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How to Recognize Depression

In the briefest possible terms, here are the warning signs, or symptoms, of depression. If you, or someone you know, exhibits 5 or more of these signs, for more than 2 weeks, then you, or he or she, needs to get help.

• Persistent sad, anxious, numb, or "empty" mood
• Feelings of worthlessness, helplessness, guilt
• Feelings of hopelessness, pessimism
• Loss of interest or pleasure in hobbies and activities that you once enjoyed
• Insomnia, early-morning awakening, or oversleeping
• Decreased energy, fatigue, being "slowed down" or feeling sluggish
• Increased appetite with weight gain, or decreased appetite with weight loss
• Thoughts of self-injury, or attempting to injure yourself
• Thoughts of death or suicide, suicide attempts
• Restlessness, irritability, nervousness
• Difficulty concentrating, remembering things, or making decisions
• Persistent physical symptoms that do not respond to treatment, such as headaches, backaches, etc.

Visit Living With Depression to continue reading.

Online Conference Transcript

Eating Disorders Recovery Strategy Chat Transcript

Have you tried recovering from Bulimia, but having great difficulty? Or maybe you just gave up completely? Or you're wondering what does it take to be successful in your recovery efforts?

When it comes to treating bulimia, there is no such thing as "it doesn't work." Yet psychotherapist and site owner of Beat Bulimia, Judith Asner, says she gets emails like that all the time from people who seem to have given up. Ms. Asner says you keep seeking, practicing, revising your plan until it works, changing this and that piece till the pieces fit.

Read the transcript from Saturday's chat with Judith Asner, MSW.

News

Caring for a Loved One After a Debilitating Stroke

Stroke is one of the most feared consequences of the aging process. In the United States alone, roughly 730,000 people suffer from strokes each year. Of those, approximately 150,000 die at the time of their stroke or during the subsequent hospitalization, making stroke the third leading cause of death behind heart disease and cancer. Three-quarters of those who suffer from strokes do survive, however. For many older men and women, the fear of suffering with permanent disability after a stroke is as profound as the fear of stroke itself.

A stroke occurs when a part of the brain is deprived of blood, a result of either a ruptured blood vessel or, more commonly, a blockage in a vessel caused by a blood clot. Cut off from its blood supply, that part of the brain is damaged or dies. Strokes can be large or small, and any part of the brain may be affected. When a portion of the brain is damaged as the consequence of a stroke, the mental or physical functions controlled by that particular area may be lost.

Continue reading.

Early Abuse, Later Depression

Study strengthens link between childhood violence and adult-onset depression

Women who were abused as children are more than twice as likely to get depressed as adults than women who reported no abuse, a new study shows.

Seeing or experiencing violence as a child may cause some kind of brain insult, which changes the brain's chemistry, the researchers suggest.

"We've seen numerous studies in that past that have shown a relationship between childhood violence, both sexual and physical, and adult depression in women," says study author Lauren Wise, who is studying for her doctoral degree at the Harvard School of Public Health.

"We also know there's a higher prevalence of depression in women than in men. But all the prior studies had used predominately clinical samples and were much smaller in size. We wanted to explore violence during childhood as a possible explanation for the increased risk of depression in women," she adds.

According to the National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH), depression strikes women twice as often as it does men, regardless of race or social status. Although no one knows exactly why that is, researchers have focused on explanations involving reproductive, hormonal, genetic or other biological factors, as well as abuse or oppression, relationship issues and certain psychological and personality characteristics.

Continue reading

Radio Show Archives

Men and Depression

For years, depression was seen as a woman's issue. In fact, men aren't less likely than women to become depressed; they're just less likely to recognize and seek help for depression, and they have different ways of dealing with it? Darryl and other callers talk about their personal experiences with depression, why men have trouble recognizing and admitting they have depression, and the impact it has on their families. Pyschiatrist Gary Wilson joins us to discuss "acceptance," along with symptoms and treatments for depression.

