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Are antidepressants just a crutch?Email this article to a colleague. Save this article to My Clippings. Discuss or comment on this article.
Recently I evaluated a new patient, a young woman who wondered whether medication might ease her depression. She was in therapy elsewhere, and although seeing me was her idea, she was apprehensive about adding an antidepressant. I did end up recommending one, at which point she asked: "Aren't antidepressants just a crutch?"<!--break-->I relish this question. It is asked in anxiety, hesitation, and doubt, yet carries within it its own hopeful answer."Why yes," I answered with a smile. "Antidepressants are exactly that, just a crutch." I pointed out that antidepressants, and all psychiatric medications, are symptomatic...
Source: Psychology Today Depression Center - November 14, 2009 Category: Psychiatry & Psychology Authors: Steven Reidbord, MD Tags: Depression Psychiatry antidepressant antidepressants bad genes crutch crutches definitive treatment depressive symptoms exact nature family dynamics foot infection fractured leg genetic vulnerabilities hesitation leg bone m Source Type: consumer

How Mindfulness Can Help in a CrisisEmail this article to a colleague. Save this article to My Clippings. Discuss or comment on this article.
In a crisis, we’re likely to resist change and give in to fear of the unknown. Yet the ancient Buddhist practice of mindfulness, remaining fully aware of what you are experiencing in the present moment, is the key to bringing yourself out of suffering and back into happiness. Mindfulness is a process of linking awareness with attention in order to develop, expand, and enhance both. It results in more focused and heightened concentration: You observe your thoughts and feelings rather than become immersed in them. You become aware that you have two selves, the self that’s having the experience and the self that is witnes...
Source: Psychology Today Depression Center - November 13, 2009 Category: Psychiatry & Psychology Authors: Ronald Alexander, Ph.D. Tags: Depression Self-Help Stress anixety Buddhism buddhist practice circumstances concentration consciousness courage happiness meditation memories mindfulness mindfulness meditation nbsp painful emotions peacefulness physic Source Type: consumer

Online psychotherapy is effectiveEmail this article to a colleague. Save this article to My Clippings. Discuss or comment on this article.
There has been a growing interest in Online Therapy using email, correspondence and live video conferencing using Skype or similar free services. The convenience of this approach for the client is very apparent: The client can take control of the process, paying only for the time that he or she wants to pay for. The client can have his session at a time that is convenient to him, and can take the time to compose his email questions and feedback at his leisure, instead of feeling pressured to perform during a traditional session. Of course, not having to take time off work to drive to a therapist's office is always a plus. ...
Source: Psychology Today Depression Center - November 12, 2009 Category: Psychiatry & Psychology Authors: Peter Strong, Ph.D. Tags: Anxiety Depression Self-Help bold step CBT cognitive behavioral therapy convenience correspondence counseling depression treatment email emotions face to face grief bereavement instant messaging lancet mindfulness meditatio Source Type: consumer

Why Do We Dream? Five Modern Theories.Email this article to a colleague. Save this article to My Clippings. Discuss or comment on this article.
Freud said that whether we intend it or not, we're all poets. That's because on most nights, we dream. And dreams are lot like poetry, in that in both things, we express our internal life in similar ways. We use images more than words; we combine incongruent elements to evoke emotion in a more efficient way than wordier descriptions can; and we use unconscious and tangential associations rather than logic to tell a story.Freud essentially called dreams those poems we tell ourselves at night in order to experience our unconscious wishes as real. Dreams allow us to be what we cannot be, and to say what we do not say, in our ...
Source: Psychology Today Depression Center - November 12, 2009 Category: Psychiatry & Psychology Authors: Ilana Simons, Ph.D. Tags: Animal Behavior Anxiety Behavioral Economics Cognition Creativity Depression Evolutionary Psychology Happiness Health Integrative Medicine Memory Neuroscience Philosophy Psychiatry Sleep Social Life Work accurate account Source Type: consumer

The tragic consequences of depression stigmaEmail this article to a colleague. Save this article to My Clippings. Discuss or comment on this article.
Yesterday, Robert Enke, 32, and a goalkeeper on Germany's national soccer team, committed suicide by stepping in front of a train in Hanover, Germany. Read these links for more on this terribly tragic story. There will be many analyses trying to explain why someone who had so many gifts could be brought to such a violent and self-destructive end. While I have little insight into the why, it is clear that this story is a profound demonstration that depression stigma can have devastating consequences. Enke suffered from serious depression. For many years. Privately. I find it heartbreaking that Enke ...
Source: Psychology Today Depression Center - November 11, 2009 Category: Psychiatry & Psychology Authors: Jonathan Rottenberg, Ph.D. Tags: Depression consequences goalkeeper hanover germany hid illustration insight national soccer team nbsp psychiatric problems reminder robert enke stigma struggle suicide note teammates tragic outcome tragic story train Source Type: consumer

Hope, Rage and Fort HoodEmail this article to a colleague. Save this article to My Clippings. Discuss or comment on this article.
Greetings Welcome to my blog. My name is Tony Scioli (pronounced "showli"). I am a clinical psychologist and professor of psychology who has been studying hope for several decades. For the past 10 years I have been working on a new theory of hope. Along the way, I've written two books on the topic as well as conducting a number of related experiments and developing tests to measure hope and hopelessness. Starting today, I will be blogging on hope for Psychology Today (Hence the title for this post, "Hope for Today"). In this first post, my intention was to devote most of this blog to giving you a sense of my general perspe...
Source: Psychology Today Depression Center - November 10, 2009 Category: Psychiatry & Psychology Authors: Anthony Scioli, Ph.D. Tags: Depression Media Politics Psychiatry 20th century catchphrases clinical psychologist construction view emotion emotions feeling tone Fort Hood hopelessness human beings introductory remarks living in the moment Psychology T Source Type: consumer

