Category Archives: NAMI
Depressed Women
Depression Fits the Hearts of Women Women experience twice the rate of depression as men. Everyone experiences disappointment or sadness in life. When the “down” times last a long time or interfere with your ability to function, you may be suffering from a common medical illness called depression. Major depression affects your mood, mind, body [...]
Getting Both Barrels
Dual Diagnosis of Mental Illness and Substance Abuse Dual diagnosis services are treatments for people who suffer from co-occurring disorders — mental illness and substance abuse. Research has strongly indicated that to recover fully, a consumer with co-occurring disorder needs treatment for both problems — focusing on one does not ensure the other will go away. [...]
Some Simple Facts
•The World Health Organization predicts that by 2020, mental illness will be the second leading cause of disability worldwide, after heart disease. •Major mental disorders cost the nation at least $193 billion annually in lost earnings alone, according to a new study funded by the National Institutes of Health‘s National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH). [...]
How to Relapse, W/O Being a Moron
A Bumpy Road: Dealing with Relapse There may not ever be a last episode, but there are ways to fend off and mitigate the next one. By Jodi Helmer Doctors never talked to Elly L. about RELAPSE. Although she was hospitalized during a manic episode and diagnosed with bipolar disorder, doctors never mentioned that [...]
Schizophrenia: Our Opportunity to Love
Do you know someone who seems like he or she has “lost touch” with reality? Does this person talk about “hearing voices” no one else can? Does he or she see or feel things no one else can? Does this person believe things that aren’t true? Sometimes people with these symptoms have schizophrenia, a serious [...]
Tourette Syndrome: Know The Basics
“Dropping F Bombs” ******* Tourette’s disorder, or Tourette syndrome (TS) as it is frequently called, is a neurologic syndrome. The essential feature of Tourette’s are multiple tics that are sudden, rapid, recurrent, non-rhythmic, stereotypical, purposeless movements or vocalizations. What are the symptoms of Tourette syndrome? Both multiple motor and one or more vocal [...]
Standing with Her in the Rain
By Lisa Schubert Samantha approached me outside the church on Thanksgiving morning with her hair disheveled and her coat covered with dirt smudges and rain drops. She demanded to borrow my cell phone to find if the Thanksgiving dinner she had requested from a charitable organization would be ready for pick-up in an hour. I [...]
When Eating is Out-of-Control
What is Binge Eating Disorder (BED)? Individuals with binge eating disorder (BED) engage in binge eating, but in contrast to people with bulimia nervosa (BN) they do not regularly use inappropriate compensatory weight control behaviors such as fasting or purging to lose weight. Binge eating, by definition, is eating that is characterized by rapid [...]
Jamison and Steel: Interviews on Suicide
NAMI’s Interviews With Danielle Steel & Kay Jamison Last year, Steel published His Bright Light, a memoir of her son, Nick Traina, who committed suicide at age 19 after a life-long battle with bipolar disorder (manic depression). More recently, Jamison has published Night Falls Fast: Understanding Suicide, combining research, clinical expertise and personal experience to [...]