Sunday, April 27, 2008

NYT: The Advantages of Closing a Few Doors

By JOHN TIERNEY
Published: February 26, 2008

The 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,” an entertaining look at human foibles like the penchant for keeping too many options open. General Xiang Yu was a rare exception to the norm, a warrior who conquered by being unpredictably rational.

Read more ...

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.

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

By Liv Osby • STAFF WRITER • April 6, 2008

In 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 the fish had no desire to eat. They also behaved abnormally -- swimming vertically as opposed to horizontally or with their backs out of the water.

Read more ...

Monday, April 21, 2008

East Meets West: In the Woods of Self-Deprecation


East Meets West

There 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 here so long..."


Are the Master and the Apprentice looking at the same tree? Not likely. It'd seem that this parable is about stereotypes. The Master is right: the tree he is describing used to be no good, after all, he has seen it so many times while in these woods, looking for a good tree to work with. With time, the Master has come to ignore the tree - and, ignored, the tree has been spared to grow into a great big tree that the Apprentice is noticing. The Apprentice - free from the perceptual stereotype - is seeing the tree for what it is...


But what is the Master actually seeing? The Master is seeing his own thought: the stereotype of the tree is super-imposed onto the actual tree. The Master has projected a thought of an ugly, good-for-nothing tree onto an actual tree. And, instead of seeing the actual tree, he is staring at his own thought as if he was staring at a tree, unaware of the difference.


WikiHow: How to Make an Anatomically Correct Brain Cake


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.


MSNBC: Neatness a sign of godliness — or compulsion?

Spectrum of tidiness runs from merely orderly to life-hampering disorder

By Melissa Schorr
MSNBC contributor


She 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 shelf.”


When it crosses the line into pathology, psychologists say, is when it begins to negatively affect your life. “It’s a problem when your need for constant order causes you extreme distress or problems in your relationship,” says Ragan.


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 contributor


When 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, and this was the 1950s, 1960s, the Eisenhower-Kennedy era, when a whole lot of stuff got swept under the rug.”


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 KULKARNI


HONG 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 was awake through the nights, feeling listless and anxious for no particular reason.

Chaugule advised oral supplements of vitamin B along with some other medications, and Kumar reported feeling better within a few weeks of starting this treatment.

Another middle-aged patient came to Chaugule complaining of severe fatigue, for no obvious reasons. Yet another gentleman was very disturbed because he could not sleep peacefully at night. And an elderly person with unmistakable psychotic behavior was brought by his distressed family.

All these people shared two common factors: none of them had a family history of psychiatric illness and they were all vegetarians. Lab tests of all of them revealed decreased vitamin B12 levels.

Chaugule treated all of them with B12 supplements and their complaints resolved in no time.

Read more ...

ABC News: A Controversial Diagnosis for Herschel Walker

Psychiatric Community Debates NFL Star's Revelation of Multiple Personality
By JAIME HENNESSEY
April 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 ...

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

By Autism-Dad-1

Herschel 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 done in life. It is an equal opportunity disorder.

Read more...

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 depression than white youth. This is particularly true for Hispanic, non-Hispanic black, and American Indian youths.

Suicide rates, which have been traditionally lower among minority youth, are now equal to or surpass those of white youth. Hispanic, non-Hispanic black, and American Indian youth have a higher suicide risk than youth from the mainstream culture.

The stresses of living in poverty are frequently accompanied by variables such as discrimination, gender role pressures, losses related to immigration, and ongoing frustration and deficient support systems, which abound in this population.

Conflict also plays an important role in depression and often evolves into a vicious cycle in which irritability—a common feature of child and adolescent depression—increases interpersonal tensions and may cause parents, teachers, and friends to distance themselves from the depressed person. This, in turn, increases feelings of abandonment and lack of support.

Read more ...

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 and its drugs -- particularly antidepressants -- is the subject of Charles Barber's new book, Comfortably Numb. A veteran of mental health programs in homeless shelters and a lecturer in psychiatry at the Yale University School of Medicine, Barber trains his eye to the confluence of science and culture that have led to the widespread prescribing of medications once reserved for the most serious cases.

