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on: Friday, 20 November 2009 20:12
on: Friday, 20 November 2009 18:54
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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.
Think you can help?
Do you have expertise in a particular area such
as Psychology, graphic/web design, journalism,
public relations, IT, (Web Geeks Needed!) or fund raising? We
need your assistance volunteering for DF. We're
always looking for additional forum and chat moderators
as well, keeping DF the safe haven it has always been for our
members.
If you're interested, this would be a wonderful
way of giving back to DF.
Contact Forum Admin for more details.
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Newsletter Articles
Pages from Old Portal
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How to Deal with Your Children’s Anxieties Over Celebrating the Holidays with Separated or Divorced Parents. 
Holidays can be a time to anticipate with excitement and happiness,
or with anxiety and sadness, depending on what is happening in your
life and family. For children of separated and divorced parents, the
holidays are often a time of mixed emotions. The following are some
common feelings children have:
- Uncertainty about where they will be spending the holidays.
For children whose parents have separated since the previous holiday
season, they may not know where they will be spending Thanksgiving, the
first night of Chanukah, and/or Christmas. Some children do not want to
ask their parents about this, because they think it might upset their
parents to talk about it, or the children themselves may not want to
face the reality of how these holidays will be different from years
past.
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Can Americans Be Happier? 
PBS has announced that a new series will air during the
first week of the
2010 New Year that examines this question.
This Emotional Life, a co-production of Vulcan Productions
and the NOVA/WGBH Science Unit, unfolds across three, two-hour episodes, exploring the nature of the social relationships that are the key to our human
happiness; the obstacles to happiness, negative emotions, which we can't live
with and can't live without; and the sometimes misguided pursuit of happiness
itself. Each episode weaves together the compelling personal stories
of ordinary people and the latest in brain science research, along with
revealing comments from celebrities such as Chevy Chase,
Larry David, Elizabeth Gilbert, Alanis Morissette, Katie Couric and Richard
Gere. “Science has revealed three important facts about happiness:
You can't be happy alone; you can’t be happy all the time; you can be happier
than you are. Our three shows examine each of these three facts,” notes Harvard
psychologist and best-selling author of Stumbling on Happiness ,
Professor Daniel Gilbert. Prof. Gilbert’s research has examined why people so
often mispredict what will make them happy. The three episodes — which air on PBS January 4-6, 2010 (at
9:00 PM) — trace our relationships and what science reveals about them beginning
with our very first one, the parent-child relationship, and how our connections
to others impact our happiness. Below are descriptions of This Emotional Life's
three episodes: |
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Therapy Benefits Depression, Anxiety.jpg) A new study hopes to inform policymakers on the benefits of improving
access to psychological therapy for individuals experiencing depression
and anxiety.
The UK investigation reviewed the
effectiveness of an ‘Improving Access to Psychological Therapies
(IAPT)’ program in a group of patients referred for treatment for
depression or anxiety under Doncaster Primary Care Trust. The results are published in the British Journal of Clinical Psychology.
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Enjoy The Holidays Without
Depression or Stress
Plus 10 Tips for Coping
 'Tis the season? People are now starting to prepare as they are preparing to shop shop for
gifts now, getting ready to cook for their loved ones and basically seeing all the ads on TV. It’s Thanksgiving, Christmas, Chanukah once again
and everyone’s joining in the holiday festivities. Everyone except you. This
only means one thing: you’ve got holiday season depression. It’s a type
of seasonal affective disorder, or SAD, that affects individuals
everywhere.
It’s common for some people to feel sad, anxious, and uneasy when
the yuletide season comes, but you have to admit it’s no fun. While
everyone’s enjoying themselves, you’re busy being as mean as old Mr.
Scrooge.
The Grinch Complex
You might not be as spiteful as the Grinch and you surely have no
intentions of wrecking havoc like what he did to Whoville, but you’re
just as sourly, as bitter and as miserable as he is. Of course, there’s
always a reason why you feel that way. Here are some possible reasons
for your holiday season depression.
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Life Does Get Better! 
Depression can go away and you won't always feel like you do
now!
I joined this forum looking for help and advice which I
found in abundance but I also wanted someone to tell me that there is light at
the end of the tunnel and that depressive feelings can be reduced or go away
completely. I hope that my story can give some advice but also let people know
there is light at the end of the tunnel.
inside_my_head is a member of Depressionforums.org
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New Breakthrough Could Be Why Some
Antidepressants Do Not Work For YouStressful Life Events Are a Major Cause of Depression
What causes depression has been
oversimplified, resulting in drugs that treat stress but not
necessarily depression, according to a new research.
