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Depression is the feeling of being sad and blue. It is a normal response to life’s struggles, loss or hurt self-esteem.

Sometimes the feeling of sadness can become extremely intense. Chronic depression is when these feelings last over an extended period of time, and keep you from doing your normal daily activities or leading a normal life.

Chronic depression, which is also known as dysthymia, is one of the types of depression. Severe, ongoing depression is known as major depressive disorder. It is also called major depression, clinical depression and unipolar depression. Chronic depression is a milder form of recurring depression.

Even though chronic depression is a milder form of depression, the effects linger for a long period of time, possibly years. People with chronic depression can usually carry out their responsibilities well, but they always seem to be unhappy.

It is a common thing for people with chronic depression to also have an episode of major depressive disorder. They can move from chronic depression to major depressive disorder and back to chronic depression. This is called double depression.

Nearly 11 million people age 18 or older have chronic depression according to the National Institute of Mental Health. The National Institute of Mental Health also states that nearly 19 million people over the age of 18 experience major depression.

Many of the effects of chronic depression are the same as those of major depressive disorder, but they are not as severe as and more chronic in nature than those of major depressive disorder. Some of these effects caused by chronic depression are:

• Sad and blue mood
• Loss of interest in things that used to bring pleasure including sex
• Changes in appetite
• Changes in sleeping habits
• Feelings of worthlessness and hopelessness
• Fatigue and loss of energy
• Trouble concentrating and indecisiveness.

You or a loved one may be suffering from chronic depression. This condition may have reached the point where you or your loved one may not be able to work. Chronic depression may be the cause of you or your loved one’s disability.

If this is the case, do you or your loved one need help? Do you need financial help?

Who can you turn to for the financial help that you need? Where will it come from?

Have you or your loved one applied for Social Security disability benefits or disability benefits from the Social Security Administration because of the disability caused by chronic depression? Were you or your loved one denied?

If you or your loved one is thinking about appealing the denial by the Social Security Administration, here is something that you need to think about. People who are represented by a dependable disability attorney like the one you will find at socialsecurityhome.com are approved more often than those people who do not have a lawyer.

Do not put this off. Do not wait. Contact the experienced disability attorney at socialsecurityhome.com, today.

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Schizophrenia is a mental disorder as described by psychiatric diagnosis. It is a severe, disabling, chronic brain disorder. Schizophrenia is evidenced by hearing voices that other people do not hear, a belief that other people are broadcasting their thoughts to the world or being convinced that other people are plotting to harm them.

This leads to people being fearful and withdrawn who have schizophrenia. Trying to have relationships with other people is also difficult.

There has been debate as to whether schizophrenia is a single disorder or a number of discrete syndromes because of the many possible combinations of signs and symptoms with this mental disorder.

Paul Eugen Bleuler, a Swiss psychiatrist, was the first to use the term, “schizophrenia” in 1908. Actually, he used the term, “the schizophrenias” because of the debate about the disorder.

Schizophrenia affects about 1.1% of the population of the United States that is age 18 and older in any given year. This means that well over 3 million people are affected by schizophrenia in the United States every year.

Schizophrenia appears equally in men and women. It usually appears in men at an earlier age than in women. The peak ages for onset in men are 20-28. In women, the peak ages are 26-32. It is rare in older adults.

Childhood schizophrenia is very much like the adult form of the mental disorder. The difference is that it develops earlier. This can happen even before adolescence. Schizophrenia has a huge impact on the ability of a child to function.

Childhood schizophrenia is also much rarer than the adult form of the disorder. It is estimated to affect 1 in 40,000 children. When it does begin, it usually starts between age 7 and adolescence.

Your child with disability will probably lose interest in activities, becomes withdrawn and develop distorted perception and thinking. These effects can go on for a good while before progressing.

Other ways that childhood schizophrenia may affect your child with disability is causing paranoia, hallucinations and delusions. He or she may often fear that people are plotting to hurt them. Your child with disability may believe that others are in control of their thoughts, and they will probably have blunted emotions.

