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Seasonal affective disorder (also called SAD) is a type of depression that occurs at the same time every year. If you're like most people with seasonal affective disorder, your symptoms start in the fall and may continue into the winter months, sapping your energy and making you feel moody. Less often, seasonal affective disorder causes depression in the spring or early summer.

Don't brush off that yearly feeling as simply a case of the "winter blues" or a seasonal funk that you have to tough out on your own — you may have seasonal affective disorder. Treatment for seasonal affective disorder includes light therapy (phototherapy), psychotherapy and medications. Addressing the problem can help you keep your mood and motivation steady throughout the year.

READ THE REST OF THE ARTICLE HERE!

Four easy positive psychology exercises can help you improve your relationship and be happier. Each of these exercises, resulting from psychology studies, offer the benefits of greater happiness, contentment, and life satisfaction.

Autonomy—Express your individuality

The more autonomy and freedom of choice in your life, the happier you are. Look for opportunities in your daily life, at work and home, to express your free choice and independence.

• Organize your space.
  
• Devote some time to activities you enjoy
  

Bad Feelings Fade

Positive psychology researcher Dan Gilbert finds that people systematically over-estimate the duration of their feelings about both positive and negative future events. People adapt to new situations very quickly. Therefore, the negative event you fear, if it occurs, won't trouble you for as long as you now think it will. Conversely, the glow from a positive event won't last forever either.

• The future isn't as bright as you hope nor as dim as you fear.
  
• Adjust your expectations accordingly.
  

Fun and Philanthropy

Psychology studies show that an orientation to the welfare of others is, in the long run, more satisfying than an orientation to one's own pleasure. To experience this for yourself:

• In the next week, undertake one pleasurable activity for yourself and one philanthropic activity that will benefit another person.
  
• Spend about the same amount of time on each activity during the week and at the end of the week jot down your reactions and feelings as a result of each activity.
  

Gratitude Letter

Gratitude is a wonderful feeling of thanks that, when expressed, brings positive emotions to both initiator and recipient. To experience this for yourself, pick someone who has been kind and helpful to you, but has not heard your personal expression of thanks.

Read more at Suite101: Positive Psychology Exercises for Life Happiness: Psychology Studies to Improve Relationships and Bring Happiness http://personaldevelopment.suite101.com/article.cfm/5_positive_psychology_exercises#ixzz0bwzFrOVw

Dedicate yourself to whom ever you can think of and you can be rest assured that they would be more valued and prized than an expensive gift. There are certain things that money can't buy and giving is by far one such thing.
Albert Schweitzer

WASHINGTON, D.C. – U.S. Sen. Sherrod Brown (D-OH) today announced $138,514 in competitive grants to invest in the Allen County Juvenile Court to create jobs and expand support services. The federal funds, made available through the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 are allocated through the Department of Justice (DOJ) Justice and Mental Health Collaboration Program Expansion.

“The costs of this project are far outweighed by its benefits. It simply makes sense to reduce costly recidivism at a young age and ensure that young Ohioans can lead productive and crime-free lives,” Brown said. “It’s an investment in our youth as well as fiscal prudence.”

These funds will be used to expand the Court Assessment Services Team (CAST) Program. CAST is a team of mental health, diversion, probation and education professionals working in conjunction to serve court-involved youth. Grant funds will allow CAST to provide 250 eligible youth with more intensive services and all youth with initial problem identification screening.

Children who are nervous about the new school year can relax by practicing "mindfulness" during anxious moments, researchers say. Experts at Duke University, in Durham, N.C., recommend mindfulness, which is a technique borrowed from meditation, to help children transition into the new school year and deal with many academic and social pressures.

"Making a transition, whether it's to a new school, a new teacher or a new grade, signals change," said Dr. Michelle Bailey, a pediatrician at Duke Integrative Medicine, in a news release from the university. "When adults are stressed, they often turn to smoking or alcohol or food to pacify emotions. We need to teach kids how to handle stress in a healthy way."

Mindfulness encourages children to live in the moment and not fret as much about future events, Bailey said. In addition, practicing meditative techniques can help children sleep better, reduce anxiety and stay more focused.

·         Mindful walking: After dinner, take a walk and pay attention to all the sights, sounds and colors. Encourage the child to use this technique on the playground and at school.

·         Mindful breathing: Ask the child to take time in the morning and evening to pay attention to his or her breathing for 20 inhales and exhales. Steady breathing has a calming effect on the body.

·         Mindful listening: At the dinner table, ring a bell or play a note on a musical instrument to capture the family's attention, then give each person a turn to speak about their day while the rest of the family gives their full attention, to encourage active listening.

