Living with Health, Wellness and Wholeness

Take a look at the rightmost sidebar of this blog, and you will see the HONcode badge.

I am honored and excited that Anxiety, Panic & Health was accredited by the Health on the Net Foundation in October, 2008. It means that this site complies with the Health on the Net Code of Conduct and can display the HONcode badge.

The award-winning Health On the Net Foundation developed the HONcode in 1996 as a means to standardize requirements to establish the reliability and credibility of health information. It certifies websites through a stringent application and review process, then polices the site to make sure it continues to comply with its eight Principles. It has certified over 6,500 websites worldwide in 32 languages, and has partnerships with the European Union, the World Health Organization, the National Library of Medicine, and Google.

This article is the first in a two-part series. Today’s post will introduce you to the Health On the Net Foundation. Tomorrow’s post lists the HONcode principles and how Anxiety, Panic & Health complies with them. Today’s topics include:

• What is the Health On the Net Foundation?
• What does the Health On the Net Foundation do?
• How does a site become HONcode accredited?

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Are you among the 3 million Americans who is always dizzy?

Recent studies show that about 60 percent — almost 2 million — of chronically dizzy people also have an Anxiety Disorder. In fact, the Anxiety Disorder causes the dizziness!

If you are among these numbers, you may have what is called Chronic Subjective Dizziness. It’s a condition in which there are no physical reasons for the dizziness. You may have suffered from this condition for years without knowing what or why it was. New research from the University of Pennsylvania now has answers for you!

This post details this new research and explains why it is important to you or someone you know who is always dizzy. The subject is explored under these topics:

• What is Chronic subjective dizziness?
• Research on Chronic Subjective Dizziness and Anxiety Disorders
• The results of the study shows 60 percent had Anxiety Disorders
• The relationship of migraines, Anxiety Disorders and Chronic Subjective Dizziness
• The significance of this study on Chronic Subjective Dizziness
• Treating Chronic Subjective Dizziness

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People with Social Phobia face very large barriers to getting the treatment they need — larger than those faced by others with mental illnesses.

Many of the barriers are the same as with other mental illnesses, but some are unique to Social Phobia. Mark Olfson of Columbia University says:

Socially anxious people are often ashamed of their symptoms and embarrassed to discuss them with friends or health care professionals. It is ironic that the very symptoms socially anxious individuals seek to relieve may interfere with their ability to seek treatment.

This post, based on research by Olfson reported in The American Journal of Psychiatry, goes into detail about the barriers people with Social Phobia face, along with what can be done about it. It addresses the following topics:

• First, what is Social Phobia?
• Research on barriers to getting treatment for Social Phobia
• Untreated Social Phobia is very common
• Untreated Social Phobia greatly impairs daily functionality
• Barriers to treatment of Social Phobia
• What can be done to increase the treatment rate for people with Social Phobia?

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Your chances of being killed on a donkey are greater than being killed in an airplane crash!

But you say, “Yes, that’s true, but what if I am the ONE?” 

The inability to tolerate uncertainty has been found by researchers to be a core feature of worry. Some worriers say that they would rather know for sure that the outcome will be bad than left in suspense not knowing for sure!

This post explores the relationship between the intolerance of uncertainty and worry, and how they interact with Anxiety Disorders. It also offers a list of topics for you to think about that will help reduce your intolerance of uncertainty and worry.

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Mental wholeness is the last term in the tag line for this blog, Living with Health, Wellness and Wholeness.

Wholeness is a concept that has many meanings in our culture. It is spoken of by New Age gurus, preached from the pulpit, and bandied about by pop psychologists. Yet none of these can give you a straightforward answer as to what wholeness really is. 

Mental wholeness is murkier still. It is referred to by many, again without definition. This may be because the meaning of the term is difficult to articulate, the person doesn’t really know what it means, or that they just like the mysterious way it sounds!

