Latest Stories
Most recently published stories in Psyche.
Stop Editing Your Photos
Every day, millions of edited selfies are posted on apps like Instagram, SnapChat or Facebook to create a vision of our society deemed as “beautiful.” No, I am not talking about the holiday filters or puppy ears, I am referring to the filters and editing that we intentionally use to change our physical appearance to reflect an image of ourselves that is unreal. It is my strong opinion that edited photos are not only ruining our lives but those lives we touch on social media, whether they be friends or strangers.
By Victoria Gairing5 years ago in Psyche
Autism Awareness
First observed in 2008, a having been declared by UN General Assembly in 2007, World Autism Day is on 2nd April each year. In 2021, World Autism Week will be 29th March to 4th April. You can find further information and ways to get involved here.
By Sapphire Ravenclaw5 years ago in Psyche
Entry #3
Where to begin. I wrote my letter. It was messy and confusing. I feel like the words "messy" and "confusing" sum up every single area in my life at the moment. This process is neither linear or easy. I'm having flashbacks and intrusions of some of the saddest moments of my life. My dogs. I don't understand why they keep coming up or what I'm supposed to do to process them. Do they play a part in the person I am today? I guess it makes sense. I don't know.
By Hilary Dane5 years ago in Psyche
Mental Illness
I starting writing as a way to express myself and to get things out of my head. I write a lot to cope with depression. I have what they call mixed bi-polar. I am on meds for it. Seroquel is my friend, when I can take it. I say when cause when I take it I feel great I feel like me again, But I have a child that is learning to sleep, so I was off my meds for about three weeks. Those three weeks were crazy. I cycle moods quickly a lot of times. When in depression I don't care what I look like at all, I barely will brush my hair or do my make-up. I can't get off the couch, unless I have to. I won't want to do anything in all honestly I just want to sleep. My house will not be up to code with even myself and this causes problems when I cycle out of depressed mood cause it cause aniexty issues and feeling of overwhelming. I will think I am not good enough for anyone in my life, and I will be withdrawled from people and things I normally would enjoy.
By Ashley Starkey5 years ago in Psyche
Push by Sapphire
How I came across it? Even though the book has been out for a while, I didn’t know anything about it until I saw the film Precious. I thought the film was amazing and it had some brilliant acting performances. Really loved Mariah Carey’s role as the therapist. Poignant how she got to redeem herself after her film Rainbow was critically panned.
By Chloe Gilholy5 years ago in Psyche
How to make sense of schizophrenia and psychosis
From experience, I would say psychosis is a way of making sense of the world in our own way. It is more than just a mental disease. It can be dark and unusual to many people, but to the person experiencing it, it is more so a challenge a mere illusion and battle with the nature of societal expectations of reality. To me, normal life is quite evil and tricky. At least, what people who perceive normal entails it to be. Yet, everyone experiences their own realities in a way that makes sense to them. For me, my psychosis makes sense to me. Although it can be hard to deal with since it is different from the norm, it entails a story that is quite beautiful. Comparing it to the real world it can be eccentric and completely unique to itself. Honestly, I believe people are programmed to act a certain way and believe a certain way for the benefit of societal control. An example of this is our bodies, I'm not trying to say our bodies shouldn't be nourished, they should be, and health is a major factor in the reasoning of the existence of psychosis. I believe and I have yet to find factual evidence on this, but I think the negative connotation in our minds is connected to our malnourished body, the toxic energy we are given from foods like outside chemicals effects our entire being. However, I believe that psychosis can be a positive notion in our minds as long as we feed it positivity and recreate a world that can be seen as wonderful. If my world is different from yours, that doesn't mean I'm psychotic it means my values and views are different from yours and what kind of world would we be living in if we all thought the same, a boring a pointless one. We are all just trying to make sense of our lives. In the words of Professor Fletcher at Gresham College, he states that the brain is striving to make sense of the world, confess a ready-made tendency to deviate from reality and to create its own world. For me, the world we live in is quite evil and the world I tend to live inside my head is a lot more beautiful. We have perceptions of the world that makes sense of the sensory electrical signals from heat, light, and force. Professor Fletcher from Gresham College said, “We are direct recipients of reality we are decoding the signals we receive”. So, in this statement he is saying that our psychology has a message for us trying to make sense of the life around us. We associate our senses with the data our brain is receiving, what we have already known and learned. A lot of which we hold onto are traumatizing events in the past. Because it impacts a lasting impact on our feelings, Maya Angelou said “I’ve learned that people will forget what you said, people will forget what you did, but people will never forget how you made them feel”. An example I experience with psychosis is hearing my mom say she hates me even though she never said that. It’s a feeling perceived by thought through my sense from what I’ve learned about and felt in the past. I have yet to heal from my hyper-sensitivity stages. This is not to say my mom didn’t do her best at trying to raise me, she did her best at what she knew. It is that my own perceptions of the world is different and highly sensitive toward the actions of others and what I’ve learned from them.
By Cerina Galvan5 years ago in Psyche
#BipolarAF
Hi! I'm Angela and I'm bipolar AF. Yeah, you know what that means. Or do you? If you've been here, done this, then maybe you do really know. If you live with someone and love every second of them, up or down or in between, you might know. If you've educated yourself or otherwise picked up some psychology along the way, you might have an idea.
By Angela Pryce5 years ago in Psyche
By the Red Chair
"The fabric on that chair is red and blotchy," I say. Without my glasses, the chair is only vaguely familiar. She ignores me of course. She's ignored me since I first kneeled down here at her feet I don't know how long ago. It's been a while I'm certain of that much. It feels like hours, maybe longer. The whole time she has cried. It always kills me, anytime she cries. The first time, I remember it, we had just strolled through a park. We were driving away from the park, in her car, she was driving, and she was telling me about her daughter. Apparently, the relationship is rocky, problematic. She thinks I don't see her tears or the way she looks away from me, but I do; I always do.
By Shawn Ingram5 years ago in Psyche
