Anna Clendening was diagnosed with an anxiety disorder and she regularly suffers from panic attacks. She’s only 20 years old, but her musical talent is brilliant. She fought through her personal problems and left judges absolutely stunned on this past season of America’s Got Talent. If you didn’t see this rendition of Hallelujah, check it out.
Share this amazing performance with others below. Anna’s truly inspiring with her ability to overcome.
If you suffer from any level of insomnia, you know how damaging it can be to your health as well as your personal life. So you can just imagine having a disease that NEVER allows you to sleep, keeping you in a constant state of exhaustion…until your body gives up and dies.
That’s what fatal familial insomnia (FFI) is. The disease is extremely rare (less than one out of 10 million people have it), but those who do suffer from it live in extreme agony. Sadly, so far there is no cure.
The cause of FFI is a mutated protein called PrPSc, which has only been found in 40 families worldwide, affecting around 100 people.
After four months pass, the hallucinations start. Sometimes victims will act out their dreams, despite not really being asleep. One woman, who was a hair stylist before being diagnosed, brushed imaginary people’s hair.
Over the course of the next six months, victims develop dementia and go into a non-responsive, dream-like state. Eventually, they die from exhaustion. The average lifespan of a patient after the onset of symptoms is 18 months.
There is currently no cure for FFI, but as sufferers of the disease continue donating their brains to science, experts believe they are getting closer to finding one. In the meantime, people with FFI go to often bizarre lengths to help them sleep, such as sensory deprivation tanks and even electroconvulsive therapy.
It’s important that we all know the signs that a family member or loved one is going through a hard time, but the fact is that many people who are depressed or suicidal know how to hide their feelings well.
Whether it’s because they feel pressure to appear a certain way in public or they don’t want to burden others with their inner turmoil, the fact is that we don’t always know what depression looks like.
That’s why people on social media are raising awareness by sharing photos with the hashtag #facesofdepression. Just a warning: some of these stories are graphic and involve death. If they may upset you, please protect yourself by not reading.
1. “This was days before my husband took his own life. Suicidal thoughts were there, but you’d never know.”
5. “This is depression in our home. I fight every day. My husband tries his best but can’t break through. I don’t understand it. I don’t know why I can’t get rid of it.”
6. “My #faceofdepression, and yes it is possible to be depressed with a child. Hearing, ‘You don’t have a reason to be depressed with her around’ doesn’t do shit but make me feel worse about myself.”
8. “Short, intense depressive episodes are real and horrible. Mothers with mental health problems, I see you. I’m here, standing with you, standing against all odds and raising the future one day at a time whilst battling with our minds. You’re not going unnoticed or unappreciated. You are incredible.”
9. “Currently at the doctor seeking help. Most have no idea what I’m going through and that I cry in the shower or in the car on my way home from work or can’t sleep at night because of panic attacks.”
11. “This is what depression looked like not long before we lost our beloved Luke. Depression is a SERIOUS illness. Don’t dismiss people who are hurting.”
12. “You guys! This is the face of depression and suicidal thoughts. Three years ago antidepressants saved my life and then a year and a half ago they almost claimed it because I just decided I was happy and quit taking them suddenly. Suicide is a permanent solution to a temporary problem. Normalize mental health issues. No more shame in my struggle.”
13. ” The face of depression. Sometimes it looks optimistic. Sometimes it doesn’t. And having a smart, beautiful child doesn’t mean those feelings don’t exist or that they’re not valid. She loves me on my good days and my bad days.”
14. “Depression looks different on everyone. On me, it’s dirty hair, bags under my eyes even though I slept all day, and makeup from yesterday because I was too exhausted to take it off before bed. Yesterday was great until one phrase set me off. It can’t be helped sometimes. Just remember. There is no one look for depression.”
15. “When people think about depression, they tend to have a very specific idea of how it manifests itself. I’m in the middle of a very real depressive episode and here I am at work with my plants and headphones.”
Tame Stress With Restorative Yoga Hold each pose for about 5 minutes and feel your stress melt away. Child’s Pose Supported Bridge Reclined Bound Angle Legs Up the Wall Corpse Pose Right as Rain by UW Medicine. rightasrain.uwmedicine.org | Copyright 2017 University of Washington .
http://www.howdini.com/howdini-video-6638787.html
Some of us panic under pressure, others freeze when we’re stressed. Here’s how to stay focused under stress, from family and lifestyle journalist Ylonda Caviness.
Managing Stress – How to deal with stress
Using simple and effective techniques, these sessions will introduce you to the tools that can assist in eliminating sleep disorders and reducing stress and anxiety experienced at home and at work.
Part 1:
Alison Cocking, Wellness Manager, UHN introduces Michael Apollo and the objectives for this 4-part video series.
Please note: The practices provided in this video are a complement to and not exclusive of any medically prescribed regimen you have. The opinions expressed in the video practical sessions are those of the instructor and are not necessarily endorsed by the University Health Network (UHN). Claims and research are not associated or directly supported by UHN. For more information please visit www.pubmed.gov for current peer reviewed research on Mindfulness and Meditation.
