NYT: Midlife Suicide Rises, Puzzling Researchers

By PATRICIA COHENPublished: February 19, 2008Shannon Neal can instantly tell you the best night of her life: Tuesday, Dec. 23, 2003, the Hinsdale Academy debutante ball. Her father, Steven Neal, a 54-year-old political columnist for The Chicago Sun-Times, was in his tux, white gloves and tie. “My dad walked me down and took a little bow,” she said, and then the two of them goofed it up on the dance floor as they laughed and laughed.A few weeks later, Mr. Neal parked his car in his garage, turned on the motor and waited until carbon monoxide filled the enclosed space and took his breath, and his life, away.Later, his wife, Susan, would recall that he had just finished a new book, his seventh, and that “it took a lot out of him.” His medication was also taking a toll, putting him in the hospital...

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Beyond Blue: Lincoln's Blueprint for Success

Therese Borchard writes in "Beyond Blue"The reason why Lincoln's story inspires so many people comes down to hope, says Shenk, author of "Lincoln’s Melancholy." In the Winter 2007 Issue of the John Hopkins Depression and Anxiety Bulletin, Shenk was interviewed about the incredibly thorough and absorbing book that took him seven years to research and write.From Shenk's quotes, I learned even more about the man who earned the equivalent of a Nobel Peace Prize, Purple Heart, and three Olympic Gold Medals in the mental health competition."The essential question that Lincoln grappled with during his lifetime was how do you have hope in the face of great suffering," Shenk explains. "That question never ceases to be relevant for him. To me, Lincoln was a man who suffered more than anyone in his circle...

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NYT: Reports of Gunman’s Use of Antidepressant Renew Debate Over Side Effects

By BENEDICT CAREYSteven P. Kazmierczak stopped taking Prozac before he shot to death five Northern Illinois University students and himself, his girlfriend said Sunday in a remark likely to fuel the debate over the risks and benefits of drug treatment for emotional problems.Over the years, the antidepressant Prozac and its cousins, including Paxil and Zoloft, have been linked to suicide and violence in hundreds of patients. Tens of millions of people have taken them, and doctors say it is almost impossible to tell whether the spasms of violence stem in part from drug reactions or the underlying illnesses.“It’s a real chicken-and-egg sort of situation,” said Dr. Jane E. Garland, director of the Mood and Anxiety Disorders Clinic at BC Children’s Hospital in Vancouver, British Columbia.Dr. Garland...

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Beyond Blue: Because of, Not In Spite of

Therese Borchard writes:Last week's post on the Newsweek happiness article provoked many interesting comments. I especially liked this insightful one from Beyond Blue reader Mia:Such a great discussion here. And I really love the distinctions being made: "medicine" vs "drugs" and "sadness" vs "depression." And how I love Dr. Kramer's over-and-over-and-over insistence that we're talking about a disease here people -- not simply a deeply felt negative emotion. Is there a tendency to throw pills at things too quickly in this society? Perhaps. But people seem to forget that one of the reasons drugs are prescribed -- and one of the useful applications of drug samples from pharmaceutical reps -- is to help diagnose the problem in the first place. Is it "sadness" or "fatigue" or "depression"? Sometimes...

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CNNMoney:Bummed out? Bad time to shop

A new study says incidental emotions can influence the prices at which individuals buy and sell. NEW YORK (CNN/Money) - Think you paid too much for a little gift you bought yourself after a tough day at the office? A new study suggests your emotions may have pushed you to a bad decision.According to a study by researchers at Carnegie Mellon University, sadness propels people to spend more for an object than they would have otherwise paid and to sell items at a discount. Disgust, on the other hand, depresses both buying and selling prices."We're showing for the first time that incidental emotions from one situation can exert a causal effect on economic behavior in other, ostensibly unrelated situations," Jennifer Lerner, an assistant professor...

