Emotional Health + Original Articles

Next time you re having a bad day, try one of these mood-boosting foods. Emotional eating has never been so healthy. Did you know that the foods you eat can affect your mood? "Many people are aware that there is a link between physical health and diet, but they don't make the connection between what they eat and how they feel emotionally," says Elizabeth Somer, RD, MA, and author of Food and Mood and Eat Your Way to Happiness.

For some, even positive life changes can bring on bouts of severe anxiety or depression. But there is good news. It's not unusual to experience both depression and anxiety following some types of trauma or significant life change. And the change doesn't have to be negative such as job loss. Positive events—like having a child or moving to a bigger home—can be stressful and bring on anxiety and bad feelings, too.

How to deal with a Type 2 Diabetes diagnosis, plus five lifestyle changes to slow or prevent the disease. Guilt. The dictionary defines it as a feeling of responsibility or remorse for some offense or crime, whether real or imagined. Since diabetes is described as the classic example of a lifestyle-related, progressive disease, the opportunities for self-imposed guilt abound.

Why victims of child abuse can find themselves struggling with mental health issues decades later. Child abuse takes many forms. Physical abuse—the horrific type that grabs headlines—can have long and devastating consequences on a child's emotional growth and development, but significant harm can also come from the less visible (and possibly more common) forms of abuse, like parental neglect, indifference, humiliation, and cruel and intentional criticism.

There's a common belief that writers and artists are more likely to have mental health issues than the general population. We explore if there is any truth to this relationship. Many people who work in creative professions bristle at this stereotype, but there may be some validity to the concept of artists and creative types being more susceptible to mental health disorders. That's according to Elizabeth Stringer, PhD, who teaches at the William Alanson White Institute in New York City.

Think you may have ADD, depression, or another psychiatric disorder? Learn how this type of assessment differs from other psychological tests—and why it may give you the insight you need. When a professional is trying to find out if an individual qualifies for a psychological diagnosis such as depression, attention deficit disorder (ADD), or some other psychiatric disorder, a variety of psychological assessments may be carried out. But an independent psychological assessment works a little bit differently.

What are you afraid of? We ask a few pros for their top tips on working through what scares them. Do you sometimes feel so fearful it's hard to get through a day? Is it hard to put your finger on exactly what is making you feel so afraid? Would you say that you're more fearful than your friends? If you answered yes to one or more of these questions, it's time to develop some coping strategies and change things up for the better—and that doesn't necessarily mean that you need to enter cognitive therapy or go on medication.

One study has found that moderate consumption of wine may improve your mental health. But don't uncork that bottle of Chardonnay just yet! Could a glass of wine really help with depression? Yes, according to one study that found depression improved when study participants imbibed in "moderate alcohol." Wine, according to the study in BioMed Central (BMC) Medicine, seemed particularly effective, with researchers reporting "wine consumption in the range of two to seven drinks/week was significantly associated with lower rates of depression.

Make "keep calm and carry on" your new motto. Take our advice for worrywarts. You may feel lightheaded, slightly nauseous, and simply unwell. Your thoughts may be racing, yet you aren't having a panic attack or difficulty breathing. If these symptoms sound like how you occasionally feel, "mild anxiety" may be your problem. "Many, many people have the condition," says Lisa Rene Reynolds, PhD, author of Parenting Through Divorce: Helping Your Kids Thrive During and After the Split.

Both talk therapy and medication can help with persistent sadness. Here's how to get started. It's normal to feel down after the breakup of a relationship, death in the family, or loss of a job. But when the feeling persists for several weeks or more, or isn't related to any identifiable cause, you could be suffering from depression, says Jeffrey H.