Mental illnesses affect women and men differently — some disorders are more common in women, and some express themselves with different symptoms. Scientists are only now beginning to tease apart the contributions of various biological and psychosocial factors to mental health and mental illness in both women and men. In addition, researchers are currently studying the special problems of treatment for serious mental illness during pregnancy and the postpartum period. Excerpted from the National Institutes of Health (NIH)
Answers to Common Questions about Counseling
Throughout life, there are times when help is needed to address problems and issues that cause emotional distress or make us feel overwhelmed. When experiencing these types of difficulties, individuals may benefit from the assistance of an experienced, trained professional. Learn more...
Domestic Violence Fact Sheet
Domestic violence, also called intimate partner violence (IVP), partner abuse, and spousal abuse, is a serious, preventable public health problem that affects millions of Americans. Learn more...
Stalking Victimization
In general, stalking refers to repeated harassing or threatening behavior by an individual, such as following a person, appearing at a person's home or place of business, making harassing phone calls, leaving written messages or objects, or vandalizing a person's property. Learn more...
The Mind-Body Connection
Many of us frequently experience the connection between our state of mind and our physical health. Often, that comes in the form of mental stress impacting how we feel. Learn more...
Key to Successful Therapy
A key component to successful therapy is the relationship between the therapist and client. The therapist and client must develop trust and a strong bond, and the therapist must communicate caring and empathy for the client. Learn more...
Children of Alcoholics
More than 6 million children live with at least one parent who abuses or is dependent on alcohol or an illicit drug. Learn more...
Recovering from Rejection
We are usually not taught by our parents or society at large how to effectively deal with rejection. First of all, we need to be aware that rejection is an essential facet of life. If we take chances and risks like trying out for a play, writing a book, applying to college or asking out the attractive man, there is the distinct possibility that none of these pursuits will work out. Learn more...
Healthier Eating
Most Americans consume too many calories and not enough nutrients, according to the latest revision to the Dietary Guidelines for Americans. The typical American diet is low in fruits, vegetables, and whole grains, and high in saturated fat, salt, and sugar. As a result, more Americans than ever are overweight, obese, and at increased risk for chronic diseases such as heart disease, high blood pressure, diabetes, and certain cancers. Learn more...
Depression FAQs
Depression is a prolonged or deep emotional sensation of sadness, being "blue", or "down." Depressive feelings such as discouragement or sadness are perfectly normal if they do not become too severe or last too long. Depression becomes a clinical problem if a person's mood becomes too depressed or if the episode lasts more than two weeks. Learn more...
Sports Injuries
In recent years, increasing numbers of people of all ages have been heeding their health professionals' advice to get active for all of the health benefits exercise has to offer. But for some people - particularly those who overdo or who don't properly train or warm up - these benefits can come at a price: sports injuries. Learn more...
Use and Misuse of Alcohol Among Older Women
Community surveys have estimated the prevalence of problem drinking among older adults to range from 1 percent to 15 percent. Among older women, the prevalence of alcohol misuse ranged from less than 1 percent to 8 percent in these studies. Early detection efforts by health care providers can help limit the prevalence of alcohol problems and improve overall health in older adults. Learn more...
When the Going Gets Tough, Do You Crave Comfort Foods?
Stress can trigger emotional eating cravings that have nothing to do with hunger. When the going gets tough, you may tend to crave comfort foods that you remember fondly from your youth. Learn more...
Stress Matters
Not all stress is bad. Just enough stress keeps you focused and helps you to perform your best, such as the stress you might feel before speaking in front of a group of people. It also can prompt you to change a situation for the better, such as leaving a dead-end job. But any stress can affect your health. Learn more...
Stress and Your Health
Stress can arise for a variety of reasons. Stress can be brought about by a traumatic accident, death, or emergency situation. Stress can also be a side effect of a serious illness or disease. There is also stress associated with daily life, the workplace, and family responsibilities. Learn more...
Stress
Stress is the complex interaction between the events of life and the perception of those events by an individual. Everyone experiences stress and everyone learns either to cope with the stress or not. Learn more...
Spirituality and Faith
Spirituality has many different faces. It is at the core of all religions, and, in one form or another, it's the comfort most people turn to when they realize they are about to enter an unknown place. Learn more...
Sleep Apnea
Sleep apnea is a common disorder that can be very serious. In sleep apnea, an individual's breathing stops or gets very shallow during sleep. Each pause in breathing typically lasts 10 to 20 seconds or more, which can cause serious physical problems. Learn more...
