Is Your Teen Depressed? Symptoms for Parents to Watch – Guest Post by Agnes

Picture credit – zalouk webdesign (http://www.flickr.com/photos/48304881%40N05/)

Raising a teenager is one of the hardest jobs that most adults ever face, and this job becomes incredibly harder when the teenager is depressed. Of course, the first step in dealing with depression in teenagers is simply discovering it. Many adults overlook depression in teens because they assume that the teenage years are always marked by mood swings and melancholy. Although this is true in many cases, extreme mood swings or melancholy may be a symptom of a larger problem.

Depression in teens and the power of beliefs – Guest Post by Denny

Depression in teens seems to be one of the epidemics of our time.

To produce a statistic is quite difficult because depression can manifest itself in many ways. Depression can cause many levels of suffering.

My experience in therapy – Guest Post by Aurora Rose Truth

English: Human Experiences, depression/loss of loved one (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

For a long while, I was feeling depressed. Or perhaps a better word is depressed. I was deeply sad, and I didn’t know what the cause was, but I wanted to fix it, and I thought therapy was the only solution.

I sought out a therapist in a city nearby where I lived and would go to see my therapist once a week.

5 reasons having a Mental Health Condition is nothing to be ashamed of…

May is BPD (Borderline Personality Disorder) Awareness Month. BPD is a mental health condition that comes with a lot of stigma attached to it. Also known as Emotionally Unstable Personality Disorder, as this name suggests it is a condition characterised by unstable emotions, you can read more about what BPD is here. For now I just wanted to share ’5 reasons having a mental health condition is nothing to be ashamed of’ to help raise awareness of the difficulties of living with a mental health problem…

We all know that having a mental health condition brings a lot of stigma and discrimination towards those people who are unfortunate enough to be diagnosed with anything from depression to Borderline Personality Disorder, Schizophrenia or Bipolar.

With one in four people being diagnosed with a mental health problem at some point in their life, chances are you know someone who has one even if you don’t have one yourself!

Some conditions come with more stigma, prejudice and taboo than others but whichever it is the ‘mental’ label automatically means we often feel the need to cover up for our illness and feel ashamed to admit to our problems. However, doing this can actually make things harder for us.

Mental Health Mondays – Spring is in the air

Image via Wikipedia

Spring is coming, the day’s are getting lighter, brighter and warmer. The breeze is fresh and gentle. And life is returning to the world, colour in flowers, leaves on trees.

Will the change of season bring some solace and freshness to those of us with mental health conditions too I wonder?

Just how much do the changing seasons affect us?