Dear Friends,

Is it hot enough for you? Every night when I go to bed I say my prayers to the air conditioner gods, hoping that my unit makes it through the heat of this summer. I guess you have been spending as much time indoors as I have. Can’t wait until winter so I can complain about how cold it is.

We are looking forward to another Recovery for Life workshop on the 17t of August. For those of you who have not attended, the workshop will be held, again, at West Columbia Community Center. What is really great about this venue is that the building is freezing inside, its wonderful makes learning very agreeable.

I’ve been on the road this week. I was driving and it was about 6:45am and I was going to Georgetown and the sun was coming up and I was making up silly songs about what a great way to start your day. This has become my favorite times of the day. The presentation went well. Actually the mental health center is about 20 miles out of Georgetown, way, way, way out in the country. They are really appreciative to have people come visit and do presentations.

Hope to see everyone at the next presentation, for those who need credits they are giving us 7 hours!!!!!!!!!! Holy Hanna, ya’ll come now, hear.

Be well and Make it a Great Day!

Carol

Is it hot enough for you? Every night when I go to bed I say my prayers to the air conditioner gods, hoping that my unit makes it through the heat of this summer. I guess you have been spending as much time indoors as I have. Can’t wait until winter so I can complain about how cold it is.

We are looking forward to another Recovery for Life workshop on the 17t of August. For those of you who have not attended, the workshop will be held, again, at West Columbia Community Center. What is really great about this venue is that the building is freezing inside, its wonderful makes learning very agreeable.

I’ve been on the road this week. I was driving and it was about 6:45am and I was going to Georgetown and the sun was coming up and I was making up silly songs about what a great way to start your day. This has become my favorite times of the day. The presentation went well. Actually the mental health center is about 20 miles out of Georgetown, way, way, way out in the country. They are really appreciative to have people come visit and do presentations.

Hope to see everyone at the next presentation, for those who need credits they are giving us 7 hours!!!!!!!!!! Holy Hanna, ya’ll come now, hear.

Be well and Make it a Great Day!

Carol

By SONJA LYUBOMIRSKY

Make a few simple changes to your life and you will be significantly happier and more fulfilled, says psychology professor Sonja Lyubomirsky. In an extract from her new book, she reveals the secret to achieving inner contentment:

STEP 1 - Show gratitude

4 There’s a lot more to gratitude than saying “thank you.” Emerging research shows that people who are consistently grateful are happier, more energetic and hopeful, more forgiving and less materialistic. Gratitude needs to be practiced daily because it doesn’t necessarily come naturally.

4 Think of three to five things each day for which you are grateful but usually take for granted, from the mundane (your dryer is fixed) to the magnificent (the beauty of the sky at night).

4 Acknowledge one ungrateful thought each day, such as “my sister forgot my birthday” and substitute it for a grateful one - “but she’s always there for me.”

4 Think of someone who has been important in your life and tell them in a letter, phone call or visit.

STEP 2 - Cultivate Optimism

4 All optimism exercises involve changing the way we see the world. It takes hard work but if you persist at these strategies they will become a habit.

4 Try to identify your pessimistic thoughts and replace them with more favorable viewpoints. Ask yourself, “What can I learn?”

4 Think about what you expect your life to be in one, five or ten years from now. Visualize a future where everything has turned out the way you wanted.

4 The more you rehearse optimistic thoughts, the more natural they will become. With time, they will be a part of you and you will have made yourself into a different person.

STEP 3 - Avoid Over thinking and social comparison

4 Many of us believe that when we feel down we should try to focus inwardly to attain self-insight and find solutions to our problems. But numerous studies have shown that over thinking sustains or worsens sadness.

4 Social comparisons are ubiquitous? We can’t help but notice that others are richer, more attractive or successful and then feel inadequate, but you can’t be envious and happy at the same time. The happiest people take pleasure in other people’s successes and show concern at others’ failures.

4 When you find yourself preoccupied with something that is tormenting you, do something else that makes you feel curious, peaceful, amused or proud.

