5 Things You Should Know about Male Depression

Depression is a serious condition. Like any condition it needs to be treated by a professional. It could lead to dire consequences such as suicide. Men are unlikely to be open about experiencing depression. It is important that you are able to tell whether your boyfriend, husband, male friend or brother is suffering from depression. The earlier you can tell the better the cure will become.

Alcohol or substance abuse

Men tend to turn to alcohol to drown their depression. Since males are less likely to express themselves when they feel depressed, increased alcohol intake is a cue you should consider. This is not only very harmful for the body especially the kidneys and liver, it may also trigger episodes that could lead to suicidal tendencies. Also, men could engage in drug abuse, a powder keg waiting to explode. It is because they prefer to resort to these wrongful coping mechanisms rather than tell the world how they feel and what kind of predicament they are in. Most of the time, men would just choose to let all these negative emotions bottle up inside them. Unfortunately, keeping your negative feelings and problems to yourself will only increase the risk of these issues not being resolved. You should know that men are four times prone to committing suicide than women.

Changes in eating patterns

Changes can be either less food intake or increased food intake. If your man is eating less than usual or has no appetite to eat on time then you should be worried. Chances are he is suffering from depression. On the flipside, if your man is voracious and consumes food more than he usually does, it opens a can of worms. Not only he can be depressed but also exposes his body to harm by eating more than he is supposed to. He can develop high cholesterol, diabetes, hypertension and other lifestyle diseases.  Once you notice your man experiencing these signs of depression you must be quick enough to find ways of helping him get out of such quagmire.

Men tend to feel a lot of physical pain

Depression can be a condition of the mind. Unfortunately, it could become more painful for males. Men tend to have physical pain attributed to depression. They may complain about nausea, dizziness, headaches, stomachaches or chest pain. Primary health care professionals may not be able to diagnose this properly as something linked to depression. However, you must still insist on undergoing thorough physical laboratory tests. It would also be wise to consult a therapist or psychiatrist for better chances of getting accurate diagnosis.

Depressed men don’t look sad

If we equate depression with a gloomy state then it does not work on males. Men tend to hide their feelings which become a challenge to health professionals to diagnose depression at an early stage. Although the male may not show signs that he is sad; it could come in other forms such as lack of sleep, extreme anxiety and lethargy. Men are more likely to feel angry rather than appear sad. If your man is easily annoyed than usual, then chances are he is suffering from depression.

Men don’t cry; they become violent

Women cope with depression by crying. Since media and upbringing has forced men not to cry a lot, they use other avenues as their release. Some men would act irrational or reckless. They could develop a new zeal about their work or take up a hobby and become passionate about it. Sometimes men tend to become violent and unable to digest understanding and reject the voice of reason.

We all know that depression is also rooted by the lack or absence of certain chemicals in the brain. If you feel that your man is suffering from depression, seek professional help right away. Convince him that asking for help is not a sign of weakness but strength to acknowledge that there is something wrong waiting to be fixed.

About the Author: Ryan Rivera used to suffer from anxiety attacks for seven years.  He now dedicates his life helping those people who are suffering from stress, anxiety and depression through his writings.  You can read more of his articles at Calm Clinic. 

Making the Most of the Empty Nest

After nearly two decades of raising a child, parents can feel a bit blue once they head off to college or move into a new place for a job, creating the empty nest syndrome that leaves many parents wondering what to do with their sudden free time.  Full-time parents or parents who have problems with separation anxiety may suffer the most.  There are, however, many advantages of the free time and space of an empty nest, one of which is the freedom to travel to new places and see great sights.

Consider planning well ahead of time with a spouse or partner once your children have confirmed their intention to leave for college or a new home.  This is the first time in a while that a couple may have privacy and complete control of the home, and it may be necessary to re-ignite the romance after so many years with little time to share.  Whether you want to take a class on cooking or music, whether you want to re-design the home, or whether you want to get out to a new country, put down your ideas on a dream list in advance.