To get the best results, Bailey suggests that families go to an accredited, mindfulness-based, stress-reduction program offered at many clinics and hospitals.

"Mindfulness helps kids recognize their thoughts, reconnect with their emotions and understand how that impacts their behavior," Bailey said in the news release. "Ultimately, if we can heighten awareness of our thoughts, we can modify our emotions and that changes behavior."

For the full text of this article visit www.mentalhelp.net

NOTE: This release was submitted to local media and legislators.

On Wednesday (8/5/2009), the Planning Committee of the Mental Health and Recovery Services Board of Allen, Auglaize and Hardin Counties learned that it had received the most severe cuts in its history. The recently passed state budget leaves Allen, Auglaize and Hardin County residents with $1.69 million less, about 34%, in state funding for services than last year and about 44% less state funding since July 2008.

"It is hard to imagine that our Governor, State Representatives and State Senators truly understand the devastating impact that this level of service cuts means to our residents who in this time of economic crisis need our services most," Michael Schoenhofer, Executive Director of the Mental Health and Recovery Services Board told the committee. "Without these vital services people will die, they will end up in the emergency rooms, they will be in jail, and they will be homeless."

More than 6000 children and adults ranging in age from 3 years old to 70 years old receive Board services in the three counties of Allen, Auglaize and Hardin each year. Prevention programs alone serve an estimated 5000 people annually. All of the Board's programs and services were affected. The largest cuts were reductions in counseling, inpatient care, early-childhood, housing, and employment services.

"At this time the Board is struggling to maintain core services for persons with mental illness and addictions.  We are not equipped to help the increasing number of people seeking services for depression, anxiety, and substance abuse, Schoenhofer said. "Our priority has been to work with adults, families and children earlier to keep people in the community, families together, and children at home. Some of our most effective services in the three counties are in jeopardy."

In recent years the Board has developed a 24 hour crisis service with Lutheran Social Services, outreach programs in schools for children and families through Family Resource Centers, housing for women in recovery through Lima UMADAOP, and many other programs that enable people to lead fulfilling and productive lives.  

"These budget cuts passed by our state lawmakers and the Governor will impact our families, our neighbors and our communities in ways that will likely shock everyone in the months ahead," Schoenhofer said.

In his 2005 book Blink, Malcolm Gladwell is certain to make another impact on business and society as a whole. Blink focuses on “rapid cognition,” or quick thinking — the split-second mental processing that leads us to sometimes make great decisions, and other times to make tragic mistakes. Blink reveals that great decision makers aren't those who process the most information or spend the most time deliberating.

It also introduces another buzzword, “thin-slicing,” that seems certain to enter the business vocabulary. The term refers to focusing on the few factors that matter — and discarding everything that is irrelevant.

In other words, it's possible to gain important information and make good decisions from very narrow slices of experience. As Gladwell writes on his Web site, Gladwell.com, “We live in a society dedicated to the idea that we're always better off gathering as much information and spending as much time as possible in deliberation. As children, this lesson is drummed in us again and again: Haste makes waste; look before you leap; stop and think. But I don't think this is true. There are lots of situations — particularly at times of high pressure and stress — when haste does not make waste, when our snap judgments and first impressions offer a much better means of making sense of the world.”

In the book, Gladwell reveals how people can often make amazingly accurate decisions based on details, impressions, and feelings — better decisions, in fact, than those arrived at by people who ponder and analyze at great length.

This article is from a book review by Richard Lalich.

Victims of childhood bullying may face a higher risk of displaying psychotic symptoms in early adolescence, according to research published in the May Archives of General Psychiatry.

Andrea Schreier, Ph.D., of the University of Warwick in Coventry, United Kingdom, and colleagues analyzed data from 6,437 children in a prospective cohort study. The children's history of being bullied was assessed using personal interviews and parent and teacher reports at ages 8 and 10, and psychosis-like symptoms were assessed in the children at a mean age of 12.9.

The researchers found that children who had been bullied had nearly double the risk of psychotic symptoms (odds ratio, 1.94); a similar relationship was found when using teachers' and mothers' reports of bullying. Bullying that was long-term or severe was linked to stronger associations with psychotic symptoms (odds ratios up to 4.60).

"Whether repeated victimization experiences alter cognitive and affective processing or reprogram stress response or whether psychotic symptoms are more likely due to genetic predisposition still needs to be determined in further research. A major implication is that chronic or severe peer victimization has nontrivial, adverse, long-term consequences," the authors write. "Reduction of peer victimization and of the resulting stress caused to victims could be a worthwhile target for prevention and early intervention efforts for common mental health problems and psychosis."

