Depression is a real hard topic. You add the different faces of mental health problems, and it gets even more challenging.Perhaps it’s hard for me, because this is the part of me that most people don’t know of. There are over dozen different types of diagnosis within mental health disorders . Within these, the more common mood disorders are, depression and bipolar (also called manic depression). You may occasionally feel down and...

Last night as I was watching one of my many Hallmark Christmas movies (more about that later), one of the characters in the movie made a comment that hit the nail right on the head. She said ” The problem with the holidays, is that the good stuff is always better than what it is and the bad stuff is always worse than what it is”. Now, before you start thinking Hallmark movies are cheesy and predictable, let’s look at how...

What child would not like to celebrate Christmas twice in one year? Growing up in a multicultural home and environment was often very rewarding. Such was the case during every major holiday. I grew up in a home that had their roots in the Eastern Orthodox Church. The traditions and customs of my forefathers were ingrained in me at a very early age. Once I got to be older, and started school, I discovered another world outside. This was the...

  On my recent trip back to  Sweden, I had the opportunity to visit with family a lot. Every time we would get together, other than talking about childhood memories, food was the next important thing. Food can be a very important aspect of a person’s social life.  What we eat provides us with energy, nutrients and minerals, but it can also provide us with a sense of belonging. Our choice of food can also become a sensitive topic and at...

My eyes are hurting, my brain is dead and I am still trying to figure out this “Thing” called technology!!! How can I love something, that gives me so much headache? Yet I can’t go a single hour without it.  Can I live a simple life with technology?   Good Old Days I remember not to long ago, as an example, going to a concert was really simple. All I needed was to come up with some cash to buy my ticket. We would walk up to a booth and receive...

Years ago while battling with severe depression, I ended up with a great professional counselor, who taught me few tools in helping me to cope with my anxiety and depression. At the time, most of it didn’t make sense, but with time I have come to appreciate those tools more than I believed was possible. One of those tools he gave me, was the importance of having an outlet, where I could be me and leave my thoughts and challenges behind. I...

Autoimmune disease is when your own body attacks itself. Your body starts creating antibodies and attacks its own tissues. When the immune system  becomes compromised, the body starts losing its ability to fight the real enemies. Science and doctors are still trying to figure out why this happens, but they haven’t found any definite answers. The one thing they have identified is, that our immune system triggers some kind of physical...

When my husband and I got married nearly three decades ago, we kind of had an idea of our finances, but we weren’t totally prepared for all the challenges that we would be faced with. We learned very fast that the only way we would survive was being very frugal and save for a “rainy day” (and to develop important skills). Sometimes it did not rain, it poured. A year into our marriage, while living in Sweden, we had an unexpected bad “wake up”...

Mediterranean Lifestyle Growing up in Sweden, by Armenian parents, and grandparents that were born and had lived in the Mediterranean area, I dare to say that Mediterranean diet was the norm in our home rather than not. But because of the influence of the Swedish food culture and diet, I became very diversified in my diet. Now decades later, I live in the US and am constantly longing for those authentic dinners and treats (treats which mostly...