A brain is a terrible thing to waste....

Most people haven't noticed that this country is suffering from a severe brain shortage. "Sure, I've noticed," you may chuckle, pointing a finger at Washington or the local government of your choice. But that's not the kind of brain shortage we're talking about. We mean gray matter, white matter, brain tissue -- the stuff in your head that neuroscientists need to investigate a variety of diseases, disorders, and dilemmas.

During the Eighties, investigators learned more about the central nervous system than in all prior human history. The Nineties promised to be even more enlightening. "The brain is the last biological frontier," says neuroscientist Deborah Mash, director of the University of Miami Brain Endowment Bank. Founded in 1986, it's one of only three general brain banks in the nation. "We need to study the human brain postmortem--diseased brains and healthy ones for comparison."

Dr. Jill Bolte Taylor became a neuroscientist precisely to study the brains of people diagnosed with severe mental illness, specifically schizophrenia and bipolar disorder. ( Dr. Taylor has a brother living with schizophrenia and you may remember her from her book, A Stroke of Insight.) She was shocked to learn that the "tissue issue" - or lack of postmortem brain tissue from the psychiatrically diagnosed - has really held back the scientific community from unraveling the mysteries of severe mental illness. Dr. Taylor has made it her mission to bring this shortage to the attention of the population at large.

Individuals who've noted on their drivers licenses that they are organ donors have willed everything but the brain, although most are not aware of that. If a person is interested in donating his or her brain to science, they will need to make specific arrangements. The Harvard Brain Tissue Resource Center has created a specialized collection specifically for NAMI families, where operators are available 24/7 at 1-800-BRAINBANK. The bank collects brain specimens from parents, siblings, and children of psychiatrically diagnosed as well as those living with mental illness. So-called "normal" brains are just as much in demand as unhealthy ones.

The reality is that if the tissue was more readily available, more scientists would be studying mental illness. If someone has passed they sure don't need it anymore, but that brain tissue may help us understand, treat, and cure biological disorders of the brain. And that would be the greatest gift you could give.....

Gay in America

In 1973 the APA did away with homosexuality as a mental disorder. The change wasn't easy, but the weight of the scientific evidence suggested that same-sex attraction was a normal variant of sexuality among well-adjusted people. Today, you can hardly open a paper or turn on the news that you aren't hearing some new horror show about gays in America - from teens being bullied to suicide to states denying civil liberties to same sex couples. I'm often mortified because I grew up knowing that some people are gay - in fact, both of my uncles were homosexual. I never occurred to me as a child that there was anything wrong with that. I called their partners 'uncle,' too. It seemed like the most natural thing in the world.

I didn't realize until I was an adult, the price that every gay man or woman must pay to live in our society. And although I have gay people in my life who have found a measure of happiness; who have found someone to love and were lucky enough to have an accepting and loving family, even these people bear the scars of being different in a culture that grows less and less accepting of anything but some idealized 'normal' (which seems to me to be white, male, straight and Protestant.) I watched a beloved uncle die of AIDS back in the day where it was referred to as "the gay plague" and watched nurses refuse to touch him because of their ignorance. I watched another struggle with his faith, a faith that denied who he was and labeled him a 'sinner' for loving the people that he loved. He lived a monogamous life for nearly 25 years with the same partner, but could never be married. He is a veteran (both of my gay uncles served their country... imagine that,) and lives with bi-polar disorder. I know of two (thankfully) unsuccessful suicide attempts.

In my opinion, every human being is the result of a nearly infinite number of variables. Many of these variables are visible to us in our lifetimes - where we were born and to whom, our social situation and nationality, our training into that society and into spirituality, and all the things we experience from our birth to where we are now. Perhaps we can decipher some of these variables, although I suspect that many people never feel the need to. In addition, we consist of innumerable amounts of genetic code; codes that give us our gender and the color of our eyes and skin, our height and body type, even five fingers and toes. But there are codes for every possible variation in the human being and scientists have only scratched the surface of these. Some codes make people susceptible to disease, or unable to moderate their mood, and yes, I do believe that some people are genetically homosexual. With all that infinite variety, from completely straight to completely gay, and every variation in the middle of that, human sexuality simply is. We are sexual beings. It shouldn't be a big thing.

Statistically, twenty percent of the human population is gay. Always have been. Always will be. I've always thought of it as a type of natural birth control. Some of those gay people have brain disorders, some have hemophilia, heart disease or diabetes, some will stay in the closet, some will become activists and fight for their basic rights. In the end, all of them are simply human beings and as such are entitled to basic human rights and basic human dignity. And as such they want what we all want, to be loved... and to live without fear.

10 Tips to Manage Your Scattered Brain

Let’s start right away. I want to eliminate anything that can distract you from finishing this post.

• Do you feel like you want to do a million and one things this instant?
• Do you lack the ability or desire to stay with your task till you complete it, including the simplest of tasks?
• Do you feel unmotivated to start on something that you really want to accomplish?
• Are you easily distracted and everything in the entire world seems more interesting than what you’re doing?
• Are there things you need to do that remain undone because there is no outside pressure/deadline to force completion?

If you answered yes to any or all of the above questions then you are a scattered brainer. Welcome to the club . There is nothing wrong with being distracted every now and then, or not even getting anything done. But when it becomes a constant in your daily life, you can fall into a stressful trap of avoidance, or worse, trying to catch up and make up for lost time.

I have been implementing the tips below to deal with my scattered brain. I’m slowly regaining my focus and brain power. Hope you find these tips useful. Try to work with as many of them as you can.

1. Know what you want to do and prioritize.

This is the most obvious and probably one that is listed in every productivity book and article out there. The importance of this step cannot be overstated.

If you don’t know what you want and stuff is just floating in your head, you’ll never get the satisfaction of doing anything. So yes make a list of everything that is on your mind. Then Prioritize—with a capital P. This is where you get to tell your brain to stop fretting about the small stuff and focus on what is really important.

2. Break it down and keep it simple.

Once you have your list and you determine your top two or three tasks, choose one to start with and break it down to the simplest form of action. Every step should not take more than 15 to 30 minutes to complete. If it takes longer, break it down further.

The smaller the task, the less time it takes to get done, the more you’re likely to stick with it. This is a good way to tell your brain to just stay with it for 15 minutes.

3. Start and do it slowly—one task at a time.

Don’t try to speed thing up in an effort to save time. This triggers your brain to drift to what you want to do next instead of what you’re doing right now. Your brain can focus on one thought at a time, so make it about what is right in front of you. Do things slowly and deliberately. You will feel much better once you complete your task.