Read more...

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 ...

Shreveport Times: Depression experience differs between sexes

By Patrick Flanigan
Gannett News Service

More 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 ...

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

by Julie K. Silver, M.D., Harvard Medical School
April 14, 2008 09:56 AM EDT


I 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 sufferers' ongoing fear and tension, causing further sleep loss.

Read more...

NPR: Sadness Spurs Spending, Experiment Shows

by Nell Greenfieldboyce


All 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 ...

Friday, April 18, 2008

NPR: This I Believe: A God Who Remembers



by Elie Wiesel

I 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 me, our future.


The moment the war ended, I believed — we all did — that anyone who survived death must bear witness. Some of us even believed that they survived in order to become witnesses. But then I knew deep down that it would be impossible to communicate the entire story. Nobody can. I personally decided to wait, to see during 10 years if I would be capable to find the proper words, the proper pace, the proper melody or maybe even the proper silence to describe the ineffable.


For in my tradition, as a Jew, I believe that whatever we receive we must share. When we endure an experience, the experience cannot stay with me alone. It must be opened, it must become an offering, it must be deepened and given and shared. And of course I am afraid that memories suppressed could come back with a fury, which is dangerous to all human beings, not only to those who directly were participants but to people everywhere, to the world, for everyone. So, therefore, those memories that are discarded, shamed, somehow they may come back in different ways — disguised, perhaps seeking another outlet.


Granted, our task is to inform. But information must be transformed into knowledge, knowledge into sensitivity and sensitivity into commitment.


How can we therefore speak, unless we believe that our words have meaning, that our words will help others to prevent my past from becoming another person's — another peoples' — future.


Yes, our stories are essential — essential to memory. I believe that the witnesses, especially the survivors, have the most important role. They can simply say, in the words of the prophet, "I was there."


What is a witness if not someone who has a tale to tell and lives only with one haunting desire: to tell it. Without memory, there is no culture. Without memory, there would be no civilization, no society, no future.


After all, God is God because he remembers.


Thursday, April 17, 2008

Examiner.com: Luminaries share stories of mental illness

Luminaries share stories of mental illness
Apr 16, 2008 by Karl B. Hille, The Examiner

BALTIMORE - 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 ...

Monday, April 7, 2008

Ecorazzi: Knut! Say It Ain't So!



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 and said we were destroying his homeland,” Pazzo continued. “It was then that he offered to hook me up with DiCaprio if I would let him off with a ticket. Too bad for him, I’m a Johnny Depp fan.”


As a child-actor, Knut rose to fame by appearing as a symbol of climate change. After a string of magazine cover appearances, book deals, and movie contracts, the pressures of Hollywood really started to take a toll. “I just could not believe how much weight he gained in such a short period of time,” exclaimed former trainer Madge Prisney. “From a cuddly 30lbs to over 250lbs in just one year! It’s hard to watch.”


Knut is currently being held in an undisclosed location until law officials figure out the next course of action. “He’ll need rehab for sure,” added officer Pazzo. “And you can bet those people from True Hollywood Story are going to come calling. If I were him, I’d just catch the next iceberg out of town.”


It’s worth noting that this article was originally published April 1st.

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 Issues
By 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.


"He actually cries out or whimpers if he sees that there is no audience outside his compound ready to 'ooh' and 'aah' at him," Roebke said in the Tuesday edition of Bild Zeitung. "When the zoo had to shut because of black ice everywhere he howled with rage until staff members stood before him and calmed him down."


But the veterinarian charge with the polar bear's upkeep contradicts Roebke's dire appraisal.


"Not so," Andre Schuele, the zoo's vet in charge of Knut, told ABC News in a telephone interview about Roebke's comments. "I can't confirm that at all. Knut is making very good progress, he's growing up just fine, he's a very healthy animal, and everything is really normal."

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 who has trodden the path you are seeking, been through the same forge, climbed out of the same valleys and laughed on top of the same mountains. Common teachers are everywhere – but Sensei, in the true sense of the word – they are so hard to find.



