Disorders
The Good Place: Bringing Light to the Nature of Anxiety
Three seasons of The Good Place later, and I am still as invested as when the series first began. The concepts the show puts in place of heaven and hell, morality and ethical codes, are depicted as traditional concepts and systems that must be reformed. The concept is clever enough, but the characters are what…
I am not the illness – the illness is in me #WorldBipolarDay
Bipolar disorder, also referred to as manic-depression, is a condition in which one swings between extreme highs and lows. It is an illness that consists of both euphoria and debilitating spouts of depression that can make day to day life impossible to manage. The moods are considered outside of the norm. But what is the…
#NEDAwareness Week: 5 Common Misconceptions about Eating Disorders
Are you perplexed by who can get an eating disorder, what causes an eating disorder to develop, and other aspects of this condition? Your confusion is likely due to the plethora of inaccuracies that are spread about eating disorders. In honor of National Eating Disorders Awareness Week, held from February 25th to March 3rd, here…
#NEDAwareness Week: Lessons from Recovery
I stare at the walls of my room, covered in pictures yet somehow appearing blanker than ever before. Nights have always been comforting, a time where I am guaranteed to be alone and can linger aimlessly into nothingness. I am numb. The sound of my stomach growling is a lullaby to my ears, only to…
My Panic Attack Playlist
When my heart begins to race and my thoughts run cloudy with irrational and targeted thoughts, I often find myself reaching for my phone, for my music, for the songs I grouped into a category boldly labeled panic attack playlist. There are endless songs that can help one get through a panic attack, but when…
Meet Sprinkles: Jenny’s Emotional Support Animal
The idea of having an animal living with you at school excites many students, because who wouldn’t want to have a pet at college? But my rabbit is not just my pet at school. He is my emotional support animal. Some may say that I’m just bringing my pet to school but I disagree. I…
Tips To Help When The Mind Takes Over
So many of us have had a panic or anxiety attack and I feel like there is a lot of closet panic/anxiety, so here are some tips, from me to you, for when the mind takes over: Anxiety manifests physically and the body goes into fight or flight mode. We begin to hunch over to protect our…
The Weather Is Not Bipolar
(Trigger Warning: discussion of means around suicidal thoughts/attempts) I sit here on National Day Without Stigma, gazing out the window while on the road. I’ve heard the words, “the weather is so bipolar” over and over and over again. I’ll usually smile or laugh along but deep down, my mind is elsewhere. I know stigmatizing…
The Light of Your Being
Another school year has started for Active Minds students, and for myself as well. I was supposed to graduate in spring 2018, but as it so often does, life had other plans. Last academic year started off very positively for me. I had spent the previous summer at a terrific internship in the Democratic Republic…
Depression’s Inexplicability
Depression is blind. It doesn’t see your color. It doesn’t see your privilege. It doesn’t see how well your life is going. It doesn’t see anything. It just hits you. Getting diagnosed with depression was a very interesting journey for me. I have been involved with Active Minds for a while, not because of…
Active Minds is the nation's premier nonprofit organization supporting mental health awareness and education for students.