Link to this source

Melissa had been the ideal worker, always willing to take on new projects, work long hours and weekends -- until last year. There were subtle changes at first. Her demeanor turned from always positive to a growing streak of negativism. She began to have problems sleeping. She felt frustrated with a lack of progress within the firm, and a growing sense of no longer being a part of the team. She started to use sick days for the first time -- some for a nagging number of illnesses, some for mental health days. Luckily for Melissa, she had some friends who recognized the problem she was suffering from was job stress.

What is Job Stress?
Job stress is something we all face as workers -- and we all handle it differently. There is no getting around it. But, not all stress is bad, and learning how to deal with and manage stress is critical to our maximizing our job performance, staying safe on the job, and maintaining our physical and mental health. For workers like Melissa, infrequent doses of job stress pose little threat and may be effective in increasing motivation and productivity, but too much -- and too prolonged -- can lead to a downward spiral -- both professionally and personally.

Some jobs, by definition, tend to be higher stress -- such as ones that are in dangerous settings (fire, police), that deal with demanding customers (service providers), that have demanding time pressures (healthcare), and that have repetitive detailed work (manufacturing) -- but stress is not limited to any one particular job or industry.

The National Institute for Occupational (NIOSH), part of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, states that job stress, now more than ever, poses a threat to the health of workers –- and the health of organizations. NIOSH defines job stress as the harmful physical and emotional responses that occur when the requirements of the job do not match the capabilities, resources, or needs of the worker. Stress also occurs when the situation has high demands and the worker has little or no control over it. Job stress can lead to poor health and injury.

Job Stress Statistics
Numerous studies examining job stress sound an alarming bell about the mental and physical health of American workers:

• A Northwestern National Life study found that 40 percent of workers report their job is “very or extremely stressful.” And that one-fourth of employees view their jobs as the number one stressor in their lives.
• A Families and Work Institute study found 26 percent of workers report they are "often or very often burned out or stressed by their work."
• A Yale University study found 29 percent of workers feel "quite a bit or extremely stressed at work."
• A Princeton Survey Research Associates study reports that three-fourths of employees believe the worker has more on-the-job stress than a generation ago.
• A Gallup Poll found that 80 percent of workers feel stress on the job, and nearly half reported that they needed help in learning how to manage it.
• According to an article in Shape Magazine, women are 60 percent more likely to suffer from job stress than men.

Symptoms & Warning Signs of Job Stress
While the causes can be something other than job stress, here are the most common symptoms and early warning signs of job stress and burnout:

• Apathy
• Negativism/cynicism
• Low morale
• Boredom
• Anxiety
• Frustration
• Fatigue
• Depression
• Alienation
• Anger/irritability
• Physical problems (headaches, stomach problems)
• Absenteeism

Are you approaching Job Burnout? Take our free assessment: Job Burnout Quiz: How Close Are You To Burning Out?

Causes of Job Stress
There are two schools of thought on the causes of job stress.

According to one theory, differences in individual characteristics, such as personality and coping style, are best at predicting what will stress one person but not another. The focus then becomes on developing prevention strategies that help workers find ways to cope with demanding job conditions.

The other theory proposes that certain working conditions are inherently stress-inducing, such as fear of job loss, excessive workload demands, lack of control or clear direction, poor or dangerous physical working conditions, inflexible work hours, and conflicting job expectations. The focus then becomes on eliminating or reducing those work environments as the way to reducing job stress.

Strategies for Managing Job Stress
While many of the methods of preventing job stress need to be developed and supported by the organization, there are things that workers can do to help you better manage job stress.

Here are 10 tips for dealing with the stress from your job:

