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I'd like to thank everyone who has been there for me through all the laughter and the tears, but especially through the last few weeks of my son's graduation. I didn't think I'd survive the emotional roller coaster I was on.... but you guys were always there... ever supporting, every pushing, prodding, leading me on toward the light.... toward the day when I could just life my arms up in exclamation and say, "I have done it! I have done it! I have done it!" and I have... My son has graduated high school tonight... this very night... and though my eyes still well up with tears... my heart swells up with pride at the love that fills me every time I think of all of you... pushing me on toward the end goal! Praise! Collaboration! Love! And isn't THAT what the DF is all about? :nod: Thank you... and most especially, thank you to Lindsay, sarah-nicole, weeble, and caddon, for their undying support! :hearts: I couldn't do it without you! :hugs:
(I am Cat)
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Depression & Mental Health FAQs
US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) estimated 40 million Americans living today will suffer from major depressive illness during their lives. Seasonal affective disorder is major depression that appears in the fall or winter and goes away in spring, thought to be caused by lack of sunlight.
Postpartum depression occurs within four weeks of a women giving childbirth. Most new mothers suffer from some form of the �baby blues.� Postpartum depression, by contrast, is major depression, thought to be triggered by changes in hormonal flows associated with childbirth. Catatonic depression is a rare form of major depression characterized by (at least two): Stupor, excessive motor activity, extreme negativism, peculiarities in voluntary movement, and repetition of other people's words or actions. - mcmanweb.com
Psychotic depression is a rare form of depression characterized by delusions or hallucinations, such as believing you are someone you are not and hearing voices.
According to the National Institute of Mental Health, approximately 18.8 million American adults, or about 9.5 percent of the US population age 18 and older in a given year, have a depressive disorder. Depression is a chronic illness that exacts a significant toll on
America's health and productivity. It affects more than 21 million
American children and adults annually and is the leading cause of
disability in the United States for individuals ages 15 to 44.
Lost productive time among U.S. workers due to depression is estimated
to be in excess of $31 billion per year. Depression frequently
co-occurs with a variety of medical illnesses such as heart disease,
cancer, and chronic pain and is associated with poorer health status
and prognosis. It is also the principal cause of the 30,000 suicides
in the U.S. each year. In 2004, suicide was the 11 th leading cause of death in the United States, third among individuals 15-24.
According to the World Health Organization, depression is presently on track to becoming the world's second-most disabling disease (after heart disease) by the year 2020. Depression is responsible for some $87 billion a year in lost productivity in the US (a conservative estimate), and according to Bank One, is responsible for most lost work days in its employees after pregnancy and childbirth. Additionally, one million people worldwide die by their own hand, most as a result of a mood disorder. Finally, the linkage between depression and a host of physical illnesses makes it arguably the world's greatest killer.
Research presented at the 56th Annual Conference of the Canadian
Psychiatric Association shows a marked link between bipolar disorder
and migraines. The odds of migraine in persons with bipolar disorder were 40% higher than the general population. Data
obtained from 36,984 people aged 15 and over, who screened positive for
manic or depressive episodes with migraine, were compared against those
who screened positive for mania but who didn�t suffer from migraines. Amongst
males, 14.9% of those with manic episodes were also diagnosed with
migraines compared with 5.8% of the general population. Amongst
females, 34.7% had both migraines and bipolar disorder compared with
14.7% who only had migraines.unquote.gif While the research was
skewed towards persons who were already diagnosed with bipolar
disorders, what does it mean for people who suffer from migraines but
who may have an undiagnosed bipolar disorder?
Migraines and headaches aren�t fully understood but the manifestations are very real and debilitating for their sufferers: Throbbing pain Nausea Heightened sensitivity to light or sound Seeing dots, wavy lines, flashing lights, or blind spots Difficulty with speech, sensation, or movement
An estimated 2.1 million
American adolescents have experienced major depression within the last
year, according to a new comprehensive government study. Researchers
surveyed more than 67,000 young people ages 12 to 17 and found that one
in 12 had suffered from serious depression in the previous year.Nearly
13 percent of girls had struggled with depression, compared to less
than 5 percent of boys. Odds of depression increased with age -- just 4
percent of 12-year-olds experienced depression but that climbed to 11
percent for older teens.
Our DF Members
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What's the difference between a psychologist and a psychiatrist?
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This is your 101 course on practicing pros.
What's Your Orientation?
Therapy methods abound. But what will work best for you? Here's a list:
Cognitive Behavioral Therapy
Emphasizes the role of thinking in how we feel and what we do. CBT stresses the fact that thoughts, rather than people or events, cause our negative feelings. CBT is a structured collaboration between therapist and client and often calls for homework assignments. Brief and time-limited, CBT includes rational emotive behavior therapy and cognitive therapy.
Eclectic
Many practitioners now take an eclectic approach by using various methods including cognitive behavioral therapy and psychodynamic therapy, for example. Therapists often work with their clients to create a treatment plan that encompasses different techniques and orientations.
Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing (EMDR)
An information-processing therapy that helps clients cope with post-traumatic stress disorder, addictions or phobias. The patient focuses on a specific thought, image, emotion or sensation while simultaneously following the therapist's finger. This causes swift eye movements that loosen one's memory and allow negative memories to be reprocessed with positive ones.
Forensic Psychology
A forensic psychologist holds a doctorate degree with additional study in the field of forensics. These professionals offer expert legal opinion in both criminal and civil cases. Their work can range from psychological autopsies to evaluating a person's psychological competency to stand trial. In addition, forensic psychologists provide treatment to people whose situations or behavior have brought them into contact with the courts.
Humanistic Therapy
Through this method, which emphasizes the uniqueness of the individual, practitioners help their clients realize their potential. The individual works toward this goal through change and self-directed growth. Also known as client-centered psychotherapy, the humanistic method is an umbrella term for gestalt and Rogerian approaches, as well as existential theories of therapy.
Interpersonal Therapy (IPT)
IPT is a short-term psychotherapy in which therapist and client identify the issues and problems of interpersonal relationships. They also explore the client's life history to help recognize problem areas and then work toward ways to rectify them. There are also specific therapies, such as Imago therapy, which focus on intimate relationships. In addition, interpersonal therapy is not to be confused with transpersonal psychology, which is the study of states in which people experience a deeper sense of who they are, or a sense of greater connectedness with others, nature or spirituality.
Marriage and Family Therapy
Family influences the way we interact and communicate with others. In this type of therapy, the provider works with family members, both individually and as a group. The therapist reinforces the constructive aspects of a relationship and, at the same time, identifies the destructive elements. Marital therapy assists couples in finding problem-solving strategies.
Psychodynamic Therapy
Psychodynamic therapy is also known as insight-oriented therapy. It evolved from Freudian psychoanalysis in which the therapist interprets the patient's words and behaviors. This approach holds that bringing the unconscious into conscious awareness promotes insight and resolves conflict. This therapy involves more frequent sessions than CBT does.
Psychological Testing
Psychological testing is used to describe a wide variety of evaluations, but when applied strictly, the term refers to tests administered in clinical settings. Tests are devised to make a psychological assessment based on answers a client gives the examiner. Neuropsychological testing, for example, addresses problems with cognitive functioning and can require hours of testing. Nonprofessionals, such as potential employers or educational institutions, now commonly administer achievement or aptitude tests to evaluate potential candidates. In addition, intelligence tests and personality tests are offered through Internet sites. Psychology Today offers tests in such areas as career, health, personality and IQ.
Additional Therapy Methods
Adlerian/Individual Psychology
Founded by Alfred Adler, Adlerian psychology is based on the belief that all human behavior has a purpose and is goal-oriented. We strive for social connectedness, as well as suffer emotional difficulties because of feelings of inferiority and lack of a sense of community. True change and growth results from identifying, exploring and changing mistaken goals and beliefs. Therapy is seen as a re-education leading to greater social participation and fewer feelings of inferiority.
Art Therapy
The use of art and creativity may lead to greater self-knowledge. Accessing creativity may be helpful in identifying emotional issues and can help in the healing process.
Biofeedback
A therapy that uses electronic systems to monitor heart rate, brain waves or perspiration to help individuals become aware of their physiological responses and learn to control them.
Christian/Bible-Based
This approach to counseling is founded on the Bible and on the belief that Scripture should be the final authority for what kinds of decisions people make and how they live their life.
Client-Centered
Clients are in the best position to resolve their issues if the therapist can establish a warm, accepting and safe environment in which the individual feels free to talk about issues and can gain insight into them. This therapy is nondirective because the therapist typically does not give advice or make interpretations. Founder Carl Rogers believed that people are trustworthy and have a great potential for self-awareness and self-directed growth, given a nurturing environment. The function of the therapist is to be genuine, accepting and empathic. Techniques are less important.
Dream Analysis
Determining the meaning of dreams through symbols, myths, free association and memories may help clients process their issues. There are a variety of philosophies and approaches for analyzing dreams, including Adlerian (dreams are projections of a person's current concerns), Gestalt (every person and object in a dream represents an aspect of the dreamer), and psychoanalytic (dreams are a key to what is happening in a person's unconscious).
Existentialism
A philosophy of life, rather than a specific therapy, existentialism focuses on free will, responsibility for choices and the search for meaning and purpose through suffering, love and work. People are seen as constantly changing and becoming more their true selves. Searching within and finding one's own answers is encouraged. Emphasis is on the present and future, not the past.
Family Systems
This therapy looks at the entire family as a complex system having its own language, roles, rules, beliefs, needs and patterns. Each family member plays a part in the system, and family systems therapy helps an individual discover how her childhood family operated, her role in that system and how the experience affects her in her current family.
