NYT: The Advantages of Closing a Few Doors

By JOHN TIERNEYPublished: February 26, 2008The next time you’re juggling options — which friend to see, which house to buy, which career to pursue — try asking yourself this question: What would Xiang Yu do?Xiang Yu was a Chinese general in the third century B.C. who took his troops across the Yangtze River into enemy territory and performed an experiment in decision making. He crushed his troops’ cooking pots and burned their ships.He explained this was to focus them on moving forward — a motivational speech that was not appreciated by many of the soldiers watching their retreat option go up in flames. But General Xiang Yu would be vindicated, both on the battlefield and in the annals of social science research.He is one of the role models in Dan Ariely’s new book, “Predictably Irrational,”...

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Beliefnet: Meditation: Get that 'Spring Cleaning' Feeling

The pleasant feeling of clarity and refreshment is there for the taking--no matter if it's technically 'spring' or not. By Rev. Laurie Sue Brockway"Spring cleaning" is as much a metaphor for spiritual life as it is an annual chore-ridden project. In this meditation, clearing out, cleaning up, and deeply cleansing are seen through spiritual eyes, as ways to welcome space, light, and energy into your life and home.Listen to the au...

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The Greenville News: Chemicals in water impact fish, Clemson research finds

By Liv Osby • STAFF WRITER • April 6, 2008In the basement of a small brick building on the campus of Clemson University, hybrid striped bass swim in tanks of water dosed with the antidepressant Prozac."It's amazing how (pharmaceuticals) are excreted from the body, go to the treatment plants, and in many cases, come out almost untouched," says Stephen J. Klaine, professor of environmental toxicology at Clemson. "And given that many municipalities take their drinking water from surface water, you'd expect these compounds, if they make it through a wastewater treatment plant, will make it through a drinking water plant."One of Klaine's graduate students, Kristen Gaworecki, is looking at Prozac. She exposed bass to the drug, though at higher levels than those found in surface water, and found...

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East Meets West: In the Woods of Self-Deprecation

Posted by Pavel Somov, Ph.D. East Meets WestThere is a story in Zhuangzi (a Taoist book named after Zhuangzi, a 4th century BCE Chinese philosopher) that goes something like this...A carpenter Shi (I think) and his apprentice are walking through the woods in search of a good tree. The apprentice sees a great big old oak tree and asks his master why he walked past it paying it no attention. "Oh, enough with that," the Master exclaims, "don't even talk about this one!" The Master Carpenter then explains: "This tree... it's so bad that if you made a boat, it'd sink; and if you made a coffin, it'd rot; and if you made a roof, it'd leak... This tree is good for nothing and it's exactly because it's so useless and worthless that it's been standing...

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WikiHow: How to Make an Anatomically Correct Brain Cake

From WikiHow:If ever you're in the mood, or in the company of neuroscientists with something to celebrate, you may need to create an anatomically correct brain cake.Read how ...

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MSNBC: Neatness a sign of godliness — or compulsion?

Spectrum of tidiness runs from merely orderly to life-hampering disorderBy Melissa Schorr MSNBC contributorShe has color-coded folders to organize her take-out menus and bills. Clear containers to stash her toddler’s toys. A fridge with condiments neatly in a row. ]Welcome to the world of a compulsive neat freak.Clutter-phobia may also be programmed into certain people’s genes, since extreme cleanliness likely once conferred a survival advantage by warding off germs, disease and death. "Anxiety has evolutionary value — it keeps us alert and vigilant,” says psychotherapist Tom Corboy, director of the OCD Center of Los Angeles. “The problem is people can develop this over-the-top anxiety to things that don’t deserve it, like knickknacks on a...

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MSNBC: In search of the good old nervous breakdown

Everyone from actors to housewives used to have them, so what were they?By Roni Caryn Rabin MSNBC contributorWhen Joe Livernois was a child, his father sometimes spent days racing around giddily and talking non-stop — then he'd crash, become severely depressed, withdraw into his room and spend most of his time sleeping.If anyone talked about his father’s increasingly erratic behavior, they said he was “having a nervous breakdown,” said Livernois, now a 54-year-old editor at the Monterey (Calif.) Herald, who recently wrote a series of columns about his father. "‘Nervous breakdown’ was the malady everybody was suffering at the time. I guess it was a polite way of saying, ‘Your father’s just not right,'" he said. "There wasn’t a lot of knowledge,...

