Hey, is depression meant to be sexy these days?

I’ve been browsing around stock image sites, searching on the word “depressed”. Here’s what I came up with.

I like to look like this when I’m depressed:

How about you?

I read two kinds of books. Quick, enjoyable, check-the-brain-out, junky fiction, and books that need to be read slowly, thought about, re-read and then considered some more.

Therese Borchard’s new book, “Beyond Blue”, is in the second category.

Personal accounts of mental illness have formed their own genre in recent years, and for many people there isn’t much room left on the bookshelf. But “Beyond Blue” is different.

Therese has sewn helpful and factual information seamlessly through the book, without being narrow or preaching. Her chatty, humorous, self-deprecating writing style makes this heavy topic easier to read and, in my own words, more digestible.

In the first part of the book Therese recounts her story thus far. It is intense. Perhaps for this reason she inserts “Sanity Breaks” in every second chapter. An excerpt from a poem, a collection of tips (“9 Ways to Stop Obsessing”) or a different angle on a topic (“30 Ways Motherhood Is Like a Mental Illness”).

A sanity break for her or us? I’m not sure.

Something that really sticks out is the succession of psychiatrists she saw in a brief period, who failed to treat her adequately. Number 6, “Pharma King”, tried 14 different medications in 3 months! Thankfully number 7 helped get her out of the psych ward and on the road to recovery.

In the second section of the book Therese takes us for a tour inside her brain.

“I introduce you to some of the demons that live there rent free. I share some techniques I’ve used to evict the cheap guys, and how I go about erecting all those damn boundaries in my life…so I can continue down Recovery Lane.”

The section also contains plenty of factual info, sound advice and of course Therese’s trademark wit in good measure.

If I was disappointed by anything, I was left wondering how the kids are faring now. I also wanted a chapter from husband Eric at the end. But they are small complaints!

Therese is never slow to point out her faults, making her easy to relate to and far from aloof. Her recount of tragedy and great sense of humor somehow fit hand in hand. The book’s subtitle is “Surviving Depression & Anxiety & Making the Most of Bad Genes”. As a reflection of the content and writing style it couldn’t be more apt.

I would definitely recommend “Beyond Blue”, especially if you are interested in mental health, don’t mind a bit of intensity, and enjoy a dry, witty sense of humor.

I’ve been taking part in an interesting study about the causes of happiness. Happiness isn’t the end-goal of life for me, but I decided to sign up out of interest, and for insights I could gain into how to improve my health.

There are 50 mini-surveys in all, but they are quick to fill in. I chose to complete 5 a day, and the link is sent by email. SMS is an alternative.

I’m now half-way through, so it’s a good spot to share some pretty charts.

If there is a real weakness in this, it’s that at the individual level the results are close to being meaningless. I can see a few patterns emerging but not much. But I expect that responses will be collated across thousands, and be much more insightful.

Like most people I’m quite happy on a Friday afternoon and not so good on a Monday morning. This picture is based on just a few observations each day, but it still fits the picture.

I’m happier at home than at work. This is a no-brainer. Actually I hardly ever go to the office, only on Mondays, and I never feel too happy about it.

There is no relationship between my happiness and level of focus, but it makes an odd dot drawing.

I’m happier inside and alone. I hate sunlight and I like to hide.

Being productive makes me happier. Or does being happier make me productive? No, I’m a male, so being productive makes me happier.

If taking part interests you the project is at Track Your Happiness.

Searching for health information is the third most popular internet activity. We find so much information online. And there is so much of it out there, that we’re in danger of missing the good stuff amongst the garbage. Some health information is great, but most is ordinary or even dodgy. And much of it is purely product marketing dressed up as something more.

Most people head for a search engine to look for information, which is the first obstacle in finding what you need. Search engines are generally good at giving relevant results, but there is always rubbish in there as well. Search engines aren’t perfect.

Google is the most popular engine by far, because its results are normally good and it’s fast. In ranking websites Google places emphasis on links between same or similar industry websites. A blog about depression that has been linked to by large, reputable mental illness organzations will outrank a similar blog that is popular with large gambling sites. This makes sense for ranking sites by credibility.

I’ll write about Google here because it has such a large share of the market, but the same issues apply to other search engines.

When you type the search term “depression” into Google, you receive a lot of results for reliable sources. The first 10, 20 or 50 appear mostly good. But what about the other 120 million results? Click a few pages forward and the odd website looks a bit dubious, and it goes slowly downhill from there.

But the biggest roadblocks to finding reliable information are at the tops and sides of Google pages. In these positions there are 10 or so results under the subtle gray titles “Sponsored Links”. These are paid advertisements. If you look at the sponsored listings you can see that they are generally sales based. On the front page of my search one of the results is “Depression Free in 3 Minutes”. (LOL). For such a high rank this site will be paying at least $2 a click. It wouldn’t be advertising if it wasn’t making more than $2 per visitor for whatever it is selling.

Call me a fool but it took me years to realize that “Sponsored Links” can be anything, with no implication about reputation or credibility. There will be many others, especially new users, who like me lack this same knowledge. They click and find themselves on a site looking for the promised information, while the seller is taking them by the arm and guiding them towards the transaction tunnel.

Ads like these are now everywhere. They are on newspaper sites, blogs, portals, health sites, anywhere that the site owner wants to make a bit of extra money delivering Google ads to his or her visitors. Web designers blend them into their websites, so the distinction between content and advertising is blurred, even with the subtle “Sponsored Links” displayed somewhere close by. Blah!

Thanks to Dawn at the Experience Project for providing the idea and much of the information for this post.

Just about everyone is reading it. Are you?

Click here for my review of the book, here for the first chapter,
here for some very favorable reviews on Amazon, or here for
the author’s website.

(No affiliate links or gratuities received. Just a great book.)