When you’re trying to lead a normal life and yet depression invades your every waking moment, the struggle of trying to pull off that charade can be more difficult than one could ever imagine.

Depression and the signs of suicide are unfortunately all too often items that go hand-in-hand.

People who do not either live with someone suffering from depression or battle depression themselves absolutely have no idea how dark the hole of depression is.

A truly difficult and dark depressive episode can certainly lead the sufferer to contemplating suicide. It gives people a sense of control, particularly when the person battling depression feels as if they have no control over their life anyway. Suicide looks like an easy way out.

It can put an end to the feelings of desperation, the feelings of total worthlessness, the overwhelming sadness that invades every pore of your being and the utter hopelessness that fills each waking moment.

Depression and signs of suicide are absolutely health concerns that should be taken very seriously.

If a friend or loved one that you know is suffering from depression and if you are concerned about the symptoms of suicide there are the few things that you can watch for. Remember to be helpful and supportive by listening and reassuring them of their self worth.

But while you are being supportive it is also absolutely imperative that you get your friend or loved one to their healthcare provider immediately.

Oftentimes treatments for depression at this level can involve an increase in therapeutic counseling, an adjustment in medication or even the addition of a new medication, or if the depression and signs of suicide are severe enough, hospitalization may be necessary.

If your friend or loved one begins to talk about suicide and then starts to give away favorite possessions, this is a serious sign of suicide and it must be dealt with immediately.

It indicates that the sufferer has seriously contemplated harming themselves. If they pull away from you and others who love, if they begin to miss work or school, if they no longer care about things that they have always cared about then these are negative signs related to depression and suicide. If you notice that your friend or loved one begins to alter their normal behavior associated with a depressive episode then you should also take action.

Sufferers to are seriously considering taking their own lives tend to pull away because they are attempting to make it less difficult on those they care about.

Depression and signs of suicide may also include excessive outburst of anger, guilt, changes in eating habits, sexual promiscuity, and alterations in sleep habits.

Never ignore depression and signs of suicide. You will never forgive yourself if you ignored the signs and your friend or loved one ends up successfully committing suicide.

Do not respond to with inappropriate humor, indifference, or attempts to just cheer the person up. The only correct response is to get professional help.

My prosperity partner wrote an article “Defining Prosperity for Myself”, and now I’m writing the opposing view “Defining Prosperity – Is That Really Prosperity or Just Plain Lazy”…I’ll put a link at the end of this article so you can read the first article.

In the article she writes “I have learned over the past year that prosperity, like beauty, is in the eye of the beholder. I have a goal of having a five million dollar net worth invested with a 10 % return that gives me a passive income of $500,000 a year. Someone that I know has a dream of having a net worth exceeding $400 million dollars. Is her goal to have more prosperity than I intend to have? That is a trick question to which the answer is no. Her goal is definitely to have more money than I intend to have but remember that money does not equate prosperity.” Of course I take massive pride in the fact that I am the someone she knows who has the goal of a net worth exceeding $400 million dollars!

The article goes on to say “I am not close to my extended family, but my immediate family is my second priority. When my children are happy, healthy and bursting with joy, I know that I am being prosperous. Every day that my husband and I still love and adore each other is another day of prosperous living for me. Some of my friends are like family to me and their involvement in my life makes me feel prosperous beyond measure. I know that I am loved and I believe that love is the ultimate treasure. When you are truly loved, you are the richest person on earth.”

Man that was a mouthful – So now I ask you is that truly prosperity or just plain lazy! Since when does being prosperous involve how others feel and interact with you? So does that mean one isn’t prosperous if all the friends left and the children are unhappy and your spouse decided to not have 2am conversations with you and NO ONE loved you? That is her measure of prosperity isn’t it? So you remove all those things and the prosperity is now gone right!

The world is filled with creative energy and while I’m all for the concept that everyone is entitled to whatever they want, and that we should allow each person to want whatever makes them happy… I’m also for the concept that most people in society don’t aim very high because they are afraid of failure. Now to have enough creative energy to create or attract 5 million dollars – anyone can do that. But how much creative energy does it take to attract or create 400 million?

