Depression: Escape Your Mental Prison
February 20, 2010
There is an illness all around me in modern society that seems to be spreading like the Black Plague once did in Europe so long ago. It’s called depression, have you heard of it? Has it affected you? The more I look, the more I see it in so many people in my life, including myself. Depression sucks. It’s a real drag, and I mean real drag. It is different from the feelings of unhappiness that all humans have to deal with in their lives. It is being in a solitary prison where you are the only one who can see the walls; you are the jailor, the guard, and the prisoner all rolled into one. Sounds like fun huh? Well, we better become more aware of it because there are certain aspects of contemporary life that are causing more and more souls to lock themselves up, some believing that they have no hope of ever finding the key out.
Do You Think You Have Depression?
January 14, 2010
Do you have days where nothing can make you happy? You are not alone. I ignored my depressive thoughts about life for years. Unfortunately I didn’t do anything to fix my situation until they became so dehabilitating that I had no choice.
Mental disorders are common in the United States and internationally. In a given year, an estimated 22.1% of Americans aged 18 and older (about 1 in 5 adults) suffer from a diagnosable mental disorder. According to the 1998 United States Census population estimate, this figure translates to 44.3 million people! In addition, 4 of the 10 leading causes of disability in the U.S. and other developed countries are mental disorders, with major depression being the leading cause of disability.
It is estimated that depression alone will occur in approximately 18.8 million American adults, or about 9.5% of the United States population aged 18 or above. If you are a woman, you are twice as likely than a man (12% vs. 6.6%) to be affected by depression each year.
Aromatherapy and Depression
December 5, 2009
When artiste Leslie Cheung committed suicide, he left behind a trail of speculations amidst sighs of regret. News of his "depression" arose. The realisation that even a superstar could be plagued by such problems abruptly heightened the "suffering index" of ordinary folks. Incessant natural disasters, bleak economic outlook, fear of unemployment, adolescent worries about schoolwork?these pressures from life make "depression" one of the most serious civilised diseases of this century.
"Insomnia" is also a common problem faced by people living in modern society. According to a survey conducted by the American National Sleep Foundation, three in every four women aged between 30 to 60 years are suffering from "insomnia". "Insomnia" has already become an epidemic disease for females. The Shanghai Chinese Medical Hospital has been conducting surveys on epidemic diseases since 1996 and results indicate that 15% of Shanghai residents have serious insomnia symptoms.
These figures are concrete proof that there is a huge market demand for products that relieve stress and insomnia. The beneficial effects of aromatherapy in soothing emotions and enhancing sleep quality have long been deep-rooted in the minds of ordinary folks and have been proven in numerous clinical literatures. These constitute an important reason for the active development of "psycho aromatherapy" products, as undertaken by Yangsen Biotechnology Institute in close collaboration with Bel’Air.
FDA Deems Vagus Nerve Therapy Approvable as a Treatment for Depression
October 28, 2009
On February 3, 2005 the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) notified the manufacturer of the vagus nerve stimulator (Cyberonics, Inc.) that it had deemed its VNS Therapy System approvable as a long-term adjunctive treatment for patients over the age of 18 with chronic or recurrent treatment-resistant depression in a major depressive episode that has not responded to at least four adequate antidepressant treatments. In the approvable letter received today by Cyberonics, FDA indicated that final approval was conditional on final labeling, final protocols for a post-approval dosing optimization study and patient registry.
This is an extraordinary announcement and major step for the four million Americans suffering from chronic or treatment-resistant depression towards providing an FDA-approved, informatively labeled, long-term treatment option specifically for their lifelong and life-threatening illness.
The FDA is reviewing the final labeling, which includes the Physician’s and Patient’s Manuals, and expects to complete that review in a timely manner. When all of the FDA’s conditions have been satisfied, the Company plans a formal launch in conjunction with the American Psychiatric Association Annual Meeting in May.
You need to be your own best advocate and educate yourself about how this remarkable FDA approved therapy can change your life. Learn more at www.VagusNerveStimulator.com
Depression: What It Is and What You Can Do About It
September 18, 2009
There are three basic ways to treat depression: psychotherapy, self-help, and medication. Many people respond best to a combination of two or more methods.
Psychotherapy: Exploring one’s beliefs and ways of thinking, and learning new ways of thinking and behaving, with the guidance of a professional. Self-help: Exploring one’s beliefs and ways of thinking on one’s own. Medication: Altering one’s brain chemistry by taking antidepressant medication.
A physician may recommend medication when four conditions exist:
The patient’s depression is severe.
The patient has suffered at least two previous depressive episodes.
There is a family history of depression.
The patient asks for medication only and refuses psychotherapy.
There are four types of antidepressant medication available today:
? Tricyclic antidepressants (TCAs)
? Monoamine oxidase inhibitors (MAOIs)
? Selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors (SSRIs)
? Structurally unrelated compounds
The TCAs and MAOIs have been used for decades. The SSRIs (such as Prozac) and structurally unrelated compounds are newer and are being prescribed more and more frequently. They have fewer and less pronounced side effects than the TCAs and MAOIs.
