Finding Optimism » Reviews

Review of SparkPeople

james — Tue, 01 Nov 2011 02:20:51 +0000

It’s obvious that one of the best ways to maintain good mental health is to eat healthy food. Which is great. If it were just that easy.

I’ve written before about keeping a food diary, and how it makes you more accountable to yourself and mindful about what you’re eating. In fact research has shown that keeping a food diary can double your weight loss efforts.

This can be harder for people on meds, who in many cases are fighting an uphill battle against weight related side effects. Anyone who has taken Zyprexa, for instance, will tell you that you put on weight just looking at the box.

If going it alone or a diet club isn’t for you, then SparkPeople is a helpful site. It is the most popular of all 10,000 weight loss sites on the web, including Weight Watchers, with over 11 million members who have collectively lost over 17 million pounds. 94% of its users say that it works well for them.

Why is SparkPeople so popular?

First of all it’s 100% free – a big drawcard. Lots of sites charge for information and advice that is readily available here.
It offers personalised diet and fitness plans, based on your weight, personal circumstances and lifestyle, the food pyramid and the notion that if you take in less calories than you need, you’ll lose weight.
Support is a key to the site’s success. Users aren’t doing it alone; they have the support of lots of other members.
There’s a host of weight loss aids, like thousands of user-submitted and reviewed recipes, diagnostic tools such as a BMI checker, and email reminders to help you keep on-track.
Information and advice is central. There isn’t the “magic bullet” approach of the many fad diets. And it’s not focussed on depriving yourself. There are many recipes that are healthy and also full of flavour.
Signing up is easy and once you have your diet plan, it’s straight-forward to keep track of what you’re eating and count the calories.
There is a community section for “Dealing with Depression” (amongst many) that apparently has over 800,000 members. At a glance it looks helpful but not exactly focused on weight loss.

Not everything about the site is ideal. The home page is loud. It contains too much information – about SparkPeople, their partner sites, their sub sites, various products and offers. Your eye darts about not really knowing where to look or click. The member pages aren’t a lot better in that respect, with too many colors and competing links. Personally I prefer the SparkPeople iPhone app, which isn’t much prettier but a lot easier to use.

SparkPeople wouldn’t be for you if you prefer a very specific eating plan. There are many controlled diets available, complete with home delivery, at sites like ediets. SparkPeople is more orientated to making wise choices and educating yourself for the long-term.

A personal experience worth mentioning came from my losing weight quickly in 2007/8. I shed about 29 pounds (13kg), but my moods became volatile, I became very irritable and I was difficult to live with. It took about 6 months to realize that the weight loss had thrown my meds out. This isn’t such an obvious thing to consider. If you have a large increase or decrease in weight then a check-up is wise – even more so if you take something like Lithium that is toxic at high levels.

Here One Day – A Documentary

james — Thu, 19 May 2011 07:32:05 +0000

“Early one February morning, after a decades–long struggle with bipolar disorder, Nina Leichter, a sixty–three year old mother of two, committed suicide by jumping out of a window. Being the wife of a New York State Senator, her death was reported on the radio, in newspapers, and on television.

HERE ONE DAY picks up where the mainstream press left off. Shot by the winner of the 2010 Excellence in Cinematography Award at The Sundance Film Festival, this unsensationalized, beautiful film paints a captivating, intimate portrait of those left behind.

Told from the point of view of Nina’s daughter, Director Kathy Leichter, and featuring Nina’s husband, son, sister, and grandchildren, HERE ONE DAY follows this family from 2004 to 2008 as they attempt to make sense of what happened and go on with their lives.”

HERE ONE DAY is a film in the throes of development. The trailer is very beautiful but sad. Having bipolar myself, it gave me insight into how people around the one with a mental illness are affected. We tend to focus on the immediate crisis, but this film brings attention to the long-term impact on loved ones of mental illness and suicide. I think the completed film will be very powerful and helpful to many.

There is a fund-raising campaign now through May 31st on Kickstarter.com, to raise enough money to complete the film. Please view the trailer and consider donating.