1. Put it in perspective. Jobs are disposable. Your friends, families, and health are not. If your employer expects too much of you, and it's starting to take its toll on you, start looking for a new job/new employer.
2. Modify your job situation. If you really like your employer, but the job has become too stressful (or too boring), ask about tailoring your job to your skills. And if you got promoted into a more stressful position that you just are not able to handle, ask about a lateral transfer -- or even a transfer back to your old job (if that's what you want).
3. Get time away. If you feel the stress building, take a break. Walk away from the situation, perhaps walking around the block, sitting on a park bench, taking in a little meditative time. Exercise does wonders for the psyche. But even just finding a quiet place and listening to your iPod can reduce stress.
4. Fight through the clutter. Taking the time to organization your desk or workspace can help ease the sense of losing control that comes from too much clutter. Keeping a to-do list -- and then crossing things off it -- also helps.
5. Talk it out. Sometimes the best stress-reducer is simply sharing your stress with someone close to you. The act of talking it out -– and getting support and empathy from someone else -- is often an excellent way of blowing of steam and reducing stress. Have a support system of trusted people.
6. Cultivate allies at work. Just knowing you have one or more co-workers who are willing to assist you in times of stress will reduce your stress level. Just remember to reciprocate and help them when they are in need.
7. Find humor in the situation. When you –- or the people around you -- start taking things too seriously, find a way to break through with laughter. Share a joke or funny story.
8. Have realistic expectations. While Americans are working longer hours, we can still only fit so much work into one day. Having unrealistic expectations for what you can accomplish sets you up for failure -- and increased stress.
9. Nobody is perfect. If you are one of those types that obsess over every detail and micromanage to make sure "everything is perfect," you need to stop. Change your motto to performing your best, and leave perfection to the gods.
10. Maintain a positive attitude (and avoid those without one). Negativism sucks the energy and motivation out of any situation, so avoid it whenever possible. Instead, develop a positive attitude -- and learn to reward yourself for little accomplishments (even if no one else does).

Final Thoughts
Okay, so it's a cliche, but your health is everything. You need to take care of yourself, and no job, customer, or boss is worth putting yourself at risk. Find a way out through one or more of our 10 strategies. Take control of your situation -- and fix it -- and you will have better mental and physical health, as well as better relationships with the people around you.

by Randall S. Hansen, Ph.D.
Link to this article http://www.quintcareers.com/managing_job_stress.html

KIDS WILL BE KIDS

Myth: Teenagers don't suffer from "real" mental illnesses — they are just moody.
Fact : One in five teens has some type of mental health problem in a given year.
— National Institute of Mental Health/Harvard University Study June 2005

Myth: Talk about suicide is an idle threat that need not be taken seriously.
Fact : Suicide is the third leading cause of death among high school students and the second leading cause of death in college students. Talk about suicide should always be taken seriously.
— Jed Foundation

Myth: Childhood mental health problems are really the result of poor parenting.
Fact : If someone in your family has a mental illness, then you may have a greater chance of developing the illness, but mental illness generally has little or nothing to do with parenting.
— Surgeon General's Report on Mental Health

JUST SNAP OUT OF IT

Myth: Mental illness is not real and cannot be treated .
Fact : Mental disorders are as easy to diagnose as asthma, diabetes and cancer with a range of effective treatments for most conditions.
— Surgeon General's Report on Mental Health

Myth: We're good people. Mental illness doesn't happen to my family .
Fact: One in four families is affected by a mental health problem.
— National Alliance for the Mentally Ill

Myth: Eating disorders only affect celebrities and models.
Fact: Each year eating disorders and binge eating affect 24 million Americans. Eating disorders claim more lives each year than any other mental disorder.
— National Institute of Mental Health

IT'S JUST THE BLUES

Myth: Children are too young to get depressed, it must be something else.
Fact: More than two million children suffer from depression in the United States and more than half of them go untreated.
— US Center for Mental Health Services

Myth: It's not depression, you're just going through a phase.
Fact: Nineteen million adults in the United States suffer from some form of depression every year.
— National Institute of Mental Health

Myth: Senior citizens don't get depressed, it's just an expected part of aging.
Fact: Five million older Americans suffer from clinical depression and account for 20% of all suicides.
— Surgeon General's Report on Mental Health

THEY'RE JUST WEAK

Myth: A homeless person with a mental illness has little chance of recovery.
Fact: Homelessness can be significantly decreased when people are connected to case management, supported housing and related services.
— US Department of Housing and Urban Development

Myth: People who abuse drugs aren't sick they are just weak.
Fact: Over 66% of young people with a substance use disorder have a co-occurring mental health problem which complicates treatment.
— Surgeon General's Report on Mental Health

Myth: Troubled youth just need more discipline.
Fact: Almost 20% of youths in juvenile justice facilities have a serious emotional disturbance and most have a diagnosable mental disorder.
— US Department of Justice

WE JUST CAN'T AFFORD IT

Myth: Insurance doesn't need to cover mental health, it's not a big problem.
Fact: Fifty-four million Americans are affected by mental illness each year, regardless of ethnicity, sex or socioeconomic class.
— Surgeon General's Report on Mental Health

Myth: Doctors are too busy treating physical problems to deal with mental health.
Fact: Up to one-half of all visits to primary care physicians are due to conditions that are caused or exacerbated by mental illness.
— Collaborative Family Healthcare Coalition

Myth: Mental illness is a personal problem not a business concern.
Fact: Depression is the leading cause of disability in the United States over back problems, heart disease and liver failure.
— World Health Organization