If you suffer from seasonal affective disorder (SAD), you may feel sad or anxious during the fall and winter months. Other symptoms include weight gain and sleeping more than usual, as well as losing interest in activities.
SAD affects more women than men. Between 60 and 90% of the people diagnosed with SAD are women.
A diagnosis may be made if you’ve experienced symptoms during the fall and winter, but recovered with seasonal changes for at least two years in a row. Some people even experience SAD during the summer months instead of the fall and winter (reverse SAD).

SAD may be treated …read more

A new study shows that online treatment for chronic insomnia has a good success rate. The sleep study, published in the June 1 issue of SLEEP, used a five-week online cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT) program.

The results revealed a significant improvement in insomnia severity, daytime fatigue and sleep quality. The lead researcher, Norah Vincent, PhD, is a psychologist at the University of Manitoba in Winnipeg. She said, “The cognitive therapy section was designed to help individuals to develop realistic expectations about sleep and the impact of sleep on next-day functioning while teaching a variety of strategies for coping with an …read more

And by “one thing” I mean prescribing medication.
Aside from the cost of mental health care, one of the biggest patient complaints I’ve heard since beginning Mental Health Notes and becoming involved with NAMI is the way in which appointments with psychiatrists seem to go these days.
It’s become the norm for a patient to take a half or whole day off work to sit in a waiting room for an hour or more only to see a psychiatrist for a few minutes in order to discuss whether or not a particular medication is working, grab a new or adjusted prescription, and …read more

This post is part of Celebrity Health Week at the b5media Health & Wellness Channel. For more information about Celebrity Health Week posts here at Mental Health Notes, visit Introducing Celebrity Health Week: Celebrities And Mental Illness.
Now that we’ve nodded in the direction of celebrities who have bipolar disorder, let’s take a look at the illness itself so you can better understand what these famous folks are going through.
Keep in mind that this post is just an overview and by no means meant to act as a substitute for medical professional advice.
I gathered information about bipolar disorder from the same …read more