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UPI Asia Online: Health Watch: Vitamin B12 and mental ills

(This article was of particular interest to me because, as a gastric bypass patient, I need to be sure to get B-12 shots once a month, as I'm no longer able to absorb B-12 "the regular way." Hmmm... "listlessness ... lacking interest in anything ... tired easily ...." Guess it's time to make that clinic appointment, huh?!)By DR. PRADNYA KULKARNIHONG KONG, China, "Are you a vegetarian, Mr. Kumar?" asked Dr. Shailesh Chaugule, a psychiatrist from the Indian city of Pune. Kumar was quite perplexed by this question, as it had no apparent correlation with his primary complaints.A senior citizen in his early seventies, Kumar was a diabetic but he did not have any other illnesses. He had been feeling low for the past several months. Recently, he lacked interest in everything, got tired easily and...

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ABC News: A Controversial Diagnosis for Herschel Walker

Psychiatric Community Debates NFL Star's Revelation of Multiple PersonalityBy JAIME HENNESSEYApril 14, 2008 Among the hundreds of disorders defined by the American Psychiatric Association, dissociative identity disorder, formerly called multiple personality disorder, is one of the more contentious.Herschel Walker's public announcement brings the disorder back into the public eye. ABC News polled mental health experts to get their reaction.Read more ...

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From Associated Content: Comparing Herschel Walker's Mental Disorders, Suicide Attempts with Mine

By Autism-Dad-1Herschel Walker has announced he has dissociative identity disorder (D.I.D.), formally known as multiple personality disorder. According to ABC news, he has just released a book, "Breaking Free". Walker explains that he has suffered for a long time and, at one point, was playing Russian roulette with a loaded gun. He has contributed some of his success to the disorder. It is a controversial disorder; some believe it is made up, just to get away with one's mistakes. Others have seen the disassociation in patients like Walker.I have to give Walker credit for coming out and publicly sharing his story. It shows that even with a successful life of fame and fortune, mental illness can rear its ugly head. Mental Illness knows no boundaries and doesn't care who you are or what you have...

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Psychiatric Times: Cultural Aspects of the Pharmacological Treatment of Depression: Factors Affecting Minority and Youth

Eugenio M. Rothe, MD, Andres J. Pumariega, MD, and Kenneth M. Rogers, MD Dr Rothe is associate professor at the Robert Stempel School of Public Health, department of health promotion and disease prevention, Florida International University; he is also in private practice in Miami. Dr Pumariega is chair of the department of psychiatry at Reading Hospital in Pennsylvania; he is also professor of psychiatry at Temple University School of Medicine in Philadelphia. Dr Rogers is assistant professor and director of child and adolescent psychiatry residency at the University of Maryland in Baltimore. The authors report that they have no conflicts of interest concerning the subject matter of this article. The most recent studies reveal that minority children and adolescents are at a higher risk for...

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AlterNet" Comfortably Numb: How Psychiatry Is Medicating a Nation

By Onnesha Roychoudhuri, AlterNet.Author Charles Barber discusses Americans' unrealistic notions about happiness. We've medicalized a lot of life issues that aren't mental illnesses.While we've now become accustomed to the barrage of prescription drug commercials on prime-time TV, it's jarring to learn that this advertising is legal only in the United States and New Zealand. The pharmaceutical industry doesn't just target Americans directly, but also spends roughly $25,000 per physician per year. With the aid of information from data mining companies, a pharmaceutical representative knows exactly how many prescriptions for what medication a doctor has written, allowing the industry to individually target them.How Americans came to this fraught relationship with the pharmaceutical industry...

