Mental & Emotional Health

Hey, I just received the ok to begin writing for mental and emotional health so thought I would briefly introduce myself. I’m Sandra and one of my favorite pastimes is exploring self development/improvement and that obviously involves positive emotional well being.

We have had some physical and mental illnesses in our family and sometimes it is hard to say which came first. Stress can contribute to making either worse so I look forward to the challenge as we seek out various ways to improve mental and emotional health.

Besides reading all kinds of self-help books, I am also into cooking and health as well as crafts and environmental issues. It’s almost midnight here so catch you tomorrow, as I will not be much help without sleep.

Well faithful readers, there comes a point in most relationships where one party realizes that the rapport has been lost; and unfortunately for you, I have reached this point with my Mental & Emotional Health blog.

One of you actually emailed me after my Mental & Emotional Health post including the article about When To Break Up With Your Blog asking me if it was foreshadowing future events. I apologize now, but I ignored your email as I didn’t want to lie to you and tell you no, but until I let the powers that be know my decision, I didn’t want to tell you the truth, either.

I have spent a year writing for Mental & Emotional Health now and have thoroughly enjoyed my time spent here. I have, however, been hired elsewhere, and done my math many times over which points me in a time saving & money-making situation if I devote more time elsewhere. (If you are interested in following me, please email me and we can talk.)

451Press has been a great beginning for me, and I’m thankful for the opportunities that Kim and Steve have provided me and my writing skills. I have learned many new writing and researching techniques, mastered the posting techniques of WordPress, and have met many bloggers who I will remain in contact with once leaving.

I wish the next Mental & Emotional Health blogger all the best of luck continuing this blog, and I encourage the current readers to stick around and give them a chance. 451Press has good taste in blog writers and I know this blog will continue with great things! Have a marvelous 2008 and hopefully I’ll see you all around!

Until I’m a “featured guest,”
Sarah

I received an email today specifically asking for me to post about this subject. I think that it is for a worthy cause and do believe that we should help this woman out.

Today I’d like you to meet Erin. Erin is a 29-year-old single woman has Chiari malformations and cranial lesions. She is currently being treated at Oregon Health & Science University here in Portland, and she is struggling to pay her hospital bills due to being unemployed and therefore uninsured. Thanks to Oregon’s strict laws, because Erin has no children and is not pregnant, she doesn’t qualify for Medicaid. After a recent surgery consultation, Erin was told that she should have her first brain surgery as soon as she can, but she’s required to put down a deposit on her surgery of anywhere between $1,500 and $5000. Due to her illness, she has been unable to work for a year now and obviously doesn’t have this kind of money.

“Living with a Chiari malformation is painful and exhausting. Living with cranial lesions in addition to the Chiari? Is beyond any kind of description.”

Erin didn’t want to ask for handouts, she’s even hesitating to give away her PayPal information as solicitation for donations, but stumbled upon a MegaUpload reward program in which 5 million downloads from her account will earn her $10,000. There are a few stipulations to this download, including: only one download per original IP address per day, only downloads made from qualifying countries count, and no attempts can be made to manipulate or fraud MegaUpload for more points.

So, Erin has uploaded many word documents to her MegaUpload file in hopes of getting 5 million downloads. Then, to help her out, Cleolinda has uploaded a movie paradoy to the controversial book; The Golden Compass as a virus-free text file to MegaUpload. The book will be posted in four separate sections and you can download each section as they are uploaded. These clicks are being counted for Project Download - the pet name for Erin’s download project. I’ve had friends download the book and assure me that it is virus-free and a perfectly viewable movie parody.

DOWNLOAD a parody of The Golden Compass to help save a woman’s life!

mental and emotional health, Erin, The Golden Compass, Project Download, Cleolinda, cranial lesions, Chiari malformations

If you Google health information, you have the option of 110,000,000 different links to choose from. Google-ing mental health information and your results are a little more specific, but still leave you with 70,800,000 links! 110 million links? 70 million links? Where do you go to get information that you trust from experts? Where do you go when you’re looking to meet someone who deals with the same generalized anxiety disorder or the premenstrual induced migraines that you live with?

You go to WEGO Health!

You sign up***,
You read and post on the forums,
You see what sites the experts recommend and you can rest assured that you are being provided with the best health content there is on the internet.

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Look up! Do you see anything new?

Um, that gorgeous header was created by Diana of Somebody Heal Me: The Musings of a Migraineur! Isn’t it gorgeous? She’s currently working on another one for my About Portland, OR blog, too! I’m excited to see how that one turns out!

So, the contest has been closed, I have six entries, and on Monday night, I will take pictures of me drawing a name out of a hat. That person will have a book sent to them as soon as I pick it out - which it actually is dependent on who won. I’m that cool - catering specifically to my readers!

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I am on vacation this Friday! 25 friends and I are off to the Mt. Hood area to celebrate MissJay’s 23rd birthday! I will continue with my short-term goals on Monday! Miss me and expect pictures!

mental and emotional health, personal, vacationing, Mt. Hood, photography

I’ve had 10 people find this blog from a search on UNICORNS!!!
Oh how that makes me laugh.

I don’t believe in unicorns.
This means I don’t believe in baby unicorns, either.
I’ve never seen a unicorn.
I’ve never seen The Last Unicorn and I’ve never heard the soundtrack either.
I don’t ever remember writing about unicorns … so how are people finding the site through that? LOL

Some other weird search terms people are using to find this blog: “cliparteyebrows,” “victory,” “baby unicorns,” “cool looking,” “divorce comic,” “how to make doughnuts,” “mount st.helen paperweight,” and my favorite … “mental diagnosis paris hilton”! LOL

This deserved a double post (the news post will show up later, I have to be at a job 45 minutes away at 7:30am and so things are a bit off right now) for the day … I just had to share that.

I want to write about my day yesterday but have been slammed at work today so I haven’t even taken my break. I had to take one break for lunch (mmm couscous) but decided to eat and get away from my computer. I am done in 2 1/2 hours at work though and shall rush home to entertain ya’ll!

personal, entertainment, couscous, mental and emotional health

Okay, so I want more people to read this blog. I want people to be excited to see what’s going on in mental & emotional health, but I don’t know how!

I don’t know what ya’ll want to read.

Do you want more news? I can get you more news!
Do you want to read stuff about me? I can talk about me!
Do you want me to keep track of my food? This might encourage me to start eating better!

Tell me! Please! I want to appeal to those who are reading this blog, and if I don’t know what you want to read, I can’t write it! I would really appreciate some help here!! : )

edited to add: Thank you Bill!
* sleep, esp trouble waking
* SAD
* holistic remedies vs. drug treatment

Thank you Neelima!
* brain science (I am highly interested in how the brain actually works and so this could lead to some education on my part, too!)

Don’t know what you’re going to wear tomorrow? Well let me help you out!

Tomorrow is National Wear A Red Dress day in observance of the leading cause of death among American women - heart disease. Tomorrow I will not only wear red, I will be wearing my “Red Dress” pin that I received after completing a class on heart health. I would ask, that if you own something red, even if it’s just socks, wear them tomorrow to help our nation raise awareness of women’s heart health.

“According to the [American Heart] association, heart disease causes one in every 2.6 female deaths in the U.S. More than 480,000 women die of heart attack, stroke or other heart diseases each year, the association says.”

“The reality is more women die from heart condition problems and heart disease than all forms of cancer,” says Jim Long Jr., corporate relations director of the American Heart Association in Fayetteville.

Cancer gets more attention, Long says, because “it’s such an awful disease and people watch their loved ones suffer” but heart disease is by far the number one killer.