Treatment without Medicine
10 Simple Coping Strategies When a Family Member Has Clinical Depression
August 12, 2009
1.Remember that it is an illness:
Clinical depression often requires medical supervision as well as professional treatment. Clinical depression is treatable and requires commitment, understanding and patience from all those involved.
2.It is not your fault:
Clinical depression is usually a combination of chemical imbalance and learned behaviors. There may be times when the depressed individual is extremely sensitive, argumentative and/or blaming towards you, the children, the in-laws, the boss and even the world. All the above mentioned are not the cause. What you are responsible for is how you choose to take on the outward symptoms and how they affect you, your home and your relationships.
3.Be well informed:
Educate yourself on what type of depression is present and if there is a dual diagnosis IE: chemical dependency and depression or personality disorders and depression. Know what the symptoms, treatments and follow-ups are. There are suggested guidelines for communication and setting boundaries. Though the illness is not your fault; it benefits you and your family to remain open minded and willing to learn new ways of doing things.
4.Make sure to have a support network:
Depression and Procrastination: Twins in the Job Search
July 4, 2009
My definition of procrastination is that a person delays and delays actions that are required by a job or actions necessary to accomplish something in everyday life.
Depression is a mental state that “almost freezes” a person into no action at all.
While procrastination can be over- come by a change of behavior and attitude, depression has its core issues of lassitude, feelings of hopelessness, anger and of giving up.
What do the two have in common? I think that procrastination is often a temporary trait, but depression is something that will takes lots of time and energy to overcome. Both lead to a lack of action.
It is action, however, that has to take place for a job seeker to have success. Personal procras- tination takes time to overcome. Overcoming depression, if it is long- term, may take the intervention of either a professional or drug therapy.
Both mental places have the effect of “dampening down” the actions of the job seeker. Elimination of both of these negative states of mind, has to take place for a job seeker to be minimally effective.
I think it is the “keep moving” philosophy that works!
What?s The Latest on Suicide Risk and Antidepressants For Children?
May 25, 2009
FDA confirms some antidepressants increase suicide risk in some children. In February of 2004, two advisory committees of the U.S. Food and Drug Administration recommended that the FDA warn practitioners about the possible risk of suicide potential associated with antidepressant treatment in children. The information was obtained from clinical trials of medications with children, expert witnesses on suicide research, testimony from families of suicide victims, as well as from those whose children had benefited from antidepressant medication.
At a second meeting last year, improvement on antidepressant study designs and monitoring for suicide risk was discussed. Now, federal officials are preparing stronger warnings giving some antidepressants to children after new analyses back a suspected link to suicidal thoughts and behavior. FDA and Columbia University psychiatric specialists have re-evaluated 25 studies involving more than 4,000 young people and eight antidepressants. When all the results were lumped together, young antidepressant users were about 1.8% times more likely to have suicidal thoughts or behaviors than patients given dummy pills. Risk varied widely from drug to drug and among studies of the same drug, but studies of Effexor showed particular risk.
Recognizing Depression?s Warning Signs
April 19, 2009
Depression is a serious illness, not a harmless part of life. It is a complex disorder with a variety of causes. It is never caused by just one thing. It may be the result of a mix of factors, including genetic, chemical, physical, and sociological. It is also influenced by behavior patterns learned in the family and by cognitive distortions.
Depression affects millions of people in this country. It is always troubling, and for some people it can be disabling. Depression is more than just sadness or "the blues." It can have an impact on nearly every aspect of a person’s life. People who suffer from depression may experience despair and worthlessness, and this can have an enormous impact on both personal and professional relationships. In this newsletter, I will describe many of the factors that may cause depression, and I will explore strategies for preventing it.
Depression Is Pervasive
When a person suffers from depression, it can affect every part of his or her life, including one’s physical body, one’s behavior, thought processes, mood, ability to relate to others, and general lifestyle.
Symptoms of Depression
People who are diagnosed with clinical depression have a combination of symptoms from the following list:
Depression: Bringing Yourself Down
March 11, 2009
Sometimes it’s hard to see the forest from the trees. Sometimes its hard to see how much you can bring your self down. Recently, my life has been turned upside down. I lost someone close to me and the world became a dark place.
Repression is a common reaction to traumatic events. People repress all sorts of things, violence, trauma and loss. To repress is to be able to move on ? quickly. The side effects are often just as bad; repression invites long term suffering and inner turmoil. Typically, the common solution to repression is to be open to dealing with the emotions as they come. By deal with your emotions as they evolve, you have no need to repress. Its seems like a simple solution ? until you have to go through it.
Problems arise when you allow yourself to immerse yourself in the emotions. This is what happened to me. In order to work my way toward healing I opened myself up for the emotional ride. I decided that the long term benefit of not repressing far out weighed the social concerns of functioning ‘normally.’ I let my self go. Exploring painful emotional memories really can bring you down. The problem was that I had no means to pull my self back up. Gradually, I just began to stay lower and lower. My frame of reference of what normal emotional levels were.