4 Take in the bigger picture? Will this matter in a year?

4 Set aside 30 minutes every day to ruminate? And then stop.

STEP 4 - Practice kindness

4 One of the strongest findings in the literature on happiness is that happy people have better relationships than less happy people. Investing in social relationships is a potent strategy on the path to becoming happier.

4 Kindness cans jumpstart a cascade of positive social consequences. Helping others leads people to like you, to appreciate you, to offer gratitude. It also may lead people to reciprocate in your time of need.

4 Pick one day a week to commit one new act of kindness.

4 Vary what you do. Surprise someone with a home-cooked meal, an outing, a gift or a phone call. Do something that doesn’t come naturally to you.

4 At least once a week, do a kind deed about which you tell no one, and expect nothing in return.

STEP 5 - Nurture social relationships

4 Romantic partners and friends make people happy, and happy people are also more likely to acquire friends and lovers. If you resolve to improve and cultivate your relationships, you will reap the gift of positive emotions. With enhanced happiness you will attract more and higher-quality relationships and embark on what psychologists call an “upward spiral.”

4 For every negative act or statement in your relationship, make sure you employ five positive ones. Express your love and gratitude physically and verbally. I once heard a family expert say, “A spontaneous kiss while doing the chores can do wonders.”

4 Friendships don’t just happen, they are made. Make time for friends; communicate by listening and be supportive and loyal.

4 Hug more.

STEP 6 - Develop coping skills

4 No life is without stress or adversity. Fortunately, most of the strategies that help you to be happier also help you to manage life’s lowest ebbs. Those who manage to find benefit among the pain, when faced with even the most serious traumas such as the loss of a loved one, cope better.

4 Remember that post-traumatic growth and happiness is not the same as being joyful and carefree. Most survivors acknowledge that they feel a great deal of distress at the same time as reporting strengthening and progress.

4 Social support is crucial to coping. Friends, family and partners give you a place to share your feelings and see the event with a new perspective, so talk to them.

4 More and more research shows that writing it all down can be hugely beneficial. Spend at least 15 minutes a day writing down your worries.

STEP 7 - Learn to forgive

4 Forgiveness is not the same thing as reconciliation, pardoning or condoning. Nor is it a denial of your own hurt. Forgiveness is a shift in thinking and something that you do for yourself and not for the person who has harmed you. Research confirms that clinging to bitterness or hate harms you more than the object of your hatred. Forgiving people are less likely to be hostile, depressed, anxious or neurotic.

4 Forgive yourself for past wrongs. Recognizing that you too can be a transgressor will make you more empathetic to others.

4 Imagine forgiving the person who has wronged you and see him or her as a whole person rather than as one defined by their offending behavior. Granting forgiveness does not excuse their act, it requires that you let go of your hurt and anger in order to be able to move on.

4 President Clinton once asked Nelson Mandela how he was able to bring himself to forgive his jailors. Mandela replied, “When I walked out of the gate I knew that if I continued to hate these people, I was still in prison.”

4 Apologies help because they remind us of how we are all human. Accept them.

STEP 8 - Find more flow

4 “Flow” was a phrase coined by psychologist Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi in the 1960s. It means you are totally immersed in what you are doing and unaware of yourself. Happy people have the capacity to enjoy their lives even when their material conditions are lacking and even when many of their goals have not been reached.

4 Be open to new and different experiences, such as cooking for ten, joining a sports team or hiking to a remote location.

4 Learn until the day you die. Try to imitate the rapt concentration on the face of a small child who is learning wonderful new things.

4 Pay concentrated attention to whatever you are doing. Seek out work, home and leisure activities that engage you.

STEP 9 - Savor the day

4 Too often we postpone our happiness, convinced that tomorrow will be better than today. But it is only by truly relishing the present that we find happiness. Sometimes it is the bittersweet moments where happiness and sadness are mixed together? Such as a holiday, a friendship or a phase of life that soon will end? Which force us to seize the moment?

