Your family may not be storybook, but you can cheer up the house by breaking bread, finding fun, and following a few proven plotlines. When I was a child, I loved the All-of-a-Kind Family books. Five sisters sharing a bedroom in a small New York apartment at the turn of the last century—what could be more fun? To me, growing up in the suburbs with an older brother with whom I was never very close, and with parents who were active in numerous clubs and organizations that often kept them out of the house, the idea of a large family doing things together was extremely appealing. I envied even a…

     As the Summer of 2010 is quickly coming to an end, the thoughts of returning to school begin to surface. For some teens, going back to school is exciting. You get to see old friends, make new ones, compare and discuss vacations and other summer experiences. To others, the thought of returning to school is a dreaded one. This is especially true for the teen who struggles academically. Besides, a lot of people move during the summer or go off to college or the military. Saying goodbye to friends is hard and marked with sadness. And anxiety runs high for those going to middle or high school for…

There was a time when “mid-life crisis” was simply (though sadly and inaccurately) typified through divorce, a shiny red sports car, or career change. These stereotypes allowed us to distance ourselves from the real pain of those we know in midlife; we laughed and made jokes about older people trying to live out fantasies of being young. Especially as women, we took part in chastising those men who traded in their older wives for a “younger model.”  Yet, adjustment problems in midlife are no laughing matter. Middle-aged adults have the highest suicide rates in the country for the second year in a row, a recent New York Times article reports. While suicide rates…

Natural Depression Treatments 15 ways to help treat depression naturally. While therapy and medication are key in controlling depression, there’s also a lot you can do on your own to fight back. Making changes to your own behavior — your physical activity, diet, and lifestyle — can be effective natural depression treatments.  “Lifestyle changes are a very important part of treatment,” says Ian A. Cook, MD, director of the Depression Research Program at the University of California Los Angeles. On their own, Cook says, natural depression treatments can beat back milder forms of disease. For more severe depression, they can complement other approaches. When medication and therapy aren’t enough, treating…

Better Sleep Depression can rob you of rest by making it hard to fall asleep or by waking you up too soon. That leaves you dragging the next day. And more important, lack of sleep can make depression more severe. Treatment for depression can help improve sleep. Better Sleep Depression can rob you of rest by making it hard to fall asleep or by waking you up too soon. That leaves you dragging the next day. And more important, lack of sleep can make depression more severe. Treatment for depression can help improve sleep. Better Love Life Some antidepressants may dampen the libido. But often, the bigger roadblock to a…

Depression: Finding a Doctor or Therapist   To get better, you need expert help. Many people with depression have a team working with them. This might include your regular health care provider, a psychologist or therapist, and a psychiatrist or psychiatric nurse. In fact, studies show that combination treatment – antidepressants and talk therapy – is the most effective way to treat depression. But getting the right people may seem intimidating. Here are some answers to common questions about finding a doctor and psychologist or therapist. Below these questions, you’ll find a list of tips for how to prepare for your first appointment,

Teenagers judged to be Internet addicts appear to have more than double the risk of developing depression over time, Chinese researchers said. Point out that this study suggests that pathological use of the Internet, in this case by Chinese adolescents, may have an adverse effect on mental health — in particular, the development of depression, but not anxiey. Point out that this study did not account for all potentially confounding factors, particularly genetic variations and history of familial depression. Teenagers judged to be Internet addicts appear to have more than double the risk of developing depression over time, Chinese researchers said. In a prospective study of more than 1,100 big-city…

Feeding Your Learner: Back to School Nutrition by Amanda Morin As summer draws to a close, back-to-school preparations begin. There are school clothes to buy, backpacks to fill and, of course, there’s finding just the right lunchbox. Making sure your child has what he needs for the school year is more than just having the right lunchbox, though, it’s having the right lunch to go in it, too. How can you make sure your child isn’t going from Popsicles to Pop-Tarts as back-to-school season approaches? By making sure that from breakfast to dinner and all the snacks in between, the foods he eats are meeting his nutritional needs.

Going Back to School: 10 Tips to Motivate Kids The bell of the school year will soon ring, but is your child ready for a brand-new semester of classes, essays, and exams? After a long and leisurely summer, some kids need an extra boost to get amped about school. Parents, getting your child excited about going back to school can be done, and it can be fun, too! Here are 10 tips and ideas for motivating students at the beginning of the school year: Just Ask! “Ask a child what will motivate them, as well as their barriers,” says Katherine Wagner, an education columnist for School Watch. “Be prepared to…

More Harsh Reality: Aging Fathers and Bipolar Children By Peter D. Kramer    Like depression, bipolar disorder has been romanticized as an affliction that confers hidden benefits. It may, but evidence is accumulating that suggests manic-depression results from the sorts of genetic disruption that contribute to other severe afflictions, such as schizophrenia and autism. Readers of this blog may recall that schizophrenia and autism have been linked to “de novo” mutations [1], new abnormal genes that develop in the parent’s sperm line and have not passed a Darwinian, evolutionary test [2] of fitness. The amino acid sequences are simply disrupted. Readers who have looked at yet earlier columns will recall…