This will sound harsh – but until we move out of our own sorrow, perhaps it is better to keep quiet.
Until then, it is merely the blind leading the blind. Everybody is just parroting what they got from other parrots, they’re just repeating what they got from books. They don’t even know if it works, for they’re not happy themselves. Everyone else is just listening to everyone else, and it goes around in a circle. Yes – a very bold thing to say – but until you have found peace, it is better to keep quiet.




The forge of experience


And this is yet another reason we have to begin with ourselves. [1] Understanding is one of the foundations towards a soft heart; and understanding comes from having trodden the exact same path, having cried the same tears and shouted in the same joy. Is there a better way – no, is there even another way – to find this understanding?

Words are just words. Whatever you say, there will be disagreements. Sometimes they come from people who have experienced differently, or have read different books. Sometimes they will come from people who try to prove themselves better, who try to satisfy their ego. Words are empty; they mean nothing. Everyone can argue with words, and so they will.


But who can argue with who you are? It is possible, to be sure – but so much harder.


When an unhappy man says: Do this and you will be happy – who will listen? When a poor woman says: Follow this metaphysical Law, think this way, recite this affirmation, and you will achieve abundance – who listens? It is no different from a fat man telling you how to lose weight, or a girl who has never been fat in her life – it is absurd. But this is what is happening all over the world.


Unhappy people are telling others how to be happy. They are going around spreading their advice. I remember the first time someone told me how to solve our sorrows. He was a professional athlete; he told me to simply to train to the point of exhaustion – and then I would simply come home and slump into bed, too tired to think about my sadness. And for the rest of my life – just push my body until I can think about nothing else but sleep. And I was only a teen – I listened!


This is happening on a wider scale - people who are still in the depths of their own sorrow are talking to others; becoming a friendly shoulder to cry on. Others become psychologists, therapists, teachers. Please don’t misunderstand - there are so many wonderful women and men in these roles; but there are many who aren’t.


It is better to remain silent



This will sound harsh – but until we move out of our own sorrow, perhaps it is better to keep quiet.

Until then, it is merely the blind leading the blind. Everybody is just parroting what they got from other parrots, they’re just repeating what they got from books. They don’t even know if it works, for they’re not happy themselves. Everyone else is just listening to everyone else, and it goes around in a circle. Yes – a very bold thing to say – but until you have found peace, it is better to keep quiet.


For the blind leader has caused so much damage. He is leading others down the wrong path, and everyone who follows will be even more messed up. She falls down a hole, and everyone who is holding on to her will fall down the same hole.


When I first decided to move out of my suffering, I followed all the different teachers I could find. Everyone recommended positive thinking, so I tried it for months, only to discover that it led to [2] repression. And so I tried NLP, I took on this method and that system, only to find most of them were no different - they were just more sophisticated ways of doing the same thing: pushing your pains downwards and keeping it there.


This is the reason I am only sharing what has worked for me. Never as someone who holds all the answers, only as someone who is walking right besides you. Never – never – as someone who has reached the end. My writings are focused on a narrow area of the human experience - the inner world. It is one of the few areas I feel qualified to write on, the only area I have made significant progress in. Everything else is pure book knowledge, and book knowledge is just words.



Read the rest of the article here:

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

from UrbanMonk.net







Compassion, 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 ourselves





I’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 as [1] pride, or [2] repressed – how can we give out Love?



Whatever we give will be plastic replica; a cheap imitation at best, an insult at the very worst.





A teacher once told me that love is a by-product of a rising consciousness. As we get happier, it becomes simply natural to share the joy we have within. We have no other choice – otherwise we will simply burst apart at the seams! Finding the joy within – one of the most important things to do is to remove the suffering within – to [3] accept ourselves, to [4] heal our old wounds, to find and love the disowned parts of ourselves.





And this becomes especially important when we get to the teachings of Jesus: Love your enemy. How do we do so? Love yourself – everyone nods. It’s wise, it’s the current catch phrase. Love your neighbor – and everyone nods again. How generous, how ego less! Love your enemy. But here it gets hard. Who wants to love the people who hurt them, and if they do, how do they do it right?