4 Focus each day on at least two fleeting pleasurable moments and try to make those moments last as long as possible.

4 Savor and reminisce with family and friends. Listen to a piece of music associated with a particularly happy memory. Create a small picture album of your favorite people, places or things.

4 Luxuriate in your senses? Focus on the sweetness of a ripe mango or the aroma of a bakery. Take in the cool fresh air after a storm, the brush strokes of an impressionist painting or the crescendo of a symphony.

STEP 10 - Commit to your goals

4 People who strive for something personally significant, whether it’s learning a new craft or changing careers, are far happier than those who don’t have strong dreams or aspirations. Working towards a goal is more important to wellbeing than its attainment.

4 Write a summary of your life, your accomplishments and your values as you would like them to be remembered. Keep working on these summaries? They will help you to priorities what is important.

4 Commit with passion. To fulfill your dream of becoming a mathematician or a costume designer or a parent you must endure a great deal of drudgery, hard work, obstacles and stress.

4 Break down your goals into baby steps. People who make these sorts of plans are more likely to achieve their overall objective.

STEP 11 - Take care of your soul

4 A growing body of psychological research suggests that religious people are happier, healthier and recover better after traumas than nonreligious people. If you are having serious cardiac surgery and you have a religious faith, you’re almost three times as likely to be alive six months later.

4 Seek genuine meaning and purpose in life, either through pursuing goals that are harmonious and within reach or through creativity. Pursuits in the arts, humanities, sciences and even in self-discovery give a sense of meaning to many.

4 Find the sacred in ordinary life? A meal, a child’s laugh.

STEP 12 - Take care of your body

4 The feel-good factor in exercise is well known. But an impressive study published in 1999 found that aerobic exercise was just as effective at lifting depression as antidepressants. Why? Because with exercise we improve our sense of self and health; we are distracted from worries and distress. Exercise also provides opportunities for social contact.

4 An exercise routine is like a diet. It’s OK to break it but don’t let guilt overwhelm you so that you give up the whole thing. Exercise needs to be a regular part of your life.

4 An avalanche of studies has shown that meditation has multiple positive effects on a person’s happiness and positive emotions, on physiology, stress and physical health.

4 Act like a happy person. Smile and show the physical manifestations of happiness and you will come to feel it.

4 Go for it ? smile, laugh, stand tall, act lively and give hugs. You’ll manage adversity, rise to the occasion, create instant connections, make friends and influence people, and become a happier person.

Taken from the book “The How of Happiness” by Sonja Lyubomirsky

We’ve had two successful workshops with Greg, a good and meaningful time was had by all. Yesterday’s workshop was on Finding Happiness in Relationships. This is great stuff people… learning how to communicate your needs and have healthy relationships has been a number one problem for me. I love how SC SHARE has addressed all the areas in my life and given me tools to deal with my on going life issues.

This has been a busy week for me. On Sunday I was at Furman University at the South Carolina School on Alcohol and Drugs conference. I was exhibiting and marketing the Double Trouble in Recovery program. I enjoy exhibiting because I get to see my fellow exhibitors that I’ve come to know so well. Its funny each exhibitor brings their own set of marketing gadgets and goodies. I have a collection of pens, water bottles, hand sanitizers, writing tablets and last but not least candy!! Everyone brings candy, my friend Ed always brings Reese’s peanut butter cups so I hang out with him a lot. This is an opportune time for me to network with other agencies and get out the good word about SHARE and all the fine programs we have.

On Tuesday July 13 I was the guest speaker at a Partnership in Recovery rally presented by LARADAC at Finley Park. This was a real touch and go shin-dig because of the late afternoon thunderstorms. As soon as I finished speaking the rains came. I felt like I was at a Woodstock concert from the 1960’s and we were all chanting “no rain, no rain” ( if you were a child of the 60’s you would get that!) It was for a great cause and I enjoy being of service and advocating for others.

Be well and make it a great day!

By Judi Light Hopson, Emma H. Hopson, R.N., and Ted Hagen, Ph.D

McClatchy-Tribune News Service

Do you have a small family with no ties to older generations?