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The Last Psychiatrist: What Else Causes Suicide?

from The Last Psychiatrist:In which I take the semiotic logic of medication induced suicidality to its inevitable, silly end. Using nothing more than a Volvo. And without lawyers.With the recent news that anticonvulsants double the rate of suicide, I got to thinking: isn't Klonopin (clonazepam) an FDA approved anticonvulsant?Sure, it has different pharmacology than the other 11 studied, but Lamictal, Lyrica, Depakote, etc are equally different. So if we're going to pretend that we never had to take pharmacology in med school, if we're talking class effect, then Klonopin gets the warning.Which may mean that all benzos should get the warning, since, well...But why stop there? Antidepressants carry the warning across pharmacology. SSRIs, TCAs--...

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The Scotsman: There's Nothing At All Funny About Depression

By JANEY GODLEY STAND–UP comics are often prey to depression. Take John Cleese, Stephen Fry, Paul Merton, Tony Hancock, Kenneth Williams and Spike Milligan as examples.It does seem that being funny in public equates to being sad in private.My daughter Ashley went round a bunch of local comics in Glasgow asking them about their lives and deduced that the majority of them have had disturbing childhoods or horrific incidents in their lives that led them into standing up in public and telling jokes.I myself have never shied away from talking about my difficult childhood and sexual abuse, though I have never suffered from depression.I am very lucky. It takes a lot to get me feeling down. I tend to deal with an issue in my own way and get on with solving the problem. Not everyone is so fortunate.Being...

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Spread The Love NOW winner: A Sense of Equinity

A Sense of EquinityAnimal Cops Houston, a reality show on Animal Planet, showed a story about 3 neglected and deprived horses being rescued.Prologue:One morning the Houston SPCA gets a call about a few mistreated horses in a stable. When they go to check, they see a terrible sight. Three extremely weak horses were found barely standing in the stables. They didn't have food, nor water. And they were almost skeletal. The experts on that show said that it takes about 6 months of food deprivation for a horse to get in that state.One horse, Playboy 2000, in particular was in an alarming state. He was the weakest of the lot. One could see almost every bone in his body. He had scars all over his body, which was evidence that he was beaten and tortured. His name was branded on his body, by using the...

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The Urban Monk: Compassion - Group Writing Project Results

I'll be featuring the winners of the Group Writing Project here on We Must Not Think Too Much, because I think the essays are extraordinary.To read more about the project, click he...

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McSweeney's Internet Tendency: Mondays With Kafka

MONDAYSWITH KAFKA.BY JIMMY CHEN- - - -To: All Staff9:21AMSubject: My printer Something fairly odd has happened. My printer's toner (which usually lasts at least a month under normal printing frequency) was mysteriously depleted over the weekend. I'd rather not to get into it, but this was a very strange weekend for me. Let's just say I'm a little "bugged" out, and not particularly in a chirpy mood. Last Friday, I put in a new toner cartridge, and this morning it seems that it's completely empty. At first, given the absurdity of such a notion, I erroneously concluded that something was wrong with the toner sensor, and that the printer was simply confused. I've been told that I have a way of anthropomorphizing machinery, but I could hear the gurgling soul within. Anyway, I brought in a technician...

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Falling Fruit TV: Being Human and Suffering Less Along The Way

Click on the "Buddhist Geeks" logo to listen to the audio file ...Running Time: 19:55Hosted by:Vince HornGuests:Noah LevineNoah Levine, Buddhist teacher and dharma punk, shares the intimate details of his early lifestyle of punk rock, drugs, and jail and his climb out of a harmful way of living that was facilitated in part by meditation practice. For more details about his journey check out his spiritual memoir, Dharma Punx. He also shares with us his experience of becoming a Buddhist teacher under the tutelage of Jack Kornfield.We go on to talk about Noah's most recent writing Against the Stream, and his unique way of expression the dharma. We also discuss the difference in how 1st generation & 2nd or 3rd generation teachers might express...