Holidays Beckon: What's An Overshopper To Do?Email this article to a colleague. Save this article to My Clippings. Discuss or comment on this article.
Consciousness is the watchword for problem shoppers, particularly as the holiday season approaches, and most particularly amidst all the over-optimistic talk of economic recovery. Consciousness means not allowing yourself to shop as a way of trying to satisfy emotional needs. It means becoming aware of what triggers your shopping urges and genuinely acknowledging their consequences: financial, familial, at work, and with friends. And it means distinguishing your wants from your needs, as well as recognizing that many of those wants have been foisted on you by a massive and highly sophisticated marketing machine, rarely wit...
Source: Psychology Today Depression Center - November 10, 2009 Category: Psychiatry & Psychology Authors: April Lane Benson, Ph.D. Tags: Addiction Anxiety Depression Happiness Psychiatry Relationships Self-Help Spirituality Stress Therapy clothes compulsive buying compulsive buying disorder compulsive spending consciousness consequences economic recovery f Source Type: consumer

What's An Overshopper To Do?Email this article to a colleague. Save this article to My Clippings. Discuss or comment on this article.
Consciousness is the watchword for problem shoppers, particularly as the holiday season approaches, and most particularly amidst all the over-optimistic talk of economic recovery. Consciousness means not allowing yourself to shop as a way of trying to satisfy emotional needs. It means becoming aware of what triggers your shopping urges and genuinely acknowledging their consequences: financial, familial, at work, and with friends. And it means distinguishing your wants from your needs, as well as recognizing that many of those wants have been foisted on you by a massive and highly sophisticated marketing machine, rarely wit...
Source: Psychology Today Depression Center - November 10, 2009 Category: Psychiatry & Psychology Authors: April Lane Benson, Ph.D. Tags: Addiction Anxiety Depression Happiness Psychiatry Relationships Self-Help Spirituality Stress Therapy clothes compulsive buying compulsive buying disorder compulsive spending consciousness consequences economic recovery f Source Type: consumer

What Does it Mean to Say "We'll Adapt" to Big Cities and to Little Nature?Email this article to a colleague. Save this article to My Clippings. Discuss or comment on this article.
A reader posted the following response to an earlier discussion of mine [click here]. He said, "We can't turn back time, we need to adapt." But adaptation is many things. Sometimes when we adapt it's good for us - biologically and psychologically. And sometimes it's bad for us. I'd like to discuss different types of adaptation. This discussion forms part of the argument for smaller cities, fewer people, and bigger nature.One of the most common ways of understanding adaptation is in terms of genetic change through the process of natural selection. The basic idea here is that genes that lead to behaviors that enhance surviva...
Source: Psychology Today Depression Center - November 8, 2009 Category: Psychiatry & Psychology Authors: Peter H. Kahn, Jr., Ph.D. Tags: Addiction Child Development Cognition Depression Evolutionary Psychology Health Social Life Stress adaptation assimilation and accommodation degrees fahrenheit dictionary equilibration fever genes genetic change habit her Source Type: consumer

Self-confidence: Less self-generated than you notice until you're unemployedEmail this article to a colleague. Save this article to My Clippings. Discuss or comment on this article.
Unemployment has reached its highest level in 26 years.  If you're un-, or under-employed this one's for you.  It's for you too if your children recently moved out,  if you just quit a club or ended a friendship or partnership. Really, its for anyone whose life somehow became less populated recently.Until a few months ago I taught thirty hours a week.  That meant I had a lot of eyes on me, eyes expecting me to be and do certain things. It was easy to play teacher.  I'd wake up around 7:00am maybe slightly disoriented. Coffee would open my eyes and then students would fill them with faces looking ba...
Source: Psychology Today Depression Center - November 8, 2009 Category: Psychiatry & Psychology Authors: Jeremy Sherman, Ph.D. Tags: Behavioral Economics Depression Happiness Resilience Social Life Work bikeride coffee confidence faces friendship grief habit Impostor syndrome Job nbsp partnership reciprocation sadness self confidence self-confide Source Type: consumer

It's Time to Be SADEmail this article to a colleague. Save this article to My Clippings. Discuss or comment on this article.
There's no mistaking that our lovely planet has now wobbled its seasonal wobble and tilted those of us in the northern hemisphere away from the sun until the winter solstice passes, and we wobble back again.All that to say, it is DANG DARK OUTSIDE!For most people, the shortening of days is an annoying but normal part of winter, and they light a little candle and just deal. But for some of us, the lack of light leads to decreased serotonin production, a slowing of bodily functions and a steady descent into a state of depression. This condition is called Seasonal Affective Disorder, bittersweetly acronymed SAD.The Psychology...
Source: Psychology Today Depression Center - November 5, 2009 Category: Psychiatry & Psychology Authors: Jenny Lind Schmitt Tags: Depression bodily functions druid early winter eyeballs fifteen minutes gloom lovely planet northern hemisphere prevention Psychology Today sad scarce commodity seasonal affective disorder shortening solar batteries solstic Source Type: consumer

What rates in different nations might tell us about suicideEmail this article to a colleague. Save this article to My Clippings. Discuss or comment on this article.
Discussions I've been involved in recently have made it clear how important it is to be specific about risk and protective factors. For example, religious community involvement is considered a protective factor. But, what is it about being involved in a religious community that is protective? Are there instances where being involved in a religious community is not protective? From a public health perspective, figuring out what risk factors are modifiable and which protective factors should be promoted is done on a large scale. Rather than considering what, in each individual, adds to risk or protection, public health looks...
Source: Psychology Today Depression Center - November 4, 2009 Category: Psychiatry & Psychology Authors: Elana Premack Sandler, L.C.S.W., M.P.H. Tags: Depression big picture community involvement direct sources environments firearms former soviet union homicide homicide rate homicide rates instances large scale New York Times Outliers public health perspective religious com Source Type: consumer

