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> Browse subjects > Emotional and Mental Health > Depression and Anxiety
Depression and Anxiety Depression and Anxiety articles
10 Happy Foods
If the long, bleak winter has you feeling blue, cheer up—a sunnier disposition could be as close as your refrigerator.
Beat Winter Blues
SAD is characterized by fall and winter depression, excessive sleep (hypersomnia), increased appetite with carbohydrate cravings, and weight gain, which alternates with normal moods and behaviour in the spring and summer.
Got Guilt?
You know guilt: it’s that uneasy feeling you get when you think you’ve done something wrong. But did you know that guilt can be either positive or positively toxic? Many people who suffer from toxic guilt don’t have a clue that guilt is the problem. Could you be one of them?
Caregiver's Thrive Guide
Relieving stress helps you stay healthy as a caregiver—because if you’re not taking good care of yourself, you can’t take good care of others.
St. John's Wort
After suffering from depression for years, Kelly Martin finally decided enough was enough. He dragged himself to his doctor's office, and 10 minutes later the Calgary business manager walked away with a prescription for antidepressants.
Mud is Not a Four-letter Word
Mud has a dirty reputation. Soil, mud, dirt-they're words associated with the unpleasant side of life. We say someone has a soiled reputation. When someone is in trouble, his name is mud. When people are speaking unfavourably of each other, they're dishing dirt.
Remember Rhodiola
A herb that was widely used by ancient Nordic seafarers is still being used by monks of the Himalayas. The therapeutic properties of this Arctic herb, rhodiola (Rhodiola rosea), have also been impressing modern researchers.
A Story of Survival Love
Deeply in love, Sara and I married 17 years ago. Three years later, Sara was diagnosed with mild depression, and over the next few years she was re-diagnosed several times with ever more serious conditions.
Packrats and Clutterbugs
You walk through the front door and immediately encounter the clutter-a stack of unopened mail sitting on the hall table, along with a tangled heap of gloves, scarves, hats, keys, maps, umbrellas, and shopping bags.
Worrying Ourselves to Death
Have you ever tried counting your worries? While drafting this article I managed to squeeze in worries about my gobbled-down breakfast, my half-baked plans for the rest of the day, and what I can do to ease pain in various aching body parts-to name but a few ever-nagging worries.
High Anxiety
Your heart is racing and your palms sweat. Perhaps you're worried about that big speech you have to give or you're rushing to meet a demanding work deadline. There may be another much likelier-yet far less understood-explanation.
Diagnosis: Depression
In my opinion, all cancer patients are heroes. Fate has given them a difficult road to travel. Cancer rivets them-and us, if they are our loved ones-to an emotional merry-go-round. Some cancer patients succumb to grief and suffer from depression. However, there are things they can do to face and manage the challenges on the journey ahead.
Dealing with Depression
Depression is much more than simply a case of the blues. It is a medical condition that can range from mild to severe, with a significant impact on quality of life.
Hope for Mental Illness
I have evaluated and treated hundreds of patients struggling to overcome the challenges of mental illness. In the majority of cases, the addition of complementary treatments has improved their quality of life and treatment outcomes.
Ho, Ho, Ho...Hardly
As many as 5 percent of us deal with seasonal affective disorder (SAD) in winter, when the days get shorter and we are literally getting less light in our lives-and to our brains. Fortunately, there are natural ways to boost your mood and help you enjoy the holidays and weather the January slump that sometimes follows.
Sugar, Obesity, and Depression
In a study of adults with fructose intolerance, reducing dietary fructose resulted in a 65-percent reduction in depression scores in only four weeks. There is mounting evidence that obesity and depression share a close relationship. Regular exercise can make a world of difference for the depressed.
Take the Pressure Off
Many people believe their only recourse during anxiety attacks is conventional medication. In fact, homeopathic remedies treat emotional imbalances without drug side effects and chemicals, and yet do not interfere if medications are needed.
Food and Mood
The relationship between food and mood is mediated by both psychological and physiological factors. It is clear that food can influence mood while mood can influence food choices. It is a complex relationship and based on taste, experience, expectations, culture, stressors, and nutritional status.
Exercise for a Positive Mind Set
Regular exercise may be one of the best ways to enhance powerful mood-lifting brain chemicals that may work as natural antidepressants. It enhances overall brain function and helps to alleviate depression, one of the most common disorders of our time.
Postpartum Survival Strategies
In some traditional cultures, women take the first 30 days after the birth of a baby to recover from pregnancy and childbirth and learn how to care for their new baby. However, in many modern cultures women are expected to bounce back and return to managing their jobs and households almost immediately.
Craving Carbs and Feeling Depressed?
Patients with atypical depression responded favourably to treatment with chromium picolinate, a mineral closely involved in healthy blood sugar balance and insulin response. It is probably safe to conclude that most depressed patients with carbohydrate cravings and weight gain should receive chromium supplements. Good nutrition and exercise can also treat depression.
Don't Worry-Be Thankful
Everyone worries. Will I get the promotion? Will I sell my house? Will my daughter make the hockey team? Do I worry too much? All these thoughts can overwhelm us and affect our quality of life.