Maybe you miss the feeling of having aunts, uncles and grandparents.

Or, are you living away from your family with little chance to connect during the year?

Maybe you have one or two friends, but these friends comprise your entire “family” most of the time.

If so, you can create an extended family to improve your mental wellness. Not having enough supportive people in your life will intensify your stress levels.

Using just a few social skills can bring new people into your life.

“It’s easier to go through any crisis, if you have caring people around you,” says a man we’ll call Frank. He is a probation worker who counsels teenagers and their parents.

“A solid group of people you can tap into for emergency help is important,” says Frank. “We all need at least 10 people we could call, if we were stuck by the side of the road.”

Every person needs to actually “feel” emotional support. This emotional cushion provides space between yourself and the hard punches life has to offer.

“Not having a supportive network is a lonely feeling,” says an ex- Marine we’ll call Todd.

“When I retired from military service recently, my extended family was gone,” Todd emphasizes. “I do have my wife and two grown sons, but in my local community, I feel lost.”

We advised Todd to try the following:

— Join a volunteer group. Individuals who volunteer to help others typically are great people to know. They’ve gotten their acts together, so they have something left over to give.

— Reach out to neighbors. We all need at least four or five people on our block we might call on for help. Friends are great, but friends often live on the other side of town.

— Learn to cook. People who can cook well should never be lonely. You might invite a few trusted people over for a barbecue or dessert once a month.

— Empower a few people. For example, give a few timid souls important jobs on a volunteer committee, and encourage them to succeed.

The reason many of us don’t have enough support is that we’re looking for people like us.

“It’s a more natural feeling to call on people who dress, talk and think like we do,” says a psychologist we’ll call Thomas. “But, when we reach out to people who are very different, magic can happen.”

Thomas says those people should share our values and our morals, however. “You don’t want to link up with people who are party animals when you’re not,” he points out.

“I’ve seen some pretty stiff people make friends with very down-to-earth folks,” Thomas continues.

Thomas goes on to say that he joined a bowling league with people from diverse backgrounds.

“We absolutely have a ball,” he says. “There are business people, truck drivers, teachers and factory workers on the team. We’ve been together for over 10 years.”

Finding new people to bring into your extended support network will require paying attention.

Every relationship is different, and every person you meet has different strengths to offer.

When you begin to bring new people into your life, you’ll notice the change in how you feel. You’ll start to feel connected and less lonely.

You’ll know you’re on the right track when your car is stuck beside the road one day. You’ll know at least 10 people to call.

I’m going to title this blog as “Stepping out of our comfort zones” or “Let go and have fun” or “do something you always dreamed of doing.” This weekend I was invited to go for a motorcycle ride! Now if you know me I’m no spring chicken plus I struggle with isolation, so getting me on the back of this Harley Davidson with a guy who’s big as Shrek, but not as green, took a lot of stepping out of my comfort zone plus address some free floating unknown fears. I was roped into this and of course I wanted to back out and get in my car and drive away as fast as I could, but aloud voice inside of me said “just do it.” So I put my foot on this little peddle and grabbed a hold of Shrek and swung my leg over this massage bike, heart pounding we took off. After about 20 feet I said this is not too bad of course we were still in the driveway. Once we hit the main road and Shrek was going through the gears and the motor was loud and my whole attitude changed, this was fun, my hair was blowing, and his pony tail was whipping me in the face, what a day. The lesson here for me was to step out more often, I need to fight my fears of change and get out of my daily ridged boring routine. Today I feel a little embolden, a little sassy. Would I do this again, you bet.

Be well and Make it a great day!

Carol

I’m still making headway in Charleston to present my presentation on the Recovery Planner. I contacted the Victims Advocate in Charleston and I will be speaking to a group of police, lawyers and non-profits. I do not mind speaking to groups of people but this is a new crowd for me. I’m very comfortable speaking with people about mental illness; it’s like having a chat with a friend. I have time to work on this as the presentation is not until July.