4. Take breaks.

Don’t be tempted to work nonstop for hours on end. This will lead to burn out and you won’t have enough motivation to start again.

After completing a 15-30 minute task, take a break and do something fun. You can stretch, move, read an article or whatever you feel like doing. Just don’t take too long. I would suggest 5-10 minutes.

Once you complete 4 tasks, take a longer break—an hour or so. This is your free time to do whatever you like—guilt free.

5. Learn to focus.

If you want to have laser sharp focus, you need to learn how to meditate and do it.

Meditation is becoming more mainstream now and is really easy to do. You don’t need to spend an hour. Start with a few minutes and move up to 15 – 30 minutes. Do a search and pick a breathing or mantra meditation. The most important thing is to train your brain to relax, and focus on one thing (the mantra or your breath).

6. Ditch your clock/watch. Work in intervals.

Forget about the clock and don’t obsess over time. It doesn’t matter when you start working on something. Use a timer and set it to the estimated time to complete your task (an interval of no more than 30 minutes). Start the timer and go for it. Don’t stop until your time is up. Take a break and repeat.

Focus on working and getting your tasks done, regardless of what time it is. This way you are guaranteed to work instead of finding excuses to postpone things till tomorrow, when you can work on them bright and early.

7. Don’t do anything else until your interval is done.

Don’t do anything else while your timer is running for a specific task. If it is something that requires inspiration (like writing) and you can’t seem to find any, just sit still and think about the task until your time is up.

Don’t be tempted to do something else because you can’t seem to get started on the task at hand. Sooner or later inspiration will come—you’ll be surprised by how effective five minutes of silence can be in sparking your genius.

8. Keep going.

If you fall off the wagon, just pick up and start again. There is no reason for you to give up. Review what you did and what went wrong, learn from it and move on to your next task or interval.

Remember: practice makes improvement.

9. Power down and reboot.

Give yourself free days to enjoy yourself away from tasks and to do’s. Keep it free and don’t commit to anything new. This is a time for you to relax, have fun and spend time with your loved ones.

Use your off days to unwind and empty your mental cache. Don’t try to squeeze in anything else. After a break, you’ll feel energized and motivated to get back to your tasks.

10. Make it fun.

Embrace your playful inner child and use your imagination to make the best out of every task. Even the most mundane thing can be fun and entertaining.

When you are working on a task, imagine that someone is watching you and commenting on how brilliantly you’re working. Or that you are trying to set a world record, or break your own. You can have a conversation with yourself as you work … you get the picture.

Your results depend on where you choose to put your focus and energy. So do what gives you the most effective results in the most enjoyable manner. Once you get going and you keep going, there is no turning back—things get easier and you start harnessing more of your mental power.

Ed. note: snagged this from One With Now.

It Gets Better

Should You Disclose Depression To Your Employer?

"If I had diabetes I would probably tell my company," Sandy says. "But I've never told them this." By "this," she means the fact that she suffers from depression. Today, CNN tackles a huge question: If you're suffering from depression, should you let people at your job know?

As the piece by Health.com's Anne Harding points out, happy employees are productive employees. So it's in a company's best interests to make sure workers get what they need to be healthy — mentally and physically. The problem, of course, is that a stigma surrounds mental illness.

Depending on the atmosphere and environment you work in, disclosing depression (or bipolar disorder, or any kind of mental illness) can seem like asking for trouble. Your coworkers may see it as an excuse; your boss may think of you as weak, and you might even be the subject of gossip. Of course, this shouldn't be the case. But who hasn't worked at a company where acting human — instead of like a cog in the machine — was viewed as a flaw? Any kind of personal issues were frowned upon; nothing mattered except the work.

The thing is: The more people admit to depression and other mental illnesses, the faster these conditions would lose some of the stigma. And if your job is part of what's making you depressed, well, at least take comfort in knowing we've all been there.

Depression In The Workplace: Don't Ask, Don't Tell? [CNN]

Read more: http://jezebel.com/5642864/should-you-disclose-depression-to-your-employer?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+jezebel%2Ffull+%28Jezebel%29#ixzz10EoE3c7h

Top 10 Controversial Psychiatric Disorders -Part 2

8. Narcissistic Personality Disorder - Someone with an inflated ego, need for constant praise and lack of empathy for others might sound like a shoe-in for psychotherapy. But the introduction of narcissistic personality disorder into the DSM in 1980 was not without controversy. The biggest problem was that no one could agree on who had the disorder. Up to half of people diagnosed with a narcissistic personality also met the criteria for other personality disorders, like histrionic personality disorder or borderline personality disorder, according to a 2001 review in the Journal of Mental Health Counseling. Which diagnosis they got seemed almost arbitrary. To solve the problem, the American Psychiatric Association has proposed big changes to the personality disorder section of the DSM-5 in 2010. The new edition would move away from specific personality disorders to a system of dysfunctional types and traits. The idea, according to the APA, is to cut out the overlap and create categories that would be useful for patients who have personality problems, not just full-blown disorders.

7. Dissociative Identity Disorder - Once known as multiple personality disorder, dissociative identity disorder was made famous by the book "Sybil" (Independent Pub Group, 1973), which was made into a movie of the same name in 1976. The film and book told the story of Shirley Mason, pseudonym Sybil, who was diagnosed as having 16 separate personalities as a result of physical and sexual abuse by her mother. The book and the movie were hits, but the diagnosis soon came under fire. In 1995, psychiatrist Herbert Spiegel, who consulted on Mason's case, told the "New York Review of Books" that he believed Mason's "personalities" were created by her therapist, who -- perhaps unwittingly -- suggested that Mason's different emotional states were distinct personalities with names. Likewise, critics of the dissociative identity diagnosis argue that the disorder is artificial, perpetuated by well-meaning therapists who convince troubled and suggestible patients that their problems are due to multiple personalities. Nonetheless, dissociative identity disorder has weathered this criticism and won't undergo any major changes in the DSM-5. (ed. note - Having met someone who underwent extensive therapy and reached recovery with this diagnosis, I'm having trouble believing it doesn't exist... it may be rare, but I think it's real.)

From an article by Stephanie Pappas. First installment here.

Top 10 Controversial Psychiatric Disorders -Part 1

The proposed revisions of the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM) have spurred debate over what illnesses to include in the essential psychiatric handbook. Everything from gender identity disorder to childhood mood swings has come under fire, and it's not the first time. The history of psychiatry is littered with impassioned fights over controversial diagnoses.

