The Truth About Postpartum Depression

Tom Cruise and Brooke Shields are currently engaging in a word war against each other because of a type of depression, called postpartum depression. Cruise's and Brooke's debacle started when Tom Cruise openly disapproved of Brooke Shield's personal choice of opting to take prescribed medicines to cure her postpartum depression, when he guested at the Today Show. According to Cruise, who is a popular devotee of Scientology (who believes that we can be cured through natural means and that taking medicine is doing our body harm), Brooke Shields should have instead, opted to cure her postpartum depression by doing healthy exercises. Adding that a lot of people have been misinformed about depression and how to actually cure this common illness.

But what is postpartum depression really? We've heard about it often enough, yet are we really sure that we know enough about it for us to actually understand this illness in order for us to help ourselves as well as others? Being pregnant should really be a source of joy for everyone, especially the mother to be, who for nine months, will actually have living being grow from inside of her. Unfortunately, there is another side to this joyous occasion, being pregnant means that you and your body will have to get used to some adjustments for you to have a safe pregnancy. Smoking, alcohol, strenuous activities as well as stress should be avoided at all cost. A healthy baby means having a healthy mother as well. But given that you have been able to successfully avoided all these bad habits for your baby to be, childbirth is a whole different thing, as much as we may try to avoid it, there are still some unfortunate cases wherein the mother's as well as the baby's life might be in danger.

But there's actually more, postpartum depression actually happens after childbirth. Although it's quite common and a lot of women have learned to how to deal with it as well as successfully treat it (like Brooke Shields), it is still quite avoidable. Postpartum depression is actually a lot like depression, but only new moms are the possible victims of this illness. There are actually a lot possible reasons why postpartum depression occurs:

Childbirth as we all know is not as easy as pie, actual physical stress from giving birth is one of the main reasons why postpartum depression occurs. Next postpartum depression trigger is massive changes is hormonal levels. A lot of moms-to-be who were hesitant about bearing a child are also more susceptible to postpartum depression, those who are not ready to be a mother yet are more easily to get depressed as opposed to happy and excited moms-to-be.

When postpartum depression happens, it really is best to go to the doctor immediately. Aside from obviously having ill-effects for the new mother, postpartum depression can prove to be harmful to the child as well. New mothers who are suffering from postpartum depression may be harboring ill feelings toward their children. Their are actually some cases of murder wherein postpartum depression has been cited as the reason. Mothers who suffer from postpartum depression may blame their child for their weight gain, thus feeling like they've become less attractive and unloved. It is really best to consult a reputable cognitive behavior therapist to take care of your postpartum woes, your therapist may prescribe medications to help cure postpartum depression as well as therapy sessions to help relieve whatever pent emotions that you may have.

COULEE CONSUMER: Who is more important to teens -- parents or peers?

In addition, friends are a much-needed source of social support during adolescence and can serve as a protective factor against teen depression and suicide.Parental opportunities to influence their child's friendship choices occur before, as well as throughout, adolescence. Parents can influence their children's friendship choices by where they choose to live, the schools they choose for their children to attend, their parenting practices and the values they instill in their children from the earliest stages of life.All these parental choices can have a powerful and lasting (although indirect) influence on the friends that their children choose during the adolescent years.Parents faced with the unique challenges presented by their child's adolescence can benefit from new knowledge and learning specific to that age period � as well as support from others experiencing similar issues.Stephen Small, human development and family relations specialist with the University of Wisconsin-Extension and director of the UW-Madison Center for Excellence in Family Studies and Rebecca Mather, a UW-Madison graduate student are conducting a study of parents of preteens and teens age 11-16 who are interested in learning more about raising teenagers.

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Amy Winehouse needs a hug, and some serious help

Once upon a time she was just an awkward looking rebellious teen, breaking the dress codes at school just to piss of her high school teachers.

She was just looking for attention. Winehouse is obviously terribly insecure. We all know how that feels.

Amy's talent is a blessing and a curse at the same time.

It's what keeps the little amount of sanity she still has. It's what makes her know she's special.

It's what has given her access to the drugs she's become addicted to.

It's what has put her under the microscope she can't escape.

Winehouse's personal problems have grown so out of control she's admitted to doing self-harm, suffering from depression, and having eating disorders.

Her grandmother, who first suggested she go to music school, passed away in 2006, causing Winehouse's behavior to spiral further out of control.

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Anger And Depression

When some people get depressed, they simply get extremely withdrawn. They go around in a solitary stupor, not wanting to talk to other people and blaming themselves for everything. For me, however, anger and depression go hand-in-hand. When I am angry and depressed, I feel like the world is out to get me. I don't withdraw from the world. I resent it and hate it and want to fight with it. It is an unpleasant feeling, but one that I can't let go of. The depression and anger spiral out of control until I can't be around anyone without finding them difficult to tolerate in the extreme.

