A year later, it's a barren land

I'm sitting in the Senate Press Gallery, looking out at a Washington street that's as empty as I feel.

I remember a year ago, almost to the minute, when I was nearly stampeded by throngs of crowds out to see President Obama's inauguration. I think about the promise of that day, and how America seemed to be changing for the better.

It didn't matter if you were Democrat or Republican - which I am neither. You had to feel something good about a black man being elected president. You had to feel something good about change, much like many people felt in 1980, when Ronald Reagan was elected.

Back then, in 1980, just as it was (and still is) in 2008, our country was in rut. As silly as this sounds, it didn't matter if Reagan's policies were good or bad for the country.

For many, hearing Reagan's strong and powerful voice was as exciting as seeing Obama project an image of equality and opportunity. In both, you had a feeling that America's image had changed for the better.

But now, as I look out at the street, the positive feelings are only fleeting. I can now only think about what was lost, or what could be lost, especially after the Democrats lost their 60-seat majority last night.

In the background, I can hear Sen. John McCain railing about how health care brought down the Democratic candidate for Ted Kennedy's Massachusetts seat, leading to Republican Scott Brown's election. He's probably right, but I still believe it wasn't the policy that was the problem.

It was the execution, and it was the leadership.

Millions of people stand to remain uninsured, and those who are insured are nearly certain to face rising co-pays for medication and doctor's visits, largely because the man who promised to bring us help couldn't capitalize on his potential to inspire.

People with mental illness stand to pay $50, or maybe even $100 for a bottle of anti-depressants because the man who promised to bring us help couldn't find a way to craft a vision that people understood, or even liked.

I remember Reagan getting Congress to pass tax cuts in the early 1980s, and doing it in a way that, perhaps, should be described in whatever textbooks are out there that have this theme: "How to be a successful politician."

Ten years before Ross Perot did it, Reagan went to the people. He got on the television, pre-empted prime-time programming, pulled out pie charts and showed everybody why, he felt, tax cuts would save the economy.

Whether the tax cuts were effective or not is another argument. His politics were genius, and he articulated a vision for the country on those nights that inspired thousands, maybe millions of people to call their congressional representatives and get them to pass the tax cuts.

He did it, even though the policy wasn't very popular. By 1984, however, it was very popular, and Reagan was elected in a landslide.

If there is any hope left for saving health care, the man who inspired many like Reagan did 28 years before needs to understand what the 40th president and former actor knew, and knew well: You can't sell the policy without the politics.

You can't live up to your potential if you can't learn to lead.

Someday, we will be free at last

MLK, 1963:

I am happy to join with you today in what will go down in history as the greatest demonstration for freedom in the history of our nation.

Five score years ago, a great American, in whose symbolic shadow we stand today, signed the Emancipation Proclamation. This momentous decree came as a great beacon light of hope to millions of Negro slaves who had been seared in the flames of withering injustice. It came as a joyous daybreak to end the long night of their captivity.

But one hundred years later, the Negro still is not free. One hundred years later, the life of the Negro is still sadly crippled by the manacles of segregation and the chains of discrimination. One hundred years later, the Negro lives on a lonely island of poverty in the midst of a vast ocean of material prosperity. One hundred years later, the Negro is still languished in the corners of American society and finds himself an exile in his own land. And so we've come here today to dramatize a shameful condition.

In a sense we've come to our nation's capital to cash a check. When the architects of our republic wrote the magnificent words of the Constitution and the Declaration of Independence, they were signing a promissory note to which every American was to fall heir. This note was a promise that all men, yes, black men as well as white men, would be guaranteed the "unalienable Rights" of "Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness." It is obvious today that America has defaulted on this promissory note, insofar as her citizens of color are concerned. Instead of honoring this sacred obligation, America has given the Negro people a bad check, a check which has come back marked "insufficient funds."

But we refuse to believe that the bank of justice is bankrupt. We refuse to believe that there are insufficient funds in the great vaults of opportunity of this nation. And so, we've come to cash this check, a check that will give us upon demand the riches of freedom and the security of justice.

We have also come to this hallowed spot to remind America of the fierce urgency of now. This is no time to engage in the luxury of cooling off or to take the tranquilizing drug of gradualism. Now is the time to make real the promises of democracy. Now is the time to rise from the dark and desolate valley of segregation to the sunlit path of racial justice. Now is the time to lift our nation from the quicksands of racial injustice to the solid rock of brotherhood. Now is the time to make justice a reality for all of God's children.

