Today marks the last day of Mental Illness Awareness Week, first recognized by Congress in 1990. The first week of October has since been used to raise awareness about mental health issues. As fall approaches, seasonal affective disorder may be one issue to look out for.

Seasonal affective disorder (SAD) is a common mood disorder that occurs in autumn and winter. The reduced sunlight during these months causes the body to fall out of its natural rhythm. People with the disorder may feel drained, depressed, or lack interest in normal activity, among other symptoms.

Not to worry, though. These five tips may help you lose those winter blues:

• Exercise regularly. Just 30 minutes of exercise is enough to flood the brain with endorphins, the body’s natural feel-good hormones.

• Eat a balanced diet. Cutting out excess carbohydrates and saturated fats and replacing them with healthier foods can boost your metabolism and give you more energy.

• Get plenty of sunlight. Most physicians recommend getting at least 30 minutes of sunlight to boost brain chemistry. If sunlight is scarce, you might consider a form of light therapy.

• Consult your physician. There are lots of health conditions with similar symptoms as sad. SAD can be mistaken as hypothyroidism, mononucleosis, or another mental disorder.

• Consider medication. For more severe cases of SAD, medication may be needed to balance the brain’s chemical levels. Talk to your doctor about different medications and other treatment options.

According to the National Alliance of Mental Illness (NAMI), as many as 26 percent of adults and 10 percent of children living in the U.S. are directly affected by a mental health disorder every year. Mental illness affects everyone, but it doesn’t have to wreak havoc on your life. Taking extra steps toward positive mental health can keep a smile on your face this season.

Get more information about symptoms of seasonal affective disorder (SAD), or find resources on how to make Mental Illness Awareness Week recognized in your community.

Hopelessness may increase your risk of stroke, according to new information from the University of Minnesota. Researchers found that higher levels of hopelessness are linked with accelerated development of early atherosclerosis in middle-aged women.

Atherosclerosis causes plaque to build up on the insides of arteries, reducing the flow of oxygen-rich blood to organs and other parts of the body. Arteries in the neck can thicken, a condition called carotid artery intimal-medial thickening (IMT). Atherosclerosis increases risk of heart attack and can block blood flow to the brain and lead to stroke.

Science has explored the connection between hopelessness and IMT in men and women with cardiovascular disease, but little was known about the link in healthy women. “This is the first study to suggest that hopelessness may be related to subclinical cardiovascular disease in women without clinical symptoms of heart disease,” said Susan A. Everson-Rose, Ph.D., M.P.H., associate professor of medicine at the University of Minnesota and co-author of the study.

Data for the study was collected from two sites in Chicago and Pittsburgh, using the Study of Women’s Health Across the Nation (SWAN). Five hundred and fifty-nine women (average age 50) living in the city participated in the study. Participants appeared to be in good health, showing no signs of cardiovascular disease.

SWAN used questionnaires to measure the association between IMT and hopelessness frequency using an eight-point scale, asking participants about personal goals and future life expectations. Scores of five and above were considered “high.” Ultrasounds were then used to measure the thickness of arteries in the neck.

Participants with the highest hopelessness scores showed an average of .06 mm greater thickening than their hopeful counterparts (.02 mm is equal to roughly one year’s thickening). Researchers discovered that hopelessness triggered a hormonal release in response to mood change that can amplify the effects of atherosclerosis and the thickening of neck arteries.

Researchers plan to continue exploring the unique relationship between hopelessness and cardiovascular disease in future studies. “These findings suggest that women who experience feelings of hopelessness may have greater risk for future heart disease and stroke,” Everson-Rose said. "We look forward to examining the longitudinal relations between hopelessness and heart disease risk in women."

Stressing about losing your job may cause more harm than actual job loss. More than 1,700 participants in the American’s Changing Lives (ACL) and the Midlife in the United States (MIDUS) studies were asked: How likely is it that during the next couple of years you will involuntarily lose your job? Researchers from the University of Michigan and the University of California wanted to find the effects of job insecurity on employee health.

"It may seem surprising that chronically high job-insecurity is more strongly linked with health declines than actual job loss or unemployment," says Sarah Burgard, lead author of the study and research assistant professor in the University of Michigan’s Department of Sociology and School of Public Health, "but there are a number of reasons why this is the case.”

