Free Republic

WASHINGTON – Stress over grades. Financial worries. Trouble sleeping. Feeling hopeless. So much for those carefree college days. The vast majority of college students are feeling stressed these days, and significant numbers are at risk of depression, according to an Associated Press-mtvU poll Eighty-five percent of the students reported feeling stress in their daily lives in recent months, with worries about grades, school work, money and relationships the big culprits. At the same time, 42 percent said they had felt down, depressed or hopeless several days during the past two weeks, and 13 percent showed signs of being at risk...

RAMALLAH, West Bank (AFP) — The vast majority of Palestinian youth are depressed, but do not believe that violence is helpful in resolving the Middle East conflict, said a UN report released on Tuesday. "More than 80 percent of young Palestinians are depressed and 47 percent identify themselves as Muslim rather than Palestinian," the United Nations Development Programme report said. "Depression was more marked in the Gaza Strip, where 55 percent said they were 'extremely' depressed," it said. Sixty-nine percent of those questioned "believe that the use of violence as a means to resolve the conflict is not very helpful,...

Depressed women crave 'sexual intimacy' By Bonnie Malkin Last Updated: 3:52pm GMT 21/03/2008 Depressed women have more sex than those who are happier because intercourse makes them feel secure, a study claims. Women suffering from mild to moderate depression have a third more sex, regardless of whether they are in a relationship or not, according to the survey of more than 100 Australians. They also have more sexually liberated attitudes, a bigger variety of sexual experiences and, if single, are more likely to partake in casual sex. Dr Sabura Allen, a clinical psychologist at Monash University, said: "It was more...

March 10, 2008 Depressed? Just read this . . .Anjana Ahuja: Science Notebook Mark Henderson, science editor of this newspaper, recently unveiled his genotype to the nation. His risks of developing type 2 diabetes and colon cancer are no greater than average; his genes lower his chances of becoming obese or developing Alzheimer’s disease. Divining one’s future physical decline using DNA is one thing, but gene testing is now straining at an even more controversial frontier. A Californian company, Psynomics, recently – and rather discreetly – started marketing a test for bipolar disorder (previously called manic depression). Another company plans...

A 12-hour standoff ended this morning with a north Houston man lobbing Molotov cocktails at Houston Police before taking his own life rather than vacate a home he'd lost to foreclosure. James Hahn, a chemist, had told police he would not be taken from the home alive, said Capt. Bruce Williams, an HPD spokesman. " 'You know what I do for a living and you know what I am capable of,' " said Williams, recalling one of the conversations police had with the man on Wednesday. The standoff began at 1:10 p.m. Wednesday when police said Hahn pulled a gun...

Fortune Magazine) -- Here I go. I am about to walk into one of the biggest sucker's games in the whole world of economics: declaring that the U.S. consumer is tapped out, so desperately in hock and troubled about the future that he finally just can't spend like it's 1999 anymore. And to be clear, that is what I'm declaring. Unless I can talk myself out of it by the end of the column. I must be nuts. One of the most reliable ways to look like a business dope over the past several years has been to announce that...

European, Asian and Canadian companies are taking advantage of the weaker dollar to buy their U.S. counterparts at a record pace, increasing investment in the United States but also raising fears about a potential loss of jobs and autonomy. "We could be looking at the world's largest tag sale if we continue to see declines in the dollar," said Donald Klepper-Smith, chief economist at DataCore Partners. In the latest large deal aided by a weak dollar, Commerce Bancorp, which is based in Cherry Hill, New Jersey, agreed Tuesday to be acquired by Toronto-Dominion Bank of Canada in a cash-and-shares deal...

When a dog is looking a little down in the mouth the traditional remedy is to take it for a walk. But the makers of Prozac reckon some dogs are so depressed they need to be medicated to get them through the day. They have now launched a special canine version of Prozac on the pet market which comes in a chewable form and tasty beef flavour.

Lebanese terror group leader’s speeches, TV appearances lack usual zeal and charisma, behavioral researchers say, adding that criticism directed toward Nasrallah from Syria, Lebanon may be cause of his misery Hanan Greenberg Published: 02.19.07, 18:52 / Israel News Hizbullah leader Hassan Nasrallah is suffering from some form of depression, Israeli behavioral researchers said. The experts, who examined Nasrallah’s patterns of behavior during recent public appearances and compared it to his conduct in the past, said if their assertion was correct it would be difficult to predict the Hizbullah chief’s actions in the future. According to the researchers, Nasrallah’s current speeches...

16th of June DEFEATING DEPRESSION PART 1 “Anxiety in the heart of man causes depression, but a good word makes it glad” Proverbs 12:25 Depression- from Webster’s New Unabridged Dictionary Low spirits, gloominess, dejection, sadness, a decrease in force, or activity, or amount, a decrease in functional activity. An emotional condition either normal or pathological characterized by discouragement, a feeling of inadequacy, the act of humbling abasement as a depression of pride. Abasement, reduction, sinking, fall, humiliation, dejection, melancholy. Major Depression Facts Major depression is the No.1 psychological disorder in the western world.(1) It is growing in all age groups,...

