Welcome to the 60th edition of Mental Health Resources News November 27, 2000
~ Mentally Ill Smoke.... A Lot
~ Federal Government Resources
~ Sleep Helps Us Remember
~ Elsewhere on About: A Stress Management Plan
~ Featured Forum Threads
---- Mentally Ill Smoke.... A Lot -----
Researchers at the Harvard School of Public Health have discovered that Americans with mental illness are nearly twice as likely to smoke cigarettes as people with no mental illness. Based on their results the authors estimate that people with diagnosable mental illness comprise nearly 45 percent of the total tobacco market in the U.S. Find out more at:
http://mentalhealth.about.com/library/weekly/aa112300a.htm
----- Federal Government Resources -----
Agencies such as the U.S. National Institute of Mental Health fund and conduct research into mental health issues. Their Online mental health resources are some of the most trustworthy on the Net, but they are not always easy to find. Now you can locate many of them together at:
http://mentalhealth.about.com/library/mh/blgov.htm
---- Sleep Helps Us Remember ----
School kids may be cutting back on sleep to finish ever mounting piles of homework, but it could be a self-defeating strategy. Harvard Medical School researchers have found that people who stay up all night after learning and practicing a new task show little improvement in their performance. And the study suggests that no amount of sleep on the following two nights can make up for the toll taken by the initial all-nighter.
"Our research shows that you need sleep that first night if you want to improve on a task," says Robert Stickgold, Harvard Medical School assistant professor of psychiatry at the Massachusetts Mental Health Center.
http://mentalhealth.about.com/library/sci/1100/blslepmem.htm
---------------- Elsewhere on About: A Stress Management Plan----------------
Even with the variety of resources available, it can be hard to know where to begin in forming a personal stress management plan. Stress Management Guide Melissa Stoppler, M.D. gives us some basic steps to help us get started.
http://stress.about.com/library/weekly/aa100800a.htm
---------------- Featured Forum Threads --------------
Visit the Mental Health Resources Forum to discuss mental health issues. This is the best place to ask your question and get a multitude of answers. You can also help others with questions that they have. Some interesting recent discussions include:
Do You Smoke? Does it help?
Vote in the Forum Poll on this issue. The voting has just started in this new poll. As of noon Sunday our participants do not look like the general population. The very early results:
Do you smoke? Does it Help?- I have a mental health diagnosis, I smoke and it helps me think clearer. 5 votes (26%)
- I have a mental health diagnosis, I smoke and I can't see any benefit. 1 votes (5%)
- I have a mental health diagnosis and I don't smoke. 7 votes (37%)
- I have no mental health diagoisis and I smoke. 3 votes (16%)
- I have no mental health diagnosis and I don't smoke. 3 votes (16%)
You can vote & see the latest results at: http://forums.about.com/ab-mentalhealth/messages?msg=751.1
Ballot Order in Florida
"I agree that your article was appropriate - although strictly speaking, it was more of a generic psychology article than one specifically dealing with mental health. I found it interesting, and, once I thought about it, quite logical. The solution offered is also a reasonable one - especially since it might cause people to exercise more care in casting their ballots, if the order were to differ. Maybe "they" could even have each ballot printed with the candidates for each position in a randomly generated order. As technologically advanced as our society has become, it should be possible, although perhaps slightly more complex than our current ballot - and counting - procedures."
http://forums.about.com/ab-mentalhealth/messages?msg=739.1
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Remember to start your mental health searches at Mental Health Search http://mentalhealth.about.com/library/blsearch.htm
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Leonard Holmes, Ph.D.