We grow up in an environment where we set the bar really low on what we can or will achieve – JUST IN CASE if we don’t make it we won’t feel so bad. Most people in society want nothing more than a 9-5 and to retire with a 401k.

You know I’ve been saying for years I want to be on the Forbes 400 richest Americans list and in all that time that I say this I have never heard anyone say ‘REALLY? ME TOO!’

Now could that be that’s just way too far up on the tree for most people to reach for, and the apples on the lower branches are easier to get to (apples on the lower branches are also rotten and touched a lot by a multitude of people not wanting to climb higher). We grow up hearing how love is true wealth – Who fed us this diet of foolishness, and the person who fed us this diet – are they truly prosperous?

Don’t get it twisted, people – Stop finding excuses to cover up your not wanting to reach for the sky. Go ahead and say it: ‘I’m too lazy to actually want a huge boatload of money and I don’t really believe I can have it anyway – because for me to want a huge boatload of money would entail me actually trying at something and maybe I’ll fall flat on my face.’

So I ask is it truly prosperity or just plain lazy?!

Read the other article at http://www.breathingprosperity.com/vote.html

There are two things that are apparent when you start to seek a definition for agoraphobia and that is that, depending on where you look, there is more than just one definition. If we take a look in a dictionary, we will find that the interpretation given there is similar to the following: a disease which results in the sufferer being afraid of open or public spaces which, can result in the sufferer becoming housebound.

The second usual definition goes something like this: An anxiety disorder where the sufferer lives in fear of finding themselves in an embarrassing situation from which there is no escape. More advanced agoraphobics may, indeed, become confined to their home in order to avoid any such discomfort occurring whilst in public.

We can see that the result of being housebound is the same in both definitions, how the sufferer becomes housebound, though, is quite different. So, let’s compare both definitions to the real-life experiences of an agoraphobic.

I became an agoraphobic more than twenty years ago, following a series of panic attacks that occurred whilst I was travelling. At that time, my phobia was only connected to travel by any mode of transport that I chose: car, train, bus etc. but walking around outside posed no threat whatsoever. However, as the years progressed so did the severity of the condition and eventually, after around 18 years or so, I became totally housebound.

So, what is it that can make an agoraphobic’s life so limited? I’ll try to explain as best I can. But, if after reading this you can’t quite grasp the whole concept, don’t worry, most health professionals that I’ve consulted over the years couldn’t grasp it either.

As an agoraphobic, I lived in fear of when my next panic attack would strike. I was lucky, in one respect, in that I’ve never had a panic attack whilst within the confines of my home. However, I do know of other agoraphobics that do suffer them at home, sometimes quite frequently. For me, there was a fear bigger than the fear of having yet another panic attack and that was of having a massive panic attack that left me in a condition whereupon I could no longer stand up and walk or would result in some uncontrollable and embarrassing emotional outburst.

Knowing that certain situations could trigger my panic fuelled the second part of my condition. Being in heavy traffic made me feel very panicky and uncomfortable or standing still and not progressing forward on public transport had the same effect. So any thought of such an encounter brought on my “what if” syndrome. I’d be travelling down a road where the traffic was light and flowing freely when a thought such as: “I hope the traffic isn’t backed up at this or that road intersection” would enter my head and this would get me “what ifing”. “What if the traffic is backed up and we’re stuck there for twenty minutes and what if I have a panic attack and what if I can’t get to work and can’t get home?” This kind of thinking had just one outcome; it made me scared. And being scared and away from my safe zone just brought on my panic. This was one of the worst parts of my agoraphobia; me thinking my way into a panic attack.

Agoraphobia and its partners in crime, panic attacks and anxiety, stole everything that made my life good. But it didn’t stop there. It’s effects upon me altered the lives of my family and friends too. Having recovered from this nightmare existance, it’s only now that I can look back and see just how debilitating this condition truly is.