Best Mental Health Articles

Losing weight and going on a diet can be quite challenging! As someone who has lost over 50 pounds, I will share a bit of my “dieting wisdom” with you.

1. Throw Out that Scale! Of course we all want to keep track of our progress, but stepping on that scale everyday isn’t the way to do it. In fact, it can keep us from focusing on what we really should be focusing on. A preoccupation with what the scale reads can cause us to become dependent and depressed. Instead, keep close attention to how you feel–lack of energy and tiredness could be an indication that you are failing to loose weight in the healthiest way. On the other hand, increased energy could be a sign that you are becoming healthier. Focus on what your body tells you–monitor how clothes are fitting you. This is a much more positive way of monitoring your weight loss. Save the scale for regular doctor’s checkups or occuasional, periodic use.

2. Set Realistic Goals. Trying to “loose weight fast” is often times not only impractical, but also dangerous. Set goals that you know can be feasibly integrated into your daily routine. Not only are quick weight loss attempts often difficult to maintain, but they can also be hazardous to your health–causing you to ruin your metabolism and rapidly regain the weight as soon as you stop your diet.

3. Expect Fallbacks. We all have our bad days. Being hard on yourself for breaking your diet and falling back on your weight goals is part of the process! Frustration can make it even harder to get back on track. Instead, look forward and decide ways in which you can be more dedicated to your goals. Keeping a journal can help.

4. Praise Yourself Often. Remember, attaining your weight goals is just as much a mental process as it is a physical one. For this reason, it is important to keep yourself motivated. Think of ways to positively reward yourself. For example: get your nails done or have a guys-only night out. There are all kinds of ways to pamper yourself without spending too much money. Be creative!

5. Be Open with your Doctor. If you are struggling in acheiving your goals, don’t keep trying to do it alone! Contact your doctor. He/she may be able to help you customize your goals or refer you to a nutritionist or other professional trained to help patients mentally and physically stay on track when loosing weight.

Above all, remember that loosing weight does not mean foregoing fun and ignoring what your mind and emotions tell you. In fact, paying attention to your mental state can ultimately mean far better results. Forget about the scale, be realistic, reward yourself, and, if needed, seek professional assistance. With the right mindset, you will already be well on your way to reaching your weight loss goals!

Amie Gerlowski writes for Weight Loss Guide, an online resource about diet pills such as Hoodia.

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Over Compulsive Disorder is very much a mental complaint that we the sufferer fight to control twenty fours a day seven days a week. OCD is like; buy one get one free offer down at the local supermarket. A two in one offer where bargain of the day is pain.

We have the mental hurt accompanied by the physical pain like backache, headache, cramp and much more while seeking contentment.

Depending on the individual symptoms may differ.

Victims usually suffer from back pain due to a second carpeting of bits on the floor? An OCD victim is more times on bended knee than those of any priest or vicar believe me. Pockets in an apron are a necessity for an over compulsive disorder sufferer. Why? Well because this is a great place to stash every bit or crumb picked up from the floor. No matter how severe the agony of back pain, you may bet an OCD sufferer will find a way to stoop to remove the offending bit of fluff. This offensive alien no bigger than the size of a pin head can cause severe heartache till exterminated.

Crumbs are enough to send an OCD victim to hell and back.

How OCD dominates our eating habits.

Before sitting down to eat, forced upon us is the imaginary stop watch where count down begins to finish a meal. A sufferer you will find will never have the time to digest the content of dinner tea or supper due to the need of the plate being washed and put away.
Shopping lists will never consist of rich tea biscuits/crisps or a crusty loaf.

Colour of packaging and labels denote what goes in to a sufferer’s pantry and heaven forbid should the sugar bag split.
An OCD sufferer and the visitor not a match made in heaven. The guest has to comply with all the ground rules, where if a sandwich is served up then it is eaten outside with Jack Frost.

Could this be the reason why many victims of OCD lead a lonely life? Choices have to be made where you are faced with two options. Do you allow visitors to pop in for a chat or opt for a world of silence? Silence is golden in the eyes of an OCD victim;

Over Compulsive Disorder is dictator in our lives where it slowly takes the living out of life.