A Fundamental Secret to Happiness? Get Enough Sleep.Email this article to a colleague. Save this article to My Clippings. Discuss or comment on this article.
I’m working on my Happiness Project, and you could have one, too! Everyone’s project will look different, but it’s the rare person who can’t benefit. Join in -- no need to catch up, just jump in right now. I’ve written before about my resolution to Get more sleep, and I’m bringing it up again, because I’m truly convinced that this is one of the first aspects of life to tackle when you start a happiness project. It’s easy to become accustomed to being sleep-deprived, but it’s not good for you. Many researchers argue that not getting enough sleep has broad health consequences, such as raising your risk for ...
Source: Psychology Today Depression Center - November 4, 2009 Category: Psychiatry & Psychology Authors: Gretchen Rubin Tags: Depression Happiness Health Resilience Self-Help Sleep aspects of life bad mood diabetes disease diabetes exercise program exhaustion extra hour hard time health consequences heart disease Obesity patie profound effect Source Type: consumer

Women and DepressionEmail this article to a colleague. Save this article to My Clippings. Discuss or comment on this article.
In her September 19th column, "Blue Is the New Black," Washington Post columnist Maureen Dowd related the fact that, according to the General Social Survey, which tracks the general mood of Americans, and five other major studies around the world, women are getting gloomier while men are becoming cheerier.Doesn't seem fair, does it? Not only do women have to deal with the "glass ceiling," lower earning power and all the rest, but now there's a rose-colored ceiling as well. The column goes on to deconstruct the possible reasons for women's increasing unhappiness, arriving at the general consensus that because women have so ...
Source: Psychology Today Depression Center - November 3, 2009 Category: Psychiatry & Psychology Authors: Eva Ritvo, M.D. Tags: Depression Gender Happiness Health Psychiatry Self-Help Source Type: consumer

Practical Mindfulness: The New Witness Protection ProgramEmail this article to a colleague. Save this article to My Clippings. Discuss or comment on this article.
For about 3 hours now, I've been sitting cross legged on my green comforter, staring at the TV. Someone, a woman, with too much lipstick and over-plucked, penciled-in eyebrows squeaks and hiccups about the ‘greatest' buy shoppers could ever hope for. Something about this season's must-have girdle that sweats away fat. Oh gawd. I am watching... The Shopping Channel. Then I notice that familiar feeling that's been sinking into my chest, dawning into my arms, and trailing into my legs. What I fear and respect most shows its edges: Depression. But I've learned that doesn't mean I will spiral out of control, descend under its...
Source: Psychology Today Depression Center - November 2, 2009 Category: Psychiatry & Psychology Authors: Victoria Maxwell Tags: Depression Happiness Psychiatry Self-Help Stress comforter compassion demons depressive episodes eyebrows familiar feeling friendliness girdle healing hiccups insight jon kabat zinn lipstick meditation mental health Source Type: consumer

Four Exercises for Social/Emotional EducationEmail this article to a colleague. Save this article to My Clippings. Discuss or comment on this article.
For many years the classes I have taught at a large university all involved social/emotional education (SE). They worked best with a discussion format, rather than lectures, in seminars of about 20 students. Until recently the topic of these courses has been Communicating, role-playing difficult conversations that the students report. My present courses concern The World of Pop Songs. In this course we examine the emotional/relational elements in pop lyrics and in the students own lives. The biggest problem in all of the SE classes has been getting men enrolled and keeping them involved in the class once enrolled. I have n...
Source: Psychology Today Depression Center - November 2, 2009 Category: Psychiatry & Psychology Authors: Thomas Scheff, Ph.D. Tags: Anxiety Depression Gender Happiness Health Memory Personality Psychiatry Relationships Self-Help Social Life Stress Therapy boy scouts briefly catharsis contentment difficult conversations education emotional educatio Source Type: consumer

Art Therapy Meets Digital Art and Social MultimediaEmail this article to a colleague. Save this article to My Clippings. Discuss or comment on this article.
Traditional materials of 20th century visual arts--drawing, painting, sculpture, and collage or mixed media--have defined the field of art therapy for the past 50 years. In fact, most educational programs that offer art therapy coursework or related degrees require applicants to demonstrate proficiency in drawing, painting, and sculpture as part of prerequisites. But as digital technology has become more accessible and straight-forward, practitioners of art therapy are gradually including digital media as a method and means for client self-expression. Well, maybe...A decade before the explosion of social multimedia [YouTub...
Source: Psychology Today Depression Center - November 2, 2009 Category: Psychiatry & Psychology Authors: Cathy Malchiodi Tags: Creativity Depression Health Media Psych Careers Self-Help Therapy Animoto art therapist art therapy autism autism spectrum disorder computer computer art therapy digital digital media drawing enhancing creativity flick Source Type: consumer

Broken Symmetry: Nobel physicist explains why you miss old places, friendsEmail this article to a colleague. Save this article to My Clippings. Discuss or comment on this article.
The bittersweet sad intense pain of missing a place, a person, a crew, a time. What's with that? How does that happen? Here's a take on it you probably haven't heard before. I'll start way back with the big bang.  If everything was all concentrated and homogeneous at the origin, how did our universe ever get so lumpy, with separate things like stars and planets, you and me? The 2008 Nobel Prize in physics was awarded to scientists who identified the source as broken symmetry. A first pass explanation of their idea is simple.  You know how you can easily balance a broomstick on the palm of your hand? If it's cent...
Source: Psychology Today Depression Center - November 1, 2009 Category: Psychiatry & Psychology Authors: Jeremy Sherman, Ph.D. Tags: Addiction Depression Social Life ambitions ambivalence avalanche big bang broken symmetry broomstick butterfly effect gravitational influence gravitational pull intense pain ladder leverage longing loss Memory meteorite Source Type: consumer

