I know they’re pretty, but it’s time to get caught up on the goings on in the world of mental health!

This week at Mental Health Notes, it was back to business as usual after my three-day vacation. In addition to helping you update your calendars with mental health awareness weeks for July, I also passed along an article regarding using our brains to promote health. I also started a discussion about handgun laws and how they may be related to suicide statistics, proved to you that hard mental health advocacy work pays off, and introduced you to two interesting Web sites: Get Over It and i am neurotic. Oh, and of course I wished you a Happy Fourth of July and listed five ways to celebrate Independence Day this year.

Read on for updates in the world of mental health news, mental health advocacy, and the rest of the b5media Health & Wellness Channel.

In the world of mental health news, the President and CEO of Mental Health America, David Shern, Ph.D., has given a statement regarding the death of a mental health patient in a psychiatric emergency room and the House of Representatives has passed legislation regarding national standards for juvenile “boot camps.” Studies from UC Irvine suggest women over the age of 90 are more likely than men over the age of 90 to have dementia, and Jeff Huffman, M.D., assistant professor of psychiatry at Harvard Medical School and lead author of a new study, states that heart attack patients with severe depression are more likely to die from cardiac problems later on than those without depression.

Regarding mental health advocacy, everyminute.org is offering several ways to help spread the word about their campaign, including MySpace and Facebook, and David Eraker would like to spread the word about a new startup, Mindsite (I’ll be talking more about this site later on). Facing Us is holding a music contest sponsored by the DBSA and Dave’s Spark: Start Something (another topic I’ll address more later), and NAMI is urging us to support the Healthy Transition Act of 2008.

Here at b5media’s Health & Wellness Channel, Kristina has highlighted some hot summer autism topics at Autism Vox, Angelique is urging folks to celebrate their independence from Ana at Breaking the Mirror, and Ruth explains how nutritional supplementation can save the lives of patients who’ve suffered traumatic brain injuries. Kristen highlights stories about brain activities and workouts at Lively Women and Marijke talks about how child psychologists feel about NBC’s “The Baby Borrowers” reality show at Womb Within, while both Grace at Kids Health Notes and Hope at Weighting Line are hosting giveaways!

That’s all for this week’s Saturday Sanity, and remember: if you have any Saturday Sanity-worthy news for next week, send it my way!

Image: morgueFile

If you have a mental illness and are still living the life you love, head on over to This Is Why I ROCK! and enter!

Post from: Blisstree

Saturday Sanity: Put The Fireworks Away

Guilt is a nasty thing.

Merriam-Webster defines guilt as “the state of one who has committed an offense especially consciously” and “feelings of culpability especially for imagined offenses or from a sense of inadequacy.”

I define guilt as the nagging little entity in my mind that feeds itself by depriving me of sleep, making all food inedible, and screwing with an array of my relationships until it grows and grows and grows and inevitably turns into an ugly, stinking troll with razor sharp teeth and fungus-ridden nails whose sole mission for existing is to gobble up my brain, making any sense of relaxation and sanity inconceivable.

The only good thing about guilt is that it has undoubtedly played a key role in keeping me from doing things I know I’ll feel guilty about later. (Even if it hasn’t been so successful in the smoking department just yet.)

Not long ago, I wrote about PETA giving pet owners the opportunity to confess pet-related sins, thus the opportunity to unload a bit of guilt (and perhaps assist in moving the grieving process along).

Today, I’m passing along Get Over It, a Web site where you can unload whatever regret may be troubling you and maybe even rid yourself of some of the guilt that tends to accompany regrets.

Get Over It is still in Beta testing; I don’t know how long it’s been around, or how long it will last, but even if your regret isn’t published, typing and submitting it may still offer a bit of relief.

Give it a try and let me know what you think!

In the meantime, check out the following Mental Health Notes pages for more guilt-related articles:

• Of Disloyal House Elves And Guilt-Stricken Humans
• Leave Your Guilt Behind
• Make Your 2008 Guilt-Free
• 2007 Reasons To Unload Your Guilt

The above image is owned by spaceodissey and is being used according to these Creative Commons attributions.

If you have a mental illness and are still living the life you love, head on over to This Is Why I ROCK! and enter!

Post from: Blisstree

Try This Cool Site For Unloading Guilt And Regret