Loving your enemy







There are a few things that people try to do to their enemies. Forgiveness – which to most people simply means: I’m still right, you’re still wrong, you’re still a bastard but I’m a good person so I forgive you. Just don’t do it again. And the other is acceptance – which simply means: There’s nothing I can do about it now, and my moaning is making me more upset, so I’ll just swallow my pains silently.





I’ve fallen into the same trap before. But true forgiveness comes simply when you see that there is nothing to forgive. And this is a hard pill to swallow. When you see the great design of Existence, when you truly see that what doesn’t kill you only makes you stronger – you might even find gratitude for those who have hurt you.





This is a hard concept to explain; but they were covered in these posts: [5] Gratitude for the Bad, and What your ego is – [6] Part 1, and [7] Part 2. Heavy reading, but it is an attempt to explain something that might be relevant. And these posts are not based on some sort of feel-good philosophy – I’ve been intensively examining my own history and it’s starting to strike me how certain things, good or bad, just happened at the right time to teach me exactly the lesson I need to learn. And if I didn’t learn from it, then it would hit me again and again and again – until I awoke and learnt from it.





But inside the flawed interpretation of forgiveness, lies danger. If someone slaps you in the face, or if you come face to face to the man who tortured you as a child – you remember what Jesus said, and you try to live up to it. You force a smile, you try to forgive, all the while holding back the fear, the anger, the grief that is still there in your chest.







Isn’t this dangerous? Isn’t this another form of running away from your pains? An open wound on your forearm, untended to, begins to rot. It is the same with the scars on our hearts – resentment and anger begins to build, to get worse than it was before. You might explode and seek revenge; you might go home and take it out on someone innocent, or it might show up in your body as illness – we can never hold something down for long. Fill yourself up with Love and it will spill over; fill yourself with hatred and the same happens.







Read the rest of this article:

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 Hosseini

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 cannot forgive.




Truth: You can apply the forgiveness process (i.e. cancel your demands that another person meet your demands and expectations as a condition for allowing love to flow through) - and also take remedial action to stop or prevent harm, or to confront injustices. Forgiveness, assertiveness, and caring confrontation are very compatible. It is loving to the other person to do whatever is necessary to prevent them continuing upon a destructive path. As a forgiving person you can see that beneath the other person's attacking or destructive behavior is really a cry for love.




2. Untruth: To forgive may make me a "doormat" or "victim", and means I lose being "right". The other person must be shown to be "wrong", punished, and change their ways before I can forgive. Therefore I cannot forgive.




Truth: Doing the forgiveness process has nothing to do with "door-matting" or being a "victim", which is usually done from an unforgiving stance. Doing the forgiveness process helps one to stop being a "doormat". It restores self-determination.




3. Untruth: To be forgiving is a sign of weakness. I do not want to be seen as weak. I must be hard to be strong. Therefore I cannot forgive.




Truth: To use the forgiveness process is an act of will (mental and spiritual). To be unforgiving is to be "willed by" emotions and feelings, and to not really be in charge of your direction in life. Using your higher will strengthens you and your will. Using the forgiveness process makes you stronger. This can be tested.




Genuine unconditional love is and act of will, not a feeling or emotional reaction.




Anger and hostility may make you feel "stronger" or "righteously indignant", but your body or relationships become the victims unless the anger is expressed in a safe way. Being "right" does not means that you must prove the other person "wrong", or make them admit that they were at fault, before you let love flow. Unconditional Love, by definition, does not require prior approval of the other's actions (or of one's own).




4. Untruth: If I forgive I am supposed to forget. I cannot forget the harm done, therefore I cannot forgive.




Truth: You learn from experience, and your memory enables you to do this. Memory is a precious part of your mind. It is wise to remember the lessons learned, and not put temptation in the way of those who do not yet have the capacity to practice right relationship. However, safeguarding need not prevent you from doing the forgiveness process, which is a separate class of behavior. It is found that people who use the forgiveness process become able to access more of their joyful memories, however. They do not need to use the repressive mechanism any longer to repress their pain, and they can recall their good times more easily.