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now THIS is what I call a Valentine's Day article!

from Beyond Blue:12 Ways to End Addictive RelationshipsIn his book, "How to Break Your Addiction to a Person," Howard Halpern first explains what an addictive relationship is, then gives guidelines for recognizing if you're involved in one. Then, he offers several techniques on how to end an unhealthy relationship (or an emotional affair).I’ve compiled and adapted all of his suggestions into the following dozen techniques, excerpting what I found to be the most important passages for each.1. Keep a Relationship Log2. Find the Patterns3. Write Memos to Yourself4. Make Connections.5. Foster a Supportive Network6. Complete Your Sentences7. Be Aware of Your Body8. Nurture Your Core Fantasies9. Awareness of Wanting10. Stop Thoughts and Distract Yourself11. Allow Multiple Attachments12. Connect...

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The Washington Post: Healing a Troubled Mind Takes More Than a Pill

MESSAGE (NOT) IN A BOTTLEHealing a Troubled Mind Takes More Than a Pill By Charles BarberSunday, February 10, 2008Feeling depressed? No problem, pop a pill.That's what more and more Americans are doing these days to quell what ails their troubled souls. The use of antidepressants in the United States has exploded in the past couple of decades, and drugs such as Prozac, Paxil and Zoloft, which didn't even exist 20 years ago, are household names, almost household staples.And why not? The television ads make it seem so easy: An agonized man or woman stares listlessly into space or slumps on a bed or couch, holding their head in their hands. Then they take a pill and suddenly morph into a happily engaged and joyous being, back on the job or walking in a park, awash in sunshine, surrounded by grandchildren,...

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The Urban Monk: Loneliness - The Beginning of Romance

If that's the case ... I've been "beginning" for years! When does the romance part start???The Urban Monk writes:When we are in the depths of our loneliness, what comforts us – what could possibly take us away from it? What, indeed? So often, it feels like there is no solace; like we are running from our own shadow. And it is true, in a way. There is no escape from being alone. We are always alone. But there is a way out of loneliness.All our efforts at escaping loneliness are fundamentally flawed, for we don’t understand the nature of what we are running from. There is something beautiful about your loneliness. And when you see that, when you acknowledge it, learn to delight in it, that’s when something shifts inside you. When your loneliness becomes aloneness - that is freedom! That is...

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and we'll add this to the "Yeah, Right" ... section ...

Naw, it's there. Which makes living without it that much harder ...Therese Borchard writes in Beyond Blue:The Best Valentine’s Day Ever: A Husband Who Gets His WifeYesterday was a day in which I better understood why, according to a November 2003 article in “Psychology Today,” 90 percent of marriages involving a person who has bipolar disorder end in divorce; that, according to “The Sidney Morning Herald,” people with bipolar disorder have three times the rate of divorce and broken relationships as the general community.My irritability and moodiness the last two weeks is precisely why J. Raymond DePaulo, Jr. M.D. writes in “Understanding Depression,” that “depression . . . has a much greater impact on marital life than rheumatoid arthritis or cardiac illness” and that “one study found that...

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Another entry in my snarky salute to Valentine's Day and all things romantic ...

from Beyond Blue ...Erma Bombeck: We Needed One AnotherSlowly, awkwardly, with tears streaming down our faces, we reluctantly reached out to one another. Neither of us knew how much strength we had to give, but we were willing to share it. We gave one another something that most friendships are not able to give—vulnerability. Throughout our years together, we had built up a history and a closeness so subtle even we didn’t know it was there. On that evening, we admitted we couldn’t handle life alone. We needed one another.Anne Morrow Lindbergh: The Dance of LoveA good relationship has a pattern like a dance and is built on some of the same rules. The partners do not need to hold on tightly, because they move confidently in the same pattern, intricate but gay and swift and free, like a country...

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Is it indicative of anything that I posted this on my blog about depression?!

Click here to listen to Martha Williamson's "One Little Cup of Coffee" ... and you can click here to read what other disgustingly happy people have to say about it .....