10. Hysteria -In the Victorian era, hysteria was a catch-all diagnosis for women in distress. The symptoms were vague (discontentment, weakness, outbursts of emotion, nerves) and the history sexist (Plato blamed the wanderings of an "unfruitful" uterus). The treatment for hysteria? "Hysterical paroxysm," also known as orgasm. Physicians would massage their patients' genitals either manually or with a vibrator, a task they found tedious but surprisingly uncontroversial. More contentious was the practice of putting "hysterical" women on bed rest or demanding that they not work or socialize, a treatment that often worsened anxiety or depression.According to a 2002 editorial in the journal Spinal Cord, the diagnosis of hysteria gradually petered out throughout the 20th century. By 1980, hysteria disappeared from the DSM in favor of newer diagnoses like conversion and dissociative disorders.

9. Penis Envy - Sigmund Freud revolutionized psychiatry in the late 1800s and early 1900s with his theories on the unconscious state, talk therapy and psychosexual development. Nowadays, many of these theories -- like his conclusion that young girls' sexual development is driven by jealousy over lack of a penis and sexual desire for their father -- seem outdated. But not everyone has consigned Freud to the dust heap. Organizations like the American Psychoanalytic Association still practice and promote Freudian-style psychoanalysis, and groups like the International Neuropsychoanalysis Society try to combine cutting-edge neuroscience research with Freud's century-old theories. How successful they'll be is unknown: A 2008 study in the Journal of the American Psychoanalytic Association found that today's psychology departments rarely teach psychoanalysis.

Ed. note: From an article by Stephanie Pappas on LiveScience.

10 Ways to Reduce Anxiety... Part 4

8. Breathe it out. You may notice that when your body is tense you hold your breath. Focusing on breathing is a common but effective technique for calming the nerves. Where is your breath now, and where is your mind? Bring them together. Listen to the movement of your breath. Does your mind wander somewhere else? Call it back. Concentrate only on breathing in and out, beginning and ending, breath to breath, moment to moment.

9. Make peace with time. When you're a worrier, everything can feel like an emergency. But notice this about all your anxious arousal: It's temporary. Every feeling of panic comes to an end, every concern eventually wears itself out, every so-called emergency seems to evaporate. Ask yourself, "How will I feel about this in a week or in a month?" This one, too, really will pass.

10. Don't let your worries stop you from living your life. Many of them will turn out to be false, and the consequences of your anxiety -- less sleep, a rapid pulse, a little embarrassment-- are just inconveniences when it comes down to it. What can you still do even if you feel anxious? Almost anything.

Ed. note: Part of an excellent series by Robert L. Leahy, PhD and director of the American Institute for Cognitive Therapy in NY, NY. See the first three installments here, here, and here.

‘Magic’ anti-depressant?

Ketamine, a general anesthetic usually administered to children and pets but perhaps best known as a horse tranquilizer, is also highly effective in low doses as an anti-depressant, according a study published Thursday.

Researchers at Yale University wrote in the August 20 issue of the journal Science that unlike most anti-depressants on the market which can take weeks to take full effect ketamine can begin to counter depression in hours.

"It's like a magic drug -- one dose can work rapidly and last for seven to 10 days," said Ronald Duman, professor of psychiatry and pharmacology at Yale and senior author of the study.

The researchers noted that ketamine was tested as a rapid treatment for people with suicidal thoughts. Traditional anti-depressants can take several weeks to take effect, they noted.

About 40 percent of people suffering from depression do not respond to medication, and many others only respond after many months or years of trying different treatments.

Read the rest of the story here....

I Walk Alone

I walk a lonely road

The only one that I have ever known

Don't know where it goes

But it's home to me and I walk alone



I walk this empty street

On the Boulevard of Broken Dreams

Where the city sleeps

and I'm the only one and I walk alone



My shadow's the only one that walks beside me

My shallow heart's the only thing that's beating

Sometimes I wish someone out there will find me

'Til then I walk alone



I'm walking down the line

That divides me somewhere in my mind

On the border line

Of the edge and where I walk alone



Read between the lines

What's fucked up and everything's alright

Check my vital signs

To know I'm still alive and I walk alone



My shadow's the only one that walks beside me

My shallow heart's the only thing that's beating

Sometimes I wish someone out there will find me

'Til then I walk alone



I walk this empty street

On the Boulevard of Broken Dreams

Where the city sleeps

And I'm the only one and I walk alone



My shadow's the only one that walks beside me

My shallow heart's the only thing that's beating

Sometimes I wish someone out there will find me

'Til then I walk alone...



So Green Day hits the nail on the head with this song, no? Sometimes checking my vital signs doesn't convince me.... and the truth of the matter is that no one "out there" will find me, or give me any answers. Not today anyway.

A few moments with Schizophrenia

Was Bullying Really Behind Phoebe Prince's Suicide?

Coverage of Phoebe Prince's bullying (ours included) has told the story of a clique of evil kids systematically tormenting an outcast. But now one reporter says this isn't accurate — and the bullies are victims too.

In an exhaustively researched and frankly pretty disturbing series of articles for Slate, Emily Bazelon questions the dominant narrative (again, promulgated in this space as elsewhere) of South Hadley High School mean girls and their erstwhile boyfriends hounding Phoebe Prince to death. Her basic points:

— Prince was depressed and troubled before the bullying started. She missed her absent father, engaged in self-mutilation, and had tried to commit suicide once before, in response to the breakup of a relationship (with senior Sean Mulveyhill, now charged with a civil rights violation and statutory rape in connection with Prince's death).
— Though it led to tragedy, the bullying Prince suffered was neither systematic nor organized (one teen actually stopped when school officials told her to, yet still faces criminal prosecution), and was not extraordinary for teens — several students called it "normal girl drama."
— The six students charged in Prince's death face prosecution not because their actions were so heinous, but because South Hadley has an overzealous district attorney with a history of seeking excessive punishment.

Of these, the last is the most upsetting. In 2007, South Hadley DA Elizabeth Scheibel slapped a 17-year-old kid who had Asperger's with charges carrying a maximum 60-year sentence, all for making YouTube videos of himself lighting explosives in a field (he was acquitted). And there's evidence, according to Bazelon, that Scheibel was punishing the bullying teens for their school's negligence. Bazelon writes, "Scheibel and her staff stepped in because they thought South Hadley High mishandled the lead-up to and the aftermath of Phoebe's death. Does that amount to penalizing teenagers because the adults failed to do so?" Maybe — especially if it's true that, as Bazelon says, their bullying was far less organized and far shorter in duration than Scheibel claims. And certainly the teens, who could face up to 10 years in prison, are being much more harshly punished now than they ever could have been by their school.