It would be fatal for the nation to overlook the urgency of the moment. This sweltering summer of the Negro's legitimate discontent will not pass until there is an invigorating autumn of freedom and equality. Nineteen sixty-three is not an end, but a beginning. And those who hope that the Negro needed to blow off steam and will now be content will have a rude awakening if the nation returns to business as usual. And there will be neither rest nor tranquility in America until the Negro is granted his citizenship rights. The whirlwinds of revolt will continue to shake the foundations of our nation until the bright day of justice emerges.

But there is something that I must say to my people, who stand on the warm threshold which leads into the palace of justice: In the process of gaining our rightful place, we must not be guilty of wrongful deeds. Let us not seek to satisfy our thirst for freedom by drinking from the cup of bitterness and hatred. We must forever conduct our struggle on the high plane of dignity and discipline. We must not allow our creative protest to degenerate into physical violence. Again and again, we must rise to the majestic heights of meeting physical force with soul force.

The marvelous new militancy which has engulfed the Negro community must not lead us to a distrust of all white people, for many of our white brothers, as evidenced by their presence here today, have come to realize that their destiny is tied up with our destiny. And they have come to realize that their freedom is inextricably bound to our freedom.

We cannot walk alone.

And as we walk, we must make the pledge that we shall always march ahead.

We cannot turn back.

There are those who are asking the devotees of civil rights, "When will you be satisfied?" We can never be satisfied as long as the Negro is the victim of the unspeakable horrors of police brutality. We can never be satisfied as long as our bodies, heavy with the fatigue of travel, cannot gain lodging in the motels of the highways and the hotels of the cities. We cannot be satisfied as long as the negro's basic mobility is from a smaller ghetto to a larger one. We can never be satisfied as long as our children are stripped of their self-hood and robbed of their dignity by a sign stating: "For Whites Only." We cannot be satisfied as long as a Negro in Mississippi cannot vote and a Negro in New York believes he has nothing for which to vote. No, no, we are not satisfied, and we will not be satisfied until "justice rolls down like waters, and righteousness like a mighty stream."

I am not unmindful that some of you have come here out of great trials and tribulations. Some of you have come fresh from narrow jail cells. And some of you have come from areas where your quest - quest for freedom left you battered by the storms of persecution and staggered by the winds of police brutality. You have been the veterans of creative suffering. Continue to work with the faith that unearned suffering is redemptive. Go back to Mississippi, go back to Alabama, go back to South Carolina, go back to Georgia, go back to Louisiana, go back to the slums and ghettos of our northern cities, knowing that somehow this situation can and will be changed.

Let us not wallow in the valley of despair, I say to you today, my friends.

And so even though we face the difficulties of today and tomorrow, I still have a dream. It is a dream deeply rooted in the American dream.

I have a dream that one day this nation will rise up and live out the true meaning of its creed: "We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal."

I have a dream that one day on the red hills of Georgia, the sons of former slaves and the sons of former slave owners will be able to sit down together at the table of brotherhood.

I have a dream that one day even the state of Mississippi, a state sweltering with the heat of injustice, sweltering with the heat of oppression, will be transformed into an oasis of freedom and justice.

I have a dream that my four little children will one day live in a nation where they will not be judged by the color of their skin but by the content of their character.

I have a dream today!

I have a dream that one day, down in Alabama, with its vicious racists, with its governor having his lips dripping with the words of "interposition" and "nullification" - one day right there in Alabama little black boys and black girls will be able to join hands with little white boys and white girls as sisters and brothers.

I have a dream today!

I have a dream that one day every valley shall be exalted, and every hill and mountain shall be made low, the rough places will be made plain, and the crooked places will be made straight; "and the glory of the Lord shall be revealed and all flesh shall see it together."

This is our hope, and this is the faith that I go back to the South with.

With this faith, we will be able to hew out of the mountain of despair a stone of hope. With this faith, we will be able to transform the jangling discords of our nation into a beautiful symphony of brotherhood. With this faith, we will be able to work together, to pray together, to struggle together, to go to jail together, to stand up for freedom together, knowing that we will be free one day.

And this will be the day -- this will be the day when all of God's children will be able to sing with new meaning:

My country 'tis of thee, sweet land of liberty, of thee I sing.

Land where my fathers died, land of the Pilgrim's pride,

From every mountainside, let freedom ring!