Marty Minor is now doing groups for us at Bryan Hospital, Recovery for Life. I was doing it for the last 6 weeks. I really got a lot out of it. It was a good reminder how far I’ve come in my recovery. I think we all need to reflect on just how far we have come in our recoveries and take comfort that we are very special creative people. My most memorable day there is when I accidentally let a client slip pass me while I was coming through the door. You never saw someone run so fast. I thought about chasing him down but when he jumped the hedge I thought better of it. That was at 11:00 am and he wasn’t caught until 12 that night, That’s when I sat back and tried to find some humor in the situation. I might have run too in the old days. But letting a client out of Bryans is the stuff they make Hollywood movies out of.

I’m reading a good book. It’s called Women Food and God, An Unexpected Path to Almost Everything. Really anyone male or female could read this to recover from anything. I’m very picky about my self help books, all of us are bombarded with so much self help but this is a special book and written funny. Share with us some of the good books you have read.

Be well and Make it a Great Day!
Carol

This is the first attempt I have made for starting a blog at SC SHARE. I’m very excited to write and keep this thing going…

Everyday is a special day at SC SHARE. I would like to share with everyone what goes on here and what keeps us going for your recovery and ours.

This Monday a.m. started off with a flurry of excitement, well really, every morning is special time here. We always gather together to share what’s going on in our lives and what we need to do for the upcoming day So….mornings at SHARE are so special for me, I do love my job. I’m blessed to work with such compassionate and creative people.

This morning Sandy started the day off with a well needed, spiritually packed paper that her 14 year old daughter wrote for a school project. It was a paper written about a hero in her life. She had chosen to write about Naomi and the impression she had made on her. Of course when Sandy read the paper we all boohooed with joy for the recognition her daughter had paid Naomi. What a great way to start a week.

Last week I taught two Peer Support certification classes. They had four people who had flown all the way from Wyoming to take the class. This really impressed me. I asked everyone to introduce themselves and was very disappointed when the people from Wyoming were not wearing cowboy boots. This was my pre-conceived idea about how people from Wyoming should look. I mean after all we here in South Carolina have a state shoe called flip flops. We even have bumper stickers and ash trays of flip flops.

I’m now working on doing presentations for the Recovery Planner. We are hoping we can give educational credits for all that attend. The planner itself is a really neat book. It’s a clear and concise 15 chapter book. Each topic is one page jammed packed with oodles of information that would help anyone recover from just about anything…umh do you think it would help me with my shoe addiction? My specific area to market is Charleston so if any of you from across the state have an idea on where we can present our presentation let me know.

In April we did the Elephant in the Room class at a swanky art gallery in Columbia. This was one of the times that we could do something classy; we even had a young cello player entertain us. It was a lovely evening that we all deserved. At the meeting Beth Padgett led a group on what we would like from our recoveries and SC SHARE. It was agreed that you all would like more communication and contact from us, so this is our attempt to fulfill that need. I hope you all enjoy this and find humor and comfort from this page.

Be Well and Make it a Great Day!
Carol Crabtree

March 15, 2010

OptumHealth Inc. is supporting a national memorial being built to honor people nationwide who died in state psychiatric hospitals and are buried in unnamed graves.

While noting the significant advancements in behavioral health care that today are helping millions find paths to recovery, OptumHealth unveiled a traveling fund-raising display for the memorial and presented a $50,000 donation. The announcement was made at the National Council for Community Behavioral Healthcare conference.

Construction of The Gardens at Saint Elizabeth’s: A National Memorial of Recovered Dignity, is slated to begin in 2011 in Washington, D.C. OptumHealth’s traveling display will be made available to national, state and local consumer mental health support organizations who wish to help raise awareness and funds at their locations and events.

“We are proud to support the national memorial because it honors the lives of hundreds of thousands of people and reminds us that today, early intervention and appropriate care can help people with mental illness live healthy and productive lives,” said Andrew Sekel, Ph.D., executive vice president of OptumHealth Public Sector Solutions. “We hope the traveling display will help spread this important message across the country, while raising awareness and funds for a long-overdue memorial.”

