Tag-Archive for » jobs «
Which piece of advice will most likely cheer up a clinically depressed person?A. “Pull yourself together.”
B. “Look on the bright side.”
C. “Don’t worry. It’s nothing serious.”
The answer: None of the above. Such statements probably will make a depressed mate or friend feel worse.
That’s because depression – an illness characterized by extreme sadness, changes in sleep patterns, appetite, energy level or mental focus – is a touchy subject and difficult to talk about.
Unlike high blood pressure or other health conditions, “there’s unnecessary stigma attached to depression,” says Richard Shadick, Ph.D., director of the counseling center at Pace University in New York. “Some people still view it as a sign of weakness.”
And that makes for awkward conversations on both sides. But talking about depression easily and openly isn’t impossible. With some forethought, you can find the right words to help ease depression’s pain.
Here are 9 statements to skip, and the right way to start a dialogue.
Depression is a miserable experience; no one would choose to have it, says psychologist Shosana Bennett, Ph.D., author of Pregnant on Prozac and a postpartum depression survivor.
If depressed people “could snap out of it, [they] would’ve done so,” she says.People with depression can’t will away the illness any more than they could asthma or diabetes. Like those other conditions, depression has a biological basis.
Imaging studies show that the parts of the brain that regulate mood, thinking, sleep and appetite function abnormally in people with depression. Key mood-regulating brain chemicals, such as serotonin, norepinephrine and dopamine, are unbalanced as well.
Some people won’t see a doctor for depression but will agree to a visit for specific symptoms – such as insomnia, loss of appetite or constant fatigue, says Julie Totten, president and founder of Families for Depression Awareness.2. “Just think positive.”
People with depression often perceive themselves and the world in an overly negative light. They’re incapable of seeing the bright side of a situation.
“It’s like you’re wearing these foggy, distorted lenses, which filter out all positive input from the environment,” Bennett says.
When she was depressed, she literally saw the world in drab gray shades, she says.
Implying that recovery should be quick and easy may leave them feeling more discouraged than ever.
Better to say: “We’ll get through this.” This lets the depressed person know the world won’t always seem so dark and hopeless. At the same time, the statement acknowledges that recovery is a process.
Plus, “use of the word ‘we’ is very important,” Bennett says. “A [depressed] person feels all alone, so it’s crucial to reinforce the idea that you’re there for them.”
Treatment with psychotherapy and/or antidepressants can help, and with time can regain a brighter perspective.
3. “Relax. It’s no big deal.”
“Truth is, depression really hurts a person’s ability to function,” says Thomas Wise, M.D., psychiatry professor at George Washington University School of Medicine in Washington, D.C.
It can seriously disrupt home, work or school life, and wreck relationships. Left untreated, depression can even lead to suicide.
If someone is seriously depressed, don’t be afraid to discuss suicide.“People often worry that asking this question will plant the idea,” Totten says.
In fact, asking just lets them know you understand the seriousness of their situation, she says. It also helps you determine if there’s imminent danger.
If they answer “yes,” reassure them that such feelings are temporary. Then call the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline (800 -273-TALK or 800-273-8255) to speak with a crisis worker, who’ll help identify your next step.
4. “I know exactly how you feel.”
This statement sounds empathetic, but really isn’t. If you’ve never been clinically depressed, you can’t know what it feels like.
Even if you have, no two people experience this illness the same way.
“Nobody can know how anyone else feels unless they ask and listen carefully to the answer,” says Elizabeth Babcock, LCSW, a psychotherapist in McMurray, Pa.
Better to say: “Do you want to talk?”
But preface your question with a statement that lets the person know you want to understand, Babcock suggests. For example: “I can’t imagine how hard this must be for you.” Or, “I don’t know what it’s like to experience what you’re going through, but I’d really like to understand it better – if you want to tell me.” Or, “I’ve been depressed, too, and I can’t know what your experience is like, but I know mine was really hard.”
After you state your concern, ask questions and really listen to the answers.
“Alcohol may lessen the immediate pain of depression, but over time, it only makes the hurt worse,” Wise says.
