The Suicidal Thoughts Scale You Didn’t Know You Needed

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Fifteen years ago I was sitting in a therapist’s office, and I was afraid to tell her how I was really doing. She persisted, and over the session, I was able to tell her I was having suicidal thoughts. I didn’t know what this would mean. I was afraid a “white van” would show up and take me away, or that she would get angry or not believe me. None of those things happened.

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6 Signs Your Job Is Toxic for Your Mental Health

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Everyone has bad days at work — a customer is rude, you need to rush to finish a project, you have to skip lunch or some other annoying thing. If this is now and then, only 10 percent of the time, I’d say that is probably OK. Nothing is perfect. However, if you face daily major stresses, you constantly feel devalued and begin and end your day dreading your job, you may be in a toxic situation.

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The Side Effect of Going Off Antidepressants You May Not Have Heard Of

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Imagine this scenario. You’re having an average day, and you’re in the mood for a coffee. You decide to walk over to your favorite coffee shop, just a few short minutes away. Step, step, step. Zap! Step. Zap! Wait, what? Zap? Zap shouldn’t be a part of this equation. This strange sensation is something that happens to me, as well to many others. It’s a side effect of antidepressants that many are not familiar with, but it does happen.

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7 Little Motivation Tricks for Depression and Anxiety

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Motivation is a tricky thing, and sometimes you have to fight back with your own tricks. As a person who lives with depression and anxiety, I often struggle to get the most basic of things done. It’s not that I physically can’t or that I’m choosing not to — it’s that everything becomes difficult and the fatigue is very real. As I have lived with this for many years, over time I’ve developed a few tricks to get things done. They aren’t necessarily permanent solutions, nor will they work for everyone or every situation. Yet they are handy little tips which I’d like to pass on to you.

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The 2-Minute Rule I Use When I'm Too Depressed to Clean the Kitchen

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Keeping things orderly is not my strong suit, especially when I’m dealing with depression. While all areas of my home suffer, no area suffers more than my kitchen. Dishes pile up, clutter is not organized and surfaces are not wiped down. Of course over time it only becomes worse, making it all the harder to find the motivation to get into cleaning it. I recently discovered a method that helps me to slowly get things into shape.

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7 ways to beat the winter blues.

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Winter makes things that I already find difficult even harder. Getting out of bed is already a hard; doing it in the dark only makes it worse. Getting outdoors to exercise is not an easy task, add those freezing temperatures and my motivation goes out the window. At times I struggle with isolation, when everyone seems to be hibernating this becomes a little more acceptable. As you can see there is no shortage of reasons why depression can either arrive or worsen during these winter months.

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Sharing About Suicide Prevention

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World Suicide Prevention Day is being marked Sept. 10 and mental health advocate Heidi Fischer is hoping the day will be used as an opportunity to shed some light on suicide. Going through her own experiences of suicide and helping those who have had similar situations, Fischer said, “The word suicide in and of itself remains highly stigmatized and hush-hush. People worry that by speaking it

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