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About Me

Getting to know me...

 

Hello! My name is Linda Booker, I am a senior citizen who has devoted most of her life to staying as healthy as possible. In case you don't know me or don't know me well, I should tell you how I came to the decision to jump into the Blog World with both feet.  Actually, writing has almost always been one of several passions for me so, now that I'm retired, I decided I might actually have time to write about some of my other passions.

A little background, I've held several positions in different industries, including the insurance business, owning a bookstore for 9 years and working in the newspaper business for 3 years.  Every job I've ever had has had something to do with helping people, otherwise known as customer service, people being one of my passions.  I'm one of those odd ducks who truly like people, not saying I like everything people do, let's just be clear. I find myself frequently in the position of helping a person figure out how to make his or her life a little better.  Anyway, the bookstore fed my need to read, another life long passion, so I read a lot of the new and some of the old books written about what makes people tick, nutrition, natural health, and exercise.  So now you can see what the name of my blog probably means.

I guess I like to write...

In 2004, I wrote a weekly newspaper column, for 6 months, called "Don't Get Me Started". It was a hot political year, imagine that, so eventually I got tired of being mad all the time and stopped writing the column.  In 2011, I decided to try the blog thing, mostly just to get back into writing, so I tried to do a Don't Get Me Started blog, this was another hot political year as you might remember.  On the lighter side, I also wrote a photo blog about this beautiful area where I'm so lucky to live.  Well, life and a job got in the way so those two blogs are still sitting in Word Press limbo, never having been continued. Maybe someday...

When I decided to start this Blog, I thought long and hard about how I could write about several of my passions.  I came up with subjects like helping people, good nutrition, our mental well being, and overall healthful living, which all seem to fit together well.

Hopefully, you will enjoy at least some of the things I write about and will keep coming back to see what's new.  I welcome any comments or suggestions, just try to keep it civil.

See you soon I hope!

My Disclaimer:  I am not an expert in any of the subjects I will be sharing information about here. I am just someone who has collected information over the years and continues learning about the things I think are important in life and that will help me and the people I share information with become healthier and  stay healthier.

In my humble opinion, emotional health is one of the most important components of Walking a Healthy Path. Today, I’ll write a short introduction to this side of being healthy and the challenges created by depression..

 

It has long been known that what we think and how we feel not only affects our mental health but also our physical health.  With all the craziness going on in our world, almost everyone experiences bouts of depression, anywhere from just occasionally to chronically.  Whether a person’s depression is caused by a life situation or has a biochemical origin, being “down” can cause a number of physical symptoms such as a lack of motivation,sleep problems, fatigue, chronic pain and digestive issues

 

After suffering the grief of losing my youngest son last year, sadly, I’m speaking from experience.  I would say grief of any kind leaves us very susceptible to some level of depression. In my case, I felt unmotivated and lost for several months. Since Aaron was diagnosed with cancer and passed 8 months later, I have had digestive issues, sleep deprivation, brain fog and 2 bouts of vertigo. Even though I have pulled out of the depression for a while, the next “first '' would come along and I would go back down.  I’m not typically a depressed person, but it does takes some real effort to consciously pull myself out of the hole.   It's been a tough year and I’m pretty sure I’ve aged physically more than a year over this time and I don’t know yet how much permanent damage this trauma has done to my over all physical health.

   

During these times, a person’s support community is so very important!  I’m not sure what I would have done without my wonderful friends and family, while I’ve gone through this natural state of grief.  If a person suffering from grief doesn’t have this kind of support, or even if they do finding a good grief counselor to talk to is very important

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Many people who suffer from more than occasional depression tend to self medicate, using alcohol or other drugs. This usually starts at a young age, creating a dependency on these substances.  Self medication is a subject for another blog about the things that derail a person’s walk on a healthy path and what can be done to help get him or her back on track. Ironically, liquor and many drugs are considered depressants so a person who self medicates is just making their problem even worse.

 

No doubt the saddest effect of chronic depression is suicide, which is on the rise in the U.S.. According to a CU Boulder study, almost 50,000 people in the U.S. took their own lives in 2022, up 3% from the previous year.  95% of all suicides can be linked to depression or some other mental disorder. It’s important to recognize the warning signs of depression, which can include feelings of sadness, hopelessness, and isolation.  If you recognize these signs in yourself or in someone close to you, it is very important to seek help before these problems escalate into serious plans to commit suicide.

 

If this is a subject that you can relate to or just interests you, stay tuned for future blogs about how a person’s emotional state can affect their walk on a healthy path and how to get back on the right path. 

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Til later then...

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