Mindfulness Psychotherapy for Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD). Boulder, ColoradoEmail this article to a colleague. Save this article to My Clippings. Discuss or comment on this article.
Post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) can be defined as recurrent episodes of anxiety and panic reactions triggered by memories of a past trauma. A trauma in this context is an experience that is overwhelming at both the sensory and emotional levels to such an extent that the mind cannot process and assimilate the experience. The trauma, which is the combination of both the intense sensory memory along with associated emotional energy, becomes repressed as an emotional complex, only to reoccur in the future when the appropriate sensory triggers are activated. The basic direction in psychotherapy is, therefore, to help the ...
Source: Psychology Today Depression Center - November 1, 2009 Category: Psychiatry & Psychology Authors: Peter Strong, Ph.D. Tags: Anxiety Depression Stress Therapy aversion boulder boulder colorado conscious relationship counseling deep structure denver emotional energy emotional levels emotional memory emotional reaction emotional trauma feeling tone Source Type: consumer

The continuing stigma of depressionEmail this article to a colleague. Save this article to My Clippings. Discuss or comment on this article.
Part of the mission of patient advocacy groups is to reduce the stigma associated with depression. This is noble and important work because historically people who have suffered from depression have tended to suffer in silence and/or not sought treatment because of the shame associated with admitting depression. In the US in the 19th and 20th centuries, virtually every form of mental illness was associated with a moral failing or sign of a weak character. Seemingly in tandem with the efforts of patient advocacy groups, pharmaceutical companies have expended enormous resources in advertising so that the public will com...
Source: Psychology Today Depression Center - November 1, 2009 Category: Psychiatry & Psychology Authors: Jonathan Rottenberg, Ph.D. Tags: Depression 19th and 20th centuries antidepressants britons disease model education approach enormous courage enormous resources human experience hunch internet search legions medical illness medications for depression mental di Source Type: consumer

Top Ten Bipolar Blogs 2009 from PsychCentralEmail this article to a colleague. Save this article to My Clippings. Discuss or comment on this article.
Holy! Holy! I am honored to be listed as an honorable mention for PsychCentral's annual top Bipolar Blogs of 2009. Sandra Kiume compiled a list of 10 stellar blogs. And what great blogs they are: witty, informative, controversial, personal, raw, intimate, funny, moving, incisive are just a few words I would use to describe the range and style of these Top Ten. So to be listed in the company of these well established, well written blogs, I am truly excited (not that bad, over the top, gonna run down the street naked kind of excited - but just your good ol' fashioned happy to be living kind of excited). It feels so good to b...
Source: Psychology Today Depression Center - October 29, 2009 Category: Psychiatry & Psychology Authors: Victoria Maxwell Tags: Creativity Depression bipolar bipolar disorder black woman blogs crazy mermaid few words furious seasons going through hell gus holy holy honorable mention manic depression Maxwell naked kind pax psychcentral real world Source Type: consumer

A Recovery for Americans’ Mental HealthEmail this article to a colleague. Save this article to My Clippings. Discuss or comment on this article.
As Congress and the administration consider a new stimulus, they need to repair the recession's damage to Americans' mental health. We are seeing what we've known for decades: job losses and economic uncertainty increase the rate of psychiatric symptoms, the rate for suicide and the demand for mental health services. Calls this year to suicide crisis lines have increased sharply, with a large percentage linked to economic distress. A just released national survey found that jobless Americans are four times more likely than those with jobs to report severe levels of psychiatric symptoms. They also are four times more likely...
Source: Psychology Today Depression Center - October 29, 2009 Category: Psychiatry & Psychology Authors: David Shern, Ph.D. Tags: Depression Health Politics Psychiatry Work behavioral health services chronic health conditions community mental health community mental health services crisis lines economic distress economic uncertainty health care system homic Source Type: consumer

In Celebration of InsanityEmail this article to a colleague. Save this article to My Clippings. Discuss or comment on this article.
  Jeanette Winterson writes in praise of the crackup. And I am reminded of a year-long project when it seemed imperative to celebrate the creativity born of madness. (Or the madness born of creativity?). Sometimes madness must be justified. Sometimes - because every effort to weed it out has failed and it remains rooted, in my case, in the deep, dark ringed eyes of my mother who stared at me mournfully across the breakfast table whilst she feebly pushed a slice of toast around her plate - it must be celebrated. For what else is there? It remained soggily in residence anyway, saturating her every sense and by cold, see...
Source: Psychology Today Depression Center - October 29, 2009 Category: Psychiatry & Psychology Authors: Anthea Rowan Tags: Depression ails bipolar breakfast table complacency counting your blessings creativity day in november guises indifference jeanette winterson little spark low ebb madness mental chaos mental illness proximity psychoses Source Type: consumer

Is Depression Contagious? How I Caught It, and Cured ItEmail this article to a colleague. Save this article to My Clippings. Discuss or comment on this article.
I took a copy of the October 2009 issue of Psychology Today with me on a recent much-needed vacation, and found myself fascinated by psychologist and fellow PT Blogger Michael Yapko 's article, "Secondhand Blues", about the contagious nature of depression. I dedicate a significant portion of my professional work (including my book, Live a Life You Love: 7 Steps to a Healthier, Happier, More Passionate You) to sharing my own story about depression, detailing how I went from being a suicidally depressed Emergency Medicine resident to deeply enjoying my new life as a wellness expert/speaker/life coach and professional fl...
Source: Psychology Today Depression Center - October 28, 2009 Category: Psychiatry & Psychology Authors: Susan Biali, M.D. Tags: Depression Happiness Psychiatry Resilience Self-Help antidepressants artistic talent authentic self contagious nature creative expression creativity and depression depression contagious depression cure depressive tendencies des Source Type: consumer