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The Guardian: Mind how you report mental health

Journalists are being urged to show more sensitivity when handling stories that feature people in distressDavid BattyMonday February 18 2008Headlines labelling offenders "psychos" or "schizos" have long been a staple of the British press. But in recent years, coverage of crimes committed by people with mental health problems has faced increasing criticism - much of it for distorting public perceptions about the risks posed by those in mental distress.When the Sun splashed on Frank Bruno's admission to a psychiatric hospital in 2003 with the headline Bonkers Bruno Locked Up, it misjudged the public's mood - later editions of the paper changed the story to Sad Bruno in Mental Health Home. But despite assurances of adopting more measured coverage, papers, particularly the tabloids, can nevertheless...

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The Guardian: Law 'reinforced mental health stereotypes'

David BattyMonday February 18 2008 The government today admitted its controversial new mental health law led to negative media coverage that reinforced the misconception that people with mental health problems are violent.The mental health tsar, Louis Appleby, said the Mental Health Act 2007's focus on protecting the public led the media to highlight the risks posed by those with mental disorders.Professor Appleby said: "The protracted debate around the bill did unfortunately highlight in the media the issue of risk because of the legislation's focus on protecting both patients and the public - this was never the government's intention."His comments came as the Department of Health published new guidance for journalists in a bid to end sensationalist coverage of mental health issues. The handbook,...

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Telegraph.co.uk: Femininity as mental illness

Last Updated: 12:01am GMT 17/02/2008Melanie McGrath reviews Mad, Bad and Sad: A History of Women and the Mind Doctors from 1800 to the Present by Lisa Appignanesi'She's mad, she is,' my 10-year-old neighbour recently announced of his 14-year-old sister, who was cheerfully carving her name on a streetlamp. 'You don't wanna talk to her, she's flipped.''Yeah,' said the girl, adding a swirly 'c' and a loveheart above the 'i' in her name, 'I'm, like, totally mental, me.' Her brother nodded sagely. 'She so bad, she the Princess of Crazy.'It's an odd sort of world, isn't it, where being mad, as in flipped, as in the Princess of Crazy, can admiringly describe a sibling engaged in the routine defacement of street furniture, whereas being really mad,...

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The Morning Sun: Poetry combats stigma of mental illness

PUBLISHED: Sunday, February 17, 2008By Lisa SatayutSun Staff WriterRichard Hartlep, 58, is a quiet man who lives a quiet life. Although he usually doesn't have a lot to say and sometimes has trouble expressing his feelings. He has no problem communicating through written words.And his message is beautiful.It's a message that he hopes will break the stigma that is associated with being around those with a mental illness.You say weakness, I say sickness.You say shrink, I say psychiatrist.You say too ballistic or too vanilla, I say bi-polar.You say way too tragically gloomy Gus, I say depression.You say he or she babbles about God and Molson Canadian all in the same breath, stare too much, and look like hell, I say they're schizophrenic, and they're not feeling too hot either. Hartlep was diagnosed...

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In Memoriam: Victor Charles

"If you should die before me, ask if you can bring a friend ....." Victor CharlesAugust 21, 1989 - March 2, 2002 Who can say for certain; maybe you're still hereI feel you all around me - your memory's so clearDeep within the stillness I can hear you speakYou're still my inspiration - can it beThat you are my forever loveAnd you are watching over me from up aboveFly me up to where you are beyond the distant starI wish upon tonight to see you smileIf only for a while to know you're thereA breath away's not far to where you areAre you gently sleeping here inside my dreamAnd isn't faith believing all power can't be seenAs my heart holds you just one beat awayI cherish all you gave me every day'Cause you are my forever loveWatching me from up aboveAnd...

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Reuters: U.S. raids Iraq psychiatric hospital over attacks

OK, I still think this is still one of the funniest "depression jokes" I've seen in a long time:I was depressed last night so I called Lifeline.Got a call center in Pakistan .I told them I was suicidal.They got all excited and asked if I could drive a truck. But then I read this on the news this morning ...By Michael HoldenBAGHDAD (Reuters) - U.S. troops raided a psychiatric hospital in Baghdad on Sunday and arrested a man suspected of involvement in two recent bombings blamed on mentally impaired women, the U.S. military said.Ten days ago, explosives carried by two women, said by Iraqi and U.S. officials to be mentally handicapped teenagers and unwitting suicide bombers, blew up in two popular pet markets in central Baghdad, killing 99 people...

