While we all periodically struggle to achieve an effective balance between work, family and personal activities; adults with ADD/ADHD constantly feel like their lives are spiraling out of control. The balance that gives life stability never comes for adults with attention deficit disorders. The problem isn’t lack of self control or willpower; it’s a chemical problem in the brain’s management system. ADD/ADHD can affect anyone, although sufferers are six times more likely to have another learning or psychiatric disorder like depression or anxiety. Multiple psychiatric disorders can make correct diagnosis difficult and complicate treatment. Many adults remain undiagnosed and struggle with ADD/ADHD all their lives, never receiving the help they need.

Not all repercussions of ADD/ADHD are negative, however. Symptoms may also manifest themselves  as creativity, flexibility, adaptability, commitment or tremendous drive. Sufferers are also capable of hyperfocus, the intense concentration on a single task or problem that often leads to major creative breakthroughs or discoveries.

Help is available for adults with ADD/ADHD. Cognitive-behavioral therapy can help adults make positive changes in their daily habits that can help them improve attentiveness, control impulsive behaviors, decrease stress, and better manage their personal and professional lives. Some medications like the stimulant Ritalin may also help some patients. Support groups can provide encouragement and practical solutions to common daily problems.

The surprising loss of brain matter was similar to that experienced by people with Alzheimer’s disease and schizophrenia. “The difference was so great that at first we almost didn’t believe it,” admitted senior researcher Dr. Bradley Peterson, director of Child & Adolescent Psychiatry and director of MRI Research at the Department of Psychiatry at Columbia University Medical Center and the New York State Psychiatric Institute.

Researchers surmise that thinning of the cortex may disrupt the ability to process social and emotional cues from other people, potentially leading to depression. It’s important to note that researchers did not find a correlation between thinning on the right side of the brain and actual depression, but only to an increased risk of developing the illness. However, study participants who also exhibited thinning on the left side of the brain did develop depression or anxiety. Researchers also found that thinning of the cortex had a measurable negative impact on attention and memory. The thinner the cortex, the worse study participants did on attention and memory tests.

The biological children of depressed adults also exhibited thinner cortexes, giving credence to other studies indicating a potential genetic component to depression. Study co-leader Myrna Weissman, professor of epidemiology in psychiatry at Columbia University College of Physicians and Surgeons and director of the New York State Psychiatric Institute Division of Epidemiology, has tracked familial depression for 27 years. Now covering three generations, her study has found that depression is transmitted across generations in high risk families.

Researchers hope the study will open new avenues for diagnosing and treating depression. People with a family history of depression who exhibit thinning of the cortex may benefit from behavioral therapies that improve attention and memory and, possibly, from drugs used to treat ADHD.

According to data recently published in the journal Sleep, women who slept less than 5 hours per night had significantly higher levels of the inflammatory markers that are indicators for heart disease. Compared to women who were able to achieve a full 8 hours of sleep, risk levels increased dramatically with every hour of sleep lost. Even women who received 7 hours of sleep a night showed much higher levels of risk indicators than those who slept 8 hours.

A growing body of research indicates that sleep is a vital component to good physical and mental health. Chronic insomnia is also known to increase anxiety and contribute to depression, particularly in women. Another study reported in Sleep indicates a relationship between postpartum depression and the lack of sleep common to new mothers. In the Norwegian study, 60% of new mothers reported sleep problems with 16.5% showing symptoms of depression.

Researchers found that postpartum depression not only aggravated insomnia, but that complaints about sleep problems often interfered with the diagnosis of postpartum depression. Researchers found that many women who continued to report sleep problems two months after delivery were suffering from postpartum depression. However, because tiredness and lack of sleep are common complaints of new mothers, those suffering from postpartum depression often remained undiagnosed and untreated.

Researchers emphasized the importance of doctors discussing sleep problems with new mothers. Chronic lack of sleep that affects daytime functioning, results in a general lack of energy or that impacts other aspects of a new mother’s life could indicate postpartum depression. Depression screening is recommended to new mothers who continue to experience chronic insomnia. Treatment by a board certified psychiatrist can help women overcome postpartum depression, find solutions to chronic sleep problems, and enjoy their roles as new mothers.

Most children feel a few twinges of homesickness when they go away to camp. The challenge of making friends, a difference of agreement with another child, a reprimand from a counselor, difficulty excelling at camp activities – experiences that bruise the child’s ego or make him feel unsure of himself often engender a desire to return to the safety of home. For some children, the drastic change in environment and routine can be unsettling and upsetting. Sharing a room, interacting with new adults, unfamiliar foods, insects, camp bathrooms — so many new experiences at once push some children into emotional overload.

Parents can help their children prepare to cope with homesickness before they leave for summer camp. In the years leading up to overnight camp, expose your children to other adults, new friends, new activities and time away from parents and home. Encourage your children to participate in sports, dance classes, music lessons, scouts and other activities. Sign them up for park district, scout or sports day camps. Allow them to sleep over at friends’ and relatives’ homes.

Before camp, talk to your children about homesickness. Explain that feeling homesick is normal and that activities and making new friends will distract them from feeling sad or nervous. Let them take a talisman from home with them — a stuffed animal, family photo or other comforting item. Encourage them to write letters sharing their camp experiences and write to them. Write a cheerful letter before they leave, timing it to arrive the first or second day of their stay. Always be positive, encourage your child not to give up, and reassure your child that you know he can handle being away from home.

Why do we become wrapped up in the lives of celebrities? We followed Farrah Fawcett’s valiant struggle with cancer as if she was family. We took sides when Brad Pitt and Jennifer Aniston’s marriage crumbled. We couldn’t wait to see pictures of Angelina Jolie and Brad Pitt’s twins. We castigate Lindsay Lohan and worry about the Jonas brothers as if they were our own teens. Why do the lives of these well-known strangers impact our lives?

Celebrity worship isn’t new, but Twitter, You Tube, social networking, and Internet news have made it more immediate and more personal. Celebrities become more than ordinary men and women to us. Through them, we live vicariously, achieving hopes and dreams, wielding power, finding love, vanquishing enemies. We infuse these normal, flawed individuals with their on-screen personas, imbuing them with invincibility and immortality that makes us unprepared for their all too human deaths.

Research shows that celebrities fill a need for social connectedness in a world grown increasingly isolated. Following their lives “… fills a gaping and painful void in our lives,” said Dr. John Lucas, clinical assistant professor of psychology at Weill Cornell Medical College and assistant attending psychiatrist at New York-Presbyterian Hospital in New York City, in a U.S. News & World Report online HealthDay article.

“When a celebrity passes, the loss is personal — not because we knew the celebrity but because they were with us as we grew up and as we had our own special moments,” Dr. Alan Hilfer, director of psychology at Maimonides Medical Center in New York City, told U.S. News & World Report. When a celebrity dies, we cherish their art in which we’ve enfolded our own memories, and we mourn their death for the piece of our own cultural history that dies with them.