Coffee Lowers Risk of Depression While Diet Drinks Increase Risk

Research suggests that drinking coffee can lower the risk of depression by 10% while sweetened drinks specially diet sodas can increase it.

Depression is the overall feeling of sadness, unhappiness, or just being miserable. Aside from the emotional change, depression also causes people to lose interest in their favorite activities, change their eating behavior (either loss of appetite or overeating), and have trouble concentrating. In some cases, the person can be harmful to himself or herself and may need counselling.

Most people feel this way at one time or another for short periods, especially during stressful or emotional events. This type of depression is not classified as a psychiatric disorder but more of a normal reaction to a life changing event. It can also be a symptom of a medical condition or a side effect from taking certain medications.

Clinical depression or Major Depressive Disorder (MDD) is different as it is classified as a mood disorder. The person also experiences the same symptoms of normal depression but lasts longer than a few days and interferes with the daily life of the person. Clinical depression requires a minimum of two weeks in this state for diagnosis but it may last for weeks and even months.

Aside from the feeling of sadness, this type of depression may bring out suicidal tendencies, anger, mood swings, and irrational behavior.

The exact cause of clinical depression is unknown but doctors believe it is linked to chemical changes in the brain triggered by stress, medication, or both. There are cases that doctors believed to be hereditary in nature.

Treatments for clinical depression range from medication (antidepressants), psychotherapy and even Electroconvulsive therapy (ECT).

Children With Mental Health Disorders More Likely To Be Identified As Bullies

Among school-aged children, bullying is a growing problem and concern for parents and teachers. It is defined as "an unwanted, aggressive behavior among school aged children that involves a real or perceived power imbalance. The behavior is repeated, or has the potential to be repeated, over time. Bullying includes actions such as making threats, spreading rumors, attacking someone physically or verbally, and excluding someone from a group on purpose..."

Bullying can affect everyone; from the bully to those who are bullied. Even witnessing a bullying incident has a negative effect. Bullying is linked to problems with mental health, learning development, substance use, social interaction and suicide.

Behavioral Problems In Children May Be A Sign Of Mental Health Problems

Mental health problems are conditions that can disrupt a person's thinking, feeling, mood and ability to relate to others.

There are many factors that can affect a child's mental health. Identifying these disorders is complicated when it comes to a child since children naturally experience physical, mental, and emotional changes in their growth and development. And at this stage, they are also in the process of learning how to cope, adapt and relate to others and the world around them.

Diagnosing a mental disorder in a child depends on the age of the child, the symptoms shown and how the child acts at home, within the family, in school, and with other children.

Unruly kids may have a mental disorder

When children behave badly, it's easy to blame their parents. Sometimes, however, such behavior may be due to a mental disorder.

Mental illnesses are the No. 1 cause of medical disability in youths ages 15 and older in the United States and Canada, according to the World Health Organization.

"One reason we haven't made greater progress helping people recover from mental disorders is that we get on the scene too late," said Thomas R. Insel, MD, director of the National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH) and the featured speaker at the American Academy of Pediatrics' Presidential Plenary during the Pediatric Academic Societies (PAS) annual meeting in Boston.