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750 years apart ... they wrote this ...

Nothing is born, nothing is destroyed.Away with your dualism, your likes and dislikes.Every single thing is just the One Mind.When you have perceived this,you will have mounted the Chariot of the Buddhas. -Huang Po, "Zen Teaching of Huang Po"(born ? - died 850)… what though the sea with waves continualdo eat the earth, it is no more at all:nor is the earth the less, or loseth ought.for whatsoever from one place doth fall,is with the tide unto an other brought:for there is nothing lost, that may be found, if sought.Edmund Spenser, "The Faerie Queene"(c. 1552 – 13 January 15...

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NPR: Arguing the Upside of Being Down

NPR reports ...All Things Considered, February 11, 2008 · Author Eric G. Wilson has come to realize he was born to the blues, and he has made peace with his melancholy state. But it took some time, as he writes in his new book, a polemic titled Against Happiness: In Praise of Melancholy. At the behest of well-meaning friends, I have purchased books on how to be happy. I have tried to turn my chronic scowl into a bright smile. I have attempted to become more active, to get away from my dark house and away from my somber books and participate in the world of meaningful action. … I have contemplated getting a dog. I have started eating salads. I have tried to discipline myself in nodding knowingly. … I have undertaken yoga. I have stopped yoga...

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NBC News: A Wrongfully Convicted Man On Fighting Anger

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NBC News: Making Right of a Wrongful Conviction

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Newsweek again: Happiness: Enough Already

Newsweek reports ...The push for ever-greater well-being is facing a backlash, fueled by research on the value of sadness. By Sharon Begley NEWSWEEKThe plural of anecdote is not data, as scientists will tell you, but consider these snapshots of the emerging happiness debate anyway: Lately, Jerome Wakefield's students have been coming up to him after they break up with a boyfriend or girlfriend, and not because they want him to recommend a therapist. Wakefield, a professor at New York University, coauthored the 2007 book "The Loss of Sadness: How Psychiatry Transformed Normal Sorrow Into Depressive Disorder," which argues that feeling down after your heart is broken—even so down that you meet the criteria for clinical depression— is normal...

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Newsweek:The Pursuit of Unhappiness

Newsweek reports ...Misery is a rational response to the world, but sometimes you just have to feel good. Try not to get carried away.By Jerry Adler Newsweek Web ExclusiveWhat is this happiness of which the poets speak? Beats me. I have glimpsed it fleetingly in the shreds and scraps of dreams that slip away with the dawn—evanescent, like life itself. The better life is, the sooner it will seem to be over, and the greater the regret at leaving it behind. In his 80s, William S. Paley, the immensely wealthy and powerful head of CBS, would wail to friends, "Why do I have to die?" I've never actually had cause to wonder about that, but I have to admit, if I had Paley's life I wouldn't want to die either.At other times happiness steals over me...

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MPR: Depression state's top mental health issue

by Dan Olson, Minnesota Public RadioFebruary 6, 2008St. Paul, Minn. — A study by Minnesota's seven largest health insurers finds about one out of every ten state residents with health insurance is diagnosed at some time in their life with a mental illness.Medica senior vice president for government programs Glenn Andis said the one in ten survey finding was in line with national results. Andis said one mental illness accounts for most of the diagnosis."Depression is the number one diagnosis overall when you put all the categories of depression together and that includes both for children, adolescents and adults, but then certainly a huge category for children and adolescents is attention deficit disorder," Andis explained.Seven of the state's...

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The Writer's Almanac: "Things" by Fleur Adcock

There are worse things than having behaved foolishly in public.There are worse things than these miniature betrayals,committed or endured or suspected; there are worse thingsthan not being able to sleep for thinking about them.It is 5 a.m. All the worse things come stalking inand stand icily about the bed looking worse and worseand worse."Things" by Fleur Adcock, from Selected Poems. © Oxford University Press, 1...

