Web Reviews: Keep Your Mind Healthy

APA's HelpCenter

http://helping.apa.org

What the Site Offers: According to the National Mental Health Association, many people deal with "holiday blues," and even more people experience "post-holiday let-down" after Jan. 1 as a result of disappointments during the preceding months, excess fatigue from the holidays, and stress. Real estate professionals who experience post-holiday doldrums or depression can feel ill-equipped to tackle the New Year, which could adversely affect their sales volume at the beginning of the year.

If you're experiencing post-holiday blues, one resource available to help you deal with stress and other mental health issues is HelpCenter, Washington, D.C.-based American Psychological Association’s consumer Web site dedicated to educating the public about mental health issues.

The site provides brochures and articles that help you handle job-related stress, the pressures of daily life, and juggling all of life’s demands. The “Get the Facts” sections contain articles mainly produced by the APA, with some materials from individual psychologists, and joint efforts between the APA and other organizations, such as the American Pediatric Association. Some of the articles offer advice on working through issues personally, while others present options for seeking professional care.

Valuable Site Features for Real Estate Professionals

• Get the Facts: Psychology at Work. Coping with stress is part of life—especially in a high-pressure job such as real estate sales—but too much stress can negatively impact you personally and professionally. These articles examine stress’s physical and mental effects and address common issues, such as work/life balance, working with difficult managers, and job-related burnout.
• Get the Facts: Psychology in Daily Life. This assortment of articles offer advice on how to deal with day-to-day challenges, such as managing anger, achieving better mental health, and mentally preparing yourself for retirement. Also included are articles on how exercise can promote better mental health.
• Get the Facts: Family and Relationships. This section includes articles on caring for an elderly parent, dealing with adolescent rebellion, creating a happy marriage, making peace within stepfamilies, and observing warning signs for violence in children.
• Get the Facts: Mind/Body Connection. Doctors believe a positive attitude can improve your health and alleviate the mental and physical toll that chronic illness takes on your body. Articles in this section offer strategies for coping with serious illness. Its “Focus on Cancer” includes separate articles on coping with a negative diagnosis and how relaxation exercises, meditation, and self-hypnosis can decrease physical discomfort for women with breast cancer.
• Get the Facts: How Therapy Helps. This section illustrates how therapy helps people work through panic disorder, anxiety disorder, eating disorders, depression, and alcohol-related disorders. It also provides a guide to evaluating your need for therapy and judging your therapy’s effectiveness.
• Find a Psychologist. The HelpCenter doesn’t provide referrals to a psychologist. However, the site lists a toll-free number (800/964-2000) that connects callers in the United States or Canada with a referral network in their area. The APA isn’t affiliated with these referral networks and doesn’t make any representations or warranty on any advice or information that the networks might supply.
• Order Free Brochures . Want to find out more information on mental health topics? The site offers free brochures from the APA. “The Road to Resilience” brochure teaches readers how to develop stress-management strategies. “Warning Signs,” co-produced with MTV, looks at youth violence and offers ways youths can nonviolently deal with anger. You can order a print copy of either brochure for free, however, a one-copy limit exists for online orders. For multiple copies, you can call 800/964-2000; you must pay shipping and handling for these orders. Both brochures also are available online in PDF and HTML formats. Other brochures available online at the HelpCenter include “Change Your Mind (About Mental Health),” a guide for teenagers, and “Painful Shyness,” which explains why this problem occurs and how you can overcome it.