MENTAL HEALTH

DEPRESSION

Depression is an illness and its not the same as feeling a bit down from time to time, which is normal and is a part of life and they are transient and go away. In suffering from depression these feelings don't go away, sometimes people don't realise they are depressed or they may feel if they admit to it they will see it as a sign of weakness as like most mental illnesses there can be a stigma attached. There is nothing to be ashamed off if you are depressed and it saddens me when ignorant people say its all in the mind or say snap out of it, with depression you can't.

The vast majority of severe emotional illnesses are in fact breakdowns in the internal chemistry of our bodies, brought about by stress.  The broken chemistry is the source of great suffering for the purpose involved, who often does not realise why they are having such trouble coping and why they are suffering so much.

Some of the symptoms are:

• Feeling hopeless and there's no point in doing anything
• Crying a lot and feeling sad most of the time
• Disliking yourself/self hate
• Lacking energy, lethargy
• Feeling guilty for feeling depressed
• Eating more binging or hardly eating at all
• Being irritable, short tempered 
• Feeling lonely
• Sleeping problems often waking in the early hours
• Poor libido
• Poor concentration
• Self harming
• Thoughts of suicide

If you have had a few of these symptoms and especially the latter two please speak to someone how you are feeling, ideally your doctor or health professional, don't suffer in silence. Depression is not something to be ashamed of, it is treatable and you can get better and it should be viewed like any other illness. Don't listen to anyone who says pull yourself together or snap out of it, you can't help it and anyone who says that to a depressed person clearly has never experienced depression and is extremely ignorant.

So if you are feeling depressed and you've been feeling this way for a couple of weeks or more take that first step to getting well please go and speak to your doctor

There is an alternative to suicide

Go to sleep, so that the pain can subside.   Suicidal ideas go up and down in intensity and in suffering.   People who have felt as bad as you are eventually very glad they are still alive, and wish they could convince you of this.   There are multiple telephone services, support services, counsellors, psychologists, GPs, psychiatrists and medications that can stop the distress you currently feel.   And life changes continuously, so that it is inevitable that you will feel much better in a short period of time.   Human beings do recover from earthquakes and wars, so you are genetically programmed to recover from pain.   Please stay alive, and give both nature and those who care about you a chance to fix your pain.  

AND THERE IS HOPE

And there is hope

When all is lost and Pandora's box is open wide

Strength and hope were left inside

Together to help our pain and sorrow

Together getting us through tomorrow

For what it's worth no pain is too great nor sadness too high

When tears torment and bleed your eye

Hope and strength will never leave us on our own

No matter how it hurts so bad and so low down

They wrap us up in a cape of healing

Soothe us gently no matter what we are feeling

We only have to ask, a whisper will do

Shshshsh cry no more, they are helping you

MPB ©  

http://www.assurety.org 

BIPOLAR ILLNESS

TIME THE STIGMA WAS REMOVED 

For far too long there has been a stigma associated with mental illness, however there seems to be a spate of celebrities who are professing to suffer from BiPolar illness, but are they really? I'm all for publicising mental illness, for too long it's been misunderstood and the pain associated cannot be comprehended unless you have either experienced it first hand or worked in this field. Sympathy is given out easily if its obvious you are suffering from a physical condition such as a broken leg, not so in mental illness where others cannot see your pain. Mental illness deserves recognition and understanding what it does not need are those who think it is a fashionable ailment of the moment. I like to think these celebrities are genuine sufferers for this will certainly help give mental illness the empathy and attention it needs and talked about instead of being hidden and hushed up

Article below is from the DAILY MAIL

Manic depression has been rebranded as bipolar... But are so many of us really mentally ill?

Affliction: Catherine Zeta-Jones publicly admitted she was diagnosed as bipolar

When Lucy Johnstone began working in mental health nearly 20 years ago, bipolar disorder — or manic depression as it was known then — made up a small fraction of her workload.

‘Now, every other referral is someone with suspected bipolar disorder,’ says Johnstone, a consultant clinical psychologist for Cwm Taf Health Board in Wales.

‘More people turn up with it because they hear about it in the news. They go to their GP saying: ‘‘I think I’m bipolar.’’ ’

This confirms the effect of what some feel is the ‘fashion’ among celebrities for being labelled bipolar, a condition the Royal College of Psychiatrists claims affects one in 100 people at some point in their lives. 

The latest high-profile name is Hollywood star Catherine Zeta-Jones, who was reportedly admitted to a clinic for five days suffering from depression and mood swings brought on by the stress of her husband, Michael Douglas, battling throat cancer.

