Tag Archives: depression

SAD – Seasonal Affective Disorder

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Many of you will have heard of SAD (seasonal affective disorder) and I am sure a number of you will also be affected by it. In the majority of SAD cases, the symptoms are triggered by the change in season – usually when the summer ends and we move towards the darker nights of autumn & winter. People with SAD will start to feel lethargic and moody and they may experience feelings of worthlessness and guilt. This change in behaviour and mood is distinctly marked by the change in seasons each year.

For those with the more-common winter-onset SAD, depression can set in for the duration of the winter months. They experience a loss of interest in activities they usually enjoy and find it difficult to sleep at night, which leads to low energy levels and sluggishness. They may crave foods high in carbohydrates and this can lead to weight gain which only adds to their depression.

A less common form of SAD is summer-onset SAD which occurs as the summer starts approaching. The symptoms are much the same as for winter-onset SAD except that sufferers tend to get anxious and agitated during the summer months.

It is important to get help if the symptoms are severe and causing problems. For winter-onset SAD the treatment often includes light therapy whereby you are exposed to very bright light from a light box for an hour or so each morning. Medication such as antidepressants may also help both forms of SAD and you should discuss this with your GP. Other forms of treatment include psychotherapy, relaxation classes, meditation, regular exercise and music/art therapy.

Do not suffer in silence. Talk to your GP. This is important because many mental health problems share similar symptoms with SAD, so you need a proper diagnosis before any treatment is provided. With the proper help and support you will be able to develop coping skills which will help alleviate many of the symptoms of SAD.

How Jehovah’s Witness Elders Deal with Suicidal People

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I came across a video on YouTube which was an instructional video for Jehovah’s Witness elders (an elder is a bit like a priest or vicar). It is called “Jehovah’s Witnesses – elders training video 1″ and I assume it was secretly leaked by a member of their organisation. Apparently, these videos are for elders’ eyes only…

I will keep this short, but in a nutshell a grieving woman (her husband died a year ago) tells two elders that she is depressed and constantly thinking about “…turning the car on in the garage and going to sleep”. So this is a woman who is not only seriously depressed over the loss of her husband, she is also contemplating suicide and has even considered the method she will use to end her life.

Now, at this point, alarm bells should be ringing. A responsible person would tell this lady to seek medical assistance. This woman needs urgent help – she needs to be referred to a doctor or emergency services as soon as possible. It would also be a good idea to go with her to make sure she gets the help she needs and to ensure she is safe. So what do the elders tell her?

First they lecture her about the perseverance of Job in the Bible. They tell her that he had it much worse and had far more to cope with than she does but he managed to keep his integrity. Job’s ten children were killed, he lost his business and all his possessions, but he got over it, so she needs to get over it! They do not recommend that she seek medical help. Instead they tell her that her emotional trauma is nothing more than ‘wild thoughts’ and even ‘immoral thoughts’ and her grief is ‘an emotional setback’. They instruct her to repeat a mantra throughout the day (I am an integrity keeper, I am an integrity keeper, I am an integrity keeper) and tell her to memorise some Bible verses. She must not grieve or dwell on her loss or show any emotion at all as this will be evidence of her lack of faith in Jehovah. After this clumsy and negligent ‘advice’, the woman thanks them and offers them some cookies which seems to indicate she is completely ‘over it’ as the head elder smiles, looks to the heavens and says “Thank you Jehovah”.

I know these people are actors, but this is a training video to instruct Jehovah’s Witness elders on how to deal with suicidal people. As such, it is a travesty! Elders have no medical training and no experience or expertise in dealing with emotionally depressed and suicidal people. It is extremely irresponsible and dangerous to allow these people to advise those with mental health issues. Inexperienced and inept amateurs should not be dispensing medical advice. I am so angry that I have referred this video to my local MP and have also sent a link to the Health Secretary, Jeremy Hunt.

I sincerely hope that no harm will come to any suicidal person because Jehovah’s Witness elders fail to act appropriately and responsibly.

Life is transient – don’t waste it!

