Category Archives: Wellness

Beverly Callard Opens Up On Depression Battle

13 Apr 2016

Beverley Callard looked at the sexy black PVC outfit in the corner of her dressing room and broke down in despair. She was feeling so low that the very idea she would have to dress up as Coronation Street barmaid Liz McDonald – let alone muster the energy to play her extrovert personality – filled her with horror. She had sunk into such a deep depression that she’d lost all her confidence. “At first no one knew I was struggling,” says Beverley, 59. “I wanted to keep it a secret. “But I was getting worse and worse each day. I was getting ready in my dressing room and I couldn’t take it any more. Liz had to be dressed up for a certain scene – she had to wear a PVC outfit. “Fear took over and I started to cry. I thought, ‘I’m not confident enough to put this on. I can’t do it’.”

Film Showing at Yale Aims to Break Stereotypes Around Mental Illness

12 Apr 2016

A film that aims to change the way communities look at mental illness will make its debut at Yale University’s Davies Auditorium at 5 p.m. April 29. Judy Murray, an East Haven resident and founder of Dignity and Advocacy Network (D.A.N.), will be presenting at the event. She lost her son to suicide in 2014 after his long battle with what doctors diagnosed as Bipolar 1 Disorder and believes he was failed by the “medical model” mental health system. “It’s the whole approach that were using that isn’t working.” Murray said. “My son, he heard voices, he had visions, he was told that he had an illness and that he would have to ignore it, suppress it.” Murray said that while her son told her he did not think or feel he was ill, being told that he was over and over made him fall into invalidating his own experience.

Boredom Can Be Dangerous For Mental Illness

11 Apr 2016

While I always recommend making time for relaxation, there’s one facet to having time on your hands that I must caution about. All too often people with mental illness are left with idle time, myself included, which can lead to trouble. Spare time means more opportunity to worry and overanalyze things that happen. This is common among anxiety sufferers, but it can be even more of a problem for people in my situation, namely people who are living with schizophrenia. Sometimes, when we have too much time on our hands, our minds go to places that are intense and scary. Troubling ideas can manifest themselves in any number of ways. Whether it’s paranoia or delusions, depression or hallucinations, our minds are all too susceptible to spiraling out of control. That’s why I think it’s important that we have something to do. I’ve talked about creative flow before. You find your flow when you engage in a creative activity that’s so engrossing you lose track of time. Creative hobbies are important because they keep us occupied and focused on something other than our worries. It can be drawing, painting, woodcarving, writing, working at an easy job or really anything that allows you to flow. For me, writing is where I find my flow. If not there, then in photography and walking or hiking. These seemingly nominal tasks are incredibly important for maintaining my stability and, while I don’t do them as often as I should, I’m well aware of what can happen when I have too much free time.

The Anguish of Depression

10 Apr 2016

Many like to use the metaphor of darkness when it comes to depression. My experience is more like a fog: a thing descending slowly; a thick something that surrounds me and distorts the vision of myself and the world around me. One day, there is nothing but sun, and without warning, things that felt like they were on the right path suddenly take a detour into a spiral of failure and rejection that I never saw coming. It floods my chest with what I know, or hope, must be the falsehood of my unimportance. My mind wanders into a list of my mistakes and missteps over the last few decades, and something in the darkness whispers, “You are a failure. Why are you here?” And then sleep decides it wants no part of me. Midnight stretches into 4 a.m., then rolls into 5 and then 6 until it becomes too late to sleep. The alarm will startle me into a new day soon enough. So I just lie there alone, like the forgotten, staring at the blurred walls or ceiling of my bedroom, having given up on wiping the tears from my face. I’ve lived with depression (or something like it) my entire life. I have slid in and out of it as easily as the size 2 jeans that fit only when I know that it has fully welcomed itself back. It is like a rumor that grows quietly and steadily, causing no problems or distractions, reminding me of the time I left the stove on or the last heartbreak or the project that fell through, and that whisper of failure becomes the soundtrack; the blaring, broken jazz in my mind.

A Pit Stop for PTSD Therapy

09 Apr 2016
Mira Aztil, a clinical psychologist with the Israeli NGO IsraAid, recalls the traumatic stories she’s heard from her refugee patients in Lesbos, Greece: One Iraqi woman described how she had suffered through an encounter with “The Biter,” a spiked metal tool used by the Islamic State to clip off the flesh of women deemed to be immodestly dressed. Another woman, a Syrian mother of four, had been racked with guilt since her husband died on the trek across the snow-laden Syrian-Turkish border. She was convinced that her urgency to get the family to safety quickly had caused his heart to fail.

Severe trauma cases are seen on a daily basis on Lesbos, the pastoral Greek island currently serving as the front line to Europe’s largest wave of forced migration since the Second World War. Since January, 2015, 1.2 million refugees have entered Europe, almost half of whom (48 percent) are from Syria, according to figures from the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR). The Guardian recently reported that nearly 450,000 of them have come through Lesbos.