This new take on the Prince case exposes two serious and related problems. One is how catastrophically bad schools are at identifying and helping at-risk kids. Bazelon writes that Phoebe's mom told the school that Phoebe had suffered bullying in her native Ireland and was on antidepressants, but the school didn't mount any sort of concerted effort to help her, or notify administrators of her troubles — even after her first suicide attempt. The principal even said "she seemed to be doing pretty well when she came back" from that attempt, and didn't seem in need of further monitoring. But all the while, Prince was, according to Bazelon, "asking for help from older boys who seemed ill-equipped to provide it." In a heart-wrenching statement, one such boy told police,

She lifted up her hoodie and showed cuts on her chest above her bra and all the way down to her hips. I really didn't look too long. I found it to be very painful. This was someone I cared about and she was harming herself. Phoebe asked for help healing them. I told her to use Neosporin but I wasn't too sure.

And these boys lead into the second problem that contributed to Prince's death: slut-shaming. Phoebe's bullying back in Ireland also had to do with her seeing older boys, and an anonymous adult says of her troubles at South Hadley, "In the end you can call it bullying. But to the other kids, Phoebe was the one with the power. She was attracting guys away from relationships." Not all the boys Prince has been linked to were actually in relationships at the time she was seeing them, but regardless, the claim that she "attracted them away" is a bit slut-shaming in itself. A fellow student seems to understand the situation better: "Each person had his own conflict with Phoebe-that's what no one outside our school seems to understand. The girls found out she'd been with the boys, and true to high-school girls, they got mad at the girl instead of the boyfriend."

That's how society seems to work too, not just high-school girls, and it appears Prince got caught in a vicious cycle. No adults stepped in to help her, so she turned to older guys, which only made other girls madder. There's no excuse for the way some of these girls — and allegedly Sean Mulveyhill as well — treated Prince. Bazelon doesn't dispute that the teens called Prince a "whore" and a "cunt" and harassed her in school on at least two occasions. But it's not clear that this behavior deserves a ten-year prison sentence, especially since throwing the book at the teens may obscure the systemic problems that led to Prince's death in the first place. Nothing Bazelon has uncovered excuses bullying — but it does expose how deeply incompetent schools are at protecting troubled kids and preventing slut-shaming, and how endemic such shaming is both here and, apparently, in Ireland. To pretend that Prince's death was solely caused by a few kids who were simply evil is to ignore these very serious problems — and potentially to keep other kids like Prince from getting the help they need.

Thanks to Jezebel for this story.

Heat and Medication

MYTH: During the dog days of summer, everyone is affected equally by the blistering heat.
FACT: Certain groups of people are more likely to develop dangerous responses to high temperatures, including heat stroke or certain medical conditions. Children and older adults fall into this category, but people of any age who are living with mental illness also need to be very careful during extremely hot weather.

Stay Safe
Educate yourself about the symptoms of heat stroke, such as:
An extremely high body temperature (above 103 degrees Fahrenheit)
Red, hot and dry skin (no sweating)
Rapid, strong pulse
Throbbing headache
Dizziness
Nausea
Confusion

Individuals living with mental illness may be more prone to heat stroke because some medications alter the body's response to heat. In addition, people taking specific medications may be at a higher risk of developing Neuroleptic Malignant Syndrome (NMS), a serious condition that may be connected to high temperatures and the dehydration that can result from heat stroke. NMS and heat stroke have similar symptoms, so it is especially important that people with mental illness inform their doctors of all medications they are currently taking.

Stay Informed
The National Weather Service is the hub of information about heat alerts. The Weather Channel offers a free service that will send updates about heat advisories to your phone.

Stay Inside
On extremely hot days, limit your exposure to the heat and sun, especially during the hottest part of the day. Don't walk long distances if you don't have to. Some public transportation systems offer free bus service on days with a dangerous heat index.

Stay Cool
If you do have an air conditioner, change the filter and perform other maintenance that will keep the unit working at peak capacity. If you don't have an air conditioner, try to spend a few hours a day in an air-conditioned public place like a library or mall. Look into area programs that may provide air conditioners for people with disabilities for free or at a reduced cost. In the past, some local United Way chapters have collected donated units and redistributed them to people with the most need.

10 Ways to Reduce Anxiety... Part 3

5. Turn your anxiety into a movie. You can let go of a worry by disconnecting yourself from it. One way is to imagine that your anxious thoughts are a show. Maybe they're a little guy in a funny hat who tap dances and sings out your worry while you sit in the audience, eating popcorn, a calm observer.

6. Set aside worry time. All too often we take a "Crackberry" approach to our worries: They show up unannounced, like constantly dinging e-mails, and we stop everything to address them - even if we should be doing something else. But what if you don't respond right away? Try setting aside 20 minutes every day - let's say at 4:30 PM - just for your worries. If you are fretting at 10 AM, jot down the reason and resolve to think it through later. By the time 4:30 comes around, many of your troubles won't even matter anymore. And you will have spent almost an entire day anxiety-free.

7. Take your hand off the horn. You constantly check the weather before a big outdoor event. You replay that clumsy comment you made, wishing you could take it back. And, yes, you honk your horn in traffic. When you desperately try to take command of things that can't be controlled, you're like the swimmer who panics and slaps at the water, screaming. It gets you nowhere. Instead, imagine that you are floating along on the water with your arms spread out, looking up to the sky. It's a paradox, but when you surrender to the moment, you actually feel far more in control.

Ed. note: Part of a series by Robert L. Leahy, PhD and director of the American Institute for Cognitive Therapy in NY, NY. Part 1 - here. Part 2 - here.

Let's talk about Dianne (sorry about the language...)

She did the deed on March 26th and was tidily buried on April 1st. I still expect her to walk in the shop, late, opening a bottle of water and cracking wise. It's not like I think about it every day. But it's there, isn't it?

What was so fucking bad, Di? I'm not so simple a creature that I think everything is clear to someone outside the situation, but come on. Two beautiful (irritating, unappreciative, typical) teenagers. A husband who loves you (and doesn't hear you, and isn't a communicator, duh.) Your adorable puppies (who shit in the house,) your hobbies (miniatures might not be for the obsessive,) your friends (the church was full of people you obviously never confided in.) Gorgeous house (mortgage,) nice clothes and humongous diamonds everywhere (maybe they were your friends?) Parents who drank and didn't understand you? Rough life. Fuck you.

I guess I'll never have the chance to know why you didn't share your pain with me. I guess I shouldn't presume to understand the level of your unhappiness or judge your decision to check out. It's not fair of me to do so. I didn't walk in your shoes. But I'm pretty pissed off because I was always honest with you and you LIED to me. Apparently a lot. Over a ridiculous amount of time. So you're going to have to bear with me when I say that you fucking copped out.