Of course, as a psychology major I have some insight into my own condition. There are a lot of different ways people deal with depression, and I know what purpose mine serves and why I do it. Feeling depressed and hopeless is just too hard for me. I would rather feel angry and depressive, keeping the rage inside of me. It gives me motivation to do things and helps me work my way out of my clinical depression.

The problem is that, in some ways, Anger and depression stop me from seeing the role that I play in my own ongoing problems. When I went in for cognitive psychology counseling, I would often argue in circles with my therapist, debating why I was unhappy. He claims that I couldn't see certain self-destructive patterns in my life because of the anger and depression that I felt, and that that was one of the main reasons that I was miserable all the time. I was more inclined to blame things that were beyond my control as a way to escape from responsibility. I was living a very active life and not sinking into brooding, lethargic misery, but at the same time I was unwilling to change and let go of all of that hatred.

I guess this is the double-edged sword of aggressive psychology. People prone to aggressive thinking have so much fire in their bellies that they can really take on the world. On the other hand, we tend to be our own worst enemies. We are so keyed up to fight for our own rights that we sometimes miss it when we trample on other people and their rights, or even when we get in our own ways. Sometimes, just letting go of all the anger and depression makes a much bigger difference than lashing out will. I've been trying to learn this in depression counseling, but it's a slow process. Hopefully, some day I will finally get it and be able to break the cycle of depression and anger.

Teen Talk: Read up: Ecstasy has its bad side effects

Research has shown it may cause confusion and memory loss, depression, anxiety, paranoia, mania, sleeplessness and psychotic episodes. This can occur weeks and even months after the drug has been used.

A term has been coined for post-Ecstasy use: the "Tuesday Blues" or "Suicide Tuesday." Not everyone gets it, but it's acknowledged among Ecstasy users that the days following an E-trip can bring on a mild and sometimes major bout of depression.

Anytime you take something to alter your brain chemistry, you are playing with fire. You have to ask yourself, "What am I ultimately putting in my body?"

How do you know where the drug came from, if it's given to you or you buy it off the street? Since this is a synthetic drug, Ecstasy can be altered with different chemicals or contaminants.

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Newport bachelor eats at college cafeteria for 40 years, donates

Depression-era Omaha is where a pre-teen Lindsay collected dandelions to sell as chicken feed, earning a few pennies each week to buy bread for his family.

Walking to school one morning, a skinny, starved Lindsay picked through a neighbor's garbage can and emerged with a not-quite-empty jar of peanut butter.

"Bruce eagerly ate the peanut butter and would never forget how delicious it tasted," according to a self-published biography of Lindsay's life written by a friend.

Now, admittedly, eating from a garbage can � and being so desperate that you enjoy it, no less � might make any reasonable person a tad frugal. For Lindsay, though, financial security became a real obsession.

Even as things began looking up in the 1940s, after his family had moved to California, there was no way he'd let impulse buys send him back to the poorhouse.

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Over-scheduling may be overrated

High school students pressured to beef up their resumes can suffer from depression and anxiety.

It takes a toll on parents as well, not to mention the cost to shuttle kids among all those activities.

Despite what the neighbors might say, the truth is that our kids will still get into college even if they've never watched a Baby Einstein video or been president of the Medieval Literature Club.

"The parents who are over-the-top, you're never going to change," says Alvin Rosenfeld, a child psychiatrist and author of "The Over-Scheduled Child: Avoiding the Hyper-Parenting Trap." "It's about the incessant pressure on the rest of us. It's very hard to have the inner fortitude to resist that pressure."

The irony is that our strengths -- independence, thinking outside the box, creative problem-solving -- develop best when kids have time to play, to dream, to dawdle.

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Chastity advocate pulls no punches

Evert stressed that taking this route leads to greater happiness, noting that the potential for depression rises sharply among teen boys and girls who become sexually active. Lest young people fear losing their popularity, he pointed out that football's Philip Rivers, quarterback for the San Diego Chargers, was a virgin and so was his wife, Tiffany, when they got married.

Evert noted that chastity and abstinence are not the same things: Whereas abstinence means not having sex, chastity also includes pure thoughts and speech. He also pointed out the difference between infatuation and true love, declaring that "a lot of people think if the feeling goes down, love is disappearing. That's not true at all."

Evert asserted that true love is not really a feeling, but "an act of the will to do your best for someone else" that has a much greater permanence.

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