With so many apps on the market, it’s hard to know which are useful.

Many are designed by software developers instead of psychologists, without scientific testing. They range from beneficial, to harmless but useless, to bordering on fraudulent.

The apps selected for this list make no hucksterish claims and are based on established treatments. Progressive Muscle Relaxation, for example, has been used for a century and is likely just as effective in this new medium. Knowledge from Cognitive Behavioral Therapy and Dialectical Behavior Therapy enrich two apps on this list. Others mix solid information with ingenuity.

Don’t forget to download the free PsychCentral app to keep up with the latest mental health information.

1. BellyBio

Free app that teaches a deep breathing technique useful in fighting anxiety and stress. A simple interface uses biofeedback to monitor your breathing. Sounds cascade with the movements of your belly, in rhythms reminiscent of waves on a beach. Charts also let you know how you’re doing. A great tool when you need to slow down and breathe.

2. Operation Reach Out

Literally a lifesaving app, this free intervention tool helps people who are having suicidal thoughts to reassess their thinking and get help. Recommended by followers of @unsuicide, who report that this app has helped in suicidal crises. Developed by the military, but useful to all. Worth a download even if you’re not suicidal. You never know if you might need it.

3. eCBT Calm

Provides a set of tools to help you evaluate personal stress and anxiety, challenge distorted thoughts, and learn relaxation skills that have been scientifically validated in research on Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT). Lots of background and useful information along with step-by-step guides.

4. Deep Sleep with Andrew Johnson

Getting enough sleep is one of the foundations of mental health. A personal favorite I listen to all the time, this straightforward app features a warm, gentle voice guiding listeners through a Progressive Muscle Relaxation (PMR) session and into sleep. Features long or short induction options, and an alarm.

5. WhatsMyM3

A three minute depression and anxiety screen. Validated questionnaires assess symptoms of depression, anxiety, bipolar disorder, and PTSD, and combine into a score that indicates whether or not your life is impacted significantly by a mood disorder, recommending a course of action. The app keeps a history of test results, to help you track your progress.

6. DBT Diary Card and Skills Coach

Based on Dialectical Behavior Therapy (DBT) developed by psychologist Marsha Linehan, this app is a rich resource of self-help skills, reminders of the therapy principles, and coaching tools for coping. Created by a therapist with years of experience in the practice, this app is not intended to replace a professional but helps people reinforce their treatment.

7. Optimism

Track your moods, keep a journal, and chart your recovery progress with this comprehensive tool for depression, bipolar disorder, and anxiety disorders. One of the most popular mood tracking apps available, with plenty of features. Free.

8. iSleepEasy

A calm female voice helps you quell anxieties and take the time to relax and sleep, in an array of guided meditations. Separately controlled voice and music tracks, flexible lengths, and an alarm. Includes a special wee hours rescue track, and tips for falling asleep. Developed by Meditation Oasis, who offer an great line of relaxation apps.

9. Magic Window – Living Pictures

Not technically a mental health app, it makes no miraculous claims about curbing anxiety. However, there is independent research indicating that taking breaks and getting exposure to nature, even in videos, can reduce stress. This app offers an assortment of peaceful, ambient nature scenes from beautiful spots around the world.

10. Relax Melodies

A popular free relaxation sound and music app. Mix and match nature sounds with new age music; it’s lovely to listen to birds in the rain while a piano softly plays.

Do you have a favorite app not on the list?
Please share links in the comments.

That’s how I think of the relationship between religion and depression: like the chicken and the egg debacle.

I can’t say which came first in my life, because they were both there from the start. And you need only read through a few of the lives of the saints or walk the exhibition aisles at the Religious Booksellers Trade Exhibit to see that holy people aren’t all that happy much of the time.

How is it that we depressives tend to be more spiritual? Or is it that the more religion you get in your life, the more depressed?

Beliefnet approached me to write Beyond Blue more than five years ago because they learned that so many of their readers suffer from depression. Articles about depression and anxiety were among their most popular.

I believe people with depression are more spiritual because we are more aware of that human restlessness or inner void than our happy counterparts, or maybe we are more restless AND more aware of our unease. And we want to fill that void and settle the restlessness ASAP because it feels about as good as cow droppings on our heads.

So we pray. And we inhale frozen Kit Kat bars. Because both are like sucking on a pacifier to satiate the inner longing temporarily (prayer the preferred method, of course). Until our Prozac poops out (and our brain’s wiring and chemistry changes), and we need another kind of cocktail. At which time some of us head to daily Mass or join religious congregations, and others go to the hospital, and some (like me) do everything and anything as long as it’s not Vinyasa yoga (it hurts).

According to St. John of the Cross–the Spanish mystic who experienced something far worse than cow pies when he was harshly imprisoned in Toledo–the purpose of the dark night is all for love: to become better lovers of God and one another. Furthermore, the dark night takes us from isolation to creativity, from withdrawal to contribution.

“Obscurity and attachment, followed by God-given clarity, liberation of love, and deepening of faith, are consistent hallmarks of the dark night of the soul,” writes Gerald May in his fascinating book The Dark Night of the Soul. “Often this liberation results in a remarkable release of creative activity in the world.”

Consider for a moment the three Teresas (not including me) who experienced dark nights of the soul: Teresa of Avila emerged from hers and became the founder of the Discalced Carmelites, a prolific author, and the first woman Doctor of the Church; St. Therese of Lisieux is so popular, dubbed the “greatest saint of modern times” by Pope Pius X, largely due to her articulation of her crisis of faith in the pages of her autobiography, “The Story of a Soul.” And now, with the publication of some of Mother Teresa’s personal writings, we are learning about the modern saint’s personal agony that fueled her mission and incredible contribution to goodness, hope, and love on earth.

I keep pondering Archbishop Perier of Calcutta’s response to Mother Teresa concerning her darkness:

This is willed by God in order to attach us to Him alone, an antidote to our external activities, and also, like any temptation, a way of keeping us humble . . . to feel that we are nothing, that we can do nothing. . . . My only wish and desire, the one thing I humbly crave to have is the grace to love God, to love Him alone. Beyond that I ask for nothing more.

I’m not sure I agree with him. Because if I did, I wouldn’t have sought treatment in the 58,094 ways I did. I believe God wants me to be as healthy, happy, and productive as possible, and that he’s on the side of recovery, not illness. However, I can’t deny that my depression has been a refiner’s fire, impassioning my faith one profanity at a time. I can’t help compare it to the way a writer-mom, Linda Eyre from Salt Lake City, described motherhood:

We start our mothering careers as rather ordinary-looking clay pots with varied shapes and curves—and march directly into the refiner’s fire. The fire, however, is not a onetime process but an ongoing one. Every experience that helps us to be a little more compassionate, a little more patient, a little more understanding, is a burst of fire that refines us and leaves us a little more purified. The more we filter, strain, and purge through the experience of our lives, the more refined we become.

