I talked Friday night with a young person, 16 years old, who was suffering from very low feelings. I talked, she just looked down at her book. Actually I did not talk much because it seemed there was no way to reach her. She was recently released from the hospital and is medicated. I did get a chance to talk to her mother on Sunday after church. The girl has been diagnosed with Bi-polar disorder and suffers from mood swings. Also it seems like she is suffering from stigma which only makes her lowered feelings lower. There is a program for teens in Chicago, Power to Change, that could help this girl. Unfortunately it is not in the Cleveland area yet. It is unfortunate that our society is so afraid of mental illness, even mild depression, that we do not address it. Erectile Dysfunction gets more publicity than the slightest emotional disorder like anger management for instance. What does that say about our society?

Anxiety

I read an interesting blog today at I am living with Anxiety. Anxiety can cause a lot of problems in the world. People are afraid to do anything because of the fear they will do something wrong. Then they worry because they have not done anything. That's the Catch 22 in mental health, no matter what we do is wrong. Anxiety is pretty common in the United States and the rest of the world. I believe one in four Americans suffers so much from anxiety that it adversely affects their lives. I could even make the argument that anxiety caused the Iraq war. We were so worried about weapons of mass destruction we marched right in to another country causing untold damage and costing so much money.
America has done many unamerican things since 9-11, torture, invading countries and holding political prisoners. Since I believe all things are connected I fear someday other countries may march in to the United States doing the same things. I am sure we have made a lot of people unhappy causing them to hate the United States. It really is a viscious cycle. Hopefully we will return to more American values in the future.
May is Mental Health Month. Remember we can not have world peace with finding inner peace at the same time. War truly makes people anxious leading to mental issues causing more strife in the world.
Please try to break the cycle today.

Who needs help with mental health

I do, and probably you do too. If you have any of the following symptoms you may need some help.



Stress or tension in the workplace or at home.
Anger during normal daily activities.
Depression or feeling tired all the time.
Sleep problems or unable to get up in the morning.
Feeling like your life is out of control.

These symptoms may not seem like mental health issues but they are. Mental health spans a broad spectrum from anger and stress to delusions and hallucinations. Any of these symptoms that prevent you from having a happy and productive life can be addressed. The best place to start in my opinion is Recovery, International. They can help.

Free Health care Cancelled

The long awaited health fair, which featured free dental, eye and other health care on a first come first served basis has been canceled due to health concerns about the spread of swine flu. The official word is they, the county health service, are worried about a lot of people getting together with lowered immune systems and propagating a spread of swine flu. As far as I am concerned this is a form of discrimination against people who have no health care. If the county health services were truly concerned about people with no healthcare they woul;d set up a booth to talk about the flu, how to protect against it,and screen for possible The baseball games have not been cancelled. The Cavaliers games will not be cancelled. Is it not possible some people will be there with compromised immune systems and spread swine flu? Probably not in the stands because poor people cannot afford health care let alone sporting events. How many of those people with lowered immune systems are taking tickets, selling beer, preparing food and ushering people to their expensive seats? This is an indictment of our health care system and of ourselves as a people. We learn in church to care for those less able. I believe this is what sets man apart from the rest of nature, we care for our sick, weak and elderly. All things being connected, not caring for the sick can only have negative impact on society.

This blog is dedicated to the concept of achieving mental health and thus inner peace. There are many aspects to mental health and I think everyone has experienced them at some time in their life.
One is the feeling that nothing is going to turn out right no matter what we do. How many times have we stayed up all night worried about an appointment in the morning just to fall asleep very early in the morning and end up sleeping through the apointment anyhow. If we can just let ourselves be unafraid of making mistakes our performance will probably raise and we will make less mistakes. Let's all enjoy life!
If you think I am unrealistic or Polly Anna about life try visiting some of my useful resource links and see that there are other people who believe like me in the world.