Behavioral health versus mental healthEmail this article to a colleague. Save this article to My Clippings. Discuss or comment on this article.
The terms "behavioral health" and "mental health" are often used interchangeably. But, do they really mean the same thing? I've made two short lists below as I've tried to work out what's good, and not so good, about the term "behavioral health," and am very curious to hear what you think.Three things I like about the term behavioral health:-It's a way of being inclusive. Behavioral health includes not only ways of promoting well-being by preventing or intervening in mental illness such as depression or anxiety, but also has as an aim preventing or intervening in substance abuse or other addictions.-Perhaps the term "behav...
Source: Psychology Today Depression Center - October 28, 2009 Category: Psychiatry & Psychology Authors: Elana Premack Sandler, L.C.S.W., M.P.H. Tags: Anxiety Depression Health addiction addictions Aim behavioral health colleague depression anxiety discrimination diseases doors external environmental factors health mental insurance insurance company mental health mental Source Type: consumer

Prevention Works, If Only We’d Let itEmail this article to a colleague. Save this article to My Clippings. Discuss or comment on this article.
This report spotlights the role of prevention in saving lives and improving the quality of peoples’ lives. Prevention strategies could improve the well-being of millions of children and adolescents and, in simple economic terms, save the U.S. an estimated $247 billion a year. The report draws heavily on psychological research and was sponsored by several major government research and treatment groups, including the National Institute of Mental Health and the National Institute on Drug Abuse. The report is called, Preventing Mental, Emotional, and Behavioral Disorders Among young People: Progress and Possibilities, publis...
Source: Psychology Today Depression Center - October 26, 2009 Category: Psychiatry & Psychology Authors: Michael D. Yapko, Ph.D. Tags: Depression bridge engineers condoms conflicts curious thing foresight forethought human misery human nature life skill line of thought many things mental health professionals piles realization seat belts sunscreen therape Source Type: consumer

Is Depression a Disease? -- Part IIIEmail this article to a colleague. Save this article to My Clippings. Discuss or comment on this article.
Mainstream approaches to depression view it as resulting from a disease or defect (the defect can be biological or psychological). In my last post, I debunked several of the main arguments that are advanced in favor of the disease model. In this post, (the last on this particular topic for a while) I consider some of the challenges of creating a better explanation of why people become depressed. Specifically, here are five key facts that an explanation of depression, must, somehow, explain. Again, these are facts that the disease model does not handle especially well, but I will not belabor that now. (1) Syndroma...
Source: Psychology Today Depression Center - October 26, 2009 Category: Psychiatry & Psychology Authors: Jonathan Rottenberg, Ph.D. Tags: Depression Psychiatry Source Type: consumer

How high self-esteem can get us downEmail this article to a colleague. Save this article to My Clippings. Discuss or comment on this article.
High self-esteem is a real feel-good. We admire others who possess it and strive for it ourselves. Innumerable self-help books and workshops have been devoted to helping people improve their self-esteem. But there is a dark side to it that people often fail to see. And this dark side can actually leave them feeling worse about themselves; and failing to make sought-after changes in their lives.Kristin Neff, a renowned researcher on compassion, expressed the downsides of pursuing high self-esteem in her piece Self-Compassion: Moving beyond the pitfalls of a separate self-concept (2008). I'll summarize some of what she wrote...
Source: Psychology Today Depression Center - October 26, 2009 Category: Psychiatry & Psychology Authors: Dr Leslie Becker-Phelps Tags: Depression Happiness Self-Help academics blog entry candy bar circles compassion definitions dieter dips failure high risk high self-esteem Kristin Neff no mercy pitfalls positive feelings renowned researcher self con Source Type: consumer

Relinquish Dignity LastEmail this article to a colleague. Save this article to My Clippings. Discuss or comment on this article.
     Fact: In the United States there are now thirty-five million people over the age of sixty-five, 13 percent of the population. Their numbers are increasing and, with the reluctant help of the baby boom generation, there will be seventy million elderly by 2030.      For obvious reasons, I've been paying more attention to the aging process lately. As a psychiatrist, I see a select sample of the elderly, but I also have the experience of friends and contemporaries to draw upon. It's not, in general, an attractive prospect.      One of the risks we run t...
Source: Psychology Today Depression Center - October 24, 2009 Category: Psychiatry & Psychology Authors: Gordon S. Livingston Tags: Aging Depression Happiness Morality Philosophy Resilience adult children attractive prospect baby boom generation complainers depredations deserved reputation family responsibilities food supplements futile attempts infirmity Source Type: consumer

Categories, essences, and behavior changeEmail this article to a colleague. Save this article to My Clippings. Discuss or comment on this article.
When we talk about things, we have to give them labels. Those labels end up having a big influence on the way that we think.. When we say that someone has depression, that seems to say more about them than just that they are sad, or have trouble sleeping, or has difficulty getting excited about positive events. The label suggests that there is something deep about that person that causes these symptoms. And in the case of depression, of course, it is true that having depression tends to cause all of these symptoms. <!--break-->Douglas Medin and Andrew Ortony wrote a chapter in the 1989 book Similarity and Analogical ...
Source: Psychology Today Depression Center - October 23, 2009 Category: Psychiatry & Psychology Authors: Art Markman, Ph.D. Tags: Cognition Depression Self-Help aggression andrew ortony behavior change carrot categorization consequence depression cause douglas medin eating carrots essentialism gail gelman habit change heyman psychological essentiali Source Type: consumer

When Everything Seems To Be Going WrongEmail this article to a colleague. Save this article to My Clippings. Discuss or comment on this article.
For me, this last week has been a little rough. I've been working as an attending physician on an inpatient service populated with incredibly sick patients, several of whom are intensely angry about their diseases and are projecting their anger toward me and the team of residents with whom I work. The medical informatics project on which I'm the physician sponsor has just gone live with its most ambitious and radical portion and many physicians are nervous and resistant and are acting out in negative ways. <!--break--> I'm struggling to find the time to practice Buddhism, to work on my book and this blog, fulfill my ...
Source: Psychology Today Depression Center - October 22, 2009 Category: Psychiatry & Psychology Authors: Alex Lickerman, M.D. Tags: Depression Happiness Resilience adequate sleep anger Buddhism buddhists cause of depression challenges circumstances control diseases encouragement inpatient service medical informatics project millionaires nichiren pain Source Type: consumer

