Don't let the economic crisis get you down.

With the worst financial crisis in decades in full swing, mental health professionals across the country are seeing a rise in major – or severe – depression.

Eight-two percent of those surveyed in a poll by the American Psychological Association noted they were stressed by financial issues related to the economy. The survey percentage is probably higher, as many others also may be keeping their depression quiet, too embarrassed to tell anyone.

Researchers studying past recessions have found links in higher unemployment in both Europe and the United States to increases in deaths from cancer, heart disease and psychiatric problems. Today’s physicians and other healthcare professionals find that coming true in today’s recession, too.

Mayoclinic.com defines major depression, also known as major depressive disorder and clinical depression, as affecting “how you feel, think and behave. Depression can lead to a variety of emotional and physical problems. You may have trouble doing normal day-to-day activities, and depression may make you feel as if life isn’t worth living.”

While emotional stress is a common factor in depression, it does not always lead to depression. Rather, it’s today’s coping mechanisms to stress that bring out depression. With more and more people becoming stressed due to decreased job hours, job loss, and home loss, people are compensating for lack of finances by drinking more alcohol to relax, eating more salty and fatty foods because they are less expensive and exercising less as they no longer can afford gym membership.

Those who have lost their jobs appear to be the most effected by severe depression, especially when their long-term job loss means the loss of their home, as well. With foreclosure just around the corner for some people, those with severe depression may feel powerless against the financial strain of a fallen economy. In at least a few documented cases, some people have even committed suicide.

Don’t let severe depression get you down. Remember, you may not have control over the economic situation around you, but you do have control over how you react to the situation. Mental health professionals recommend you talk to others, eat as healthy as you can, speak with neighbors, and keep in mind that you are not alone in this economic crisis. Learn more about the signs of depression.

Photo Credit:   Ed Yourdon  on www.flickr.com

While Mother’s Day isn’t perceived as one of the holidays that causes people stress and depression, some people do experience intense sadness.

Mother’s Day can make someone extremely sad if she lost a child or has a sour relationship with one. As everyone else is enjoying time with her families, a mother who has a lot of sorrow over her relationship can feel utter depression over it.

How to Deal with Mother’s Day Depression

Just because you may not have someone who is honoring you for Mother’s Day, it doesn’t mean that you can’t honor someone else. It doesn’t have to be your mother, but it can be someone else who is a mother. Showing that mother how special you think she is will make her feel great about herself and will make you feel good because you brought happiness to her day.

If this sounds too painful, you should try to stay as busy as possible. Keeping your mind off the holiday is the best way to get over the day without hiding in your room. Plan your day as you normally would and don’t consider that it is a holiday.

Don’t forget that you deserve to treat yourself sometimes. Just because you don’t have someone treating you doesn’t mean you shouldn’t do it to yourself. Go out to dinner with friends who also don’t have Mother’s Day plans or buy yourself some cake or chocolate. While you may not have a relationship with your son or daughter, you still are a mother, so show yourself some love.

Depression is serious. If you have suicidal thoughts, call National Suicide Prevention Lifeline at 1-800-273-8255.

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If you’re feel especially stressed lately, lack of sleep may be the cause. When you feel overwhelmed, it’s because your body has been at an altered state of stress and then when you’re confronted with more you become overloaded. When you sleep at night, your body repairs itself. It brings stress levels down to normal IF the levels are not extremely high. If you are already at a high stress level, your body begins to bring it down but it won’t have enough time to get it down enough.

However, if you do things to keep your stress down and get enough sleep. The stress you do experience throughout the day can be relieved with a restful night’s sleep. The stress you incur during the day is manageable and the sleep takes care of it.

Dealing with Insomnia During Stressful Times

But what happens when you can’t sleep BECAUSE you are stressed? This compounds your stress problems when this happens. The best thing you can do is sleep when you can take care of yourself as much as possible when you aren’t sleeping. Calming techniques like a massage, meditation and just laying down are all ways for your body to relax without sleeping. It may just relax you enough so that you will sleep when you need to.