And if America is to be a great nation, this must become true.

And so let freedom ring from the prodigious hilltops of New Hampshire.

Let freedom ring from the mighty mountains of New York.

Let freedom ring from the heightening Alleghenies of Pennsylvania.

Let freedom ring from the snow-capped Rockies of Colorado.

Let freedom ring from the curvaceous slopes of California.

But not only that: Let freedom ring from Stone Mountain of Georgia.

Let freedom ring from Lookout Mountain of Tennessee.

Let freedom ring from every hill and molehill of Mississippi.

From every mountainside, let freedom ring.

And when this happens, when we allow freedom ring, when we let it ring from every village and every hamlet, from every state and every city, we will be able to speed up that day when all of God's children, black men and white men, Jews and Gentiles, Protestants and Catholics, will be able to join hands and sing in the words of the old Negro spiritual:

Free at last! Free at last! Thank God Almighty, we are free at last!

A place to go, for Haiti

Luckily, there's CNN, and some semblance of decency in news coverage. Luckily, there was a place to go to get the latest updates on Haiti. Luckily, there wasn't a network offering the same tired pseudo-political analysis from failed politicians who make a cheap and easy living by trashing political opponents.

Luckily, there was a place to see the devastation, the crumbling buildings that collapsed as a ground shook with the same ferociousness of that a nuclear attack.

Luckily, we could find the television coverage that didn't feature a governor who quit before her term was up, or a televangelist trying to tell us that Haiti was the president's fault and, therefore, our fault.

On CNN, we learned that 300 million are in need of medical assistance, and the Red Cross has run out of supplies. We learned that people are dying, and we learned how to help the survivors rather than a listening to yet another plug for a failed politician's book filled with vindictiveness and falsehoods.

It's not just CNN, either. I now write this as I watch David Letterman, who gave an address for people who want to help: http://www.wfp.org/lateshow.

I also scanned through a series of Facebook postings that could prove infinitely more useful than another assault on health care legislation on a network whose name sounds like a fury animal that cruises chicken houses, looking for dinner. They include:

- RedCross needs Kreyol speaking volunteers for PHONE BANK Contact Br. Wilford @ 305-776-6900 (from k. fieffe)

- Give as generously as you can to Doctors Without Borders #Haiti #Earthquake Response and help save lives. http://bit.ly/8B0kbu

- American Airlines is FLYING DOCTORS and NURSES to Haiti FOR FREE, 212 697 9767 212 697 9767 UPS is SHIPPING to Haiti FOR **25% OFF** TOMORROW, under 50 lbs. ALSO, RED CROSS is looking for volunteers who speak CREOLE and ENGLISH to answer phones & be a TRANSLATOR. Contact ur local Red Cross. PLZ PASS THIS INFO ALONG

- HAITI: Just texted "haiti" to 90999 (auto $10 donation to Red Cross; they've crossed $1 million already) and "yele" to 501501 ($5 auto donation); Mashable's ways to help now: http://bit.ly/4XID2c *** LET'S ALL DO THIS!

- Looking for any family members of NJ church group members who are now in Haiti. Please call Beth at the Associated Press at 609-802-3002.

- We are working on a fact page: http://www.thehaiticompanion.com/Home.html

- Donate to the Red Cross Int'l relief fund to get aid to Haiti, takes less time than buying coffee. https://american.redcross.org/site/Donation2?4306.donation=form1&idb=991405240&df_id=4306

Then there are the organizations I deal with, the mental health organizations that are always way in front on these issues. They're the real newsmakers because they're qualified at what they do, and they don't pretend otherwise.

They know that overcoming the mental battle is just as hard, or even harder than the physical. This is what happens in devastation; this is what's news.

Recognizing the immense psychological aid and support that will be needed in the coming days, weeks, and months ahead to help family members cope, the New Jersey Association of Mental Health Agencies, Inc. (NJAMHA) and the New Jersey Mental Health Institute, Inc. (NJMHI) offered to coordinate assistance to family members affected by this tragedy.

“I have watched, along with the rest of the world, with great sadness and sympathy as the people affected by this earthquake struggle to simply survive,” said Debra L. Wentz, who is Chief Executive Officer of the New Jersey Association of Mental Health Agencies, Inc. “Because of our experience in assisting with the deadly tsunami in late 2004, including my own firsthand experience being on-site in Sri Lanka while the tsunami occurred, NJAMHA and NJMHI are well prepared to assist with a natural disaster of this magnitude.”