Sunshine actually may put pep in your step and improve your thinking skills. A study by the University of Alabama at Birmingham shows that the amount of sunlight you are exposed to may boost your cognitive ability.

The study examined the seasonal role and amount of sunlight exposure (referred to as insolation) on patients’ energy levels and cognitive ability. Researchers hypothesized that greater insolation would boost both energy and mental functioning.

This was found to be very true for patients with depression. Sunlight plays a huge role in the body’s circadian (daily) rhythm. Alzheimer’s, for example, has been associated with low blood flow to the cerebrum, yet another of sunlight’s effects.

Individuals who got less sun exposure were more likely to experience an irregular circadian rhythm, similar to Seasonal Affective Disorder (SAD), also known as seasonal depression. Several studies have been conducted in the past to examine the effect of sunlight and seasonal changes on mood in people with depression, but this was the first to study the effects of both on thought processes.

"We think some of the same physiological mechanisms that affect depression also affect cognitive function,” says Shia Kent, author of the study and doctoral candidate at the School of Public Health at the University of Alabama at Birmingham. “These same hormone systems have been implicated in a number of mental disorders and cognitive disorders.”

One key to this relationship lies in the suprachiasmatic nuclei (SCN), a region of the brain responsible for processing information from the eyes and stimulating hormones.One of the SCN’s roles is to prevent the pineal gland from converting serotonin into melatonin, a hormone that triggers sleepiness.

The retina sends light information to the SCN, slowing the brain’s production of melatonin and serotonin—both associated with cognitive functioning—during the day or in a well-lit room. Without this process, the body’s natural rhythm is disrupted. Similar disruptions have been associated with sleep disorders and memory problems in otherwise healthy individuals.

Participants in the study hailed from an area of the United States known as the “stroke belt”—Arkansas, Louisiana, Tennessee, Mississippi, Alabama, Georgia, North Carolina, and South Carolina. Nearly 14,500 men and women over age 45 (44% African-American, 56% white) with no history of a stroke included in the final model were questioned using the Reasons for Geographic and Racial Differences in Stroke (REGARDS) Study.

Cognitive functioning was measured via telephone interviews, while weight, height and blood pressure were measured in-home prior to the study. Participants were then followed for the next two weeks, while researchers measured insolation (with the help of NASA satellite and ground data) and thinking ability (using questionnaires).

Solar radiation was measured eight times daily, at 3-hour intervals. Typical insolation values were 25,000-30,000 KJ/m² in late spring and early summer, and 8,000-10,000 KJ/ m² in the central U.S. Short-term and long-term memory were measured using a six-question test. Answering four or less correctly indicated impairment. 

Based on their findings, researchers reported that low sunlight exposure was a higher likelihood of cognitive impairment for subjects with depression, including those who were prone to SAD. Roughly 18% of participants with any form of depression were classified as having impaired thinking in response to lower insolation, regardless of the season.

“This is speculation,” says Kent, “but those who have cognitive impairment could be helped with sunlight."

 

Learn more about Seasonal Affective Disorder (SAD) in Healia Communities.

A recent Harvard Medical School study found that mothers with diabetes are more than 50% more likely to experience postpartum depression than mothers who do not have the disease. The study, which examined more than 11,000 low-income mothers in New Jersey, revealed that one in ten mothers with diabetes experienced postpartum depression within one year of childbirth. Less than 6% of the women without diabetes experienced the same symptoms.

The women who developed postpartum depression following birth had no previous indication of depression during pregnancy. They were identified as having postpartum depression if their medical records indicated a diagnosis of depression or if they filled prescriptions for antidepressant medications. The study found that women with diabetes were about as likely to develop postpartum depression after their pregnancies as women who had experienced postpartum depression following a previous birth.

Postpartum depression is characterized by a long-lasting, extreme emotional downshift following birth. Symptoms include appetite loss, insomnia, tearfulness, and lack of connection with the newborn. Some women may fear they will harm themselves or the child. These symptoms should not be confused with the “baby blues” that many women feel after giving birth and last days or a few weeks.  

The researchers that conducted this study caution that there is no proof that diabetes causes postpartum depression, but only that the two are somehow linked.

If you think you have postpartum depression, seek medical attention.