If I weren’t always so restless, I might be tempted to sleep in on Sundays more often, to listen to music during my run instead of pray a novena. I wouldn’t think to thank the big guy for a day without tears, to bless him for 24 consecutive PMS-free (hormonally balanced) hours. I’d be less aware of the rose gardens I walk by to get to the kids’ school (but also less hyper about the bees on the buds). I’m pretty sure that I’d be less spiritual and less inclined to gorge on dessert.

Photo courtesy of The Guardian.

Inspiring. Sobering. Entertaining. Touching. Enriching.

This year has been great for brain and behavior videos, with an ever-growing number of lectures and educational videos appearing online, as well as savvy homemade videos in social media. Conversations about mental health are increasingly entering the mainstream, and videos like these spark dialogue, reduce ignorance, assist viewers, and fight stigma. They’re also a great distraction, and a way to relax without feeling guilty about wasting time.

Each of the videos on this list has been chosen as being among the best of its kind made this year, ranging from a contest winner to viral videos to high profile lectures. With so much great work out there, I can’t wait to see more in 2012 (follow Channel N to view what I find).

But first, let’s celebrate 2011 in videos.

1. If You’re Contemplating Suicide, This is for You
With nothing but words and a webcam, a YouTuber launched an incredibly powerful anti-suicide message last summer. Angel Haze is a gifted rapper and this piece is moving, eloquent, and relatable. Her humble homemade social video reaches out to the lonely, the disenfranchaised, and the depressed, in an unforgettable way that doesn’t need expensive video production or tricks. With over 100,000 views this video was viral for a while – let’s reignite that spark. Keep sharing. This is a video that really helps people. Warning: coarse language. (00:04:12)

2. TEDxOrlando – Wendy Suzuki
Energy! This cognitive neuroscience professor embodies lots of zip and pep, sharing her passion for teaching, science, and fitness. Interested in how exercise affects the brain, she became a certified fitness instructor and designed an experiment with her neuroscience students, combining workouts with lectures. The results were positive and her recount in this talk is inspiring and invigorating. Exercise is good for your brain! Just do it! (00:14:04)

3. What’s Goin On
Eighth grader Jonah Mowry made a YouTube video last summer when he was anxious about returning to school. Set to the music of Sia’s “Breathe Me,” he shared his story of years of bullying and self-injury, and fears for the future. A young person who’s recently come out as gay, peers can relate to his story, told in a trendy and moving way. Resilience and determination to survive and resist suicidal thoughts are what makes this message so strong. There’s a happy ending: when Jonah returned to school he made some friends and says he’s doing better, and he also got to bask in the attention of the likes of Lady Gaga and Jane Lynch, two of many celebrities who shared their support and helped make this video viral (over 8.5 million views as of today). (00:04:36)

4. The Full Story – Soften the Fck Up
Men’s mental health is the focus of this video, part of a media campaign out of Australia. From a country known for its exceptional mental health advocacy, this stands above the pack. A simple, direct, and hard-hitting video: ordinary men sharing personal stories of mental health problems and recovery. Tough guys show their vulnerabilities and encourage other men to do the same. Unflinching. F’n awesome! Warning: coarse language. (00:07:23)

5. Invisible People: Cameron
One of an ongoing series of short videos featuring people who are homeless telling their own stories in a direct, unedited approach. The brainchild of social media genius Mark Horvath, he’s been on the streets with his camera giving voice to people all over North America, and the powerful messages are shared widely through blogs, Twitter, Facebook, email, etc. Many of the stories involve mental health issues. Here we meet Cameron, a man from Fort McMurray, Alberta (Canada), who talks about a bleak situation of addiction and lack of options in a devastatingly raw and honest video. (00:08:55)

6. It’s all in the timing: A psychologist measures how musicians communicate emotion
A fascinating psychology experiment designed by a rock star with a second career as a cognitive neuroscientist. Dan Levitan wanted to find out how musicians are able to express emotion through music, and with the aid of a specially designed player piano that reproduced their performances with and without expressive elements, was able to determine that it has to do with variations in timing, loudness and softness. In this video he describes the experiment and also discusses the implications for synthesized music. (00:08:18)

7. Love Story
This cute, clever, and creative short won the University College London Institute of Cognitive Neuroscience’s Brains on Film video contest this year, and it’s easy to see why. Using a film noir look and feel, neurotransmitters become people and the hero tells the tale of his irresistible attraction to Molly Morphine. Fun and educational at the same time, a rare combo, this video is a winner in more ways than one. (00:06:29)

8. Creating a Healthier Future through Prevention of Child Maltreatment
A panel of researchers and bureaucrats present findings on public health approaches to prevent child abuse and neglect, in this hour-long grand rounds video from the Center for Disease Control. Sounds like a snoozefest? Far from it. Child abuse (not just broken bones, emotional and verbal abuse also have a serious impact) and neglect are pervasive problems that take an enormous economic toll and ruin lives. Child maltreatment leads to suicide, violence, addiction, depression, PTSD, anxiety, personality disorders, crime, cognitive deficits, physical ailments, homelessness, and much more. So, what to do? Public health approaches ranging from maternity ward education programs to community nurses have proven successful, and this video highlights best practices. On an individual level, parents can access self-help materials like the Positive Parenting Program. If you suspect a child is being abused or neglected, please contact your local police or child protective services agency. The consequences are too serious to ignore. (00:59:47)

9. Nobel prize-winning psychologist Daniel Kahneman: ‘A great deal of prejudice is built-in’
Behavioural economist Daniel Kahneman’s book “Thinking Fast and Slow” was published in 2011, and in this video clip he explains the difference between thinking fast and intuitively (System 1), and a more slow and reasoned approach (System 2). Cognitive biases and prejudices are inevitable and part of the snap judgments of System 1, but by using deeper System 2 thinking we can challenge those prejudices and rebuild our stereotypes. Kahneman’s thoughtful theories are bound to prompt System 2 in those who watch this video. (00:04:22)

10. Iain McGilchrist: The Divided Brain
The RSA (Royal Society for the Encouragement of Arts, Manufactures and Commerce) is a UK organization that promotes social innovation and showcases the best thought leaders. Psychiatrist Iain McGilchrist gave a lecture on the myths and realities of left and right brain hemispheres, and a clip from that talk was then processed by the RSA Animate series, which illustrates audio with deft drawings. It’s educational, but still fun enough to keep attention. (00:11:48)

Do you have a favorite not on the list?
Please let us know in the comments.

