Archive for October, 2006

Listed by most recent articles first.

• Why Do Women Get the Blues?
  "When sorrows come, they come not single spies, but in battalions." The Tragedy of Hamlet, Prince of Denmark, William Shakespeare, 1600-01 Diagnosing Depression in Women Did you know that women are twice as likely to experience ...
• Talking Turkey: Managing Unhappy Relatives at Holiday Time
  Almost all families seem to have at least one member who has made a career of being unhappy. In their distress, these people accuse, complain, sigh, and make it difficult for others to enjoy the ...
• Taking Back Control of Your Life
  In my studies, I have found that many people who experience psychiatric symptoms or have had traumatic things happen to them feel that they have no power or control over their own lives. Control of ...
• Why Suicide is Not a Good Idea
  Experiencing psychiatric symptoms is horrible. Many people who try to live with these symptoms every day sometimes feel so discouraged they want to end their lives. Suicide is never a good idea. Why not? Psychiatric symptoms ...
• Suffering in Silence: When Your Spouse Is Depressed
  Betty sits alone in the kitchen late at night, tearfully reviewing the current state of her life and marriage. Things looked so promising when she married Arthur after meeting at school! A modest home in ...
• Starting an Exercise Program: The Right Time Is Now
  If you live where winter means snow, ice and mud, you may have avoided exercising, or may have been promising yourself that when spring comes, you will exercise regularly. Now is the time to begin! ...
• Shedding Light on Winter Depression
  Thirty days hath September, April, June and November, All the rest have thirty-one Except for February— Which has 258! We extend our apologies to ...
• Mental Health and Work
  Karen returned to work after a three-month medical leave. Diagnosed with bipolar illness many years ago, her symptoms had been successfully managed with medication and Karen's own hard work ...
• Joining a Support Group
  In the past, I've discussed ideas and strategies for relieving loneliness. About 12 years ago, I began my studies of how people who experience troubling emotional symptoms like loneliness, anxiety, depression, mania and psychosis relieve ...
• Developing a Wellness Toolbox
  The first step in developing your own Wellness Recovery Action Plan (WRAP) is to develop a Wellness Toolbox. This is a list of things you have done in the past, or could do, to help ...
• Coming Out of the Mire
  There is a hard, dark, very murky lump that aches a bit in the middle of my chest. It is gray, but not the warm, gray of tree trunks or chickadees. It is a foreboding ...
• Side Effects of Antidepressant Medications
  Like all medications, antidepressants may produce unwanted side effects. While various drugs have different side effect profiles, most individuals experience fewer side effects with the newer antidepressants (example: SSRIs, SNRIs). Some symptoms will go away ...
• Enjoying the Winter Holiday Season
  No matter what your faith or cultural background, as the holiday season approaches, you may notice, as many people do, that instead of feeling a sense of warm anticipation, you feel a sense of dread. ...
• Seasonal Affective Disorder
  Seasonal Affective Disorder (SAD) is a type of depression that typically occurs in the fall and winter, when days are shorter and provide less sunlight. Depressive symptoms begin in the fall or winter and persist ...
• The Puzzling Gender Gap in Depression
  Betty can't get to sleep; Tashita can't wake up. Nothing interests Mei Wu; Carmen cries when she's home alone; and Lucy is convinced her life's not worth living. They're among the millions of women worldwide ...
• Hospice: An Option for End-of-Life Care
  Chemotherapy and radiation had proven unsuccessful, and Jane's ovarian cancer was in its final stages. She knew she was going to die, but didn't want to die in the hospital. Her two young children ...
• Facts about Depression
  Depression represents a combination of a negative mood state and physical changes that persist every day for at least two weeks. Depressive symptoms usually develop over several weeks, although some sufferers may experience milder symptoms of ...
• Dysthymia: Chronic Depression
  Dysthymia (or dysthymic disorder) is considered a less severe but longer-lasting form of depression. Dysthymia usually begins at an earlier age than major depression with a more persistent impairment of daily function. This diagnosis is ...
• Compulsive Hair Pulling: Understanding and Treating Trichotillomania
  Barry can feel the tension building, sometimes for hours, before he yields to his impulse. Although he knows he's affecting his dark good looks, the anxious feeling doesn't fade until he's yanked out another fistful ...
• Understanding Anxiety Disorders, Part 2
  Anxiety disorders come in many varieties. Descriptions of some of the most common disorders follow: Generalized Anxiety Disorder: GAD is characterized by persistent anxiety unrelated to a specific event. People suffering from GAD cannot help worrying ...
• Understanding Anxiety Disorders: Part One
  Anxiety is a normal feeling of uneasiness, concern and apprehension that, when carried to an extreme, can become worry or outright terror. Some amount of anxiety and worrying is a normal and necessary part of life. ...
• Helping Children Who Fear School
  A kid can be just as phobic about school, or math class, or writing a sentence as another child might be about dogs. What can be done to help children who fear an aspect ...
• Tips for Building Self-Esteem
  In my work, I sometimes feel that there is an epidemic of low self-esteem. Even people who seem to be very sure of themselves will admit to having low self-esteem, a feeling that often makes ...
• A Shakespearean Tragedy in Houston
  A Tragic Tale of Self Betrayal Polonius, a character in Shakespeare's "Hamlet," once remarked, "To thine own self be true." Four hundred years later, a tragic story unfolded on the world scene, with Ken Lay in ...
• Treatment of Panic Disorder
  Treatment can bring significant relief to 70 percent to 90 percent of people with panic disorder, and early treatment can help keep the disease from progressing to the later stages where agoraphobia develops. Before undergoing any ...