News & Updates

• BBC News: A new report predicts that "presenteeism" - where an individual is at work but not productive because of untreated depression - could cost the UK around £900m a year.
  
  
• Dr. Maria Feliz-Ortiz: Depressed people often drink to “self-medicate,” to relieve some of the sadness or emotional pain. But depression can be a consequence of drinking, too.
  
  
• NY Times: Op-Ed: Let's wait until we find the right medical treatment before we assume that depressed patients just don't want to get well.
  
  
• Depression survivor Delonte West returns to the Cavaliers for another awesome season of basketball.
  
  
• Dallas Morning News columnist Steve Blow has been honored by the Texas chapter of the National Alliance for the Mentally Ill.
  
  
• NARSAD awarded its annual prizes for outstanding research -- among the most coveted in psychiatry and neuroscience this week. Recipients include Mark S. George, M.D. of the Medical University of South Carolina, one of world's leading experts in the use of brain imaging and stimulation to understand depression and to devise new antidepressant treatments.

In Stressful Times, Take Good Care of Yourself

USA Today published a thoughtful op-ed by Marc Siegel, an associate professor of medicine at New York University School of Medicine. In "Don't Let the Economy Kill You," Siegel notes:

A survey by the American Psychological Association indicated that financial concerns "topped the list of stressors for at least 80% of those surveyed," according to last week's front-page story in [USA Today]. More than half reported the most common symptoms of stress being anger, fatigue and an inability to sleep. Close to half responded by overeating or eating poorly, a trend that will definitely lead to killer diseases that include heart attacks and strokes.

Later in the piece, he adds:

Though stress in society at large is impossible to measure, we're already seeing anecdotal evidence suggesting that angst is spreading. In New York, calls to the Hopeline network for people with depression or suicidal thoughts increased 75% in the 11 months ending in July. And according to UnitedHealth Group, the largest U.S. health insurer, hospital admissions for psychiatric services are up 10% this year over last year. Medical illness is sure to follow.

Now, more than ever, it's important to take care of one's health and watch for signs of depression among our friends and family members and co-workers. When signs of depression appear, it's critical to acknowledge them. The economic factors causing people to experience so much stress in their lives are real. Let's not ignore how they impact our health.

Depression Survivor: Archbishop Raymond Roussin of Vancouver, British Columbia

Archbishop Roussin's motto is "Steadfast in Faith." Yet, his battle with clinical depression deeply tried his faith.

In 2005, Archbishop Roussin took a leave of absence after being diagnosed with clinical depression. After admitting to people he was in distress, Roussin took about five months off to slow down and recuperate at a health and retreat center in New York.

In a 2006 interview with the Canadian Salt and Light Television network, he said that there were risks in going public.

“Bearing the title of archbishop, there are a lot of expectations placed on the title, on the person. This I knew, that by making it public, some people might be scandalized, and they probably were,” Archbishop Roussin said.

“My faith was deeply tried. Throughout this whole time I kept trying to pray. And by trying to pray, you are praying, but to me it was dark,” Archbishop Roussin said. “‘Where are you my God?’”

“There’s this popular notion that happiness is always proportional to closeness with God,” said “Catholic Focus” host and associate producer Kris Dmytrenko, who conducted the interview.

“So when a Christian admits depression, he worries others assume he isn’t praying regularly or he doesn’t appreciate his salvation,” Dmytrenko said. “Worse still, perhaps others will see his depression as evidence that religion is useless. If faithful, accomplished leaders like Archbishop Roussin didn’t confront these myths, they would continue unabated.”

The archbishop said that in the midst of his journey through depression he received countless letters of support.

“Christ says ‘it is when you are weak, I am strongest.’ And this is what has happened with all the letters I received,” he said.

Archbishop Roussin told reporter Douglas Todd that he is dedicated to combating the myth that people who are close to God don't experience depression. Depression, he says, is an illness that needs to be treated. To balance his mind, body and spirit, he goes for a 45-minute walk each morning from his church-owned residence in Shaughnessy. And he's pumping iron at a gym twice each week. "I weigh 140 pounds, and it's all muscle, literally," he says, amazed at his own fitness.

