MoodGYM

[juniperdewdrop]

I read about this in Health magazine so logged on to see what it is? It's interesting, sort of CBT online. Plus it's free and they don't give out your info. You need a password and log in name (made up one).

I just finished the first module but you can go back to it.

moodGYM

i've posted on this one before - it's very good, and I must have another stab at it

there was a research article on this - I think in BMJ indicating that it was pretty effective for helping treat depression

and here's the link to the article

bmj.bmjjournals.com/cgi/content/full/328/7434/265?maxtoshow=&HITS=10&hits=10&RESULTFORMAT=1&andorexacttitle=and&andorexacttitleabs=and&fulltext=moodgym&andorexactfulltext=and&searchid=1104713343954_11278&stored_search=&FIRSTINDEX=0&sortspec=relevance&resourcetype=1,2,3,4

It certainly makes you think! I don't have depression but get stressed out, but it's good for that too. Have had depression though so this may help prevent it returning?

Mind you I was reading about depression today in the same mag (which is Healthy btw, got it wrong) and apparently it can be genetic? something to do with having more nerve cells on your thalmus, the part of the brain that controld emotion. Would make a lot of sense to me tbh.

article

am downloading it now and am really pleased about this as do get depressed at times

for anyone reading that's feastofsteven's article, mine is in the nov/dec issue of healthy.

nope sally but we can but hope

Anyway it'd be boring if we weren't bonkers wouldn't it??

well can't see that learning a bit of positive thinkings going to do anyone any harm

CBT is meant to be more effective than ads in terms of preventing relapses. got a big paperback book on depression - the noonday demon sitting on the bookshelf -maybe if I open it i will learn a bit more about genetic etc causes of depression. spose i see a tendency as depression as being mainly biological, but people's upbringing/life circumstances would have a lot of influence too.

I think there can be different reasons for depression though can't there?

This article in healthy is really good. Wish I could put it on somehow but can't?

oh and of course depression secondary to other mental health/physical illness

Yes that's true too. It's such a complex illness.

I'm going to log on again today and continue the course.

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fair enough jf

The problem is, JF, that sometimes this is as near to the real thing as we are able to get. It would be lovely if we all had access to (or the money to afford) a professional like your dh, but we don't. Self-help techniques are the only ones available to me and others like me.

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Are you going to try it WWB? I've heard from others that CBT is excellent but the waiting lists are huge sadly.

JF this is more than a questionnaire though, it is pretty involved. There's been a lot of research done on this so it isn't just a mickey mouse tecnique. What does your dh do may I ask?

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Well done him, he's doing a worthwhile job. It must sadden him knowing how much CBT could be helping those waiting? How long did it take to train and what qualifications did he need beforehand? I hope you don't mind me asking, it's just I find it fascinating and would love to know if I'd be in with a chance of becoming a CBT
See, last week I wouldn't even consider this so moodGYM is good

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JF, I do agree that self-help techniques aren't always the right answer, and that in some cases they can cause more problems than they solve. Some techniques can be helpful, but until you try them it's not automatically obvious which are, and which are a waste of time and effort. I would hope that I'm clued up enough to be able to determine pretty early on whether something is likely to help me (I threw away an Inner Child handbook within about twenty minutes of opening it up!), but I do take your point that in some people this may not be the case and I'm sure that there are cases where more harm is caused than good.

I would love the opportunity to try CBT and see if it would help me, but the waiting lists are so long (three years) that my GP doesn't consider it worthwhile referring me, and I can't afford to pay for a private psychologist. It's appalling that there are techniques out there which would benefit an awful lot of people, but which are not available simply through lack of funding.

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I'm with you on that! Mental health does seem to be sidelined in favour of an awful lot of other schemes which often benefit no-one in particular. I look at the money spent on useless white elephants and wonder how better it could have been used to benefit people and not businesses.

thanks for the info JF. Think I'd struggle to do all that's needed tbh.
Something drastic needs to be done regarding mental health. Our town has the highest rate of suicide for young adults in the UK We now have a centre which uses a lot of alternative remedies to help people with drink/drug problems so there's some progress, just not enough.