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PRLog: Jacqueline Foreman Launches Controversial Talk Radio Show On Mental Health

PRLog (Press Release) – Apr 20, 2008 –Jacqueline Foreman will host Your Mental Health Talk Radio www.blogtalkradio.com/yourmentalhealth Jacqueline Foreman is the mother of three children, a sucessful human resources executive and a published romance author. She is also a paranormal investigator with Orion Paranormal. So why is she now hosting a talk show on mental health? "I began airing Your Mental Health because after the death of a very close relative I began suffering from insomnia, depression, anxiety and a host of other problems. At one point I was even suicidal and that scared the hell out of me."Read more ...

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Shreveport Times: Depression experience differs between sexes

By Patrick FlaniganGannett News ServiceMore than 6 million men are diagnosed with depression each year, about half as many as women. But, according to the Mayo Clinic, the number of men who kill themselves each year is four times higher than women. Mental-health professionals increasingly acknowledge that men are less likely than women to recognize their depression or admit to feelings that could alert others to their condition.Read more ...

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Gather.com" Mental illness and sleep: A two way street

by Julie K. Silver, M.D., Harvard Medical SchoolApril 14, 2008 09:56 AM EDTI know when I'm feeling anxious about something—be it work or a family matter—I find it hard to fall asleep at night. A friend has mentioned that when she's feeling a lot of stress, she can fall asleep fine but will wake up in the middle of the night and not be able to get to sleep. So it's not surprising that mental health disorders more serious than the standard anxiety that sometimes comes with everyday life can disrupt sleep, too.Here's what Improving Sleep: A guide to a good night's rest, a Special Health Report from Harvard Medical School, says about this subject:Almost all people with anxiety disorders have trouble falling asleep and staying asleep. In turn, not being able to sleep may become a focus of some...

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NPR: Sadness Spurs Spending, Experiment Shows

by Nell GreenfieldboyceAll Things Considered, April 19, 2008 · If you're feeling blue, you might want to think twice before you head out for a little shopping.That's because research shows sad people are willing to pay significantly more money for everyday items such as a water bottle.Read the rest of the article ...Read an earlier posting ...

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60 Minutes: Gastric Bypass Surgery Has Surprising Benefits

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NPR: This I Believe: A God Who Remembers

from NPR's This I Believe Series:by Elie WieselI remember, May 1944: I was 15-and-a-half, and I was thrown into a haunted universe where the story of the human adventure seemed to swing irrevocably between horror and malediction. I remember, I remember because I was there with my father. I was still living with him there. We worked together. We returned to the camp together. We stayed in the same block. We slept in the same box. We shared bread and soup. Never were we so close to one another.We talked a lot to each other, especially in the evenings, but never of death. I believed — I hoped — that I would not survive him, not even for one day. Without saying it to him, I thought I was the last of our line. With him, our past would die; with...

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Examiner.com: Luminaries share stories of mental illness

Luminaries share stories of mental illnessApr 16, 2008 by Karl B. Hille, The ExaminerBALTIMORE - With a little help from Baltimore’s Dorothy Hamill and actress Mariette Hartley, Johns Hopkins School of Medicine is trying to shed more light on mood disorders and bring them out of the closet.Hamill and Hartley offered frank, often dramatic testimonies of their battles with depression, alcoholism and bipolar disorder during the 22nd Annual Mood Disorder Symposium on Tuesday.Read more ...

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Ecorazzi: Knut! Say It Ain't So!

Ecorazzi reports:Knut The Polar Bear Arrested On Drug Possession, Drunk Driving Adding even more sadness to what is quickly becoming a typical Hollywood career implosion, Knut the polar bear was arrested today along the Pacific Coast Highway while driving under the influence. Malibu police also found trace amounts of cocaine and heroine in a cooler filled with sardines in the back seat. “We think he was attempting to ditch the cooler into the ocean immediately after we pulled him over,” officer Aprile Pazzo commented. “We quickly tranquilized him and called in refrigeration backup.”Even more disturbing, it appears that Knut was caught hurling species-related slurs while stumbling out of his vehicle. “He pretty much condemned the human race...