Trying to self-medicate with alcohol or other drugs can also lead to addiction and new problems. Plus, abusing alcohol or other drugs increases the suicide risk by impairing judgment and promoting impulsive behavior.
Exercise is a proven mood-lifter, according to a 2005 University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center study. Researchers found it’s as effective as antidepressants in treating mild to moderate depression.Walking together also helps the person stay physically healthy and socially connected.
Plus, it’s good for you too, which is important. It’s easy to overlook your own health when caring for someone else.
Or pick another cardio activity your depressed loved one once enjoyed, even if they can’t get pleasure from it right now. If they’re reluctant, say it’s a favor to you. For example: “I’ve been wanting to try this yoga class. Will you come with me?”
6. “Stop feeling so sorry for yourself.”
A judgmental tone makes depressed people feel sadder.
“[They’re] already judging themselves quite harshly,” Babcock says.
If you’re critical, they’re “being abused from within and without,” he says.
Better to say: “This can happen to the best of us.” Rather than fueling misplaced self-blame, send a message that depression isn’t their fault.
This also underscores the fact that it’s a common illness striking women of every age and background. One in four U.S. women will experience serious depression at some point in her life, according to NMHIC.
Get ready for a remake of the 1976 hit movie Sparkle. Paula Patton has been tapped to star as “Sista,” the role made famous by Lonette McKee. Michael Ealy is being considered for the Philip Michael Thomas role (“Stix”), and Zoë Saldana is being considered for the Irene Cara role (“Sparkle”). Speaking of Michael Ealy, he’s joining the cast of the USA network show Common Law.
|
Matthew Knowles denies stealing from his daughter Beyonce. He is no longer his daughter’s manager. Over the past couple of years, his relationship with his daughter has been fractured because of his cheating on his wife and having a baby with another woman. Now there are allegations of stealing from his daughter. Knowles says a lot of lies have been told about him to separate him from his daughter. Since their split,Beyonce has hit some pitfalls, and it’s clear she needs her dad’s guidance. |
The legendary Johnson Publishing Company is no longer a family owned business. J.P. Morgan has purchased a minority stake in Johnson Publishing. After 70 years, the company has new partners. Johnson Publishing owns Ebony and Jet magazines.
Kwame Kilpatrick, the former mayor of Detroit, is ready to tell all. Surrendered: The Rise, Fall And Revelation Of Kwame Kilpatrick, is due out August 1st. Kilpatrick was dubbed the hip hop mayor when he became the mayor of Detroit at the age of 31. He is now 41, and he has been through the fire. Kilpatrick’s world came tumbling down when he lied about having an affair with an aide.
Actress Viola Davis is the cover girl for the new issue of Essence. She has a new movie called The Help coming out next month. The Tony winning and Oscar nominated-actress is best known for her roles in Doubt and Fences.
There will be life after all for All My Children and One Life To Live. The popular soaps were cancelled by ABC to make room for cheaper unscripted daytime shows, but they will now live on online.
Melanie Fiona, Estelle and Anthony David are just some of the performers scheduled for Global Fusion at Penns Landing this weekend. Join us at The Great Plaza for great food, music and fun from noon until 8pm.
Bobby Brown and Black Hennessey don’t mix. Brown, who is on tour with New Edition, recently got in trouble at a nightclub for pulling a girl’s ponytail.
July 23rd, it’s the Dancin’ On Air Marathon.The popular 80’s dance TV show will air 8:00pm until 10pm then 11pm to 1am on MyPHL17 (Channel 17).
Jennifer Lopez will be returning to American Idol. She reteams with fellow Judges Steven Tyler and Randy Jackson after signing a new one-year deal.
Get ready for Steve Harvey. He’s coming to town in November with a new show.
Congrats to Singer Monica and hubby Shannon Brown of the L.A. Lakers on their wedding vow renewal.
Kevin Hart’s movie documentary, Laugh At My Pain, opens in theatres September 9th.The movie follows Hart on his latest concert tour including his hometown Philly.
Tom Cruise returns in Mission Impossible IV, which opens in theatres December 16th.