Wentz added that the most serious mental health problems still lie ahead for victims, their families and relief workers. While it is normal in the days following a natural disaster to feel a range of emotions: irritability, night terrors, depression, hopelessness and anxiety, the challenge is to keep these feelings from taking root.

“It is perfectly natural to feel anxious or depressed at this time, but it is important for individuals to be aware of the symptoms that could indicate a more serious problem,” said Henry Acosta, deputy director of NJMHI. “It is important to understand that stressful times may exacerbate underlying mental health problems.”

Individuals who are having trouble coping with this traumatic experience should call a mental health professional in their community. It is important to realize that it will take time to heal. Trauma specialists also stress the importance of victims communicating their experience in whatever ways feel comfortable – such as by talking with family or friends, or by keeping a diary.

Wentz, who is fluent in French, and Acosta, who is fluent in Spanish, are available to coordinate assistance in English, French, some Haitian dialects, and Spanish for family members who may need mental health services, as well as to speak with members of the news media who may have questions about how to cope with this disaster. NJAMHA has compiled a set of fact sheets for coping with trauma.

To contact them, call (609) 838-5488 or email dwentz@njamha.org.

The past is alive but barely breathing

Those who cannot learn from history are doomed to repeat it. Those who do not remember their past are condemned to repeat their mistakes.
- George Santayana

I keep seeing all these postings on Facebook saying, "It's WAYBACK WEEK!!! RETRO RETRO RETRO!

Usually, I try to play the role of non-conformist and not give into tradition. But I've already ventured into this territory, so it's too late for me to be "cool:" This week, my Facebook page has become the video theater of the wayback (or just the wack).

My good brother has downloaded a series of videotapes that show every one of my television appearances. I' ve edited them and posted all of them. I've posted ones that have drawn a lot of attention (my appearance on an ESPN game show in 1988) while others probably should have remained on VHS (my panel appearance in a 1999 Easton, Pa. School Board debate - the only exciting moment came when I winked at the camera).

Each time I've done so, I've felt a mixture of excitement and guilt. In my mind, I still see myself as the same 20-year-old with brown hair. Now, when I see myself in a 22-year-old video, I see only contradiction.

I have to reconcile the young man with the middle-aged version. I have to reconcile the look of a full head of brown hair that's on youtube screen versus the man with the gray hair in the mirror. I have to realize that when I exercise and run five miles, I feel pains in places I never thought I'd feel.

I see myself on the ESPN game show, Boardwalk and Baseball's Super Bowl of Sports Trivia, in 1988, and I see how I felt like I could do no better. I was a top editor on a top newspaper at a top school, on a television network that draws some of the highest ratings on cable.

Looking at these tapes, I get that sense of wanting to be back there, in Orlando, hanging out with college kids who had money to burn. The things we did were the stuff of legend. Alumni of this event have even written about it: http://espn.go.com/page2/s/murphy/040202.html.

You'd think that I'd look at this history, and want to break out and sing "Glory Days" while drinking a six-pack of beer.

But I also look at the tape, and feel glad to be here, too, in 2010, with a family and a job and a sense of direction. I now have 22 more years of life on my side, and I've built up a stockpile of life experience that has made me stronger, savvier and more secure.

I no longer have money to burn, but I don't live like I did in the late 1980s and early 1990s, with a sense of living day-t0-day, worried that I'd never find a job once I got out of school.

Once I got out of school, I faded into near obscurity. I got a job, but I had little respect. I used to say that I was "writing to the wind," working for newspapers that don't even exist anymore. I used to worry until I got myself sick because, to coin Springsteen again, I had "debts no honest man can pay."

I look at another tape, made in 1989, a year after ESPN, when I was working for a weekly newspaper in central New Jersey, serving on a debate panel local election candidates. I went from ESPN to a newspaper that nobody read, on a cable channel nobody watched.

That's how things were for a while, until I moved onto The Press of Atlantic City, The Morning Call of Allentown, Pa. and then, finally, The Record, where one of my first assignments was 9-11.

I think back to what I've done over the past nine years and I realize that ESPN was fun, but it wasn't important. I think about what I've done at The Record, and also at The Star-Ledger, as part of a sharing agreement. I think about how I've flown with troops who fought in Afghanistan; how I've interviewed people who have lost loved ones in war and terror.