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ABC News: Bi-Polar Bear? Keeper Calls Knut "Psycho"

What - so now everyone's a psychiatrist???Keeper Calls Knut the Bear a 'Psycho'Berlin Zoo's Star Attraction May Have Serious IssuesBy CHRISTEL KUCHARZPASSAU, Germany, March 26, 2008 Celebrity polar bear Knut is making headlines again, this time not for being cute and cuddly but rather for an apparent human fixation. "Knut needs to leave Berlin Zoo, the sooner the better. He's had so much contact with humans in his young life that he doesn't realize he's a polar bear, he needs to get used to a life without the people who brought him up," one of his keepers, Markus Roebke, told German tabloid Bild Zeitung. According Roebke, who helped hand-rear Knut in the Berlin Zoo, Knut is a "publicity-addicted psycho" who needs the show, the human adulation....

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UrbanMonk.net: The life that has gone on before: The Perils of Compassion, Part 2

From UrbanMonk.net:The word “Sensei”, to the western mind, brings up an image of a great master, a teacher of the esoteric arts. I have heard that in its native Japan, the connotations of this word are very different. Any teacher of any sort, from the most ordinary to the most renowned, is called a sensei. A kindergarten schoolteacher is a sensei; a professor at a university is also a sensei.Perhaps the word has lost some of its grandeur. Perhaps the western interpretation is more suitable; for the two characters that are used to write the word combine to form something most striking: the life that has gone before. A sensei is not merely a teacher, someone who parrots from a textbook - but someone who has walked the way before you, someone...

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UrbanMonk.net: The perils of forced compassion and loving-kindness, part 1 or ... Forgiveness #5?

from UrbanMonk.netCompassion, the helping of those in need, is espoused as one of the greatest virtues a person can have. Politicians swear by it; religions espouse it; everyone seems to agree it is a good thing to do.And there is no doubt it is a great virtue – but what if there are right ways and wrong ways to go about it? What if, in trying to help, we sometimes end up hurting ourselves – or the person we are trying to help?“How is that possible?” you ask. Allow me to illustrate with a few examples.Why we begin with ourselvesI’ve stated before; Compassion has to begin with ourselves. How can we give what we don’t have? If we look inside ourselves, and we see self hatred – and be aware, for such feelings are very often cleverly disguised...

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Forgiveness #4 ...

And some final thoughts on forgiveness ... “In order to forgive, we simply need to get to a place where we are ready to stop identifying ourselves with the suffering that was caused us.”~ The Daily Om“Forgiveness, in its most significant form, does not involve ceasing to be angry at someone who has hurt you. It involves ceasing to be angry with life for the hurt.”~ William Bridges“Forgiveness is giving up all hope of having had a different past.”~ Anne Lamott“I wondered if that was how forgiveness budded, not with the fanfare of epiphany, but with pain gathering its things, packing up and slipping away unannounced in the middle of the night.”~ Khaled Hosse...

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Forgiveness #3 ...

Then I got a jolly email from Therese Borchard, who writes Beyond Blue, and in her blog today, she writes about the Prayer of St. Francis, and getting hung up on the "it is in pardoning that we are pardoned" part...Which led me to remember this article I kept posted on my wall for years after my second divorce ...Decontaminating the word "forgiveness"This is very important, because for some people the word has been damaged by exposure to religious abuse or double standards in the past. Here are Ten False ideas about the Forgiveness Process often used as reasons for not doing it, and some corresponding truths.1. Untruth: Forgiveness somehow "allows" the person forgiven to continue their harmful actions, or condones what they did. Therefore I...

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Forgiveness #2 ...

Then I read this article on magical thinking in Psychology Today. Even though I'm taking these quotes out of context to some degree, they explain why such a huge part of my sickness last spring came from this terrible conviction I was being punished for something: But you are wired to find meaning in the world, a predisposition that leaves you with less control over your beliefs than you may think....Survival requires recognizing patterns—night follows day, berries that color will make you ill. And because missing the obvious often hurts more than seeing the imaginary, our skills at inferring connections are overtuned. ... We look for patterns because we hate surprises and because we love being in control.Those sentences, for me, help explain...

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Forgiveness #1....