Caffeine Is a No-No When Stressed

Pay attention to what you drink because too much caffeine can increase your stress even more. That jolt you get from your coffee will bring your stress to a greater level. So not only is the caffeine keeping you up but also the stress. It’s best to limit caffeine during extreme times of stress – no matter how sleepy you are from insomnia or not enough sleep.

Photo: Scott McLeod

Everyone deals with stress but some people are able to handle it better than others. While everyone has their own way of dealing with it, there are certain strategies that most “stress-free” individuals utilize – goal setting.

What Is Goal Setting

If you’re a goal oriented person, you like to give yourself some sort of objective and then work towards it paying attention to your progress along the way. One thing about stress that many people don’t realize is that it directly relates to the control that you feel you have in a situation. This is why goal setting works. When you set up a goal for yourself, you are in charge of it. You are telling yourself that you want to get to a certain point. Then you set up mini-goals to track your progress. These mini-goals can be things you do every day, every week or just a few times a month. Whatever you choose, be honest with yourself and choose what will work for you. As you accomplish your mini-goals you’ll feel a sense of pride in yourself and that gives you motivation to keep going. These successes will help you reduce your stress. Since you are in charge of every move, you’ll feel competent and powerful, which cuts down on stress.

Not only will the feeling of power help you with your stress, being able to prioritize and make a schedule will help you avoid stress. As you get used to making goals for yourself, you’ll start doing it more for other things in your life. You’ll find you have more time to do the things you need to do because you’re not always searching for what you need to do next – you’ll know because you have a goal.

Reducing stress is important for your health. By making changes to your lifestyle, you’ll be able to finally feel like you are in control of your life AND your stress.

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Just when you thought dieting and exercising was going to help prevent disease, a study is showing that it can actually cause you to develop one. We can’t win here, can we?

The Study on Diet and Disease

According to a study reported on dailymail.co.uk, individuals who dieted by counting calories produced more of the stress hormone cortisol. This hormone is believed to relate to the development of heart disease, diabetes and cancer. The other aspect of the effects of calorie counting dieting is that people feel stressed when they can’t eat normally and have to take into account everything they eat, which further contributes to disease.

So you have a double whammy on this one – you have the biological hormones causing stress on your body as well as your mental health.

What to Do About Weight Loss

To help you still lose weight but not put yourself in danger it’s best to take the weight loss journey slowly. Make small adjustments to your diet and exercise regimen. That way, you’ll have a better chance of keeping off what you lose and you won’t throw your hormone levels out of whack, which will keep your stress levels down.

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The mind-body connection is strong. Training your mind to manage extreme pain (physical and emotional) is possible. Stress management techniques can help you decrease stress, whether it’s from physical or emotional pain.

In the following video, you will see child cancer patients show you how strong they really are in their fight against cancer. They are using martial arts breathing, meditation and imagery techniques to help them deal with physical pain of cancer treatment and the emotional pain of a cancer diagnosis. It’s an amazing video of strength, hope and accomplishment.

www.youtube.com/watch?v=NHYqsfa6lGQ

Power Peace Purpose – these young children fighting for their lives have already learned the most valuable lessons of life. The strive to beat the challenges in their life by always looking forward and doing what they have to do today to make it to tomorrow.

It’s important that everyone watch this video and understand how fragile life is and remember some of the littlest heroes out there.

Many men are embarrassed to admit that they have erectile dysfunction. They may chock it up to stress and turn to their doctor just for a prescription of Viagra. While this may help a man’s erectile dysfunction, it may only be masking a more serious and/or deadly condition.