Mrs. United States Spreads the Word About Breaking the Silence

Dr. Gariane Gunter, a a third-year psychiatry resident at the University of South Carolina, recently was crowned Mrs. United States and will dedicate her reign to raising public awareness about mental illness. Gunter is currently teaching NAMI's "Breaking the Silence" curriculum http://www.btslessonplans.org to all fifth grade classes at an elementary school in her hometown. The program is designed to educate students in upper elementary school, middle school and high school about mental illness.

"I am thrilled that Dr. Gunter was crowned Mrs. United States 2008," Nioka Campbell, M.D., the psychiatry residency training director at the University of South Carolina, told Psychiatric News. "I believe that she will provide a new face for psychiatry in the public, which in itself will combat the stigma that exists."

National Day of Prayer for Mental Illness Recovery and Understanding

Today is the 5th annual National Day of Prayer for Mental Illness Recovery and Understanding.

Here are two beautiful prayers written by Margaret Ann Holt, UMC, recommended by NAMI.

O, God, we gather here together today, as people from many different faith communities.
We come before You, remembering all those persons whose lives have been touched by mental illnesses.
We give thanks for those persons here who have given of their time and talents to do what they are able to help persons who are dealing with mental illnesses in their lives and in the lives of their families and friends.
We give thanks for the improvement in medication and treatment programs that have enabled persons with mental illnesses to live productive lives.
We pray that our society would do everything possible to make early diagnosis and treatment a standard operating procedure.
We pray and ask that stigma be removed, so that persons and their families would get the appropriate help as soon as symptoms appear.
Guide each one of us, and help us, as we endeavor to bring help and hope to those families and individuals. Amen

Read in unison:

The faith community says to those people who suffer from the symptoms of mental illness, and to their family members:

We will walk with you. And God walks with you. You will not go through this alone.

Pray in unison:

O Lord, you have searched us and known us

You know when we sit down and when we rise up,

and know our innermost thoughts.

You search out our paths and know all our ways.

Before we speak, you know our words.

When we were knit together in our mother's womb

You knew us as woman, as child, as man.

Wherever we go, Your hand will lead us.

So guide us along the pathways to hope,

that night becomes bright as day.

So lead us on our walk together,

that darkness is lifted from our hearts.

So encourage us that our sisters and brothers

Who have mental illness shall know that

they never walk alone.

Amen

Mental Health Parity and Addiction Equity Act Passes

By a vote of 263-171, the House this afternoon gave final passage to the Paul Wellstone-Pete Domenici Mental Health Parity and Addiction Equity Act of 2008 as part of the Emergency Economic Stabilization Act (HR 1424). President Bush has already signed the legislation.

The law passed provides parity between medical-surgical and mental health and addiction benefits in plans that offer mental health coverage. It will prohibit health insurance plans sponsored by businesses with 50 or more employees from imposing day and visit limits or applying different deductibles, co-payments, out-of-network charges and other financial requirements for treatment.

The New York Times quoted Frank B. McArdle, a health policy expert at Hewitt Associates, a benefits consulting firm, who said the law would force sweeping changes in the workplace.

“A large majority of health plans currently have limits on hospital inpatient days and outpatient visits for mental health treatments, but not for other treatments,” Mr. McArdle said. “They will have to change their plan design.”

Federal officials said the law would improve coverage for 113 million people, including 82 million in employer-sponsored plans that are not subject to state regulation. The effective date, for most health plans, will be Jan. 1, 2010.

Depression Survivor: The Amazing Lisa Smith-Batchen

What can a depression survivor do? Raise $500,000+ for children in Africa orphaned by AIDS, that's what!

I first heard about Lisa Smith-Batchen in Runners World magazine in 2006 when she shared her story about overcoming depression. She was one of the first elite athletes to let the world know that depression can affect anyone, including people who are champions in their sport.

Right now, Lisa is in the process of an unprecedented 810-mile run and ride to raise funds for AIDS Orphans Rising, an organization that benefits those orphaned by the AIDS virus. As of today, she has already raised $500,000.

“There is no greater purpose than helping children who have been orphaned by AIDS,” Smith-Batchen said.

“These children lose everything; I am so blessed to have the opportunity to use athletics to raise money for this worthy cause. I have increased the difficulty of this year’s event in hopes that our donors will help us contribute even more to AIDS Orphans Rising than in 2006. Together, we can have an incredible impact on children’s lives.”