It all started with watching this episode of "House" on DVD this weekend. It's called "Histories." In it, a woman comes into House's hospital dying, a homeless woman we learn had, at one point, a husband and a baby and what might have been an idyllic middle-class life. But she had been driven to the brink of insanity even before she got sick by her guilt over the car accident in which her husband, Paul, and son had died - an accident in which she survived -- and was driving.I saw this episode last spring when I was at the brink of insanity myself. Normally I watch House to soak up the character's acerbic wit and lust after Hugh Laurie, but I was too sick and too crazy and too enmeshed in a major depressive episode to do anything but let the...

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Science Alert: Loss can become mental illness

Monday, 31 March 2008 University of New South Wales Strong feelings of grief are normal and healthy after the death of someone you love but recent research from UNSW suggests that some people grieve for so long that it becomes a significant mental illness. Estimates are that between 10 and 15 per cent of bereaved people experience an intense, prolonged sadness arising from longing or yearning for the deceased - so much so that their overall health is impaired, they withdraw socially, become depressed and even suicidal. As well, there's growing recognition that traditional grief counselling may not help. Happily, other recent findings suggest that such people can recover with treatment using Cognitive Behaviour...

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The Salt Lake Tribune: Poodle connects with prisoners in therapy

The 'Buck effect'Poodle connects with prisoners in therapyThe fluffy pooch helps women diagnosed with mental illness open up in group sessionsBy Russ RizzoThe Salt Lake TribuneArticle Last Updated: 04/01/2008 12:38:21 AM MDTUTAH STATE PRISON - Buck, a 10-year-old standard poodle, lies at the foot of Francine Chavez, licking her hand as she discusses healthy ways to overcome anger."He's really reaching out to you," said Rachael Jasperson, a prison intern leading the five-woman therapy group Monday morning.For the past month, Buck has offered his touch - both literal and figurative - to help a group of female prisoners diagnosed with serious mental illnesses become more engaged in therapy.Marcie Remington, who heads women's in-patient treatment...

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Beyond Blue: Does Depression Shrink Your Brain?

Therese Borchard in Beyond Blue writes:Does Depression Shrink Your Brain? James Potash, M.D.--How Do You Move Beyond Blue?For this week's "How Do You Move Beyond Blue?" segment, I have reprinted a fascinating article by James Potash, associate professor of psychiatry and co-director of the Mood Disorders Program (where I graduated with the help of Dr. Smith) at the Johns Hopkins School of Medicine in Baltimore. More and more research is showing that the brain actually shrinks with severe depression, and that is all the more reason to arrest it as soon as possible. For the ABC special report, click here. I have excerpted most of it below.Laura, whose name was changed for confidentiality, said she knew she needed help when she started thinking...

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The Vancouver Sun: Psychiatry confuses distress with disorder

In trying to achieve scientific respectability, this branch of medicine has been medicalizing the human conditionPeter McKnight, Vancouver SunPublished: Saturday, March 29, 2008A front-page story in the March 24, 2008, edition of The Vancouver Sun warned readers of a new and potentially devastating epidemic.Headlined "Mental health problems soar on campus," the story explained that some universities have seen a tripling of mental health patients in the past decade, and that students with "mental health disabilities" are the "fastest-growing group in most institutions."Now, despite their being famous for drinking games and toga parties, it is a little hard to believe that university students are collectively losing their minds. Fortunately, amid all the alarming and alarmist statements...

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The Guardian: Readers Recommend: Songs About Mental Illness

Dorian LynskeyFriday February 29, 2008The Guardian In pop music, there is "crazy" and then there is crazy. "Crazy" is Patsy Cline, Beyoncé, Aerosmith, Prince. "Crazy" is fun. Crazy, on the other hand, is Syd Barrett, slipping through the looking glass; or David Bowie's half-brother Terry, whose schizophrenia inspired songs such as Jump They Say; or Daniel Johnston, whose manic depression turns his fans into uneasy voyeurs. Crazy can produce great songwriting, but more often destroys it. Any song that engages with mental illness is to some extent discomfiting, either because it is too flippant or because it is all too real.Things are going to get heavy, so let's start light. Annie Ross's...

