rtor.org Celebrates ‘May is Mental Health Awareness Month’
Last year for Mental Health Awareness Month our Associate Editor Veronique and I posted an article on a different mental health topic each day in the month of May. This year we add some new voices and perspectives to the conversation, with 5 guest bloggers joining us on rtor.org, one each week in the month of May. Four of our guests are prominent bloggers in the world of mental health. The fifth is a talented artist who finds relief from her depression in her powerful mental health-themed art. Each offers a uniquely personal perspective on mental health and mental illness. We hope you will join us every Tuesday in the month of May as they tell their stories and present their views on wellness and recovery.
Today also marks the anniversary of rtor.org which was launched on May 2, 2014. To celebrate our second anniversary, I would like to share some of our favorite posts of the last year. The following 5 posts are representative of the kind of information, tips and sharing of personal stories we regularly offer on the website. Writing for my blog The Family Side is one of the great pleasures of my life. But it would be meaningless if not for the people who read these posts, leave their comments and subscribe to our weekly newsletter. Your involvement with this website is the reason Veronique and I keep writing articles like the ones below. Thank you for being an involved and active audience throughout the year!
5 Favorite Blog Posts from the rtor.org Archives
‘Love & Mercy’ and Recovery: Beach Boy Brian Wilson’s Comeback from Mental Illness
by Jay, published October 13, 2015
This is a review of the Brian Wilson biopic Love & Mercy which tells a great recovery story about someone who overcame serious mental health and addiction issues to make a comeback later in life. I am a huge fan of Brian Wilson and had great fun writing this piece. The biggest challenge for me was cutting down the first draft to a quarter of its original size in the final version!
Top 5 Wellness Tips Based on DBT
by Veronique, published February 4, 2016
I like this post by our Associate Editor Veronique because it borrows principles from an advanced clinical practice like dialectical behavior therapy (DBT) and applies them to everyday living in a way that anyone can benefit. Veronique does an amazing job of making the world of mental health accessible to all readers in her blog Just Right Wellness.
Failure To Launch: 9 Tips for Managing Anxiety in Dependent Adult Children
by Jay, published March 3, 2016
This post is a good example of the kind of practical mental health information that gets a response from users. Several parents have called or emailed to say “That is us!” When parents and other family members read a post like this they realize that they may not be as alone as they imagined and are more willing to reach out for help. Our Resource Specialist Denise Vestuti is ready to help families who read our blogs and are looking for mental health resources for a loved one.
Willpower vs. Stubbornness
by Veronique, published April 26, 2016
This is another example of the great writing Veronique is doing for her blog Just Right Wellness. I thoroughly enjoy the way she inserts her personality into posts like this, providing readers with wellness information that is informative, useful and entertaining. This post is typical of Veronique’s approach to writing wellness articles that are tailored to individuals but apply to everyone.
Robin Williams Still Remembered and a Father’s Grief Takes a Trip to India
by Jay, published April 12, 2016
This is the latest post from my blog The Family Side and is also the most personal. It is about how a school trip to India changed my daughter’s life. I wrote it as a follow-up to a piece from August 2014, following the death of Robin Williams (A Father’s Grief at the Loss of an Iconic Actor: In Memory of Robin Williams’ Gift to All of Us). When news of Robin’s suicide hit the airwaves that summer I was already at such a low point with my family that it was actually a relief to be able to share my feelings with a nation that was also grieving. I am so happy and grateful to report that Part II of this story, the “Trip to India,” has a much more positive and hopeful ending.
And for those of you who would like to read more from the rtor.org archives, here are our top five most read articles of all time, in order of popularity:
Top 5 Most Popular Posts from rtor.org
A Father’s Grief at the Loss of an Iconic Actor: In Memory of Robin Williams’ Gift to All of Us
Bipolar Disorder vs. Borderline Personality Disorder: Knowing the Difference
5 Tips for Managing Emotional Wellness
Teen Suicide: What One Mother Is Doing to Stop It from Happening to Someone Else’s Kid
Does Princess Elsa Have Borderline Personality Disorder: Disney’s “Frozen” as a Parable of Emotional Dysregulation
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