I think back to that and I realize: Nostalgia is a fun diversion. But maybe the glory days are now, and in the future. Even in these tough economic times, that's what I keep pushing for.

About 20 years ago, I complained to a friend that I wasn't getting anywhere in my life. The main thing, I said, was that I couldn't get respect. "Don't worry," he said. "When we get to our late 30s and early 40s, things will change."

Historic legislation good for people suffering from postpartum depression

By SUSAN DOWD STONE
Featured Blogger
Judging from the emails I’ve received recently, some clarification would be helpful in understanding who’s on first, who’s at bat and when we may finally see our home run for America’s mothers and infants.

First, you can start by listening to this audio post which explains the basic initiatives of The Melanie Blocker Stokes MOTHERS Act (i.e. MOTHERS Act) which do NOT include PPD screening or medication.

This new audio post includes interviews with Dr. Michael Petriella, OB/GYN from Hackensack University Medical Center; Celeste Andriot Wood, assistant commissioner of the N.J. Family Health Services, and myself, all of us hailing from New Jersey and having worked with PPD legislation as advocates, policy makers and health care practitioners.

This story originally aired on the nationally syndicated program Radio Health Journal in December 2009, and was produced by MediaTracks Communications.

The new Healthcare Reform legislation which just passed in the Senate, is called The Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act. It contains many healthcare initiatives and new policies focused on improving women’s health and ACCESS to healthcare.

The two bills it includes most directly related to postpartum depression are:

The MOTHERS Act (you can read the bill here) which calls for PPD public awareness campaigns, education, research and funding of PPD services sponsored by U.S. Senator Robert Menendez, and The Mikulski Amendment (you can read a summary of this bill here) the very FIRST amendment proposed, passed and included in this bill which calls for screening for postpartum depression (among other women’s medical conditions including cancer screenings). This bill is sponsored by Sen. Barbara Mikulski.

These initiatives are separate bills both of which the Senate approved for inclusion in the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Actm which passed in the Senate on Dec. 24.

But neither of these initiatives would be receiving the public awareness and legislative support were it not for early efforts in the House and Senate to promote postpartum depression research and education. Congressman Bobby Rush has long been a champion of PPD research and education since moved by the plight of his constituent Melanie Blocker Stokes.

Melanie, a beautiful, intelligent mother of a young child with every reason to live, leapt to her death as a result of untreated postpartum illness. Her mother Carol Blocker has waged a tireless campaign to end ignorance. These early champions including Richard and Mary Jo Codey, who dared to look such darkness in the face helped create the initial public platform that led to laws in Illinois and New Jersey demanding more attention to postpartum mental health issues.

Regardless of your political leanings, this bill contains historic emphasis on women’s health care issues. And for those of us who are devoted to ending the stigma and lack of response to the public mental health crisis of PPD, our moment has come. Finally, the science, the studies, the stories and the unimpeachable truth of the devastating and deadly effects of untreated maternal depression are no longer to be ignored to the detriment of millions.

The next step in the legislative process for these initiatives to become law, is for the House and Senate to reconcile the two versions of the bill and send the final version back to both houses for victorious and final passage.

There is every reason to be encouraged that our PPD intiatives will remain intact during these negotiations as the House has previously passed – by nearly unanimous consent – The Melanie Blocker Stokes MOTHERS Act thanks to the decades long efforts of its House leader, Congressman Bobby Rush.

When will this happen? The passage of these initiatives are dependent on the passage of the entire healthcare reform package. It is expected that the intense legislative focus on healthcare reform could result in final outcome by early spring.

Susan asks that anyone wishing to sign a petition supporting the health care bill may sign here.

The Man from Glad, Part II

Below is a video that shows where my journalism career essentially began, but also the moment I took my very first big career risk.

The 1985 interview is with the former governor of New Jersey, Thomas H. Kean, who later became the chairman of the 9/11 Commission. I did it with my friend, Bill Borden, whom I just profiled in this space (see The Man From Glad, which was posted on Dec. 30).

We served as co-editors of the Point Pleasant, N.J. High School newspaper, The Panther Print. Everything went well when Bill and I worked together - even though I was struggling to hide a perpetual giggle throughout the taping.

Just before the taping, I took the daring step of asking the governor to endorse my National Honor Society application. I had been rejected twice before, and I felt I deserved the recognition. Back then, I was a bit of a conspiracy theorist, and I was convinced that certain teachers who didn't like my opinionated ways were working against me.