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It may be because I am getting older, and because we seem to have lost so many famous people so far this year (David Bowie, Alan Rickman, Victoria Wood, Muhammad Ali, Gene Wilder, Ronnie Corbett, Caroline Aherne, Terry Wogan…..I could go on and on), that I find myself looking back to my childhood. It’s usual to look back with rose-coloured glasses because everything was so simple then – no stressful job, family problems, money worries or aches and pains. In some ways it seems so long ago, like another era and a different person. But it also reminds me of just how fleeting life is – we are here one minute and gone the next, and we never know when the game is up.

With this in mind, it is such a shame to waste one’s life in a drunken or drug-fuelled stupor. How many people will wake up this morning hung over, feeling sick, remorseful, nervous, panicky…..all because of drink and drugs. Life is a gift and it shouldn’t be squandered. There are so many possibilities, so much to learn, so many places to visit and people to meet. Don’t throw it away. You may feel you need alcohol or drugs inside you to face life’s problems, but they will still be there when you sober up. And every time you give in to your substance of choice, old problems are not dealt with and pile up, and new problems come along and jump to the top of the pile! Add to this the feelings of depression because alcohol and drugs are depressants and make you depressed.

Talk to any ex-addict and they will tell you the same thing – that life is so much better without alcohol or drugs. You don’t need them to relax and have a good time – you will enjoy yourself so much more without them. Just imagine waking up, knowing exactly what you did and said yesterday, having no regrets because you didn’t do anything stupid, outrageous or downright dangerous. It is so good to have a clear head, to be able to concentrate, to face problems and deal with them head on rather than blocking them out with drink or drugs.

If any of this rings a bell with you, reach out and get help. You can break free from alcohol and drugs. It isn’t easy, but it has got to be easier than beating yourself up every day.

European study shows Ireland among highest for child suicide rates

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According to a report from the European Child Safety Alliance, Ireland has the region’s highest rate of suicide among young women. There are 2.09 cases in every 100,000 deaths among females under the age of 19. As if this isn’t disturbing enough, Ireland also has the second highest rate of suicides among boys and young men, at 5.12 cases per 100,000 deaths.

All Resources have just launched a new book ‘Suicide is Never the Answer’. The main aim of the book is to provide people with information to help them prevent a suicide. It is important to remember that, when dealing with a suicidal person, the immediate suicidal impulse will pass even though the depressed state may linger for weeks or months or even longer. So if you can be there at that moment when a young person feels all hope is lost, if you can talk to them for just one minute, the suicidal impulse will pass. You will have gained valuable time to get help for the young person and you will be able to put a plan in place to help them get better.

We all need to reach out to help young people in crisis. The more we know about suicide, the more we can do to prevent it.

Youth Depression, New Technology and Social Media

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According to research by the charity Mindfull, nearly three in 10 young adults have harmed themselves on purpose before they were 16 and almost a third (32%) said they had thought about or attempted to end their own life when they were younger. What is wrong with society that our young people feel this way?

I grew up in the 1970s when life was a lot simpler. Don’t get me wrong – we still had pressures to deal with, but nothing like the pressures heaped on youngsters of today. Much of the stress attached to modern life comes from pressures at school, bullying, exam stress, family break-up etc. But I also believe that some of the responsibility lies with the colossal amount of new technological gadgets that we surround ourselves with and the way in which we use social media.

When I was young, I’d see my friends at school. If I wanted to see them after school or at weekends I could always go to their house or they could come to mine. If I didn’t want to see them, I didn’t – pretty simple really. But today, with the internet, our friends are ‘in our face’ 24/7. With smart phones and tablets, there’s no escape from anyone, and for young people it’s as if they have to be on show every minute of every day. How many friends do they have on Facebook today? Has anyone ‘unfriended’ them? How many followers do they have on Twitter? How many parties are they going to this month? Who is popular and who isn’t?

Young people feel the need to create an online persona – they want to be seen to be popular people with busy lives. They are being forced to brand and sell themselves online which is putting tremendous pressure on them. And the fact that young people now communicate online rather than meeting up and talking they way we used to can lead to isolation and loneliness. And this constant pressure to update their statuses, as well as constantly checking other people’s, is not healthy.