Hey, you moms and dads out there showing off the latest photos of your kids and bragging about their recent achievements. You might not want to be quite so smug: Parents are more depressed than adults without kids. Despite the joys you think parenthood may bring, a study published in the Journal of Health and Social Behavior reports that having children does not make you happier.

New Yorkers are more than stressed out. Many city residents have "frequent mental distress," according to a study released by the city Health Department. And they are not getting the help they need. Health officials said 1 in 7 adults living in the five boroughs reported frequent mental distress last year, compared with 1 in 10 in the state. The numbers were highest in northern and central Brooklyn, Harlem and the South Bronx. "Depression is a serious and underdiagnosed condition in New York City," said Dr. Lloyd Sederer, deputy commissioner for mental health services. "With so many New Yorkers having...

Rosa Brooks: The happiness gap IT'S BEEN A rough couple of weeks. Hamas won the Palestinian elections; protests over cartoons representing the prophet Muhammad raged around the world; more Americans and Iraqis were killed by suicide bombers; new Abu Ghraib photos were released; and, here at home, the vice president got violent. But despite the trying times, we Americans are managing to keep our spirits up. This week, the Pew Research Center released a report on happiness in the United States. Of the Americans surveyed, 34% informed researchers that they were "very happy," while another 50% reported that they were...

A Quinnipiac University poll found that... Democrats to be highly depressed: Q.: Do you think 2005 was better or worse than 2004 for you personally? Republicans: Better: 65% Worse: 22% Democrats: Better: 41% Worse: 45% Time to cheer up Democrats. Politics isn't everything, and Nancy Pelosi and Harry Reid won't be your leaders forever, let alone Howard Dean.

A stock broker, on his way home from work in New York City, came to a dead halt in traffic and thought to himself, Wow, this seems worse than usual." He notices a police officer walking between the lines of stopped cars, so he rolls down his window and asks, "Officer, what's the hold up?" The officer replies, "Hillary Clinton is depressed, so she stopped her motorcade and is threatening to douse herself in gasoline and set herself on fire. She says her husband is running around on her more than ever and the Democrats told her to forget about...

Self-doubt leaves French feeling down in the mouth SUSAN BELL IN PARIS IT IS official: the French are a nation of depressed pessimists, wracked with self-doubt and unable to see a positive future. This gloomy portrait of the current state of Gallic morale - or rather the lack of it - was made public yesterday in a damning report by France’s prefects, the country’s top administrators. "The French no longer believe in anything," the report said. "That is the reason that the situation is relatively calm, for they believe that it is not even worthwhile expressing their opinions or trying...

The Boca Raton news website must be overloaded since Drudge posted a link to their site on his page. But it has reported that several people sought medical treatment after Kerry lost. From The Grapevine (Brit Hume): One of the 50 or so Kerry supporters in Florida who took themselves to psychologists after the presidential election, suffering from what the American Health Association has dubbed "post-election selection trauma," now says she was happy with her therapy, which in a single session relieved her anxieties. Forty-four-year-old Karen, last name withheld, says, "I wasn't sleeping. I was very devastated and very astonished...

Some supporters of John Kerry shocked by President Bush's victory in last week's election continue to seek out psychological help, prompting at least one mental-health center to offer free counseling through the end of this year.

Anyone know what's going on Democrat Underground? They've seemed to shut their forums from unregistered users due to "bandwidth" concerns. I am not convinced.

[Paraphrasing from radio report just heard on way home from Christmas shoppping] A military witness to Saddam being held stated that on the walls of the white-tiled cell hangs a poster of the 40 captured who were "featured" on the original "55 most-wanted" list for Saddam to stare at all day. Also on the walls? A portrait of President George Bush. Saddam is reported to be depressed.

LONDON (Reuters Health) - Suicide rates have fallen dramatically in many countries following wider use of modern antidepressant drugs, according to study results reported on Wednesday. This finding contrasts with charges from some patients and advocacy groups that SSRIs (selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors) are addictive and can trigger violence and suicide. A jury awarded $6.4 million in 2001 against GlaxoSmithKline after deciding Paxil was partly to blame for the behavior of Donald Schell who, after taking the drug, shot dead his wife, daughter and granddaughter and then himself. Earlier this year UK regulators said that the Glaxo drug and Wyeth's...

Missing firefighter's wife Janice Casagrande comforts her sister, Julie Welch, at a Monday conference where Welch asked for help in finding her husband. (Tribune photo by Candice C. Cusic) May 26, 2003 The wife of a Chicago firefighter who disappeared from his home in Edison Park early Thursday, after sending friends a despondent e-mail, is offering a $10,000 reward for information leading to his safe return. "He's everything to me," Julie Welch said Monday, following a news conference in which she asked anyone with information about David "Scotty" Welch to call 847-650-1079. "I'm not holding up well at all."

My wife, daughter and I had just parked near the 1st Presbyterian Church in NYC, on our way to a restaurant and thence to the theatre for a play. Crossing 12th St. and 5th Avenue, I saw a tall, thin man walking toward me. He was wearing a loose wrinkled blue work shirt and dirty baggy jeans, looking for all the world like another one of NYC's homeless or derelict population, walking alone, a worried look on his face, very unhappy, as if he'd just realized his mission in life had passed him by, and indeed like he had just...