Here are the 5 amazing Psych Central contributors honored on the list:

#1 – Julie Hanks, MSW, LCSW, BCD – Ask the Therapist and Private Practice Toolbox
#3 – Therese J. Borchard – World of Psychology contributor
#4 – Chato B. Stweart – Mental Health Humor
#6 – Daniel J. Tomasulo, PhD, TEP, MFA – Ask the Therapist and Proof Positive
#8 – Rick Nauert, Ph.D. – Senior Editor, Psych Central News

We’re also pleased to announce that we were a winner this year of an Award of Excellence for health-related websites in the Aesculapius Awards of Excellence. We’re in good company with the likes of Autism Speaks and the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services Office on Women’s Health as fellow award recipients.

What an amazing year 2011 has been for Psych Central. As a site we’ve built from the ground-up to service the needs of people from around the world who have questions about mental health, psychotherapy, treatment and psychology, we continue to reach more than 2 million people each month (making us, by far, the largest mental health network in the world today). We hope to get that up to 3 million/month in 2012, and with your help in spreading the word, I see no reason why we can’t attain that goal!

The Aesculapius Awards for websites have been around since 1997, and are an extension of the Health Improvement Institute’s efforts that began in 1991 to acknowledge excellence in health communications.

“People need reliable information about lifestyle and health care choices presented in an appealing way. The Aesculapius Award is designed to promote and encourage excellence in the communication of good health information about healthy lifestyles, illness and injury prevention, medical care/research, family and social
concerns relating to health, and health care treatments,” said Dr. Peter G. Goldschmidt, President and Founder of the Health Improvement Institute.

“We are delighted by the wide variety of organizations that chose to submit entries this year. This year’s awards continue the very high standard of creativity and quality that we have seen since the awards began. More entries than ever merited an Award of Excellence. We congratulate the winners.”

A panel of judges, representing the health care, web publishing, and multimedia fields, evaluated entries. The annual award is named for the ancient Greek god of healing, Aesculapius. This award was established by the Health Improvement Institute to promote informed consumer lifestyle choices and health care decisions.

Sharecare is a website created by WebMD founder Jeff Arnold and Dr. Mehmet Oz, in partnership with Harpo Studios (Oprah’s company), Discovery Communications and others. In a nutshell, it appears to be a doctor Q&A site, similar to MedHelp.org, AsktheDoctor.com, DoctorsLounge.com, and others. While we love the idea of the website, we’re disappointed to see not a single mental health professional on their advisory board (at least not yet — maybe we can help change that!).

It’s both an honor and a privilege to receive these distinctions, and to have so many wonderful, skilled people working with us to help spread objective information about mental health concerns and psychology information. I want to thank both Sharecare and the Health Improvement Institute for their recognition.

• 2011 Aesculapius Award Recipients Announced
• Top 10 Online Influencers – Depression

Anger is an emotion that we’re often afraid of. As a kid, you’re taught to “play nice,”or to keep quiet when you’re upset. Sometimes the things adults don’t say in response to our negative emotions have the greatest impact of all. Maybe the adults in your life were fearful of their own anger and so you didn’t learn how to healthily express your own.

The bright side is that we can always make different choices. You could seek help from a professional, support from a friend and/or use the top posts below to start to become aware of how anger works or doesn’t work in your life. What will you choose to make better choices and live free of being afraid of your emotions?

What is Anger Trying to Tell You About Your Life?

(The Therapist Within) – If you’re working on your anger, this is a great place to start. Get your pen and paper ready to answer insightful questions about the role anger plays in your life. Answer honestly and you may be surprised by what you uncover.

Zoë’s Pet Peeves: Unpredictability X2

(ADHD from A to Zoë) – Life is unpredictable. Add ADHD and it can get a lot more complicated. But as the case with any challenge, Zoë discovers and you ADHDers might agree, there is always a silver lining especially if you’re determined and know where to find it.

When Children’s Behaviors Scare Us – Connecting to Our Heart

(Neuroscience & Relationships) – All emotions have a purpose. Sometimes we just need to dig deep to reveal it. When anger comes from our children, however, it can feel uncomfortable even threatening. The goal here is not to shy away from it, but use it as an opportunity to heal our relationships with our children and in doing so, heal ourselves. Lots of great tips for parents here!

Depression – Responsibility And More Options For Stubborn Depression

(Family Mental Health) – Try as you might, you just can’t help a loved one with depression. The truth is there are a lot of reasons why they can’t be helped. Here are a few that might explain why they’re still depressed.

30 Habits & Beliefs That Hurt Your Body Image
(Weightless) – You just want to lose a few pounds, have thinner thighs, fit into that dress so you check the scale consistently, take exercise classes you abhor and exercise when you’re not feeling your best. You might not have an eating disorder, but you could be doing a disservice to yourself and your body image.

Online Suicide Prevention Resources is a small wiki focussed on crisis resources available online without a telephone. There are listings for social media, secure IM chat, and public forums.

It was inspired by the International Suicide Prevention Wiki, created by Post Secret, which features a table of links and directories for telephone crisis hotlines and resources all over the world. The list I created today is solely for non-phone contacts. Included are details of the hours for each service.

Why make such a list? In today’s cell phone family plan homes, calls show up on bills read by parents, and youth might want privacy for a long list of reasons including the parents being the problem. By using the Internet, people can connect one on one to trained counselors, then clear browser histories on shared computers. Youth in BC, one of the best IM chat sites and very aware of the needs of its viewers, offers a “hide page” button on its home page that goes immediately to Google’s search home page. For people who are more comfortable with public details (but still don’t identify in posts) there are discussion forums. There’s also a group on Second Life. Plus, old-fashioned email.

If you write a blog or update twitter and Facebook accounts, there are updated guidelines for you as the media on how to write about suicide to prevent contagion.

Foremost, there are coping skills and reasons for living for those considering suicide. All free and online.

Two hours after I posted the link to Twitter, I had a response from a person who had taken an overdose but contacted someone after seeing the list. Already more than worth my effort. It’s helped save one life, that I know of. If you post the link too who else might it help?

Here’s the quick version:

Online Suicide Prevention
(No telephone needed)

IM Chat
CrisisChat
GLBT National Help Center Online Peer Support Chat
IM Alive
RAINN Online Hotline
Veteran’s Live Chat
Talk to a Live Counselor
Youth in BC

Email
Samaritans
Youth in BC

Vital Information
Coping With Suicidal Thoughts
Reasons to go on Living
Suicide…read this first

One thing illustrated is a need for more resources. Click here to view the longer list, and please leave additions for links to online supports, in the comments. Note that these resources are not a substitute for emergency services in your community; please call an ambulance if you are in imminent risk.

Psych Central bloggers are some of the most dedicated and passionate people I’ve met in the field of mental health. Some are professionals, some are not, but all share one thing in common — they have a knack for writing about psychology and mental health issues with a dedication and enthusiasm you don’t see elsewhere. We love our bloggers — they are simply some of the best people you’ll ever meet (virtually!).