But then I'm still breathing and you're not.

I'm still dealing with all the disappointment of the imperfect life. Didn't get the perfect parental units. Didn't marry the perfect man. Haven't found my bliss, or my purpose, or even a simple fucking reason to keep drawing breath, but here I am still doing it. Some days I drown in it. Some days I'm numb. But. I'm. Still. Here. And you, my fucked up friend, are not.

I win.

I think.

are smarter people really more likely to take their own lives?

"Conventional wisdom says that gifted artists like Vincent van Gogh and Sylvia Plath had something in their constitution that made them much more susceptible to depression, and thus, to suicide. One of the smartest people I ever knew, a former high school classmate who was also a world-class rower, took his own life as pressures for perfection at his Ivy-League university became too much for him. Such stories, painful and tragic, lend credence to the belief that smart people are more likely to commit suicide. But do we remember these stories because they are commonplace, or are they notable only because they are also actually rare?

Because of the relative rarity of suicide, researching its causes is problematic. Most studies therefore investigate attempted suicide, which is much more common. Since attempted suicides are very strongly correlated with actual suicides, they can serve as a reasonable proxy measurement.

Two studies by Martin Voracek seem to uphold the notion that more intelligent people are more likely to commit suicide. Voracek looked at national suicide rates and average IQ, and found that countries with higher average IQs also had higher suicide rates. But a study released last week suggested the opposite might be true. A team led by G. David Batty looked at military conscription records of over 1 million Swedish men, and found that those with higher IQs were significantly less likely to be admitted to a hospital for a suicide attempt than those with lower IQs. Even after adjusting for socioeconomic status, education, and a variety of other factors, those in the top 10 percent of IQ scores were about four times less likely to attempt suicide than the bottom 10 percent."

Read the rest of the article by Dave Munger here.

More troops hospitalized for mental health than any other reason

More U.S. troops were hospitalized for mental health disorders than any other reason in 2009.

Mental health hospitalizations throughout the military topped injuries, battle wounds and even pregnancy and childbirth for the first time in 15 years of tracking by the Pentagon's Medical Surveillance Monthly report.

Four mental health issues — depression, substance abuse, anxiety and adjustment problems such as PTSD — cost the Pentagon 488 years of lost duty in 2009.

Obviously PTSD, depression, anxiety and substance abuse are not limited to American soldiers. According to a new U.K. Ministry of Defense study covered Thursday by The Guardian, troops serving in Iraq and Afghanistan have a 22% higher risk of alcohol misuse than their fellow servicemen and women.

Reservists serving in Iraq and Afghanistan were found to be three times as likely to suffer PTSD as other reservists, while regular personnel in combat roles there were found to be twice as likely to report the disorder.

Simon Wessely of the Institute of Psychiatry at King's College London thinks alcohol abuse is even more of a concern than PTSD. "Our view is that alcohol misuse is actually a greater problem for the armed forces than PTSD," he said.

Another article about the new UK report, from Reuters, points out a "striking" difference in mental health between US and UK troops. US personnel deploy for longer than UK troops – 15 months compared with six months – and American troops are younger. Combined with the numbers from the Pentagon, it is clear that US soldiers are undergoing intense mental pressure.

Read the whole article at The Raw Story.

May is Mental Health Month

Check out NKM2 for yourself!

18 a day....

By Rick Mays for the Army Times

Troubling new data show there are an average of 950 suicide attempts each month by veterans who are receiving some type of treatment from the Veterans Affairs Department.

Seven percent of the attempts are successful, and 11 percent of those who don’t succeed on the first attempt try again within nine months.

The numbers, which come at a time when VA is strengthening its suicide prevention programs, show about 18 veteran suicides a day, about five by veterans who are receiving VA care.

Access to care appears to be a key factor, officials said, noting that once a veteran is inside the VA care program, screening programs are in place to identify those with problems, and special efforts are made to track those considered at high risk, such as monitoring whether they are keeping appointments.

A key part of the new data shows the suicide rate is lower for veterans aged 18 to 29 who are using VA health care services than those who are not. That leads VA officials to believe that about 250 lives have been saved each year as a result of VA treatment.

VA’s suicide hotline has been receiving about 10,000 calls a month from current and former service members. The number is 1-800-273-8255. Service members and veterans should push 1 for veterans’ services.

Dr. Janet Kemp, VA’s national suicide prevention coordinator, credits the hotline with rescuing 7,000 veterans who were in the act of suicide — in addition to referrals, counseling and other help.

Suicide attempts by Iraq and Afghanistan veterans remains a key area of concern. In fiscal 2009, which ended Sept. 30, there were 1,621 suicide attempts by men and 247 by women who served in Iraq or Afghanistan, with 94 men and four women dying.

In general, VA officials said, women attempt suicide more often, but men are more likely to succeed in the attempt, mainly because women use less lethal and less violent means while men are more likely to use firearms.

Suicide attempts among veterans appear to follow those trends, officials said.

10 Ways to Reduce Anxiety... Part 2

3. Don't fight the craziness.
You may occasionally have thoughts that lead you to think you'll do something terrible ("I'm attracted to him. Does that mean I'll have an affair?")or that you're going insane (a client of mine who is an attorney kept imagining herself screaming in court.) Remember - our minds are creative. Little synapses firing away at random,and every now and then a "crazy" thought jumps out. Everyone has them. Instead of judging yours, describe it to yourself like it's a curious object on a shelf and move on.

4. Recognize false alarms.
That fear of your house burning down because you left the iron on has never come true. That rapid heart beat doesn't mean you're having a heart attack; it's your body's natural response to arousal. Many thoughts and sensations that we interpret as cues for concern - even panic - are just background noise. Think of each of them as a fire engine going to another place. You've noticed them; now let them pass by.

Ed. note: Part of a series by Robert L. Leahy, PhD and director of the American Institute for Cognitive Therapy in NY, NY. See the first part here.

you CAN die from it

Do you know someone who always brings a ray of sunshine into the room? I'm talking a person with a razor wit, an infectious grin, always willing to listen to you whine, quick with scalding sarcasm at her own expense or a painful groaner of a pun? I get to see the friend who fits this description every other Wednesday from ten until noonish - the bright spot of my Wednesday workday - and while I filled her nails we would talk about the kids, our husbands, our mothers and pets, and all the ups and downs of our lives just as we have for the past ten years or so. Occasionally we would hook up to go for a walk, getting as much exercise from the laughter as from the mileage. She once helped me reupholster a chair - I stiffened her spine when she tried to talk herself out of going to her 30th class reunion. We exchanged hysterical birthday cards and Christmas presents. I held her hands every other week.

