Get on Twitter and learn why with the ABC News Chief Health and Medical Editor, Dr. RIchard Besser. On May 19, the hashtag #abcDrBchat will be a Twitter conversation hosted by @NICHD_NIH, @NIMHgov and @TeenHealthGov. on May 19.
Everyone feels down or sad sometimes, but these feelings usually pass after a few days. If feelings of sadness, hopelessness, and fatigue persist for weeks at a time, you may have depression.
Each year about 6.7 percent of U.S. adults experience depression. Depression often co-occurs with other serious illnesses, such as heart disease, stroke, diabetes, cancer, and Parkinson’s disease. Because many older adults face these illnesses, a common misperception is that depression is a normal part of aging. While depression is common in older adults, it does not have to be a usual way of life.
Don’t let depression dampen your mood this holiday season. Please join the National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH) on Friday, December 20, 2013, from 2 to 3 pm ET for a Twitter chat on depression and older adults. Jovier Evans, Ph.D., who is Chief of the Geriatric Translational Neuroscience Program at NIMH will be on-hand to discuss the topic and answer your questions. Please use the hashtag #NIMHchats to follow and participate in the Twitter chat.
For more information, see the NIMH Site.
NAMI South Bay now has a Twitter account. If you are also on Twitter, please Follow us. NAMI South Bay tweets updates, news and announcements relevant to its mission.
Twitter has been around for a number of years and is one of the ten most visited websites, and has been described as “the SMS of the Internet.” It is an online social networking and microblogging service that enables users to send and read “tweets,” which are text messages limited to 140 characters.
Registered users can read and post tweets, but unregistered users can only read them. Users access Twitter through the website interface, SMS, or mobile device app. As a social network, Twitter revolves around the principle of followers. When you choose to follow another Twitter user (like NAMI South Bay), that user’s tweets appear in reverse chronological order on your main Twitter page. If you follow 20 people, you’ll see a mix of tweets scrolling down the page: updates, new links, music recommendations, even musings on the future of education.