Contratherapy: Recognition, part I (early draft)
The following is an early draft of a section from my thesis-in-progress, presented for this event with the Therapy and Social Change Network.
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Contratherapy: a very premature introduction
The following was written as a brief thesis-in-progress summary for the purposes of this event with the Therapy and Social Change Network. Please note that this writing is very much ‘in the middle’ of development, and will likely change significantly by the time it is submitted. Please take the following not as a destination, but as a signpost pointing …
Why You’re So Tired (Even When You’re Not Doing That Much)
Ever had a day where you barely left your chair—but still felt completely wiped out by 4pm?
The Multitasking Lie Everyone Believes
How to undo the silent damage.
You’re not bad at multitasking. Your brain just wasn’t built for it.
The Most Productive Thing You Can Do Today? Stop.
Work less, think better.
Your brain wasn’t built for back-to-back Zoom calls and ten hour workdays. In a culture obsessed with doing more, it’s easy to forget that rest is productive too. We’ve inherited an “always on” ethos that honors productivity while treating rest as an afterthought, but science tells a different story.
The only place I feel safe
…
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Oladejo Muinat Oladoja
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2h
This so true and relatable.
Thanks for putting up this piece.
It is what I actually need at the moment.
Thank you.
I Asked an AI If It Agreed With the Buddha About Desire
And its answers left me blissed out.
Hi friend,
Amazing Claude AI
When the Swallows Return
on collective trauma, shared narratives, and the healing power of community
“When our city was attacked, I fled to the hills with my little boy, and there my second baby was born,” she tells me, eyes like the sea behind her, hair long and blonde like mine. The lines etched into her face are deeper than mine. She is perhaps a decade older than me; perhaps less. She offers me a glass of wine.
I feel the pain in it, I feel the horror and I feel the beauty, the hope, the love, in it.
It cuts deep to know that people can love, but also do terrible things to each other. Some follow the road of blindness without love while those with no spine obey.
I've seen it on many places where people even have been slaughtered. The idea of killing everything in the most terrible way. The slaughter is still ongoing: those who kill kids, mothers, elderly, innocent people, ...without asking anything. They must be dead... all of them. Because of greed, of blind hate, ...whatever.
This forwards the question about those who blindly follow their leaders, and kill anyone on command... even those who try to help those in need.
There's no excuse: killing is killing. It's no self defense, it's full stop murder. The lame world leaders only watch and say only few things. Because they are 'allies' or there's some economical advantage. If you support a murderer and don't do anything to stop him effectively but keep selling war material to them ... you are a murderer too.
The war machine is about money, about egoism, about power, and apparently never about lives. The warlords stay in a safe place. Those who opposes, disappear. Accidentally 'fallen' out of the window.
But besides all this, there's still love between people, between a mother and her child. There's kindness, caring, positivity to lift up others.
In the worst of times, the love will not give up.
So, I learned to look into that direction, to feel hope, happiness, strength not to give in to negativity, to see the real beauty of Life that still exist.
Looking at all the terror will freeze us and leave us empty and terribly sad and disgusted about humans.
But that will help nothing, it will improve nothing.
The only way out is to focus on love, on positivity, on building instead of destruction...
If you can't change the ongoing terror, the only thing that's left is exposing it and building new love, new hope for better. Don't stay in the past of the terror what has been done, because it will cultivate hate and that will destroy you.
We can die as humans, but we will live forever in the love that we cultivated.
Never give up on Love, how hard this life may seem. There's more than only this human life.
✨🪷✨
Beautifully explained, Deborah!
Mental Health: Pill Pushing?
How did we go from a few people in mental hospitals to 16.5% of the population on mental health medications?
According to the World Health Organization, “Mental health is a state of mental well-being that enables people to cope with the stresses of life, realize their abilities, learn well and work well, and contribute to their community.”
If you don't think you're sick, sit down and watch television for a couple of hours.
You'll be on the phone to your doctor, asking why you haven't been prescribed the miracle drug you just learned about for the illness you didn't know you had.