Your child with disability may have childhood schizophrenia. This may be the cause of their disability.

You may have tried to get financial help for your child with disability by applying for Social Security disability benefits or disability benefits from the Social Security Administration because of the disability caused by childhood schizophrenia. Was your child with disability denied?

If you are thinking about appealing the denial by the Social Security Administration, there is something that you should know. People who are represented by a knowledgeable disability attorney like the one at socialsecurityhome.com are approved more often than those people who do not have a lawyer.

This is something of great importance for your child with disability. Contact the good disability attorney at socialsecurityhome.com, today.

The cognitive or knowing aspect of anxiety involves expectation. It is expecting all kinds of unknown danger.

Somatically, your body prepares you to deal with the threat (known as an emergency reaction): heart rate and blood pressure are increased, sweating is increased, blood flow to the major muscle groups is increased and digestive and immune system functions are inhibited. Externally, somatic signs of anxiety may involve pupillary dilation, sweating, pale skin and trembling.

Emotionally, anxiety causes a sense of panic or dread. Physically, it causes chills and nausea.

Behaviorally, both voluntary and involuntary behaviors can occur directed at escaping or avoiding the source of anxiety and often maladaptive, being most extreme in anxiety disorders. However, anxiety is not always maladaptive or pathological.

Anxiety is a common emotion along with sadness, happiness, fear and anger. Anger has an extremely important role in relation to survival.

There are several types of anxiety. Generalized anxiety disorder (GAD), panic disorder, phobic disorders, separation anxiety, obsessive compulsive disorder and stress disorders are examples of the various types of anxiety.

In addition to the ways mentioned above, anxiety may affect you in several different ways. It is often characterized by:

§  Nausea

§  Headache

§  Stomach aches

§  Shortness of breath

§  Chest pain

§  Heart palpitations.

These effects as a result of anxiety may reach a point where you or a loved one is unable to work. If this is the case with you or a loved one, it is important to remember that anxiety, itself, is not a disability.

Anxiety is a serious medical condition that can cause you to have a disability. Anxiety may be the main indication of you or your loved one’s disability.

If this describes your situation, you or your loved one may need help. You may need financial assistance.

Are you or your loved one considering applying for Social Security disability benefits or disability benefits from the Social Security Administration because of the disability that is characterized primarily by anxiety? Have you already done this and been denied by the Social Security Administration?

What options do you have now? What recourse do you have? What do you next?

One option that you or your loved one has is to appeal the denial by the Social Security Administration. If you decide to do this, here is something important that you need to know.

You or your loved one is going to need a confident disability lawyer like the one you will find at socialsecurityhome.com to guide and lead you in what can be a long and arduous process. The reason why this is true is because people who are represented by a caring disability attorney are approved more often than those people without a lawyer.

Do not hesitate. Contact the dependable disability attorney at socialsecurityhome.com, today.

An anxiety disorder is a serious condition that is marked by several things. It is characterized by extreme, chronic anxiety which disturbs thought, behavior, mood and/or physiological activity.

Anxiety disorder is a big problem in the United States. About 19,000,000 adults have some kind of anxiety disorder in America according to the National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH).

Depending on each individual case, dysmorphic syndrome may be considered an anxiety disorder or part of an eating disorder, or both. Dysmorphic syndrome is a preoccupation with and an excessive concern about a perceived defect in your physical features. It includes an excessive or debilitating fear of being judged by others.  Dysmorphic syndrome is an overwhelming fear of not being socially accepted because of your body image.

Your may complain about several specific physical features or one single feature. You may complain about a vague feature or your physical appearance in general.

This may lead to psychological distress that impairs your ability to function socially and/or to work. Dysmorphic syndrome may cause you severe depression and anxiety or lead to the development of other anxiety disorders, social withdrawal or complete social isolation.

