High creative skills have been shown to be somewhat more common in people who have mental illness in the family.

A great article that sheds’ some light on the long though connection between creativity and mental illness. It is important to note that this is not a 1 to 1 correlation. Meaning that all creativity is the result of mental illness and all those who are mentally ill are creative.

MEN’S PASSIONATE PARTNERSHIP:
6 Wednesdays weekly (starting 5/26/10)
6:30-8:30 pm
$20-$50/class if donate for 6 week series at 1st or 2nd class;
$25-$55/class if only Drop In for 1st or 2nd class;
$10/class for Manifest Members (if donate for all 6 weeks)
Location:  Park 19 Bldg (nr. NW 19th & Hoyt).

Discover what brings you and others alive in partnerships and skills you can use to create & sustain authentic passion in all your relationships (e.g., friendships, love & lust relationships, and even business relationships).  See & call forth the best in yourself & others.  Learn how to let go of negative judgments & stories that cut you off from yourself & others.  This group is for single men.  This will be a closed group after the 2nd meeting. 

FACILITATOR:  Marc Andrews, LCSW, licensed psychotherapist, with 20 years of group and individual counseling experience.

SPONSOR:  Donations benefit Manifest, a non-profit men’s wellness community that empowers diverse men in the Portland area to pursue their wellness visions & passions together in more than 60 events, classes, & support groups each month.  No one turned away for lack of funds and work-study is available if you call in advance to schedule your volunteer hours.

INFO:  Marc at 503-223-8822 x2

I remember so well when we first met. A young boy with a terrible disease, you were the epitome of grace. You never blamed anyone for the illness that ravaged your body or the torment and stigma you endured.

When students, parents and teachers in your community shunned you, threatened you and expelled you from school, you responded not with words of hate but with understanding beyond your years. You said they were simply afraid of what they did not know.

When the media heralded you as an “innocent victim” because you had contracted AIDS through a blood transfusion, you rejected that label and stood in solidarity with thousands of HIV-positive women and men. You reminded America that all victims of AIDS are innocent.

When you became a celebrity, you embraced the opportunity to educate the nation about the AIDS epidemic, even though your only wish was to live an ordinary life.

Ryan, I wish you could know how much the world has changed since 1990, and how much you changed it.

Young boys and girls with HIV attend school and take medicine that allows them to lead normal lives. Children in America are seldom born with the virus, and they no longer contract it through transfusions. The insults and injustices you suffered are not tolerated by society.

Most important, Ryan, you inspired awareness, which helped lead to lifesaving treatments. In 1990, four months after you died, Congress passed the Ryan White Care Act, which now provides more than $2 billion each year for AIDS medicine and treatment for half a million Americans. Today, countless people with HIV live long, productive lives.

It breaks my heart that you are not one of them. You were 18 when you died, and you would be 38 this year, if only the current treatments existed when you were sick. I think about this every day, because America needs your message of compassion as never before.

Ryan, when you were alive, your story sparked a national conversation about AIDS. But despite all the progress in the past 20 years, the dialogue has waned. I know you would be trying to revive it if you were here today, when the epidemic continues to strike nearly every demographic group, with more than 50,000 new infections in the United States each year. I know you would be loudly calling for the National HIV/AIDS Strategy that was promised by President Obama but has not yet been delivered. I know you would reach out to young people. I know you would work tirelessly to help everyone suffering from HIV, including those who live on the margins of society.

It would sadden you that today, in certain parts of the United States, some poor people with AIDS are still placed on waiting lists to receive treatment. It would anger you that your government is still not doing enough to help vulnerable people with HIV and populations that are at high risk of contracting the virus, including sexually active teenagers. It would upset you that AIDS is a leading cause of death among African Americans.

It would frustrate you that even though hundreds of thousands of HIV-positive Americans are receiving treatment in your name, more than 200,000 don’t know their HIV-positive status, largely because a lingering stigma surrounding the disease prevents them from being tested. It would disappoint you that many teenagers do not have access to science-based HIV-prevention programs in school, at a time when half of new infections are believed to be among people under 25.

I miss you so very much, Ryan. I was by your side when you died at Riley Hospital. You’ve been with me every day since. You inspired me to change my life and carry on your work. Because of you, I’m still in the struggle against AIDS, 20 years later. I pledge to not rest until we achieve the compassion for which you so bravely and beautifully fought.

Your friend,

Elton

Sir Elton John, a Grammy- and Academy Award-winning artist, is the founder and chairman of the Elton John AIDS Foundation.

This was passed on to me to day, and i pass it on in its entirety. I don’t even want you to have to click to go to the article, but just read.

The Miami News Times, an alternative newsweekly, first broke the story. Then the lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender blogosphere, Facebook, Twitter and other social networking sites kept the story going strong. Unable to ignore a growing firestorm, the mainstream media eventually picked up the story.

This will be my last post involving the issue of Reparative therapy. The reason? At this point it is a mot point. The American psychiatric association, the American psychological association, the national association of social workers all have denounce reparative therapy as being destractutive to gay individuals. So why give any more space to these fringe organizations? Those who blindly believe in them will always ill, and those who have a shred of insights will see the deceit of their ways. As I read this article I became angry and full of hate for this Rekers, then realized that I am becoming like him. Full of hate. We as gay men and women have fought for our right to love those we chose, to marry those we chose, to fight for equal rights. No more and no more less than any one else in this country. Lets keep our fight on this higher ground, and not become like those who hate us. Look to history and see that those who have always taken the higher ground have persevered as those how stooped to hatredred and rabble rising fell by the way side.

Young gay men often don’t know any better but are searching for an image to compare themselves to. When they find images of the modern gay clone, they then have a template for what they believe a loveable and accepted gay male should look like.

But is this reality?

Second part of a 3 part series on gay men’s body image

Miami New Times discovered that he took a male prostitute that he met on Rentboy.com to Europe. According to the sex worker, Rekers “likes younger guys to hang out with.”  

Just think how much happier these people would be if they just liked them self’s, and how much less pain and suffering their would be in the world. It is amazing to see what self-hate can do to some one. Lets not forget our ability to be compassionate, this is what separates us from them.

Masturbation may be the most popular kind of sex no one talks about. As a result, myths abound about masturbation, and finding accurate information can be a trial. Test your knowledge about masturbation technique, history and culture, and if you score low be sure to explore our masturbation section for all the answers to your questions.

This one it to good to pass up!

A 2009 study from the University of Iowa showed that photos of male bodies in The Advocate and Out magazines became thinner and more muscular from 1967 to 2008. Gay men in this study compared themselves to images found in media. If their body did not match those found in the images, the men reported dissatisfaction with their bodies and decreased self-esteem.

A very good article on how as gay men we drive our selves by this unhealthy ideal of what the male body should look like and if we were able to achieve this ideal every thing would be perfect for us. I think most of us can see how the fashion industry has been destructive to woman’s self esteem, but can we see it in our self?

For more information about counseling and psychology, check out my site at RMarcAndrews.com