A Checklist for Depression
What's the difference between a bad case of the blues and the painful mental disorder known as depression? According to the experts, impaired functioning is usually a clear-cut indication of clinical depression.

Breaking the Habit: Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder
The symptoms of OCD vary widely from person to person. Without treatment, OCD can last for a lifetime.

Controlling Mental Health Costs
Mental health care can be expensive even for people with health insurance. Here are ideas on ways to save.

Dealing With Late-Life Depression
Because depression isn't a normal part of growing older, it's important to learn the signs of this condition and seek help if you or a loved one could be suffering from it.

Depressed Kids Need Help
Teen depression is a serious illness. The benefits of getting help, including taking medications if needed, far outweigh the potential risks.

Depression and Your Health
The mind and the body are intimately connected, and our overall health depends on both working well. This is most evident in depression: Research shows that people who suffer from clinical depression face a higher risk of contracting one of the stress-linked illnesses than the rest of the population.

Depression Is More Than Feeling Blue
Depression is not "all in your head." It is a real illness that saps your energy. It can leave you feeling sad, hopeless, lonely and guilty. It is related to a chemical imbalance in the brain and to certain traits such as low self-esteem and pessimism. Some kinds of depression may be inherited.

Depression Not a Normal Part of Aging
In general, only about three percent of the elderly living independently in the community will experience depression. That figure increases to around 20 to 30 percent of persons in nursing homes or with chronic illnesses like emphysema, heart disease or diabetes.

Do You Have a Problem With Perfectionism?
Striving for perfection often leads to frustration, procrastination and stress-related symptoms, such as anxiety, anger and depression. And because perfectionists can be hard on others when they fail to measure up, perfectionism can also lead to loneliness.

Focus on Keeping Your Spirits Up
Good mental health is just as important as good physical health. But we all face changes in life that can challenge our emotional well being.

For Seniors: Is It More Than the Blues?
Although anyone can suffer from depression, it is particularly common among older adults. Depression affects 15 out of every 100 adults older than 65.

Help Teens Triumph Over Depression
If you suspect your child is depressed, see your health care provider at once. Says one doctor: "The good news is that depression is very treatable, particularly if we identify it early and make sure the kids get the help they need."

Helping Someone With a Mental Illness
Caring for someone you love who is sick or disabled is never easy. When the illness affects your loved one’s state of mind, the demands placed on you can be especially difficult.

Helping Someone With Depression
Take action if you suspect a friend and/or family member suffers from depression. It's a condition that can cloud thinking and make people believe they aren't worth helping, so they often can't help themselves.

Hope for Depression in Adults
Learning more about this illness will allow you to understand what your symptoms may mean and make it easier for you to seek help.

Hypothyroidism and Depression
Chances are you know the difference between occasional sadness and depression. But here's a fact you may not know: Hypothyroidism, a common thyroid disorder, can cause depression.

Keeping Depression at Bay
It's important not to underestimate the dangers associated with depression, especially if you've had multiple episodes or lingering symptoms. For example, people who don't get treated for their depression have a higher risk for suicide.

Kids' Depression Is Serious but Treatable
Depression is more than just feeling sad. In depression, sadness persists, with feelings so intense that they interfere with the child's life.

Living With Bipolar Disorder
Bipolar disorder, or manic depression, is a serious and potentially disabling mental illness. People with the condition can experience dramatic mood swings that take them from euphoria to depression, from recklessness to listlessness, often in short periods of time.

Managing the Highs, Lows of Bipolar Disorder
The main treatments for bipolar disorder are medication and talk therapy. Frequently, the two are combined.

Mental Health: Finding the Help You Need
When your life seems to be spinning out of control, it's OK to seek professional mental health help.

Q and A: Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder
Rituals such as hand washing, counting, checking or cleaning are often performed in hope of preventing obsessive thoughts or making them go away. Performing these rituals, however, provides only temporary relief, and not performing them markedly increases anxiety. Left untreated, obsessions and the need to perform rituals can take over a person's life. OCD is often a chronic, relapsing illness.

The 5 Top Warning Signals of Depression
Primary care physicians should be asking their patients questions about five "warning flag" symptoms to determine whether they should be screened for depression or other mood disorders, researchers say.

To Treat Depression, a Healthy Dose of Exercise
When recommending treatment for clinical depression, physicians typically prescribe a tried-and-true regimen: anti-depressant medication and "talk" therapy. In the future, however, health professionals may be advocating a healthy dose of exercise.

Treat Depression: Don't Let the Blues Hang Around
Everyone gets down in the dumps from time to time. But you may have clinical depression if a feeling of sadness or loss of interest in life and friends lingers for two weeks or more.

Where to Turn for Mental Health
It's normal to feel stressed or anxious now and then. But it's time to call for help if emotional issues interfere with your life, your job or your personal relationships.