Feminist Therapy
This therapy focuses on empowering women and helping them discover how to break free from traditional molds that may be blocking growth and development. Feminist therapy tends to be more focused on strengthening women in areas such as communication, assertiveness, self-esteem and relationships.
Gestalt
Known as an experiential therapy, gestalt emphasizes what is happening in the here and now, helping individuals to become more self-aware and to learn responsibility for and integration of their thoughts, feelings and actions. Techniques include confrontation, role-playing and dialogue between two parts of a personality. This therapy is based on the belief that to reach maturity, people must find their own way in life and accept responsibility for who they are.
Jungian (Analytical Psychology)
The focus of Jungian therapy is to help people access their unconscious to develop greater self-realization and individuation. Founder Carl. G. Jung's theory is psychoanalytic, but differs from traditional Freudian theory. Jung added the concepts of individuation (human potential), which includes transcendence and spirituality. People are seen in a positive light, and therapy considers the soul, which seeks to be nurtured by something larger than the self.
Life Coaching
Life coaching is a new type of therapy that helps healthy people to realize their goals in work, family and life. Although many psychologists also consider part of their treatment to be a form of life coaching, this therapy doesn't focus on treating mental illness. Executive coaches, for example, may be enlisted to help a chief executive become a better manager.
Psychoanalysis
Founded by Sigmund Freud, psychoanalysis is based on the belief that true change and growth comes from an individual gaining more self-awareness. One must bring unconscious thoughts, motivations, feelings and experiences into the conscious so that behavior is based more on reality than instinct. Key concepts: Behavior is determined by unconscious motivations, irrational forces, instinctual drives and psychosexual events occurring during the first six years of life. Classical psychoanalysis is an intensive and long-term process with a focus on transference (transferring feelings about and reactions to past significant others onto the therapist) and uncovering unconscious material. Essentially, psychoanalysis strives for fundamental reconstruction of individual's total personality.
Rational Emotive Therapy (RET)
According to RET, our emotions result from our beliefs, interpretations and reactions to life events. A type of cognitive therapy, RET is based more on thinking and doing than with the expression of feelings. Founder Albert Ellis is known as the father of RET and the grandfather of cognitive-behavioral therapy.
Self-Psychology
Basing this method on the works of Freud and Jung, founder Heinz Kohut added the element of empathy. Self-psychology is a mode of psychoanalytic treatment that states that each individual's self-esteem and vitality derive from and are maintained by the empathic responsiveness of others to his or her needs.
Social-Learning Therapy
In this form of therapy, desirable behavior is modeled for clients, then reinforced and mimicked.
Solution-Focused
Most psychological problems are present only intermittently. People with panic disorder do not spend every minute in a panic; even depression fluctuates in severity. Solution-focused therapy tries to help the patient notice when symptoms are diminished or absent and use this knowledge as a foundation for recovery. If a patient insists that the symptoms are constant and unrelieved, the therapist works with him to find exceptions and make the exceptions more frequent, predictable and controllable. This therapy builds on working solutions already available to the patient.
Transactional Analysis
A system of psychotherapy, it analyzes personal relationships and interactions in terms of conflicting or complementary ego states that correspond to the roles of parent, child and adult.
Transpersonal
This branch of psychology is concerned with the study of states and processes in which people experience a deeper or wider sense of who they are—or a sense of greater connectedness with others, nature or the spiritual dimension. Transpersonal psychology extends into consciousness studies, spiritual inquiry, mind-body relationships and transformation. Carl Jung first coined the term transpersonal (uberpersonlich) when he used the phrase transpersonal unconscious as a synonym for collective unconscious.
SOUCE:- For profiles of licensed professionals, see Psychology Today's online Therapy Directory..
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Depression & Mental Health FAQs 2
What is Clinical Depression? Clinical
depression can affect your body, mood, thoughts, and behavior. It can
change your eating habits, how you feel and think about things, your
ability to work and study, and how you interact with people. Clinical
depression is not a passing mood, a sign of personal weakness or a
condition that can be willed away. Clinically depressed people cannot
"pull themselves together" and get better. Depression can be
successfully treated by a mental health professional or certain health
care providers. With the right treatment, 80 percent of those who seek
help get better. And many people begin to feel better in just a few
weeks.
Depression a Big Factor in Poor Health World Health Organization Finds Depression Often Goes Untreated By Salynn Boyles WebMD Medical News Reviewed by Louise Chang, MD Sept.
6, 2007 -- Depression has a greater impact on overall health than
arthritis, diabetes, angina, and asthma, but it all too often goes
unrecognized and untreated, a report from the World Health Organization
(WHO) suggests. more... Depression a Big Factor in Poor Health
For Additional Information About Depression Write To: The National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH)6001 Executive Boulevard, Room 8184, MSC 9663 Bethesda, MD 20892-9663
For free brochures on depression and its treatment call: 1-800-421-4211. or visit: http://www.nimh.nih.gov
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