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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…
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Losing My Religion
Some days, it all feels just like this.
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Alone With The Diagnosis: Post for S-O-S Research
I can’t think of anything more shocking to a parent than hearing a doctor tell you that your child has a serious and chronic mental illness. I got my first taste of what a shock it is when my middle child, Timothy, was just eight years old. I was ill prepared for what exactly the…
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Dear Ron Thomas: You’re Living My Greatest Fear
Dear Mr. Thomas: Earlier this week, I read the news story about the murder of your son, Kelly, at the hands of the Fullerton Police. After reading the story, and viewing the video of the witnesses account of the incident, I was physically sick. If I close my eyes I can see your son, Kelly, sitting…
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It’s Tim’s Party But I’ll Cry If I Want To
Last week Tim had a birthday. It was a big one – 17 – that age where you’re still legally a kid even if your stature makes you appear to be a man. He’d been at my parents house for 10 days and with us all for the Independence Day holiday before that, so he…
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Meds, Realizations, and Growing Up
You can also read this post on the CABF website. I spent part of last week at the NAMI Conference in Chicago. It was a phenomenal three days where I learned a great deal, met some amazing people, and enjoyed playing tourist in my hometown. On the opening day after the keynote speech, I was…
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What Me Worry?
Someone once said, “Don’t worry about things that you have no control over, because you have no control over them. Don’t worry about things that you have control over, because you have control over them.” I try daily to live by that philosophy. This past weekend, I failed, miserably. I wrote a few weeks ago about…
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NAMI Convention 2011 – Sweet Home Chicago
I’ll be attending the NAMI 2011 Convention in Chicago the next few days. There are some really interesting sessions. I’ll be tweeting during some of them – you can follow me @Chrisa_Hickey. I will also be blogging about the convention next week. Are you attending? I’d love to meet you! Drop me an email or a…
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Alone in a Crowd
Image by OpenEye It’s been a long time since I’ve taken the train downtown with any regularity, but my job responsibilities changed about two months ago and now I take the train to Chicago twice a week. Taking the train makes for a different sort of day than I have when I commute by car to…
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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…