2. Inspired Warriors Emergency & Mental Health Community Toolkit

The chemical imbalance theory has fallen in status from bedrock scientific principle to mere marketing device in the minds of many researchers. A broken heart and a blue, bedevilled brain. They've been twinned, metaphorically, in poetry and song...

Depending on how bad things have gotten, you may need a mini leave of absence to restore yourself. Recognize that you are capable of revitalizing and returning to your normal energetic self. But you do it by taking your foot off the gas, not pushing harder.

As I or any practicing meditator can attest to, though, mindfulness may not be the next panacea, but it is much more than just the next fad.

We need a plan for managing mental health and a more comprehensive strategy to help identify and recognize mental illness. Mental health, like diabetes or obesity, should be approached systematically, accounting for nutrition, lifestyle, emotional support, spirituality and need for medication.

To me, anyone who is too far on one side of the fence -- either wanting to throw a pill at any negative emotion, or wanting to blame medications for all of society's ills -- seems to be missing the point. Instead of taking an extreme view, I strive to take a wise, balanced, and integrative approach.

Yet Another Good Health Reason To Keep Stress At Bay

10 Apps To Help You Stress Less!

British Psychological Society to launch attack on rival profession, casting doubt on biomedical model of mental illness There is no scientific evidence that psychiatric diagnoses such as schizophrenia and bipolar disorder are valid or useful,...

The operative word here about stress is that it is a perception, also known as a thought or point of view. There are objective stressors, to be sure. But how these affect us determines our body's stress response.