Sister Mary-Beth Lloyd of the Religious Teachers Filippini founded AIDS Orphans Rising, and 100 percent of all donations directly benefit the lives of the orphans. They receive shelter, food, clothing, and much-needed attention from those who care. The organization succeeds by providing the children with skills necessary to live productive lives.

You can learn more about the project, follow Lisa's progress and make a donation at Lisa810.com.

A Major Legislative Milestone!

Congress passed legislation [H.R. 6983 text, PDF] Tuesday to reduce inequities in the insurance coverage of mental health and addiction treatment, bringing the insurance costs for such treatment in line with those of conventional medical procedures. The bill, known as the "Paul Wellstone and Pete Domenici Mental Health Parity and Addiction Equity Act of 2008," and often referred to as mental health parity legislation, passed in the Senate as part of a tax amendment bill by a vote of 93-2 [H.R. 6049 roll call vote] and in the House of Representatives by a vote of 376-47 [roll call vote]. The bill now heads to a joint committee for arrangement in a final form to be presented to President George W. Bush for signature.

"We've always had a stigma, sort of like mental illness is a character flaw," said Rep. Patrick J. Kennedy (D-R.I.), who has struggled with drug and alcohol addiction and co-sponsored the House version with Rep. Jim Ramstad (R-Minn.), a recovering alcoholic. "But now science has moved forward, and we can see the complexities in the brain that lead to eating disorders, compulsive disorders. All these connections are being made, the science is just becoming so firm. And it destroys the myth that this stuff is a choice."

Yes!!!

New Zealand "Like Minds" Commercials Rock

One of the great things about YouTube is that it offers an opportunity for us to see how people in other countries use the mass media to educate the public about depression and other forms of mental illness. Among the best videos on the internet are the New Zealand Like Minds commercials.

Like Minds was created in 1997 by the New Zealand Ministry of Health to reduce the stigma of mental illness and the discrimination experienced by people with mental illness. It provides funding for both nationwide and community based programs. The commercials it has produced are among the best I've ever seen. Instead of showing the black cloud of mental illness, the commercials feature survivors. One commercial is below. Others are available for viewing on the Like Minds website. If you have a moment today, check them out. Very impressive.

A Network of Depression Treatment Centers

Two years ago, the New York Times published an important op-ed by Andrew Solomon, author of the award-winning history of depression The Noonday Demon. In "Our Great Depression," Solomon reflected on the state of depression treatment in America:

Despite medical advances in the last 20 years that have greatly improved our ability to help those who suffer from depression, we lack an effective system for administering care. Only a very small percentage of depressives who seek help receive appropriate treatment for their condition. Research often stalls short of being translated into useful medicine. Depressives continue to be stigmatized, which makes their lives even more difficult and lonely. Finally, many sufferers are left to spiral, unsupported, into despair because their insurance companies refuse to pay for treatment.

Solomon proposed a network of depression centers which would be similar to University of Michigan's Center for Depression where research and practice come together with the goal of improving diagnosis and treatment.

The network, Solomon wrote, could be modeled after the network of cancer centers created in the 1970s through the National Cancer Institute. Solomon remarked on the success of the network of cancer centers:

As this network of institutions took root, the quality of cancer treatment advanced dramatically. The centers brought researchers and clinicians under one roof, ensuring that basic science was applied to achieve medical results. Scientists communicated both within and between centers, so that everyone could make use of everyone else’s work to accelerate progress.

A national network of depression treatment centers, Solomon believed, would improve the understanding and the treatment of depression. They would also help to to medicalize depression in the public imagination would reduce sufferers’ shame. Moreover, it would make it harder for insurance companies to deny treatment as "the false distinctions between [mental illness] and cancer or heart disease will become impossible to sustain."

In an age of economic uncertainty in which there never seems to be enough money for public health, what are the chances of Solomon's vision becoming a reality?

Excellent, as it turns out.

In August, a new Depression Center at the University of Colorado Denver School of Medicine launched at the Anschutz Medical Campus in Aurora, CO. New centers are now being planned at more than a dozen universities across the country and will soon officially form a National Network of Depression Centers.

The NNDC will make it easier for psychiatrists, psychologists, social workers and other mental health professionals to share information and best practices, and to team up for major projects. Thanks to a generous donation from retired investment banker George Wiegers, the University of Michigan Depression Center was able to create a "Center Assistance Program" that will help other NNDC members launch their own Depression Centers.