The Daily Antidepressant

james — Sun, 10 Apr 2011 09:31:29 +0000

If you’re a habitual feed reader like me, then a new blog “The Daily Antidepressant” is worth a look. It’s short and sweet; just a quote each weekday on mental wellness. Yes, wellness not illness.

Writer Patricia R. Henschen left a comment on another page:
The Daily Antidepressant publishes daily M-F an uplifting, inspiring, or funny quote about depression, or something that can help folks with depression. It has to be positive. I don’t just plug a search into Google and copy and paste whatever pops up; I scour the books on my own shelves for information and inspiration that can help people.

Judging by the quotes so far, she reads widely and has an enviable library. Enjoy!

Colony of Losers

james — Wed, 17 Nov 2010 03:29:47 +0000

“You aren’t going to believe the day I’ve had.”
My roommate looks up from watching Buffy the Vampire Slayer on the spotted blue couch that has been Depression HQ since my November breakdown.
“What happened?” she asks.
“I lost my job and my girlfriend almost broke up with me,” I say.
“Shit,” she says. “That’s not a good day. How are you?”
“Better,” I say. “I can do better. I don’t think I need to work at a job I hate.”
“And your girlfriend?” she asks.
“She deserves better than the dude I’ve been lately,” I say. “And she’s going to get it.”
“Where are you going?” she asks.
“To clean my room.”

So begins a journey by Michael Kimber, a 26 year-old journalist dealing with crippling depression and insomnia, who discovers no cure for mental illness except his decision to change.

“That day I started writing Colony of Losers.

A blog about falling on your face on your way to figuring out your future and the people that help you get to your feet. To honor my Colony who got me through the toughest time of my life. To tell their stories.

March 28th was the day I realized that no one could save me.

So I was going to do it myself.”

How to describe Colony of Losers? That’s difficult. It’s raw, brutally honest, original, dry, funny, and many other things. Read it for yourself, and make sure you watch Michael Kimber’s Insane Book Proposal. It left me speechless.

Black Dog Institute Photo Comp

james — Fri, 30 Jul 2010 04:53:21 +0000

The Black Dog Institute has just run an art competition with the theme “Snapping the Black Dog: A Photographic Competition about Hope and Resilience in the Fight against Depression”.

There are 30 in the gallery of winning and highly commended works. The pic above is my favorite. It may not have the most artistic merit – I wouldn’t know – but it says something to me personally.

This woman seems comfortable with herself; at ease with being different. Being outside in the sun, relaxing, taking a photo of a pelican is healthy and hopeful. It’s as though she’s recovering.

Visit the full Black Dog Institute gallery.

Smile or Die

james — Sun, 11 Jul 2010 10:33:38 +0000

I recently found a great set of videos by the Royal Society of Arts (RSA). The RSA is a UK institute with a long, impressive history. As far as I can tell, its main purpose is collaborating efforts in social research, policy development and effecting real, positive social change. Not just a think-tank.

The RSA videos are very engaging, especially a group under the banner of RSA Animate. Instead of watching a person for 10 minutes, you are drawn into the content through a cartoon developed in parallel with the talk.

The one below is a presentation by Barbara Ehrenreich, author of “Nickel and Dimed”. It’s about unrealistic positivity (“keeping up appearances” in my parlance).

Much of the video is about the corporate workplace, where expressing pessimism can be a death knell. I know this from personal experience. My corporate career swung up and down in line with my moods. A long spell of unbridled, hypomanic optimism saw me climb the ladder with frightening speed. When the crash came I was immediately out of step with corporate culture and my shelf life was curtailed. Then new job, rinse and repeat.

To my way of thinking, reciting affirmations is a close cousin to unrealistic, unquestioning optimism. Barbara Ehrenreich touches on this in the video. I’ve tried affirmations many times, and given up just as many. Do affirmations change your world?

Depressed folk like me gravitate to the self-help section of Amazon. There is no shortage of advice on the power of positivity. As much as I wish I was a magnet for happiness, my life is more complicated and just thinking it so won’t make it so. That is why this video resonates with me.

If you can’t see the player then watch the video on YouTube. To watch more of the RSA Animate videos visit the RSA blog.

