Checking Up on Your Mental Health
By ANN CARRNS
In this week’s Your Money special section, I wrote about the benefits of a regular mental health checkup to help catch possible emotional problems before they spiral into something serious.
Many doctors and psychiatrists agree it’s a good idea to take periodic stock of your emotional well-being. Such a checkup doesn’t necessarily require a special trip to the doctor. It can be done during a regular wellness visit. Conditions like depression and anxiety are common but very treatable, especially if they are diagnosed early on before they precipitate a personal or financial crisis.
There are various online screening tools that you can use to help start a conversation with your doctor or a mental-health professional. One tool I mentioned in the story was created by a nonprofit group and is called Screening for Mental Health. It grew out of the first National Depression Screening Day, held each year in October.
As part of my reporting, I interviewed Sam Rhodes, a retired Army command sergeant major who is a 51-year-old veteran of the war in Iraq, about his experience in using such a tool. Sergeant Major Rhodes said he completed the depression questionnaire during a mental health screening event at Fort Benning, Ga., in 2007.
He said he had suffered from post-traumatic stress disorder, and had received some treatment. But after completing the questions on the form, he realized he needed more help. “I knew I was struggling, but I didn’t realize how bad it was until I filled out the form,” he said in a telephone interview.
He has since founded an outreach organization to help veterans heal through horsemanship, and he travels the country speaking to service members about mental health assessments and the importance of overcoming stigma to obtain treatment. “Once you become resilient, you have to sustain it,” he said.
You can try a screening tool for depression and other conditions, including anxiety disorders, post-traumatic stress disorder and eating disorders, at a Web site sponsored by Screening for Mental Health Inc.
If the results concern you, you can print out the form and discuss it with your doctor or a mental health professional. (And if you’re worried that something may be wrong, you can still seek help, even if the tool doesn’t raise any red flags.)
Have you tried such a tool? How do you keep tabs on your emotional well-being?
Many doctors and psychiatrists agree it’s a good idea to take periodic stock of your emotional well-being. Such a checkup doesn’t necessarily require a special trip to the doctor. It can be done during a regular wellness visit. Conditions like depression and anxiety are common but very treatable, especially if they are diagnosed early on before they precipitate a personal or financial crisis.
There are various online screening tools that you can use to help start a conversation with your doctor or a mental-health professional. One tool I mentioned in the story was created by a nonprofit group and is called Screening for Mental Health. It grew out of the first National Depression Screening Day, held each year in October.
As part of my reporting, I interviewed Sam Rhodes, a retired Army command sergeant major who is a 51-year-old veteran of the war in Iraq, about his experience in using such a tool. Sergeant Major Rhodes said he completed the depression questionnaire during a mental health screening event at Fort Benning, Ga., in 2007.
He said he had suffered from post-traumatic stress disorder, and had received some treatment. But after completing the questions on the form, he realized he needed more help. “I knew I was struggling, but I didn’t realize how bad it was until I filled out the form,” he said in a telephone interview.
He has since founded an outreach organization to help veterans heal through horsemanship, and he travels the country speaking to service members about mental health assessments and the importance of overcoming stigma to obtain treatment. “Once you become resilient, you have to sustain it,” he said.
You can try a screening tool for depression and other conditions, including anxiety disorders, post-traumatic stress disorder and eating disorders, at a Web site sponsored by Screening for Mental Health Inc.
If the results concern you, you can print out the form and discuss it with your doctor or a mental health professional. (And if you’re worried that something may be wrong, you can still seek help, even if the tool doesn’t raise any red flags.)
Have you tried such a tool? How do you keep tabs on your emotional well-being?
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