Moving Beyond Worry, Stress, and Fear
Nearly 2,000 years ago Epictetus, the Roman slave who became a Greek philosopher, wrote, "We are disturbed not by what happens to us, but by our thoughts about what happens.
Dosing the Doldrums
It was the New Year and the fifth cloudy day in a row when I finally decided to give up looking for outdoor activities that demanded sunny weather. Instead, I called a good friend to suggest we hit the latest blockbuster movie.
Look for Balance and Feel Balanced!
Research has catapulted emotional health to the forefront of wellness. The consensus now is that mental health is the new frontier for peak performance and quality of life, while stress and depression its nemesis.
Emotional Homeopathy
Homeopathic remedies can assist people who want to work on their emotional, mental and spiritual growth and development. The remedies can help people who strive to achieve a more positive mindset and a feeling of well being. Negative moods, thoughts and actions can bring about imbalances.
Drug-Free Treatments for Depression
Over the course of a lifetime, up to 12 percent of men and 20 percent of fen will suffer from a depressive illness. It is a highly recurrent illness where 80 percent of patients who have had one depressive episode will experience another one. Depression, when it hits, can be crippling to the individual and to the supporting family members.
What Do I Do With All These Feelings?
With Christmas having come and gone, many of us may be suffering from a post-holiday hangover-not just from the drinking, but from the spending, the eating, the partying and the dealings with family, too. So what exactly do we do to not get depressed and discouraged?The key lies in the ability to process our emotions..
Sunshine For the Mind
Maybe it's one of those cloudy grey days. Or maybe it's just hard to get motivated for the same old routine. Perhaps you're feeling trapped in your job or a relationship that's seen better days.
Swallowing Emotions
From the mind/body perspective, physical illnesses may be expressions of basic psychological wounds, developing out of the emotional defences we construct to avoid feeling pain.
Alleviating Anxiety
Anxiety is a funny thing. If relaxed enough, you may, when faced with stress, become sharper, brighter, and better able to tackle the stress you fac.
Anxiety
Often starting with a gnawing feeling in the pit of your stomach, anxiety is a natural warning signal, part of our built-in "fight or flight or stress response.
Down with Depression
Depression is the most common psychiatric ailment in Western society. Depression affects around 1.4 million people in Canada at any given time and is the second leading cause of long-term disability among workers.
The ABCs of Hypothyroidism
Thyroid hormones affect every cell in the body. In hypothyroidism, the amount of hormone secreted by the thyroid gland does not meet the body's demands.
Mood Boosters
Some people are almost always in a good mood. They're happy, even-tempered, and always see the bright side of situations. They don't take themselves too seriously and they love to laugh. Keeping on the sunny side of life seems to come naturally..
When is it Depression?
Over the years, prescriptions for antidepressants have multiplied. According to Statistics Canada 10 percent of the population age 18 to 24, nine percent age 25 to 44, 6.
Beat the Blues
Higher fish consumption is associated with a decreased risk of depression, postpartum depression, and suicidal thought.
Depression and Immunity
Regulating or balancing immune function may be the best defence against depression. The sad fact is that one in five of us will suffer depression at some time in our lives.
Addiction by Prescription
The medical establishment's drug approach to normal fluctuations of mind and emotion is seriously flawed.
The Heartfelt Life
New in the medical profession thought about the connection between emotion and heart disease until recently. There was no mention of heart function and relationships with ourselves, our loved ones or the world around us.
Are You Overdue For A Brain Lube?
The consumption of omega-3 polyunsaturated fatty acids-the beneficial fat found in fish and fish oil-can reduce the symptoms of, and even prevent, a variety of psychiatric illnesses including schizophrenia, bipolar disorder and depression, severa.
Fear and Depression-And the Power to Overcome
My small herb importing company saw a sudden surge in business during that critical time. Our sales in relaxing herbal teas such as valerian and balm mint quadrupled, and nature's antidepressant, St John's wort, catapulted to sales levels we had never seen before.
Winter Blues
While most depression lifted as they resumed normal routines, some have persistent symptoms that require intervention. Mild to moderate depression is not incapacitating and usually improves after three to six weeks.
Free From Demons!
One Man's Success Over Mental Illness Mental illness really is a misnome.
Antidepressants
Antidepressant medications are the first line of defence used by most medical doctors and psychiatrists for treating depression. Newer medications are advertised as "improved," with "fewer risks and side effects.
Coping with Grief
Death and the resulting period of grief are natural processes. The survivor will get over it. Time heals all wound.
Put the Ho Ho Ho Back into Your Holidays
Depression is sometimes a component of the Christmas season for a variety of reasons. Typical responses to the emotional overload of the holiday rush are overeating, overdrinking and generally overdoing.
Beating the Blues
It's always tempting to recommend successful holistic remedies to your friends--in the case of depression, it's absolutely necessary.
The Healing Power of SAMe
One of the most exciting and promising nutritional supplements to come to market this year is S-adenosyl-methionine, (SAMe.

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