George Weigers also gave $3 million to allow the Colorado center to be built in renovated offices in the old Fitzsimons Army Hospital. (Coincidentally where my twin sons were born.) Weiger's mother suffered from biopolar disorder. "I saw the ravages of depression," he told reporters. "We need national insurance coverage for mental health just like we have for physical disorders."

This is wonderful news. Sometimes visions do become reality. As noted in the press release announcing the opening of the U of C Depression Center, "Cancer was once only whispered about, rarely cured, and carried a stigma that was similar to what depression and bipolar disorder still carry. But now that depression, bipolar disorder and other conditions have been shown to be just as “real” as cancer — rooted in biological factors such as genetics and brain chemistry — the new network will continue the growing momentum to make that stigma a thing of the past.

Cheers and thanks to all who are helping to strengthen the network. Your work is greatly appreciated!

Faith and Depression

A lot of depression survivors are busy this fall gearing up for Mental Illness Awareness Week (October 5 - 11, 2008), NAMI Walks and "Out of the Darkness" Walks.

In addition, as part of Mental Illness Awareness Week 2008, the 5th annual National Day of Prayer will be observed on Tuesday, October 7, by communities and congregations across the country.

I was unaware of the National Day of Prayer for the mentally ill until this year, but learning about it gave me a chance to explore NAMI's FaithNet, an initiative to bridge spirituality and mental health education and outreach. NAMI Faith Net is an interfaith e-mail network composed of members and friends of NAMI all across the United States, providing information and resources for educational outreach to faith communities. The comprehensive website includes several important sermons on the topic of faith and mental illness including Rev. Sabura Masada's powerful sermon "Not 'Whose Fault Is It?'"

Perhaps the best list of faith-based resources is the Mental Health Ministries list by Carole J. Willis. It includes books, videos, curricula, organizations, and pastoral counseling materials for both Christian and Jewish congregations. If you have ever wondered how people of faith might respond to mental illness, this is a perfect place to look.

One of Carole Willis's top picks is Shadow Voices: Finding Hope in Mental Illness, a one-hour documentary produced by Mennonite Media and the National Council of Churches.

More on Economic Stress and Depression

Another interesting article about the financial crisis and the upswing in rates of depression was published today in the Telegraph Herald (Dubuque, Iowa). The article points out that adults are not the only ones at risk.

Helping Students Who Can't Pull It Together

On the always interesting "Rate Your Students Blog" (one of my favorite blogs to read after teaching on Mondays and Thursdays), a reader asks for advice on how to handle a graduate student who can't manage to turn her papers in on time. I read it and could immediately see signs of clinical depression in the description. So, I wrote back. Below is the original post followed by my response. What do you think?

"Arnost From Amsterdam Reaches Across the Atlantic for Advice"
A fair number of students have proven challenging across my years of teaching, yet few in the particular manner of my MA candidate Sophie. Sophie is delightful yet unable to do herself justice academically. On the one hand, she is warm, kind, witty, generous with the other students, and highly intelligent - brilliant, I would say; she has offered original ideas even at this stage. Truly, she has a magpie's mind and can be disarmingly insightful. In addition, she moved from America to Amsterdam on her own initiative and means, faced considerable stumbling-blocks with courage and resilience, and often when we speak I may as well be conversing with a peer. However, she seems incapable of submitting her work on time, though I have pleaded with her even to compromise her standards should it mean meeting a deadline. Once Sophie asked to meet with me so she might apologize for having completed an important essay several days late. As the essay would have received an A had she not been penalized for lateness, I asked if something had perhaps happened to preclude punctuality. She responded in the negative, saying she simply could not organize her thoughts, and so it was right she received the penalty. I admire Sophie's integrity but it is evident all is not quite well. I can see how terribly she feels for failing to meet deadlines. At times she appears rather pale and drawn. She is also markedly, even painfully, thin. I know she is currently grappling with difficulties, though I am unaware of their precise nature, and I realise I can do nothing apart from encourage her substantial intellectual gifts. Yet I cannot help but think, What a pity. She could bring such gifts to the discipline should she pull herself together - and she desperately wants to do. How do others encourage students such as Sophie?

