New CDC Stats on Mental Illness

A summary report discussing how the CDC measures mental illness and the statistics that go with it was released on 9/02/11. This report focused on adults in the US, and the primary diagnosis it looks at is Depression, leaving Anxiety (which may have a higher rate of diagnosis) out of the equation. The actual CDC report can be cumbersome to get through, but they have some interesting data tables including state-by-state data that was eye-opening. A better look at this report was summarized by Dr. John Grohol from PsychCentral. He pointed out the significance in missing anxiety as a primary … Continue reading →

Gender Differences in Mental Health

For some time it has been known that women suffer more from depression than men do, or at the very least are more likely to be diagnosed with it. It is likely that there are a variety of contributing factors to this, not the least of which is the difference in how men and women express themselves. A new study tackles the question of which diagnoses seem to impact men versus women, and why. The study came out of the University of Miami Miller School of Medicine in Florida and appears in the Journal of Abnormal Psychology. It discusses how … Continue reading →

So far so good

As the end of the month of July gets near I started reflecting on what I have written this past month. This was my 2nd month writing for families.com and I thought it was time for some self-evaluation. Writing about mental health can be scary sometimes. I have worked in the field for awhile and developed my own personal thoughts and opinions about some things, but when sharing information with others I pressure myself to ensure current research is in the mix. It can get hard, partly because research is boring and partly because a single research experiment outcome does … Continue reading →

Mental Health Week in Review: October 9-16

We certainly got people talking in response to the article Does Your Partner Look Like Your Opposite Sex Parent? While researchers at the University of Pecs in Hungary were busy finding statistically significant links between the similarities in appearance between your father and your partner if you are a female, and alternatively, your mother and your female partner if you are a male, readers at Families were conducting their own anecdotal experiments! Thanks to all contributors, both public and private. It seems that, in general, we are mortified to think that we have chosen someone who might possibly look like … Continue reading →

Mental Health Week in Review: September 30-October 7

Recently we have been talking about death and how to cope with both the overwhelming feelings of despair that accompany the end of a life. We also looked at just what is a reasonable time spam to get over the loss of a much loved friend or family member. In How Long Does It Take to Get Over a Death I asked readers to estimate what they thought was a standard time to really come to grips with loss through death. The standard benchmark suggested by mental health experts is a minimum of a year. Yet society seldom gives us … Continue reading →

Mental Health Week in Review: August 24-31

Men have a bad reputation for being commitment phobic, but is it really always them who are at fault? In Is Your Man Really Commitment Phobic? (1) we looked at the possibility whereby women who continually date men who “ won’t commit”, actually have a problem with commitment themselves. You can read about the story of Melissa and her problems with commitment phobic men in the above link, and how she faced the reality of her own commitment problem in Is Your Man Really Commitment Phobic? (2). We also had a five part series on the Empty Nest Syndrome. This … Continue reading →

The Week in Review: August 13-20

We have recently spent a lot of time looking at Borderline Personality Disorder (BPD). We looked at the condition from the viewpoint of the sufferer in Borderline Personality Disorder: Kerri’s Story. Here we were able to put the typical clinical symptoms of BPD into a more practical scenario where we looked at the way in which Kerri lived her life. In a very real sense we were able to see the chaotic thinking and behavior that leads to the typical unpredictable lifestyle of the BPD sufferer, including the emotional rollercoaster of anxiety, mania and depression. However, in Borderline Personality Disorder: … Continue reading →

Mental Health Week in Review July 12-18

This week in Mental Health we looked at a range of issues including what happens to a mother when she is found by authorities to be suffering from Munchausen disorder by proxy and she has deliberately harmed her child. In Munchausen Mum Escapes Jail Term, we focused on the legal rather than the psychological ramifications of this disorder. We also looked at Dependent Personality Disorder and the effects that this condition has on its sufferers, including a desperate need for reassurance from others, marked difficulty in expressing disagreement with others due to a fear of being abandoned, extreme lack of … Continue reading →

Mental Health Week in Review June 11-19

We’ve had another big week in Mental Health where we looked at a range of topics, including the ongoing debate as to whether homosexuality is an inborn trait or simply learned and therefore a choice. Researchers utilized sex hormones found in male sweat and female urine to conduct an interesting experiment on the differing reactions of heterosexual and homosexual participant’s brains. This article attracted several reader comments and you can read the articles by clicking on the links below. We also looked at the myths and misconceptions that surround counseling and psychotherapy. What do people really expect when they go … Continue reading →

Mental Health Week in Review: May 19-26

This week we spent time looking at the anger that accompanies incidents of sexual abuse. In Anger and Sexual Abuse (1), we looked at how the twin themes of guilt and anger join together to keep a victim of sexual abuse caught in a horrific internal limbo of pain. Guilt and anger can co-exist inside the mind and body of a sexual abuse victim, but once the guilt is released, often through therapy, then anger and rage really come to the fore. Yet even then it may take two different forms, internalized anger and externalized anger. The latter may be … Continue reading →