LiveWell

New smartphone app shows promise in control of bipolar Apps, apps everywhere!  There are hundreds of apps you can download to your phone or computer that are supposed to help you live a healthier lifestyle.  But, sadly, we know that many of them are just money-makers, with no clinical research or experience backing them up.  We’ve been following the field …

How To Get Motivated for Change

New Year’s resolutions actually tap into a very strong human impulse to create start-over points in our lives and to use them to motivate improvements that we wish to incorporate into our regular lives.  Internet searches for items like “diet” and “gym” that may be prompted by a desire to do something healthy show increased activity around the first day …

New Year’s Resolutions

How to make New Year’s Resolutions What is a New Year’s resolution, anyway?  Are you always determined to make yourself a better person than you were before?  Or is it more like the wish you make when you blow out your birthday candles: quickly thought up and quickly forgotten? Before you set this weight loss goal or that gym membership …

Holidays and Mood

It’s coming again: the holiday season!  Intended as a time-out; a time to take a break from work, enjoy life for a while, share gifts, and eat great food, the holiday season in our complex society has become a stressor, not a relaxer.  But stressful or not, the holidays come every year, and we all have to figure out how …

Doing Well With Depression

People seeking treatment for major depression and bipolar tend to do well if they have two related characteristics.  The first is persistence: the ability to keep doing what needs to be done, no matter the mood.  The second is willingness to do whatever it takes, even if that means giving up control over which treatments are acceptable and which are …

Suicide Prevention

10 USEFUL* things you can do for suicide prevention *Spoiler: none of these things are about “fixing” a suicidal person. I’d like to apologize for missing the actual National Suicide Prevention Day, which was September 10, but, really, any day is a good day to talk about suicide prevention.  Suicide prevention is not a matter of telling your distressed friend …

Rumination

What is rumination and how can it be overcome? Rumination, or repetitive negative thinking, can be a symptom, and possibly even a cause of depression.  But where does it come from, does it have any upsides, and what can you do about it if you feel stuck in an endless loop of regret, recrimination and overthinking the past? Psychologists distinguish …

Writing and Depression

Some reflections by Denise Collins on The Mighty We were struck by this great post on The Mighty, (which is a fascinating site with lots of discussion groups to explore).  One of their discussion groups is about depression, and Denise Collins is a regular contributor there.  Recently, she posted this reflection on how writing helps her when she is depressed. …

How to Find the Best Doctor for Your Needs

Consumers’ Checkbook for the San Francisco Bay Area has a ratings table for medical care practitioners in the area that looks at a number of important criteria, including patient recommendations and peer recommendations (other doctors).  This is a subscription service, and you have to sign up for at least the free 7-day trial period to get the list, but if …

Own Your Courage

Living with mental illness or mood disorder day after day can be taxing and tiring.  You have to be more disciplined, stronger, more organized and more on top of things than anyone else you know.  You are bombarded with advice about dealing with a chronic illness: exercise helps, diet is important, be sure to get enough sleep, but not too …

Bright Light Therapy in Major Depression and Anxiety

Bright light therapy has been in use for some years for insomnia and seasonal affective disorder, and results in those areas are very promising. Until recently, however, there has not been much data available about the use of bright light therapy for major depression. A recent study, though small, was reported in a presentation at the American Psychological Association’s 2021 …

Horticulture Therapy

Gardening improves mood Spring has sprung and people are looking to the outdoors, plants and gardening for a mood lift, a lifestyle change and a tried and true path to happiness and fulfillment. For those who think such attitudes are maybe a tad over-optimistic, we can show a surprising amount of research on the mental and physical health benefits of …

Bedtime Procrastination

Bipolar and sleep disruption People with bipolar can have as much sleep disruption in a week that those without mood disorders will experience in a much longer time frame.  Mood swings can cause major changes in sleep patterns and disrupted sleep makes it much more difficult to maintain mood stability.  That’s why MoodSurfing offers so many resources about sleep and …

Exercise Reduces Anxiety

Aerobic exercise has long been recognized as an important adjunct to prevention and management of mental illness, especially mood disorders, depression and anxiety.  A new study from Sweden looks at almost 200,000 people who participated in cross-country ski racing there, and found that participants (whom researchers considered a “proxy” for physically active people generally) show a much reduced incidence of …

Better Mental Health in the New Year

The American Psychiatric Association (APA) conducts regular surveys of a representative sample of American adults, and this month the poll asked people how they feel about their mental health and whether they are resolving to do something to improve it next year. The survey findings show that mental health is on many people’s minds and taking steps to improve their …