NPR: Poet's Intimate Stanzas Explore Grief and Salvation

Weekend Edition Saturday, March 8, 2008 · The poet Li-Young Lee was born into history and suffering in 1957. His parents were Chinese, and his father, Lee Kuo Yuan, had been Mao Zedong's personal physician. But after a falling out with Mao, the elder Lee fled to Indonesia with his family — a move that almost cost him his life."Because of his being Chinese, and his political and spiritual influences, he was thrown into jail and tortured," Lee says. "He spent 19 months in a leper colony and he nearly died. And he escaped."Poetry of PainIn Behind My Eyes, Lee's first collection of poetry in seven years, the acclaimed poet reflects on his extraordinary family history in meditations on suffering, prayer, death and love. One of his 22 poems is "Self-Help...

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McSweeney's: Observational Notes for the Veterinarian Regarding My Dog Hank

from McSweeney'sOBSERVATIONAL NOTESFOR THE VETERINARIANREGARDING MY DOGHANK. BY JON METHVEN - - - - Dear Doc: As you suggested, I've monitored my beagle for canine depression. Here's the list of behaviors: Hank plays less fetch. Hank would say it's because no one throws him the ball lately. But we're all making sacrifices and Hank needs to show more initiative. With the children no longer living at home, Hank acts lethargic. I believe my wife's nervous breakdown and bed rest have resulted in Hank developing psoriasis. Is that possible? Indoor urination. Sadie, a dog with my formerly secret wife and family in Elmira, urinated indoors when she was a puppy, but that passed. Not sure this is important, but my Binghamton wife's...

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Belifenet: Chocolate Is Not the Enemy

Getting thin wasn't just about changing my eating habits, it was about listening to what my body was telling me. By Jan Henrikson It wasn't yet 7:00 in the morning and already I was chain-eating lime chili tortilla chips. I stood at the kitchen counter, emotionally hung-over from yet another fight with my boyfriend. I was crunching the anger, salting the wounds. Crunching and salting with bites of chocolate for good measure. I couldn't stop. Even the tortilla chip bag had a wickedly furious crinkle. I couldn't eat fast enough to block the tension of not wanting to abandon my relationship, not knowing...

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NYT Magazine: There's Nothing Deep About Depression

By PETER D. KRAMER Published: April 17, 2005 hortly after the publication of my book ''Listening to Prozac,'' 12 years ago, I became immersed in depression. Not my own. I was contented enough in the slog through midlife. But mood disorder surrounded me, in my contacts with patients and readers. To my mind, my book was never really about depression. Taking the new antidepressants, some of my patients said they found themselves more confident and decisive. I used these claims as a jumping-off point for speculation: what if future medications had the potential to modify personality traits in people who had never experienced mood disorder? If doctors were given access to such drugs, how should they prescribe them? The inquiry moved from medical...

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Chicago Tribune: NIU wants comfort dogs back on anniversary of shootings

Campus wants dogs back on anniversary of attack By Carolyn StarksTribune reporterMarch 14, 2008 When classes resumed after the slayings at Northern Illinois University, anxious students showed up at the campus counseling office seeking to talk to someone who was a good listener -- someone calm, someone furry. They wanted to see the dogs. In the aftermath of the Feb. 14 shooting by gunman Steven Kazmierczak, comfort came to the shaken DeKalb campus from an unusually calm pack of four-legged therapists whose mission was to find people who wanted to pet them.The weeklong presence of these comfort dogs has been so missed at NIU that...

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The Telegram: A fresh look at Madness

Michael Pittman has embarked on a journey into the dark past of mental illnessJOAN SULLIVAN Special to The Telegram'A History of Madness' is a visual investigation of how mental illness has been treated, classified and stigmatized throughout history."Visual artist Michael Pittman is speaking from his Grand Falls-Windsor home, describing his latest project. Pittman is an artist known for his spare yet layered canvases, full of odd, telling shapes, "very singular and archetypal," and delicate colours sometimes offset with primary, or primal, blares.But for the moment he has put down his paintbrushes and picked up some books. His "History of Madness" is intended to work on a couple of levels - not just as an exhibition, but also as a fact-based...