We’re proud to represent mental health and wellness awareness this day, in our own unique and personalized way. We’ll be updating this post throughout the day with new posts that are published from our bloggers, so stay tuned!

Artists and Mental Health
(The Creative Mind) – “Who in the rainbow can draw the line where the violet tint ends and the orange tint begins? Distinctly we see the difference of the colors, but where exactly does the one first blendingly enter into the other? So with sanity and insanity.” Herman Melville, “Billy Budd, Sailor” According to …

Drinking Or Drugging? 10 Reasons To Tell Your Therapist The Truth
(Therapy Soup) – It doesn’t matter how brilliant you are. If you are drinking or using drugs your therapist needs to know.

Five Life-Changing Mental Health Books
(Always Learning) – For Mental Health Awareness Day, I’ve picked out five of the most amazingly informative, life-changing mental health books I’ve ever read: Loneliness; Human Nature and the Need for Social Connection by John Cacioppo and William Patrick The Noonday Demon; an Atlas of Depression by Andrew Solomon Against Depression by Peter …

Understanding Emotional Eating
(360 Degrees of Mindful Living) – Emotional eating is misunderstood and often unnecessarily demonized. However, emotional eating — that is, eating to feel good, often termed “compulsive eating” — isn’t the problem. It’s emotional overeating and mindless emotional eating that can be both psychologically and physically unhealthy. Emotional eating works as a coping strategy and stress …

Excavating Your Mental Health and Finding Buried Treasure
(The Therapist Within) – “Mental health.” They sound like pretty dull words. And it seems we know best what they mean when things go wrong with them. We hear general statements about what mental health ‘should’ (or ‘shouldn’t’) look like for everyone. So it often seems like a kind of one-size-fits-all expression. But if …

The One Major Lesson I’ve Learned
(Mindfulness and Psychotherapy) – For this APA Mental Health Blog Party, I’m going to get right down to it. If there’s one major lesson I’ve learned it’s that we can’t always control what happens to us, but true freedom lies in cultivating the awareness to choose how we want to respond. Mindfulness is fundamental …

Happy Mental Health Blogging Day! Please Join Us in the Global Mental Health Movement
(ADHD in Focus) – It is so amazing how organizations are popping up all over the world helping all join forces to tackle mental health diseases.  I was privileged enough to speak in Athens, Greece a few years ago about iFred’s rebranding depression work, and learned from countries around the world just how important …

Mental Health Blog Party: Why Do I Blog About Mental Health?
(World of Psychology) – As part of May Is Mental Health Awareness Month, many of us here at PsychCentral are participating in a Mental Health Blog Party hosted by the American Psychological Association. Today, May 18, we are all blogging about mental health awareness. Here’s my contribution. Why do I blog about mental health?

Mental Health Month: 7 Ways To Advocate Like A Celebrity!
(Celebrity Psychings) – Every May since 1949, people all across the United States band together to shine a spotlight on mental health. We call it Mental Health Month, and we aim to increase mental health awareness and provide information about resources, educational tools, and support. Given that one in four Americans lives with …

Worshiping at the Shrine of a Really Good Shrink
(Real World Research) – I put myself into psychotherapy for the first time when I was a teenager, and have returned at various times over the years when I’ve been overwhelmed by whatever. But when a friend compared my attitude about therapy to a fundamentalist’s attitude towards religion—implying that it is unyielding and intolerant …

Bipolar Dad: Out of the Mouth of My Children
(Mental Health Humor) – Today, May 18th, 2011 is a very special day here at Psych Central! Collectively, many of the bloggers will be posting personal stories of their recovery during the day long Blog party. I thought I would take a different approach and let my 4  kids draw a caricature of me.  …

My Fall – The Beginning
(Adventures of a Bipolar Mom) – I vividly remember when my oldest son was born a horrific story of two teenage parents who had given birth to a little baby boy, killed him, and put him in a dumpster.  I was devastated.  I could not believe any parent could do that.  I didn’t understand it.  I …

The Stigma Of Eating Disorders & Setting Stereotypes Straight
(Weightless) – Eating disorders are serious biologically-based mental illnesses, which can affect anyone. They do not discriminate by age, gender, class, color, culture, size, shape or weight. They cause a variety of health complications, including heart problems, electrolyte imbalances and osteoporosis. Eating disorders also have the highest mortality rate of any mental …

10 Ways to Improve Your Relationship Through Good Mental Health
(Partners in Wellness) – Today, May 18, 2011, the American Psychological Association has dedicated the day to blogging about mental health. Obviously, we blog about mental health every day around here on PsychCentral, but in honor of today’s celebration, here’s a list of 10 ways you can enhance your relationship through good mental health …

Mental Health Awareness Day: Battling Stigma through Science and Medicine
(Bipolar Beat) – As a psychiatrist, every day I encounter families struggling with mental illness, especially in their children whose lives range from disrupted to shattered as a consequence of these challenges. In these daily battles I’m most frustrated and saddened by the jaw-dropping lack of compassion surrounding me and my patients regarding …

What “Soft” Bipolar Looks Like
(Light, Laughter and Life) – So today’s the APA’s Mental Health Blog Party and I’m here to share a little about my own experiences with what’s often called “Soft Bi-Polar” or Soft Signs of Bi-polar. Like so many illnesses, there’s a broad spectrum of which to be positioned…. from having soft signs (a “little bipolar” …

Increasing Mental Health Awareness: Too Much of a Good Thing?
(World of Psychology) – Today is the American Psychological Association’s “Blog Party” in recognition of May being mental health month. The marketing effort behind designating a specific month a time to recognize and help increase awareness of a certain disease, disorder or condition is intended to help people learn more about various medical and …

Party in My Head
(Mentoring and Recovery) – When I first heard about the APA’s (American Psychological Association) Mental Health Blog Party, I thought, “Wha?!?” A blog party. That part was confusing enough. About mental health? And I thought there was bickering in my head about meanings before. So. A Mental. Health. Blog. PARTY. I decided I had to check this out. I learned that …

The Death of Mental Illness
(Guideposts to Happiness) – In writing this post, I may be crashing the American Psychological Association’s annual blog party. Naturally, I’m in favor of joining others to increase awareness and reduce stigma around psychiatric problems. But despite the spirit of solidarity, I’m perhaps an outsider, because I no longer believe ‘mental illness’ serves as …

Robert Duval in ‘Get Low’: The Lasting Power of Guilt and Shame
(Movies and Mental Health) – ‘Get Low’ (2009) starring Robert Duval, Sissy Spacek and Bill Murray, offers powerful lessons about the lasting effects of guilt and shame.

