Mental Health News

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Interestingly, scientists have found what they believe is the unhappiest year of the average person’s life using mental health statistics.  That year begins on your 44th birthday.  Scientists from the United States and the United Kingdom have studied happiness amongst people in over 80 different countries to come up with this new bit of information.

It appears that overall happiness in life is something like a depressing U-shaped curve.  According to their research, your overall happiness begins to go down as you get older in life, until it hits rock bottom when you reach 44 years of age.  At that point you remain at your most depressed for a few years, before your overall happiness levels start increasing again.  That is, if you still have good health. 

Those manage to make it through their rock bottom years, dealing with depression in a positive manner and still have good health will begin to see their happiness levels increasing again. 

Andrew Oswald, professor of economics at the University of Warwick in England worked with a colleague to analyze the data on happiness and depression levels.  They found a surprising similarity of results across the board, for rich, poor, average, married, divorced, single or other.  Just about everyone, no matter their life circumstance experiences this particular happiness curve in their lifetime.  

Professor Oswald states that the most plausible explanation for these mental health statistics results from people excepting their own limitations.

Most people start out thinking they can accomplish anything when they are young.  As they grow older they begin encountering challenges, moving into different careers, life circumstances and dealing with problems they just can’t defeat.  Once we reach middle age we realize that we can’t accomplish anything and enter this low level of happiness for a period of time.  The key to raising one’s happiness levels seems to do with accepting these limitations and focusing on what can be done to live a fulfilling life.

 

There are many ways to control and live well with anxiety and depression disorders.  However, there is quite a lot that people aren’t aware of when it comes to social anxiety disorders.

Here are a few things to remain aware of when it comes to these social anxiety disorders from About.com.

1. SAD is more common than you think.

Over a lifetime, approximately 10% of people will experience the symptoms of Social Anxiety Disorder (SAD). It is the third most common psychiatric disorder after depression and alcohol abuse. Until recent years, however, it hasn’t received significant attention from the medical community and so has been under diagnosed.

2. The symptoms may vary depending on cultural influences.

In some Asian cultures (e.g., Japan, Korea), people with SAD may fear offending others rather than being embarrassed. For example, they may fear that their extreme anxiety or direct eye contact may offend someone.

3. It is more common in women than in men.

Despite the fact that equal numbers of men and women seek treatment for SAD, in the general population it is more common in women.

4. If you have SAD, you probably have another disorder too.

SAD quite often pairs with other disorders, most often depression, other anxiety disorders or substance abuse.

5. SAD is a Phobia.

You may not think of social anxiety as a phobia in the same way that people are afraid of heights or snakes, but this is how it is classified. For those with Social Phobia, as SAD is also known, the fear is of being in social situations.

Social Anxiety Disorders like SAD are just as limiting and problematic as any other text book problem.  To learn the other five things to be aware of, you’ll need to head over to About.com. 

The mental health problems, anxiety and depression can increase your risk of heart ailments says researchers.  A new study by McGill University and the Universite de Montreal has found that major depression or anxiety can actually double the chances of repeated heart ailments for a coronary artery disease patient.  This just goes to illustrate what most people already knew commonly.  Your health is directly tied to your happiness and vice versa.

This is one of the first known studies that focuses on the affects of mental health problems on patients with stable coronary artery disease.  The principal researcher in the study, Professor Nancy Frasure-Smith stated, “We found that both major depression and generalized anxiety disorder were more common in cardiac patients than in the general community…On average, cardiac patients without these disorders had about a 13 percent chance of a repeated cardiac event over two years, compared to 26 percent of those with either major depression or anxiety.”

Better watch out for anxiety and depression if you have a coronary artery disease.

The study involved interviewing 804 people who were patients with stable coronary artery disease and who were monitored by their physician.  All of these patients had been discharged form their hospital just two months prior after being diagnosed with the disease.  Frasure-Smith and her co-author Professor Francois Lesperance found that 27% of their interviewees were affected by depression and 41% showed signs of anxiety.  This study is an important marker for physicians trying to keep their patients healthy.  Antidepressants may treat both conditions well and keep the patient’s attitude positive.

Source: http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2008/01/080118093328.htm

A man is on the road to mental health recovery after having been ordered to treatment for his mental health problem under a Criminal Procedures (Mentally Impaired Persons) Act.  The man, Darren Robert Dickson, went wild at the Riccarton Road service station in New Zealand last year. 

On April 7th, 2007 Darren, went into the service station and threatened to kill the shop assistant.  He also demanded that the assistant give him some cigarettes, which she did.  He left the station, but then attempted to head butt another customer on the forecourt.  Dickenson missed but did proceed to punch the man several times, causing bruising and a cut to the cheek.  Dickson was restrained by several people but managed to break free and attacked another person, both punching and threatening him.  Finally police arrived and arrested Dickenson who continued to struggle violently and threaten them. 

