The Splintered Mind by Douglas Cootey The Splintered Mind by Douglas Cootey RSS feedThis is an RSS file. You can use it to subscribe to this data in your favourite RSS reader or to display this data on your own website or blog.

The Summer that Melted My ADHD Brain (and the Eight Ways I Beat the Heat!)
My favorite times of the year are Spring and Fall. Then I can emerge from my protective cocoon, spread my wings, and go outside without dying. In the Winter, the cold moisture gives me bronchitis. Just ONE cold can linger for weeks, so I curtail my beloved walks and slog on a treadmill instead. But the Summer! Wow! The Summer melts my brain. At least in the Winter I can still think and function, but the heat reduces my brain to a gelatinous goo that prevents coherent thought. I used to hide inside for months, but over the years the boredom of the shut-in life drove me outside out of sheer desperation. Unfortunately, if I s...
Source: The Splintered Mind by Douglas Cootey - June 30, 2016 Category: Psychiatry Tags: ADHD Goodreads Source Type: blogs

This News Terrified Me, and I Don't Even Own an AR-15
Photo © Rick Gravrok I had a dream about guns yesterday. I was being visited by a fifty-something married couple and they asked me if I had a gun. I told them, “Yes, I have a rifle in the back room,” which is odd because I don’t actually own a gun or rifle in real life. At any rate, the wife was shocked since my youngest daughter lived with me and suddenly, as is the way with dreams, my living room was filled with social workers, religious leaders, and school administrators! All of them began trying to convince me that the rifle was a bad idea and reflected poorly on my parenting. One of the officious pe...
Source: The Splintered Mind by Douglas Cootey - June 26, 2016 Category: Psychiatry Tags: ADHD Depression Family Goodreads Source Type: blogs

The Amazing MHA Conference and a Few Things I Took Home with Me
Loved speaking w/ gr8 folks RT @KimZapata Finished speaking with these rock stars @natasha_tracy @SplinteredMind pic.twitter.com/SFmEtuiWer— Natasha Tracy (@natasha_tracy) June 9, 2016If you’ve been following along lately, then you’ll know that I spoke at Mental Health America's conference on June 8th. I knew that MHA was a well established organization, but I had no idea that the MHA has been a mental health advocacy organization since 1909. It wasn’t the only bit of new information I learned. I was there for a blip, but I gained so much from the experience. This entry will be long, but I wanted to share with you ...
Source: The Splintered Mind by Douglas Cootey - June 25, 2016 Category: Psychiatry Tags: ADHD Depression Goodreads Hobnobbing Journaling Source Type: blogs

#22pushups a Day for #22KILL – Memorial Day Edition
Day Twenty-twoI completed the "#22Kill Challenge" a few weeks ago. I thought today would be a perfect day to put the rest of my videos up. Each post has a message—some deeper than others. I just wanted you to know that I saw the project through to the end and didn’t miss a day. My thoughts are heavy today because Memorial Day is the day to remember our fallen soldiers, and for me to remember my brother. He was a Marine just out of boot camp when a drunk driver plowed into the shuttle carrying him & ten other marines on liberty. So many of them were injured and never had their chance to serve. My brother was hurt th...
Source: The Splintered Mind by Douglas Cootey - June 17, 2016 Category: Psychiatry Tags: Depression Family Suicide Source Type: blogs

Three Pluses to Learning in a Fishbowl
I’ll be flying out to the Mental Health America convention this summer to discuss blogging about mental health as a form of therapy. I’m looking forward to the new experience. I’ll get to meet peers and talk about a subject of which I feel passionately. I’ll even get out of my state again, something I don’t do often enough. Obviously, blogging about your mental health takes a bit of gumption. While you may hope to connect with other individuals who share your experiences, or maybe you dare to inspire, you also open yourself up for criticism from strangers. Sometimes they see your struggle and ...
Source: The Splintered Mind by Douglas Cootey - June 13, 2016 Category: Psychiatry Tags: Goodreads Journaling Writing Source Type: blogs

Suicide Watch: Can You Walk Away from Cyberbullying?
The other day a young girl from Florida named Tovonna committed suicide after friends posted nude photos & video of her onto Snapchat—a popular mobile app for sharing media with friends. According to reports, her mother didn’t understand what Tovonna was upset about. It’s possible she was hysterical and not clear, because it turns out she had been filmed while showering. Three hours after talking to her mother, she shot herself with her mother’s pistol. Tovonna’s death has been overshadowed this weekend by the horrific gay bar mass-shooting in Orlando, but while some people might want to focu...
Source: The Splintered Mind by Douglas Cootey - June 13, 2016 Category: Psychiatry Tags: Depression Goodreads Suicide Source Type: blogs

My TV Cure for Depression
I imagine you're wondering how television can cure anybody of anything. The news is depressing. Insipid sitcoms are depressing. The endless sea of reality TV is depressing. Doesn't it just give people headaches? How can I use television to treat my depression‽ For those reasons and more, TV is not my coping strategy of choice. I try to limit my TV time, and expressly avoid vegging out in front of it. TV is an ADHD sink hole. However, I can't deny that it helped me out one day. Let's explore why it worked. The First Step Is to Be AwareLast week, I felt particularly down in the middle of a project. I recognized that I was ...
Source: The Splintered Mind by Douglas Cootey - June 13, 2016 Category: Psychiatry Tags: Depression Goodreads Source Type: blogs

