Anniversary

"In addition to friendship, attitude is one of the few things in life where we have a true choice. We cannot change what is fated to happen or the actions of events or other people.

What we can change is our reaction to such things with the attitude we adopt. In truth, our attitude can be more important than anything we do. It can make or break families, companies, and nations. It is more important than schooling, talent, looks, or wealth.

How we react is everything and our attitude is the choice we have; it is a choice we make every minute of every day. It is a state of mind that no one can take from us. If we are in control of our attitudes, we are in command of our lives. And that is the best way to live."

I would love to say that I wrote that, but I stole it from a blog who stole it from the company who makes his snow boarding equipment. Whatever. I'm quoting it to you now, because it is the essence of what gives our life any sort of meaning. I've struggled for a year now asking myself that very sort of question. Today is the anniversary of a suicide - a friend of mine who took her life and left us all behind with nothing but questions. I have lived a year longer than her and I'm never sure which of us made the right decision. There are days that I am so unhappy that I just don't want to draw another breath, so how can I blame her for choosing not to? And yet I still do. I'm still angry. But I am ultimately in control of my attitude.

So what does that leave me with? Some wisdom, perhaps. I get up and I live with depression, in a society that so often lacks compassion, and I love the people that I love regardless of their flaws and insensitivities, or maybe because of them. I can choose to be wounded by my day or to feel blessed by the gift of it. I can weep with the overwhelming pain of it all or I can move through it. Every single day I make choices. And they are mine to make.

I miss Dianne. I miss the father that I never got to know. I miss the woman I would be if all these and a hundred other tragedies hadn't happened. I wish I had done things differently - for a minute or two - and then I try to absorb the fact that things happen to us regardless, that one can't prepare for a tsunami or a foreclosure or cancer. That these too are the stuff of which our lives are made. I must define my life on my own terms and not be a victim of the things I can not control. I must choose.

All in all, I am very blessed. I've a roof over my head, a job, enough to eat. I've a family that means the world to me and a cat who woke me with a wet nose kiss this morning. And even though the sun isn't shining, I know it will shine again. Attitude is everything. Today I will be happy...

Errors lead surgeons to contemplate suicide

A study suggests medical errors, job burnout and depression lead surgeons to contemplate suicide at higher rates than the general public, and they're much less likely to seek help.

Fear of losing their jobs contributes to surgeons' reluctance to get mental health treatment, according to the study. Nearly 8,000 surgeons participated.

About 6 percent reported recent suicidal thoughts; the rate was 16 percent among those who'd made a recent major medical error although it wasn't known if that was the reason.

Only about one-fourth of those with suicidal thoughts said they'd sought professional mental health treatment. By contrast, among the general population, about 3 percent have suicidal thoughts and 44 percent of them seek mental health treatment, other studies have shown.

The research didn't address specific reasons why they had contemplated suicide but strongly suggests depression, job burnout and medical errors were contributing factors. To a lesser extent, being unmarried, divorced and childless also were linked with contemplating suicide. Other factors also could have contributed to a risk for suicidal thoughts.

Results published previously from the same survey showed almost 9 percent of participating surgeons said they'd made a recent major medical error. Overall, surgeons queried worked 60 hours per week on average; 40 percent felt burned out; and 30 percent had symptoms of depression. Most said their work left little time for personal and family life.

Read the whole article by Lindsey Tanner here.

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!