mental Health MON 5-16

Public Service Announcements + Pity Party(?) + No Place Like France? 

CAVEAT:  For reasons I am ill-equipped--technologically speaking--to explain, if you are reading this entry via a link from the Norfolk Daily News web site, you just read the word "CAVEAT," but you most likely didn't have the benefit of seeing it highlighted, in color, the typeface bold-faced, in white print. [Is that even possible?] Of course, what you just read inside the [brackets], you also didn't read in color. Unless something's changed by the time you read this entry, colors don't appear to show up via this link. Neither do any changes in font size . . . bullet points . . . or links. *
* FYI:  This entry contains no links.

If you follow my link on my Facebook, you get everything . . . well, everything is a relative term . . . considering it's still my blog. Anyway, I'm having lunch with someone on TUE 5/17, that might be able to provide some solutions.

Mental Health Musings

In case you haven't heard, Lutheran High Northeast has a new, head administrator. Dan Sievert, currently head administrator at the LHS in Seymour, IN, has accepted the call to serve as the new head administrator of LHNE . . . and that's all the details I know at this time . . . 

I've often wondered how I would feel if & when . . . inevitably . . . my former position would be filled . . . After all, I accepted the call to serve as Executive Director & Principal of the Lutheran High School Association of Northeast Nebraska & Lutheran High Northeast in AUG 1996 & arrived in Norfolk in JAN 1997. * I went on an indefinite medical leave of absence in NOV 2014 . . . I was told in MAR 2015 that it was in both my best interest, as well as the best interest of the school, for a new head administrator to be brought on board . . . In MAY 2015 my status changed from short-term disability to long-term disability . . . 
* This might have been a pre-cursor to my health issues . . . I moved from Hawaii to Nebraska . . . in January . . . JANUARY! . . . but I digress . . . ]

WARNING!  Painful Self-Disclosure Forthcoming:  This is very, very difficult for me to address . . . & yet I am here to tell you that I rejoice that Lutheran High has a new administrator. It is a blessing for a mission & ministry that will forever be near & dear to my heart . . . It is a huge burden that is off my mind . . . because I know that my condition was making it impossible for me to continue in my FT role at LHNE.

It is still a very hard thing for me to accept . . .  but I do not want this to devolve into a self-pity party . . . as far as you know. 

WARNING! Self-Disclosure II and/or Public Service Announcement II:  In the interest of telling myself that my mental health MON blog might serve to benefit those who {a} have suffered; {b} are suffering; {c} suspect that they might be suffering from depression, here are some red flags that let me know that I might be slipping into a depressive stage.

• I become very introverted & "self"-focused . . . unfortunately less sensitive to the needs & concerns of those around me. 
• My sleeping routine suffers. I stay up later than I should, watching TV, browsing Facebook and/or reading, waking up frequently during the night, waking up an hour before the clock-radio makes its daily demands, then dozing off & on before the gentle sound of the Fox News intro jars me fully awake. [Lack of sleep & depression are a well-documented cycle, i.e., lack of sleep = tendency to be depressed = more trouble sleeping = more tendency to be depressed.]
• FYI:  Many who suffer clinical depression find the opposite to be true. They sleep a lot! They have a hard time NOT sleeping. They sleep all night. They have trouble getting out of bed during the day. They sleep a lot throughout the day. 
• Counter the poor sleeping overnight with a bout of severe fatigue in the afternoon, which often translates into a nap--sometimes a nap of 1-2 hours--which I'm sure doesn't help with the poor overnight sleeping routine.
• Feeling a sense of urgency . . . Lots of "nervous energy" . . . while at the same time . . . 
• . . . Having trouble focusing between what's urgent at the expense of what's important.
• This is related to an increase of OCD-related behaviors . . . A To-Do list that starts to grow out of control . . . Multi-calendar-tasking. [Did I just make up a new word? If I did, I want credit for it!]
• Severe apathy.
• More anxiety than usual, even if I can't exactly put a finger on exactly what it is that is causing the anxiety.

LAST . . . I PROMISE . . . LAST WARNING/SELF-DISCLOSURE/PSA!

Ultimately, if you suspect that you might be experiencing more than just a temporary case of the gloomies *, you really need to see a mental health professional for an assessment. By "mental health professional" I'm specifically referring to a psychiatrist, who is typically best qualified to determine whether you meet the criteria for one or more clinical mood disorders. Okay . . . that was very mentally exhausting. Time to move on . . . 

* Not a recognized, mental health term.

A Gentle(?) Reminder . . . I Blog for Self-Therapy

Reasons to be Depressed . . . Anxious . . . OCD?

From NDN (4/20):  "DEAR DR. ROACH: "I read your column today about the senior lady who had burning pain in her hips & throbbing in her legs at night. I am a senior who has had those exact same symptoms for many months. I went to the doctor & had X-rays, etc., finally figuring it out myself--it turned out to be those 'skinny jeans' that everyone is wearing that was causing the problem. As soon as I switched to a softer fabric in pants, my symptoms were gone for good. DR'S REPLY: You are quite right."  [What are these "skinny jeans" whereof you speak? Forsooth, I have never heard of such a fantastical thing!]

Also from NDN (4/23):  "DEAR DR. ROACH: Our bodies go through many changes. I understand most of them, but there's one that befuddles me. What makes our noses & ears grow in size as we age? DR'S REPLY: They don't grow in size, although I know many people believe it. It turns out that the number of cartilage cells reduces somewhat after 40 [I'm with you so far . . . ], but what really happens is that gravity acts on our soft tissues & they droop over time." [Wait . . . What?]

From Omaha World Herald (4/9):  "Student sleep-deprived? Buckle up for bad news? Texting behind the wheel. Drunken driving. Skimping on sleep. For teens, these are dangerous bedfellows. New research finds that compared to high schoolers who typically get nine hours of sleep, those who get less shut-eye are more likely to drink & drive, text while driving, hop in a car driven by a driver who's consume alcohol & leave their seat belts unbuckled.
      "But while dangerous behaviors escalated alongside lower levels of sleep, too much sleep also was correlated w/risk-taking in teens:  Among those who routinely slept more than 10 hrs per night night . . . " [Wait . . . What?!]

Also from OWH (4/16):  "U.S. domestic security rated worse than France. The U.S. is less capable of managing security issues within its borders than 32 other nations, including France & Belgium, according to a new global ranking." [There is no place like . . . France? . . . Like . . . Belgium?!]