Your Mental Health Is up to You
"Tom Kelly - Light Painting" Somebody close to me recently mocked me online. They mocked my book. They mocked my invite to speak at the upcoming Mental Health America conference. They mocked all my recent achievements. They saw all of these achievements as me being bound to a lifestyle that will set me up for mockery. Ironic, I know. This person meant well, but did more harm than good at the time. How fortunate for me that I don’t need other people’s permission to feel good about myself. People who don’t acknowledge your mental health issues aren’t going to acknowledge your achievements. They aren&#...
Source: The Splintered Mind by Douglas Cootey - June 4, 2016 Category: Psychiatry Tags: ADHD Depression Goodreads Source Type: blogs

Disqus: Love It or Leave It? Feedback Wanted
One of the main reasons that I implemented Disqus was because of their robust anti-spam features. The other reason was because of their strong social media support. Over the years, Disqus evolved to be their own social media network, and the social media tools I loved (like being able to easily post a comment AND have it simultaneously post to Facebook & Twitter) were removed. Another reason that I switched was because Blogger's comment system seemed to give people trouble.Well, comments are way down, and people send me comments on Twitter, Facebook, email, and privately instead of posting here. They all begin their me...
Source: The Splintered Mind by Douglas Cootey - April 18, 2016 Category: Psychiatry Source Type: blogs

Writing in a Fishbowl: Day Twenty-Nine and DONE!
7:20 PM: Finished! I started and finished a book in under one month. Next up, I’ll spend the next week on the second draft, which will mean that I only fix typos, commas, and focus. Then I send it off to a copyeditor. While that’s away, I’ll gather graphics and put together landing pages and book summaries, etc. My goal—and, boy! I like them aggressive—is to have everything finished so that I can self pub by April 30th. Then I can begin my next book project on May 1st. I’ll probably miss all those deadlines. I might tic a few days away, my daughter’s problems might flare up, or I’ll...
Source: The Splintered Mind by Douglas Cootey - April 17, 2016 Category: Psychiatry Tags: ADHD Depression Family Journaling Writing Source Type: blogs

Writing in a Fishbowl: Day Twenty-Six
2:47 AM: Made a lot of progress in the closing chapters tonight. Deleted a ton of useless material, so my word count was going backwards for a bit, but the results are worth the effort. Can't keep my eyes open. Will write more later. Totals:Day No.1: 1250 words Day No.2: 703 wordsDay No.3: 671 wordsDay No.4: 262 wordsDay No.7: 2725 wordsDay No.8: 231 words Day No.13: 974 wordsDay No.17: 633 wordsDay No.19: 758 wordsDay No.21: 473 wordsDay No.22: 1277 wordsDay No.26: 815 wordsProject Word Count Total: 10,772 words (Source: The Splintered Mind by Douglas Cootey)
Source: The Splintered Mind by Douglas Cootey - April 16, 2016 Category: Psychiatry Tags: Journaling Writing Source Type: blogs

Writing in a Fishbowl: Day Twenty-Two
12:49 PM: Will today be the day I make steady progress? I’m not ticking. I’m not depressed or sick. I have half a brain. No family drama is on the horizon. Once I drop off the Brownie at her mother’s, my schedule is wide open. Will I be smart, or will I fire up Splatoon? 3:47 AM: Time for bed. It’s been a wonderfully productive day. I have no regrets. Although I came down with some intestinal thing during the afternoon, my friends convinced me to let them come over anyway. Good friends are more precious to me than diamonds. I’m glad I relented. Finally, I finally saw Star Wars Episode VII. I ...
Source: The Splintered Mind by Douglas Cootey - April 10, 2016 Category: Psychiatry Tags: Journaling Writing Source Type: blogs

Writing in a Fishbowl: Day Twenty-One
2:35 PM: More research has been needed. That’s how I spent yesterday. As much as it destroys the writing flow, I’d rather struggle now and get things right than rush to maintain a public display of writing wonder to impress passersby. The whole point of this experiment wasn’t to BE Dean Wesley Smith, or even write as much as he does, but to see if writing about my writing would make me write MORE. These entries, obviously, don’t count. Holding myself accountable in public has helped me push forward despite the effect depression, ticking, insomnia, and plain old absentminded ADHD has on my life. I t...
Source: The Splintered Mind by Douglas Cootey - April 9, 2016 Category: Psychiatry Tags: Journaling Writing Source Type: blogs

Writing in a Fishbowl: Day Nineteen
6:29 PM: “So easy to turn the world down. No matter what you dream, you got to get back to being found.” ♪ I am listening to “Becker” off Autolux’s new album, “Pussy’s Dead”, as I post a quick update before getting on with some more writing today. Those lyrics stabbed my conscious acutely today. It is so easy to turn the world down. You just stop caring, and the pain of failure/rejection/adversity can fade away. Although my daughter’s new Chinese medicine formula has had an incredibly positive change on her mood lability, the struggle over the past two weeks has flip...
Source: The Splintered Mind by Douglas Cootey - April 7, 2016 Category: Psychiatry Tags: ADHD Depression Goodreads Journaling Writing Source Type: blogs

Humor Is Definitely an Upside to ADHD
I was going to write an article about why people with ADHD complain all the time, but after the day I had yesterday, I thought I'd rather complain about everything that happened instead. No, I'm kidding. After the day I had yesterday, I need more than a blank sheet and a list of gripes.  I recently came across these old screen caps of a text conversation I had last year with a wrong number. Maybe it's just stupid silliness, but it made me laugh. I thought it would be a perfect example of an upside to ADHD for me. Then I forgot all about them. ADHD can be a pain in the butt, that's for sure. If not for ADHD, I mig...
Source: The Splintered Mind by Douglas Cootey - April 7, 2016 Category: Psychiatry Tags: ADHD Goodreads Source Type: blogs