Understanding and trying to control why we do what we do, is still very distant in our thoughts. So until we have the answer we will continue to hope and cope with the pressure stress and anxiety that comes with OCD and of course a prayer to God.
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There is an illness all around me in modern society that seems to be spreading like the Black Plague once did in Europe so long ago. It’s called depression, have you heard of it? Has it affected you? The more I look, the more I see it in so many people in my life, including myself. Depression sucks. It’s a real drag, and I mean real drag. It is different from the feelings of unhappiness that all humans have to deal with in their lives. It is being in a solitary prison where you are the only one who can see the walls; you are the jailor, the guard, and the prisoner all rolled into one. Sounds like fun huh? Well, we better become more aware of it because there are certain aspects of contemporary life that are causing more and more souls to lock themselves up, some believing that they have no hope of ever finding the key out.

If you look up depression on the Internet through a Google search query you will find a lot of different ways and means to manage or treat the problem. There are Eastern and Western approaches, psychological and spiritual; today there are 15,400,000 links about the subject. It seems to be on everybody’s mind and yet we don’t give it the general social awareness that we do for other illnesses. This is probably because there are so many stigmas around faults with the human mind. Broken bones and cancer we can understand or at least think we do; but we touch on a soft spot when we find a problem with that infinitely complex, helpful, magical device we call the brain.

Recently I went to a public talk by a world famous Psychologist named Dorothy Rowe who was selling her new book, ‘Depression: The way out of your prison”. I’m not going to tell you that she has all the answers, but I did like the different approach that she took to the illness. She’s not against modern medication, but she feels that it can be only part of the solution. Of course there are types of intense clinical depression that need certain chemicals to rebalance the brain to a ‘normal’ working order, but for all depression she feels that the focus could be shifted from a management to a prevention paradigm.

Dr Rowe focuses on the assertion that depression comes when one’s structure of interpreting the world around you has been affected by some deeply negative occurrences (usually in one’s youth). Her theory suggests that if a certain event happens to one hundred people, they will all probably interpret the experience in an individual, different way; the perceived ‘reality’ having been a resulting construct from one’s life experiences. For example: Let’s say you get fired from your job. Just about everyone is going to feel a general unhappiness and grieve over the subsequent period. However, many people have built positive, optimistic ways of seeing life and will just go on and feel as though the layoff was another necessary step or a momentary setback on the way to their life’s goals and dreams. “Whatever doesn’t kill me, makes me stronger.” is a common sentiment from this type of personality.

However, a person who is prone to perceiving the world around them as threatening and dangerous (maybe their parents never gave them positive affirmations as a child, or even put them down emotionally) may believe that the loss of this job is a relative ‘destruction’ of their world, their safety, their confidence. This is where the illness of depression can dig its sharp teeth in. This is a pretty mellow analogy; in reality some people have gone through hellish childhoods filled with abuse, neglect and addiction. When this type of person then has to deal with the loss of a loved one or relationship break-up, you can imagine that they would be much more prone to perceiving the experience as deeply negative. Dr. Rowe believes that these constructed structures of perceiving what happens to you can be altered, thus giving rise to a new way of seeing reality. The main idea is based around the idea that we must learn to change the ways in which we see ourselves.

If we can learn to accept ourselves with all our faults and imperfections, and realize that if we are doing our best to be a loving and giving person everyday, then we can see ourselves as being worthy, and that all is well. Then if someone else treats us badly, ignores us, or says we aren’t good enough, we can know and acknowledge that they are the person with the problem and that we don’t necessarily need their affirmation or acceptance. We can then wait for positive people to come into our lives, as like attracts like. Soon enough we will find that there is a group of people that will stand by our side and support us when things get bad because we do the same for ourselves and for them.

One of the most powerful insights I had from this experience was the sheer number of people in the room for Dr. Rowe’s speech. Each and every one had been or known someone close who had been depressed at one time in their life, thinking that they were completely alone in the world. When you see a big group of people together whom have all felt alone, you might just see into the true paradox of reality? If everyone who got depressed realized that it is a common occurrence, and connected to others in similar cases, it definitely could be a step towards healing. Could the Internet take a leading role in this process?

Jesse S. Somer
http://www.m6.net
Jesse S. Somer has been locked in a prison of his own mind. The way out was within.

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