Let’s glance back at some of the topics I covered this week here at Mental Health Notes. I shared pictures during Sunday’s Brain Break, mused on the mental health repercussions for the FLDS religious sect children, explained why being kind to the earth (and not just on Earth Day!) was good for our minds, offered tips on how to nurture your mental health after a cancer diagnosis, honored National Poetry Month by recognizing famous poets with mental illness, and reminded you ALL that This Is Why I ROCK! is still accepting entries.

What are some of the big mental health advocacy groups up to lately? Well, Mental Health America is “calling on presidential candidates to emphasize mental health in [their] health policy plans,” as well as urging the rest of us to contact our senators about cosponsoring two bills to block harmful Medicaid regulations.

Want to know what’s going on in the world of scientific-, research-, and government-related mental health news? According to an independent study by RAND Corp., about half of the 300,000 American troops returning home from Iraq and Afghanistan with mental health problems are receiving treatment, while 320,000 American troops have sustained brain injuries. The Criminal Justice Coordinating Council (CJCC) in Rock County, Wisconsin is looking for new ways to address the issue of folks who are arrested and sent into the criminal justice system. Dr. Michael J. Rivkin of Children’s Hospital and Harvard Medical School in Boston led a study that suggests mothers who drink, smoke, or use other drugs during pregnancy put their babies at risk for being born with smaller brains.

And finally, what’s going on around the rest of the b5media Health & Wellness Channel? Well, aside from the fact that we’ve changed our name to the Health & Wellness Channel (remember, it used to be Science & Health Channel?), tons!

Scott over at Health and Men offers up two very important posts for consumers of any gender: First, he gives us tips on how to get the most out of health-related Web sites while still protecting ourselves with The Internet And How It Has Changed Health; then, he highlights a quite in-depth health resource with which many of you may not be familiar in Taking Steps Towards A Healthier Lifestyle With SmallStep.Gov.

Liz over at Alzheimer’s Notes offers up a nice collection of personal stories about Alzheimer’s Disease, while Kristina at Autism Vox lets us know what she thinks of Adam Jasinki, the Big Brother finalist who called autistic children “retards” (why haven’t I given this punk an A.S.S Award yet?!).

Laura at Baldiness reminds teenagers that managing stress and learning to chill out can help prevent hair loss, and Elaine at Genetics & Health tells us about the connection between doggy DNA and human psychiatric problems.

Ruth at Eating Fabulous points out the importance of Vitamin D regarding brain function, and Liberty over at Healthbolt explains how dandelions can help relieve stress.

That’s all for this week! As always, if you have any Saturday Sanity-worthy news to share, send it my way!

Image sources and credits here, here, and here.

Post from: Blisstree

Saturday Sanity: Gathers No Moss

Not only is April Cancer Control Month, but it’s also National Poetry Month!

As a writer, I can’t pass up the opportunity to share with you a list of poets with mental illness. These are just a few of the men and women who lived with mental illness and still managed to do what they loved – write poetry! (Of course, some would argue their mental health is what made the writers so talented, or that their careers as writers helped lead to their mental illness, but, that’s a completely different conversation altogether.)

Recognize any of these names?

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Bright star, would I were stedfast as thou art -
Not in lone splendour hung aloft the night
And watching, with eternal lids apart,
Like nature’s patient, sleepless Eremite
- John Keats, Bright Star

Anthony Storr and Nancy Andreasen, M.D. wrote about John Keats and his mental illness in The Dynamics of Creation and The Broken Brain: The Biological Revolution in Psychiatry, respectively.

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This is the fluid in which we meet each other,
This haloey radiance that seems to breathe
And lets our shadows wither
Only to blow
Them huge again, violent giants on the wall.
One match scratch makes you real.
- Sylvia Plath, By Candlelight

Also well known for her novel The Bell Jar, Sylvia Plath struggled with severe depression for most of her life until she completed suicide at the age of 30. b5media’s own Kristen King wrote about Sylvia Plath here at Mental Health Notes: Sylvia Plath: Glimpse Into The Writer’s Mind.

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I never saw so sweet a face
As that I stood before.
My heart has left its dwelling-place
And can return no more.
- John Clare, First Love

After he continued to increase his alcohol consumption and his mental health seemed to be waning, John Clare was placed in High Beach Asylum where he rewrote works by Lord Byron and at times took credit for William Shakespeare’s works. Roger Sales wrote about it all in John Clare: A Literary Life.

*~*

Too many, Lord, abuse Thy grace
In this licentious day,
And while they boast they see Thy face,
They turn their own away.
- William Cowper, Abuse of the Gospel

Also a hymnodist, William Cowper focused a great deal on religious themes in his poetry. Cowper suffered periods of severe depression and tried to commit suicide several times before being placed in an asylum. He wrote Hatred and vengeance, my eternal portion after the suicide attempts.

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I myself spent nine years in an insane asylum and I never had the obsession of suicide, but I know that each conversation with a psychiatrist, every morning at the time of his visit, made me want to hang myself, realizing that I would not be able to cut his throat.
- Antonin Artaud, French playwright, poet, actor and director

I can’t find any complete poems by Antonin Artaud online (though you can read The Reinvention Of The Human Face, his poem-like introduction to a 1947 exhibition of his portraits and drawings), but this man is interesting enough without having any of his poems to peruse. Especially brow-raising is his Theatre of Cruelty. Check out this Web site dedicated to Antonin Artaud to learn more.

*~*

Have anymore poets with mental illness to add to the list? Share ‘em in the comments! In the meantime – and unrelated to mental health – check out Astronomy Buff blogger Tony Darnell’s haiku about his beloved blog!

Image source and credit.

Are you a mental health consumer also doing what you love? Check out This Is Why I ROCK! for details on how to strut your stuff!

Post from: Blisstree

Meet Famous Poets Who Lived With Mental Illness