When most people think of depression as a disorder, they are thinking of depressive disorders, which include major depressive disorder, dysthymic disorder and depressive disorder not otherwise specified. There is also a major depressive episode that involves depressive symptoms. The word “depression” can be used in everyday language to imply feeling sad, unhappy or “down” for a short period of time, but being depressed in this sense doesn’t necessarily mean you have a mood disorder.

The National Institute of Mental Health’s website states that there are three main types of clinical depression: major depression, dysthymia and bipolar disorder. In the DSM, these are called major depressive disorder and dysthymic disorder, and bipolar disorder is considered a mood disorder. The website adds that general symptoms of depression include feeling sad, anxious or lacking feeling, having problems concentrating and remembering, feeling restless and irritable, having headaches and digestive issues.

Source/Reference: EmpowHER October 23, 2011 - 6:00am

http://www.empowher.com/mental-health/content/what-depression

Clinical depression is one of several different mood affective disorders. It is a medical condition with psychological and physical symptoms.  Clinical depression is also known as major depression, major depressive disorder, and unipolar depression/disorder. It is a serious illness that can last months and even years if left undiagnosed and untreated.

Non-clinical depression is more like being in a temporary “blue” mood and is a normal part of life. Those moods usually occur as a direct result of an experience such as losing your job or ending a relationship. It is natural for people to feel sad for a short period of time after experiencing certain situations. However, clinical depression does not always need a specific event or experience to exist and can likely be triggered by a traumatic, emotional event or other extreme stress factors in life. Clinical depression symptoms last beyond the typical two week period that situational depression usually does. The majority of people recover from situational depression within a few days or a few weeks. The symptoms of clinical depression do not go away in a short period of time and can increase in intensity with time eventually interfering with a person’s ability to function.

Clinical depression is treatable and 1 out of every 5 Americans has this common affliction. There is no need to suffer in silence or in shame. Negative stigma is based on ignorance and lack of information. Just like any other neurologically based illness, it is treated with medication temporarily to help the brain restore its natural chemical balance and with talk therapy to help undo the erroneous thinking patterns and behaviors caused by the disorder.  Depending on the severity of the condition, the average time of cognitive behavioral therapy to treat this condition is three months. It is extremely important to get treatment for clinical depression because the symptoms can become overwhelming and can severally distort a person’s thoughts and emotions. Distorted thinking and emotions can include a sense of being in a black hole and not being able to climb out. There is a sense of looming doom that cannot be shaken and a feeling apathy that does not go away. Although these sensations feel very real to people suffering from clinical depression, they are actually symptoms caused by the neurological condition they have.

It is important to get treatment. Start with the family doctor who can provide a clinical depression screening and refer you to appropriate professionals for further treatment. Clinical depression is widely treated in the United States; 17 million Americans have been successfully treated. There is no reason to go undiagnosed and to ignore the symptoms. Clinical depression is not a sign of weakness or a sign of shame. It is a medical condition with psychological and physical symptoms and should be treated like any other illness.

Basic Symptoms of Clinical Depression:

Overwhelming Chronic Sadness:  Chronic sadness that includes a feeling of hopelessness and emptiness. No matter how hard someone tries to control their negative thoughts, they are not able to and as a result he or she experiences crying spells brought on by no apparent reason.

Overwhelming Inappropriate Guilt:  Severe clinical depression causes people to feel excessively guilty over minor things. The guilt is out of proportion with the situation and includes feelings of helplessness and worthlessness. They see this as a sign of weakness and become over-critical of themselves.

Extreme Irritability:  People suffering from clinical depression experience an extreme sense of irritability that causes them to feel anxious, restless, and overly angry/enraged.

Cognitive Disruption:  Trouble concentrating, trouble with decision making, and memory problems involving small details. This includes a sensation that your thought processes have slowed down in some way.

Body Aches and Pains: Clinical depression causes physical pains and aches such as stomach problems, headaches, and other aches and pains that do not go away with over the counter pain relievers.

Energy Loss: Clinical depression causes a feeling of fatigue or chronic tiredness causing people to feel as if their psychical abilities have slowed down.

Loss of Interest in Pleasure: Clinical depression causes people to lose interest in things; people and activities that once brought them pleasure or joy. This is a symptom based on the neurochemical malfunction in the brain. They lose interest in sex, social interactions and hobbies. Sometimes people will neglect their responsibilities and personal grooming during a major depressive episode.

Sleep Disruption: People with clinical depression experience the inability to fall asleep and/or stay asleep. They also wake up too early or sleep too much.

Changes in Appetite: These changes include overeating or not eating enough. People can lose interest in food altogether or overcompensate with food by overeating to cope with depressive symptoms and feelings.