Share your experiences with pregnancy or postpartum depression on the Healia Pregnancy Online Health Community and Support Group. To learn more about pregnancy, visit the Healia Pregnancy Health Guide. Test your pregnancy knowledge on the Healia Pregnancy Quiz.


_{Photo: KellyWoolen, Flickr, Creative Commons}

If you smiled big in your yearbook photos and grinned wide in childhood pictures, it might have been a prediction of your marital success. And if you constantly kept a straight face, it might have predicted marital failure

According to a study published in April by the journal Motivation and Emotion, the intensity of an individual’s smile in photos taken decades ago correlates with that same person’s likelihood to be married or divorced. The study found that people who smiled with the most enthusiasm had the highest rate of marital success. Those with weak smiles were more than three times as likely to have been divorced during their lifetimes.

Perhaps the photo (left) of Mel Gibson’s forced smile is an indication of the actor’s current divorce proceedings with Robyn, his wife of nearly 30 years. She filed for divorce on April 13, 2009, citing irreconcilable differences. This picture was snapped at the 1990 premier of AirAmerica, when Gibson was just 34.

To find the connection between smiles and marital status, researchers at DePauw University in Greencastle, Indiana conducted two studies of nearly 650 people between the ages of 21 and 87.

The first study rated smiles in college yearbook photos on a scale between one and ten. All of the top-ranked 10% of grinners remained married, whereas almost one quarter of the bottom 10% had experienced divorce.

The second study rated childhood and young-adulthood photos of individuals now 65 or older. The results found that just 11% of the subjects with big smiles were divorced, but 31% of those with somber faces reported marital failures.

Though the study’s findings do not imply that smiling causes successful marriages, the researchers posited that smiling in photographs is indicative of positive lifelong dispositions. Frowning, on the other hand, indicates negative attitude and demeanor, and possibly depression.

Psychology researchers E. Mark Cummings and Patrick T. Davies (not affiliated with the DePauw study) reported in the book Children and Martial Conflict: the Impact of Family Dispute and Resolution that in 30% of couples in tumultuous marriages, one parent is clinically depressed.

If you’re feeling blue or if your spouse is down and out, visit the Healia Depression Online Health Community and Support Group to share experiences and advice with other community members.

_{Photos: Yearbook, Alan Light, Flickr, Creative Commons
             Mel Gibson, MilesGehm, Flickr, Creative Commons}

The holiday season can be a time filled with joy and fun, but it can also be very stressful and depression is common. This year, the risk of holiday stress and depression may be compounded by the current poor economy and financial instability. The demands of traveling, entertaining, holiday shopping, parties, family reunions, and house guests can be overwhelming. In addition, unrealistic expectations, financial constraints, and the inability to be with one’s family and friends can cause stress and lead to the “holiday blues.” You may feel fatigued or anxious, have difficulty sleeping, or feel like all the fun has been taken out of your holiday experience. These feelings can cause people to adopt unhealthy coping mechanisms such as excessive drinking, overeating, and social withdrawal.

Feelings of sadness may also arise after the New Year, when a “post holiday let down” can set in. You may feel disappointed about your holiday experience or sadness that the events are over and won’t return for a whole year. This can be compounded by excess stress and fatigue from the all the effort you put into the holiday period and the financial repercussions of your holiday spending.

The following is a list of tips that can help you cope with and manage stress and feelings of sadness during the holiday season and beyond:

• Keep your expectations manageable. Try to set realistic goals for yourself this holiday season. This can help you avoid time conflicts and keep your stress level down.


• Identify your stressors. Pay attention to the things that stress you out or make you sad. If there are certain holiday events or situations that trigger bad feelings, recognizing ahead of time this can help you prepare to deal with the stress or sadness they may cause.


• Be aware of unhealthy coping behaviors. Coping mechanisms such as excessive drinking and social withdrawal do not help in the long run and tend only to increase your feelings of stress or sadness.


• Take care of your health. Remember to exercise regularly, eat healthy, and make sure you get enough rest time and enough sleep. Engage in holiday activities that you enjoy and find relaxing. Doing these things will help you better cope with stress.


• Ask for help when you need it. Don’t try to be a martyr and do everything by yourself. Let others share in the responsibility of planning activities. If you need support, rely on friends and family to help get you through. Spend time with supportive and caring people. Reach out and make new friends, or contact someone you haven’t heard from in a while. If you feel truly overwhelmed by stress, consider seeking professional help from a counselor or therapist.