Has Your Therapist Ever Been In Therapy?
(Healing Together for Couples) – If you have even wondered if your therapist has been in therapy you may be surprised to find that the majority of mental health practitioners actually practice what they preach. A national survey of psychologists found that 400 of 476 or 84% of those responding reported having been in therapy. …

APA Blog Party – A Story Of Postpartum Depression and PMDD
(Family Mental Health) – [Postpartum Depression and PMDD - Hope For Help] Today I’m participating in the APA (American Psychological Association) Blog Party! I’m going to take my turn by telling my postpartum depression story and share some thoughts on the general topic of mental health. …

The Five Freedoms of Becoming More Fully Human – Virginia Satir & Mental Health
(Neuroscience and Relationships) – In celebration of mental health, today’s post honors family psychotherapist and social worker extraordinaire Virginia Satir. Recognized by many as “the pioneer of family therapy,” she developed her own approach, conjoint family therapy, in the 1960s, later known as the human validation process model or the Satir Change Model as …

I’m a Chick ADD – and Proud Of It!
(ADHD from A to Zoë) – Some of you know how I found out about having ADHD: my friend Chris, who is TOTALLY ADD, suggested I take an online test for it myself. The one test you DON’T want to Ace… Now, normally, I’m happy to ace a test. This one, not so much… The test …

Reasons to Live (Video)
(Channel N) – “I am alive because…” People share why and how they are alive now after dealing with suicidal thoughts.

Getting the Mental Health Help You Need
(Anxiety and OCD Exposed) – We are writing today in support of the American Psychological Association’s Mental Health Blog Party. Here’s to all of us who have chronic, acute, or occasional issues with mental health. That’s commonly thought to be 1 out of every 4 people. But to be honest, being human pretty much guarantees …

Bipolar Dad: Out of the Mouth of My Children
(Mental Health Humor) – Today, May 18th, 2011 is a very special day here at Psych Central! Collectively, many of the bloggers will be posting personal stories of their recovery during the day long Blog party. I thought I would take a different approach and let my 4  kids draw a caricature of me.

The High Cost of Stigma
(Dialectical Behavior Therapy Understood) – Good mental health is something that we all strive for.  Happiness in life has long been a pursuit of people in the West.  And yet, despite our desire for optimum happiness and good mental health, many feel unable to discuss psychological problems. In a recent interview, I talked with author …

Drinking Or Drugging? 10 Reasons To Tell Your Therapist The Truth
(Therapy Soup) – If you’re seeing a psychologist or counselor for a mental illness, the chances are fairly good that you also drink or take drugs that are not prescribed for you (or abuse drugs that are prescribed for you). The chances are also fairly good that your therapist has no idea that you are using alcohol or drugs. Many therapists in private practice do not take complete drug and alcohol histories when doing the initial or subsequent evaluations. If you ain’t volunteering the information, they won’t know …

One way to access our creativity, I believe, is through inspiration from other amazing minds.

In honor of that, I wanted to share 10 blogs that help me get creative (this is by no means an exhaustive list), find tons of right answers and most importantly, get super-excited about the world and all there is to see.

In no particular order, they are:

1. Scoutie Girl.

This blog features interesting independent craft and design work. As their about page states, “Simply put, Scoutie Girl is the blog with a penchant for the passionately handmade.” The posts are always a lovely surprise. Topics include creative living and mindful spending.

2. Susannah Conway

Susannah is a writer and photographer who writes about everything from healing from grief to creativity to unraveling the layers of ourselves. Her photographs capture the beauty in the bits and pieces of everyday life. She also teaches an online course called Unravelling, which I’m currently taking (love it!).

On her about page, Susannah writes: “The healing path is one that never ends and it’s my hope that by sharing what I’ve learned I can help others reconnect to their own true selves, using photography as the key to unlock the door.”

3. One paragraph at a time

Maya Stein is a poet and writer. I first discovered her poetry in Patti Digh’s book Creative Is A Verb. And instantly fell in love. Here’s just the first stanza from her poem “Don’t Forget to Write.” (Her poems “To See This Clearly” and “Reluctant Poet” are must-reads, too!)

“While you are piecing together the map of your life,

stepping as nimbly as you can out of the mulch

of your thoughts, the busy traffic of your heart

while you attempt grace and magic and the blessing of

your soft surrendered kiss, while you are fathoming the stretch

you will need for the wide and rocky jungle of your own happiness,

while you are hunkering down to a piece of the dark break

and the odd, welcome relief of hunger,

don’t forget to write.”

4. 3191 Miles Apart

Stephanie and MAV, friends who live 3191 miles apart, post anything and everything on simple living and things that inspire them — and continue to inspire me.

They see their blog as more of an online magazine. You’ll find “pieces on food and drink, our homes and everyday lives, our neighborhoods and our travels.”

5. The Creative Mind

Douglas Eby writes about the psychology of creativity and creative expression here at Psych Central. Specifically, the blog explores the psychology behind “…how well or how freely people are able to express themselves creatively – both professional artists and anyone who wants to develop and express their creative abilities.”

You’ll find topics such as personal growth, depression, perfectionism and thinking. Plus, there are many interesting interviews.

6. Creative Thursday

Full-time artist Marisa created Creative Thursday because of her love of all things creative. While working at a 9 to 5 job, she felt out of touch with her creativity. So she designated one day out of the week — Thursdays — for “fun and creativity!” The blog is now in its fifth year, and continues to be a great inspiration.

7. Pia Jane Bijkerk

A stylist, photographer and author, Pia, at her blog (house), shares recipes from her “kitchen,” books from her “library,” music from her “sound studio,” and the incredible beauty of places like Sydney, Amsterdam and Paris. Her photographs are breathtaking.

8. Creature Comforts

As blogger Ez writes on her about page, “This blog is all about celebrating the tiny details that make life so amazing and looking to find beauty in the unexpected.” Creature Comforts is exactly that, and a stunning, soothing and inspiring space.

9. Bakerella

This beautiful and fun blog provides a slew of sweet inspiration with photographs of delicious-looking and unique desserts.

Even if you don’t have any interest in baking, you’ll no doubt be wowed by Bakerella’s photos and inspired by the colors and shapes of her artful treats.

10. Mary Swenson: A scrapbook

Mary is a talented photographer and writer. Her blog posts are short but include elegant, colorful and gorgeous photos along with a few thoughts on her images, some of which, I think, read like little poems.

What blogs or websites spark your creativity?
What else helps you
connect to your creativity?

We, like most people, enjoy it when we receive recognition from others. Who doesn’t appreciate the occasional pat on the back?

So to start our new year off right, we were kindly named one of the Top 50 Blogs — of the millions of blogs online today! — by Regator. Who is Regator?

Regator.com is a website designed to help you find quality blog posts. It does this by using highly selective human editors to find well-written, topical blogs on more than 500 topics then a combination of semantic algorithms and user interaction to find the most interesting, timely, and noteworthy posts from those blogs. Regator provides you with tools to monitor keywords, find related content, view trends, keep track of favorites, and share with friends.

