Which Engineers Built the Better Mousetrap?
A tour of undergraduate engineering schools with his daughter Shira inspired guest bloggrer David Braiterman to write this humorous riff on professional engineers.
Category Archives: Guest Blogs and Posts
Two Choices: Which Kind of Winning Matters to You?
Surprisingly, Shay was given the bat. Everyone knew that a hit was all but impossible because Shay didn’t even know how to hold the bat properly, much less connect with the ball. However, as Shay stepped up to the plate, the pitcher, recognizing that the other team was putting winning aside for this moment in Shay’s life, moved in a few steps to lob the ball in softly so Shay could at least make contact.
Camping with the Kids Helped Megan as a Mom
Everybody loves to share their experiences at Acadia, once they know you are going. Through these stories, I knew it was a magical place.
By Corinna West: Permanent Solutions to My Temporary Problems
CorinnaWest calls her first experiences in the mental health system, her diagnosis, medications, and hopeless outlook for the future “permanent solutions to temporary problems.” Nobody talked to her about what was going on in her life, she says, or said a word about getting well..
By Mark Foster, D.O: Letter from the Front Line
Family physician Mark Foster, D.O. shares the story of a troubling office visit with a 6-year-old and his mother, who came to his office for a refill of the child’s Aterol, the stimulant he’d been using for ADHD. The mother’s family doctor had not told her about side effects or the need to take vacations from the medicine. The child was diagnosed based on a teacher’s report of behavior in school that had many possible explanations, not just a chemical imbalance in the brain.
By Corinna West: The Disability Industrial Complex
While you’re checking out Corinna’s declaration of independence from the Disability Industrial Complex, check out its companion piece, “Maybe I Never Needed a Psychiatric Label At All.”
By Corinna West: It Feels So Great To Be Off Psych Meds
Corinna West, a former Olympic athlete, started having severe emotional difficulty when she stopped competing. After six suicide attempts, six shock treatments, and a cocktail of six psychiatric medications. Now, she tells the story of how she withdrew completely from those medicines, gradually, one at a time.
The Origin of The Chocolate Fairy
The Chocolate Fairy combines several of Corinna West’s main interests: bicycling, mental health awareness, outreach to homeless people, community building, nutrition, health education, and of course chocolate.
Humor, Fable, or Funny Fable: Don’t Touch the Yeti
I thought this was funny. Others thought it was a fable about facing your fears. I guess it’s a funny fable.
Confessions of an Abused Child’s Mother
A sexually abused mother of a sexually abused child discusses how the feeling of being a helpless victim stayed with her into adulthood, and led to bad decisions when she suspected her husband was abusing their daughter. Now, she and her daughter work on their recoveries together and publish an interactive website: www.overcomingsexualabuse.com