Having confirmed his intent to live off of food stamps for a week in response to a Twitter challenge, Newark, N.J., Mayor Cory Booker is inviting followers to join him. The challenge doesn’t begin until next Tuesday, but Booker is laying the prep work, doing what he can to praise the SNAP program as essential while simultaneously pointing out how woefully inadequate it is — funny how so many government entitlement programs fit that description.
If you’d like to participate, here are the rules as they stand now, in handy video form.
Thanks to those joining me in the #SNAPchallenge to help spread awareness of SNAP. Learn the guidelines wayw.re/YyHTSv
Take special note of the arbitrary conditions. Many on food stamps don’t have a car, so don’t drive to the store. Many on food stamps don’t have friends or family, so don’t accept food from mom.
@corybooker glad ur doing this for awareness but honestly a full month is needed to understand & eating healthy, forget it. #SNAPchallenge
http://www.howdini.com/howdini-video-6638754.html
Ever notice your neck and shoulders hurt after a stressful day? You’re probably holding a lot of tension in those muscles. Here are some stress relief tips and exercises for your body after a rough day, from family and lifestyle correspondent Ylonda Caviness.
Stress relief tips and exercises – How to relieve stress
Stress not only makes you feel lousy and ill-tempered, it can literally be a killer. It’s important to find outlets for stress relief and identify its sources as well.
* First, you must recognize that you are stressed. It’s more than likely just you and not everyone around you who is stressed as that moment.
* To relieve stress, you need to identify the source of it. Often just your day-to-day tasks can cause a great deal of stress.
* Exercises you can do almost anywhere for stress relief:
1. If you are in your car rushing to get somewhere and trying to beat a light, simply stop and let the light catch you. Take deep breaths while sitting at the light and tell yourself “The tension is flowing out of my body.”
2. You can also simply shrug your shoulders and hold it for 4-5 seconds. A lot of tension is held in your shoulders.
3. Listening to music can help relieve stress. Put on some silly music that will allow you to have fun and lighten up.
4. Laughter is the best prescription for stress relief – even try to laugh at yourself.
* Recognize that its not just you who is stressed out—everyone goes through stressful situations.
What is the most important part of the body: The head or the heart?
This question existed since the dawn of philosophers… and middle school English teachers. We value our intelligence over most things, and for good reason. We traveled to the moon and back and turned communication with others around the globe into child’s play. We even created technology allowing me to write this article at 32,000 feet on a plane traveling near the speed of sound, all thanks to the human brain.
But without the heart, the brain could not exist. That’s why you MUST know these 25 important (and cool) facts about hearts. Some may even save your life… and your intelligence.
1.) According to studies, the more education you have, the less likely you’ll die from heart disease.
2.) Yet heart disease is still the greatest risk of death.
3.) They’ve even found signs of it in 3,000 year old mummies.
4.) The largest heart belongs to the blue whale, at over 1,500 lbs.
5.) Your heart is a super muscle, and it’s used well beyond any other muscle in your body during a lifetime.
6.) Your heart creates enough energy to power a truck for 20 miles a day.
7.) Which means you could drive to the moon AND back on nothing but heart power.
8.) Healthy hearts start with a balance of clean living, low stress, and exercise.
9.) There are 75 trillion cells in your body, and the heart pumps blood to almost all of them.
10.) Your cornea is the only thing doesn’t get them.
11.) Hate waiting for long trains? Well your heart pumps enough blood in a lifetime to fill 200 tankers (1.5 million barrels).
12.) A heart cell, the very first one, starts to beat at 4 weeks.
13.) The days with the most heart attacks are Christmas Day, December 26, and on New Year’s.
If you thought those were mind-blowing, just wait till you see the rest!
Have you ever woken up and felt as if you were floating outside of your own body?
Many who’ve reported having these types of experiences believe they’re caused by spiritual or even paranormal forces, while others think they’re completely faked. But according to a new study by the Aix-Marseille Université in France, out-of-body experiences (OBE) are linked to a perfectly explainable physical issue.
Neuroscientist Christophe Lopez and other researchers compared two sets of 210 patients matched by the same ages and genders. One set had a history of dizziness, while the other did not.
About 14 percent of those who did suffer from dizziness reported having out-of-body experiences. As one stated, it felt “like I’m outside of myself. I feel like I’m not in myself.” Only five percent of those who didn’t experience dizziness reported OBEs.
The study also found that most of those who had dizziness and a history of OBE had experienced OBEs only after they started having dizziness for the first time. Many of those subjects had also been diagnosed with depression, anxiety, depersonalization, or migraines.
According to the researchers, “OBE in patients with dizziness were mainly related to peripheral vestibular disorders,” or inner ear issues that affect the ability to process sensory information and control balance and eye movements. This type of damage to the ears can result in dizziness, vertigo, floating sensations, and lightheadedness.