Suicidal Ideation: The most dangerous symptom of clinical depression is how the brain plays tricks on the individual causing him or her to idealize suicide as a viable option.

10 commandments for healthy relationships

Posted: 12 Apr 2011 07:00 AM PDT

When couples come to see me for help repairing their relationships, I give them my 10 Commandments for Healthy Relationships. If you’re having trouble with your loved ones, keep these commandments handy.

1. Taking care of your brain is taking care of your relationships. Your brain is involved in everything you do, including how you think, how you feel, how you act, and how well you get along with other people. When your brain works right, you work right; and when your brain is troubled you are much more likely to have trouble in your relationship.

2. To have great relationships avoid things that hurt your brain, such as brain injuries, smoking, too much alcohol, any illegal drugs, obesity, sleep apnea, a poor diet, and a lack of new learning.

3. To have great relationships engage in regular brain healthy habits, such as exercise, mental exercise, great nutrition, and adequate sleep.

4. Regular sexual activity is helpful for the brain. It has been associated with a better mood and memory. Say yes more than no to physical affection.

5. To be a great lover you have to protect your blood flow.  Your brain gets 25 percent of the blood flow in your body.  To improve your blood flow eliminate anything that decreases blood flow, such as smoking or too much caffeine, and treat illnesses that negatively affect blood flow such as high blood pressure, heart disease, and diabetes.

6. Exercise together. Dancing is a particularly good exercise for the brain. Of course, if you drink while you dance, it ruins the benefits.

7. New learning is essential to keeping the brain young. Take classes together and be lifelong learning partners.

8. If either of you has brain problems, such as ADHD, bipolar disorder, depression, or a brain injury, get help.  The sooner the better, because left untreated, brain problems ruin relationships.

9. Support your partner’s efforts at having a great brain. He or she will be much nicer to you if he or she has a great brain.

10. The following supplements can fuel passion and increase your enjoyment of sexual activity.

• If you tend to be anxious and worried, 5-HTP can help to boost serotonin and give you more emotional freedom and energy to put toward your sex life. The recommended dosage is 50-100 mg two or three times daily with or without food.
• If you tend to have low energy (the “not tonight, I’m too tired” syndrome) and feel negative, SAMe may help to boost your energy and mood. The recommended dosage is 200-400 mg two to four times a day.
• Ginkgo biloba boosts blood flow to all organs in the body. The typical adult dosage is 60-120 mg twice daily.
• Panax ginseng can increase energy, decrease stress, and improve endurance. The typical adult dosage is 200 mg a day of the standardized extract, containing 4-7 percent of ginsenosides.
• DHEA is a hormone produced by the adrenal glands that is involved in the production of testosterone and estrogen. It may be beneficial for people with low testosterone, which is associated with low libido. The recommended dosage is 25-50 mg daily.
  

This entry was written by Dr. Amen, posted on April 12, 2011 at 9:00 am, filed under Love/Sex/Relationships and tagged healthy relationships. Bookmark the permalink. Follow any comments here with the RSS feed for this post. Post a comment or leave a trackback: Trackback URL.

For some people just a single anti-depressant medicine doesn't work - click here to take our survey:

http://www.surveymonkey.com/s/mddsurvey

Survey for People with Major Depressive Disorder (MDD)

Clinical research plays a vital role in expanding the range of treatments available for people with medical conditions. For a clinical study (or trial) of a new medication to be successful, it is essential that anyone thinking about taking part understands fully what is involved in participating. Before we conduct a clinical study, we therefore ask people who have the medical condition to answer some questions that help us to better understand how that condition affects them.

For this survey, we are asking people with major depressive disorder (MDD) to share their personal opinions. Your input about Major Depressive Disorder will help us to develop better information to explain details about the study. You are not being asked to take part in the study – only to share your insights about what it means to live with Major Depressive Disorder, and your thoughts about being part of a clinical research study. However, should you wish to be contacted with further information about this study, you will be given the choice to opt in to learn more.

Please be aware that this survey is voluntary and anonymous.

To thank you for your time, we will randomly select one person who completes the depression survey to receive a $50 gift card. For a chance to win, please leave your contact information at the end of the survey. Your contact information is kept confidential, and will only be used to notify you if you win, and to provide you with further information about this study if you decide to opt in.

About MDD

Depression can affect different people in different ways; from having no energy, to a lack of concentration and feeling irritable for no apparent reason. MDD symptoms vary from person to person, but if you feel 'down' for more than 2 weeks, and these feelings are interfering with your daily life, you may be clinically depressed and need to seek the care of a medical professional.

Of the people who are being treated for MDD, 30% of them feel that the medications they are taking don't work (also described as being 'treatment resistant').

