Depression

Mental Illness Awareness Week: #IAmStigmaFree

Conditions, Depression / By

The National Alliance on Mental Illness (NAMI) spends the first full week of October fighting stigma, offering support, educating the public and advocating for equal care for those living with a mental health condition. While these are a year round focus for them, this week highlights mental illness awareness and 2015 marks its 25th anniversary. #IAmStigmaFree This year’s theme revolves around building momentum through the new StigmaFree initiative. Being stigma free means: learning about and educating others on mental illness focusing on connecting with people to see each other as individuals and not a diagnosis; and most importantly taking action on mental health issues and taking the StigmaFree pledge. Did you know… 1 in every 5 adults – 43.7 million – in America experiences a mental illness. 50% of all lifetime cases of mental illness begin by age 14 and 75% by age 24. Nearly 1 in 25 adults – approximately 13.6 million –in America live with a serious mental illness.[1] Mental Illness Awareness Week encourages people to come together to improve the lives of the tens of millions of Americans affected by mental illness. How can you get involved? You can learn how to spread awareness this week on the …

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Recapping with our Team of Advisors!

ALS, Bipolar disorder, Depression, Epilepsy, Fibromyalgia, Mental Health, Multiple Sclerosis, Parkinson's Disease, Patient Experiences, Rare Diseases / By

Many of you will remember meeting our inaugural Team of Advisors from when we first shared about this exciting team last year! This group of 14 were selected from over 500 applicants in the community and have been incredible in their dedication and desire to bring the patient voice directly to PatientsLikeMe. As the team is wrapping up their year-long term as advisors, we wanted to make sure we update the community on all the hard work they’ve done on your behalf! First Ever In-Person Patient Summit in Cambridge Your team of patient advisors travelled from all over the country to join us for 2 days here in Cambridge. They met with PatientsLikeMe staff, got a tour of the offices and began their collaboration together as a team! Blog Series The advisors have also been connecting with the broader community as part of an ongoing series here on the blog! This is an impressive group and we hope you’ll read through to learn more about the team.  Some of the interviews featured so far include profiles on Becky, Lisa, Dana, Emilie, Karla, Deb, Amy, Steve, Charles, Letitia and Kitty. If you haven’t had the chance to read their stories and what they’re passionate about yet, feel …

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Raising awareness on Veteran’s Day

Depression, Mental Health, Patient Experiences / By

Right now, there are almost 22 million American veterans living in the United States, and every one of them has a story to tell. So today, we’re honoring their service by raising awareness for life after the military. Like many others who are living with chronic conditions, the injuries our military men and women sustain are not always visible. Thousands of veterans are affected by post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), 30,000 have been diagnosed with a traumatic brain injury (TBI) since 2000 and many others are living with depression. Sometimes their symptoms don’t even manifest until many years after their service. These eye-opening statistics are why we’ve recently announced a new multi-year collaboration with One Mind to help the millions of people worldwide who are experiencing post-traumatic stress traumatic brain injury, or both. We’ll work together to expand and enhance the PatientsLikeMe online registry experience for people with these conditions, to provide better resources for day-to-day living, and to capture more patient-reported data for research. If you’re looking to learn more about US veterans, head to your nearest book store and grab a copy of “For Love of Country,” Howard Schultz’s and Rajiv Chandrasekaran’s new book (just released on November 4). Check out …

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Depression Awareness Month- What does it feel like?

1 Comment / Depression, Patient Experiences / By

Here at PatientsLikeMe, there are thousands of people sharing their experiences with more than a dozen mental health conditions, including 15,000 patients who report major depressive disorder and 1,700 patients who report postpartum depression. What do they have to say? This word cloud has some of the most commonly used phrases on our mental health forum. It gives you a feel of the many emotions, concerns and thoughts that surround the topic of mental health. But the best way to increase awareness and knowledge, we believe, is to learn from real patients. To help show what it’s like to live with depression, we thought we’d share some of our members’ candid answers to the question, “What does your depression feel like?” “My last depressive state felt like I was in a well with no way to get out. I would be near the top, but oops….down I go. I truly felt that I would not be able to pull myself out of this one. I felt hopeless, worthless and so damn stupid, because I could not be like other people, or should say what I think are normal people.” “It feels like living in a glass box. You can see the rest of the world going about life, laughing, bustling …

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It’s time to recognize mental illness in October

Bipolar disorder, Depression, Mental Health / By

Think about this for a second; according to the National Alliance of Mental Illness (NAMI) 1 in 4 people, or 25% of American adults, will be diagnosed with a mental illness this year. On top of that, 20 percent of American children (1 in 5) will also be diagnosed. And so for 7 days, October 5th to 11th, we’ll be spreading the word for Mental Illness Awareness Week (MIAW). What exactly is a mental illness? According to NAMI, “A mental illness is a medical condition that disrupts a person’s thinking, feeling, mood, ability to relate to others and daily functioning. [They] are medical conditions that often result in a diminished capacity for coping with the ordinary demands of life.” There are many types of mental illnesses. The list includes conditions like post-traumatic stress disorder, bipolar II, depression, schizophrenia and more. MIAW is about recognizing the effects of every condition and learning what it’s like to live day-to-day with a mental illness. This week, you can get involved by reading and sharing NAMI’s fact sheet on mental illness and using NAMI’s social media badges and images on Facebook, Twitter and other sites. Don’t forget to use the hashtag #MIAW14 if you …

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“Mind your health” – Recognizing mental health in May

Bipolar disorder, Depression, Mental Health, Patient Experiences / By

This May marks the 65th anniversary of Mental Health Month, which has been observed by Mental Health America (MHA) since 1949. The MHA’s 2014 monthly theme is “Mind your health,” and it’s all about building public awareness for mental health and wellness while learning about the complex connections between the mind and the body. According to the National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH), 26% of Americans ages 18 and older are currently living with a diagnosable mental health condition.1 That’s about 1 in every 4 adults. In fact, NIMH says that mental health conditions “are the leading cause of disability in the U.S. and Canada.” They can cause mood swings, anxiety, personality changes and more, and many times, the subtler emotional symptoms can be very tough to describe. The mood community at PatientsLikeMe is more than 33,000 strong, and in addition to tracking symptoms and donating personal data through detailed health profiles, members are sharing their experiences in the PatientsLikeMe forum. People are talking about everything from sleep habits and mood research to favorite emotional movies, and they’re also sharing photos symbolizing how they feel. If you’ve been recently diagnosed, connect with others who are experiencing the same and know what …

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National Depression Screening Day and National Bipolar Awareness Day

Bipolar disorder, Depression, Patient Experiences / By

As part of Mental Illness Awareness Week, today is both National Depression Screening Day and National Bipolar Awareness Day. It’s all part of a larger effort to raise awareness about the mental conditions that affect the lives of millions of people around the world. So what are the stats on depression?[1] Depression affects as many as ten percent of all people in the United States, an incredible 30 million people One out of four young adults will experience a depressive episode by age 24 10% to 15% of all depressions are triggered by other medical conditions (such as thyroid disease, cancer or neurologic problems) or by medications Here are the facts about bipolar disorder:[2] More than 10 million Americans are living with this condition, which is characterized by extreme mood swings and intense emotional states More than half of patients are diagnosed between the ages of 15 and 25 Bipolar disorder affects men and women equally But at PatientsLikeMe, we know that patients aren’t just a statistic, and that facts don’t tell the whole story. Your journey is unique, and this is why more than 15,000 PatientsLikeMe members with depression and more than 4,000 with bipolar disorder are sharing their …

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