---------------------------------
Jennifer's response:
It sounds like she is showing several signs of clinical depression. (Late papers, inability to concentrate, painfully thin, lacking energy.) The kindest thing to do is not ignore it. It's not going to go away on it's own. I would recommend that you go on the web and print out a depression screening test. (Try depressionscreening.org). Convey your concerns about her missed deadlines and inability to concentrate, and sit with her while she fills out the test. Then walk together to the student counseling center so that she see the place, and can make an appointment if she wishes. Too many times, faculty think that students problems will go away with a pep talk or with some "tough love." If the student is suffering from clinical depression, she needs medical help. Sophie is probably dealing with an organic, biological issue. Not a will power issue. Unless she gets medical help, chances are great that she won't be able to make the most of her tremendous potential, and she'll continue to feel guilty about not being able to pull herself up from her bootstraps.

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You can check out the other responses here.

P.S. A day after the responses were posted, a real life "Sophie" wrote RYS to say that as a result of reading the responses to Arnost from Amsterdam's query, she decided to seek medical treatment for her depression. Her inspiring story is here.

Out of The Darkness Walks

With David Foster Wallace's suicide on the minds of so many people, it's a very good time to think about participating in one of the "Out of the Darkness" walks this fall being sponsored by the American Foundation for Suicide Prevention.

A lot of walks -- 150 community walks in 46 states -- are scheduled through the fall. The walks are expected to draw more than 35,000 participants and raise $3.5 million to fund suicide prevention research. But we really need your help. Walk to honor a loved one. Or walk to raise awareness. You can stand in silence and sorrow or join the thousands walking to end the stigma of depression.

The walks are between 2 and 20 miles. To find a walk in your state or area, click here. If you've ever thought about joining with other people to help prevent suicide, now is the time.

NAMI Walks

What better way to show your support of mental health awareness than participating in one of the fundraiser walks sponsored by the National Alliance on Mental Illness? Last year, walks were held in 69 cities across America, attracted more than 70,000 individual walkers/supporters, securing over 1,000 corporate and business sponsors and raising over $6,500,000.

Here is a list of upcoming NAMI Walks this fall. (If you don't see your city listed, click on your state on the map of the United States and you'll find information for your area. Vermont, for example, holds it's NAMI Walk in the spring.)

NAMI Walks are wonderful ways to show your support. This fall, please consider joining one of the NAMI Walks in your area!

Job Insecurity Increases Depression

From our friends in Canada at CTV.ca:

Workers on temporary or part-time contracts don't just have budget shortfalls to worry about. New Canadian research suggests that workers who do not have job security will develop more physical and mental health problems compared to their full-time counterparts.

Research conducted by Dr. Charles Muntaner from the Centre for Addiction and Mental Health (CAMH) in Toronto found that job insecurity can lead to anxiety and depression, which can then cause cardiovascular and other physical ailments.

• Workers with precarious employment status are three to four times more likely to develop some form of mental illness.
• Workers who have high-demand but low-control jobs that offer few rewards are at greater risk for depression, anxiety disorders and substance abuse problems.

"On average, these types of employment conditions give a lot of flexibility to the employer but create a huge amount of insecurity, psychological anxiety and symptoms of depression among the workers because they don't know when they are going to lose their job or when they're going to find another one," Muntaner, the psychiatric and addictions nursing research chair at CAMH, told CTV.ca.

The anxiety and depression that temporary workers may develop can then lead to a variety of physical ailments, such as heart problems and compromised immune systems, Muntaner said.

Companies trying to compete in a growing global marketplace are reducing labour and manufacturing costs, the WHO report says. This means that employers are more likely to offer new workers part-time or contract work that does not include benefits.

As well, many employees in low- or middle-income countries earn a living in an "informal economy, which by its nature is precarious and characterized by a lack of statutory regulation to protect working conditions, wages, occupational health and safety and injury insurance."

The problems are more common in countries such as Canada, the United Kingdom, the United States, Australia and New Zealand, where there is greater tolerance for employment inequities, Muntaner said.

The findings are included in a World Health Organization study called "Closing the Gap in a Generation: Health Equity through Action on the Social Determinants of Health."

Economic Stress and Depression

From Bloomberg.com:

Economic recessions typically lead to increased suicides and hospital admissions for psychiatric care, usually within one year of the start of the decline, says Harvey Brenner, a professor in the School of Public Health at the University of North Texas Health Science Center in Fort Worth.