It’s estimated that, through the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, more than 300,000 people institutionalized with mental illness were buried in unnamed graves when they died. In recent years, thousands of graves and remains have been discovered across the United States, from Georgia to Oregon to Hawaii. Volunteers work every day to restore cemeteries on the grounds of psychiatric hospitals, returning dignity to those who have been forgotten.

The traveling display will provide educational materials and information about how people can get involved. Organizations can reserve the traveling display for their events at www.memorialofrecovereddignity.org. Individuals can also make a donation to the national memorial at the same Web site.

The Gardens at Saint Elizabeth’s will feature metal markers for all 50 states and Washington, D.C., that list state hospitals where patients are buried, and will include peaceful gardens, reflecting pools and a Weeping Wall. The memorial will be woven into an existing 10-acre cemetery, the resting place of about 4,500 psychiatric patients who died at Saint Elizabeth’s, including Civil War veterans. The memorial will be operated by people who are themselves recovering from mental illness.

OptumHealth serves more than 5 million public sector members in 38 states with programs that support recovery, resiliency and wellness for people facing behavioral health conditions, chronic illness or complex conditions such as transplants.

About The Gardens at Saint Elizabeth’s: A National Memorial of Recovered Dignity
The Gardens at Saint Elizabeths: A National Memorial of Recovered Dignity will honor those who lie in unnamed graves at psychiatric hospitals nationwide. The memorial was designed by the University of Georgia’s School of Environmental Design. Construction is slated to begin in 2011.

The memorial is supported by eight mental health and consumer organizations, including: Depression and Bipolar Support Alliance, Mental Health America, National Association of Consumer/Survivor Mental Health Administrators, National Association of State Mental Health Program Directors, National Alliance on Mental Illness Consumer Council, National Coalition of Mental Health Consumer/Survivor Organizations, National Council for Community Behavioral Healthcare, and U.S. Psychiatric Rehabilitation Association. A Memorial Advisory Council also includes members of the Georgia Mental Health Consumer Network, Consumer Action Network of D.C., and the Mental Health Empowerment Project.

Women who suffer from depression and anxiety may want to take a look at their diet as possible contributors to these conditions, study findings hint.

Dr. Felice N. Jacka, at the University of Melbourne, Australia, and colleagues report mood disorders were more common among women 20 to 93 years old who, over 10 years, ate primarily processed, refined, high-fat foods. “There’s no magic diet,” but eating a diet mainly of vegetables, fruit, whole grain foods, low fat dairy products, and lean meat, and reserving processed and sweet treats to “sometimes foods,” will aid physical health and may also support mental well-being.

Jacka’s team assessed diet and psychiatric evaluations gathered over 10 years from 1,046 women representative of the general Australian population. A total of 925 women were free of mood disorders, whereas 121 had depressive and/or anxiety disorders, the researchers report in the American Journal of Psychiatry.

When they assessed how diet might relate to mood disorders, they found that a “Western” diet—eating primarily hamburgers, white bread, pizza, chips, flavored milk drinks, beer, and sugar-laden foods—was associated with more than a 50 percent greater likelihood for depressive disorders.

By contrast, both depression and anxiety disorders appeared about 30 percent less likely among women eating mostly vegetables, fruit, beef, lamb, fish, and whole-grain foods.

These associations remained when the research team allowed for a variety of factors including age, body weight, social and economic status, education, physical activity, smoking, and alcohol drinking habits. But similar “adjusted” analyses in women mainly consuming fruits, salads, fish, tofu, beans, nuts, yogurt, and red wine showed no similar associations.

Taken together, the findings highlight the need for additional investigations to determine whether unhealthy eating leads to declining mental health or vice versa, the researchers say. Given that diet is modifiable, finding evidence of a causal tie between diet and mental health seems worthy of pursuit, the researchers conclude.

Want to learn more about how you can make some simple changes that will help your mental health??? Join us on Tuesday, March 9, 2010 for a Wellness presentation and demonstration. Call Sissy Weaver for more information (803) 739-5712 or (800) 832-8032.