Review of “Back From the Brink Too”

anna — Tue, 08 Jun 2010 13:41:22 +0000

Books that are written for depressed people are everywhere. Books that are written for their caregivers are hard to find. There is often a chapter for caregivers at the end of a book, but the advice can be superficial for lack of space.

“Back From the Brink Too” is devoted entirely to caregivers. It’s an excellent resource, and being a caregiver myself, I devoured it in a couple of sittings. Lovely.

The book’s author, Graeme Cowan, suffered severe depression over an extended period. As he recovered he was inspired by other people’s stories of their own recoveries. This was the basis of his first book “Back From the Brink”.

“Back From the Brink Too” is another collection plus more, this time focused on the needs of caregivers. It is down-to-earth and practical; a genuine “how-to” volume for helping a loved one with depression and working through the issues faced as a caregiver.

Graeme interviewed 550 people: 300 with depression and 250 caregivers. It is fair to say the book is well grounded in people’s experiences. He quotes from them extensively. One memorable example is “I wished I understood that he was mentally ill and not a bastard”. Very applicable stuff!

The interviews are complemented with plenty of current research.

A good chunk of the book covers a 7-step “plan”:

Building Knowledge
Learning to listen
Finding the right help
Providing the best support
Finding help for you
Taking care of yourself
Surviving a crisis

I found all of the sections to be helpful, but especially the 3rd. It is basically a guide for navigating the health system, where to look for help, what to say to health professionals, how to make the most of medical appointments, and finding help for a child or adolescent. Very handy if you don’t have much experience with this. It is written around the Australian health system but most if not all would apply anywhere.

I would have liked more emphasis on helping someone to remain well after recovery or to be resilient in the early stages of illness. Perhaps there will be a “Back to the Brink 3″ with more on this. But the book is great and I highly recommend it.

N.B. This is an Australian book and not available on Amazon (yet), however there is a paid download. For more information and other resources visit Graeme Cowan’s website.

Reviewed by Anna.

Review of The Pocket Therapist

anna — Thu, 27 May 2010 06:21:07 +0000

Therese Borchard has written a great little book. Not only is it small in size (it fits into my handbag, which is saying something) but it is easy to read in small chunks. It’s a collection of 144 tools and techniques she has learned over many years of suffering with bipolar disorder and other illnesses.

I loved the book, and found it funny, profound and useful.

Number 47 is one of many that resonated: “Process heat and suffering like a coffee bean”. Therese tells the story of a chef who was listening to his daughter vent about life being hard. He boiled three pots of water: one with a carrot in it, one an egg and one a coffee bean.

He then said to his daughter, “When you confront adversity, which one will you be? The carrot that starts out strong but wilts under pressure? The egg that becomes callous and bitter? Or the coffee bean, which makes something useful, tasty, even beautiful from the boiling water?”

Just great.

Here’s my problem: who do I recommend it to? If you are having a mental health crisis, then this book won’t solve it. You need professional help. If you are recovering from an episode of mental illness, then it will resonate and you should find it helpful. If you are a caregiver, then it will give you lots of ideas.

I’ve been using the tools in parenting. Not that I tell my children that, but I’ve found myself trying out some of the techniques on them and they are working. ; )

I’m sure it’s not what Therese had in mind.

View the book on Amazon (not an affiliate link).

Reviewed by Anna.

Cure Depression and Live Life to the Fullest!

james — Wed, 21 Apr 2010 10:25:36 +0000

I promise you, no matter how you feel right now and no matter how long you’ve suffered; you can get your life back and enjoy happiness again. What’s more, once you’ve beaten stress, depression and anxiety, you’ll have beaten them FOREVER!

Does it sound too good to be true?

You’ll be absolutely delighted with your new life. No more exhaustion, no more worrying, no more uncertainty and no more fear. You’ll enjoy living again, you’ll have greater self-confidence, you’ll know you can deal with problems and situations effectively and you’ll enjoy peace of mind.

Plenty of online folk offer the cure for depression. To wile away some of my free time I decided to see what they have in common.