• Organize your time. Make a list and prioritize the important activities while being realistic about what you can and cannot do. Pace yourself. Don’t put the entire focus on just one day or one event. If you can’t get something done today, leave it for tomorrow.


• Don’t focus on the past. Each year’s holiday season is different. Avoid the temptation to compare this year to the last or to “the gold old days.” Making such comparisons sets you up for disappointment.


• Do something for others. Spend some time volunteering to help others or give to charitable organizations. Such gestures can make you feel good about yourself and can help combat the overly commercial focus of modern holiday seasons.


• Enjoy activities that are free. Examples of free activities include taking a drive to Enjoy activities that are free. look at holiday lights and decorations, going window shopping, taking kids sledding, or making a snowman with the family. These activities can be a welcome respite and have the added bonus of not depleting your back account.


• Try something new. You can celebrate the holidays in a new way while still respecting your family’s holiday traditions.


• Take time for yourself. Don’t forget that in addition to all the family activities and obligations, you need some “me time” too. It can help you relax and decompress and may also help you gain perspective about the things that stress you out.

For more information on stress management or to share a story about your stressful holiday experience, join the Healia Health Community on Stress Management.


_{Sources: National Mental Health Association, Factsheet: Holiday Depression and Stress, Updated 3/07; American Psychological Association, Holiday Stress Tips, 2006.}

_{Photo: Effervescing Elephant, Flickr, Creative Commons}

 

After dropping for several years, the rate of suicide in the United States rose from 1999 to 2005. And most of the increase was attributable to growing numbers of white middle-aged people who committed suicide. According to a new study published in the American Journal of Preventive Medicine, from 1999 and 2005, the suicide rate among white women and white men (40-64 years old) rose 3.9 and 2.7 percent respectively each year. Other age and racial groups did not experience a significant increase.

The researchers from the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health believe that white, middle-age people are emerging as a new high-risk group for suicide. Many experts have speculated about the potential reasons for the increased rate among white baby-boomers, including mental health issues, substance abuse, economic insecurity, family pressures, and dissatisfaction with middle age, but the cause of the observed increase remains unclear.

Untreated depression is considered to be a leading cause of suicide. The study’s researchers recommend that friends and families reach out to and help people who may be depressed and susceptible to suicide.

 

_{Photo: gotplaid?, Flickr, Creative Commons}

 

This week, the Dow Jones and Standard&Poor's 500 Indexes had their worst week of declines in history. The global credit crisis has dramatically increased people’s anxiety about the economy, jobs, and personal wealth around the world.

From a health perspective, more and more people are losing sleep and suffering emotional distress. On Friday, the World Health Organization (WHO) stated that the global economic downturn could lead to a rise in mental health problems. This week, the WHO launched the annual World Mental Health Day, which is intended to increase funding and services for the mentally ill.

In these challenging economic times, it is natural that people will become anxious and emotionally distressed. However, it is important that people do not feel that they need to handle this stress by themselves. Rather, they should seek help from trusted friends and family or a mental health professional before the stress becomes too overwhelming.

Do you have suggestions for how to deal with the stress associated with the current economic crisis? If so, please share them with the members of Healia Communities.

 

_{Photo: Preciouskhyatt, Flickr, Creative Commons}

Today is March 28^th—a time of the year when most of us consider Winter to be gone and Spring to be right around the corner. However, as we gaze out the window of our Bellevue, Washington office and watch the mix of rain and snow come down, we realize that Spring is still not quite in our grasp. Some people experience a serious mood change when the seasons change (or don’t change soon enough). This disorder is known as SAD, seasonal depression, or seasonal mood disorder.

When an individual suffers from seasonal mood disorder, they may sleep too much, have little energy, and crave sweets and starchy foods. They may also feel depressed. Though symptoms can be severe, they usually go away.

What causes SAD? According to the National Institutes of Health, it may be a lack of sunlight during winter, when the days are shorter. Seasonal mood disorder is much more common in the northern United States. Light therapy, where patients expose themselves to a special type of light for 30 minutes every day, often helps. Other treatments may include: 

• Medications
• Changes in diet
• Learning to manage stress
• Going to a sunny climate during the cold months

seasonal mood disorder SAD seasonal depression