Is Mental Illness A Lonely Disease?

HealthyPlace Mental Health Newsletter

Here's what's happening on the HealthyPlace site this week:

• Mental Illness and Feeling Alone
• Help Spread Awareness of Mental Illness
• Most Popular HealthyPlace Articles Shared by Facebook Fans
• From the HealthyPlace Mental Health Blogs
• Stand Up for Mental Health
• When Frightening News Leads To Young Children’s Sleepless Nights
• Latest Mental Health News

Mental Illness and Feeling Alone

Mental illness is a lonely and isolating disease, wrote Natalie Jeanne Champagne, former author of the Recovering From Mental Illness blog. Those words came back to me because the holiday season is right around the corner and, for many, the holidays can bring intense feelings of loneliness.

One thing I've noticed in reading some of the articles we have on loneliness is a common thread of feeling "different" and fear of rejection. So where might you start when trying to break the pattern of isolating yourself from others so you don't feel alone. Face-to-face support groups offer that opportunity. There you will find people who share common experiences and who can truly understand what you may be going through. We have a list of NAMI support groups and Mental Health America support groups that meet in cities across America on our mental health hotlines and support resources page. There is usually no charge to attend, although they are happy to accept a small donation to help fund local operations.

Get in touch, attend a few meetings, give things a chance ... before the holidays get underway.

Your Thoughts

Today's Question: Is mental illness a lonely disease? We invite you to participate by commenting and sharing your feelings, experiences and knowledge on the HealthyPlace Facebook page.

More Articles on Loneliness

• Are You Lonely?
• Mental Illness and Defining Loneliness
• Loneliness and Fear of Rejection
• Diary of a Newly Diagnosed Dissociative Part 3: Loneliness
• What To Do When You Are Lonely
• Loneliness and What To Do About Loneliness

Help Spread Awareness of Mental Illness

Get Our Mental Health Blog Widget

Over 370 sites and blogs are helping spread awareness of mental illness. How about putting our mental health blogs widget on your website, blog or social page? The latest HealthyPlace blog headlines appear as soon as the articles are posted on our site. Just click "Get Widget" at the bottom of the widget, grab the embed code and paste it into your page. You'll also see embed links for Wordpress, Blogger, Linkedin and other social sites there.

As a bonus, put the blogs widget on your site or blog, email us (info AT healthyplace.com) with a page link where it appears, and we'll give a shoutout to your site, blog, or social site on our Facebook and Twitter pages.

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Share our Stories

At the top and bottom of all our stories, you'll find social share buttons for Facebook, Google+, Twitter, Pinterest and other social sites. If you find a particular story, video, psychological test or other HealthyPlace feature helpful, there's a good chance others in need will too. Please share.

We also get many inquiries about our linking policy. If you have a website or blog, you can link to any page on the HealthyPlace website without asking us beforehand.

Most Popular HealthyPlace Articles Shared by Facebook Fans

Here are the top 3 mental health articles HealthyPlace Facebook fans are recommending you read:

1. Seeing Someone in a Mental Health Crisis
2. Best Things to Say to a Person With Bipolar Disorder
3. Meds, Moods, and Dignity in Mental Illness: When to Worry?

If you're not already, I hope you'll join us/like us on Facebook too. There are a lot of wonderful, supportive people there.

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Mental Health Experiences

Share your thoughts/experiences with any mental health subject, or respond to other people's audio posts, by calling our toll-free number (1-888-883-8045).

You can listen to what other people are saying by clicking on the gray title bars inside the widgets located on the "Sharing Your Mental Health Experiences" homepage, the HealthyPlace homepage, and the HealthyPlace Support Network homepage.

If you have any questions, write us at: info AT healthyplace.com

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From the HealthyPlace Mental Health Blogs

On all our blogs, your comments and observations are welcomed.