Lyn Yexley makes some great points, and I have something to add to underline all that was shared. After my son has been on ADHD drugs, I'm wondering how much of this is brought on by improper diet and processed foods. Some background is needed: my former is a nurse and believes there is a pill for everything, I believe food is our medicine. The diet my kids had was mostly takeout, as evidenced by the overflowing trash bins in the driveway. The first time they had Thanksgiving with me, I had invited a friend and her 2 kids - they mentioned they never had everyone sitting at the same table. Enough of that. My kids arrived for their annual month-long stay, and I had discovered before their arrival that my son was taking a prescription for ADHD. I asked my daughter what she was witnessing about her brother - figety, attention always drifting, not sleeping regularly (many times up all night on the PC only to sleep all day in classes). Took his prescription from him upon arrival, we went on a disciplined diet and regimen. 3 meals a day, NO processed foods, no soda, no power drinks, nothing but fresh from the farmers market and nearby farms, fresh milk, and water. We went for a brisk walk every evening and spent the mornings outside for about an hour. TV was limited to 1-2 hours, PC for 1 hour, everyone to bed by 11, no electronics (their phones were kept in my BR). We went to a bookstore to buy whatever books they wanted (I dealt with quality reading later). After just 3 days, my daughter shared she already noticed a difference. After week 1, he was convinced and wanted to learn to cook. His skin tone changed, his eyes cleared, his focus was sharp, and his thinking was even sharper. And no nervous habits. When they went home, he made the mistake of telling his mother what transpired, and she blew a gasket. He eventually hid his prescriptions and tossed his daily dosage down the toilet. He went on to learn how to cook for a career - none of it involving processed foods.
We are programmed by our education system and our medical system, and all taht was flipped on its head by Andrew Carnegie and John D Rockefeller in the 1910s. JDR needed to recoup his lost Standard Oil empire and discovered he could use petrochemicals in pharmaceuticals. Carnegie hired Abraham Flexner to do a study on how to convert the medical industry. JDR and Carnegie used Flexner's report to change both the education and medical professions within a decade. Medical colleges either complied or would not receive their liberal funding. The number of medical schools dwindled. The number of medical schools declined from 190+ in 1912 to 76 in 1930, with the number of physicians per 100,000 capita decreasing from 157 in 1900 to 125 in 1930. The number of medical students decreased in parallel, from 28,142 in 1904 to 13,798 in 1920. Plain and simple - they made medical school expensive to attend, and the hospitals not following their 'recommendations' saw their financial backing dry up.
Fast forward to the last 15 years, more than 100 natural remedy doctors have suddenly died, all under very suspicious circumstances. Many are reporting threats. Independent doctors are being persecuted by the State Medical Boards for the flimsiest of excuses, the most public of cases being Dr Mary Tally Boden in TX.
The Flexner report - as well as Obamacare - is responsible for everything in the medical industry being expensive for patients (little known fact - Obamacare ceased for the people, hospitals maintain Obamacare in its administration). We are where we are because we have permitted it for more than a century, and Big Pharma is not taking No for an answer. It is our due diligence to make sure that is their problem, not ours.
Mental(izing) Health: Introducing the Ideas and Beliefs of Our Nominee for Surgeon General, Casey Means
Newsletter, #66
Mental(izing) Health is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber.
A combo of “ think positive thoughts” and Christian Science
Saturday Night Live can/ will (?) have a field day with this.
Thanks for citing my article. I'm struck by how often psychotherapy is both praised and criticized by those who don't really know what it is.
Technique and Resonance in Mental Health
Some thoughts based on Freya India's latest
I always look with anticipation for Freya India’s post, and her latest, titled “Nobody Has a Personality Anymore” doesn’t disappoint. The central thesis is that many contemporary people have medicalized and labeled their personality traits so that nothing is left but a series of diagnoses. That part of her argument is interesting and …
I think I finally realized why stoicism is just a passing interest for me: It is about techniquing your life into control. It many ways it accomplishes the same thing as self-surveillance by smashing the mystery from life via control. Just like learning and applying therapeutic techniques in such a way that they become background guidelines, stoicism could be used similarly.
Thanks for that insight, Alan. It helped me realize such concepts - therapy and stoic philosophy - are "coulds" instead of "shoulds."
Again, I love the way you write about mental health. So helpful.
And Now Keto's Mental Health Claims
Keto Promises Many Cures — and Now Even Mental Health?
There’s a growing chorus on social media claiming that keto diets have magical effects on mental health.
📰 A Newspaper, a Nervous System, and the Courage to Be You
I opened our session and smiled—there she was, unfolding a physical newspaper. A real one. Ink on fingers, pages in hand.