She joins household names, such as Stephen Fry, Sting, Ben Stiller and Jean-Claude Van Damme, in declaring publicly that they suffer with the condition. 

But what is bipolar disorder, and is there really a hidden epidemic? Or is it a Hollywood fad for blaming the stresses of ordinary life on a mental illness? 

And could this trend be misleading ordinary people into thinking they, too, have a psychiatric illness when they are experiencing what psychologists describe simply as ‘extreme mood variations’?

The term manic depression was used to describe people whose moods swung from elation to despair and hopelessness. 

It’s a condition which, during the manic phase, makes people feel invincible and bursting with exciting ideas. 

Their speech accelerates, they sleep no more than a couple of hours a night and they can lose all sense of financial responsibility — sometimes running up huge credit card bills.

But in the depressed stage, they struggle to make the simplest decisions and sometimes feel suicidal. Research suggests it is mostly genetic, but is triggered by a stressful experience, such as job loss, bereavement or physical illness. 

Sufferers can experience ‘rapid cycling’, where their mood swings from one extreme to the other every few weeks.

In 1980, when psychiatrists were updating the psychiatric profession’s ‘bible’ — the Diagnostic And Statistical Manual Of Mental Disorders — they changed the name to bipolar disorder.

They chose the term to reflect the fact that the elation and desperation patients feel are the polar opposites of each other.

Also, manic depression had become associated with psychotic behaviour, where the sufferer hallucinates and hears voices. In fact, very few experience this. 

High profile: Other celebrities that have come forward about suffering from bipolar are Sting, left, and Stephen Fry, right, who declared he loved having it

But as well as changing the name, psychiatrists have fine-tuned the definition, so it has gone from covering only extremes of mania and depression to milder behaviour patterns which, sceptics claim, border on normality.

Today, the umbrella term of bipolar disorder covers two forms.

Bipolar disorder one is when the patient has suffered at least one manic episode — where they become highly excitable, barely sleep, talk rapidly and lose their inhibitions — which has lasted for longer than a week, followed by severe depression.

Bipolar disorder two, the kind with which Catherine Zeta-Jones has been diagnosed, is where there may be long periods of moderate depression punctuated by mild attacks of mania. 

It is characterised by hypomania, where a person can be in a semi-permanent state of excitement that may be mistaken for sheer energy and enthusiasm by those around them, before slumping into a depression that can vary from debilitating to so crushing they can’t get out of bed.

Even for psychiatrists, bipolar two can be difficult to distinguish from depression. 

‘When someone is manic, they are very high and often deluded,’ says Dr Peter Byrne, director of public education for the Royal College of Psychiatrists.

‘It’s obvious they need to be sectioned under the Mental Health Act. But with hypomania, you may feel confident and good about yourself. It can be hard to persuade someone with it that they need medical help.’

It was this aspect of his condition that prompted Stephen Fry, in his BBC programme The Secret Life Of The Manic Depressive, to declare he ‘loved’ having it because he believed it provided ‘the energy and creativity that perhaps has made my career’.

Stress: Coping with her husband Michael Douglas's throat cancer brought on Catherine Zeta-Jones's depression, she said

The association with artistic genius is thought to be a key motive for some who seek out a bipolar diagnosis.

It is also seen as a more acceptable term than manic depression.

‘People are happier to be labelled bipolar,’ says Dr William Shanahan, medical director of the private Capio Nightingale Hospital in London. ‘It seems kinder, while manic depression depicts someone running down the road screaming.’

But the steep rise in the use of the bipolar label has caused a rift in the mental health community.

Many psychologists are alarmed at the apparent over-use of the bipolar label and fear it is playing into the hands of those who want to blame life’s stresses on a medical condition. 

There is also concern that those experiencing bipolar-type symptoms as a result of chronic drug or alcohol abuse may court the legitimacy of a medical diagnosis to hide their problems. 

Drug or alcohol abuse can produce erratic behaviour, sleep deficiencies and depression — similar to symptoms of bipolar.

The British Psychological Society (BPS) has questioned whether some people are being wrongly labelled as mentally ill.

‘Many people experience periods of depression and also periods of elation and overactivity,’ it says in a new report on the issue.

Many people experience periods of depression and also periods of elation and overactivity, says the BPS. But should they be classed as mentall ill?

‘Mood can affect how we feel about ourselves. At times we may feel extremely positive or even grandiose about our own abilities, while at other times we may feel we are a complete failure.’

It says some people seek medical help because they mistakenly perceive these mood swings as unnatural. Once they do, they are likely to be diagnosed as bipolar because the criteria are so broad.

But the BPS adds: ‘Not all mental health professionals accept the idea these experiences are caused by an underlying illness. 