All of this was the result of a psychosis that Dickson lives with and struggles with chronically.  He had been on the road of mental health recovery previously, but suffered this setback.  Dickson had been living in his own flat with a roommate and was working fulltime.  He saw his parents on a regular basis and they began to notice the signs of his psychosis returning.  They did notify Hillmorton Hospital because they were concerned and the authorities were looking for Dickson but they didn’t find him in time to prevent the explosive outburst.  To top it all off Dickson has no memory of his violence. 

His defense counsel Steve Hembrow said, “He’s extremely apologetic and hopes he will never behave like that again in his life.”  He is now back on his mental health program and understands that he’ll need to pay closer attention to his mental health.

Those suffering with hardcore drug addictions often find that the treatment can be worse than the addiction when they are going clean.  This usually results in a lot of addicts going back to the drug, just to stop the withdrawal symptoms.  A meth addiction can be one of these terrible addictions that leave sufferers with horrible withdrawal symptoms and the cravings.

A controversial drug treatment program called, ‘Promenta’ is now being offered through some of the Adult Probation Departments in Texas.  This program claims to have a very high success rate, although studies by major drug companies are still underway.  Not many studies have been completed and those that have show mixed results or complicated answers.   One study did indicate an 80% success rate.

Promenta got its start in the 1990s when a Spanish psychologist combined three proven drugs for addiction therapy into one treatment.  From there Promenta protocol was picked up and developed by Terren Peizer and the process and stet-by-step procedure sold to doctors for a price.  Promenta now contains a combination of vitamins and withdrawal drugs that many addicts claim works wonders in removing the cravings for meth. 

Now, Texas is looking to see if Promenta will help keep addicts out of their drug courts.  The state has created a pilot program with $2 million funding for this little known medical treatment that may cure the worst of methamphetamine addictions. 

The courts and departments offering the program for drug addiction will allow inmates or defendants of drug related crimes early release in exchange for taking part in the Promenta program.  The theory being, that if they can get the addict clean and without cravings, the addict won’t show up in drug court again, potentially saving the system millions of dollars. 

However, despite the millions in funding, few of the courts and departments in Texas are applying for it.  They would rather wait and see how the Promenta program works out for those who are trying it.  For more information check out: Counties not sold on meth cure.

Bipolar depression affects 10 million people in the United States and it, like many other mental health disorders, causes many of them to turn in desperation to drugs for self medication, which in turn can lead them to a life of crime in order to pay for those drugs.  Many find themselves so confused, in pain, desperate, depressed, and anxious and more about life that they attempt to commit suicide. 

This happened to Charles Slaughter Junior, 43 of Colona, Ill.  He had been diagnosed with bipolar depression and ended up in the correctional system because of the crimes he committed in an attempt to get drug money.  He had been found unfit to stand trial for his crimes, but had been forced to remain in jail for 5 months without any kind of medical treatment.  In the end, he hung himself in his cell with a bed sheet. 

Slaughter’s suicide became a wake up call for Judge Ray Conklin.  He read the news about Slaughter’s death in the paper and realized that there were many people in the criminal justice system that didn’t need to be there.  They, like Slaughter, suffered from mental health disorders that caused them to behave erratically, break the law, and take illegal drugs and even attempt to kill themselves in desperation. 

Conklin came up with the mental health court.  It’s a special court that people with mental health disorders who are picked up by the police can be shunted into.  Whether they commit a crime or are found to have missed a court ordered dose of medication, the mental health court in Rock Island County handles it.  The system is able to move people through faster, meaning they’ll get needed treatment faster.  Plus, a person with a mental health disorders has the attention of the court and will even be watched and supervised to make sure they are doing well and getting the treatment they need.

Drug addiction is always a serious matter, even when it’s just a cigarette every now and then.  It’s possible to develop symptoms of withdrawal even when you only few a few cigarettes a week.  And if you’ve been smoking regularly for years your body will have built up a significant amount of toxins as well as having a nicotine addiction. 

Millions of people have realized what a monkey on their backs, the nicotine addiction can be.  It not only affects your body, but your mental health, because there is more to an addiction than just the physical effects.  You’ll also have the psychological addiction, which experts have said is the hardest to break.

There are some things to be aware of when you first attempt to break your cigarette drug addiction.  Nicotine will stay in your system for up to five days after you stop, but as this slowly breaks down and moves out of the body you’ll start to experience the withdrawal symptoms. 

Classic Symptoms of Physical Withdrawal are:

• anxiety,
• food cravings,
• lethargy,
• increased sinus inflammation and runny nose and
• bad breath.

