Work has re-entered an unrelenting phase these two weeks, and I'm struggling to find time to eat, never mind cook anything new or update this blog.
I have had a few interesting articles pass over social media feeds this month though that I would like to share.
Two are on mental health, which I thought was fitting as it is #BellLetsTalk week in Canada this week, which is a campaign to raise awareness around mental health issues.
One is directly related to the week, and is an interesting take on this year's campaign hashtags #SickNotWeak, using a disability studies model. And I love the humorous comment on the stock photos in the side bar. http://www.jeffpreston.ca/2016/01/25/lets-talk-sickness-and-health/
There was also an article about the latest mental health treatment craze - mindfulness. 'Mindfulness' drives me bonkers. Some of us don't have the kind of brains that are 'relaxed' through meditation, just as some of us are not flexible enough or too fidgety to do yoga. I'm not saying that mindfulness doesn't work, I'm sure that it works really well for some people, but it is being held up as the mental health cure-all at the moment to the point that some employers see offering mindfulness workshops as a way of dodging their corporate responsibility for driving people into the ground with heavy workloads (my employer included). http://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/2016/jan/23/is-mindfulness-making-us-ill.
The reality of mental health treatment is that everyone is different, everyone's issues are different, and different people need different treatment modalities. It's like the tread for CBT (Cognitive-Behaviour Therapy). CBT is very effective for many mental health issues, but it is based on the assumption that people don't already have self-awareness about faulty ideas driving behaviour (ie. I'm a horrible human being, so this job interview will be a disaster). The problem is that when you already have the self-awareness and already use the strategies, but life still seriously sucks due circumstances that you truly have no control over (like say, being diagnosed with a chronic illness and then being minced up in the meat grinder of the medical model), then CBT doesn't do a damn thing. Everyone is individual and needs to find what works for them. As one psychologist I know put it, it's like finding a good hair dresser - you need to shop around.
And on another note, I read this article this morning on gender, and endometriosis.
http://nursingclio.org/2014/03/13/taking-the-woman-out-of-womens-health/. Some serious food for thought on women's health. As someone who (as the writer put it) prioritised symptom reduction over reproduction, I did feel sidelined as a patient in the world of gynaecology. And interesting that she raises the issue of 'queer identities' being absent from many women's health discourses. With all the gynaes I dealt with over my 20's and 30's, only one ever asked my sexual orientation. My initial reaction to seeing this on her questionnaire was 'none of your damn business', but then I realised that she was trying not to make assumptions about her patients' sexualities. Fair play. Too bad she was a shit gyane who didn't listen.
I have had a few interesting articles pass over social media feeds this month though that I would like to share.
Two are on mental health, which I thought was fitting as it is #BellLetsTalk week in Canada this week, which is a campaign to raise awareness around mental health issues.
One is directly related to the week, and is an interesting take on this year's campaign hashtags #SickNotWeak, using a disability studies model. And I love the humorous comment on the stock photos in the side bar. http://www.jeffpreston.ca/2016/01/25/lets-talk-sickness-and-health/
There was also an article about the latest mental health treatment craze - mindfulness. 'Mindfulness' drives me bonkers. Some of us don't have the kind of brains that are 'relaxed' through meditation, just as some of us are not flexible enough or too fidgety to do yoga. I'm not saying that mindfulness doesn't work, I'm sure that it works really well for some people, but it is being held up as the mental health cure-all at the moment to the point that some employers see offering mindfulness workshops as a way of dodging their corporate responsibility for driving people into the ground with heavy workloads (my employer included). http://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/2016/jan/23/is-mindfulness-making-us-ill.
The reality of mental health treatment is that everyone is different, everyone's issues are different, and different people need different treatment modalities. It's like the tread for CBT (Cognitive-Behaviour Therapy). CBT is very effective for many mental health issues, but it is based on the assumption that people don't already have self-awareness about faulty ideas driving behaviour (ie. I'm a horrible human being, so this job interview will be a disaster). The problem is that when you already have the self-awareness and already use the strategies, but life still seriously sucks due circumstances that you truly have no control over (like say, being diagnosed with a chronic illness and then being minced up in the meat grinder of the medical model), then CBT doesn't do a damn thing. Everyone is individual and needs to find what works for them. As one psychologist I know put it, it's like finding a good hair dresser - you need to shop around.
And on another note, I read this article this morning on gender, and endometriosis.
http://nursingclio.org/2014/03/13/taking-the-woman-out-of-womens-health/. Some serious food for thought on women's health. As someone who (as the writer put it) prioritised symptom reduction over reproduction, I did feel sidelined as a patient in the world of gynaecology. And interesting that she raises the issue of 'queer identities' being absent from many women's health discourses. With all the gynaes I dealt with over my 20's and 30's, only one ever asked my sexual orientation. My initial reaction to seeing this on her questionnaire was 'none of your damn business', but then I realised that she was trying not to make assumptions about her patients' sexualities. Fair play. Too bad she was a shit gyane who didn't listen.
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