There is also the problem of bullying. In our technology-driven world, cyberbullying is fast becoming the bullying method of choice – and there is no escape from it. This type of bullying can be carried out 24/7, and because of the anonymous nature of cyberbullying, it can be difficult to trace the people responsible.

Mindfull is calling for all schools to give students lessons on mental health. This is a good start, but we need something more. We need to equip our young people with the skills to deal with the insidious (for want of a better word) effects of social media. And we need to equip teachers with effective resource packs which enable them to provide young people with the tools to deal with the pressures of modern life.

Ireland and Alcohol

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According to the World Health Organisation, nearly 4% of all deaths worldwide are related to alcohol. Most alcohol-related deaths result from injuries, cancer, cardiovascular diseases and liver cirrhosis. Globally, 6.2% of all male deaths are related to alcohol, compared to 1.1% of female deaths. Worldwide, 320 000 young people aged 15-29 years die annually from alcohol-related causes, resulting in 9% of all deaths in that age group. These are truly staggering figures.

The Irish are famous the world over for having one special day to celebrate their country’s abiding love of alcohol: St Patrick’s Day. There is also a well-known saying that the Irish have three other days when alcohol takes precedence over anything else in their lives: yesterday, today and tomorrow. The near-constant drinking centres on the pub, of which there are many to choose from in every town and city. Pubs are the places where relationships begin and end, scores are settled over a pint, business deals are struck, and the whole of life’s drama plays out in full view of bleary-eyed, inebriated onlookers. And who hasn’t seen the growing trend of young people massing every weekend on town and city streets across Ireland in their search for oblivion.

The Irish have many occasions to drink. The birth of a baby, baptisms, engagements, weddings (not forgetting the obligatory hen parties and stag dos), first communions, birthdays, wakes – they are all excellent excuses for a good old shindig and nearly every celebration is held in a licensed establishment. It’s also easier to buy alcohol than ever before – it can be bought in bars, off licences, corner shops, supermarkets and petrol stations. It is difficult to avoid alcohol – and it has taken its toll on Irish society.

Cheap alcohol in Ireland is responsible for a growing health and crime crisis that is costing an estimated €3.7billion a year in health and crime/public order costs as well as work-place absenteeism. Look at the following taken from the Alcohol Ireland website using data from the Health Research Board:

  • 8 deaths every month in Ireland are directly attributable to alcohol
  • One in eleven children in Ireland say parental alcohol use has a negative effect on their lives – that is about 109,684 children
  • There are 1,200 cases of cancer each year from alcohol in Ireland
  • One in four deaths of young men aged 15-39 in Ireland is due to alcohol
  • One in three road crash deaths is alcohol-related

The World Health Organisation estimates that the risk of suicide increases eightfold when a person is abusing alcohol, compared to a person who is not. This is because alcohol is a depressant and lowers our inhibitions. We are therefore more likely to act on impulse while under the influence of alcohol, and sadly one of those impulses could be the desire to self-destruct!

According to the Health Research Board, 85% of Irish people think that the current level of alcohol consumption in Ireland is too high – and they are right! So what needs to be done to address alcohol abuse in Ireland and the misery it causes?

Many people point to the links between alcohol and the sports industry and there is a call for a ban on alcohol sponsorship and advertising during live sports broadcasts. Others cite the availability of cheap alcohol which enables people to reach their weekly drinking limit for an average of €8, alongside the increase in the number of places selling cheap alcohol.

It is a fact that drinking is part of the Irish culture. We therefore need a serious national debate on alcohol-related issues which will tackle the problems related to our national drug of choice. We need a massive investment in education and prevention, but we can’t simply look to the government to address the issue – we need to examine ourselves and our own attitude to alcohol. It is only when we are prepared and willing to be honest about our own alcohol intake that we can break the cycle of denial that makes us feel comfortable in ourselves only when we have a drink inside us.