In response to this.  See also this update.  I have corrected a few minors errors in the author’s writing and have, as you will see, provided (italicised) annotated notes of the most rational and considered variety.  *cough*
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Dear Pandora
Advocacy in Accessing Mental Health Services
Thank you for your letter dated 17 December 2009 about accessing our mental [...]

Week 42.  Week 42.  How can this be?  I look back through this journal, and see prose referencing sessions as far back as week 10.  I read through said posts, and remember clearly the discussions, the facial expressions, the tones of voice to which I have alluded.  It all seems like yesterday.  How did we [...]

Things were so much improved on Thursday from what they had been the week before.  I think C’s mood and / or attitude was better than it had been, and I was feeling considerably more sane than I have of late, so between the two of us, the whole session felt a lot more productive.  [...]

I couldn’t possibly write this week’s AotW without mention of the first public consultation on the DSM-V, which was unveiled today.  The American Psychiatric Association has put its proposals on existing and new mental disorders up at www.dsm5.org, for the delectation of professionals and the public at large.  Comments are invited.
I’ve had a rudimentary gander [...]

Things are going more and more downhill in session.  Every one over the last few weeks seems to end up brimming over with hostility and defensiveness from both sides, and last week was no different.  I think he is finding me an increasingly difficult patient.  I am certainly finding negotiation of the therapeutic relationship increasingly [...]

This hardly even warrants an entry, but in my obsession for complete records of my psychotherapy with C, I am going to write at least a rudimentary account of it anyway.
The reason it doesn’t merit a post is not so much because it was a useless session – though in some ways it was – [...]

Right. Red Bull substitute imbibed; chocolate, #jaffacakes and sweets ingested; curtains open for the first time in days. I’ve been hopelessly procrastinating in an attempt to avoid writing this – not because it’s a particularly difficult entry, just because the inertia and black dog of yesterday are very much still in evidence. [...]

There is no excerpt because this is a protected post.

The Main Course
My favourite psychiatric article this week was on schizophrenia.  Specifically, the piece from X-Ray Technican Schools (I agree that this seems a curious place to have an article on schizophrenia) provided a concise, accessible but intelligent refutation of the many myths that surround this illness.
One of my pet hates is the mistaken belief [...]

Thursday was the first day back to therapy after C’s Christmas break.  It was a successful session in a long-term sort of way, but was nevertheless very traumatic for me, tackling as it did a lot of hurt and vulnerabilities that I don’t want to face nor admit to.  There was nothing specific that was [...]