This post explores the meanings of wholeness and provides my definition of mental wholeness as used in this blog. It is the third in a series that defines mental health, mental wellness, and mental wholeness, three pillars of all the posts written here.

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Mental wellness is part of the tag line for this blog, “Living with Health, Wellness and Wholeness.”

Wellness is a relatively new paradigm in health care, and the subject of mental wellness is newer still. The study of characteristics that make up mental health is called Positive Psychology, which was introduced only in 1998. Mental wellness in counseling and therapy is even more recent, being introduced in 2001.

Mental wellness is more than a pop psychology term; it is a part of the future of medicine, which is moving daily toward a concept of holistic treatment. Both presidential candidates envision more holistic health care, and medical practices across the nation are taking up the idea of treating the whole person, rather than just handing out prescriptions.

This post defines mental wellness as it is understood by its originators, and as it is used in this blog. It is the second post in the series defining the terms mental health, mental wellness, and mental wholeness as it relates to this blog’s tag line, “Living with Health, Wellness and Wholeness.”

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Living with Health, Wellness and Wholeness is the tag line for this blog.

But what exactly do the terms mental health, wellness and wholeness mean? When you think about it, it’s hard to pin down exact definitions for them.  

And the definitions are continually changing for every individual, because mental health, mental wellness, and mental wholeness are processes, in movement, and not static. In a way, we make our own definitions of what they mean for each of us.

To me, these are more than interesting terms or concepts. They are the very underpinnings of this blog, the ultimate goal for every post written.

This is the first of a three-part series presenting the widely-recognized definitions of the terms mental health, mental wellness, and mental wholeness, along with my own definitions and how I use the terms in this blog. Today’s post, on mental health, will be followed by post on mental wellness and mental wholeness in the days to come.

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Suicidal behavior has not been associated with the Anxiety Disorders alone until recently.

It has long been known that as many as 90 percent of suicides in the United States are associated with mental illness, especially substance abuse disorders, schizophrenia, and mood disorders such as depression. Up to 75 percent of all people with depression, schizophrenia or other mental illnesses who attempt or complete suicide also are diagnosed with one or more of the Anxiety Disorders.

As recently as 1999, the Surgeon General could only say that, ” it is likely that the rate of comorbid [simultaneous] anxiety in suicide is underestimated.” There had been no studies at the time of Anxiety Disorder alone being a risk factor for suicide.

However, since then there have been a number of studies of the risks of Anxiety Disorders alone for suicide. It has been universally found that the suicide risk in patients with Anxiety Disorders is much higher than previously thought. Bob Montgomery and Laurel Morris say,

Patients with anxiety problems, especially but not only panic problems, suffer an unexpectedly high rate of heart disease and suicide. Suicide has long been recognized as a risk associated with depression. But [when] researchers compared a group of anxious with a matched group of depressed patients and found that the suicide rates for anxious patients were equal to or slightly higher than for the depressed patients.

This post summarizes some landmark studies from the past three years that have proven Anxiety Disorders, both alone and in association with other mental illnesses, are a significant risk factor for suicidal ideation, attempts, and completions.

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One of our nation’s greatest shames is the number of homeless people adrift in the streets and parks of our cities.

And of the estimated 744,000 people who are homeless on any given night, 40 to 45 percent of them have a serious mental illness. Most of these mentally ill people go untreated, and unable to work, live a hand-to-mouth existence out on the streets.

Senator Pete Domenici says,

No vision haunts America’s conscience more than the sight of the street people… The irrationality and anguish that grip so many of these individuals leap out during any encounter, whether in Washington or Albuquerque.”

This post, in response to Blog Action Day’s call to write about poverty on October 15th, gives an overview of the crisis of the homeless mentally ill. This post covers the following topics:

• How many homeless Americans are there?
• How many of the homeless are mentally ill?
• Why are there so many mentally ill homeless people?
• Most mentally ill homeless people are not being treated
• What’s to be done?

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