Hear ye Hear ye New Post in less than 12 Hours.

I am going to be posting a semi-humorous piece on my take of the holiday season by early morning. In the mean time I wanted to post a portion of a letter I recently sent to family updating them on my condition and progress (with some slight modifications). I hope it will be helpful to others. As usual remember the disclaimer listed in the side bar under "About Me" or listed in my profile on Facebook.

******My crack legal team has asked me to add the following addition. I am NOT a medical professional. Depression (even seasonal depression) if left untreated can be a very serious and debilitating condition. If you feel the onset, or you feel your existing condition worsening, I urge you to take is very seriously. By that I mean seek the advice of a reputable and licensed health care professional. I can't tell you who to see. What I can tell you is that when I originally started seeking treatment, I did so through my general physician. It MIGHT be a good place to start. Better to get evaluated by a qualified health care professional and have them tell you nothing is wrong, than to not get an evaluation and end-up having a more serious condition. As anyone whose suffered from a mental health disease will tell you, self recognition is a bitch. No nice way to say it. My current psychiatrist prefers to see his clients in the presence of their spouse or a trusted friend or family member because if you are in that emotional state, you cannot always trust your own judgment. Sometimes things are much worse than you realize, sometimes they are not as serious as you think. Either way, error on the side of caution and seek guidance from a trained medical professional. I have come to rely on a select group of friends and family whom I trust to have my best interests at heart to give me feedback on things and to monitor my progress. Whom ever you see, expect the same thoroughness, quality, and professionalism of them that you would say a doctor who specializes in cancer treatment or diabetes. Lastly at the end of this article I will include three links. Two are to the signs and symptoms of depression and the other (heaven forbid) a reputable suicide prevention organization. If you need help and don't get help from them, PLEASE get help somewhere !!!********

Now that things seem to have leveled off the challenge will be keeping things that way. I'm a little anxious with the holiday season and onset of winter as historically this has always been a difficult time for me.

Holidays are always accompanied by strong positive and negative emotions. Its those extreme swings that aren't healthy. You can compare your moods to the read-out of a heart monitor or a line chart. The large up and down spikes are bad, so is a straight line. The goal is to have a shallow curvy line that doesn't get too high or too low. Sure it might sound great to have a big up-spike, but you always fall as far down as you fly up. Never do you simply float back to neutral and there is NEVER and exception to this. So those super highs have to be avoided to help avoid the super lows. Ultimately, its the crash or downward trip that we are trying to avoid.

The dark, cold, wintry season can often put even mentally and emotionally healthy people into a mild depression. I am determined to be on guard for it this year. I would also urge all of you to stay on guard for winter depression. It is a very common thing. Find a way to get exercise on a regular basis. After Dec, keep finding excuses to get out with friends instead of holing up in your home and isolating yourself from the outside world.

I would like to close with a few points. First I've started a weekly blog to sort of help journal about life with mental illness. The goal is to help beat back the stereo types people have by sharing my own story. Feel free to check it out at : www.theredheadedrambler.blogspot.com . Also if you or anyone you know is struggling with mental illness NAMI can help point you in the right direction. These wonderful people have been heaven sent angles to both my parents and I. I've listed the link to their state website which you can use to find contact information for local chapters. The chapter responsible for the NW Ohio region is very active. www.namiohio.org .

To all my friends and readers out there, I wish you a safe and joyous holiday season.

***Promised links****
http://www.nami.org/Content/NavigationMenu/Mental_Illnesses/Depression/Mental_Illnesses_What_is_Depression.htm

http://www.nami.org/Template.cfm?Section=Depression&Template=/ContentManagement/ContentDisplay.cfm&ContentID=88956

****Suicide Prevention Link*********
http://www.suicidepreventionlifeline.org



Mike