I recently came across two very comprehensive web sites dedicated to mental health issues. Both of these web sites offer useful information about mental health disorders. I generally encourage my clients with mental health disorders and any witness who may testify in their Social Security hearings to learn what they can about the client’s mental health issues. Often it is difficult for a mental health patient to have insight about his/her condition since altered thought processes are often a symptom of the condition itself. For the claimant, reading about his/her condition helps reinforce testimony and for the witnesses, a little research can make their testimony more relevant as well. The first site I can suggest is bipolarcentral.com, a web site dedicated to Bi-polar Disorder. The site’s publisher, David Oliver, and I have correponded a bit and he explained to me that the impetus for this site was the plight of his mother, who is and was a bi-polar patient. David offers a great deal of useful information and he has published a book about living with a bi-polar relative. The other mental health research site I recently came across is the Mental Health Sanctuary web site published by Tim and Andrea Phiel, who live in Washington State. This site is very well organized in that it is divided into nine "sanctuaries" covering such topics as bi-polar disorder, depression, PTSD, Schizophrenia, etc. Each of these sanctuaries offers in-depth information, links to relevant blogs and web sites, therapist links, and other information. The site also utilizes the services of volunteers who can answer questions by email. Both of these sites are worth a long look by SSDI claimants disabled by mental health problems and by their families and friends.