5. Untruth: Doing the Forgiveness Process sometimes brings up painful memories. Surely that means I should not be doing this work. Is it wise to "dredge up" memories like that from my unconscious. Isn't it better to leave it? I cannot forgive because it brings up painful memories I would rather not look at.




Truth: Forgiveness is a healing of memories. Painful memories stored in your unconscious, even from long ago in the past, control you in the present. You are often unaware of just how much they do that. You have to become aware of them if you are to heal them, so you can be truly free. The pain you feel on recalling a painful memory is a signal that you need to use the forgiveness process, not a reason for holding back. Pus in an abscess needs to be drained quickly, and not allowed to fester, scar, or spread. The sooner you do the forgiveness process, the less harm will occur to yourself and your relationships.




6. Untruth: Forgiveness is making everything too "nice" (the word is used in a derogatory sense) and is too sickly. We can't have all this "sweetness and light stuff".




Truth: Forgiveness has nothing to do with this kind of insincere "niceness" - it is an energy dynamic for healing yourself.




7. Untruth: There are some people who are so evil that they can never be forgiven. Some atrocities are "unforgivable". Therefore the whole idea of unconditional love is idealistic rubbish and a waste of time.




Truth: Some actions are indeed very evil and wicked, and do a great deal of harm - true. Society needs to be protected - true. Part of this process may include the capture and fair legal trial of, and inflicting punishment or isolation on, wrongdoers - true. Some people are what is called "evil" because they do not experience any kind of conscience, and so they cannot self-correct their errors. Imagine what it would be like if you were like that yourself, how devastating you would find the effect of that on your life.




Some people cannot learn from experience as well as you or I - for example, children of severely alcoholic or drug-dependent mothers, born with the so-called "fetal alcohol syndrome". Maternal malnutrition, childhood emotional deprivation, other kinds of genetic or acquired mental disability may also damage a person's capacity to make wise choices. We must remain aware of the effects of certain industrial, household chemicals and drugs upon human behavior also. Many people who take drugs are using them to repress their pain - of having being sexually abused, for example. Remembering these possibilities enables you to be more compassionate to those who do terrible things at the same time as protecting society from their actions. We could all look deeper before condemning them as unforgivable.




To hold back on your love-flow and to continue to hate the wrongdoers has a number of effects that are harmful to your own self, and which therefore act as a kind of punishment to you , for what the other person did. This can harm your body and contribute to disease. It limits your own freedom of choice inside yourself. It can poison your emotions, limiting your capacity to express goodwill. It can cause you to harbor harmful thoughts and beliefs, and limit your positive creativity. It can damage your relationships if you project and generalize your bitterness; and can lead to national, racial, and religious prejudice and war. These effects can be cumulative.




With respect to the so-called "enemies of society", society itself suffers when prisoners do not grow and mature into responsible citizens during the time spent in prison, and are released back into a prejudiced world with their bitterness still unhealed. Remaining unforgiving also holds back and limits your own growth as a spiritual being . The forgiveness process is an act of will which you consciously choose to undertake to heal yourself and your own memories. An enlightened response to any imperfections you discover in your world is to act to heal them, rather than criticize.




Doing the forgiveness process is not a repression or forgetting of harm done. It is a decision to heal oneself and no longer be controlled or diminished by the memory of it. It is neutralizing the hostility and grudge we built up in reaction to the harm.






"Until you learn to forgive,

the ‘unforgivable’ will tend to keep happening to you.

What you have not learned to forgive,

is a either part of you now, or becomes a part of you".

~ attributed to Carolyn Myss




8. Untruth: Forgiving will not make the other person change their behavior, therefore it is waste of time. I want them to change and apologize before I forgive them.




Truth: Not doing the forgiveness process does not control the behavior of the other person as much as you would like to believe, if at all. It damages your own well-being however. In fact, doing the forgiveness process often frees the other to behave in a more acceptable way. Unconditional love is, by definition, unconditional!