``We've really not had such a combination of loss of jobs, income and housing in some time,'' said Brenner, who has studied the relationship between recessions and mental health for more than 30 years, most of it at Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore. ``We'd have to go back to the Great Depression'' to find a time when so many negative trends coincided.

More Than Teenage Moodiness? How to Tell

How do you distinguish normal teenage mood swings and rebellion from actual depression? The September 2008 issue of the Harvard Mental Health Letter highlights some ways to tell.

Dr. Michael Miller, editor in chief of the Harvard Mental Health Letter, says experts have identified the following ways to distinguish mood swings from depression in adolescents:

• Severity: The more pronounced the symptoms, the more likely that the problem is depression and not a passing mood.
• Duration: Any deterioration in behavior or mood that lasts two weeks or longer, without a break, may indicate depression.
• Domains: Problems noticed in several areas of a teen’s functioning—at home, in school, and in interactions with friends—may indicate depression.

JK Rowling, Depression Survivor

JK Rowling experienced depression in 1994, during a time she was struggling to make ends meet for herself and her infant daughter. Her experience with depression made a lasting impact on her and inspired the Dementors that first appear in Prisoner of Azkaban. On depression, Rowling said, "It is that absence of being able to envisage that you will ever be cheerful again. The absence of hope. That very deadened feeling, which is so very different from feeling sad."

“I have never been remotely ashamed of having been depressed. Never,” she said in an interview with Adeel Amini, 22, for a student magazine at Edinburgh University. “What’s to be ashamed of? I went through a really rough time and I am quite proud that I got out of that.”

Rowling says that she probably experienced depression as a college student but didn't know how to recognize it's symptoms. Talking with Adeel Amini about the rise in the numbers of university students with depression, Rowling said:

"I definitely had leanings towards depression from an early age but it's an extremely hard condition to recognize in yourself. What's sad in a way is that the thing that made me go for help, the thing that made me face that this was not a normal state that I was in, was probably my daughter, and a lot of people your age, very young adults would not have that. She was like a touchstone in a sense, she was something that earthed me, grounded me, and I thought 'This isn't right, this can't be right, she can not grow up with me in this state."

Like many depression survivors, getting help was not as easy as walking into her doctor's office. Rowling said her usual GP was away, and the replacement doctor sent her away. “She said, ‘If you ever feel a bit low, come and speak to the practice nurse’ and dismissed me.”

Rowling notes, “We’re talking suicidal thoughts here, we’re not talking ‘I’m a little bit miserable’.Two weeks later she had a phone call from her regular GP who had looked back over the notes. She called Rowling back in for counseling. “She absolutely saved me because I don’t think I would have had the guts to go and do it twice.”

What would Rowling's life have been like if she didn't seek help for her depression? Would she have had the energy and concentration necessary to write the Harry Potter books? We can not know because we can't rewrite someone's biography. But we can certainly say that she was brave and courageous to seek help, and those same qualities are reflected in the Harry Potter characters she gave to the world, the same characters so many have come to love.

Scotland Reaches Out to Students

"Look ok…feel crap?" is a campaign run by Depression Alliance Scotland to raise awareness of low mood and depression among young adults living in Scotland and to encourage them to seek help.

The words for the campaign were chosen specifically because they resonate with young people. "We have worked with people all over Scotland who have experience of depression and the most common answer they tell us when we ask them what it’s like is: It’s just really crap. That was the starting point for the campaign. We wanted to develop a campaign that would tap into these feelings, one that young adults would recognise and that just said it like it is."

The "Look Ok . . . Feel Crap? commercial plays on Scotlish television and YouTube.

Scotland's "See Me" Campaign Launches Today

"See Me," a high-profile advertising campaign showing people how to help friends and family with depression and other mental health problems is being launched in Scotland today. It will include TV commercials, radio commercials, billboards and bus shelter posters.

The drive was triggered after research found that despite changing attitudes towards mental illness, people often had no idea how to support sufferers. Suzie Vestri, acting campaign director for "See Me" said: "It's not that Scots are fair-weather friends, they just don't know how to put their good intentions into action."

"Most people want to do the right thing by a friend or relative with mental illness, but fear of saying the wrong thing and making the situation worse holds them back."

The advertising strategy, which will include commercials during the very popular "Coronation Street," is designed to reassure people they do not need expertise to provide support. The slogan reads: Be there. Be yourself.