Listen to the archives to this radio program when you click here.

If you have listened to our radio show, please answer this short survey. We'd love to hear from you!

the wall A place for your thoughts, and comments.

Change should be a friend. It should happen by plan, not by accident.

--Philip Crosby, Reflections on Quality

"Controlling People"
on HealthyPlace.com Radio

Does this sound like someone you know?

• Always needs to be right

• Tells you who you are and what you think

• Implies that you're wrong or inadequate when you don't agree

• Is threatened by people different from him or herself

• Feels attacked when questioned

• Doesn't seem to really hear or see you

This Saturday, find out what it takes to free yourself from controlling types; the kinds of people who inflict verbal abuse, battering, stalking, harassment, hate crimes, gang violence, tyranny, terrorism, and territorial invasion. And you can call in and ask our psychiatrist what to do about your personal situation.

Join us this Saturday evening at 4 p.m. PST, 6 CST, 7 EST as we discuss this problem. You can call in and share your stories and ask our psychiatrist your personal questions.

Call us during the live show at
800-299-5872 or 210-599-5555.
 

For more information,
click now

We had a great show last week on "The Life of One Gay Teen". You can listen to it when you visit our archives.

Stay Tuned!

Sign up for the HealthyPlace.com Radio Show newsletter when you click here.

From Our Bulletin Boards

Fed Up

Aleks wrote:

Fed up. Confused.

I'm experiencing a torrent of mixed emotion right now. Adding to that i'm so tense, anxious and scared. My moods are shifting constantly, i feel as though i have no control over my emotions, they are controlling me. I am in control of my mind, my logic my rationality but my emotions are running wild and dragging me behind them.

This is tearing me up, and messing with my life not to mention my head.

I'm seriously behind on my work. i'm consumed with apathy, lethargy, depression, yet at the same time anxiety, fear, rushing thoughts...i'm so tired.

My life has become sand slipping through my fingers.

I'm dissociating again. Nothing seems real, this reality is strange, like a dream, a bad dream. I feel invisible.

My pain is real. i have this ache inside my chest. i feel so empty. so dead. I felt so different the other week.

I don't know what is wrong with me anymore. My doctor and therapist openly admit they are confused.

Hopeless. Tired.

Please write to me here.
 

click here now
 

Jacqui's Journal

It's Happened Again

I don't know why I bothered wasting my energy. Am I really asking for that much?

My keyworker comes round. The gist of the conversation was that he saw it, that his job was, (as I said I didn't want anyone psychoanalyzing me) to counsel me to find out what things led me to being ill so that I could avoid them. He likened it to having a bad stomach and avoiding curry.

That sounds fine except that in the last ten years or however long it has been, the only factor that has ever come up has been the spring/Autumn factor, as I said previously and everyone that I have seen has been unable to find anything to put it down to or any thing, stress or event to trigger an episode off.

As I said before I get very annoyed with all this looking for reasons that don't exist. When I said that I did not want this as there was no point, it seemed to be, you work my way or not at all. It felt that it was me that has to fit into his model and not the other way round.

As for the other things I said about, well to him that was all a part of that work. But he never asked how I was coping with things or if I was fed up, afraid, unhappy, sad, lonely, frustrated, angry or anything. There seemed to be no care about me as an individual, just someone to fit into his theories. Just a simple, it's ok I understand, I'll be here for you, you don't have to do this on your own, I'll support you and Mick through all this and I would have felt so much better.

Continue reading my journal, and your thoughts, experiences and comments relating to my journal can be posted on my bulletin board.

Powerful Documentary Films at HealthyPlace.com

Watch four of the most powerful mental health videos you have ever seen. These are stories about sexual molestation, rape, eating disorders and teens trapped in abusive relationships.

What makes these mental health films different and so moving is that they describe the impact of physical and sexual violence and misperceptions on their victims. And for the most part, these stories are told in the victim's or sufferer's own words.

You can watch them using your windows media player. We've also set up special bulletin boards for your feedback.