Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing (EMDR) therapy is primarily used as a treatment for PTSD. Discovered and developed by Francine Shapiro, Ph.D., EMDR uses eye movements, taps or tones to reprogram trauma victims’ thinking. The end result can be relatively fast relief of PTSD symptoms, including the re-experiencing of the trauma and other symptoms resulting from horrific events like rape or combat. EMDR also helps with “little t” traumas having to do with beliefs about ourselves formed during childhood and other mental health disorders. Keep reading
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Discussion of mental health topics associated with the HealthyPlace TV Show.
Stigma attached to Major Depression and other mental illnesses can be as difficult to deal with as the illness itself. The idea that “they won’t understand” keeps depression sufferers silent and compounds their sense of isolation and negative thinking patterns.
Dr. Deborah Serani is a go-to expert on the subject of depression. What makes her perspective unique is that she specializes in the treatment of depression and also lives with depression. “One of the greatest things I’ve been able to do,” Serani says, “is to let others know that there’s no shame in living with a mental illness. Help is out there – and you don’t have to suffer quietly or alone.”
Overcoming Depression Requires Recognition and Work
For a long time, Dr. Serani didn’t even know she had major depression. She couldn’t put a label on what was going on even though she experienced the negative, corrosive thoughts that come along with the illness. On this edition of the HealthyPlace Mental Health TV Show, Dr. Serani shares her own experiences of living with depression, the importance of understanding the role of your genetics and your life experiences in your recovery efforts, and provides insight and tips on how you can overcome depression.
Dr. Serani is the author of the self help book, “Living with Depression”, about her lifetime struggles with major depression and suicidal thinking, and how finding the right combination of treatments can lead to health and healing.
Share Your Experience of Overcoming Depression
Have you found a way to deal with your Depression that works for you? Do you know someone who lives with Major Depression? How have they found relief? We invite you to call us and share your thoughts and experience with us at 1-888-883-8045. (Info about Sharing Your Mental Health Experience here.) You can also leave comments below.
Some people consider schizophrenia the most debilitating of mental disorders, and indeed, if you ask almost any unaffected person to describe the disorder, they will probably rattle off symptoms like paranoia, hallucinations, delusions, bizarre outbursts and the like. However, when diagnosed, the symptoms of schizophrenia can be kept at arms length with support from family and friends, medication and therapy.
Bill McPhee is living proof that schizophrenia can be controlled, and those with the disorder can live productive, loving lives. Keep reading
Heather McCready, experienced days filled with “desperate sadness and intense darkness” and was diagnosed with depression and bipolar disorder and then hospitalized for mania and suicidal depression. Ms. McCready’s voyage through mental illness deprived her of her creative abilities for six years. Finally, after all medicines failed, she underwent electroconvulsive therapy (ECT) and now enjoys fewer dark days.
Bipolar Disorder carries a high genetic probability, meaning it tends to run in families. Heather’s grandfather began to handle the disorder only after ECT many years ago. Her aunt and cousin weren’t so fortunate and succumbed to suicide a year apart. Heather knows she must maintain awareness about her condition and vowed to tell her closest loved ones if suicidal thoughts bombard her so they can help right away. Keep reading
Television and movies are the extent of my knowledge about autism and Asperger’s Syndrome. I’ve been led to believe that people with autism are either like Rain Man (an autistic savant) or less gifted, empathy-denied individuals loved by their parents who understand their child cannot love them back.
Boy, have I been misled. Keep reading
During the bulk of my abusive marriage, I didn’t realize how isolated I was, but I did recognize the fact that other families weren’t like mine. The shame of not knowing how to fix my problems overwhelmed me, and the frustration of having no one to talk to hurled me into depression. The guilt of being ill-functioning for my children and husband kept me low. It was a devastating downward spiral that ended only after I realized I was not alone in my struggles.
Perhaps my “aha moment” would have come more quickly if Band Back Together, the website created by Becky Sherrick Harks, was available to me then.
Known as Aunt Becky to the Internet, Sherrick Harks created a website called bandbacktogether.com and invites everyone suffering from trauma, sickness, mental illness or abuse to share their story online. Keep reading
Those who suffer from agoraphobia alone or panic disorder with agoraphobia know too well the debilitating symptoms associated with this anxiety disorder. Agoraphobics live under a constant state of dread as though there is something “fundamentally wrong with the universe and stepping out the door will invite the wrongness in,” says our guest, Kelly Brumbelow.
Agoraphobia forces sufferers to avoid panic attack triggers related to people, places and things. Over time and without treatment, the triggers can become quite extensive until the agoraphobic’s movements are limited to only a few safe places. Keep reading
Anxiety and worry are a part of life. Properly functioning anxiety helps us find our courage and overcome limitations. But sometimes, anxiety becomes dysfunctional and leads us down a road toward debilitating, circular thoughts and constant preoccupation with past or possible life events (read about anxiety attacks and anxiety attack symptoms). To top it off, when you discover that your anxiety is out of control, you may also feel anxious about your anxiety. Keep reading
I love to pop some popcorn and watch an unassuming protagonist discover that his friends, his family, his whole life is not quite what it seems, and then go about the dangerous business of solving the mystery that has become his reality. Others may try to convince the hero that he’s confused or delusional, but part of what I love about a good psychological thriller is that the hero is always vindicated in the end. And while there are real people whose lives are as filled with conspiracy and intrigue as a box office hit, many of them are living in a false world made up of schizophrenic delusions. And it’s not a glamorous world. It’s a world fueled by mental illness, by the symptoms of schizophrenia. Keep reading
There are about as many men with bipolar disorder as there are women. But is living with bipolar disorder essentially the same for men as it is for women? And what about the relationship between race and mental illness? Though the illness is the same, gender and race may shape life with bipolar disorder in profound ways that most of us have never even considered. Keep reading
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