Cause

Depression is related to physiological changes in the brain and an imbalance of a type of chemical that carries messages throughout the brain. Some things that can make these changes occur include:

• Family history. Depression can run in families.
• Trauma and stress. Difficult changes in your life.
• Pessimistic personality. Low self-esteem and a negative outlook on your life and job.
• Medical conditions. Serious medical conditions, such as heart disease, cancer, diabetes and others.
• Other psychological disorders. Anxiety disorders, eating disorders, schizophrenia, and (especially) substance abuse.

  Getting Help

  Depression can make you feel hopeless and helpless. This in turn can make it hard to get help. Just deciding to get treatment is the first step. Treatment can include medication and/or psychotherapy, sometimes called 'talking therapy'.

  For more information on MDD and its treatments, please visit the National Alliance On Mental Illness (NAMI) website.

• http://mddsurvey.org/

Living with truth and love is radical now. Perhaps it’s always been so.

But the damaging effects of hatred are so powerful that they erode the human spirit as powerfully as any chemical toxin.

The effects of hatred among religious fundamentalists and warriors are well known and documented throughout history. Tyrants and dictators, fascists and dominating factions of oppression have always haunted our lives, our grandparents’ lives, and have been the reason we have immigrated, migrated, developed, and reinvented ourselves.

But what about the subtle hatred, the insidious negativity that poisons children in a family or workers in an office? The rejecting glances, the off-color comments, the divisive, manipulative behavior of bosses and co-workers, the back stabbing, the gossiping, the rumors of high school, the bullying of middle school? What about the yearning for acceptance and petty, life destroying, soul destroying games that people play to end up a winner?

It’s so difficult for people to be positive and supportive toward one another that more people are suffering from hurt feelings and a strong sense of not fitting in, not belonging, or not being good enough for their own family members, their “friends,” their neighbors or co-workers, their bosses and mates, than can possibly be expressed.

We are mammals, after all; a strange and confusing hybrid of territorial creature and higher ordered thinking being, capable of love, acceptance and mercy.
But if someone has a choice, why do they so often choose insulting, negative language over kind, accepting language?

Is it evolutionarily programmed into us as a way of regaining territory, regaining control, or, to use a phrase I detest, being a “winner?” After all, the most scathing cliques at high school and at the workplace are not full of armed soldiers, they are usually rampant with armed tongues, fiery tempers, and flaring words.

Kindness is so often perceived as weakness that we continually imagine “standing up" to our spouse, significant other, parent, co-worker, boss, as if the technique of turning the other cheek or not fighting fire with fire are somehow something quite less than heroic. We long for the bar brawl, the frenzy, the “coming to blows.” For what?

Aimee Boyle.

If a friend or relative has gone through a tough situation recently, you may be wondering what you can do to help. Can anything you say or do really make a difference? Yes, if you take the time to understand the different ways in which people react to trauma. Your loved one is dealing with something very difficult, and you naturally want to ease the burden. Here are some ways you can do this:

First, recognize that the symptoms of the trauma may not go away immediately. They may stay the same or even worsen over time. This is because a traumatic event can be so intense and shattering that a person's sense of safety and predictability in life are gone. The person may be fearful all the time, even when there is no reason (in your mind) to be scared. She may be preoccupied with the traumatic event for some time. She may even have flashbacks.

One of the most important things you can do to help someone get over a trauma is to listen. Your friend may ask you to hear her story and empathize with her, or she may seem withdrawn. In that case, simply be with her and tell her you're there to listen to whatever she has to say. Don't take offense if she can't or won't talk about the event or her feelings. Simply being there may ease her mind, even if you don't feel like you're doing anything. Your friend may feel more comfortable writing down her feelings and showing them to you. If she does want to talk about the event, let her talk. Don't censor, interrupt, or judge her.

Another valuable step you can take is to steer your loved one to a support group or counselor who's specially trained to deal with this type of trauma. Your loved one may feel very alone and not realize that others have gone through what she's going through. But don't push-she simply may not be ready. Of course, if you feel she's unable to cope with life, it's imperative that she get professional help so she can function normally again.

Finally, take over some basic tasks. If your friend was in a car accident and is afraid to get behind the wheel, drive her to her doctor's appointments. If she's too stressed out to shop and cook, put together some meals she can heat quickly and serve her family. Recruit other friends and neighbors to help out, too. Letting her know you're there for her and support her can greatly help your friend gradually recover and enjoy life again.

Sources:

American Psychological Association, www.apa.org.

Laurie Saloman , Reviewed by QualityHealth's Medical Advisory Board

Everyday WISDOM

Inspiration

Healing Happens Now

Creating wellness moment by moment.

One popular New Age premise tells you that “you create your own reality.” Sadly, this is often misunderstood to mean that when you are sick, you have somehow done this to yourself. Of course there are instances in which you bear more responsibility for your illness. Perhaps you made poor lifestyle choices in the past, such as smoking or excessive drinking or drug use. But setting aside these obvious examples, most of the time you really cannot know why you have become ill. Therefore, it is important not to add insult to injury by making yourself feel guilty.

