Battling Depression

By Christine Silva

Depression affects 1 out of every 10 Americans, although most people with depression do not seek treatment. Depression has been tied to heredity, biological disorders, and traumatic events. Major depression is one of the leading causes of disability worldwide. Bipolar disorder (also called manic-depression) is generally accepted as an inherited condition, although the disorder can develop without any previous hereditable conditions.

According to the US Surgeon General’s Office, depression has definite biological factors, and should not be taken lightly. However, some forms of depression are sparked by physical illness and environmental factors, such as anemia and hypothyroidism. Depression affects memory, sexual appetite, sleeping habits, and many other daily activities. Some common symptoms of depression are:

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By Kitty Barker

Mania is the medical condition where patients suffer severely elevated moods at all times. Normally it is associated with mood swings when the patient goes through extremely elevated or happy mood at one time and at the other time may feel depressed. However this is not the only condition and Mania can occur without these cyclical episodes.

How do I know I have Mania?

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By Chris Green

I recently posted an article to my website about how certain beliefs underpin stress, depression and anxiety. One of the main beliefs I briefly introduced concerns helplessness. Helplessness is a major part of these illnesses so let’s look at how you can reduce the impact this flawed belief has.

Believing you are helpless in life is a truly terrible feeling and I write from personal experience here. For five years, a number of traumatic events led me to the point where I believed life held nothing but pain and anguish. I truly believed life would unfold in a way that would destroy me and there wasn’t a single thing I could do about it.

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By Terry Coyier

When you suffer from a disease like Bipolar it’s extremely important that you become intimately in tune with yourself. Not in sense that your favorite movie is “Steel Magnolias” or “Raging Bull” or that you love pizza and taking long walks on the beach. I mean in the sense that you know how your moods manifest in your day-to-day life.

Being bipolar and trying to remain a contributing member of society is a difficult task. Many wonderful, talented, bright people watch helplessly as their functionality escapes through their fingers like grains of sand. And these are people who are on meds! Some even go to therapy, too! Sometimes, the more we fight to hang on the quicker the ground gives way beneath us.

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