If anyone should know a thing or two about quality blogs, it should be a company devoted to tracking and highlighting blog entries all year long.

So, thanks Regator! We appreciate the shout-out, and enjoy your service too. Check ‘em out.

Read the full entry and the list of all 50 blogs: Regator’s Top 50 Blogs of 2010

The good (and bad) news about blogging about depression in 2010 is that there’s less of it. Bloggers who were solely devoted to writing personal posts about depression, psychic pain, melancholy and stress in their lives found themselves, for whatever reasons, with less to say on traditional blogs.

But depression hasn’t vanished, and neither has blogging, so where’s it all going? Twitter, drop boxes, text, media, and mobile — watch for blogging to evolve across platforms. And there are professionals sharing tips, artists gathering, and advocates to support each other. Although it may seem a quiet time, under the surface it’s changing.

Blogs most likely to be triggering if you’re in a fragile state are marked with a ^(T). So, without further adieu, here are the picks for our favorite places we found depression blogged about in 2010…

1. Una Vita Bella

Amy has been the force behind the #mhsm Mental Health and Social Media hashtag and chat, and a great deal of mental health inspiration and organization. Her blog and Twitter feed about depression and chronic illness are absorbing and friendly. When you see the smile and spirit in her avatar it’s hard to know that she suffers so much pain, as do so many others she represents. In caring for Amy’s health, and all the mental health bloggers on this list, you care for your own too.

2. Dr. Deb: Psychological Perspectives

Dr. Deborah Serani is a practicing psychologist/psychoanalyst blogging about the treatment of trauma and depression. She’s a reliable source of psychological info, news and tips in a style that’s easy to read and share. Always helpful and trustworthy.

3. Storied Mind ^(T)

A beautiful and uniquely classic blog, still publishing frequently. We adored everything about this blog when we gave it an award years back, and still do today. Gorgeous images complement absorbing and stylish writing.

4. My Postpartum Voice

A new voice and a comforting one, Lauren is also known for organizing support chats for peers online (see her blog for info). She’s prolific, sensible, positive, and strong. Well-organized and efficient, I wonder what would happen if Lauren and Katherine combined powers?

5. Postpartum Progress

A sleek, professional blog on postpartum depression. Informative, straight up, and powerful. There’s no stopping Katharine. Advocacy, communications, she does great work. I’ve nearly tied her with a strong newcomer, but it’s not because she’s slipped at all, just the opposite, it’s testament to how strong the newcomer is.

6. Draw That Beast ^(T)

A writer with depression has created a virtual gallery space for depictions of depression by outsider artists. People with lived experience of depression are invited to visualize it and send their images to the blog for posting. The result is a diverse collection, but with much in common. An elegant blog featuring visual art from and for the world.

7. Mayo Clinic Depression Blog

Psychiatrist David Mrazek, M.D. blogs for one of the most prestigious consumer medical names on the market – Mayo Clinic (also branded on Facebook, Twitter and YouTube). Latest research news and perspectives and tips on depression. Popular and trusted, with the weight of peer-reviewed science behind it.

8. Depression Marathon ^(T)

Doing too well? Fantastic news. A long-time (2 yrs) blogger worries that as she’s written herself well, is there still purpose? And yes there is, as the archives and awards attest: just having a suicide hotline number on the blog even though Etta’s no longer personally suicidal, might save a life. But her story of marathon racing and determination in the murkiness of depression recovery are inspiring as well.

9. About.com Depression Blog

Nancy Schimelpfening has been About.com’s Guide to depression since 1998, providing research summaries, news, tips, holiday guides, and more. She’s been a consistently integral part of the online mental health community, and her stories are always concise and relevant.

10. Pick the Brain

A popular site for motivational quotes, self-help articles, and other non-scientific inspiration. It’s colorful and well-designed with plenty to look at, so if you feel a little bored, sad and listless (depressed in the popular sense of the word, but not clinically diagnosed) and want to graze around some articles to perk up, this is a good place to start.

2010 Depression Blog Honorable Mentions

Fighting the Darkness: My Secret Battle with Depression ^(T)

A talented personal blogger who’s been fighting depression since age 12. Jamie only manages to write intermittently now. “I can’t even put my feelings into words,” is a typical phrase when someone is suffering from severe depression. We wish her a fast recovery and hope she posts again soon.

Depression Getaway

Headaches from viewing the monitor ultimately kept this blogger from updating, but it was a great blog about depression and creativity and worth checking out the archives.

Thank you Brandi-Ann Uyemura for her valuable help compiling our list!

In my last post, I discussed how Dr. Kent Kiehl, a neuroscientist, is using fMRI technology to detect brain abnormalities in people with psychopathy. His participants are prison inmates who score high on the PCL-R, a psychodiagnostic measure used to assess psychopathy. Once he determines that the participant is, in fact, a psychopath based on their PCL-R score, he takes scans of their brains using an fMRI to determine if there are brain differences between psychopathic participants and normal controls. He has found defects in the paralimbic system that he believes relate to psychopathy.

Interestingly, Dr. Kiehl’s research is being used by perpetrators to avoid prison or to reduce sentencing. One such case has plagued the Chicago area for over two decades. Brian Dugan, a 52-year-old man with a 13-year crime spree, including murders, rapes, arson, and burglaries, spanning the 1970s and 80s finally went to trial for his crimes in late 2009. For those interested in death penalty laws, this case has a lot of history, and contributed to the moratorium on the death penalty in Illinois due to the wrongful conviction of three men for one of the murders (Jeanine Nicarico) that Dugan committed.

And she asks the inevitable question when it comes to probing the biology of the brain and its connection to human behavior:

If psychopathy has definitive brain coordinates, can it be classified as an official mental illness? Moreover, if so, can it be used to claim the insanity plea in court cases?

These last two are harder to answer. Right now, psychopathy and antisocial personality disorder cannot be used in the insanity defense as primary diagnoses that contributed to the instant offense (crime committed). However, if there are brain abnormalities it seems likely that perpetrators and defense lawyers will attempt to use these fMRI results to support the plea of insanity.

I’m not sure what the ramifications of finding such brain abnormalities will be. It seems likely that if such research findings hold up over time, they will find a way into court cases as a new legitimate defense.

But what could be even more interesting is what the future holds. If we can detect such abnormalities in childhood or adolescence, perhaps we could prevent the individual from actually “turning into” a psychopath through a specific treatment program. Instead of locking people up after the fact, we could turn a societal eye toward prevention and help people long before they become a burden on the criminal justice system.