The real truth of this premise is that you do create your own reality, but only right now, in this present moment. You do this through the stories that you are telling yourself and identifying with. You do not create the scenery you see, only your reaction to it. You do not create the weather, but calling a day “miserable” makes you unhappy.

Understanding that you are responsible for your own psychological and emotional reality in the present moment has everything to do with awakening to the nature of your own mind and nothing to do with creating guilt.

If you tell yourself “I (somehow) have created my disease,” the immediate consequence of this belief is a feeling of shame and guilt, not increased well-being. Even if you had previously made unhealthy choices, blaming yourself for past actions does not improve your present state. The key then to maximizing your potential for healing is choosing to be fully present. In other words, let go of worrying about what caused your illness and instead enter completely into whatever your actual experience is, moment by moment.

There is a further consequence for believing that you have caused your illness: you will likely also believe that in order to find a remedy, you must first discover what you did to cause the problem. Now the pressure is on: not only do you feel guilty, but anxious as well. You are indeed creating your own reality—emotional stress—but only in this moment and only through your own thinking. Believing that you are the cause of your illness (which, by the way, makes you special) leads to much unnecessary suffering.

As we have discussed, ego is about identity and lives according to chronological time. As it observes changes over time, it assumes the notion of causality: “I was healthy and now I am sick . . . so something has caused this to happen.” But when you are simply present and aware, you have let go of time, which means that you have also let go of ego. Things are just as they are, and you no longer identify yourself as either someone healthy or sick.

Believing in cause and effect is one way of interpreting experience. When “A” takes place, “B” results; therefore, “A” causes “B.” Modern medicine and science in general rely on the premise of causality: if you can learn about and then alter the chain of events that leads to illness, you may be able to halt that illness. This approach has given us great power over many diseases. Modern medicine saves lives every day that would have been lost only decades ago.

Yet whereas the outer, objective world appears to obey the laws of causality, as you move into the present—into being—causality becomes less meaningful and completely indeterminable. It is analogous to moving closer and closer to the center of a turning wheel. Eventually you approach a point that is not moving at all.

Similarly, when you are in the Now, your mind stops thinking about you and about everything else, and you are simply aware. Time in a certain sense stops or slows down enough so that your sense of self is no longer that of someone on his or her way to somewhere else. You are just as you are. Your situation—or, more precisely, your state of being—is not something caused by something prior. You are not comparing your present circumstance to the past nor projecting into the future. You are no longer explaining, justifying, rationalizing, or interpreting your experience. Therefore, you are not attributing cause to what you are experiencing . . . you are just being. And in that being, you are always and already whole.

Richard Moss, M.D., is an internationally respected leader in the field of conscious living and inner transformation. He is the author of six seminal books on using the power of awareness to realize our intrinsic wholeness and reclaim the wisdom of our true selves.

Receive the best by expecting the best.

Published: February 18, 2011

Have you had the experience of behaving with someone in a way that you had not intended? It just sort of came out of you suddenly? That was you experiencing the power of influence from another’s expectation. Have you noticed the personality of a child changing depending on which adult it is interacting with? Cooperative and pleasant with one person, and obstinate and cranky with another? You were witnessing the power of influence from another’s expectation.

When you train yourself into steady alignment with your own Broader Perspective, you will tap into the Energy that creates worlds, and you will be pleased by the positive response that you receive from those around you. No longer blame others with whom you share relationships; and instead, acknowledge that you are the attractor of your experience. True freedom comes from that understanding.

As you tend to your relationship between you (in your physical focus) and the Broader Perspective of your Inner Being, as you train yourself into the good-feeling thoughts of your Source, as you come into alignment with who-you-really-are, as you learn to love yourself—the others with whom you interact will not be able to buck that current of Well-Being. They will either love you back—or they will gravitate out of your experience.

A Brief Bedtime Exercise That Transforms Relationships

As you lie in your bed before sleeping, if you will think of good-feeling things from your past or present, or even speculate into your future, you will set the tone of the Vibration in which you will awaken in the morning. In the morning, when you first return to Consciousness, try to remember what you were thinking about in the evening, and make an effort to reestablish that positive trend of thought. This one small exercise will change the way everyone you meet responds to you in this new day. And as you do that—night after night, and then morning after morning—new patterns will emerge, and your relationships will transform.

Esther Hicks is an inspirational speaker and author. She co-authored eight books with her husband, Jerry Hicks. Together, they have presented Law of Attraction workshops for Abraham-Hicks Publications in up to 60 cities per year since 1987. Visit: www.Abraham-Hicks.com.