I was told that anyone could sign the application - which I kept folded in my pocket - as a way of showing support for the candidate. En route to the taping in Asbury Park, N.J., I thought, "Why not Kean?"

I remember the strange look on Kean's face when I asked for it, and handed him the crumpled piece of paper. Bill broke out into full-scale laughter, especially when Kean unfolded the paper and looked very puzzled.

Kean looked at it, showing the same scrutiny he later had when he studied documents from the Bush administration during 9/11 Commission meetings. Then he smiled, and signed it. "As long as I don't get anything in the mail," Kean joked.

After that, the producers of the local cable show had to retake the beginning part of the show three times. Bill and I couldn't stop laughing.

Later, I'll never forget the surprised look on the faces of the teachers who were on the committee that chose honor society members. "Do you want to save a copy?" they asked me. "Nah," I said. That was, perhaps, my earliest attempt to show independence and objectivity as a reporter.

I later got into the National Honor Society, but I credit Bill. I don't think I would have taken that step of getting Kean to sign a crumpled piece of paper if Bill had not encouraged me to take risks, and move out of my shell of shyness.

Shorter youtube version:



Longer blip.tv version:

Make the best of the winter jeer

Congratualtions on a new year, everyone.

My condolences, too. It's January.

As years go, now is the hard part.

Thick ice, gray skies and slow-starting cars - all that wouldn't be so bad if we still had more presents to unwrap.

The snow just melted in my backyard. But what was underneath?

A big pile of leaves. Whoops! Those must be left over from the fall. Yeah, I'll get to them by the thaw - or the fall.

For me, as a runner, the worst thing about January is the short day. Trying to fit in a run before it's dark ain't easy.

Sure, I could run at night. But trying to get out the door and look at a dark sky, and feel the bone-chilling breeze, and then run three to five miles? Forget it.

For others, however, winter's short days can be much worse.

They can bring on the symptoms of Seasonal Affective Disorder for nearly 14 million Americans who suffer from this serious disorder.

The New Jersey Association of Mental Health Agencies, Inc. urges everyone to be aware of the signs of SAD and seek medical attention to ensure proper diagnosis and treatment of SAD or other illnesses that may be mistaken for SAD.

“SAD is a real, diagnosable mental health disorder that should be taken as seriously as all other kinds of mental and physical illnesses. It is important to understand that help is available for individuals who experience depressive symptoms, whether they indicate SAD, clinical depression or any other condition,” said Debra L. Wentz, Ph.D., Chief Executive Officer of NJAMHA.

As with depression, symptoms of SAD may include but are not limited to fatigue, lack of interest in normal activities, social withdrawal, difficulty getting out of bed, difficulty concentrating and thinking clearly, feelings of sadness and apathy combined with irritability, excessive sleeping and difficulty staying awake.

The difference is that with SAD, individuals may also experience an insatiable appetite for carbohydrates, which can result in weight gain. In addition, symptoms of SAD usually dissipate when spring arrives and typically do not reappear until late fall when the days begin to get shorter again and especially during January and February. By contrast, symptoms of depression could last or periodically reappear all year long.

“Since both SAD and depression can become serious and SAD could be mistaken for other illnesses, NJAMHA recommends that individuals experiencing these symptoms seek treatment from mental or medical healthcare providers. SAD can be misdiagnosed as severe depression or bipolar disorder or as a physical illness, such as hypothyroidism, hypoglycemia, infectious mononucleosis or another type of viral infection. Therefore, it is critical that individuals who feel they may be suffering from SAD see a doctor and ensure they are properly evaluated and treated,” Wentz said.

For individuals who suffer with SAD, cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT) with a mental health professional can help change negative thoughts and behaviors and can prevent a relapse of SAD symptoms when winter arrives again. Exposure to high-intensity artificial light or use of a dawn simulator, which gradually turns on a bedroom light each morning beginning while an individual is still asleep, also can help ease symptoms of SAD.

In addition, following a high-protein/low-carbohydrate diet and exercising regularly, in front of a light box if done indoors, also can help prevent or alleviate SAD symptoms.

NJAMHA urges everyone to monitor their mental health and that of those around them and to call a community mental health provider if help is needed.

To identify and contact local providers, call NJAMHA at 609-838-5488 between 8:30 a.m. and 5 p.m. during normal business days or visit www.njamha.org (in the left-hand sidebar, select “Need Treatment?” to search providers).