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The Sunday Times: JK Rowling Considered Suicide While Suffering From Depression Before Writing 'Harry Potter'

Sunday , March 23, 2008 JK Rowling has revealed that she thought of killing herself while suffering from depression as a struggling single mother. The Harry Potter author says she was prescribed cognitive behavioral therapy after suffering “suicidal thoughts” in the aftermath of separation from her first husband, Jorge Arantes, a Portuguese journalist. She is now one of the world’s richest women, but at the time lived in a cramped flat in Edinburgh with her baby daughter Jessica. Rowling was only able to afford the rent after a friend paid the deposit. It was there she began writing the first Harry Potter book. While Rowling, 42, has spoken before of her battle with depression, it is the first time she has admitted that she...

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The Last Psychiatrist: "But I Wanna Kill Myself!"

on The Last Psychiatrist:An Open Letter to The Last Psychiatrist, from a guy who hasn't actually read my blog, because if he had, he'd realize I agree with him.Almost.He writes:...Just for kicks and giggles, try this out for a second: imagine you live in a world where there are no lawsuits. I know this is hard for you, as your profession is almost entirely shaped by the fact that there are.Is it even remotely possible, then, in this world with no lawsuits, that there are people who don't have a "disease" and aren't delusional or out of touch with reality who have thought through all their options and decided, clearly and rationally, that they no longer want to live in this world? Is it possible that some people would be better off ending their...

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McSweeney's: Sisyphus Enters Analysis

BY JEFF ALBERS- - - -I'm still sensing distraction. I need you to clear your mind. Clear your mind completely. Are you contented? No? You're thinking about that boulder again, aren't you? OK, no, that's fine; it's to be expected. I want you to put it down, just put it down and walk away. No need to look back; it'll roll right back down again, I assure you. I want you to leave that highly stressful environment and instead enter one of peace and serenity. It can be whatever and wherever you like. Picture it vividly, sensually. Now describe what you see. OK, stop. You shouldn't even be able to see the mountain from where you are. We left that place, remember? I understand it's a mountain and the peak remains visible from a great distance, but...

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Seekingmedia.com.au: Only 9% Feel Comfortable Discussing Depression at Work Despite Epidemic

From seekingmedia.com.au:31-03-2008 With the World Health Organisation predicting that depression will be the second most disabling disease in the world by 2020, it is of great concern that only 9% of people living with depression feel comfortable discussing their illness with work colleagues. A new report reveals that although the WHO predicts that depression will be the second most disabling disease in the world by 2020; recent research shows that only 9% of people living with depression feel comfortable talking about it with fellow employees. This is despite a recent study by the University of Queensland which demonstrated that there was a 492% return on investment for a program they evaluated which identified employees with depression early, and appointed a case manager, who encouraged...

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Taipei Times: If everyone is ill, then no one is

Tapei TimesBy Christopher Lane Tuesday, Apr 01, 2008 The US has reached a point where almost half its population is described as being in some way mentally ill, and nearly a quarter of its citizens -- 67.5 million -- have taken antidepressants. These eye-popping statistics have sparked a widespread, sometimes rancorous debate about whether people are taking far more medication than is needed for problems that may not even be mental disorders. Studies indicate that 40 percent of all patients fall short of the diagnoses that doctors and psychiatrists give them, yet 200 million prescriptions are still written annually in the US to treat depression and anxiety. Those who defend such widespread use of prescription drugs insist that a significant part of the population is under-treated and,...

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UrbanMonk.net: Change your thoughts and change your life – The Art of Cognitive Reframing

From UrbanMonk.net:We never, ever, see the world as it is. Our awareness – our beliefs, past conditionings, upbringing, the list goes on – these distort everything we see. They creep into every interpretation and misinterpretation. This is obvious; you must have seen it for yourself. The same person can elicit very different reactions, wildly varying feelings in a crowd of onlookers. One man looks at a beautiful woman; he feels a sense of yearning. Another sees a potential new friend, and yet another shies away – he will never be good enough for her. One of the most painful misinterpretations lies in self-perception. How do you see yourself? Realistic self concepts are rare, but a negatively distorted perception ruins lives. Weaknesses...

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