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Making Your Home More Welcoming for the Winter

By Deborah Posted in Mental Health Writing Tagged

I’ve written about Seasonal Affective Disorder (SAD), a type of depression that is triggered by different seasons. A small amount of people are affected by the late spring and summer, but many more are laid low by winter. What if, however, you don’t have SAD per se, but are someone with depression whose depression is exacerbated by the fall and winter darkness? Granted, when you have depression you’re frequently unaware of the weather. The most brilliantly sunny day with soft breezes can leave you cold.

But the increase in hours of night that comes with fall and winter is another matter. The lack of light, the absence of color from foliage (if you live in a region where all the vegetation dies or hibernates in the winter) makes your life more emotionally colorless somehow. Since there’s nothing you can do about changing the world outside, you might want to concentrate your energy on making your home more welcoming. Continue reading →

Doing Cocooning Right

By Deborah Posted in Mental Health Writing

We depressives are frequently drawn towards cocooning, the practice of hanging out in our homes for most of our free time. I think that usually that’s due to a lack of energy, but also a need to be “safe” in our own little nest.

Image: The Bedroom by Vincent Van Gogh

The Bedroom by Vincent Van Gogh

Given that it’s winter and many people who aren’t depressed are also cocooning due to the cold weather, why not make the most of it and actually celebrate cocooning? It also makes sense in these tough economic times because staying home is a lot cheaper than going out. So if you’re going to cocoon, do it right. What you want to do is find ways to do as much as possible from home, and also make your home cozy and inviting. Continue reading →

Diagnosing and Treating Dysthymia in Children: When Depression is Chronic at an Early Age

By Deborah Posted in Mental Health Writing Tagged , , , ,

When I was finally diagnosed with depression at age 27, after twenty years of suffering from one type of depressive disorder or another, it was because I was going through a major depression at that particular time. It was only the third major depression I had experienced, and all three had occurred after the age of twenty. For all their ferocity, however, I don’t feel that the major depressions did the most damage to my social life, the direction my life took and my psyche. Without question, that honor is reserved for the dysthymia that had been a part of my life, and a part of me, since I was seven.

via Diagnosing and Treating Dysthymia in Children: When Depression is Chronic at an Early Age – Symptoms – Depression.

Bullying and Ostracizing Tied to Depression and Anxiety in Special Needs Children – Causes – Depression

By Deborah Posted in Mental Health Writing Tagged , ,

Children with special needs have always been a favorite target for bullying and teasing. It’s easy to see why – they’re different. Except for the occasional rebel, most children don’t want to be stand out from the crowd. Being different is generally not seen as a good thing. Certainly, no child wants to be different because they have special needs.

In a small study presented at the Pediatric Academic Societies annual meeting on April 29th, researchers claim that children with special needs who are bullied or shunned by their peers are at a greater risk for anxiety and depression. And surprisingly, it is this, more than any aspect of their disability and its challenges, that was a predictor of depression and anxiety.

The researchers recruited 109 children from ages 8 to 17 during a routine visit to their physician at a children’s hospital. The children and their parents or guardians completed a questionnaire that screens for depression and anxiety, and the children also completed a questionnaire that asked them about bullying and exclusion from their peers.

via Bullying and Ostracizing Tied to Depression and Anxiety in Special Needs Children – Causes – Depression.

Looking at Mike Wallace’s Contribution to Our Understanding of Depression

By Deborah Posted in Mental Health Writing Tagged ,

"I didnt know what was the matter with me. All I knew was that I was feeling lower than a snake’s belly…I remember we used to go to restaurants, and I’d say ‘Everybody’s pointing at me, the cheat, the fraud, the fake. You really believe these things! Astonishing!" 

Mike Wallace, who died April 7 at the age of 93, will be probably be remembered by most people as a legendary, take-no-prisoners interviewer (according to his 2005 memoir "Between You and Me," he was given the title of "The Terrible Torquemada of the TV Inquisition" even before "60 Minutes" launched in 1968). But to many others, he’ll be remembered as one of the first public figures who was brave enough to open up about his clinical depression, including the suicide attempt that led to his depression diagnosis and treatment.

via Looking at Mike Wallace’s Contribution to Our Understanding of Depression – Depression.

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