A killer headline:
Dominate Your Depression With These Breakthrough Remedies and Revolutionary Mental Tactics Expertly Devised to Destroy Even the Most Stubborn Depression!

Credibility:
I spent over TWO YEARS reading every book, listening to every seminar, talking to every “expert” I could find…

Everything you’ve heard before is wrong:
What we found as we studied depression in our clients and emerging research about how the brain actually works, is that the public is so misinformed it’s almost a con.

And there is no value in traditional medical treatment:
Page 57 is the page health professionals don’t want you to read!

In fact, forget everything that you’ve tried in the past:
You’ve probably tried countless other methods, treatments and so-called “magic pills” to date – with little or no success.

Because the cause is not what you’ve been told:
It has nothing to do with brain chemicals, circumstances, trauma or illness…

Everything you need to know is in one place…right here:
I’ve helped thousands of other sufferers do it, and today I’ll help you too. Because for the first time, all of the information you need to conquer stress, depression and anxiety is now available to you. And when you put it into action, it will cut through these problems like a hot knife through butter.

It is easy to understand:
…the best part is that I’ve written these secrets in language that is so effortlessly simple that even an 8-year-old could easily understand and MASTER this stuff…

And just as quick to apply:
A simple cure for depression that works instantly any time you need it…you’re going to experience massive benefits from this program INSTANTLY.

It’s permanent:
Once you’ve beaten stress, depression and anxiety, you’ll have beaten them FOREVER!

To prove it we have testimonials:
“Buying [your book] online was the best thing I’ve ever done for myself. I can’t thank you enough. I’ve tried dozens of other books, and tapes, as well as many therapy sessions; and they did absolutely nothing for me…Your method works INSTANTLY.”

This is genuine:
Please do not mistake it for Internet hype or an exaggerated sales pitch.

You won’t find it anywhere else:
You’re NOT going to find the incredible knowledge inside of this program ANYWHERE ELSE on the planet — I know this because I had to figure it out from scratch.

And you have my 100% personal guarantee:
It will come to a relief to you when I say that I stand by this program and personally guarantee you FREEDOM from your depression and any symptoms attached to it.

So take action!
Click here immediately. My no-risk guarantee means you have nothing to lose!

Special Bonus #4:
The “Conquer Stress, Depression and Anxiety Quick-Start Guide”. You want relief and you want it FAST…You’ll be armed with ten easy-to-apply techniques to begin winning the fight against stress, depression and anxiety TODAY. A $19.95 value.

P.S. # 2
…These must-have strategies and cures are ironclad battle plans that will wage war and unleash a ‘Secret Weapon’ that will render your depression cured and defeated!

I love sneaking out of bed late at night to watch the shopping channel. These cures for depression sound strangely familiar.

I’ll leave Chris Rock, of all people, to sum it up.

Polar Expedition for Bipolar Disorder

james — Wed, 14 Apr 2010 04:49:38 +0000

In what can be described as a massive play on words, a small team of adventurers is setting out for the North Pole today, with the goal of raising funds for research into bipolar disorder.

The team of 4 are currently on the island of Spitsbergen in Norway. They are spending two days of preparations, testing skis, packing sleds with food and gear, and outfitting their polar clothing, before flying by Antonov-74 aircraft to the Ice Station Borneo.

(Has anyone else read “Ice Station” by Matthew Reilly? Ouch!)

Actually Borneo is a Russian scientific base, erected in April each year on the the moving ice flows in the heart of the Arctic Ocean.

On the 16th they will fly by Mi-8 helicopter to around 50km of the North Pole depending on current drift rate of the floating ice. From there they will spend 4-5 days skiing and sled hauling to the Pole, dragging themselves through the incredible icescapes of the the Arctic Ocean, with iconic features like pressure ridges, rubble, and leads of open water.

At this time of year daylight is enjoyed 24-hours a day, a blessing for those with SAD!

Although I’m glad they’re not going in May or June.

The objective of the expedition is very worthy – to raise medical research funds and increase awareness about Bipolar Disorder. If you want to get on board, with financial support or otherwise, then it’s not too late. To read more visit the BiPolar Expedition website.