America’s Big SecretEmail this article to a colleague. Save this article to My Clippings. Discuss or comment on this article.
What's your secret?That's the question Frank Warren is asking when he encourages people to contribute to PostSecret, an ongoing community art project in which, according to the blog for the project, people mail in their secrets anonymously on one side of a postcard.Last week, I went to hear him speak because I, like many, am fascinated by people's secrets and intrigued by the idea of people sharing them with the "world's most trusted man." I also knew that Warren is a staunch suicide prevention advocate.Warren's talk is about the kinds of secrets he gets to see and his responses to these secrets. He shows his audience secr...
Source: Psychology Today Depression Center - October 21, 2009 Category: Psychiatry & Psychology Authors: Elana Premack Sandler, L.C.S.W., M.P.H. Tags: Depression advocate artifact attendance audience awe blog chills community art project conclusion frank warren inclusion mail microphones postcard realities reflection suicidal thoughts suicide suicide attempt suici Source Type: consumer

Trauma and the benefits of writing about itEmail this article to a colleague. Save this article to My Clippings. Discuss or comment on this article.
Psychological trauma is bad for your health. The stress of abuse, violence, or the unexpected death of a loved one can cause all sorts of health problems. People suffering after these events may stop working effectively in school or at their jobs. They may lash out at friends, family, and coworkers. They may experience significant illnesses as stress depresses their immune systems.Why does psychological trauma have these long-lasting effects.?<!--break-->One reason for the stress of psychological trauma is that our representations of these traumatic events are fragmented. Psychologically traumatic events are ones tha...
Source: Psychology Today Depression Center - October 20, 2009 Category: Psychiatry & Psychology Authors: Art Markman, Ph.D. Tags: Depression Resilience Self-Help Stress Therapy betrayal coherence consecutive days coworkers dangerous cycle death of a loved one friends family health problems immune systems natural tendency painful situation pennebaker Source Type: consumer

Creating Gaps. Closing Doors.Email this article to a colleague. Save this article to My Clippings. Discuss or comment on this article.
I think that my mum's illness, its sly and stealthy onset so that at first we could believe what she told us - I'm just having a bad day - coincided with the collapse of her role as mother. Not entirely, of course, the job is never taken away entirely: once a mom, always a mom. But its shape morphs and evolves and moves so that at times it is difficult to grapple with, to grasp firmly, to pin down: that's what I do: I'm a mom. When children go to school. Start college. Leave home. You're never out of a job. But you can feel redundant. As if of all the balls you were juggling, you had dropped one. Or two. Or all three. And ...
Source: Psychology Today Depression Center - October 20, 2009 Category: Psychiatry & Psychology Authors: Anthea Rowan Tags: Depression 18 years balls collapse cool gap having a bad day help with homework maternal grandmother mom morphs niche presence rededication school help self confidence shape symmetry teeth umbilical cord Source Type: consumer

Countermarketing Shriver's A Woman's Nation - Ballooning depression among womenEmail this article to a colleague. Save this article to My Clippings. Discuss or comment on this article.
Maria Shriver has issued a report on the status of women, A Woman's Nation, which emphasizes women's growing economic role.  Just as A Woman's World is appearing, however, there is a deluge of "we need to diagnose more mental illness - particularly in women."Here are three women who have led prominent lives in past years which they subsequently announced were ruined by mental illness. All have written (or plan) books that suggest contemporary life for women is overhwelmed by unrecognized emotional disorders.Jane Pauley. As co-host from 1976 to 1989 of the leading morning news program, The Today Show, Pauley was one of...
Source: Psychology Today Depression Center - October 19, 2009 Category: Psychiatry & Psychology Authors: Stanton Peele Tags: Depression affective disorders bipolar bipolar disorder deborah norville economic role emotional disorders emotional issues garry trudeau Jack Nicholson Jane Pauley Kitty Dukakis Margaret Trudeau Maria Shriver minister of canad Source Type: consumer

Is Depression a Disease? -- Part IIEmail this article to a colleague. Save this article to My Clippings. Discuss or comment on this article.
The disease (or defect) model of depression represents a mainstream view of this condition. In my last post, I started the series by asking whether this approach should go unchallenged. In this post, I briefly debunk four commonly held arguments that are used to support the disease model. (1) Depression must be a disease because it is disabling and aversive. Yes, depression is horrible and undesirable and associated with impairments. Many real diseases are undesirable and associated with impairments. However, just become something is bad does not make it a disease. As Randolph Nesse has so nicely a...
Source: Psychology Today Depression Center - October 17, 2009 Category: Psychiatry & Psychology Authors: Jonathan Rottenberg, Ph.D. Tags: Depression Source Type: consumer

Is suicide by train changing how we think about prevention?Email this article to a colleague. Save this article to My Clippings. Discuss or comment on this article.
My beloved Washington, D.C. Metro has been in the news lately, and it's not for being the cleanest and most organized public transportation system in the country. Unfortunately, it's for being the means by which a number of Washington-area residents are choosing to end their lives.But, Metro is taking steps to curb the suicides occurring on its tracks, partnering with area suicide prevention organizations to develop training for Metro employees and reach out to individuals at risk for suicide through signs placed in Metro stations.Metro is not the only transit agency to take on suicide prevention.The Boston-area T, run by ...
Source: Psychology Today Depression Center - September 29, 2009 Category: Psychiatry & Psychology Authors: Elana Premack Sandler, L.C.S.W., M.P.H. Tags: Depression american association of suicidology american public transportation automatic train control boston area environmental conditions glass wall massachusetts bay transportation massachusetts bay transportation authority mbta metr Source Type: consumer

