Mental Health Information

Posted by Barbara Melville Jul 23, 2008

I’m working on a few articles at once, hence my apparent disappearance. I had originally set out to write a piece on neurosurgery for OCD. Since neurosurgery can be used for other disorders such as depression, I felt it made sense to expand the article to include this information. Then I wanted to add more. And more and more. After viewing all the research I’d gathered, I realized it would be too difficult to cover it adequately in the space of ten articles, never mind one. Now I know why my mother used to preach about the importance of word count in my early school essays. “There are times when it’s important to be able to condense,” she’d say. I didn’t listen, of course. I thought condensing had something to do with milk.

More recently, she was asking about the importance of writers having a thick skin. I think it’s very useful. However, there are always buttons, and dealing with inconsistencies in sources is mine. Yes, this again. I find it very irritating – it frequently affects my research. For example, there are many reputable mental health organizations that provide information for the public. Unfortunately, this information is sometimes out of date (and in some cases, completely incorrect). It is supposed to be accessible and it’s rather concerning when there are glaring inaccuracies and/or ambiguities. Mental health is an area that is already rife with misconceptions. More on this soon...