There are several signs and symptoms that you may experience that may indicate that you have dysmorphic syndrome. Some of these include:

• Comparing your appearance with that of others
• Being extremely self-conscious
• Picking your skin
• Excessively grooming yourself
• Either obsessively examining yourself in front of a mirror or avoiding mirrors
• A believe that other people are taking special notice of your appearance in a bad way
• Refusing to let your picture be taken
• Wearing too much makeup or clothing to cover up perceived body flaws
• Preoccupation with your personal appearance
• Having cosmetic procedures done over and over, but not being satisfies with the results
• Being sure that you have a defect or abnormality in your personal appearance that makes you think you are ugly
• Avoiding social situations.

You or a loved one may be suffering from dysmorphic syndrome. Dysmorphic syndrome and/or complications that have resulted from it or other disorders that you have besides this syndrome may have led to you or your loved one’s disability and need for financial assistance.

You or your loved one may plan on applying for the financial help that you need from the Social Security Administration by applying for Social Security disability benefits or disability benefits because of the disability caused by dysmorphic syndrome and/or complications that have resulted from it or other disorders that you have besides this syndrome. You may have already applied and been denied by the Social Security Administration.

If you or your loved one thinks about reapplying or appealing the denial, remember this. People who have a disability attorney working for them like the one you will find at socialsecurityhome.com are approved more often than people who are not represented by a disability lawyer.

Please do not delay. Contact the disability attorney at socialsecurityhome.com, today.

The word dissociation means the state of being separated or the act of separating. In psychology or psychiatry, dissociation is used to mean a mental response that diverts your consciousness away from traumatic or painful associations. In other words, dissociation is escaping painful associations of reality by going to another real or imaginary place. This may involve paralysis, shock, numbing, loss of speech or even loss of consciousness.

Dissociative disorder is a mental illness that is marked by an interruption of or a dissociation from the fundamental aspects of your waking consciousness. This involves things like your personal history or personal identity. This dissociation is thought to be a coping mechanism by which you literally dissociate yourself from some kind of experience or situation that is so traumatic that you are not able to integrate it with your conscious self.

Dissociative identity disorder, formerly known as multiple personality disorder, is one of the four primary types of dissociative disorder. The other three are dissociative amnesia, dissociative fugue and depersonalization disorder.

Dissociative identity disorder is a disturbance of your identity where your behavior at various times is controlled by two or more separate and distinct personality identities or states. When you are being controlled by one identity, you probably will not remember things that happened while another personality was in control.

These different personalities are referred to as alters. These alters may have differences in mannerisms, thoughts, attitudes, gender orientation, speech and physical qualities like being left-or-right handed or needing prescriptions for glasses.

There are several signs and symptoms that you may have with dissociative identity disorder. These include:

§  Having two or more distinct or split personalities that have power over your behavior

§  Having highly distinct memory variations

§  An inability to remember key personal information

§  Phobias, anxiety and panic attacks

§  Rituals and compulsion

§  Mood swings

§  Drug and alcohol abuse

§  Depression

§  Sleep disorders including night terrors, sleepwalking and insomnia

§  Eating disorders

§  Time loss

§  Headaches

§  Amnesia

§  Suicidal tendencies

§  Psychotic symptoms that include visual and auditory hallucinations

§  Out of body experiences

§  Trances.

You or a loved one may have dissociative identity disorder. This disorder and/or complications resulting from it may be why you are disabled and need financial assistance.

You or your loved one may have turned to the Social Security Administration for financial help by applying for Social Security disability benefits or disability benefits because of the disability caused by dissociative identity disorder and/or complications resulting from this condition. Were you or your loved one denied?

If you or your loved one appeals the denial by the Social Security Administration, consider this. People represented by a disability lawyer like the one at Social Security Home are approved more often than people without a disability attorney.

