Blog –

Chronic Pain Support Meeting

October 16, 2019coloniedbsa

Next Tuesday, October 22nd, 2019 at 6 to (just before) 7pm we will be holding a support group on the topic of chronic pain & how it affects our mental health. It has become a common theme of discussion in our regular meetings so we’ve decided to give the topic its own time slot so we can delve deeper into it. If you have any questions about this you may ask at me (Josh) at JoshColonieDBSA@gmail.com or text/call me at (518) 380-6576‬.

We are doing this on a trial basis for right now, so if this does interest you, please try to attend or let us know a day & time that might work better for you. We would like to keep this on the same night as a regular meeting night, although this will not affect our regular scheduled DBSA support groups.

In the mean time, stay strong & know you are not alone. Special thanks to Facilitator Sarah for taking the initiative to start this up.

Out of The Darkness Suicide Prevention Awareness Walks

September 24, 2019coloniedbsa

As you may or not be aware, we have been doing a little bit of fundraising amongst our group for the AFSP’s (American Foundation for Suicide Prevention) Out of The Darkness walks in the area over the course of last week & this week. All donations that we receive at meetings this week will be going to the AFSP (unless otherwise specified) We had an informational table & participants at the walk held at the Saratoga Spa State Park this past Sunday (9/22/2019) & we will be doing the same at a walk being held this Saturday (9/28/2019) at Schenectady’s Central Park so feel free to join us there, where we will be presenting our donation to the local AFSP chapter.

If you wish to attend this Saturday’s walk, please register at the following web page: Schenectady Out of The Darkness walk registration page (https://afsp.donordrive.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=register.start&eventID=6051) before Friday (9/27/2019) at noon or you may register on-site at the walk in Schenectady’s Central Park on Saturday (9/28/2019) at noon.

I apologize for not posting this in advance of the Saratoga walk. Unfortunately, I’ve had a lot going on. Thank you for those that have already helped with this very worthwhile cause & those that plan to do so.

Annual Picnic

August 5, 2019coloniedbsa

This upcoming Saturday (August 10th) at noon, we will be holding our annual Colonie DBSA picnic for group attendees. If you would like to attend please contact Josh (JoshColonieDBSA@gmail.com, (518) 380-6576) or Mike (dbsamjl@gmail.com) to let us know if you would like to come & if you would like to bring one guest. We request that everyone coming please bring some food for the picnic so in your RSVP please let us know what you plan on bringing so we don’t end up with duplicate items.

Those of you with social anxiety, like myself, please try to not let that keep you from coming to the picnic. This is going to be a small get-together full of familiar faces.

Please be reminded that our rules of confidentiality are to be followed just like any meeting that we have. That includes no social media sharing or pictures be taken of this event. Thank you for your understanding.

P.S. I am aware that I have not supplied the picnic location in this post. I will supply that when you RSVP.

No Group on the Fourth of July

July 1, 2019coloniedbsa

Hey guys & gals,

As you probably would guess, we are not having support group this Independence Day (7/4) but we WILL be having group on Tuesday. Thanks for understanding. If you are struggling, please make sure to reach out to your supports &, if you are feeling unsafe, please call 911 or the National Suicide Prevention Hotline at (800) 273-8255. If you are in crisis but are feeling safe please contact the Mental Health Empowerment Project’s warmline at (518) 268-1663 or (800) 643-7462, any day or any time.

Our Spiffy New Flyer

May 8, 2019coloniedbsa1 Comment

Here is our spiffy new flyer that we are using to try to boost our group attendance because we feel there’s a lot more people out there that we could be helping with our groups. With the Capital Region having over 1.17 Million residents & the national average of adults (18 & over) struggling with either major depressive disorder or bipolar disorder being 9.8%, I don’t need to do the math to tell you that is a very significant number of people that we can be helping out there so feel free to print or send out this flyer to anyone you think it might help. I will be bringing copies of these flyers to meetings and posting lots on them on posting boards around the Capital Region. Feel free to do the same (just make sure you ask if it is OK to post this flyer on their board). Thanks for helping to spread the word, friends.

dbsa-flyer Download

What’s the Difference Between a Psychiatrist, Psychologist, & a Therapist?

March 24, 2019coloniedbsa1 Comment

Don’t worry about this being the start to a horrible joke. It’s not. Several times in meetings since I have been a part of DBSA & other support groups, there been many discussions as to what the difference is between those three titles listed above. Hopefully, these Venn diagrams below will clear things up a bit. One item I’m not sure is fully illustrated in these Venn diagrams is that the term, “therapist”, a shortened version of the word psychotherapist, which is an umbrella term which can include any of the follow: Psychologist, Counselor, Social Worker, & even a Psychiatrist or Psychiatrist Nurse Practitioner (although they rarely do psychotherapy these days).

Hopefully, this clears up some confusion. All of these Venn diagrams were adapted from several sources that had differing opinions on some minor aspects of the roles of these professionals but I tried to keep them as basic as possible to make them easily understood & be as less controversial as possible. That said, there are also some other minor items that needed to be generalized & may not be correct the world over. If anyone has questions or finds an error in these diagrams, please let me know. Thanks.

• Josh

P.S. I’m sorry for those reading this on a phone. The smaller text in diagrams below may hard to read but if you zoom in them, they will definitely be easier to read.