As 2020 fast approaches, I can’t help but think its necessary to reflect on what was the most ambitious, self-directed, and awe-inspiring ten years of my life. There wasn’t a

So, I want to pose a question: is a mental health disorder a disability? I suspect the answer to this question hinges on how disability is contextualized. There are several

The system is broken. We all know it. We all preach it. When reflecting upon my experiences, both personal, and professional, I remember this short exchange between myself and a

“In the future, further work should deconstruct categories of medicine, psychiatry, and social work and encourage strength based approaches that will supplant new-institutionalization and create a new gold standard in

Ever find yourself in the most perfect or seemingly perfect moment? You just want things to stay that way, right? Well, as a human, you probably have already discovered that

We all know that staying positive is helpful in promoting good mental health. Well, this is getting harder and harder for some folks. Staying positive has become increasingly difficult when

The next step in Contesting Admission seemed rather obvious to me. Pummel the English Department into submission. In the words of President George W. Bush, this will be “shock and

I’m am very much public about my status as a prosumer in the mental health community. I’ve outed myself time and again. People ask me about my book series all

My perception was shifting everyday. At first the shift was gradual, eventually dramatically altered. The community appeared different. People seemed to behave differently and have different motives. All I wanted

I’ve experienced a number of serious planned and unplanned hospitalizations and subsequent discharges. Medical, psychiatric, physical rehabilitation, you name it, I’ve been discharged from it. Discharge planning should always begin

Far too many stories and firsthand accounts of recovery are terminal and end with a cure or picturesque life for the consumer of services or “sick” person. This recovery narrative

The time is upon us! I need to address the ongoing rumors circulating around my writing. Ever since I have announced a second novella, Small Fingernails, Even Less Love 💕

Ive been accused of a number of crimes, socially unacceptable behaviors, and litany of outrageous transgressions during the course of my mental illness. While the majority of the truly grotesque

I am a rhetoric scholar and a person with lived experience with schizophrenia. I am also a prosumer. My identity aside, the status of Disability studies and narratives, memoirs, and

There is an undeniable mobility to recovery. Moving forward in your path to health and healing requires an inertia. From rate of recovery, the very speed and velocity required to

When you carry a mental health diagnosis, you are in almost constant fear of relapsing. Whether you have a chronic long standing condition, or are suffering from a new diagnosis,

I have a profound fascination with attention seeking behavior(s). I am also profoundly clever at capturing the attention of my peers, family, and friends. Let’s be completely honest, some of

Who we are now, who we were back then, and who we will become one day is a journey marked with fear, etched with courage, driven by strength, and laden

I was asked to write down three things I cannot live without on a piece of scrap paper for a seminar on interpretation. At that time, I was floridly psychotic,

The ethics of the helping profession and helping professionals are constantly under the radar. Help seekers, colleagues, and other professions in vastly different fields continue to question the ethics, values,

Interviewer: Please tell us, Max E., why do you insist on writing about mental health when it continues to be so widely talked about and covered by talented authors in

At the very end of my semester in undergraduate school, I attended a reception on campus in which I participated in honoring faculty that was special with and dedicated to

Sometimes, school crises erupt on college campus’s unexpectedly. Other times, there is a slow build up of tension before the crescendo. The crescendo can be violence, hate speech, or any

I have witnessed the most obscene, ornate, loud, and grandest displays from people I work with both clients and colleagues. Center-staging isn’t just about the magnitude and lengths gone through

Psychosis is experienced by people carrying its active constellation of corresponding and altogether unique symptoms differently. At different times, along a spectrum, psychosis symptoms exist in a dark harmony, sometimes