The word dissociation means the act of separating or the state of being separated. In psychiatry or psychology, dissociation refers to a mental response that turns your consciousness away from traumatic or painful associations. To put is more simply, dissociation is escaping painful associations of reality by going to another imaginary or real place. This may involve paralysis, shock, loss of speech, numbing or even loss of consciousness.

Dissociative disorder is a mental illness that is characterized by an interruption of or a dissociation from the fundamental aspects of your waking consciousness, such as your personal history or personal identity. This dissociation is believed to be a coping mechanism where you literally dissociate yourself from some kind of experience or situation that is so traumatic that you are not able to integrate it with your conscious self.

As you might imagine, there are different forms of dissociative disorder. The four major dissociative disorders are:

• Dissociative amnesia
• Dissociative fugue
• Depersonalization disorder
• Dissociative identity disorder.

Some form of dissociative disorder may affect anywhere from 2 to 10% of the general population. Estimates are difficult because dissociative disorders are hard to identify and can go for many years without being diagnosed.

There are some signs and symptoms that apply to all four of the major forms of dissociative disorder. Some of these are:

§  A sense of being detached from yourself (depersonalization)
§  A blurred sense of identity
§  Amnesia (memory loss) of certain events, people and time periods
§  Perceiving the things and people around you as unreal and distorted (derealization)
§  Mental health problems that include anxiety and depression.

You or a loved one may have been diagnosed with dissociative disorder. This disorder and/or complications resulting from it may be the reason why you or your loved one is unable to work. Dissociative disorder may be the cause of your disability.

As a result, you may need help. You may need financial assistance.

You or your loved one may intend to apply for the financial help that you need from the Social Security Administration by applying for Social Security disability benefits or disability benefits because of the disability caused by dissociative disorder and/or complications resulting from this condition. Have you or your loved one already taken this step and been turned down by the Social Security Administration?

If you or your loved one is thinking about appealing the denial by the Social Security Administration, here is something important to remember. People who are represented by a disability lawyer like the one you will find at Social Security Home are approved more often than people who do not have a disability attorney working for them.

A case we discussed late last month has been temporarily resolved. The California lawsuit filed on behalf of mental health services for special education children was addressed Nov. 2 when a “federal court in Los Angeles . . . approved a stipulated injunction which will temporarily restore educationally-related mental health services to California and Los Angeles County students who require the services to stay in school,” according to a press release from the group Public Counsel. “In California, these life-saving mental health services are commonly known as ‘AB 3632′ services.”

Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger killed funding for the program–reluctantly, according to a spokesperson–with a line-item veto that “struck the entire $133 million in state funds allocated for AB 3632 services.”

Subsequently, various groups banded together and filled a class-action suit against a slew of state officials and agencies.

First a lawsuit, then a request for TRO and injunction

After filing the suit, “the coalition filed a request for a temporary restraining order and motion for preliminary injunction in federal court, asking the judge to order the California Department of Education ‘to ensure that students with disabilities who require educationally-related mental health services continue to receive these without interruption or delay.’  The motion also sought injunctive relief against the Los Angeles County Department of Mental Health, the Los Angeles Unified School District, and the Los Angeles County Office of Education, among others, to compel them to continue providing these critical services to students.”

However, prior to the hearing for the motion an agreement was hammered out with the state’s education department, which agreed to free up “$76 million of federal funds for the short-term continuation of these services, which are expected to benefit more than 20,000 students across the state. The California Department of Education also agreed to issue new directives regarding the obligations of local education agencies to provide these services, and to exercise its monitoring and enforcement authority under California law to ensure that each school district utilizes the funding to provide AB 3632 services, to which students are entitled under federal special education law.”

Medi-Cal for Merced County students

According to a Nov. 3 article in the The Sacramento Bee, affected students in at least one county will be shifted out of the AB 3632 program: “Susan Coston, assistant superintendent for special education with the Merced County Office of Education, said she has met officials from the Merced County Mental Health, Alcohol and Drug Services. The short-term plan would be recommend that families transfer their children from the AB 3632 program into regular mental health services.