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From Scotsman.com: Modern life's pressures put pets on Prozac

from The Scotsman.comBy Marc HornePROZAC was certainly was not on Dr Doolittle's list of remedies. But increasing numbers of pets are being given anti-depressants to help them cope with the strain of 21st century life, not least the tendency for many hard-working owners to leave animals on their own for hours.Morose Macaws and stressed Spaniels are being prescribed mood-enhancing drugs to contain their distressed and anxious behaviour.A leading Scottish animal expert claims increasing numbers of pets are being given Prozac and similar remedies to help them overcome symptoms of deep depression.read more ...

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CCHR: Scientology PSA: Treating Mental Illness Like Blowing Your Brains Out

From the Citizen's Commission on Human Rights:CCHR's Mission StatementThe Citizens Commission on Human Rights (CCHR) is a non-profit public benefit organization that investigates and exposes psychiatric violations of human rights. It works shoulder-to-shoulder with like-minded groups and individuals who share a common purpose to clean up the field of mental health. It shall continue to do so until abusive and coercive practices committed under the guise of mental health are eradicated and human rights and dignity are returned to all. CCHR's Board of Advisors, called Commissioners, include doctors, scientists, psychologists, lawyers, legislators, educators, business professionals, celebrities and civil and human rights representatives. CCHR was co-founded in 1969 by Professor Thomas Szasz,...

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The Guardian: Is your dog writing morbid poetry? Help is at hand

from The Guardian:If our pets really are a barometer for human stress, then we should raise the emotional terror alert to orangeMarina HydeThe Guardian,Saturday March 8 2008After a lacklustre Oscars ceremony, and a depleted awards season that failed to capture the public imagination, all stardust-seekers must turn their eyes to Crufts this weekend, where the flashiness quotient has never been higher.According to reports, the biggest dog show in the world has seen an influx of canine glamourpusses, if you will, as a result of the relaxation of the quarantine laws, the general apotheosis of all things showbizzy, and probably the Hollywood writers' strike. The writers' strike seemed to affect everything from David Letterman's opening monologue to Shanghai zinc futures, so it stands to reason...

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UU World.org: Local TV show sheds light on mental illness

UU minister conducts mental health ministry via public access TV.By Jane Greer 3.10.08Kathryn Lum was describing what it was like as a person with mental illness to first feel the positive affects of medication. “I remember for the first time lying in bed feeling like I had just been thrown up on the shore,” she told the cameras. “I had been shipwrecked and the waves had been crashing over me and I had been struggling to keep afloat. Then I found myself on the beach and resting. Feeling peace for the first time.”Lum, who has schizoaffective disorder, was a guest on a new public access cable TV program called “Mental Health Matters—Alameda County,” which debuted last fall. The show is trying to counter the stigma and prejudice often attached to mental illness by talking with people who actually...

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NPR: Blanche DuBois: Chasing Magic, Fleeing the Dark

Weekend Edition Saturday, March 15, 2008 · by Lynn NearyWhen she boards the streetcar that will take her to her sister Stella's home in New Orleans, Blanche DuBois knows she's headed for a place where she doesn't belong — and where, she will soon discover, she "is not wanted."Blanche DuBois, the fallen Southern belle at the center of Tennessee Williams' A Streetcar Named Desire, has been a character so rich and so complex that bringing her to life is one of acting's greatest challenges. Playing her is like climbing Mount Everest, both physically and emotionally demanding. Actresses talk of losing their voice, suffering bouts of depression or having anxiety attacks while playing the part.Yet they covet the role. read more, or listen to the...

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The Spoof: Death Now Classified as Mental Illness

from The Spoof:(Philadelphia PA) A recent conference of doctors, scientists and pharmacy representatives at the University of Pennsylvania voted to list death as a mental illness.The disorder is characterized by withdrawal from reality, low body temperature and loss of bodily functions. The disorder can inflict almost anyone at anytime according to the conference but is curable. A new medication can either control or cure the syndrome."Death is simply severe depression and catatonia with associated physical disorders." said chairperson Dr. Buddha Quackery.Conference attendees were informed Merck recently developed a pill called 'reviverin' to reverse the disorder. Shares of Merck climbed 1000% yesterday on the New York Stock Exchange.Reviverin...