On March 26th she took her own life.

My friend did not attempt suicide. She made a methodical, intelligent plan - dotted all the i's and crossed all the t's - timed it and executed her exit from this life with the same precision she showed in the miniature rooms that she painstakingly created as a hobby. There was no detail unattended to. She was 48 years old. My age.

Five days before I posted to this blog about the social isolation of mental illness. At her memorial service, the pastor read from the Book of Job and pointed out that in Jobs culture, it was customary to sit in front of your home dressed in sackcloth and covered in ashes - to put grief and misery on display - but that in our culture, one is expected to hide grief; to put on a smile and always keep up appearances. She was a master of deception because she felt it was expected of her; she was always smiling, laughing, joking, because it hid her pain. I held her hands every other week. I never saw it.

And now I am keeping up appearances and hiding my broken heart. I miss her so much. And it occurs to me that her pain really didn't end... it merely moved... to all who loved her.

If you've ever thought about it... think about it.

What Is "Hearts & Minds?"

The NAMI Hearts & Minds program is an online, interactive, educational initiative promoting the idea of wellness in both mind and body. Wellness is an ongoing process of learning how to make choices that support a more successful, healthy life.

Engaging in a wellness effort can make a huge difference in the quality of your life. One study, published in the Journal of the American Medical Association, showed that taking the wellness approach can result in a 17 percent decline in total medical visits and a 35 percent decline in medical visits for minor illnesses.

Wellness is about the individual; you can decide what parts of your life you would like to change and you can determine your own success. The Hearts & Minds program includes information on medical self advocacy, smoking and substance abuse, healthy eating and exercise suggestions including sample journals and work sheets to download. Check out something new for your "tool box" here.

Cause of death....

There are days that I think I could die of it. Wonder what they'd put down as the cause of death if you just stopped breathing in the sheer, vast, emptiness of isolation? Yeah, yeah, yeah - I know that social isolation is one of the extreme effects of mental illness, but frankly, I wonder if it isn't just the extreme effect of our social culture? Even when I'm out of my house I'm amazed at how little we interact with the people around us.

So yesterday I volunteered some of my time to help get donations for the Salvation Army and the Prenatal Care Center. Every March the Soroptimist Clubs of Anacortes and Fidalgo Island team up for a Community Baby Shower and hit the local markets encouraging folks to pick up some baby food, or diapers or such and donate it for folks that are struggling to make ends meet. It is really an easy sell; even people disinclined to contribute to the poor (perhaps buying into the idea that they must have done something wrong to be poor or homeless in the first place,) have no problem opening up their wallet for a baby. My job was to ambush shoppers at the door and present them with a list of possible contributions that they could pick up while shopping. And it was interesting to see how generally uncomfortable people are with talking to a 'stranger' - how smiling and greeting someone automatically seems to put them on the defensive. I was pretty uncomfortable, too, even though I genuinely believed that most of them would be inclined to contribute - and there were people that I couldn't bring myself to greet, as they seemed almost hostile.

Okay, so we did pretty well in the donation department nonetheless. But I marvel that anyone connects with anyone in a world where speaking banal pleasantries to someone that you do not actually know seems awkward at best. Everywhere I go I see people talking to a little square of plastic, or typing furiously on it. But where do people talk? Not at the market, not at the dinner table, not in the car, or the bus, or the train. So.... where?

As I write this I'm at home... alone... on my computer. I wonder if you can die from it...

Depression has an upside?

"The mystery of depression is not that it exists — the mind, like the flesh, is prone to malfunction. Instead, the paradox of depression has long been its prevalence. While most mental illnesses are extremely rare — schizophrenia, for example, is seen in less than 1 percent of the population — depression is everywhere, as inescapable as the common cold. Every year, approximately 7 percent of us will be afflicted to some degree by the awful mental state that William Styron described as a “gray drizzle of horror . . . a storm of murk.” Obsessed with our pain, we will retreat from everything. We will stop eating, unless we start eating too much. Sex will lose its appeal; sleep will become a frustrating pursuit. We will always be tired, even though we will do less and less. We will think a lot about death.

The persistence of this affliction — and the fact that it seemed to be heritable — posed a serious challenge to Darwin’s new evolutionary theory. If depression was a disorder, then evolution had made a tragic mistake, allowing an illness that impedes reproduction — it leads people to stop having sex and consider suicide — to spread throughout the population. For some unknown reason, the modern human mind is tilted toward sadness and, as we’ve now come to think, needs drugs to rescue itself.

The alternative, of course, is that depression has a secret purpose and our medical interventions are making a bad situation even worse. Like a fever that helps the immune system fight off infection — increased body temperature sends white blood cells into overdrive — depression might be an unpleasant yet adaptive response to affliction. Maybe Darwin was right. We suffer — we suffer terribly — but we don’t suffer in vain."

Read the rest of this excellent article by Jonah Lehrer here. Found this to be a great companion piece to this previous post on Virginia Woolf.

Blue Days

You can tell by the vast amount of posting I've done of late that I haven't been my usual verbose self. On the heels of the holidays, comes the natural let down - my business slows and with it I feel like I'm shrinking. Without a million gajillion things to be done, without a constant source of busywork... I slip into the blues. It doesn't happen overnight, (although sometimes it does,) and it isn't life threatening. I don't take to my bed (although sometimes I want to.) I go to work, I eat (usually too much or things guaranteed to make me feel bad about myself,) I sleep (sorta...)Everything gets... dim. Time seems to go really slowly, but the weeks can burn right by. I haven't any energy. I haven't any joy. I don't have much of anything... but a pulse and regular respiration, bills that need paying and pets that need feeding.

In the past, if this goes on long enough, or if I start feeling bad enough (where taking to my bed becomes more of a possibility) I will cave to the lure of a fix - and seek some medication. Never had too much trouble talking a doc into Prozac or Lexapro.... They love to write me a script. I know it will take the edge off of the darkness. I will feel ... better, but of course it comes with a price tag - weight gain or no interest in sex or something. And a real price tag, too, as I don't have insurance that will cover the prescription. Sometimes I just opt to wait it out or I find some project to throw my time at - volunteer work and the like - something to keep me out of my head and into exhaustion at the end of the day. And eventually business will pick up and I'll be back to working 50 hours a week at my unfulfilling, but ever so demanding job.