“However, students would need to be Medi-Cal eligible to receive regular mental health services from the county’s mental health agency. Coston said officials from the county’s office of education will cooperate closely with school districts and families of those students who aren’t Medi-Cal eligible. ‘We are going to work with parents and districts to explore all the mental health services that could be made available to the child,’ she added.

According to an Oct. 23 article  at Silicon Valley MercuryNews.com, “The elimination of a $133 million state mental health program violates the federal rights of more than 20,000 special education students across California, a class-action lawsuit filed Friday against Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger and governmental agencies said.

“The lawsuit alleges the state violated the Individuals with Disabilities Act and the Americans with Disabilities Act by cutting off the program known as ‘AB 3632 services.’

” ‘State entities have the responsibility not to set in motion factors that would deprive children with mental illness or disabilities of mandatory federal services,’ said Laura Faer, directing attorney for Public Counsel, one of the organizations that filed the suit in U.S. District Court in Los Angeles.”

Also named as defendants were the the Los Angeles Unified School District, the Los Angeles County office on Education, the Los Angeles County Department of Mental Health and the state departments of Education and Mental Health.

Line-item veto

It was earlier this month when the governor killed funding for the program via a line-item veto, and some counties have already begun shutting down activities. “Faer said she will seek a temporary restraining order to halt the funding cutoff while the case is being heard.”

‘Unprecedented agreement’ hailed in Georgia

Meanwhile, mental health officials and disability advocates are cheering a settlement in Georgia, describing the agreement as “sweeping” and “unprecedented.”

According to an Oct. 21 post at npr.org, “A sweeping agreement this week between the Justice Department and the state of Georgia highlights an aggressive new campaign by the Obama administration to ensure that people with mental illness and developmental disabilities can get services in their communities — and not be forced to live in institutions.

“As part of the accord, Georgia agreed to specific targets for creating housing aid and community treatment for people with disabilities. Those with disabilities have often cycled in and out of the state’s long-troubled psychiatric hospitals in the past. The state said it will set aside $15 million in the current fiscal year and $62 million next year to make the improvements.”

An Oct. 19 piece in the Los Angeles Times calls the settlement a “model” for enforcement and said the result will be to “move many patients with mental illnesses and developmental disabilities out of the state’s notoriously dangerous psychiatric hospitals and into the community.”

Legal battles sparked by newspaper series

“It also caps a federal investigation that began after more than 100 suspicious deaths of patients in state mental hospitals were documented over a five-year period in a 2007 series in the Atlanta Journal-Constitution.

“The federal investigation confirmed an ‘alarming frequency’ of preventable deaths, suicides and assaults in the hospitals.”

A landmark Supreme Court ruling

State officials are happy that the agreement lets them avoid direct control from Washington,  keeping the state’s mental health services under Georgia’s authority. Thomas E. Perez, assistant attorney general for the Justice Department’s Civil Rights Division, is indirectly quoted in the Times as calling the agreement “a template” that will guide “nationwide enforcement of the principles laid out in a landmark Supreme Court disability rights case from 1999, Olmstead vs. L.C.”

“That case, Perez said, ‘was hailed as the Brown vs. Board of Education of the disability rights movement — a recognition that unnecessarily segregating people with disabilities in institutions can be just as destructive as segregating children in schools.’ ”

According to the npr.com article, “Georgia said it would improve its state hospitals in a January 2009 agreement with the Justice Department during the final days of the Bush administration. But a coalition of consumer groups filed a brief in opposition to that settlement, saying it failed to improve hospital discharge planning and services in the community.

“The Justice Department later backed away from the original terms of the deal and eventually added the Olmstead issues in a separate complaint in January. Last month, the federal judge in the case ratified the original hospital agreement, but let the Olmstead portion proceed, which culminated in the second agreement.”

There are other names for this condition. “Environmental illness” and “sick building syndrome” are other names for this condition.