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Beliefnet: Seven Ways to Restart Your Day

Beliefnet Feature from Oprah.comYou've just woken up, and you're on the wrong side of the bed. Is there any way to switch to the other side? Absolutely.For those times when your mind is addled, and your center is shaky; open this little black bag of cures and find your beautiful balance!1) As soon as the alarm rings...Spend your first 15 seconds awake planning something nice to do for yourself today. "This can really set you up in a good mood--even if it's just going by the farmers' market and getting fresh strawberries," says Alice Domar, PhD, whose next book--Be Happy Without Being Perfect: How to Break Free from the Perfection Deception--will be out in March 2008.2) Get up.The longer you lie there, the more you ruminate, the darker your...

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NYT Books: Neurotic Who Makes Scary World Her Banquet

From NYT Books:By WILLIAM GRIMESPublished: March 19, 2008For a brief but intense period in 2006, Patricia Pearson logged on daily to Flu Wiki. This is a Web site (fluwikie.com) devoted to the concerns — the very deep concerns — of people convinced that a worldwide outbreak of influenza is imminent, and that it will make the ravages of the Black Death seem like a mildly unpleasant interlude. “Here could be found a great milling together of fiercely articulate and freaked-out people from around the world, posting to discussion topics like ‘What Will We Do With the Bodies?’ Ms. Pearson writes in “A Brief History of Anxiety.” Visitors to the site offered suggestions on how to turn back the infected, zombie-like hordes who, in a desperate search...

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Domestic Disturbances: Overselling Overmedication

Judith Warner writes in the New York Times:On the bookshelf behind me at work, I have two new books on the way the pharmaceutical industry is turning us into a nation of hypochondriacal pill-popping zombies: “Shyness: How Normal Behavior Became a Sickness” and “Our Daily Meds.” On the floor, windowsill and shelves of my office at home, I have quite a few more: “Generation Rx” … “The Last Normal Child” … “Toxic Psychiatry” … “Let Them Eat Prozac” … The latest volume, front and center now on my desk, is Charles Barber’s “Comfortably Numb: How Psychiatry Is Medicating a Nation.”In the book, Barber argues that Americans are being vastly overmedicated for often relatively minor mental health concerns. This over-reliance on quick-fix medication is...

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Beyond Blue: And The Oscar Goes To ...

Therese Borchard writes in Beyond Blue:If anyone deserves an Oscar for exceptional acting, it's a depressive.My guardian angel, Ann, told me the other day that she has spent more than half of her life pretending to be a happy person."People have no idea I suffer like I do. When they learn about my manic depression, they shake their heads. Because I appear to be so content and jovial."Ah yes. "Fake it 'til you make it."My epitaph.For at least 18 months, forty-five of my fifty-minute therapy sessions went to acting lessons: how to feign a stable and functional person until I became one.read more ....

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NPR: So Your Tiny Black Heart Is Broken

(In the "It's Never Too Late For Cynicism" department ... we present this little gem from NPR...)NPR.org, February 12, 2008 - Valentine's Day has always been a cruel holiday: For those in love, it applies pressure to perform — to prove one's devotion through a series of insipid gestures. For those in the tentative early stages of courtship, it litters the emotional terrain with landmines, forcing new couples to state feelings they might not be ready to express. And, for those beset by heartbreak or loneliness, Valentine's Day provides a crass, cruel reminder.These five songs — all great, all released in the past five years — are for those wishing to wallow in the holiday's sheer, soul-wrecking brutality. Each is carefully selected to provide...

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Suicidal pets get anti-depressants

News.com.au reports:February 25, 2008 02:19pmPETS at risk of self-harm are increasingly being prescribed anti-depressants because they cannot discuss problems in their lives with others, a leading veterinarian says.Zoo and wildlife medicine specialist with the UK’s Royal College of Veterinary Surgeons, Romain Pizzi, told the Telegraph that more pets were being prescribed Prozac.Tropical birds such as parrots seemed to have been the most affected by depression, Mr Pizzi told the newspaper.But Mr Pizzi said anti-depressants were only used in the most extreme of cases.“Firstly, we will change the environment of the animal and make sure it has more stimulation and toys,” Mr Pizzi told the newspaper. "When we have ruled out underlying medical problems, we try to break the cycle by using Prozac…...

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