• Depression Diagnosis is So Important (Coping with Depression Blog)
• Fear Of Getting Too Close (Anxiety-Schmanxiety Blog)
• Tips on Dealing with Bipolar and Exhaustion (Breaking Bipolar Blog)
• Grandiosity: a Bipolar Symptom or a Personality Trait? (Bipolar Vida Blog)
• Mental Health Recovery and the Perceptions of Others (Recovering From Mental Illness Blog)
• The Far Side of Trauma: Finding Peace After Loss (Trauma! A PTSD Blog)
• Act Opposite to Increase Your Self-Esteem (Building Self-Esteem Blog)
• Violent Images: Media and Mental Illness (Surviving Mental Health Stigma Blog)
• How Do I Know If My Abuser Can Change? (Verbal Abuse and Relationships Blog)
• Five Years Self-Harm Free: Vlog Dedicated to Brother (Speaking Out About Self-Injury Blog)
• Aaron Alexis: Another Ignored Cry for Mental Illness Help (Mental Illness in the Family Blog)
• Mental Illness and Self-Acceptance (Your Mental Health Blog)
• 3 ways Self-Care is Good for Your Special Needs Child (Life with Bob Blog)
• Relearning How to Be Angry (More Than Borderline Blog)
• Eating Disorder Coping Skills – Mobile Edition! and Self-Care is Crucial to my Eating Disorder Recovery (Surviving ED Blog)
• Emergency Psychiatrists Parachute Onto Capitol Hill (Funny in the Head: A Mental Health Humor Blog)
• Adult ADHD and Hyperfocused Cleaning (Living with Adult ADHD Blog)
• Being A Crime Victim With Schizophrenia (Creative Schizophrenia Blog)
• Yoga for Better LGBT Mental Health (The Life: LGBT Mental Health and Relationships Blog)

Feel free to share your thoughts and comments at the bottom of any blog post. And visit the mental health blogs homepage for the latest posts.

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Stand Up for Mental Health

Thousands Have Joined the Stand Up for Mental Health Campaign

But we still need you. Let others know there's no shame in having depression, anxiety, bipolar disorder, trichotillomania, OCD, ADHD, schizophrenia or any other mental illness.

Join the Stand Up for Mental Health campaign. Put a button on your website or blog (buttons for family members, parents, mental health professionals and organizations too). We also have covers for Facebook, Twitter and Google+.

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When Frightening News Leads To Young Children’s Sleepless Nights

Terrorist attacks, thunder and lightning or events around the house - these are just some of the things that can lead to your child having trouble falling asleep. So what can parents do to help their child overcome sleep problems? The Parent Coach, Dr. Steven Richfield, has some helpful ideas.

Latest Mental Health News

These stories and more are featured on our mental health news page:

• The 45-Minute Therapy ‘Hour’: A Sign of the Times?
• Raising Daughters. On Bringing Up Girls Into Confident Young Women
• The Social Brain. Are We Wired to Connect?
• New Study Reveals Huge Lack of Awareness and Understanding of OCD Across the UK
• Suicide Rates and Suicidal Talk on Twitter
• People With Mental Health Problems Are Up to Ten Times More Likely to Become Victims of Crime Than The General Population
• Bipolar Risk Markers Identified in Depressed ADHD Children
• DSM-IV Insufficient for Bipolar Disorder Diagnosis
• Pregnant Smoking May Have Mood Consequences for Offspring
• Loving Touch May be Key to Healthy Sense of Self
• Exercise Interventions May Be Needed in Bipolar Patients

That's it for now. If you know of anyone who can benefit from this newsletter or the HealthyPlace.com site, I hope you'll pass this onto them. You can also share the newsletter on any social network (like facebook, stumbleupon, or digg) you belong to by clicking the links below. For updates throughout the week:

• circle HealthyPlace on Google+,
• follow HealthyPlace on Twitter
• follow HealthyPlace on Pinterest
• or become a fan of HealthyPlace on Facebook.

back to: HealthyPlace.com Mental-Health Newsletter Index