Teen Depression: Is There A Hopeful Outlook
Tuesday, February 5, 2008, 06:23 PM - Depression
Teen depression strikes one in five children. This is a very frightening number. Depression is anything but a good thing. It happens to anyone, in any lifestyle, in any income range. Most of the time, it will not be noticed until it becomes a large problem. This should be the most sobering of all news about this epidemic. Yet, one thing that is hopeful about teen depression is that more and more individuals are learning about it and in this area of health, knowledge is power.
Tips To Noticing Depression In Teens
Teens are typically quite unpredictable, but when it comes to their health parents as well as friends should keep an eye out for these things and other things that you will find at http://www.avoiddepression.com.
* Sudden changes in their mood, appetite or weight can be indications of depression. While these things can also be something that is attributed to just being an adolescent, when it is coupled with other conditions, it should be taken note of.
* A loss of interest in doing the things that they used to love to do can be depression. Now, this is not necessarily something from their childhood, but something within the past few months. Perhaps they enjoyed horseback riding and just stopped doing it within the last months.
* Traumatic situations can cause teen depression to come on fast. For example, divorce or separation of their parents, death, economic changes, or even just friendship and significant other changes. Often, teens blame themselves for these conditions.
* A lack of emotion is a sign that something - See Teen Depression: Is There A Hopeful Outlook for the complete article.
add comment Can a Neurotransmitter Imbalance be Causing Your Mood Problems
Tuesday, February 5, 2008, 06:19 PM - Depression
Neurotransmitters are powerful chemicals that regulate numerous physical and emotional processes such as cognitive and mental performance, emotional states and pain response. Virtually all functions in life are controlled by neurotransmitters.
Interactions between neurotransmitters, hormones, and the brain chemicals have a profound influence on overall health and well-being. When our concentration and focus is good, we feel more directed, motivated, and vibrant. Unfortunately, if neurotransmitter levels are inadequate these energizing and motivating signals are absent and we feel more stressed, sluggish, and out-of-control. Disrupted communication between the brain and the body can have serious effects to ones health both physically and mentally.
Depression, anxiety and other mood disorders are thought to be directly related to imbalances with neurotransmitters. Some of the more common neurotransmitters that regulate mood are Serotonin, Dopamine, and Norepinephrine. Serotonin imbalance is one of the most common contributors to mood problems. Some feel it is a virtual epidemic in the United States.
Serotonin is key to our feelings of happiness and very important for our emotions because it helps defend against both anxiety and depression. You may have a shortage of serotonin if you have a sad depressed mood, anxiety, panic attacks, low energy, migraines, sleeping problems, obsession or compulsions, feel tense and irritable, crave sweets, and have a reduced interest in sex. Additionally, your hormones and Estrogen levels can affect serotonin levels and this may explain why some women have pre-menstrual and menopausal mood problems. Moreover, stress can greatly reduce your serotonin supplies.
Dopamine and Norepinephrine are responsible for motivation, energy, interest, and drive. They are associated with positive stress states such as being in love, exercising, listening to music, and sex. These neurotransmitters are the one's that make you feel good. When we don't have enough of them we don't feel alive, we have difficulty initiating or completing tasks, poor concentration, no energy, and lack of motivation. Low neurotransmitter levels drive us to use drugs (self medicate) or alcohol, smoke cigarettes, gamble, and overeat.
For many years, it has been known in medicine that low levels of these neurotransmitters can cause many diseases and illnesses. A neurotransmitter imbalance can cause Depression, anxiety, panic attacks, insomnia, irritable bowel, hormone dysfunction, eating disorders, Fibromyalgia, obsessions, compulsions, adrenal dysfunction, chronic pain, migraine headaches, and even early death.
What causes neurotransmitter dysfunction? - See Can a Neurotransmitter Imbalance be Causing Your Mood Problems for the full article.
Intelligent Optimism Wins In Today's World
Tuesday, August 21, 2007, 04:54 PM - Depression
The reality of today's world seems to leave little room for optimism. Almost every news story can lead because it does bleed. We hear of critical food shortages in Africa, daily gang deaths on city streets, the profiteering from child pornography, and the climatic disasters prompted by global warming. Health care costs move up faster than a hummingbird in flight and more children now spout profanities as a regular part of speech. With such negativity, no wonder a 2004 U.S. government survey found that depression afflicts one in 10 adults 14 days a month or more.
