I promise when I finally hit that lottery, I'll share with everyone!

There is a book titled... The Wellness Revolution by: Paul Zane Pilser. Well worth the read. It's much more profitable to be proactive about your health in the wellness industry than to be reactive to the sickness industry. People would be surprised what's making them sick these days. The prescription meds aren't healers, they're prolongers to the inevitable. Be "well" and stay "well"! Blessings to all!

If anything will add to stress problems, it's the result that comes from the trolling for customers from the therapeutic industry.

Deal with your stress by talking to family and friends. Don't be bamboozled by the subtlety of the sales pitch of the two in the story. They want you in their offices for your money and your insurance coverage. They will stigmatize you as eternal mental cases or chronic therapods. And when the money or insurance runs out, they will send you packing with your stress problems ever exacerbated and increasingly complicated.

Excellent! I finally ticked some people off. I was beginning to think no one ever reads some of these comment threat posts. Most people seem to just talk past one another. Sounds like I ticked off a couple of out of work copy editors or retired English teachers. I only post a couple times a month on articles that seem to hit me at an angle, so fear not offended ones, the comment thread world will be free from “trash” for a time.
Bob Keith

+1 Insence--Bob you need to put your thoughts into a clear and concise short paragraph. Make your point and 86 the rambling. I was able to read only half of what you wrote. When I realized that there was another entry, I knew that reading that rambling would put me in a place where I was more depressed that after reading the original article.

Comment for Bob - BLAH< BLAH< BLAH.... Next time please put your comments in a couple well organized thoughtful sentences. What you wrote belongs in your personal journal!
Happiness is inside and has nothing to do with the things you have or your job, the car you drive or what kind of 'box' your pillow is in. Happiness is a choice we each make every morning and I choose to be happy - keep the trash to yourself.

Ambivalance part-two -

I will tell you what is depressing and apt to grind a person’s spirit into the ground – a constituency that reelects political hacks that rode the economic-hell-pony into town; a culture that refused to admit the signs of trouble as long as four years ago (old workers were the canary in the cool mine, as they were being thrown out of work and not allowed to get jobs even after retooling in college); and, a society that is now surrendered to damage control strategies like counseling and bailouts.

Some pundits are all excited that there may be a glimmer of hope here and there in the economy. I may be an eternal pessimist, but in 43 years of working in this ponzi scheme economy under numerous administrations, my experience has taught me I am seeing a “recovery” if it comes, of a seven dollar per hour part-time work culture. It is hard to fight two wars if your worker bees are entrenched in the aforementioned economic matrix. It is hard to build a viable community with the devastated, displaced, and defeated remains of what was once a robust middle class.

And now back to the circular ambivalence of mental health advice in the "media." I do appreciate the good doctors’ advice, although one only needs to pull out the old self-help brochures from the 1970s economic hell era if needed. You know that hell era we were not allowed to talk about openly until just recently. Anyway, the coping mechanisms are the usual suspects – “Focus on things you can control. Let go of the rest.” Great, tip. It works I know from the '70s, but one must detach one’s self from the greater collective noise of collective economic misery; wonderful then, one must become a zombie of sorts.
“Learn to tolerate change.” Oh sure, going form lower middle class to general lower class for the foreseeable future, piece of cake. Make up your own definition of the classes; it speaks to that part of the coping section of “what you can control.”
And, I should get “lots of exercise,” working at the only job I can find at 55 that mostly healthy 20 years olds find too hard and quit after one day (even in this econony mind you). And, I should “get plenty of exercise” riding to that job on my bicycle because I now can’t afford a running car. And finally, I should get plenty of social contact at work because one in my position can not afford to call in sick and lose the pay (hey, just exactly like the Seventies in Wisconsin - can we mention that now?). I must always be there at work or lower class becomes under class – plenty of good co-workers who don’t dare call in sick either to talk to (just like the Seventies); lots of that good social interaction the doc is ordering up.
I know from experience my situation is only the tip of the iceberg. So here's to you good docs; there is something cathartic and therpeutic about an entire community getting ground into the dirt as a group.
Bob Keith
cooldadiomedia.com

This is the first time I have ever had to put a comment in two parts because of space.

Ambivalance part-one -

I am torn by ambivalence with stories like this one. On the one hand there is some reasonable advice offered – what could it hurt? On the other hand I sigh to myself because the timbre coming from politicians, “media,” and marketers as recently as this last year 2008 was the general mantra, “hey, working suckers, any economic problems are in your head, and if you are in trouble, it is probably your own fault.”

Obama rode into office on a slightly different tone that there are problems out in the economy we must address – someone must have believed him, or, Bush was just that bad. Bush only admitted there was a problem a bit before he left office in January this year. McCain’s advisor Phil Gramm suggested we Americans were economic sissies. I thought Phil Gramm had died years ago – but I digress.

We reelected politicians in this area (and there was little opposition) like Sheridan, Ryan, and Robson that were well entrenched in the system as the economic blood bath of the last two years ground us working schleps into the dirt – what does that say about us?

On the radio in this region over the last two years I only heard two cries in the woods of economic hell. Our own Janesville area AM1230 WCLO host Stan Milam, and Madison area AM1670 WTDY host John (Sly) Sylvester pounded the drum for some time now of “hey, I think things are not going so well.” But for the most part I think their logic fell on deaf ears. The radio rubes out of Milwaukee (you know who they are) still seem to think every thing is fine.

Now for the most part, the “economy sucks” rubric is common discussion – fair game. One can even talk about it driving people to drink and depression; one can even mention that reality and get little rise out of the former apologists for this rotten economy. One can even compare it to the “Great Depression of the 1030s” and get little argument from the defenders of the current state.
Some of the former apologists are regrouping; they are going from portfolio advisors, to portfolio debt counselors. Some politicians (Doyle, Ryan, Robson, Sheridan) who rode the economic disaster train into town are now telling us rabble we have to sacrifice. Robson and Sheridan even took a pay raise for their troubles. They apparently need to keep up their fronts while we “sacrifice.”
I suspect their sacrifice in this mess does not include seeking counceling.
Bob Keith
cooldadiomedia.com

If things get any worse, I'm gonna put sunglasses on my cat and send her out to the corner to sell pencils from a tin cup. (And, no, I am not trying to be funny here.)

Nicely put, Incenselady :) And thensome....

I hope the person who needs to know this will be reading my words. Best things in life are not things. In the Past 18 months I lost my Husband to cancer, My Father to the ways of the medical profession and my stepfather just dropped over dead one morning. I am self employed, not able to focus on work with two estates to settle and a mother who is depressed plus I have no health insurance. So, Please, Trade shoes with me for a day?? Maybe I could get some sleep in that box. . . . . Remember that everyone you meet is fighting some kind of battle. No matter yours - it could be worse.

I don't know about you but how can anyone feel less stressed knowing they might be living in a card board box for all they know next week if they cant pay their rent? I think the most stressful thing is trying to keep a roof over your head!

The story just touches on a major issue: mental health complications caused by major life changes. Because we have no mental health coverage and little to no services available, someone will have to be committed before they get any help. Major depression can be caused by such major changes, as can even such things as psychotic episodes.