10 Celebrities With Depression, Bipolar Disorder, Or Both

08 Apr 2016

Whenever I hit a depression rut, where I feel disabled by the illness and therefore pathetic for being brought to my knees by a bunch of thoughts, it helps me to review celebrities — esteemed politicians, actors, musicians, comedians, astronauts, writers, and athletes — that I admire from both the past and present who have also wrestled the demons of depression andbipolar disorder. I feel less alone knowing that this infuriating condition doesn’t discriminate, and that I’m fighting alongside some of the world’s most talented and accomplished people. Here are a few of the luminaries that have, over the course of their lives, shed some of the stigma of mental illness with their stories and who serve as inspiring role models for those of us in the trenches.

1. Ashley Judd

While visiting her sister, country singer Wynonna Judd, at a treatment center in 2006, counselors suggested that the actress and political activist check herself in, too. So Ashley Judd did just that and spent 47 days in a Texas treatment facility for depression and emotional problems. In a Today interview, she told Matt Lauer:

I was absolutely certifiably crazy, and now I get to have a solution. And for those who are codependent or suffer from depression, there is a solution.

In her memoir, All That Is Bitter and Sweet, Judd describes the abuse and neglect in her turbulent upbringing that led, in part, to her emotional pain and breakdown — and also the hope she feels by focusing on humanitarian work around the world.

Albertus Magnus Art Therapy Program Trains to Provide Creative Training

07 Apr 2016

n New Haven, says Abbe Miller, director of the Graduate Art Therapy program at Albertus Magnus College, there is a lively art scene, one in which art is sometimes identified as a way to heal. Art therapy is a profession that uses artistic techniques, Miller said. In practice, an art therapist uses both art as therapy and therapy as art. Evie Lindemann, associate professor and clinical coordinator for the Albertus program, called it a “blended program.” The graduate program at Albertus Magnus is the only accredited art therapy program in the state, and only one of 39 in the nation, Miller said. The program was established to address mental health challenges in 1997, conceptualized by professor Ragaa Mazen.

Clinical Depression: The Unacknowledged Enemy of the College Student

06 Apr 2016

Ah, spring. The sun is shining, the temperatures are remotely higher than before and the amount of depressive episodes I face will hopefully decrease now that the weather is getting better. Yes, you read that correctly. My name is Maranda and I suffer from clinical depression and anxiety. I have days where getting out of bed is the hardest task I have to face that day and I struggle with getting through the day without letting my depression show. I put myself under immense pressure to be the best for everyone else, ignoring my needs. Turns out that I’m not alone. 44 percent of American college students experience symptoms of depression, according to Healthline Network. To make matters worse, 75 percent of college students do not seek help for those mental health problems, and young adults diagnosed with depression are five times more likely to attempt suicide than adults. Why do so many students neglect their mental health during some of their most important years in life? Is it because of the stigma society has put on mental issues? Is it the stubbornness of our generation, where admitting that we need help ultimately means that we are weak or a failure? Or is it the fear that our friends, family or classmates will judge us for having it? All three? If so, I get that. I’ve been there. It’s taken years of pent up emotions and a multitude of bad life experiences for me to finally walk into the Counseling Center and say those three dreadful words: “I need help.” It took two years to admit to my mother that I had once attempted suicide, while I was away at school. I was (and still am) afraid of what everyone in my life thought of me and of the decisions I make on a daily basis. If you’ve experienced that or something similar, I’m sure I know how you feel. But once I did seek help, the weight of the world has slowly been lifted off my shoulders.

What’s the Difference Between Bipolar & Borderline Personality Disorder?

04 Apr 2016

On the surface, it might seem like there’s not too much of a difference between bipolar disorder and borderline personality disorder. Both mental health disorders can involve mood shifts and problems with impulse control — so much so that even doctors in a clinical setting can sometimes have a difficult time telling the two disorders apart when making an initial diagnosis. Though bipolar disorder involves a series of manic or depressive “mood episodes,” while borderline personality disorder is more about an ongoing pattern of behavior, the extreme ups and downs that sufferers of both disorders must deal with can make them look awfully similar from the outside. If you have questions about a loved one’s unpredictable moods — or even your own — you might have a hard time figuring out which disorder seems more applicable to your situation.

Mindfulness Training May Ease PTSD

03 Apr 2016

Mindfulness training can trigger brain changes that help veterans with post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) manage disturbing memories and thoughts, according to a new study of war veterans. The goal of mindfulness training is to help people develop in-the-moment attention and awareness. This study included 23 U.S. veterans of the Iraq and Afghanistan wars who all received some form of group therapy. After four months of weekly sessions, many had reductions in their PTSD symptoms.  However, some of the participants received mindfulness training, and only those veterans showed brain activity changes that could be detected on functional MRI brain scans. Before mindfulness training, when the veterans with PTSD were resting quietly, they had extra activity in brain regions involved in responding to threats or outside problems, the study authors said.