Until this point in the “Top 5 Ways To Be A Mental Health Advocate” series here at Mental Health Notes, I’ve given you reasons to stop promoting stigma, a list of large mental health advocacy and research organizations with which you can get involved, and advice on how to get started with mental health support groups.
Today, I want to tell you how important it is to educate yourself and others about mental health. It’s more unlikely that you or anyone else will stigmatize mental illness once you understand it, after all.
Number Four: Become a mental health advocate when you educate …read more

And by “one thing” I mean prescribing medication.
Aside from the cost of mental health care, one of the biggest patient complaints I’ve heard since beginning Mental Health Notes and becoming involved with NAMI is the way in which appointments with psychiatrists seem to go these days.
It’s become the norm for a patient to take a half or whole day off work to sit in a waiting room for an hour or more only to see a psychiatrist for a few minutes in order to discuss whether or not a particular medication is working, grab a new or adjusted prescription, and …read more

I Must Shave My Legs: The OCD Miniseries – Part 5
We’ve hit the halfway point and it’s all downhill from here. Feeling any more educated about obsessive-compulsive disorder? Sure you are.
Now that you know the signs, symptoms, causes of, and risk factors for OCD, how do you know when it’s time to talk to a doctor? And on that note, how will a doctor even determine whether or not you have OCD?
Sometimes people mistake perfectionism for OCD, and vice-versa. Sometimes people mistake little quirks or odd habits for OCD, and vice-versa. However, if your “perfectionism” or “little quirks or odd …read more