Saturday Sanity: From Book Reviews To Energy Drinks

Aside from suffering a would-be job disappointment, I had a pretty productive week. I got a good bit of work done, caught up with some snail mail, finally found the perfect collar for Chopper, hung flyers for our next NAMI meeting and ensured it would be announced on the news, in the paper, and in two local radio stations’ community events, and managed to prepare a pretty decent Saturday Sanity for you all!

This week at Mental Health Notes, I passed along announcements regarding The Melanie Blocker Stokes MOTHERS Act and a new online self-help treatment program for bipolar disorder, shared my review of Elyn Saks’s memoir The Center Cannot Hold: My Journey Through Madness, answered a reader’s question about the mental health side effects of quitting smoking, asked you whether or not mental health is going to play a role in how you vote in November, guest posted at Lively Women about the top five mental health concerns for women, and contributed to the Health & Wellness Channel’s theme day for July by providing you with five questions you can ask your doctor about prescription medications.

In the world of mental health news, the recent suicide of a Navy veteran at a Spokan, Washington VA hospital (which brings this year’s count of suicides at that hospital to six) is raising questions about how PTSD patients are being treated. Some researchers have examined a link between energy drinks and college students who engage in risky behavior, while other researchers think having family meals together may decrease the risk of teen substance abuse. And, Elizabeth Klerman of Brigham and Women’s Hospital & Harvard Medical School comments on why older people seem to need less sleep.

Regarding mental health advocacy, I couldn’t find much that I didn’t already talk about this week, but I did learn that the Indianapolis-based Community Health Network is allowing patients to create pages similar to MySpace pages, which I think is pretty neat.

Here at b5media’s Health & Wellness Channel, there are, as usual, a few contests going on. Marijke at Womb Within is holding a giveaway for a copy of The Baby Emergency Handbook. And, Kendra hosted our monthly theme day for July! Head on over to A Hearty Life to check out a round up of posts about independence.

And so ends another edition of Saturday Sanity. If you’d like something featured in next week’s edition, shoot me an email with “Saturday Sanity” in the subject line.

Image: SXC