Seven ways my first clinical hospital pharmacy placement taught me the subtle art of not giving a fuck about the stuff that doesn’t matter in life — 1. Maturity means knowing what to invest our limited mental resources on. When most of one’s life has already been lived, they are left with life’s bare-bones — what really matters — family, legacy, and health. Seeing the world through the eyes of the elderly during my time on the ward helped me become more mature because it served as a constant…

When we let ourselves be vulnerable, we use our guilt to form the connections we need to live a meaningful life — Mishaps Open the Mental Floodgates That Allow Guilt to Enter Though some behaviors are objectively wrong (immoral), most of the time we use a personal set of internal standards to judge right from wrong. The criteria we use depend on our values, emotions, and past experiences. Although our assessment of right and wrong is often subjective, most of us would…

Poetry — Her mind would speed up in fear, each time she shifted it up a gear. As her assessment day got close, she turned into a skittish ghost. Losing herself in anticipation, she sank into her devastation. As it became harder to breathe, she cursed her dreadful disease. …

Poetry and reflective prose — Soothed by my inner wind chimes, I play reruns of all the good times. But fear flings me out of the deep, stealing from me my sweet sleep. My heavy eyelids muffle my mind, but my thoughts can’t be confined. …

A crash-course guide for supporting confused, psychotic, and suicidal individuals — Due to my mental health training (in my psychiatry graduate studies, pharmacy doctorate, and peer support certification training through Peer Support Canada), and lived experience with mental illness, I have assisted in (and personally survived) many mental health crisis situations. Mental health first aid (MHFA) is a crucial, lifesaving set…

Poetry — On good days you enter the world ready to slay, confident you’ve thrown all your burdens away. On bad days you feel like the world is ending, yet you still feel pressure to keep pretending. Though the breeze and sunshine feel nice, this walk under the sun comes with a…

Poetry — From the Wasteland come inviting voices, but they only inspire destructive choices. They will reel you in deeper and deeper, so they can feed you to the grim Reaper. But this Reaper won’t take your life away — the tale of the Wasteland isn’t that cliché. He will consume your key…

Recognizing how mental illness can impair communication is the first step to effectively supporting those affected — Mental illness can affect many areas of an individual’s life, including academic, occupational, and social domains. A core underlying reason why all of these areas may be impaired is communication. Mental illness influences both HOW an individual interacts with others and WHAT they convey in their interactions.

If treated appropriately, fear, privilege, and hope are valuable tools for personal growth — I was born into a relatively well-off, upper-middle-class family. I never had to worry about money. I was fortunate enough to be able to go to a private school for an entire decade of my childhood. Since starting university, not once have I needed a loan to pay for post-secondary…