A fascinating read, check it out:

Part 1: The Brain of a Psychopath: Using fMRI Technology to Detect Brain Abnormalities

Part 2: The Brain of a Psychopath: Using fMRI Technology to Detect Brain Abnormalities, Part II

(Comments are off here so you can comment directly on the blog posts themselves.)

At any given time, hundreds of online psychology experiments are going on. They are a great, cost-efficient method to gather experimental data from the multitudes of people online. These experiments can be fun to try, but also provide researchers with valuable data that future research may be based upon. Here are all-new experiments as well as a couple of classics:

10. Sexual Infidelity. Can you guess who cheats, from listening to their voices? New research, with voices speaking vowels, and some facial images, too. Unfortunately, no results shared.

9. Daily News Memory Test. neuroMod at the University of Amsterdam studies memory, and this short test module is also available in Dutch. Clean and well-designed.

8. The Moral Sense Test. Available in five languages and quite wordy, with complex test scenarios appealing to budding philosophers. How wrong are certain theoretical decisions, and how intentional are actions? You judge.

7. Emotional Experiences is about how people experience emotions, and allows you to compare your results to others. This is qualitative research that requires writing narrative, so a bit more demanding than the average quiz.

6. Signs and Aliens: A Cognitive Study. A simple Flash-based visual perception and cognition experiment. It’s got 200 signs, which takes longer than five minutes but the cute aliens are worth it.

5. Music & Emotion Profiler. How well do 63 adjectives describe your connection to music? Inquietude, joyful activation (dancing), longing, peacefulness, and wonder were among the nine qualities measured. Choose any song, using one you either like or dislike strongly for best results.

4. Two enduring sites from our first list: The Perception Lab at the University of Aberdeen and Face Research both do research using images and videos of faces (including babies) that you judge and change based on your perceptions of emotions, male and female, attractiveness, and other measures while giving context with short personal questionnaires. Here’s a new survey looking to gauge scariness and more, with a fast slick interface.

3. DIY Eyewitness Accuracy Experiment. Create your own online psychology experiment on eyewitness accuracy and demonstrate how fallible memory is, using your own materials. Great idea from The Psych Files.

2. Pew Research Center asks How Millennial are You? and other questions in studies on Internet and technology use, and have compiled a lot of valuable data. Always topical with leading edge results, Pew is as good to follow for their Twitter account as their in-depth research reports.

1. Puntastic! What makes puns funny? You tell them what makes you laugh most and they’ll explain why. Scientifically. “Benefits: At the end of the experiment, we will explain the experiment and our hypothesis. We will describe potential implications of the study both if our hypotheses are supported and if they are disconfirmed.” A “quit playing” option lets you decide how long the test will be, but there’s no need to stop quickly when the jokes are good. Research has never been so fun.

We think these are among the best and most fun, but there are plenty more to try. Three excellent meta lists, DMOZ Online Experiments, Psychological Research on the Net, and Web Experiment are generally kept updated and well-tended.

Found an online psychology experiment not on our list? List your favorite online psychology experiments below in the comments.

Looking for more great experiments?
Check out psychology videos and experiments on Channel N.

Conflicts of Interest, Lawsuits and Transparency

Perhaps 2009 will be noted as the year of reckoning for pharmaceutical companies, who have not enjoyed good press this year. In January, we noted how Eli Lilly settled a Zyprexa lawsuit for $1.4 billion with 30 states due to its off-label marketing of the atypical antipsychotic drug for use in dementia and Alzheimer’s disease. Philip over at Furious Seasons puts the total Zyprexa tab at $2.8 billion with settlements with 39 states, with another 6 states pending. Keeping in mind that Zyprexa has had $37 billion in sales since its introduction, these lawsuits hurt Eli Lilly, but not nearly as much as you may think. But Eli Lilly appears not to be alone. Bloomberg reported earlier this month that lawsuits surrounding the antidepressant Paxil may have totaled over $1 billion during the drug’s long history. The problems with drug marketing were not limited to a single company, or a single drug, and revelations continued throughout the year.

The other thorn in pharmaceutical companies’ side had to have been the ongoing, seemingly-endless investigations by Senator Charles Grassley’s office into the links between pharma and others — notably, researchers, continuing medical education and nonprofit organizations. The problem hasn’t been the relationships themselves (although that can be a problem if not properly firewalled), but the lack of transparency into the relationships. Psychiatric researchers continue to minimize their payments from pharmaceutical companies, continuing education programs were caught basically regurgitating marketing propaganda as “education” to psychiatrists and others, and nonprofits were called-out for their failure to disclose to the public (they are public charities, after all) the sometimes-significant involvement of pharmaceutical companies in their budgets (for instance, nearly 75 percent of NAMI’s donations were said to come from various pharmaceutical companies).

But who’s really “clean” these days? As we found out, even Johns Hopkins Medicine’s name was pimped out by its publishing partner, Medizine, pushing for-profit white papers to an unsuspecting public. Johns Hopkins Medicine says “mea culpa, we didn’t know!” but it still leaves a bad taste in everyone’s mouth seeing how easily respectable names are traded and sold in this industry.

While some argued that psychology was rotten to the core, we were the first to demonstrate how the professionals who made the claim were self-serving individuals who didn’t declare their conflicts of interest ahead of time and argued from carefully selected data that didn’t jive with the reality of clinical psychology practice today. Elitism is a fine philosophy for some, but it’s not one I’d recommend for any profession, certainly not psychology.

The Institute of Medicine issued a historic report about conflicts of interest and their solutions.

Technology, Social Networking and Such

2009 will also be known as the year that Twitter took off, and so we couldn’t resist but do an entry about the psychology of Twitter (and the psychology of twitter, part 2). We could help call out the BBC’s horrid reporting on the topic of social networking supposedly showing that it “harms health.” We demonstrated how the research evidence shows that online connections actually help improve health. Connecting with others and researching your health conditions and questions online helps people with those conditions and answers their questions.

Relevant to Facebook’s recent changes to their privacy settings, we asked Do Users Understand Facebook Privacy Settings?. The research says that, by and large, they do. Although I’m sure Facebook has done their own usability testing of the new settings, prior research suggests the changes were made not for usability reasons, but for marketing ones — to put more of a user’s Facebook profile in the public arena.

Signaling perhaps the end of psychological test security, Wikipedia for years has made the Rorschach inkblot cards available, but only in July did it attract folks’ attention. You can’t protect an image forever.

Conferences and Meetings

Kicking off the conference circuit this year at the annual SXSW conference in Austin, TX, there were a number of talks that covered mental health and technology, including Dr. Keely Kolmes’ talk, Therapy 2.0: Mental Health For Geeks, and mine on social networking in health. April 25th saw the world’s first “un-conference” on mental health — Mentalhealthcamp.