July 2025
Mental Health Insights & Opportunities
Teen Mental Health: Books of Hope
The state of the world right now is completely overwhelming me. I have spent days trying to figure out what to say here, how to put to words the amount of fear and grief floating around all of us. Mostly, I feel like a broken record, saying over and over: ‘take care of each other, community is all we have, don’t give up on the people around you’. I feel…
What a great book list (one older person’s opinion, but thinking your generation would agree) and such thoughtful descriptions. Wow. You also recommended a pretty amazing (at least I love many of them) group of authors. Braiding Sweetgrass is one of my favorite books and you have helped me add to my reading list. Thank you!
Home run, once again. Thanks for the interesting list.
Manhood & Mental Health
June is over, and that means I got something to say.
Yesterday was the last day of Men’s Mental Health Awareness Month.
That last paragraph call to action is so needed! Definitely important essay that more people should read tbh
Latest Sport Psychology, Mental Health & Wellbeing Jobs
Your regular round up of roles from across the UK, US and Australia
Hi everyone!
Exercise and Mental Health: Context Matters
When, where, how and with whom you workout affects physical activity's effect on the mind
Helping Children After Natural Disasters
We had a different newsletter just about ready to go this week, but the devastating news out of Texas inspired me to put out this post first. For those of us with a connection to summer camps, Texas, SAR teams, other natural disasters, or who have or work with kids or faith communities … this all hits extra close to home. I attended a webinar July 10 …
You Don’t Need to be ”Fixed”—You Need to be Accepted
Facing “BAD” mental health days
A note about today’s post:
Thank you. Normal just means normative which just means the most frequent form of something. Frequent does not imply a +|- value though people insist on applying one - every way of being exists on a bell curve. Personally I don’t want to exist on the top of the curve. It’s boring to be like the norm❤️⭕️❌. ( I like to reduce us to math - I know it’s weird, just like me, thank goddess!)
Myron, your child is in hell
10 Gentle Habits that Improved my Mental Health
Tiny choices that helped me feel human again.
I remember having a panic attack in the car, once. I can’t tell you why, but I can tell you the exact bend in the road, that the hedgerows were in their full greenery, and the air felt thicker than custard.
This feels helpful.
Thank you sharing this.
I love that you describe your "own personal twisty life". I'm not sure how I grew up believing that my life would be an orderly progression and what worked once would always work, but I've discovered it's a horrible lie. There's always a bump in the road, a curve in the path, and a scary but delicious twist. ❤
Can you Pray Away a Mental Health Condition?
Why religion can be bad for your mental health
Let’s say one morning on your way to work, your car suddenly stalls in traffic and you can’t start it. Sucks, right? We’ve all driven past (or been) motorists on the side of the road with car problems, and know just how disruptive and exacerbating this can be.
Yes, Jim. A thousand incense sticks lit in your honor. 🙏
Trying to pray away a mental health condition is like shouting at a toothache in Aramaic and calling it “deliverance.” It may feel holy, but all you’re doing is bleeding in tongues.
The idea that faith should eliminate depression is the spiritual equivalent of prosperity gospel for the psyche: dangerous, dishonest, and designed to keep people quietly suffering while they try to outperform their humanity with devotion.
What you said about the This-Is-What-I-Have vs. This-Is-What-I-Am mindset? That’s real theology. That’s the desert wisdom the early monks were trying to channel when they stared at the walls of their cells until the walls started talking back.
We are not our pain. We are the space that holds it.
So no, you can’t pray it away—but you can bring prayer with you as you sit on the therapist’s couch, refill your meds, and walk through your grief like the mystic you forgot you were.
Thank you for naming what so many of us were taught to deny. This is gospel. Just not the kind they’ll preach from the pulpit.
I remember a church I went to 15 years ago where the pastor told people they shouldn’t be on antidepressants and to rely on God instead. Another church I went to convince me to do healing prayer for my anxiety and then a year later I discovered I was in perimenopause, and I started taking hormones, and the anxiety was gone within a week. The irresponsibility of this kind of behavior cannot be overstated. I’m glad I’m not part of these kinds of communities anymore but I do worry about people who are.
START HERE If You're New ✨
I'll introduce you to this newsletter.
Welcome to MENTAL HEALTH REVOLUTION, where people
There's Nothing Wrong With You...Are You Making This Mistake?
...a dive beyond physical health into emotional/mental health...
Gents, Here's a post not focused on physical health but our mental/emotional health. Remember that if you are struggling with some emotional/mental pressures, if you start exercising, jogging, calisthenics, muscle building, pushups, weightlifting, you will already vastly boost your emotional/wellbeing/depression and start moving forward.
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