October 27, 2009 2:58 PM PDT -- Depression researcher Eva Redei presented research at the Neuroscience 2009 conference in Chicago this week that calls into question two tenets of depression science:
that stressful life events are a major cause of depression, and that an
imbalance in neurotransmitters triggers depressive symptoms.
For decades, drugs have been developed around these beliefs, leading
to antidepressant medications that are actually designed to relieve
stress. But stress-related genes have almost no overlap with
depression-related genes, reports Redei, the David Lawrence Stein
professor of psychiatry at Northwestern University's Feinberg School of Medicine in Chicago. (Full disclosure: Northwestern is my alma mater.)
That means those antidepressants work if you're stressed, but not necessarily if you're depressed.
"This is a huge study and statistically powerful," Redei says. "This
research opens up new routes to develop new antidepressants that may be
more effective. There hasn't been an antidepressant based on a novel
concept in 20 years."
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Involve the kids, Save On School Lunches
TV cooking guru Rachael Ray knows the secret to making cheap, healthy lunches your kids will like. "Give
them ownership by involving them in the process," Ray said." It's an
opportunity to let the kids be the boss." When grocery shopping, for
example, ask them to pick out the fruits, vegetables or whole grain
breads they like best. Let them pick a treat, too, so it doesn't seem
like a chore. Or ask them to choose and make a recipe for a pasta or
tuna salad they'd like to try. |
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Vaccinating Kids Against Childhood Diseases and the
H1N1 (Swine Flu) 
If you’re a public health officer, the argument for vaccinating kids against childhood diseases is basic. “The natural reservoir for vaccine-preventable diseases is humans.
Everyone who gets one of these diseases gets it from someone else — not
from a chair or an animal,” said Mark Netherda, deputy public health
officer for Sonoma County. “So one very good reason to vaccinate the
population is to protect each other.”
But for some parents, the argument isn’t basic at all; they feel the vaccines do more harm than good. By
California law, children start getting vaccinated when they’re infants,
as young as two months. But it’s when they first enter school that
someone besides the parents, the kids and their doctors really pays
attention. The school immunization law requires that in order to start
school, students must be up to date on their immunizations for polio,
diphtheria, tetanus, pertussis (whooping cough), measles, mumps,
rubella, hepatitis, varicella (chicken pox) and other diseases. The
H1N1 (swine flu) vaccine isn’t on that list, although public health
officials will be advising it for school-age children once the vaccine
is available this fall. |
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Depression Forums Back-To-School Pointers For Parents
August 23, 2009
Getting a new school year off to a good start can positively influence
a student’s attitude, confidence and performance both academically and
socially.
The transition from “vacation” to school days can be difficult for both
students and parents. Even students who are eager to return to class
must adjust to greater levels of activity, structure, academics and for
some, additional social pressures associated with school life. The
degree of adjustment will differ with each student, but parents can
help their children, and the rest of the family, manage the increased
pace of life and responsibilities by planning ahead, being realistic,
and maintaining a positive attitude. Below are a few suggestions to
help ease the transition and promote a successful school experience.
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Mental Health And Back to School  Being mentally fit will help prepare children for the year and stresses ahead according to local experts.
When
the new school year starts, there’s no doubt things can get a little
hectic for you and your children. Going into new classrooms, learning
new subjects and meeting dozens of new people is somewhat stressful,
especially in just a few days time frame. At this crucial time, some
children can become overwhelmed with the changes. When coupled with
other factors, it can have a tremendous effect on a student’s
well being. To ensure that your children are getting the most out of
their day at school and at home, it’s just as important that they be
mentally fit as it is they be physically fit.
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This Month In Pictures
Members Online
297 Users Online:
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21 Visible:
christianb, Fatalwishes, solanum, iowa, 1rw, Forum Admin, Mariya116, marryfoxgirl, shio, The Silent One, Midnight_Wanderer, LizJ, cougarfx, catherine1971, XxButterflyxX, bucky, Westels, fighting the Dog, murk, flicker, Deepster, |
Medical News
A Potpourri of Mental Health Articles
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Andertoon
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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Mental illness affects one in seventeen Americans.
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Together, we can help ourselves and others.
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