Top 10 Sleep Myths
This lack of sleep may not make you noticeably sleepy during the day. But even slightly less sleep can affect your ability to think properly and respond quickly, and it can compromise your cardiovascular health and energy balance as well as the ability to fight infections, particularly if lack of sleep continues. Learn more...
Sexual Disorders
Sexual disorders are disorders related to a particular phase of the sexual response cycle. If a person has difficulty with some phase of the sexual response cycle or a person experiences pain with sexual intercourse, he/she may have a sexual disorder. Learn more...
Assertiveness
Assertiveness is a manner of behaving that communicates respect for others as well as commands respect for yourself. Learn more...
Anger Cues and Control Strategies
In addition to becoming aware of anger, individuals need to develop strategies to effectively manage it. These strategies can be used to stop the escalation of anger before loss of control results in negative consequences. An effective set of strategies for controlling anger should include both immediate and preventive strategies. Learn more...
Listening Well
One of the most important steps to having good relationships at work, at home, and with friends is to listen well. It might be surprising that for most people, listening well is very difficult. Misunderstandings are very common in interactions between people as a result of poor listening. Learn more...
The “Healing Separation”
A Healing Separation is a structured time apart which can help a couple heal a relationship that isn't working. It can also help revitalize and renew a relationship that is working. A successful Healing Separation requires that both partners be committed to personal growth, and to creating healthier relationships with themselves and each other. Learn more...
Infidelity
Affairs can be devastating to a marriage and can cause tremendous emotional distress to the offended spouse and children in the marriage. Learn more...
Easing Transitions: Balancing Work and Family
To balance family and work, organize your time, develop a budget, and schedule family time. Learn more...
The Magic of Dialogue
Apart from its obvious practical value for problem-solving, dialogue expresses an essential aspect of the human spirit. Learn more...
Test Your Own Marriage Satisfaction
Marital relationships are complex institutions! In order to improve the quality of a marriage, it helps to take a systematic look at how it is functioning. This page contains a questionnaire you can use as a general guide for evaluating your marital satisfaction. Learn more...
Emotional Fitness for Intimacy
Focusing on integrating continuous positive behaviors into your overall lifestyle is paramount to maintaining a good, loving and intimate connection. Learn more...
Intimate Partner Violence
Intimate partner violence (IPV) is abuse that occurs between two people in a close relationship. The term "intimate partner" includes current and former spouses and dating partners. IPV exists along a continuum from a single episode of violence to ongoing battering. Learn more...
Tips for Dealing with Difficult People
Society has some unwritten "rules" about appropriate behavior. Rules include, Be fair; wait your turn; say "please" and "thank you"; talk in conversational tones and volume. Difficult people tend to ignore these rules. They are often loud, intrusive, impolite, thoughtless, and selfish. This article includes a summary of guidelines and procedures which can help when you are confronted with a difficult person or situation. Learn more...
Problem Solving Skills
When we are confronted with these types of decisions, it can be very difficult to decide on the best option, and we may be plagued by indecision. We may be forced to choose between two equally good options, or perhaps, we may have to pick between two choices that both have drawbacks. We may waver back and forth between different alternatives and may feel paralyzed to make the decision. Learn more...
Agoraphobia
Agoraphobia is the fear of being in a situation where one might experience anxiety or panic and where escape from the situation might be difficult or embarrassing. To avoid the anxiety associated with these situations they refrain from putting themselves into such situations. Learn more...
Understanding Adult Obesity
The large number of people considered to be obese and the serious health risks that come with it make understanding its causes and treatment crucial. This fact sheet provides basic information about obesity. Learn more...
Lowdown on Depression
According to the NIMH, most people with a depressive illness do not get the help they need, although the great majority of them can be helped. Without treatment, the symptoms of depression can last for weeks, months, or even years. With treatment, many people can find relief from their symptoms and lead a normal, healthy life. Learn more...
Why is There a Compelling Need for Cultural Competence?
The make-up of the American population is changing as a result of immigration patterns and significant increases among racially, ethnically, culturally and linguistically diverse populations already residing in the United States. Health care organizations and programs, and federal, state and local governments must implement systemic change in order to meet the health needs of this diverse population. Learn more...
Rates of Depression Among Full-Time Workers
Studies show that employees who are depressed are less productive and are absent more often than their non-depressed co-workers. Workplace depression screening and treatment improves employee health and productivity and can lead to lower overall costs for the employer. Learn more...