Philadelphia Eagles Quarterback Michael Vick is gearing up to release his autobiography. Finally Free arrives in bookstores July 27th. Tony Dungy is doing the forward. In his book, Vick talks about his life: his youth growing up in Virginia, playing for the Atlanta Falcons, the dog fighting scandal, going to prison and landing with the Eagles. Vick recently resigned with Nike Athletics with a four year deal for endorsements.
There’s relatively good news on the jobs front.
The U.S. economy created 216,000 jobs in March, the government reported Friday, continuing the recent rebound in hiring that has helped strengthen the recovery.
The unemployment rate dropped a tenth of a point to 8.8%, the lowest since early 2009.
The unemployment rate has now dropped a full percentage point since November.
According to the latest research by industry body e-skills UK, over 500,000 new IT and Telecoms professionals will be needed in the next five years, working across all sectors of the economy.
And in the next decade, employment in the industry is expected to grow at 2.19% per annum, which is nearly five times faster than the UK average.
The Technology Insights 2011 report adds that the IT and Telecoms sector will underpin the majority of future job creation in the country.
e-skills states: “Technology is the UK’s key ingredient for driving private sector led economic growth, productivity, global competitiveness and wealth creation.”
The report also notes that:
?Truly Agile Project Management. Try Greenhopper
?New efficiencies lie ahead – see the new IBM System x3650 M3 Express
?Find 1000s of the latest Silverlight job opportunities at CWJobs
Ads by TechClicks• One in every 20 people (1.5 million) working in the UK is employed in IT and Telecoms. Of these, 40 percent are employed in the industry itself, while the rest are spread across every other sector of the economy.
• The UK’s IT and Telecoms industry delivers an annual GVA contribution of £81 billion, nine percent of the total UK economy.
• Exploiting the full potential of technology could boost the UK economy by an additional £50 billion over the next five to seven years.
• This year alone, the IT and Telecoms workforce will require 110,000 new entrants to keep up with demand. Over half of these will be individuals employed in other occupations moving into the sector, while 17 percent will need to come directly from education.
Since 2002, there has been a 33 pwexwnr drop in applicants to Computing degree courses. However, applicants to other STEM (Science Technology, Engineering and Mathematics) courses have increased by an average of 23%.
The report also highlights issues of age and gender. It says the IT professional workforce is getting older, with the proportion of workers under 30 falling to 19 percent in 2010 – compared to 33 percent in 2001. Meanwhile, the proportion of those over the age of 50 has almost doubled to 17 percent. And the industry is still male-dominated, with women making up just 18 percent of the IT professional workforce.
Karen Price, e-skills UK CEO, says: “With high levels of unemployment in the UK, this research shows that IT and Telecoms is one sector of the economy where employment is growing steadily with an immediate need for new entrants into the workforce to keep up with the demand.”
Sunday’s show we will be discussing the institution of marriage. It seem to have become an
obsolete value in America. Is it the cost of marriage, the cost of divorce? Is it the prenup?
Why are more folks living together, than a formal commitment?
These and more questions and hopefully answers on Sunday’s show. Please call in and join
the discussion, we are very interesting in what America thinks about the institution of marriage
and where it is headed in 2011.
www.blogtalkradio.com/Lennis or show title – “Talk 2 ME”
6-7pm only 1 hr. PST time, 646-727-2914.
Thanks to all for your participation, in this hot topic!
Bring it on, after what you have been through this year. You feel as though you can handle anything at this point, and you no Sag you are probably right. WOW! it’s been a little rough around the preferably edge so to speak for you. Give and take, then take and give, how confusing is that! All you want is some peace and relaxation. Well hold on there Sag, because it does get better as they say what doesn’t kill you will make you stronger is so true. Work is at a stalemate so don’t worry, there won’t be anymore major changes for you for the rest of the year thank God. It’s been one helluva bumpy road recently. Time to march to a different drummer your own. You have forgiven not forgotten, and that is fine, just leave it with Spirit and let things be handle that way. The more you step away and let what is happen, the better it will be for you.
Ride your horse to victory by November, things will finally start to look up in a big way for the good.