You probably get depressed just reading the opening paragraph. But wait! There is hope. Not the cock-eyed optimism that became fodder for a song from the musical South Pacific, but rather what psychologists in France are calling "intelligent optimism." Such optimism does not deny the reality of today's world, but rather seeks to LEARN how to fashion a life amid such difficulties. Martin Seligman, the psychologist who had made optimism and happiness his life's work, would agree with the French: optimism can be taught.
Consider these basic steps:
(1) Focus on what you can control. Don't get carried away by circumstances you cannot change. You might not change global warming but you can control your energy consumption. You can't stop the downsizing in your company but you can arm yourself with marketable skills.
(2) Reframe the event so that you are not a victim. There is always another way to view a situation. The flight cancellation that caused me to miss (and forfeit) a major engagement was not "planned" to "get" me. It just was. My choice is to figure out what I can do to help the current client and what I will put in the place of the cancelled work.
(3) Think "enough". When we concentrate on what we don't have, we miss all the many things we do have. The truth of the matter is that if you are reading this article, you do have enough computer power. You do have enough intelligence. You do have enough time.
(4) Cultivate optimistic responses. Like a farmer tending a field, optimism will never grow unless it is watered, fed, weeded and nourished. We all have days in which negativity can take over. And, sometimes, that is a WISE response because it keeps us grounded in reality. Just make sure it is reality and not the imagination making extraordinary leaps into conjecture. Weed out that conjecture. Ask what you can DO to see a result that gives you a sense of power. - See Intelligent Optimism Wins In Today's World for the full article.
Truly Easy Self Help for Anxiety and Depression
Friday, August 10, 2007, 06:00 PM - Depression
The key to self help for anxiety and depression is to understand that for all but severe cases anxiety and depression are manageable syndromes. Most techniques center on refocusing your thoughts from yourself and your problems to thoughts and activities “outside” of yourself. Unless your symptoms are such that medical intervention is warranted, self help for anxiety and depression is within your reach.
Ask yourself if you make a habit of replaying negative and stressful events over in your mind again and again. This replaying of “mental movies” is a key factor in much anxiety and depression, and learning how to “re-edit” these mental movies is an effective technique for alleviating many symptoms.
Habits Are Key
Did you realize that you have COMPLETE, 100%, ABSOLUTE CONTROL over what you think and how you think it? Tell me, does anyone or anything force you to think and react the way you do? Might I suggest that your customary thought patterns and reactions are nothing more than “habits” and as such can be changed by you at will. This might sound difficult before you try it, but the simple fact is that you can completely and forever change your mental states by changing your mental habits. This one tip may be all you ever need to know about effective self help for anxiety and depression.
Changing old habits takes a little effort. Studies say that in order to break an old habit and completely replace it with a new habit requires about three weeks of focused activity. So, the question is whether or not you are willing to commit 21-days to getting a handle on your anxiety and depression? You may not have eliminated your symptoms in that time, but after three weeks (if you have seriously put in the effort) you will be well on your way to a lifelong change for the better.
What to Do - See Truly Easy Self Help for Anxiety and Depression for the complete report.
Depression: A Formidable Mental Disability.
Sunday, July 15, 2007, 04:50 PM - Depression
The term 'depression' is variedly used and understood. When we see someone who was a cheerful fellow sink into melancholy and lose interest in most of the things what he does, the obvious conclusion is that the fellow is 'depressed'. Depression, in other words, is a state wherein a person undergoes a sudden loss of interest in what he or she enjoyed earlier. Such a person carries around a rather sad look on his face and his body language consistently suggests lack of human warmth. At times, the affected person might not even be aware of his condition.
Among other things that are symptomatic of depression is an irregular sleep pattern. A person who is reeling under depression would fail to have a regular sound sleep. A normal person would sleep for around 7 or 8 hours a day, while a depressed person may fail to sleep even for a few hours. He or she would either keep awake the whole night or would keep rising every hour or so. At times, the person may sleep all through the day and may stay awake the whole night.
Appetite changes are also noticed. Some would stop eating while some would turn into walking, talking gluttons. This means some people would gain weight while others would shed some. Among adults, loss of libido is also symptomatic of depression. - See
Depression: A Formidable Mental Disability. for the complete article.
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