At my keynote presentation at the International Conference on the Use of the Internet in Mental Health in Montreal, I noted how a single, static Internet page that’s been online for over a decade has likely saved hundreds of thousands — maybe even millions — of people’s lives. The conference was the first to bring together international researchers from around the world to present and discuss mental health internet interventions.

In October, I traveled to Amsterdam to talk and learn at the First International e-Mental Health Summit, which brought together hundreds of researchers from around the world. One of the key take-aways from the conference was this — online and mobile phone applications are effective and becoming more and more popular, in helping people with everything from depression, trauma and anxiety, to quitting-smoking and reducing alcohol consumption.

I was also honored to attend the 25th anniversary of the Rosalynn Carter Symposium on Mental Health Policy and learned a lot about the Carter Center’s Mental Health Program. This is a national program setup that helps get policy-makers, lawmakers, consumers, professionals, administrators and invested others talking when it comes to mental health care in America. It does fantastic work and I can’t say enough good things about them. We also connected with the Carter Center earlier this year and noted when they announced their 2010 fellowships for mental health journalism.

Conditions and Treatments

In March, we noted the controversy surrounding the best course of treatment for ADHD, where a researcher suggested medications should not be the first choice of treatment (behavioral interventions have greater research support and are less likely to have long-term effects on a child’s still-developing brain). A few days later, I noted the problem with child ADHD treatment when an op-ed by a pediatrician barely touches upon non-medication treatments. It’s no wonder we’re a society that expects a pill to cure everything — doctors don’t even know the best evidence treatments available, nor always share that information with their patients.

In April, we found ourselves in the midst of a surprising controversy surrounding a government educational program for postpartum depression. Reading far more into the proposed MOTHERS Act than was actually in the text of the bill, some opponents saw nightmarish images of intrusive doctors turning in non-compliant mothers. We saw only an effort to help improve people’s understanding of postpartum depression and bringing that education directly to the people who would most benefit from it — pregnant women. We called out Doug Bremner’s false claims about postpartum depression when he decided, sans ovaries, to enter into the debate.

April also saw the FDA’s call — finally — for a review of how they treat ECT equipment. Previously, no electroconvulsive therapy (ECT) equipment has needed FDA approval because it was grandfathered in. FDA’s request for comments is closing soon.

One of the very few breakthroughs in genetic research was reached this year when researchers found that some of the genetic roots of schizophrenia and bipolar disorder may be very similar. The groundbreaking studies implicated an area of Chromosome 6, which is known to include genes involved in immunity. This area also has genes that seem to control how and when genes turn on and off. This was also one of the first studies to pool data from three different research institutions, which likely made the difference in finding significant results.

In August, we noted that psychodynamic therapy held its own against its more modern CBT cousin for the treatment of generalized anxiety.

A new test promises to predict antidepressant medication response in the future, perhaps helping doctors pick out the best medication for you.

Oprah had the opportunity to help portray mental illness as something commonplace and not to be afraid of. Instead, she profiled a 7 year old girl with schizophrenia because, after all, that makes for far better ratings, right?

Note your top picks in the comments and we’ll review those and the ones on our own list to come up with our big list for the year. If you had a favorite blog entry from the past year, we’d love to hear about that too in the comments!

The Year in Review will be published in December.

1. The Secret Life of a Manic Depressive
Do’s and Don’ts for the Mentally Interesting was a BBC Radio play based on Seaneen’s blog produced last May and just nominated for a Mind Mental Health Media Award. Always a compelling and honest read, it was no fluke or sympathy vote that caused us to place this blog near the top of our list last year – it deserves many accolades. Well done.

2. The Trouble With Spikol
Another great year for Liz Spikol, a stellar writer and enduring fave. Highlights from 2009: Liveblogging Primetime Outsiders, Maia Campbell’s story, Dr. Fred Goodwin, celeb depression confessions, and the streaming kitten cam. A mashup of adorable with hard-hitting, the puppies make the grim stories a bit easier to take in. Check out her cool video series, too.

3. Coming Out Crazy
Sandy Naiman is fierce and fabulous. With a background in print journalism, her blog was new to the net last year and it’s been fun to see her adapt to the medium – and vice-versa. Some of the perennial trolls have been buzzing around her blog, smelling fresh blood, but she deftly slaps them down with precise words soaked in reality and wisdom. Sandy is a dynamo who is an offline mental health advocate and speaker. In Coming Out Crazy, she’s making gorgeous jewelry from her goldmine of experience as a person living with bipolar.

4. Pax Nortana
Joel Sax has built a small new media empire for himself with a blog, Twitter feeds, vlogs and social networking profiles. Outspoken and productive, he’s a great activist (livetweeting the 2009 DBSA conference) and a chatty blogger who writes about more than the labels he’s been given. Joel also manages @Bipolar_Blogs, which aggregates fresh links to posts from many blogs by people who have been diagnosed with a bipolar disorder (add your blog here).

5. All About Bipolar
Amy (@torturedsoul) is a woman from Tennessee who writes thoughtfully about all aspects of experiencing bipolar disorder, but I especially like that she writes humor. Bonus points for a not-too-cluttered layout with useful links and widgets.

6. In a tie: Furious Seasons and Knowledge is Necessity. Apples and oranges, Phil Dawdy and John McManamy have been among the best on the web for years, but 2009 saw them devolve into public feuding so they’re both bumped down the list together. Hopefully next year will bring a renewed focus on what they each do very well, and a truce.

7. Raw Writing for the Real World of Bipolar
Intimate, absorbing and moving, this is a diary-style blog by Cristina Fender that has mushroomed since she began. She’s now welcoming guest posts and building community, and has self-published a book as well. Energetic.

8. Caught in my Bipolar Burble.
She’s been blogging since 2003 and is consistently brilliant. Intimate and raw, very descriptive and at times hard to read. She’s been through a lot and her treatment-resistant disorder is still not responding to treatments, including a recent failed attempt at ECT (which led to the spin-off blog ECT: Electro-Convulsive Terror). Harrowing.

9. Time for your Meds
“Crazy Tracy” is triumphantly healthy, blogging once again and newly returned to work as a nurse. Her recovery is as dramatic as her dark moments have been. It’s great to see her back, a hopeful example to others who suffer severe bipolar episodes.

10. Crazy Black Woman
“My oddball behavior has been a badge of honor for me to wear,” says Dr. Gina, and I honor her for that behavior too. Her blog has aggressive, hypomanic uproar posts that are fun to read, with extra energy devoted to The Ariafya Universe, a mental health and wellness forum for diverse women. Phew! It’s impressive. Lots to read.

Honorable mentions: Victoria Maxwell’s Crazy for Life, Wellness Writer, Gus Greeper, Bipolar Happens, If You’re Going Through Hell, Keep Going, Bipolar: Crazy Mermaid’s Blog, and Patient Anonymous. Cheers to all!

Enjoy the blogs above, and please leave more links with your comments.