NURSES
THE NUMBER OF REGISTERED NURSES IS EXPECTED TO SWELL TO 3.2 MILLION BY 2018, ACCUNTING FOR APPROXIMATELY 581,500 NEW JOBS, ACCORDING TO THE BUREAU OF LABOR STATISTICS. That’s up from 2.6 million today, and it represents the largest overall growth projection out of all occupations in the U.S. economy, for good reason.
NETWORK SYSTEMS & DATA ANALYSTS
This occupation’s full title is “network systems and data communication analysts.” And while it’s a mouthful, it is worth remembering as it’s the #2 fastest growing occupation in the U.S., according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics. In simpler terms, these analysts are the folks who design and build the systems that we use to connect to the web, from work or home.
SOFTWARE ENGINEERS
WHAT WOULD ALL THAT PLANNING AND DESIGN BY NETWORK AND DATA ANALYSTS BE WORTH WITHOUT SOFTWARE? Not a whole lot, which explains why the BLS expects the cadre of software engineers and application developers to swell to 689,000 by 2018 (up from 514,800 in 2008) Whether they are building business software, constructing a operating system, developing games, or designing mobile apps, software engineers have a wide array of career avenue to consider.
BIOMEDICAL ENGINEERS
Biomedical engineering is expected to be the fastest growing occupation, with a whopping growth project is 72% between 2008 and 2018, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics. It’s not much of a surprise, given that this field lies at the nexus of technology and health care, two ballooning industries within the U.S. economy. The immense growth of biomedical engineering will be driven by the demand for new treatments for diseases and the increasingly higher expectations of aging patients to maintain an active lifestyle.
ACCOUNTANTS & AUDITORS
While number crunching and bean counting has certainly not fallen out of style in recent memory, the economic fallout of the past few years has placed renewed focus on financial regulation.
VETERINARIANS
Our love for the dogs, cats, and fish in our lives truly knows no bounds. Pet care was one of the only sectors of the retail industry that grew during the recession.
Media Matters is reporting that former Department of Agriculture official Shirley Sherrod said she has been receiving threatening calls and e-mail since a misleading video clip of her posted by Andrew Breitbart went viral.
“I am getting hate calls and e-mails at this point,” Sherrod said in an interview today with the liberal blog. “I got one call last night at my house at 12:30 a.m. that said, ‘you lost your job, good for you’ and ‘b****’ There are people out there who will believe that I am a racist person, even though the story is getting out there.”
“I got crank calls right away. Someone sent me an e-mail and link and said, ‘shame on you’ and other stuff. I was sitting in a meeting, and I was really upset,” she said. “I texted back that they were so wrong and that they need to know the message, and they got it wrong.”
Sherrod was fired by the Department of Agriculture and denounced by the NAACP over the video clip which appears to show her suggesting that she does not provide her “full force” in aiding white farmers. But a full video posted Tuesday night by an embarrassed NAACP clearly shows that Sherrod’s comments were taken out of context and edited to make it seem she was saying something she wasn’t.
Sherrod blamed Breitbart and Fox News for pushing the story that ended in her firing.
“The news media should tell it like it is and not the way they want it to be,” she said. “I think it is race. You think we have come a long way in terms of race relations in this country, but we keep going backwards.”
Are you discriminated because of your age, when applying for a job, please call us and let us know your experiences. Baby Boomers are being hit hard right now. By job reductions, lay offs, companies going out of business, now what?
Please call in Sunday at 6:00pm PST for my show “Talk 2 ME”, we will be discussing this very important
factor, now that baby boomers are the largest generation on the SSI rolls, or maybe just want to work.
www.blogtalkradio.com/Lennis “Talk 2 Me” at 6pm PST
Phone number 646-727-2914
Look forward to hearing from all my fellow bloggers are this issue. Together maybe we can come up
with a solution that benefits all.
Not exactly great news, but it’s good enough. U.S. unemployment dropped to 9.4 percent in December, its lowest level in 19 months, the Department of Labor announced Friday.
The economy added 103,000 new jobs, up from November’s revised estimate of 71,000, but less than analysts had predicted.
The drop in the unemployment rate came during retailers’ best holiday season in four years, but was also bolstered by people who stopped looking for work.
Once someone has stopped hunting for a job, the government no longer counts them in unemployment numbers.