Yes! I loved reading "The Center Cannot Hold" by Elyn R. Saks because she spends time describing the approach to care practiced in the UK in contrast to what happens in the U.S. In the U.S., patients are implicitly punished for not responding to pharmaceutical treatment. When will we be willing to accept the pain of…

You can, because you are willing to let yourself be curious. If you commit to a story that has not conclusion other than death and hopelessness, then it is very difficult to find your way out. Resources can provide some ease and comfort when it comes to living with mental illness. But when you are in the deep throws…

One additional caveat to my request, a woman who maintains a healthy (for her) relationship or boundary with a man who is too clueless to be appropriate. She does it without terminating the relationship to her detriment... Just my request, my question to the webuverse.

Is it giving up on feminism if she is inventing a man she could love and trust? I love her character. I LOVE her writing. And isn't granting her the freedom to write whatever and whoever she wants part of supporting any artist's right to self expression? If she were claiming the role of feminist activist we might view…

O.K. I don't MEAN to be a stickler, but the most fun and visible to the human (huher?) eye is the fucking clam!! Why must the clam, disappear once the seam stitching in the cotton-fresh panel begins? Why no ladylike ruffle (let's be honest, asymmetrical) fluttering betwixt the thigh-gap? Fuck and be gone with ye!

What you share about your brother is so very sad. It makes me think about all the thoughtless things people internalize about their bodies. It's so sad that normal healthy aspects of being a functioning creature—eating, evacuating, procreating—-can be characterized in so many rigid judging ways, reduced to dirty jokes…

I am 51. I've been biting mine for almost all of my life. The "almost" is pre-age 3, and limited periods of abstention, none more than 4 months. I get it. It's dirty. On the other hand, it's all relative. My ex wasn't a biter, but his underpants always had shit stains on them. Mine don't. I make sure of that. So,…

Parental hubris...When I hear things like "I would NEVER...to my child" I flash back to my dad getting all self righteous over a child abuse story in the newspaper. Of course, his sadistic, losing his shit, tirades against his own kids were responsible parenting in his book. Which leads me to also think about the…

I really respect how much awareness you are bringing to your reaction to the situation. When these experiences happen in my life, I have learned to connect with a sense of gratitude for whatever happens because I know I don't know everything that might happen as a consequence of any event. By that I mean, you can feel…

Yes. Good for him. I believe that he gets it. That there is a complicated power dynamic between men and women and patriarchy makes it toxic. Toxic for how men think about themselves and their relationships to women. Toxic for how women think about themselves and their relationships to men. There is a little that…

Call me Stone. Dr. Ryan Stone.

I think a lot of U.S. citizens whose great-great-great grandparents came from other places construct that identification because most know where their family's country of origin might be, but don't know why they left. It's the other side of the coin with respect to "you can be anything you want to be here!"…

I urge you to look into Carol Dweck's research about growth versus fixed mindset. There is also a good article summarizing her research in the NYMag. Basically, praising anyone for having "exceptional" ability typically backfires at some point. People perform (and learn) better in the long run when they develop a…

I give her credit for calling out what is happening. I don't know what algorithm she uses to have this awareness and still pursue a conservative political career path. However, her point is valid, whether she is in South Dakota or NYC. There are plenty of "progressives" out there, male and female, who have drunk the…

Mental illness requires treatment (sometimes mandated, sometimes enforced), not incarceration. Your post reflects an attitude that benefits the prison industrial complex and is breaking state budgets across the country, and eviscerating urban poor communities. It's wrong when people of any color, who have untreated…

AND, it would be wonderful if we could all set a high standard for mental health care in the U.S. so that our expectations for treatment did not involve settling for "almost impossible to treat."

No. Mental illness is real. Sexism, homophobia and racism are real. There are biases in who has access to good effective mental health care and who receives good care and support and those biases do tend to operate in favor of straight white men. But serious mental illness, once that is the label, often means people…

Yes. This has been my experience as well. My mom is a retired nurse and 100% pro-women's empowerment and considers herself a feminist. But I cringe when I hear how she talks about the communication style of powerful women. I forgive her for it, and when I want to engage, I push back so that she says what she means…

I'm sorry. Did I seem condescending?

My experience (as a person employed at large research institutions for almost 25 years) and expertise (social science PhD with research focus on stereotyping and implicit bias) tells me otherwise. Yes, men benefit from "looks" privilege, as do women. Gender bias is a different issue with different implications.