‘Some people who experience extreme mood states find it useful to think of themselves as having an illness. And mental health services assume that once someone experiences problems with unstable mood, they are likely to recur.’

The BPS wants a shift in the way bipolar disorder is perceived and treated. It agrees that patients in a manic state need potent drugs to stabilise their moods. But many more, it argues, would recover without medicine and would avoid being stigmatised by mental illness and potentially jeopardising their future job prospects.

‘Traditionally, medicine has been the only type of help offered,’ the report states. ‘But there is increasing evidence that talking treatments can also be useful.’ 

Psychiatrists, on the other hand, point out that talking techniques, such as cognitive behavioural therapy, serve little or no purpose when someone is in a frightening and potentially dangerous manic state.

‘For milder depression, many people may not need medication. But if they have bipolar, it is likely they will,’ says Dr Peter Byrne.

Dr William Shanahan insists drugs have a role to play because it can be impossible to predict how each individual will respond to their violent mood swings.

‘You can get some bad news and feel really down. Those feelings may go away or they may get worse. But at what point do you stop telling yourself to ‘‘pull yourself together’’? Even those with slight depression can end up killing themselves.’

DEPRESSION LINKED TO GENES

Another great article I have come across to prove yet again, depression is not all in the mind. It's long been suspected that depression can run in families and this proves the genetic link. This research will further help to find better treatment for this condition and finally dispel once and for all "Depression is not all in the mind", "Pull yourself together" and "Mind over matter" and all those stupid phrases that ignorant people like to say to those with the condition.

The happiness gene that determines how cheery we are

How happy we are may depend as much on our genes as how well our lives are going, researchers have found. 

They say that they have found a gene that releases 'happy' chemicals into the brain. 

The 5-HTT gene also helps nerve cells recycle serotonin, another chemical in the brain which is linked to mood and depression. 

In the genes: The 5-HTT gene helps release happy chemicals and recycle serotonin

Scientists from the London School of Economics analysed the genes of 2,500 people and found the happiest were the ones who inherited two 'long' versions of the 5-HTT gene. 

The least happy were those who inherited the two 'short' versions of the gene.

Behavioural economist Jan-Emmanuel De Neve, who conducted the research, told the Express: 'It has long been suggested that this gene plays a role in mental health, but this study is the first to to show it is instrumental in shaping individual happiness levels. 

'The results suggest a strong link between happiness and this functional variant of the 5-HTT gene.

Controlling who we are: A person's DNA make-up, as displayed in this image, controls how likely we are to say we are happy

'This finding helps to explain why some people tend to be naturally happier than others, and that's in no small part due to our individual genetic make-up.'

To conduct the research, published in the Journal of Human Genetics, the researchers compared the genetic make-up of each volunteer and asked them a series of questions including: 'How satisfied as a whole are you with your life?'

Those who had two long 5-HTT genes reported the most positive results - with the chances of them replying 'very positive' boosted by 17 per cent. 

Some 26 per cent of those with two short 5-HTT genes were dissatisfied with their life. 

DEPRESSION~SCIENTISTS SAY IT'S GENETIC

I have reproduced this story from the Daily Mail to highlight there is no shame in any form of mental illness. For far too long there has been a stigma attached and the worst thing you can say to anyone who is suffering from mental illnesses is "To pull yourself together" or "Stop being so self indulgent". There is a physical reason for such ailments and slowly scientists are discovering this, hopefully this will lead to better treatments and a cure.

Depression: Scientists say it's genetic - and my family is the proof

For four long unendurable months, she lay in a darkened room, her face as white as the sheet on the bed from which she could not (rather than would not) move.

‘Mum, I want to die.’ That’s what my lively, funny and much loved 17-year-old daughter said to me, day after day, week after week. I was terrified of leaving the house, for fear of what I would find on my return.

She lost a stone, which she could ill afford on her 5ft 10in, size 8 frame, although I tried to make her eat three meals a day. She did her best, even if it was only a bowl of cereal, but said the pain of hunger was a welcome distraction from the pain in her head.

Shared suffering: Sally Brampton and her daughter, who displays all-too-familiar symptoms

The teenager who read voraciously — at least four books a week — could not read a simple sentence. The girl who, according to her school, was destined for Oxford University and a brilliant academic career, missed four months of school in her A-level year. 

She thought she was a failure, a word she used repeatedly. She felt, in some strange way, that it was her fault. It was unbearable. 

‘It’s just adolescent mood swings,’ people said. I knew it wasn’t. I took her to a psychiatrist. Diagnosis: major depressive disorder with a high risk of suicide.

