Tag Archive for "mental health"

Posts Tagged mental health

Not Oprah’s Book Club: Agorafabulous! Dispatches From My Bedroom

I’m a long time fan of Sara Benincasa, who I interviewed last year. She’s a comedian, a sex advice columnist, a feminist, and she does a mean Peggy Olsen impression. She’s also a recovering agoraphobic, and her book Agorafabulous! Dispatches From My Bedroom, out in February, is based on her one-woman comedy show of the same title.

The book traces the origins of Benincasa’s phobia, which began with increasingly severe panic attacks in her adolescence, and culminated when Benincasa, as an undergraduate, locked herself in her apartment, became afraid to leave her bed, stopped eating, and considered suicide.

These days, Benincasa gets on stage in front of hundreds of people and makes them laugh. But for much of ...

I’m a long time fan of Sara Benincasa, who I interviewed last year. She’s a comedian, a sex advice columnist, a feminist, and she does a mean Peggy Olsen impression. She’s also a recovering ...

By Chloe Angyal • 12 years ago

Every day can be RUOK? Day

Yesterday was the second annual RUOK? Day, an nationwide Australian initiative aimed at preventing suicide. On RUOK? Day, Australians were urged to check in with the people they care about – friends, relatives, colleagues, partners – to ask how they were doing.

As my future husband and RUOK Day spokesperson Hugh Jackman says, “Just take a moment to think about your work colleagues, maybe a friend, maybe a family member, who’s just struggling a little bit and may need some help. Or maybe you’re not sure. Well, don’t just sit there thinking, ‘eh, I think they’re probably OK.’ Take a moment, pull them aside, grab a coffee, tea, whatever it is, and just say ‘Hey. You OK? Everything good?’”

It’s a fantastic ...

By Chloe Angyal • 13 years ago

New study finds that men suffer postpartum depression too

According to new research published this month in the journal Pediatrics, new fathers are susceptible to postpartum depression.

Researchers from the University of Michigan collected data from 1,746 new fathers in 20 cities, finding that over all, about 7 percent showed signs of depression. More than 40 percent of depressed fathers spanked their children, compared with 13 percent of fathers who weren’t depressed.

As is the case with postpartum depression in mothers, depression in new dads affects children. Depressed fathers are more likely to report substance abuse than fathers who are not depressed, and they’re less likely to read stories to their children. And among certain groups, male postpartum depression is alarmingly common. According to the study, among fathers of infants ...

According to new research published this month in the journal Pediatrics, new fathers are susceptible to postpartum depression.

Researchers from the University of Michigan collected data from 1,746 new fathers in 20 cities, finding that over all, ...

By Miriam • 13 years ago

The Real Happiness 28-day Meditation Challenge

Sharon Salzberg, a nationally renowned US based meditation teacher, has a new book out called Real Happiness: The Power of Meditation, A 28-day program. In coordination with her new book, a group of folks around the country are doing the 28-day challenge in the month of February.

Today is day one!

A few of the Feministing Editors (I’ll let them reveal themselves if they so choose) are also participating in the challenge, myself included.

I’ve tried meditation before. For over three years I’ve been trying to incorporate it into my daily life, mostly as a response to my struggles with anxiety. I have pretty major challenges with anxiety. I’ve struggled with it all my life, I realize now, but only ...

By Miriam • 13 years ago

New study debunks link between abortion and mental health problems

Guttmacher Institute has a new report out about a study that tried to replicate the findings of research claiming a higher incidence of mental health problems among women having abortions.

In a new analysis, Julia Steinberg, of the University of California, San Francisco (UCSF), and Lawrence Finer, of the Guttmacher Institute, show that the findings of a 2009 study by Priscilla Coleman et al—which claimed that women who had reported an abortion were at an increased risk of several anxiety, mood and substance use disorders, compared with women who had never had an abortion—are not replicable.

This is a common finding with ideologically driven research. When another team of researchers attempts to replicate the ...

Guttmacher Institute has a new report out about a study that tried to replicate the findings of research claiming a higher incidence of mental health problems among women having abortions.

In a new analysis, Julia ...

By goddessjaz • 13 years ago

Mother Murders Baby Over Farmville?

I saw this outrageous story today about a young mother who killed her 3-month-old son because he was crying while she played the popular Facebook timesuck game, Farmville. The mother, 22-year-old Alexandra V. Tobias, told the police that she shook the baby, left to smoke a cigarette to compose herself, and then returned and shook him again. She offers that he may have hit his head when she shook him and has pleaded guilty to second-degree murder carrying a possible sentence of 25 to 50 years in jail.

There is no doubt that this story is absolutely appalling and quite sad. The natural reaction is to ask how a mother could be so evil to kill her ...