Don’t worry too much over these symptoms as they don’t last more than a couple of weeks.  After that you’ll just be dealing with the urge to smoke that can occur in situations that are similar to when you used to smoke or specific times of day when you would smoke.  It can take a long time to retrain the mind and body not to have that urge after even this ‘common’ drug addiction.

Just be aware of your triggers and work on keeping your mental health positive.  When an urge strikes you, go and do something else to help take your mind of off it.  Most urges only last a few minutes so if you can make it through that moment you’ll be okay. 

Drug addictions come in all forms, but the oft made fun of addictions can be the most slippery to get control of.  Readers may remember that the FDA recently announced many children are given too much Cough and Cold medicine, which can be detrimental to their health.  This caused a lot of supermarkets to place warnings on their shelves and many even removed certain brands of Cough Syrup and medicine from their shelves. 

Well, this isn’t the only problem with Cough and Cold Medicine.  Newly analyzed data from the National Survey of Drug Use and Health (NSDUH) indicates that way more young people than previously thought have used Cough and Cold medicine to get high.  The NSDUH survey found that 3.1 million people between the ages of 12 and 25 have used over the counter cough and cold medicines to get high at least once in their lifetimes. 

An overdose of Cough and Cold medicines such as is done by those with drug addictions can induce severe dissociative experiences that are much like an ‘Out-of-Body’ experience.   Although non-prescription Cough and Cold medicine is generally quite safe when taken as directed and for medicinal purposes.

One addiction quote at MedicalNewsToday http://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/93735.php states that, ‘Females aged 12 to 17 were more likely than their male counterparts to have misused these drugs within the past year (2.3 percent vs. 1.5 percent). But among those aged 18 to 25, more males had misused these drugs in the past year than females (1.8 percent vs. 1.3 percent). Among all persons aged 12 to 25, the rate of past year misuse among whites (2.1 percent) was three times higher than among blacks (0.6 percent) and significantly higher than among Hispanics (1.4 percent).’

Mental health issues can be really upsetting for anyone, but it’s also upsetting for those people you work with.  It seems that many workplaces and employees are ill suited to recognize and deal with mental health problems such as anxiety and depression on the job.  Mental health works educator George Goldie has states that, ““In workplaces the most stressful things are not the chores and tasks we have, but the people we work with.�

In Canada, it’s estimated that about 20% of Canadians will end up being diagnosed with a mental health problem in their lifetimes.  Of those people about two thirds will seek out treatment for their condition and of that two thirds only one third will find the appropriate treatment for their unique case and mental health problem. 

Mental health problems can really affect people in the workplace.  They account for absenteeism, low productivity, and even account for discrimination when someone is experiencing problems and their co-workers aren’t trained to handle the issues.  We have all had a ‘difficult’ person that we worked with on the job.  However, not everyone understands that someone who is difficult to get along with, may actually be suffering from mental health problems, whether they are seeking treatment or not. 

Many of the symptoms of anxiety and depression can make a co-worker hard to work with; fatigue, nervousness, mood swings, and bouts of anger, lack of interest in the job or work, and just being a downer to be around.  However, these individuals are trying to make life hard for their co-workers and employers.  They are simply dealing with a valid health condition. 

In Canada, an effort is being made to train managers, supervisors and employees in how to handle mental health issues in their employees.  The Mental Health Works training workshops teach these groups the proper management that is requires under various accommodation laws in Canada. 

Recent mental health news concerning the death of a young 22-year-old woman in Adelaide, South Australia is causing local hostels to watch out for those with mental health problems.  This young woman had been mentally ill and staying in an Adelaide backpacker hostel.  The woman’s, Toby Garratt, body was found over New Year’s Eve in the Adelaide Parklands near where she’d been staying.  Another person is currently facing murder charges for her death.

However, this piece of mental health news along with the news concerning the death of a man in his 50s who had also been staying at a hostel in Adelaide is causing concern over the numbers of mentally ill people staying in the local hostels.  In Southern Australia, it’s not uncommon for a mentally ill person to be referred to a backpacker’s hostel from the mental health system when accommodations are limited.

Now, people are concerned that this practice could be exposing the public and other international or interstate travelers to some danger.  Plus, the hostel may not be the safest place for the mentally ill with no other place to go.

To make the hostels safer, South Australia’s Director of Mental Health Operations Derek Wright says that training will be given to staff at backpacker’s hostels to help them recognize and deal with people suffering from mental illness.  He also stated that the staff at hostels will also be given access to a mental health triage hotline.  However, Michelle Lensink of the South Australian Opposition MP stated that these measures fail to address the shortage of accommodations for the mentally ill, which leads to them being referred to the backpacker’s hostels for a place to stay.