Major Depression in Preschool Children?Email this article to a colleague. Save this article to My Clippings. Discuss or comment on this article.
First, I want to announce that I have an article in the new (October, 2009) issue of Psychology Today magazine. It’s called “Secondhand Blues,” and presents some of the key points from my new book, Depression is Contagious, which will be released next month from The Free Press, a division of Simon & Schuster. (You can click on the book announcement elsewhere on this blog page and it will take you to Amazon where there's a brief video clip you can watch of me describing the book.) Both the article and book counter the prevailing myth that depression is all about biology run amok. Instead, I draw attention to ...
Source: Psychology Today Depression Center - August 27, 2009 Category: Psychiatry & Psychology Authors: Michael D. Yapko, Ph.D. Tags: Depression amazon archives of general psychiatry book announcement childhood depression depressed children depression sufferers depressive disorder developmental theories diagnostic category luby magazine article major depressive d Source Type: consumer

Somebodies and Nobodies: Equal in DignityEmail this article to a colleague. Save this article to My Clippings. Discuss or comment on this article.
All human beings are born free and equal in dignity and rights.- Universal Declaration of Human RightsRankism is putting oneself up and others down. Here's an example from a friend in the academic world.I was on a doctoral committee with several other professors examining a graduate student in physics. It was the final hurdle to his Ph.D., and his career hung in the balance. There is probably no scarier moment in one's entire education, unless it's the first day of kindergarten.The candidate was less than five feet tall. At one point he ran out of space on the blackboard and asked if he might erase some of what he'd writte...
Source: Psychology Today Depression Center - August 27, 2009 Category: Psychiatry & Psychology Authors: Robert Fuller, Ph.D. Tags: Creativity Depression Evolutionary Psychology Gender Happiness Health Personality Philosophy Politics Psychiatry Relationships Resilience Self-Help Social Life Spirituality Sport and Competition Stress Therapy Work ac Source Type: consumer

Dear John: Soldiers and SuicideEmail this article to a colleague. Save this article to My Clippings. Discuss or comment on this article.
A while ago I read a Dear Abby column. In it she advised a reader NOT to call off her engagement with her boyfriend, a soldier in Iraq. Responses from the readers varied, some agreed saying it's just too much for soldiers-they have enough stress to contend with. Yet others did not-one person wrote, it's better to end your relationship while they're overseas instead of waiting till they return, because of the support system that's already in place for soldiers overseas.But one letter struck me powerfully. It came from a mother of a soldier who received a "Dear John" email from his wife. After reading the email the soldier t...
Source: Psychology Today Depression Center - August 17, 2009 Category: Psychiatry & Psychology Authors: Gretta Krane Tags: Depression circumstance dear abby column dear john email heart Iraq mother in law nightmare parents quickness relationship soldier suicide Survivor tragedy tragic aspects young man young wife Source Type: consumer

Thank God - We're All Happy Now!Email this article to a colleague. Save this article to My Clippings. Discuss or comment on this article.
A new study in the Archives of General Psychiatry reveals that antidepressant prescriptions doubled between 1996 and 2005 - so that now 10 percent of the American population is receiving those little lifesavers!Since many experts have claimed Americans have been undermedicated (like our own great Peter Kramer), and yet the standard estimates of depression prevalence are about 10 percent, we should be fully drugged up and contented now.I know, some qvetches will claim that antidepressant use will continue to grow since drugs don't get to the core discontents of our era - especially considering that the fastest growing consu...
Source: Psychology Today Depression Center - August 4, 2009 Category: Psychiatry & Psychology Authors: Stanton Peele Tags: Depression alien pods american population antidepressants archives of general psychiatry director of human resources Don Siegel focussing healthy person invasion of the body invasion of the body snatchers lifesavers meds Peter Kr Source Type: consumer

Children of Divorce are Good ActorsEmail this article to a colleague. Save this article to My Clippings. Discuss or comment on this article.
Children of divorcing parents tend to be good actors. They put on different masks to fit into their parents' different worlds. All of us put on and take off masks depending on whom we're with. I once studied personality by studying letters that famous authors had sent to various people in their lives. I looked at the letters that Virginia Woolf, Emily Dickinson, and Charlotte Bronte had written to three different life-long friends, over the course of their lives.  Each woman had taken on a different but consistent voice for each friend. In other words, Woolf was a different Woolf--goofier, or bolder, or more submissiv...
Source: Psychology Today Depression Center - July 30, 2009 Category: Psychiatry & Psychology Authors: Ilana Simons, Ph.D. Tags: Anxiety Behavioral Economics Child Development Creativity Depression Gender Happiness Health Parenting Personality Politics Psychotherapy Relationships Resilience Self-Help Sex Social Life Trauma Work Between Two Worl Source Type: consumer

How Food Can Improve Your Mood: Delicious Ways to Prevent DepressionEmail this article to a colleague. Save this article to My Clippings. Discuss or comment on this article.
I have a history of depression, though thankfully I haven't had an episode in almost ten years. I turned my mood around by making major changes in my personal and professional life, and will tell you more about that in another post. I'm a practicing medical doctor (GP) with a degree in Dietetics, and am fascinated by the potential for certain foods and simple wellness practices to prevent and treat major medical conditions or diseases. I've written for years about the ability of food to protect and boost your mood, though in some cases of depression anti-depressant medications might still be necessary. That said, understan...
Source: Psychology Today Depression Center - July 29, 2009 Category: Psychiatry & Psychology Authors: Susan Biali, M.D. Tags: Depression Diet Happiness Health Neuroscience Psychiatry Resilience Self-Help Anti-Depressants diet for depression mood serotonin Source Type: consumer