Sleep Disorders
Sleep problems frequently occur around periods of stress in a person's life. For example, it is not at all uncommon for a person's sleep to be disrupted following the death of a loved one or around the time of a major medical problem. Therefore, many sleep problems resolve once the stress is resolved or the medical condition subsides. However, some sleep disorders can begin with an acute problem and become a chronic sleep problem. Learn more...
Chronic Fatigue Syndrome
Chronic fatigue syndrome, or CFS, is a devastating and complex disorder characterized by overwhelming fatigue that is not improved by bed rest and that may be worsened by physical or mental activity. People with CFS most often function at a significantly lower level of activity than they were capable of before the onset of illness. Learn more...
Infertility
Infertility means not being able to get pregnant after one year of trying (or six months if a woman is 35 or older). Women who can get pregnant but are unable to stay pregnant may also be infertile. Learn more...
STD Prevention: Genital Herpes
Genital herpes is a sexually transmitted disease (STD) caused by the herpes simplex viruses type 1 (HSV-1) or type 2 (HSV-2). Over the past decade, the percentage of persons with genital herpes infection in the United States has remained stable. Transmission from an infected male to his female partner is more likely than from an infected female to her male partner. Learn more...
STD Prevention: Chlamydia
Chlamydia is a common sexually transmitted disease (STD) caused by the bacterium, Chlamydia trachomatis, which can damage a woman's reproductive organs. Even though symptoms of chlamydia are usually mild or absent, serious complications that cause irreversible damage, including infertility, can occur "silently" before a woman ever recognizes a problem. Chlamydia also can cause discharge from the penis of an infected man. Learn more...
Restless Legs Syndrome
Restless legs syndrome (RLS) causes an unpleasant prickling or tingling in the legs, especially in the calves, that is relieved by moving or massaging them. This sensation creates a need to stretch or move the legs to get rid of these uncomfortable or painful feelings. As a result, a person may have difficulty falling asleep and staying asleep. Learn more...
The Worry Trap: An Interview with Chad LeJeune, PhD
While worrying about someone or something may indicate that we care, worrying and caring are not the same thing. Worriers often confuse the two. Learn more...
Kicking Your Old Habits
A lot of people develop simple but annoying habits that they find very hard to break: nail biting, hair pulling, skin picking, knuckle cracking, and a host of other disturbing behaviors. Regardless of the nature of the habits, the technique of habit reversal usually works very well in breaking them. Learn more...
Fitness Fundamentals
The decision to carry out a physical fitness program cannot be taken lightly. It requires a lifelong commitment of time and effort. Exercise must become one of those things that you do without question, like bathing and brushing your teeth. Unless you are convinced of the benefits of fitness and the risks of unfitness, you will not succeed. Learn more...
Managing Chronic Pain
Experts say the first step in treating chronic pain is to identify the source of the pain. Common types of chronic pain include back pain, headaches, arthritis, cancer pain, and neuropathic pain, which results from injury to nerves. Many people with chronic pain try to tough it out, according to research from the American Academy of Pain Medicine. But persistent pain should never be ignored because it could signal disease or injury that will worsen if left untreated. Learn more...
Adults with ADHD
Attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) is a common childhood disorder that often remains unrecognized or "hidden" in adulthood. Although ADHD was once thought to disappear as children grew up, data suggest that many children with ADHD continue to have significant symptoms throughout life. Learn more...
Life Changing Tips For Boomers
When an event happens today that your brain reads as being similar to something that happened in the past, your brain may respond as if it were the first time this event occurred, even when you are well into your adult and/or senior years. Learn more...
Problem Gambling
As with other chronic conditions, such as diabetes or high blood pressure, the use of prescription medications may be appropriate for some people who are overweight or obese. Learn more...
Exercise Made Easy
Consuming more calories than you expend leads to weight gain. More than half of all Americans don't get the recommended amount of physical activity. To reduce the risk of chronic disease in adulthood, engage in at least 30 minutes of moderate activity a day on most days of the week. Learn more...
Bone Health
Both men and women lose bone as they grow older. But women need to give bone health their full attention because they have smaller bones than men and they lose bone faster than men. Over time bone loss can lead to osteoporosis, which makes your bones weak and more likely to break. Learn more...
Postpartum Depression
Postpartum depression (PPD) is a condition that describes a range of physical and emotional changes that many mothers can have after having a baby. PPD can be treated with medication and counseling. Mothers should talk with their health care provider it they think they might have postpartum depression. Learn more...
Depression in Women
When a woman has a depressive disorder, it interferes with daily life and normal functioning, and causes pain for both the woman with the disorder and those who care about her. Depression is a common but serious illness, and most who have it need treatment to get better. Learn more...