Search Results for: blog increasing mental health problems in the us

Drug Use in the US – Stats

Some people don’t like to think of drug use as mental health issue, but it is. When determining if someone has an addiction we use the same manual as we do to determine if someone has bipolar. It is a medical model of addiction – addiction is a disease similar to any other chronic disease where a combination of genetics and choices contribute to the problem. Think diabetes, heart disease, etc. Many disorders in mental health are looked at through the same lens, because as pieces of the disease are out of our control, pieces are also within our control … Continue reading →

The Importance of Boundaries for Good Mental Health (1)

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The term “having good boundaries” is often used when describing psychological situations or relations between two or more individuals. A boundary is like your own personal fence, and if you have a good set of boundaries, you will largely control what you allow people to say and do to you. I say largely, because none of us have absolute control over how other people treat us. If we are in a job where we are treated badly by the boss and we need the money desperately, then we must learn to put up with the bad behavior to pay our … Continue reading →

Consumerism and Mental Health

Just about every female I know is exhausted at the moment. The reason? Christmas and its after affects. While nervous exhaustion can be brought on by having to deal with families over the holiday period, this physical exhaustion is associated with shopping for gifts, cooking extra meals and the sheer work involved in organizing that once-a-year present and food extravaganza that Christmas has become. Ask many people what Christmas means to then and the answer goes something like this: A constellation of frantic demented activities by parents (usually the mother) over what to buy their children for Christmas. Trying to … Continue reading →

Cocaine: Effects and Uses

In our continuing series on illegal drugs, today we look at cocaine in all its available forms. Cocaine is derived from the leaves of the coca plant which is indigenous to South America. A young Sigmund Freud wrote of its properties and noted that it warded off hunger and sleep and increased powers of concentration. Latin Americans chewed coca leaves for centuries to ward off hunger and fatigue and it was even an ingredient of Coca Cola until the 1920s. In small amounts, cocaine increases alertness, produces feelings of euphoria, raises heart rate and blood pressure and causes insomnia and … Continue reading →

The Effects of Illegal Drugs on the Fetus

Studies have shown most illegal drugs to have a negative effect on the baby. The effects can vary according to the drug taken, the amount or frequency of the drug use and the time in pregnancy when the drug is taken. It’s best to refrain from all drug and alcohol use during pregnancy. Marijuana is the most commonly used drug in America. There are no conclusive studies on the effect of marijuana on the fetus. One reason for the lack of conclusive evidence is that most mothers who smoke marijuana also tend to smoke cigarettes. This makes it difficult to … Continue reading →

Anxiety and sleeping problems

If you’re an anxious person, chances are you also experience sleeping problems from time to time. Depending on individual anxiety levels and environmental stressors in your life, the natural sleep process can be easily disturbed by stressful events which, in turn, lead to further stress and fatigue. Where stress is chronic, sleep disorders may occur. Problems with the wake-sleep cycle are common both among anxious people and those undergoing long periods of periods of stress or depression. When we are stressed, serotonin, a neurotransmitter which performs important roles in the processing of messages in the brain, can affect melatonin levels. … Continue reading →

Friends and Mental Health (1)

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It goes without saying that having good, stable friendships is important to your mental health. So how do you know which of your friends are contributing to your health and which are subtly, or not so subtly, undermining it? Most times we know instinctively which people are “good” for us. But sometimes it can be very hard to tell. We all know people who are cheery, positive, and fun to be with. We feel better when we are in their company. These people can increase our happiness levels on good days, and on the not-so-good days their presence can literally … Continue reading →

Special Needs Podcast Roundup – Week of April 9, 2012

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Once a week, the Special Needs Podcast Roundup brings you brand new episodes of podcasts that discuss issues and topics that are relevant to parents of children that have special needs. These episodes could range from autism, to allergies, from special education to health insurance issues that affect families that have a child who has special needs. The Parent’s Journal has an episode that was released on April 9, 2012. The episode topic is: “Books to Help Preschoolers Who Worry”. It features Jacqueline Golding, who is a psychologist, and the author of “Healing Stories”. Special Chronicles released episode 34 on … Continue reading →

Saving Cee Cee Honeycutt by Beth Hoffman.

Cee Cee Honeycutt is a young girl whose mother suffers from mental illness, she thinks she is still the beauty queen she was at 17. Cee Cee’s father can’t handle her mother so he is gone most of the time leaving Cee Cee to take care of her mother and deal with the constant embarrassment of being the daughter of the town crazy woman. Cee Cee handles this well for her age, takes care of her mother, makes sure the two of them are fed and that her mother doesn’t burn the house down. Cee Cee is a loner, she … Continue reading →

Views of Veterans on Veterans Day

Friday, November 11 is Veterans Day. I am sure that everyone knows at least one man or woman who has served our nation, and many of us are proud to have one or more of these brave individuals in our family trees. Each veteran’s experience with serving our nation was different from the experience of any other veteran. Veterans of the same war may have experienced similar things because they were serving at the same time and place, but each has his or her own unique story to tell. In honor of Veterans Day and in honor of my favorite … Continue reading →