I Survived Depression - so can YOU!

As our population ages and the numbers of elderly increases so will the amount of people affected with depression. Depression is bad with any age group, but it is extremely alarming- in the elderly considering that they are much more subject to suicide and death. In people between the ages of 80 to 84 the risk of suicide nearly doubles. Depression also increases their risk of heart disease and other diseases.

But there is hope, recently Insight Journal published an article on one way to reduce depression with this group.

But there is a ray of hope for those treating depression in the elderly. One possible contributing factor for increased risk of depression in the elderly is the loss of social support, and a recent study showed that providing depressed, elderly patients with social support programs may decrease the incidence of depression.

Researchers at the Center for Complimentary and Alternative Medicine, Weil Cornell Medical College, investigated whether social service interventions and social support could have an effect on depressive symptoms. Fifty-six homebound clients averaging 82 years of age were used in the study and assessed for depression, quality of life, and functional autonomy.

At the beginning of the study, 33 percent of the patients displayed depressive symptoms. At six-month follow-up, the number displaying depressive symptoms decreased. Eleven percent improved on the Functional Autonomy Scale, and an amazing 63 percent showed an improvement of quality of life. The researchers concluded that depressive symptoms had an effect on quality of life and functional autonomy, but the patients with more social support showed improvement across the board.

So many times seniors are neglected. People go about their daily routines and don’t seem to find the time. Small steps like just checking in on or even just calling an elderly next door neighbor can make such a difference in their lives.

Tags: depression, depression+in+the+elderly, elderly+depression

Do you experience mood swings, sometimes very severe? So severe that sometimes you can barely get out of bed yet other times your feeling like life is one big party and you are capable of doing anything.

Do you sometimes feel like your emotions are out of control? Like you are guided by an outside force that tells you how to feel which in turn guides the way you act in situations. Have you been impulsive, maybe very impulsive? Have you ever gotten up one morning and just decided to quit your job or end a relationship or do something that drastically changed your life.

If your mood swings are this severe what you may be suffering from is manic depression. Manic depression affects 22 million people and those are only the ones that have been diagnosed.

Now if you have either just been diagnosed with manic depression, think that you may have it or are still trying to get your manic depression under control there are many things that you can do to help stabilize your life. (more…)

Judaism considers anger at the sight of someone wronged holy. Buddhism says that anger is a destructive emotion. Modern psychology views anger as a primary and basic emotion experienced by all humans yet the modern understanding of anger is not much more advanced than that of the time of Aristotle.

Anger is the predominant emotion that takes over when a person makes a conscious choice to take action to immediately stop the threatening behavior of another outside force. Further defined, anger is an attempt to control the actions of another either out of frustration or out of fear that they will not do what we want them to.

Although anger is often seen as a negative emotion, controlled anger is actually a healthy release of emotion. Modern psychology points out that suppression of anger may have harmful effects because anger is a basic and healthy response that enables human beings to deal with outside threats. (more…)

Recently I have written on teenage depression. My last post was on the signs of teenage depression and before that I wrote about how the anti depressant Lexapro was found safe for use by teens. I find teenage depression to be the most tragic forms of depression being that it usually will affect a person’s entire life as opposed to depression that comes on later in life after the individual is established. I was in the process researching a new post when I came across this article in Psych Central.

What I found so interesting about it was that it says that the longer someone stays home after graduation the more their chances of getting depressed. Now as someone who has seen this first hand, I can say from experience that getting through school is almost impossible when suffering from depression and moving out and surviving was even more difficult.

May 13, 2008 - Edmonton- The post-university years can start out tough. The good news: it gets better. (more…)

Depression affects every aspect of a person’s life and nothing could be truer when it comes to teenagers. Originally research showed that up to 8 percents of teens are affected by depression, but just yesterday the government came out and reported that more than 2 million U.S. teenagers have suffered a serious bout of depression in the past year, including nearly 13 percent of girls.

Of course lower numbers are always better, but in one way this is good. Now that these numbers have been released maybe more emphasis will be placed on teenage depression. The teenage years are so important because it is then that a person’s life begins to take shape. And until now most teenage depression went untreated and most never even diagnosed.

Reasons for Teen Depression

There are many reasons that can lead to teen depression including stress from school or athletics, peer pressure, the influence of sex hormones, a disturbing event, conflicts with parents and even just the normal maturation process. Although the teenage years can be the best in a person’s life, the teenage years can bring on new situations such as the death of a friend or relative, a breakup with a boyfriend or girlfriend, or failure at school.

Adolescents with low self-esteem, that are highly self-critical, and who feel little sense of control over negative events are particularly at risk to become depressed when they experience stressful events.

So how do you tell if your teen is depressed? (more…)

A new study just released by Forest Laboratories has shown that Lexapro, one medication in a group of depression drugs classified an SSRI’s is having very good results with teens ages 12 to 17. What makes this such an important step in the battle to relieve teen depression is that back in June of 2003, the FDA (US Food and Drug Administration) issued a recommendation that paroxetine which is the generic name for Paxil not be used to treat children or adolescents with depression.

The recommendation by the FDA was a really big blow in the fight against depression because the major symptoms of depression which are sadness and loss of interest in usual activities can affect a teens entire life. What happens is that most teens who suffer from depression never get treated which eventually leads to problems at home and at school. (more…)

On April 19, 2008, during the 76th Annual Meeting of the American Association of Neurological Surgeons in Chicago, researchers from the Cleveland Clinic, Brown University and Massachusetts General Hospital presented results of a study claiming that deep brain stimulation may be an effective way to treat depression and Obsessive Compulsive Disorder. The research which has been ongoing for several years evolved out of the success of DBS in treating the tremors associated with Parkinson’s, dystonia and epilepsy.

Depression is considered to be the highest cause of disability worldwide by The World Health Organization, but most people who suffer from major depression do respond to therapy and medication to some degree. There is however a group of patients that are considered to have treatment resistant depression that do not respond at all. The procedure, intended for these patients will hopefully raise their quality of life and reduce their high suicide rates.

According to Psychiatric Secrets, 2nd ed., treatment resistance is frequently defined as failure to respond to an adequate trial of at least two standard antidepressants. Treatment resistant patients may also initially respond to an antidepressant, but quickly develop a tolerance to it.

Originally it was thought that it was a chemical imbalance that caused depression, now even though the chemical imbalance is still considered part of the problem researchers are looking at electrical activity in the brain as well. “Depression is a physiological disorder, and basically we are regulating the abnormal signals to brain causing the depression,” says Dr. Ali Rezai director of the Center for Neurological Restoration at the Cleveland Clinic in Ohio. (more…)

People begin to smoke for many reasons, including peer pressure, the pleasurable feeling brought on by nicotine and even just the desire to try out something new. And despite all the warnings it is estimated that 4000 teens light up a cigarette every day for the first time.

Along with all the health problems associated with smoking there is yet another problem - DEPRESSION. Originally it was thought that depression, especially in teens brought out the need to smoke.


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According to the National Center on addiction and Substance Abuse (CASA), led by former U.S. Health, Education and Welfare commissioner Joseph A. Califano Jr. twice as many teen smokers as non smokers will suffer symptoms of depression. (more…)