There is disagreement over whether or not multiple chemical sensitivity is really a distinct physical disorder. The American Medical Association (AMA), Centers for Disease Control (CDC) and the American Academy of Allergy, Asthma and Immunology do not consider multiple chemical sensitivity a distinct physical disorder.

There are three reasons why these groups do not consider multiple chemical sensitivity to be a distinct physical disorder. First, clinical evidence is lacking that supports a physical cause for the signs and symptoms people with this condition experience. Second, people with multiple chemical sensitivity do not develop antibodies in response to this chemical exposure, as is the case with allergic or immune system reaction. Third, people with this condition also have high rates of mental health disorders. These include anxiety, depression and somatoform disorders. Somatoform disorders are mental disorders that are shown through physical signs and symptoms.

People with multiple chemical sensitivity have expressed a wide variety of signs and symptoms. Some of these are:

• Diarrhea
• Nausea
• Fatigue
• Gas or bloating
• Headache
• Confusion
• Irritability
• Hives or skin rash
• Itching
• Sneezing
• Sore throat
• Mood changes
• Problems concentrating
• Memory problems
• Chest pain
• Problems breathing
• Changes in heart rhythm
• Muscle stiffness and/or pain.

You may be one of those with multiple chemical sensitivity. It may have become such a problem for you that it is the reason for your disability.

You may need financial help if you are unable to work. You may have tried to get this help from the Social Security Administration by applying for Social Security disability benefits or disability benefits because of the disability caused by multiple chemical sensitivity.

If you did this, you were probably denied and told by the Social Security Administration that multiple chemical sensitivity is not a recognized and covered disability. What options do you have now?

If you have other disabling conditions in addition to multiple chemical sensitivity there is a distinct possibility that you could be eligible for Social Security disability benefits or disability benefits. The reliable disability attorney at Social Security Home is the one who can help you make the decision on whether to reapply or appeal the denial by the Social Security Administration.

A personality disorder is characterized by a rigid and potentially self-denigrating or self-destructive way of thinking and behaving without regard for what the situation is. This results in hurting your ability to carry out routine functions at school, work or social situations. It causes distress in your life.

You may or may not know that you have a personality disorder. This is due to thinking that the way in which you think and act is normal. You may think that others are to blame for your circumstances.

Nearly 15% of adults in the United States have some kind of personality disorder. This means that over 30 million Americans have some type of personality disorder.

Histrionic personality disorder (HPD) is one of these types of personality disorder. It is characterized by a pattern of excessive attention-seeking and emotionality. This includes an excessive need for approval and inappropriate seductiveness, which usually beginning in early adulthood. People with histrionic personality disorder are dramatic, lively, flirtatious and enthusiastic. They may express strong emotions with an impressionistic style, be inappropriately sexually provocative and be easily influenced by others.

It is estimated that 2% to 3% of the general population has histrionic personality disorder. Women have this disorder more frequently than men.

There are several symptoms and signs that may be an indication of histrionic personality disorder. Some of these are:

• Constantly wanting approval or reassurance
• Emotions that change quickly, which can give the appearance of being shallow to others
• Being overly emotional and dramatic
• Looking or acting overly seductive
• Self-centeredness (needing to be the center of attention)
• Being easily influenced by others
• Putting the blame on others for your disappointments or failures
• Having a low tolerance for delayed gratification or frustration
• A believe that relationships are more intimate than they really are
• Being overly sensitive to disapproval or criticism
• Being overly concerned about the looks of others.

You may have histrionic personality disorder. This disorder and/or complications resulting from or other conditions along with it may be the reason for your disability.

Have you tried to get help from the Social Security Administration by applying for Social Security disability benefits or disability benefits because of the disability caused by histrionic personality disorder and/or complications resulting from or other conditions along with it? Were you denied ?

If you appeal the denial by the Social Security Administration, think about this. People who are represented by a disability attorney like the one you will find at socialsecurityhome.com are approved more often than people who are without a lawyer.