nazi concentration camps.  But the other side of the…

  • Nickelodeon Needs to Be Educated – Guest Blog for BC2M

    I cringe, wondering what tweeners who watched that think about psychiatric treatment. If they ever experience depression, will they tell anyone, or will they fear the dirty room full of strange adults and security guards? Will parents who saw it shy away at getting a child treatment, thinking the facility will be full of adults…

  • Live Blogging iCarly – iLost My Mind

    iCarly iLostMyMind Live Blog

  • Nickelodeon, iCarly Loses Their Minds – and Perpetuates Stigma

    If you follow me on Twitter (Chrisa_Hickey) or follow the Child and Adolescent Bipolar Foundation (bpkids) then you know about tonight’s episode of iCarly entitled, “iLost My Mind”.  It’s appalling that a kid’s TV show thinks it’s ok to poke fun at mental illness.  Here’s a preview of the episode: I will be live blogging…

  • Dr. Kaplan, Narrow-Minded Purveyour of Vaguery, M.D.

    There’s an article in Newsweek this week by a Dr. Stuart L. Kaplan, M.D.  The jist of the article is that childhood Bipolar Disorder is a myth.  It’s impossible.  It doesn’t exist.  Read the article here.  I’ve copied the comment I left on the article below:When my son was 4, a Neuropsychologist diagnosed my son’s severely…