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

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It seems like just a few Saturday Sanities ago I was talking about how warm and sunny it was outside; now, we’re covered in snow. We have been all week. I still don’t have a winter coat (I didn’t have one last year, either – I can be very serious about my procrastination) and Chopper doesn’t understand why we don’t go outside 9,375 times a day anymore.
Anyway…
This week at Mental Health Notes, I talked about a new study about the television viewing habits of unhappy people, commented on two legal situations involving mental health issues (the …read more

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Wow, what a week it has been, my friends. The weather here has been sunny and in the upper 60s/lower 70s (which Chopper loved), I found a ridiculously inexpensive and surprisingly potent scented oil while wandering aimlessly around Wal-Mart (mmm, Christmasy cinnamon), and I finally found the name of the song on one of the new Blackberry commercials (it’s “Live the Proof” by Jim Boggia, if anyone’s interested. It’s great. Seriously.).
And, of course, we Americans elected our leader for the next four years. Something I (but not Chopper) found even more exciting than the rest of …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.
Because we’ve already highlighted the lives of celebrities who’ve battled depression, let’s now 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.
Actually, I gathered information for this post from three major …read more