An empty nest gives many parents the chance to try something they have never done before.  Perhaps that means hiking up some of the tallest peaks in the country, or white-water rafting down the fiercest rapids.  It may mean taking up an old hobby, as well.  Many parents go on a vacation or cruise where they have the chance to participate in more extreme sports like skydiving, windsurfing, or trophy fishing.  Many resorts, furthermore, offer older couples the chance to enjoy such activities safely.  You can escape and do some Cabo fishing simply by checking out their tourism site and sign up for time on a boat.

A vacation to another part of the world may be a great way to spice up life and a relationship.  Getting to a part of the world where not many people speak English and hamburgers are not on the menu may be a bit daunting, but can create long memories.  Tours and safaris through parts of Africa, East Asia, and South America may be possible once the parents are no longer paying for the room and board of their children, and it is never a bad idea to splurge a bit once this major milestone in your life has been reached.

Tagore’s dream for Visva-Bharati now in rags

His face therewith flowing beard is as simply recognised as sage Gandhi’s is. His poems area unit wide quoted; a genre of music is called once him—Rabindro Sangeet—and he was the primary Indian to possess won a philanthropist. Recently, the country commemorated the one hundred and fiftieth day of remembrance of Gurudev Rabindranath Tagore, conjointly the founding father of Visva-Bharati.

Visva-Bharati, with patience and laboriously designed by Tagore, however, looks to be within the doldrums. Barun Roy, in his Asia File column within the Business customary, has explained its current state of being. From what he says, it's obscurity to being what Tagore had planned of and has become only 1 of these establishments that has “lost its direction”.

Rabindranath Tagore. Image courtesy Centralasia

It is currently a “government-supported university, providing recognised tutorial courses, a lot of easier to address than running a visionary centre of excellence dedicated to the planet. Over time, the blinkered thinking became a secular habit too entrenched to discard”.

“It’s not even a gathering place of ideas, wherever alumni may rub their minds off visiting students and intellectuals. No faculties of thought return to contend at Visva-Bharati; no new ideas emanate from its lecture rooms,” he lamented and urged that a fitting person to assist revive it might be Amatyta subunit. it might be “a duty” to save lots of it.

As Roy says, Tagore disturbed concerning the long run of his product and had asked Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi to be its mentor, and once the latter interceded with solon, the Visva-Bharati Act was adopted in 1951, creating it a Central university and an establishment of national importance. A letter that Tagore had written in 1933 showed that he was quite tortured concerning the “diminished means” at his command to even run it.

This two-page letter, dated twenty Gregorian calendar month 1933, was sent to K Tatachari, a lawyer-patriot in Hyderbabad UN agency was waging his battles for freedom from the Nizam’s rule and had been externed to Kurnool across the Tungabhadra watercourse, the border between Rayalseema and also the then Hyderabad State. Late Tatachari’s family had been in its possession until some thirty years back.

Tagore wrote, “I will assure my countrymen that I actually have done all that has lain in my power to try to to and thus have the proper to say facilitate from them by relieving American state from a burden that's daily growing to be painful on behalf of me involved. Year once year is referred to as upon to fulfill massive deficits from my nearly exhausted resources, supplemented by casual donations.”

These, he distinguished, were “collected at the chance of my health, and of utter neglect of my vocation as a literary man. Ultimately we tend to area unit driven to curtail the expenditure of our establishment nearly to the verge of mutilating a number of its necessary features”. He wished to be “relieved of the anxiety and unhappiness caused by such taking apart of my work” and he was happy some friends had “undertaken to grasp funds on behalf of the Institution”.

Since it's no more—and has not been since the 1951 Act—an establishment dependent solely on the strained resources of its founder-president, lack of funds isn't the reason for its stagnation or perhaps decline however lack of imagination and commitment is. His dream of Visva-Bharati being a “meeting place of races cultural co-operation” and aspirations to be “an intellectual and religious guest-house of Bharat” to cultures of all countries and India now could be in worse than tatters.

