Topic: mood disorders

Study Finds Depression, Autism and Other Psych Disorders Share Common Genetic Roots

Study Finds Depression, Autism and Other Psych Disorders Share Common Genetic Roots

What does schizophrenia have to do with depression? Or bipolar disorder with autism and ADHD? Sure, they’re all psychiatric disorders, broadly defined; but depression and bipolar are mood disorders, autism is considered a developmental disorder, ADHD a neurobehavioral problem and schizophrenia a good, old-fashioned “mental illness.” it sure shakes things up a little bit to note that all five mental health issues may stem from a common genetic variation. More »

The Age Effect: Stress Management, From Zero To 60

The Age Effect: Stress Management, From Zero To 60

Chronic stress is all-too-common in our society, and it’s forever a hot topic for those of us who write about health: Exercise and superfoods are great, but high stress levels can take their toll if we don’t learn how to get them under control. (In fact, a new study published in Nature reveals that chronic stress can even lead to depression, by killing neurons and prevents new growth of brain cells that assist in stress management.) Thankfully, stress is one of those thing that’s always changing as we age, along with our ability to manage it. More »

Survey Says 40% of People Don’t Want to Know If Loved Ones Are Depressed

Survey Says 40% of People Don't Want to Know If Loved Ones Are Depressed

Almost a quarter of people surveyed in Ireland said they think depression is a “state of mind” rather than an illness, and two of every five respondents said they wouldn’t want to know if a friend or family member was depressed. The survey, called the 2011 Mental Health Barometer, was commissioned by pharmaceutical firm Lundbeck, the maker of the antidepressant Lexipro, and it gives some food for thought as to how we should really treat depression. More »

I Live With a Hoarder and I Don’t Recommend It

I Live With a Hoarder and I Don't Recommend It

It’s all well and good to recreationally and voyeuristically watch compulsive hoarders do their disturbing thing on national cable TV (A&E’s Hoarders, TLC’s Hoarding: Buried Alive), but it’s quite another thing to actually live with a hoarder. I should know. I do. Well, sort of. My husband isn’t a hoarder (more like neat freak). Neither is our cat (who’s just fat). I don’t know about our soon-to-arrive in-utero baby, but I’m hoping that he or she won’t emerge with any reality-TV-worthy hoarding tendencies.

No, the offending party is our landlord of several years, who lives just one floor below us in what was originally the parlor floor of a 19th-century brownstone building.

By all appearances, this person seems completely “normal.” Our landlord is (as far as I know) an upstanding citizen with a very respectable job (aside from being our landlord), and interesting creative and cultural hobbies outside of work. He’s well-dressed. We even belong to the same gym. More »

6 Celebrities Who Are Honest About Their Depression to Help Others

6 Celebrities Who Are Honest About Their Depression to Help Others

Look, Catherine Zeta-Jones isn’t the only Hollywood superstar to make a public statement about the fragile state of her mental health, and she likely won’t be the last. While I applaud CZJ for not equating being diagnosed with bipolar disorder with shame or negativity, long before her recent revelatory statement to the press on her way to rehab, there have been plenty of other luminaries who’ve taken advantage of their high-profile nature and used the unfortunate circumstances of their depression to help eliminate the societal stigma surrounding it for the benefit of others. Click through our gallery of Hollywood celebrities who have been brave and honest enough about their depression in an effort to help those who feel they have no voice battle their own mental health issues: More »

I Don’t Need Catherine Zeta-Jones to Legitimize My Bipolar Disorder

I Don't Need Catherine Zeta-Jones to Legitimize My Bipolar Disorder

Not even a half-hour after the news broke about Catherine Zeta-Jones checking into a rehab facility for treatment of bipolar II disorder, I received a half-dozen emails. Followed by about five voice messages. And then more emails.

While I was ecstatic that one of my favorite celebs had the courage to disclose her mental illness – especially in a Hollywood culture that often outright denies that such conditions exist – I wondered why it took a beautiful star getting diagnosed for us to talk about bipolar in way that didn’t mock it (Thanks, Charlie Sheen), and for us to believe that the illness is legitimate.

You may recall that it was the same thing with Brooke Shields several years ago. There were some people in my life who simply didn’t buy postpartum depression until this gorgeous creature came out with her story and a bestselling book filled with not-so-Hollywood-friendly details. Afterward, most of us made fun of Tom Cruise’s blanket dismissal of psychiatry and psychiatric illness; but based on all the feedback I’ve received about my own diagnosis of bipolar II, I think about half of us actually agree with him, even after that now-legendary (and embarrassing) Oprah-couch-jumping incident, where Cruise himself certainly manifested a mental illness – or five. More »