I'm currently still in the 'wait it out' mode of this vile cycle. I don't want medication. I'm trying the whole gamut of 'self care' that I religiously preach to my support group - get enough sleep, eat right, exercise - yadda, yadda, yadda. I've made an appointment with a new counselor - and I have mixed feelings about that. And I wonder if this is really all I can expect out of life - this eternal cycle of sort of okay, and then not okay. I really feel guilty even saying this as I know so many people who live with grave mental illness - so many brave souls who have demons that make my problems look like an ingrown toenail. I'm lucky in so many ways - I have a job, I make a living, my kids are grown and on their own, I'm relatively healthy. So is it wrong to think that I would sell my soul to wake up each morning with a smile on my face looking forward to my day? Cuz I would. I really would.

10 Ways to Reduce Anxiety... Part 1

1. Repeat your worry until you're bored silly. If you had a fear of elevators, you'd get rid of it if you rode in one a thousand times in a row. At first, you would be very anxious, then less so, and eventually it would have no effect (except to make you sick of riding in an elevator.) So take the troublesome thought that's nagging at you and say it over and over, silently, slowly, for 20 minutes. It's hard to keep your mind on a worry if you repeat it that many times. I call this the 'boredom cure' for obvious reasons, but it sure beats feeling overwhelmed by anxiety.

2. Make it worse. When you try to hard to control your anxieties, you only heighten them. Instead, exaggerate them and see what happens. For instance, if you fear that your mind will go blank during a presentation, fake it intentionally in the middle of your next one. Say, "Gee, what was I saying?" Notice how this makes no difference. It's nothing to worry about, right? I did this at a lecture once and no one raised an eyebrow. (Perhaps they weren't listening anyway.!)

Ed. note: these are by Robert L. Leahy, PhD and director of the American Institute for Cognitive Therapy in NY, NY.

Virginia Woolf - Mental Illness Defined Her Craft by Richard Cytowic

"Virginia Woolf’s To The Lighthouse opens in opposition, with a fragment of conversation already in progress: “Yes, of course, if it’s fine tomorrow,” says Mrs. Ramsay to her son James. “But,” contradicts his father two paragraphs later, “it won’t be fine.”

The novel is unbalanced from its first line. Within four paragraphs, points of view shift among mother, son, and father; then an omniscient voice reveals the thoughts of all three members of the Ramsay family, “that great clan which cannot keep this feeling separate from that.”

Could such opposing attitudes reflect Woolf’s own considerable ambivalence? Do the author’s real-life equivocations echo in the indecisiveness of her fictional characters and her inconclusive plot arcs? In her diaries, Woolf regularly described a recurrent “madness,” referring to the disruptive mood swings that plagued her career and ultimately led to her suicide. As a doctor who has studied neurological disorders for 35 years, I recognize such periodic and cyclical fluctuations as manic–depressive illness, or bipolar affective disorder.

Woolf could not piece herself together when unpredictable mental illness fragmented her world. “Virginia could be a very enchanting person,” said Vogue editor Madge Garland, “but there were times when I felt that she was more nearly enchanted.” When depressed, Woolf took to bed and withdrew, viewing the world as meaningless and without hope. On the upswing to mania she wrote at breakneck speed, the words seeming to compose themselves.

Because the distorted thinking of bipolar individuals persists even when they are neutrally poised between mania and depression, Woolf read meaning and portent into events that were likely coincidental. This tendency may be one reason Woolf’s novels are strewn with odd, minute details that lure readers to hunt for significance in them.

Critics and therapists often presume psychodynamic explanations of causation despite lack of evidence in Woolf’s writing. The thinking goes that because the young Virginia was sexually abused, she portrayed the sexes as incommensurable, misogynistic in the way Richard Dalloway is in The Voyage Out or Mr. Tansley is in Lighthouse. The modern habit is to think about mental forces in terms of cause and effect.

What if instead one took a biological perspective and asked how the distorted perceptions and self-absorption typical of bipolar individuals might have colored the thinking of one of the 20th century’s most celebrated authors? Such a mind makes it hard to see objectively, let alone distinguish facts from its projections. Though Woolf confused subject and object most often during manic upswings, she also did so to varying degrees all the time.

From my perspective as a neurologist who studies minds and as a creative writer who imagines characters’ inner lives, Virginia Woolf’s mind is a marvel to behold. No two books are alike. “Not this, not that,” she seems to be saying as she rejects convention and hones her technique in a lifelong experiment to portray consciousness and the character of thought. Her ideas about the unreliability of language were prescient given what science now knows: that the very structure of human brains allows language to introspect only a fraction of consciousness."

Read all of this insightful article here.

Reasons to be Cheerful by Jurrian Kamp

I was having dinner with a friend when she told me she was taking antidepressants. That surprised me, because my friend had never seemed to be lacking in self-esteem or social support. In fact, she had always seemed rather cheerful and I was quite sure it wasn't the mediocre ravioli that lifted her out of existential crisis. My friend is among the millions of people around the world who take anti-depressants, a number that in the U.S. alone has doubled within the past 15 years and is expected to continue to rise.

In a recent contribution to The Huffington Post, physician Andrew Weil hinted at the correlation between the forces of capitalism and the "fact" that depression is now widespread. Among other factors, Weil blames the TV commercials which spread the message that "all sadness is depression, depression is a chemical imbalance in the brain, this pill will make you happy, your doctor will get it for you." Weil suggested that because of overdiagnosis many people who are occasionally -- and quite normally -- a bit sad or insecure are labeled as depressed and in need of a pill to quickly solve their problems.

When I told my friend about Weil's ideas to alleviate depression -- lifestyle changes including less caffeine, more excercise and a diet high in fruits and vegetables, supplemented with omega-3 fatty acids -- she didn't seem particularly convinced. In fact, she seemed almost depressed. Apparently, taking responsibility for your own health can be a tough pill to swallow. But I think the fact that we can do so much to improve our mental and physical health is a reason to be cheerful.

Ed. Note - clinical depression IS a chemical imbalance in the brain and medication can and often does bring much needed relief... HOWEVER - I personally do think that many people seek an easy answer to the ups and downs of life - something these drugs were not intended for - and needlessly put themselves at risk for side effects. Read more of Dr. Weil's ideas on depression here.

Are you an orchid or a dandelion?

Most of us have genes that make us as hardy as dandelions: able to take root and survive almost anywhere. A few of us, however, are more like the orchid: fragile and fickle, but capable of blooming spectacularly if given greenhouse care. So holds a provocative new theory of genetics, which asserts that the very genes that give us the most trouble as a species, causing behaviors that are self-destructive and antisocial, also underlie humankind’s phenomenal adaptability and evolutionary success. With a bad environment and poor parenting, orchid children can end up depressed, drug-addicted, or in jail—but with the right environment and good parenting, they can grow up to be society’s most creative, successful, and happy people.