Is it the economy, really?Email this article to a colleague. Save this article to My Clippings. Discuss or comment on this article.
As the summer began, a group of researchers and policy analysts gathered to discuss the growing problem termed "familicide" - cases involving a husband and father killing his family and then himself. Each report has been getting stored somewhere in the back of my mind, and I suppose it says something about the number of incidents that the details of each individual case have become quite blurry.Up until now, I've noticed one angle of these stories, the suicide angle. In most of the publicized cases, a distraught husband has been pushed to his limits by financial turmoil. But, the group of experts convened by the National I...
Source: Psychology Today Depression Center - July 28, 2009 Category: Psychiatry & Psychology Authors: Elana Premack Sandler, L.C.S.W., M.P.H. Tags: Depression suicide Source Type: consumer

Waving Not DrowningEmail this article to a colleague. Save this article to My Clippings. Discuss or comment on this article.
Now, now in high blue white African winter (a misnomer, surely? winter? in Africa?) the pool is brittle blue cold. The sun dances a waltz on the bottom, holding hands with the water. Shifting. Swaying. It'll slow and then stand still when I turn the pump off. The wind whips across the water's surface in the morning. Nippy, chippy oyster-grey dawns. I don't swim at sun-up in the winter. I swim close to dusk. When the lengthening shadows are not so long that the pool is cast in shade but when I hope the sun is low enough that it won't seek me out and burn me. A mother with Depression. And an African childhood. What's it goin...
Source: Psychology Today Depression Center - July 16, 2009 Category: Psychiatry & Psychology Authors: Anthea Rowan Tags: Depression anxiety Source Type: consumer

Helping Children Draw Out Their TraumasEmail this article to a colleague. Save this article to My Clippings. Discuss or comment on this article.
It's well known that traumatic events have profound effects on cognitive, emotional, and physical functioning in children. Fortunately, many children recover from traumatic events in a matter of weeks, but others have serious reactions that may last months or years. For those children who do not bounce back, there is hope through structured intervention and one simple activity: drawing.For almost twenty years, the National Institute for Trauma and Loss In Children [see earlier post, Resilience Matters in Traumatized Children's Lives] has been "ground zero" for the study and promotion of sensory-based interventions [art, pl...
Source: Psychology Today Depression Center - July 15, 2009 Category: Psychiatry & Psychology Authors: Cathy Malchiodi Tags: Child Development Creativity Depression Health Memory Neuroscience Personality Psychotherapy Relationships Resilience Trauma abused children anxiety art art therapist art therapy brain Cathy Malchiodi drawing implicit Source Type: consumer

The Dangers of heeding Good Diet adviceEmail this article to a colleague. Save this article to My Clippings. Discuss or comment on this article.
Mum was once persuaded by a nutritionist (who I thought was too fat, given her profession) that her diet was the root cause of her vulnerability to Depression. My initial doubt (flashing red beacon: but we already do that whole three, or is it five? helpings of fresh fruit and veg thing every day) ought to have served as a warning. But it did not, when you are desperate (as Mum has often been, as I have too) you'll try anything. Mum paid 150 bucks for every session conducted in the nutritionist's million dollar home, where we sank into a voluptuous sofa and drank chamomile tea. ‘Have you tried it?' the nutritionist asked...
Source: Psychology Today Depression Center - July 13, 2009 Category: Psychiatry & Psychology Authors: Anthea Rowan Tags: Depression adrenal function Anti-Depressants antidepressants chamomile cholesterol cholesterol levels colorful minerals crutch fresh fruit handfuls hemoglobin levels lithium liver function tests notions nutritionist root ca Source Type: consumer

Rainy Day ThoughtsEmail this article to a colleague. Save this article to My Clippings. Discuss or comment on this article.
It rained for so many days in Provincetown the month of June that it felt like it was never going to end. Each day of showers felt so familiar that many of us forgot what it was like to be outside enjoying the sunshine. It made me think of what happens to those experiencing depression. Depression feels like it's never going to end. In fact, some-perhaps many-depressed people believe they will always be depressed.<!--break-->Rarely is anyone "always" depressed, but even if one were, never is the depression the same each day. If we took note, we'd see that there are many moments of nondepression and many moments when t...
Source: Psychology Today Depression Center - July 7, 2009 Category: Psychiatry & Psychology Authors: Ellen Langer Tags: Depression diary month of june provincetown showers sunshine upshot Source Type: consumer

Holding Becky's HandEmail this article to a colleague. Save this article to My Clippings. Discuss or comment on this article.
Becky was wounded in a vicious accident, almost 4 months ago. In fact, she hates the term ‘accident' as it implies this may have been her fault. It wasn't. A rocket hit Becky's car on way home from work. She suffered injury to her stomach and thigh, which almost cost her life. She is better now, way better, but the physical pain is still there, as are the gap between what she used to be, and who she is now. She is fighting still. Struggling with staircases, long walks, physiotherapy and bad memories. And with the fear of the unknown which lies ahead - the gnawing suspicion that she may never be well. As strong willed as ...
Source: Psychology Today Depression Center - July 7, 2009 Category: Psychiatry & Psychology Authors: Talya Miron-Shatz, Ph.D. Tags: Behavioral Economics Depression Happiness Health Integrative Medicine Psychotherapy Resilience Trauma Source Type: consumer

Self-Injury: Addiction? Parasuicide? Cry for Help? Or None of the Above?Email this article to a colleague. Save this article to My Clippings. Discuss or comment on this article.
Non-suicidal self-injury strikes me as one of those mysteries of human behavior. The purpose of self-injury is not to cause permanent damage to the body; self-injury is not always intentional self-mutilation. Yet, the outcome of self-injury is often a permanent mark.Lest we think that it is not happening where we live, at least one state, Massachusetts, added a self-injury question to the administration of the Youth Risk Behavior Survey. The survey examines a number of health behaviors, including substance use, dietary habits, behaviors leading to injury, and sexual behaviors. In 2007, 17% of high school students surveyed ...
Source: Psychology Today Depression Center - July 2, 2009 Category: Psychiatry & Psychology Authors: Elana Premack Sandler, L.C.S.W., M.P.H. Tags: Depression self-injury suicide Source Type: consumer