Stress, Depression and Therapy

I was in my early teens when I was first introduced to the concept of positive and negative stressors. For most people the word "stress" carries strictly negative connotations, and when asked if we are under "stress" we immediately think of only bad things that could be causing stress. It is very important to keep in mind that stress, as indicated on the website teachhealth.com, is caused by any change in your daily routine or any change to your bodily health. These changes can be as varying as winning a large sum of money, moving into a new home, having a baby, failing a test, becoming unemployed, or taking a major vacation.

Human nature has entitled us with varying levels of stress tolerance, but we all have a breaking point. The stress indicator test included on the aforementioned website is a nice starting point for evaluating whether or not we are overstressed. It is not realistic nor practical to attempt to be completely stress free since by so doing we would also deprive ourselves of experiencing all of the positive stressors that life has to offer, such as marriage, children, rich life-long friendships, and completing your educational and career goals.

Rather than focusing on eliminating stressors entirely, it would be more beneficial to the individual to learn how to better manage stress in his or her life. Positive stressors can be intense motivational tools, whereas negative stressors profit us nothing beyond life experience. We can help eliminate many small stressors in our lives by prioritizing our short and long term goals, creating a positive network of family and friends with whom to communicate, and recognizing our own physical and mental limitations.

Unfortunately, for some people with low levels of stress tolerance and those who suffer from hormonal imbalances it is nearly impossible to manage stress alone. Social workers, friends and family members, certain medications, and alternative medicines can all help someone who is overstressed find a way to relieve some of life's pressures and get back on track before causing permanent physical or psychological damage, including depression and suicidal thoughts and/or actions.

Suicide awareness and prevention has recently grown in the public sector as the suicide rates have skyrocketed across the world, especially among teens and young adults. Suicide Awareness Voices of Education, or SAVE, is only one of many suicide prevention organizations across the nation working diligently to reduce the growing number of suicides and attempted suicides by individuals of all ages, genders, nationalities, and social classes.

According to www.save.org, nearly 90% of individuals who die by their own hand each year were "suffering with an underlying mental illness and substance abuse problem at the time of their death." What remains to be firmly determined is which came first-the depression or the illness/substance abuse? Where does the cycle begin? Are there hereditary and genetic pre-dispositions for committing suicide? These questions and so many others are being asked by people all over the world, and organizations like SAVE are dedicating themselves to answer these questions and offer help to those who are suffering before they reach the level of despair and depression that they attempt to or succeed in ending their lives.

Too often survivors of those who commit suicide are left in shock and despair since there were no obvious signs that the individual that had died was depressed or suffering from mental illness. Many who commit suicide had become adept at mimicking healthy social cues and hiding their true thoughts or feelings. Also, there are other individuals who attempt or succeed suicide that were suffering from chemical imbalances and other physical factors that could have lead to their last and possibly first severely dark moment.

When we work with organizations like SAVE we can help to educate communities and individuals to recognize earlier warning signs of depressed loved ones, learn and teach improved coping techniques to deal with loss, grief, illness, and depression. Hopefully as we become more educated concerning depression and suicide we will be able to influence more positively the reduction of suicides and suicide attempts in our communities.

One way to educate ourselves is through research and general therapy sessions. I spent a large quantity of time reviewing the varied information regarding mental health found on the site www.mentalhealth.com and its subsequent linked pages, including my favorite: mytherapy.com. I was interested in obtaining more information about what we can do on our own in the privacy of our own homes to assess our risk for mental illness or to take steps to treat mental illness. Since there is a history of mental illness in my family I am naturally concerned with whether or not mental illness is hereditary, genetically based, environmentally influenced, or any combination of the above items.

Generally, with greater education comes greater understanding of depression, mental illness, and other psychologically debilitating conditions that influence the way that we think, act, and exist overall in the world that we live in. Therefore it is my hope that by understanding more fully what causes mental illness I might be able to more readily avoid mental illness in myself and my children.

I would like to stress that I understand the importance of a formal and valid diagnosis of mental illness before starting any treatment program. Still, I am thankful for websites like mentalhealth.com that enable us to have a great starting point for self assessment and education regarding mental illnesses and who might be at greater risk.

The website in question here offers state-of-the art computer programs to improve diagnosis and treatment of mental illness. I learned the value of keeping a personal progress journal to help track progress and therefore provide greater motivation to continue on toward a more fulfilling life.

Some of the greatest minds of the last century have suffered from a form of mental illness, therefore we should be careful not to make snap judgments regarding individuals who suffer from or who are at greatest risk for mental illness. We are all unique human beings with varying tolerance levels and therefore we will each react in our own way to diagnosis and treatment of mental illness.