Tagore gave his all, as is understood to his followers and historians, and currently supported by the content of this letter however as Roy says, what was planned by him and achieved, and what was sought-after to be protected by Gandhi’s intervention and Nehru’s enactment of the Act, and what's presently its state area unit miles apart. In all probability the intent and also the reality bear no likeness.

It is currently a university, except for its past, that has formal courses, once Tagore wished “call them (students) far away from the dead enclosure of categories into a sympathetic relationship with nature and life, to assist them grow in an environment of artistic and group action and discipline them by the responsibility of freedom”. Roy confirms that whereas the establishment Tagore designed remains in its charter and buildings, his noble aspiration has been buried. Tagore doesn't be this.

Opening Ceremony of London 2012 Olympics

A baby with two heads born in Brazil

Incredible but true. A Brazilian woman has reportedly given birth to a two-headed baby boy. The doctors assured that the newborn was in good health. Glad and proud mother Maria de Nazare has decided to name her son Emanoel and Jesus. The baby boy is surviving healthy with two heads a heart, lungs, liver and pelvis.

The doctors who scanned the mother found the baby with two heads and then they realized that normal birth would be a great risk both for mother and baby. They opted alternative option of caesarean."The caesarean took an hour because the baby was in sitting down condition.

Doctors said that they were in pressure and took this as a challenge. Since the hospital was a small interior hospital and had not all the facilities available needed for a new born, they considered this as a challenge and finally saved the mother and child.

This was not a rare case in medical history but in such previous cases one head used to remove by operation in order to save the child. The two heads not were in same condition, one was less developed. This is obviously a rare case and the doctors took a real challenge to save the child with two heads. 

Suicide has become the Second Leading Cause of Death among Young Indians

Suicide has become the second leading cause of death of young people in India, which has one of the highest suicide rates in the world, according to a study published in Lancet.

Vikram Patel the lead author from London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine said that suicide causes death to many Indian men aged between 15 to 29 as transportation accidents and nearly as many young women as complications from pregnancy and childbirth

According to the study Transport accidents are the main cause of death among men while maternal disorders are the main cause of deaths among women. The percentage shows 14 % of men and about 16% of women are victim of such death.

It was noted that about half of suicide deaths (49 percent among men, and 44 percent among women) were due to poisoning, mainly ingesting of pesticides. Hanging has also been found to be the second most common cause for men and women, while burns accounted for about one-sixth of suicides by women.

Due to the declination of maternal death rates, suicide has become the leading cause of death in women. The study said that the lack of health awareness and repulsiveness of live comes about many death cases in rural and sub urban areas in India.

Women's Rights to Pee

Dearth of adequate public urinary facilities, women in India’s commercial capital of Mumbai have launched a unique campaign called the “Right to Pee” campaign in order to demand better toilet facilities for women.

Currently public toilets are available to women, but at a fee, while men who often use public space to relieve themselves, can use public lavatories for free.

“They should be allowed to pee for free, the public toilets should provide vending machines with sanitary towels, like men have for condoms, and they should have a changing room in the toilets,” said Rahul Gaekwad, a leader of one of the 35 NGOs who have come together for the campaign.

The NGOs have been gathering public support through a signature campaign and claim to have the support of more than 7,000 people so far mainly in the suburbs of Mumbai.

People supporting the campaign have said that the issue was one of dignity for women. They felt the way in which the city fathers maintained the public toilets was a downright insult to women of the city.

The campaigners have surveyed public toilets over the last year and found that the facilities for women were not only woefully inadequate, but also ill maintained. Their last year’s campaign received absolutely lukewarm response from the civic authority.

This time round the campaigners want to confront the female members of the authority after collecting as many signatures as possible. The Mumbai civic authority comprises of 50 percent women members. They hope to specifically draw their attention of the women members to the plight of the rest of the city’s women.

The campaign is drawing support from both men and women, but the campaigners feel they need to drum up more support if they have to convince the authorities.