Mental Health Notes - News, Education and Advocacy

Saturday Sanity: The Good, The Bad, And The Smiley Faces

by Alicia Sparks, Mental Health Notes on September 13th, 2008

Saturday’s just don’t have the same magic they had when I was a kid. Saturday’s used to mean no school. Sleeping in. Hanging out with friends until all hours of the night. Going to the pool, or the mall, or some other such fun place.

Now, Saturdays mean catching up on work. Getting a quick call in with a friend. Doing chores I didn’t have time to do during the week. Going grocery shopping, doing laundry, or some other such mundane task.

It’s sad when you have to plan a lazy Saturday, yes?

In any event, enjoy this week’s Saturday Sanity. And the reason for the little smiley faces above is two-fold: One, there’s a lot of good news below, so yay! Two, there’s a lot of bad news below, so you’ll need some perking up!

This week at Mental Health Notes, in addition to participating in the Health & Wellness Channel’s September theme day with 5 Tips To Keep Your Child’s Mind Healthy This School Year and telling you about all the drugs that may or may not be in your water, I ran a five-day series on becoming a mental health advocate called - unsurprisingly - The Top 5 Ways To Be A Mental Health Advocate. Don’t worry; you don’t have to dig through a week’s worth of posts to find them. I’ve provided a convenient round up for you. Oh, and I’m running a contest to win a copy of Surviving Ben’s Suicide, which ends tonight - so hurry on over and enter!

Regarding mental health advocacy, Project Helping Hands is providing mental health services to Gustav victims (and Ike victims, as well, I just found out), Mental Health America set National Parity Call-In Day in motion, the Depression and Bipolar Support Alliance (DBSA) announced the 16 finalists in the Facing Us 2008 Music Contest, and the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA) is hosting a free teleconference on Tuesday regarding the challenges providers face when treating people with mental health problems. It’s too late for me to register (I just found out about it!), but maybe if any of you reading this are participating, you’d like to take notes and share with the class, hmm?

In the world of mental health news, there’s not a lot of good. Suicide is up for soldiers and still high for teens. Parents are doing a lot more talking with school personnel and health care providers about their kids’ mental health (well, now wait - that’s a good thing), and the number of young adults who’ve abused prescription drugs is up (okay, we’re back to the bad stuff). ADHD is causing adults to have lower levels of educational and occupational attainments, IBD is causing a whole plethora of mental problems (or, at least, being connected to them), and dialysis patients with depression are more likely to die or be hospitalized within a year than those who aren’t suffering from depression. Wow, I wish there was more good news. Well, I did find some stuff I’m saving for next week.

Here at b5media’s Health & Wellness Channel, we’ve all been pretty dang busy! In addition to checking out Grace Ibay’s round up of theme day posts, you may also be interested in checking out:

• Mark’s look at medications and other drugs in relation to alcohol and substance abuse.
• Kendra’s recount of her experiences during 9/11.
• Mary Emma Allen’s thoughts on caregivers lifting their spirits when they’re down.
• Angelique’s five reasons parents ignore eating disorders.
• Ruth’s report of coffee perks for women.
• Kristen’s hysterical post about guppy sex (well, it’s hysterical to me!).
• Marijke’s report on how Wii Fit has been working for her.
• Karen’s quote in a Health.com article (go Karen!).
• My guest post over at Weighting Line. (Hint: It’s dripping with sinfully superficial ways to perk up on crap days - and some good advice, too.)

Enjoy your Saturday!

Image: SXC and Aleksandra P.

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POSTED IN: Mental Health Notes