Ms Vestri said: "We went out and asked members of the public what would prevent them being supportive and got some very honest answers.

"They said things like: Well, I just do not know enough.' They were very worried they might make things worse and then would end up feeling responsible or they thought perhaps the person with the problem didn't want anyone to know about it.

"It was a case of the great British answer to everything of when in doubt, do not talk about it."
She compared the situation to bereavement, where people are so worried about upsetting the person grieving they say nothing.

"Actually that makes things worse," she said. "It makes people feel hurt and rejected. So often people stop going round or stop asking you out just when you most need it."

Support from friends and family is often seen as the biggest influence on patients who recover from mental health problems, according to "See Me."

The "See Me" commercials are available for viewing on their website here. One thing that makes the commercials especially powerful is that they show people who've recovered from depression. There are no sad faces. They send the message that with help from their friends people get over depression every day.


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Why We Need to Spread the Word

From sportswriter Bill Pemstein in the September 17, 2008 issue of the Pioneer Press:

"He came from the perfect family. Delightful people who had nothing bad to say about anybody. And much was given to him growing up in a great place. In high school, he made himself into a great player. He was my player of the year. When I went to interview him, he was always so engaging and truthful. He was so comfortable in his own skin. You could tell his future was limitless.
Naturally, he was a success in college.
And then the phone call came in last night. He was dead at 24-years-old.
Impossible. It couldn't be him. He was terrific. Why he might have even run for president someday.
I didn't know anything about the depression that tackled him in college. It is unthinkable.
It couldn't be him. He was too happy. He was the life of the party. And now he's dead.
Yes, warn your children. It can happen to anyone. Don't let depression ever kill one of our kids again."

Pies Refutes the Depression Critics

Yesterday, in the International Herald Tribune, Dr. Ronald Pies took on Allan Horwitz and Jerome Wakefield, authors of the idiotic book The Loss of Sadness.

Finally.

Ireland's "Mind Yourselves" Campaign Encourages Students to Watch for Signs of Depression

Our friends in Ireland are rallying around a national health education campaign, entitled "Mind Yourselves." It aims to provide support to the estimated one in 13 students in Ireland affected by depression. The campaign, which is in its second year, is run by the Union of Students in Ireland (USI) and the Samaritans, in conjunction with Lundbeck Ireland.

‘Mind Yourselves’ encourages students to be aware of the signs and symptoms of depression, not just for themselves but for their friends too, because the longer the condition goes unnoticed, the harder it may be to treat and overcome. Surveying Irish university students, the group found that over half of college students would try to 'sort out' depression alone while over one-third would try to ignore the condition if affected.

Depression Survivors Network Launches

A few days ago, writer David Foster Wallace committed suicide. He was my age. Newsweek's David Gates noted that Wallace's brilliant writing was filled with signs of despair as he "wrestled with a terrible master inside his own head."

According to Suicide.org, research shows that more than 90 percent of people who die from suicide have an underlying, although not always diagnosed, psychiatric illness at the time of their deaths. And the most common mental illness is depression.

David Foster Wallace's father said that his son had suffered from depression for many years and had stopped taking his medication just prior to taking his own life. Wallace had been heavily depressed for a number of months and "just couldn't stand it any more." His suicide reminds us of the great losses brought about by the disease. Many mourn his death.

"The world of literature lost one of its smartest and most creative minds to the ugly beast that is depression," wrote Gary Smith of the Baltimore Sun. Tragically, it happened in the same week Tennessee Titans quarterback Vince Young was told by pundits and radio callers to "suck it up" and "man up" to get over his depression issues after it was disclosed that Young had contemplated suicide. "The entire (Young) episode made me incredibly sad," writes Smith. "Because it reflected how ignorant and macho so many of us are about mental health in this country."

Those of us lucky enough to have been treated successfully for depression need to talk about, write about and blog about depression in such a way that we stand up against that ignorance. All across the internet, people pour out their difficulties with depression, disclosing how it ruins lives and livelihoods. I hope that this blog, this one very, very small part of the internet can do something different. We need to tell our tales of surviving depression; to tell about suicides that didn't happen. Cancer survivors are known by their courage and pink ribbons. Perhaps we depression survivors can be known by our courage and by the stories we share.