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The Writer's Almanac: "Self-Employed" by David Ignatow

I stand and listen, head bowed, to my inner complaint.Persons passing by thinkI am searching for a lost coin.You're fired, I yell insideafter an especially bad episode.I'm letting you go without noticeor terminal pay. You just lostanother chance to make good.But then I watch myself standing at the exit,depressed and about to leave,and wave myself back in wearily,for who else could I get in my placeto do the job in dark, airless conditions?Poem: "Self-Employed" by David Ignatow from Against the Evidence: Selected Poems 1934-1994. © Wesleyan University Press, 1994. Reprinted with permission....

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Work Is Making You Mentally Ill

from The Times Online:Reports says work is affecting the mental health of thousands every year. How are businesses dealing with anxiety, depression and stress?Sathnam Sanghera Workplace “stress” is now the second-biggest occupational health problem in the UK after musculoskeletal conditions and, according to a World Health Organisation report, “depression” is the fourth most significant cause of suffering and disability after heart disease, cancer and traffic accidents. By 2020 it will rank second, behind heart disease. It’s no surprise that calculations vary as to what this might cost British business in lost productivity. Different reports have put the annual cost at £3 billion, £9 billion and a massive £32 billion. But the extent of the...

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Beyond Blue: Dear God: On the Beatitudes and Hope

In her blog, "Beyond Blue," Therese Borchard writes:Today feels like pizza day in the canned-green-peas-smelling cafeteria of my soul. Because I get to read the Beatitudes! Hands down, my favorite passage in your book (the Bible). For this at-times pessimistic, skeptical person, your eight promises give me a better shot (than I had I spent the fifteen minutes reading the DaVinci Code) at peace and serenity. I repeat them and absorb them for the same reason that a homeless person spends all his money on a lottery ticket: they lead me to hope, a much-needed ingredient to my recovery.Read more ...

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Kahlil Gibran ... on joy and sorrow ...

Your joy is your sorrow unmasked.And the selfsame well from which your laughter rises was oftentimes filled with your tears.And how else can it be?The deeper that sorrow carves into your being, the more joy you can contain.Is not the cup that holds your wine the very cup that was burned in the potter's oven?And is not the lute that soothes your spirit, the very wood that was hollowed with knives?When you are joyous, look deep into your heart and you shall find it is only that which has given you sorrow that is giving you joy.When you are sorrowful look again in your heart, and you shall see that in truth you are weeping for that which has been your delight. Some of you say, "Joy is greater than sorrow," and others say, "Nay, sorrow is the...

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Zen Habits: 17 Unbeatable Ways to Create a Peaceful, Relaxed Workday

The first step is the realization that you are in control of your day. You can create the perfect workday, if you’re willing to start from scratch....Read more ...

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NYT: Using Music to Lift Depression’s Veil

Many people find that music lifts their spirits. Now new research shows that music therapy — either listening to or creating music with a specially trained therapist — can be a useful treatment for depression.Read more ...

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"If you can no longer make fun of someone for being black or gay or even disabled, you can laugh at them for being 'wacko'"

Britney Spears is being detained in a psychiatric hospital. Her very public breakdown reminded Emma Forrest of her own slide into mania and suicidal despair - and how her parents helped achieve her ultimate recovery.Read more ...

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This I Believe: We All Need Mending

by Susan Cooke KittredgeWeekend Edition Sunday, February 3, 2008 · Like most women of her generation, my grandmother, whom I called Nonie, was an excellent seamstress. Born in 1879 in Galveston, Texas, she made most of her own clothes. Widowed at 43 and forced to count every penny, she sewed her three daughters' clothes and some of their children's, as well.I can knit but I cannot sew new creations from tissue-paper patterns. Whenever I try, I break out in a sweat and tear the paper. It clearly requires more patience, more math, more exactitude than I seem willing or capable of giving. Recently, though, I have come to relish the moments when I sit down and, somewhat clumsily, repair a torn shirt, hem a skirt, patch a pair of jeans, and I realize...

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