I had heard those word myself, a tear-stained pillow clenched over my face in a bed in a psychiatric unit where I was admitted with severe depression.

So, long before the news this month that scientists had found a genetic link to depression, I knew there must be a connection.

Over the years, I had watched my mother standing in the kitchen, crying helplessly. ‘I want to die,’ she, too, had said. The first time I became conscious of her suffering, I must have been about eight years old.

Genetic? Sally knows better than most how the effects of her daughter's illness could shape her life

She would relapse into apathy, was constantly tired and did not want to leave the house. Either that or she would suddenly become snappy and irritable. 

I didn’t understand it back then, either my mother’s sudden acute misery, or my own. I knew nothing about depression. As a family we weren’t given to hanging out with psychiatrists and therapists. These days, I understand it only too well. 

In retrospect, I realise I have been suffering from depression since I was a teenager, just like my mother, and just like my daughter, whose episodes of the illness started when she was 13, the same age as me. 

There was a reason for my misery; being sent to boarding school when I was ten, a place where I was terribly unhappy.

On top of that, my parents lived overseas, 5,000 miles away, so there was nobody I could talk to. Even if I had, they wouldn’t have understood and put it down to teenage blues.

 'My  mother would suddenly fly into a rage'

The first time I saw a doctor was when I was 20. I told him I was feeling depressed. He gave me medication but it was such a strong sedative that it only made me feel worse and, after a month, I threw it away and battled on. 

Even when I was editor of a successful magazine, Elle, and I should have been on top of the world, there were weeks I could not stop crying. I pretended to the staff that I had flu and couldn’t come into the office. I thought I was just tired or stressed. 

So the science that proves the first solid evidence of a rogue chromosome linked to depression, which gives some people a hereditary disposition, came as something of a relief.

Not because I wanted to find an ‘excuse’ for depression or thumb my nose at those who urge you just to ‘pull yourself together’, but because I wanted (needed) to understand why three generations of bright, lively women sometimes fade into the dark. 

It happens for no reason, but happen it does — to all of us; time after time after time. 

More than anything, the research proves something I have long believed; that depression is an illness, not a self-indulgence or weakness.

It is a complicated disorder, despite the blanket term given to the condition. Saying somebody has depression is like saying they have a virus. Which virus? What’s it called? 

So young: Sally with her beloved daughter when she was a baby

There are many forms of the illness; reactive depression (as in a reaction to difficult life events such as bereavement, the breakdown of a relationship, the loss of a job), postnatal depression, bipolar disorder, bipolar II (which does not include the manic state of bipolar disorder), or simply debilitating, chronically low mood.

Dr Adrian Lord, psychiatrist and medical director of the Cygnet Hospital, explains that depression is so complex it varies even in individuals, let alone between individuals. 

In clinical practice, he often sees patients where there is a distinct line of depression, suicide or bipolar disorder running through one side or other of the family. ‘It can span several generations and often does not seem totally due to shared upbringing, so a genetic component does seem likely,’ he says.

Scientists have long believed that certain people are more susceptible to depression than others but have, until now, not been able to offer substantial proof. 

Some people shrug off circumstances that would topple another person like a pack of dominoes — which is another reason why depression is stigmatised as weak self-pity. How often have I heard the words, ‘Other people are far worse off than you’. Yes, I know. And? 

Whenever I write a personal account on the subject for a newspaper, the comments on the website are inevitably the poisonous, ill-informed malice that any mention of depression seems to inspire. 

Here is a real quote from one   website. ‘You should be ashamed of yourself. My Nan worked in a biscuit factory for 30 years, raised three kids single-handedly and never had a day’s depression in her life.’

Well, all I can say is, lucky old Nan.Quite apart from the implications these new findings signify for effective treatments for those suffering from depression (although, still far off in the future), the discovery that a section of DNA is responsible might finally put those ridiculous, antiquated attitudes to rest. It’s bad enough suffering from any severe illness, without being harangued for it.

In fact, it is so distressing that my most fervent wish would be to lock all the doubters and sceptics in a room with my pale, mute, severely depressed daughter for 24 hours so they can witness the illness first-hand and see for themselves the terrible toll it takes.

 'For weeks I could not stop crying'

Depression affects about 20 per cent of people at some point in their lives. Severe, recurring depression affects up to  4 per cent of people and is notoriously hard to treat. That’s the form that afflicts me, my daughter and my mother. 

Medication helps but it is not, as some people believe, a cure — and nor are antidepressants ‘happy pills’. That’s the Disney version. They are powerful drugs formulated to help bring neurochemicals back into balance and have extremely unpleasant side-effects. Some work, some don’t — and some make depression infinitely worse.