Erectile Dysfunction Linked to Cardiovascular Disease

Think about how a man gets an erection. When a man is excited, his arteries rush blood to his penis. Well, if he’s not getting an erection, blood is not making it there. Therefore, he needs to find out why. Of course, stress is one of the biggest reasons why men suffer from erectile dysfunction. However, it’s not always all about stress. When arteries are not supplying blood to the penis, they may not be adequately supplying it to the heart or brain, either. Over time, clogged arteries will get worse, especially when it’s left untreated because one of the warning signs – impotency – has been corrected.

Talking to Your Doctor

If you are experiencing erectile dysfunction, ask your doctor to do a full work up on you. Your physician should test for high blood pressure, cholesterol and coronary heart disease. If all those come back clear, THEN you can say that it’s stress and resume your Viagra with peace of mind.

Photo: Wyscan

It’s April Fool’s Day! It’s time to take a minute to be healthy by laughing. Yes, that’s right. You can improve your health significantly but just cracking a chuckle.

How Laughter Improves Your Health

• When you laugh you reduce stress hormones such as cortisol, epinephrine, and dopamine, which all increase when you are under high levels of stress.
• It increases hormones such as endorphins and neurotransmitters, which promote health!
• Laughing is cathartic, which means it helps you release tension.
• Laughing like exercising because when you get really into it, you usually contract your abs, shoulders and diaphragm, which then relax after your done.
• Laughing can change your perspective on things and help you feel better about situations. Decreasing your stress by looking at things in a new way, can help you fight off illness and even some diseases.
• Laughter makes you attractive and socially engaging, which can bring friendships and love to your life.
• Laughing takes your focus away from stressful situations – take a break and laugh a little, you’ll feel better.

So now that you know how laughter can significantly improve your health, laugh at those April Fool’s Day jokes tomorrow and make some of your own!

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When life gets difficult, it may be hard to determine whether you’re sad or have a bigger problem, depression. Feeling sad is a key component in depression but it’s not the only one. You’ll need to consider many other factors when trying to determine if you are depressed.

The Symptoms of Depression

If you’ve experience any of the following symptoms for more than two weeks and they have made it difficult or impossible to do the things you normal could do, you may be suffering depression.

• Tiredness or lack of energy
• Feeling guilty, worthless or helpless
• Feeling hopeless or pessimistic
• Change in sleeping habits (more or less)
• Change in eating habits (more or less)
• Unable to enjoy the activities you once did such as hobbies and/or sex
• Irritable or restless
• Difficulty with concentration
• Memory problems
• Indecisiveness
• Feeling anxious or sad most of the time
• Suicidal thoughts or attempts

One of the best ways to find out if your sadness is something more is to schedule a time to speak to your doctor. Your physician will be able to give you a full assessment of your current level of functioning and determine whether you need antidepressant medication and/or seek counseling.

Feeling sad is a normal part of life but when it gets in the way of living, you need to do something about it.

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According to a review of studies in the medical journal of Neurology, eating chocolate may reduce your risk of stroke and help you survive one if you do have one. The antioxidants in chocolate are believed to help stroke especially those in dark chocolate. However, you receive some in regular chocolate too so it’s still a benefit.

How Much Chocolate to Eat

Eating too much chocolate can make you gain weight and the saturated fat in it can cause health problems so of course, too much of a good thing can hurt you more than help you. However, if you eat chocolate and just about anything in moderation it won’t affect your health negatively and in chocolate’s case, it can even benefit you.

The Other Effects of Chocolate

Chocolate has other beneficial effects. It can help lower your risk for heart disease and cancer. It can even help your mental health and make you happier and it’s not just because you like the taste. The chemicals found in dark chocolate, in particular, will help you feel less stressed.

Other Foods That Give You the Same Effect

If you aren’t a chocolate eater, you can receive the same type of effect on stroke from eating fruits, vegetables, wine and tea. They have the same type of antioxidants that chocolate does.

So in conclusion, indulge yourself this Easter season. Eat a chocolate bunny and feel good that it’s helping you lessen your chances or effects of a stroke.

Photo: uriba