Read the amazing article in the Atlantic: The Science of Success... here.

Sink or Swim

One of the things that has been weighing really heavy on my mind lately is the process of recovery in Bi-Polar people. John and I have a few close friends who are Bi Polar as well, (imagine that, similar disorders find comfort in proximity) and at least two of them are in constant cycles of "okay" and then "really not okay" with no real indication they will break out. One friend, in particular, has really been on my mind a lot lately. He's just not coping. At all. It's not that he doesn't have the tools or support. He blames it on a lack of self worth, and is perfectly willing to let his shitty self esteem be the reason that his cyclical behavior produces the predicted and tragic results. It's a catch 22 that I can't get him to comprehend as being a mere excuse. If he feels shitty about himself and feels worthless, he doesn't need to take the steps to take care of himself because the effort to spend on himself is "not worth it" in his eyes. So he cycles. And he crashes. And he feels worse, i.e. more worthless. And the effort it takes to feel better, by making better choices, is unimaginable, because he doesn't deserve it, so why should he try?

It's a victim mentality. Complete and total. No matter your chemistry, no matter your synapse relay, choosing to stay sick because it's easier is just another version of self serving pity partying. I used to put it to John like this: If you try, and fail horribly, and fall several feet, I will still tell you HOORAY for the incremental progress you managed to make, even if it's only measurable in nanometers, because when you are making a commitment to your health and to managing your disease when you are well, you never EVER fall as far or as hard when you are sick. If you have a routine that becomes second nature, the crash that comes may disrupt your routine, but it's still there, like muscle memory. You take your meds because you always take your meds and you know you have to take your meds. You eat real food because you always eat real food and you know you have to eat real food. You look at your lists, you have your network help you identify your flags, and you take the hands that are offered to you when people who love you reach out for you, to keep you from hitting the ground.

Our friend doesn't see it this way. He doesn't want to confront his disease or his triggers when he is more stable because he fears that examining his triggers will in and of itself trigger a cycle. He lives in fear, and so reverts to self pity and blame game. "It's not me. This is just what I do. It's what I know how to do. It's how I was raised."

It is frustrating, to know that he has this potential, to have seen him more happy and more healthy, and see him now, angry and barely coherent. I hate this disease. I hate it so much. I hate what it does to my sweet teddy bear of a husband, to our soft and giving friend, to the other remarkable people I know that fight their own brains, every minute of every day. I hate that I can see the pain in John's eyes on days when he just CAN'T do it, when he can't face people and cannot make himself get out of bed. I look into his face, and I see the small line between his eyebrows, I see this weary and cautious soul. I see it in our friend, too. He has this big love of everything, a childlike glee in beauty and nature, an adoration for all things living, a deep and abiding chest ache for injustice, or people he cares about being hurt. He is sore in his heart parts, lost, and instead of choosing NOT to let his disease define him and NOT to allow himself to wallow in a self-created Hell, he is falling away from us. I can't get through. He spent last night on my couch. I needed to know that he was safe, that he was around other people. I told him to pack a bag and I left a message for his psychiatrist that he was seeing today about his crash. I told him that until he is past this crisis, and still seeing his shrink daily, he should be here at night so we can be sure he is okay.

I'm doing it, and it feels just like starting over with John, at square one. I do not love this person as much as I love my husband, but I sure do care about him a great deal, and it is anguish to watch him flail out like this. I need to set boundaries. I need to keep a safe space for John, and for me. (Too much more like this and we will need to set up another place for our friend to go, because this eventually will push John into a cycle, too.)

So, I told our friend last night a version of what I tell John: Ultimately, the battle to be healthy comes down to a choice: You can choose to be healthy and make steps in that direction or your can choose to not be healthy and live a broken life forever. Choosing to be healthy means taking responsibility for your choices and actions, even when they're not what you intended and you're not proud of them. It means when you get set back and you crash, you go to your routine to pull up, and you do it over and over and over and over again. Living a broken life means you wallow in your misfortune and you end up hospitalized. There is no middle ground for a person who has this disease as badly as our friend, or as badly as John. You either choose to learn to swim, or you sink. I told our friend that I will be here and be support if he wants to be well, but if he just wants to be sick, well, then he needs to do it elsewhere, because I won't watch it and won't stand for it.

I am hoping that in the next couple of days, he will take a turn for the better, and that John helping him out will actually help John level out instead of going from our friend crashing to John crashing.

Ed. note: This was written by my beautiful and brave daughter in law and swiped without her permission... One of my favorite sayings: What if all the dragons in our lives are really princes waiting to see us once beautiful and brave? Love you, Sweetness.

The Americanization of Mental Illness

AMERICANS, particularly if they are of a certain leftward-leaning, college-educated type, worry about our country’s blunders into other cultures. In some circles, it is easy to make friends with a rousing rant about the McDonald’s near Tiananmen Square, the Nike factory in Malaysia or the latest blowback from our political or military interventions abroad. For all our self-recrimination, however, we may have yet to face one of the most remarkable effects of American-led globalization. We have for many years been busily engaged in a grand project of Americanizing the world’s understanding of mental health and illness. We may indeed be far along in homogenizing the way the world goes mad.

This unnerving possibility springs from recent research by a loose group of anthropologists and cross-cultural psychiatrists. Swimming against the biomedical currents of the time, they have argued that mental illnesses are not discrete entities like the polio virus with their own natural histories. These researchers have amassed an impressive body of evidence suggesting that mental illnesses have never been the same the world over (either in prevalence or in form) but are inevitably sparked and shaped by the ethos of particular times and places.

In any given era, those who minister to the mentally ill — doctors or shamans or priests — inadvertently help to select which symptoms will be recognized as legitimate. Because the troubled mind has been influenced by healers of diverse religious and scientific persuasions, the forms of madness from one place and time often look remarkably different from the forms of madness in another.

That is until recently.

For more than a generation now, we in the West have aggressively spread our modern knowledge of mental illness around the world. We have done this in the name of science, believing that our approaches reveal the biological basis of psychic suffering and dispel prescientific myths and harmful stigma. There is now good evidence to suggest that in the process of teaching the rest of the world to think like us, we’ve been exporting our Western “symptom repertoire” as well. That is, we’ve been changing not only the treatments but also the expression of mental illness in other cultures. Indeed, a handful of mental-health disorders — depression, post-traumatic stress disorder and anorexia among them — now appear to be spreading across cultures with the speed of contagious diseases. These symptom clusters are becoming the lingua franca of human suffering, replacing indigenous forms of mental illness.

Read the rest of this fascinating article here.