What Recovery Is (and What It Isn’t)

After working for many years with people in all stages of recovery from mental illness and addiction, I’m no longer surprised to hear the frequent question, “Just what is recovery anyway?” While I have a pretty solid idea of how I view the concept of recovery, I’ve realized the term carries different meanings and assumptions for different people. So what is recovery? To answer that question, let’s not only look at what recovery is, but also what recovery isn’t. Here …

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Q & A on Mental Health!

For the second year in a row, I was asked to be interviewed by Melanie Luxenberg, a mental health advocate and writer, who blogs for the International Bipolar Foundation. In recognition of Mental Health Week in Canada and Mental Health Awareness Month in the US, Melanie asked me to respond to several questions about stigma, self-care, mental health apps, and more. With Melanie’s permission, I’m reprinting her interview with me below, or you can link to the original blog post …

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I Am Enough

Stories of Hope: An Interview with Brian Cuban This is part of a series featuring individuals who share their life experiences with mental health issues. Recently, I asked mental health advocate and author Brian Cuban about his history of mental health challenges and about some of his current advocacy work. Here’s our interview: DS: Tell us about when you first started becoming aware of concerns related to your mental health. How did these issues continue to affect you before you sought treatment? BC: The first signal that …

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Singing the Praises of Music Therapy

We’ve probably all had the experience of hearing a favorite song and how it immediately brings back thoughts, feelings and memories, both happy and sad. Music really is the universal language, and it has the power to move us deeply. But did you know that music therapy is a well-established treatment now often used to help individuals with mental illness or addiction? Recently I was fortunate to be able to interview Jennifer Jarred Peyton, a board-certified music therapist and colleague …

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