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
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Discussion of mental health topics associated with the HealthyPlace TV Show.
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
Kate White writes about what living with anxiety is like. Natasha Tracy shares her experiences with bipolar disorder. New HealthyPlace blogger Jack Smith writes about life with depression. And last year Rachel McCarthy James joined us on the HealthyPlace Mental Health TV Show to discuss what living with OCD is like for her. But Craig Ludvigsen can tell us what it’s like to have all of those disorders. It’s called psychiatric comorbidity – the presence of more than one mental illness in one individual at the same time – and it can be incapacitating. Keep reading
Today someone struggling with severe clinical depression will hear that they need to snap out of it. A friend, family member, or doctor will tell them that physical exercise or a positive outlook will solve their problem. A stranger will comment, “Smile! It can’t be that bad.” And in a way, all of those people are right. Physical exercise is a helpful component of depression treatment. Cognitive behavioral therapy can also play a role in treating major depressive disorder. But exercise and positive thinking are merely individual weapons … it takes an entire arsenal to wage war on severe clinical depression.
One Man’s War on Severe Clinical Depression
Jack Smith is a man embroiled in a battle against a brain disease called Major Depressive Disorder. He joined us on the HealthyPlace Mental Health TV Show to discuss the realities of living with major depression.
… I’ve been waging war on this brain disease for a long time. And it is a disease. It is not a character flaw. It is not an excuse for my shortcomings. It is not a spiritual defect. It is not a case of the occasional blues. It is real, and it is painful — physically painful. It is maddening and it can be gut wrenching. It is an illness just as diabetes is an illness. I call it a war because war is hell, and so is clinical depression.
Read more from Jack at the Coping with Depression Blog here at HealthyPlace. You can also find him at his personal blog, aptly titled One Man’s War on Depression.
Watch more mental health videos. Trusted depression information here.
Share Your Experience with Severe Clinical Depression
Have you been diagnosed with major depressive disorder or struggled with depression? We invite you to call us and share your thoughts and experiences with us at 1-888-883-8045. (Info about Sharing Your Mental Health Experience here.) You can also leave your comments below.
My son struggles with moderate anxiety from time to time. In turn, I struggle with knowing how best to help him. When I read Angela McClanahan’s blog on parenting a child with a mental illness, I feel renewed gratitude for my comparatively much smaller-scale parenting struggles. Angela’s son has childhood bipolar disorder and her blog illustrates the enormous challenges facing families raising children with mood disorders. Keep reading
I can always stand to lose a few pounds. I love food and may easily drift into an increasingly sedentary lifestyle without realizing it until my body aches with disuse and my jeans are too tight. Lately I’ve been practicing what I now recognize as a kind of Health at Every Size (HAES) approach. Keep reading
Living with depression, major depression, the most severe kind of depression may best be described as a lonely, isolating, hopeless existence. Left untreated, it can lead a person to take desperate measures – anything to escape one more hour, one more day of feeling “like this.” Keep reading
ADHD is popularly thought of as a boy’s mental condition, and although it is diagnosed two to four times more often in boys than girls, with up to 3% of the global population of children having ADHD, that still makes for a lot of girls with ADHD.
What happens to those girls with ADHD when they become adults with ADHD if much of the focus is on men with ADHD? That is the concern of Terry Matlen, ACSW who is a psychotherapist, consultant, writer and coach, specializing in adult attention deficit disorders.
Studies have shown that anywhere from 5% to 25% of women can experience post-partum depression (PPD) after childbirth. Although the exact number of mothers (and in a smaller percent, fathers) is unclear, the burden of post-childbirth exhaustion and depression is real for many women.
Obsessive-compulsive disorder is the fourth most commonly diagnosed mental disorder, making it so prevalent that aspects of the disorder have become characterized in society. “Obsessive-compulsive” has even entered colloquial English as a glib way to describe somebody overly fixated on something. Hollywood gives us shows like “Monk” with their quirky characters, but what is it like to have OCD while growing up as a teenager? How does that affect one’s social life?
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