For the lucky minority (30 per cent) they help to alleviate the condition. I have been on 13 different antidepressants, none of which helped until, under the constant care of a psychiatrist, we finally discovered a cocktail of drugs which keep me stable — at least, most of the time.

The workings of the brain are still so little understood that treating depression is like shooting a gun into the dark and hoping the magic bullet of medication will find its  target.

Hence the comment, from Gerome Breen, leader of the team of scientists at the Institute of  Psychiatry, Kings College London who found the evidence of a hereditary link, that ‘these findings are truly exciting’. An excitable scientist is a rare creature indeed. 

Ten years ago, when the episodes of depression I have suffered since childhood escalated into a full breakdown, a psychiatrist implied that my depression might be genetic because my mother suffers from it.

However, he warned, there was no scientific evidence to prove it. I wanted to shout, ‘I am the evidence’, but one woman’s voice is soundless in the face of conjecture. Scientists want hard facts, not subjective accounts. 

Down days: Depression is an illness. For some of us, there are no reasons. It just is

I wanted facts too, and spent years researching depression, even wrote a book about it. I wanted to know what might have caused mine — mainly in the hope of heading off another severe episode.

Was it my childhood and the instability of being brought up in six different countries and packed off to 12 different schools? Was it my mother’s undiagnosed, untreated depression which sometimes made her retreat from her children?

Was it my father, who has Asperger’s Syndrome (high-functioning autism) so is unable to empathise or, as he puts, ‘understand the difference between happiness and unhappiness.’ 

In other words, was it nurture — what psychologists call environmental or psychosocial circumstances? Or was it just plain nature?

Much of the time, I am happy and optimistic — joyous even. I have prodigious energy, work and play hard and love a project such as doing up a house; summoning builders, decorators, carpenters, electricians and plumbers. My speed and impatience are something of a joke among my friends. 

But when I am depressed I don’t have the energy to do the washing up, let alone call a plumber. At my worst, I washed using hot water from a kettle for nine months because I couldn’t make a phone call to get the boiler fixed. 

 'I'm not living, Mum, I'm enduring'

I have a successful career, a child I adore, wonderful friends, enough money and good health. What reason do I have to be depressed? That doesn’t stop the days when, quite out of the blue, I wake up feeling black despair and all my thoughts turn to suicide. 

It was only when my daughter developed depression for absolutely no reason (happy, popular, with adoring parents and a childhood very different from my own) that it hit me, as clearly and as painfully as a bolt of lightning. Depression is an illness. For some of us, there are no reasons. It just is. 

As my daughter put it: ‘I’m not living, Mum. I’m enduring. I don’t want to be here any more. Not like this.’ She tried, though; screwed up every little bit of courage she could find. Stuck on the wall by her bed was a page ripped out of a school exercise book.

On it she had scrawled in biro, ‘I will get better’. Then another line, in capital letters, ‘I WILL GET BETTER’. That brave little piece of paper broke my heart.

Friends came round to try to cheer her up. She sat in her dressing gown, trying to join in, sometimes even smiling, but I’d known my daughter’s face for 17 years and I knew the difference between a genuine smile and a desperate effort to reassure her friends.

In your biology? The discovery of a genetic link could shed light on depression

There is no blood test for depression, no easy answers and, sadly, no easy remedies. I have spent countless hours talking to therapists, but when I am severely depressed, no words can reach me. 

Depression is not my nature; it is my biology — just as it is my mother’s and daughter’s. I have an illness that causes an imbalance of chemicals in one of the major organs in my body — my brain. To put it another way, I may as well have a chat with my liver and tell it to cheer up. 

The discovery of a genetic link does not mean that, because depressive illness is present in a family, it is inevitable. But it may mean severe emotional stress is more likely to trigger an episode in somebody if there is a history of familial depression than in somebody who has no record of mental illness. 

In other words, it is a pre-disposition rather than a predetermination. Psychiatrist Adrian Lord says he generally sees the former but admits that, in some people, ‘it is so strong, it does seem almost predetermined’.

Do I suffer from guilt from passing on such a terrible illness to my daughter? Hell, yes. My only consolation is that I know the condition so well, I could get her help fast. 

Her solace is that she has a mum who understands and doesn’t dismiss her misery as adolescent mood swings. We call depression our ‘shadow side’. Where there is darkness, there is also light.

Despite missing so much schooling, she got her place at Oxford University, where she is excelling. I am so proud of her, it hurts. 

So, for anybody who still believes that depression is strictly for lazy, self-indulgent losers, may I introduce you to my daughter?

TO BE CONTINUED....