Mental Illness Issues

World Mental Health Day

Yesterday was World Mental Health Day. Together with over 43 million Americans who suffer from a mental illness in any year, I stand up against stigma. As an In Our Own Voice (IOOV) presenter for the National Alliance on Mental Illness (NAMI), I bring the message of the hope of recovery to audiences in the…

Experiences make wisdom

“The experience that you are having is the experience that you need,” my psychiatrist once told me after listening to my account of a terrible accident I witnessed. I was terribly depressed at the time and harboring self-harming thoughts. Then the horrific experience changed my perspective about life. The following excerpt from my upcoming debut…

Fracture

At 500X under the microscope, one can see the fracture of a metal that has been exposed to stress or high temperatures. First there is the initiation, when a triggering event produces a fissure, a distinctive line following a pattern.   In sand stone, the concentric circles of the propagation receive the name of plumose.…