Advocating for Better Mental Health
David Susman, PhD
Hello dear readers, So I’ve been blogging here for a few years now. I’ve covered a lot of territory, a few hundred posts, mostly related to mental health, wellness, and advocacy. If you’re not familiar with my content, you can find a categorical index of all my blog posts right here. Please feel free to check check them out. Then come right back because I have a couple of questions for you. Ok, thanks for coming back. (Or maybe you …
Stories of Hope: An Interview with Catherine Rose Liberty This is part of a series featuring individuals who share their life experiences with mental health issues. Recently, I asked eating disorder recovery coach Catherine Rose Liberty about her journey and her current activities. 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? CL: Growing up I never …
As you probably know, I’m a big fan of public service and advocacy activities. I’ve written at some length about different ways to get more involved in advocacy. Serving on the board of an organization can be another great way to exercise your advocacy and public service muscles. Board members can be very influential in helping to shape the priorities of the organization. While my personal board experience has been primarily with non-profit organizations focused on health or mental health, …
Our family has been fortunate to enjoy several trips to some of the iconic theme parks. As a psychologist, I’m invested in mental health, wellness, and self-care strategies for all types of settings. On my trips, I started noticing several “psychologically healthy” choices we made during our visit that helped make the experience more fun and enjoyable for all of us. I thought you might like to see my list of 10 of these tips so you can consider using …
Stories of Hope: An Interview with Erin Bahadur This is part of a series featuring individuals who share their life experiences with mental health issues. Recently, I asked writer and personal trainer Erin Bahadur about her journey and her current activities. 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? EB: I think the most obvious issue …
After having been in the social media space for several years, I’ve gotten to know a lot of great mental health advocates, and many of the most active ones come from the incredibly important perspective of having personal life experience with mental illness. I’ve also featured dozens of these first-person voices through my “Stories of Hope” series. In contrast, it sometimes seems like there aren’t as many active advocates on social media who are mental health professionals. These would include …
Stories of Hope: An Interview with Linda Cole This is part of a series featuring individuals who share their life experiences with mental health issues. Recently, I asked peer mentor Linda Cole about her journey and her current activities. 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? LC: I became aware of my mental health concerns …
We all know how tough it is to develop new habits such as exercising regularly, eating healthy food, or many other changes for personal growth. So I was very intrigued to read a book on habit change called “Mini Habits: Smaller Habits, Bigger Results” by Stephen Guise. In his book, Guise puts forth a strategy for effective habit formation by establishing “mini habits.” He defines a mini habit as “a very small positive behavior that you force yourself to do …