9. Untruth: It is unfair that I should "have to" forgive the other.




Truth: It is fair to ourselves to practice forgiveness. You must remain aware that feelings of "righteousness" and un-forgivingness, even hatred, can coexist in you, can cause much harm, and are very different from the practice of right relationship, the active work of expression of goodwill, the holding of a loving attitude, and the fostering of the best qualities latent in the offending one and yourself. You do not "have to" do the forgiveness process - it is entirely your choice whether to proceed at each step. You do it only because you want to learn how to take charge of your life and to love, independently of the behavior of other people.




10. Untruth: Forgiveness requires telling the other person that you have forgiven them.




Truth: The forgiveness process is something that happens inside you. You do not tell them you have forgiven them, which may even make them feel badly, unless they have specifically asked you for your "forgiveness". It also depends upon what they and you mean by "forgiveness". They may want your pardon. Pardoning is letting a person off their punishment. They may want your love. Forgiveness is letting the love flow again. But pardoning can happen without forgiveness and the restoration of love. It may even not be in their best interest unless they are determined to follow a wiser path. Conversely, a person can be punished and yet know that they are still loved, by their firm parent, for example. Forgiveness and pardoning are quite separate behaviors. You need to be very clear about this.




Only you can decide what is appropriate in reestablishing communication and right relationship with the other person. The forgiveness process is canceling the conditions in your own mind that are blocking the flow of love, joy, and life energy. If you decide to reach out to the other person, your having done the forgiveness process first will make your chances of restoring harmony far greater.

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 why my poor bruised brain and heart jumped to the conclusions they did ... and enable me to take a second look at the verity of those conclusions.

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 tears slide down my cheeks, right up until one of the last scenes. Then the sobs came.




In the scene, Dr. Foreman comes to the woman's bedside as she lies dying. He sits down on the bed and takes her hand. "James," she says, thinking he is her baby son. "No," replies Foreman, "It's Paul."




She starts to cry. "You've come to take me."




"No," says Foreman, "I've come to forgive you."




She gasps with pain and joy at those words. "It's not your fault," continues Foreman, who continues to hold her hand and reassure her as she weeps "I'm so sorry" over and over in an agony of remorse and love ... and hope.




Here is a link where you can watch the episode:


Saturday, April 5, 2008

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 Therapy, an approach already shown to be more effective than medication for a range of psychological problems, including anxiety and traumatic stress.

Now a team of Sydney researchers and counsellors is conducting further studies to evaluate the treatment more fully.

Read the rest of the article here ...

The Salt Lake Tribune: Poodle connects with prisoners in therapy

The 'Buck effect'

Poodle connects with prisoners in therapy

The fluffy pooch helps women diagnosed with mental illness open up in group sessions

Friday, April 4, 2008

Beyond Blue: Does Depression Shrink Your Brain?





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 that death would be preferable to living with the kind of misery and pain she felt, even though she had two young sons whom she loved dearly.


So she went to see a psychiatrist, and he diagnosed major depression and prescribed an antidepressant medication, along with weekly psychotherapy. She took the prescription, and returned the following week, reporting that she had filled it, but could not bring herself to take the pills. She felt that needing to rely on pills reflected a kind of weakness, and she wanted to be strong enough to fight this on her own.


Laura is not alone. Only 25 percent to 50 percent of patients take antidepressants consistently for the length of time recommended by their doctors.
While this is an important issue for short-term health, it may also be important for the longer term, because there is some evidence that depression shrinks the brain _ no, it is not the psychiatrists who are the "head shrinkers!" _ and that antidepressants might put the brakes on this process.


The Vancouver Sun: Psychiatry confuses distress with disorder

In trying to achieve scientific respectability, this branch of medicine has been medicalizing the human condition

Peter McKnight, Vancouver Sun

Published: Saturday, March 29, 2008

A 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 in the story, there was one dissenting voice: Stanley Kutcher, a psychiatrist at Dalhousie University in Halifax, denied that there was any increase in mental illness on North American campuses.

Kutcher instead suggested that students are now seeking help to cope with the stresses of life, rather than because of mental illness: "The bar has been set lower," Kutcher said. "People are often going for assistance for distress, as opposed to disorder."

Kutcher's "diagnosis" could well extend well beyond university campuses, as we regularly hear of an epidemic of depression sweeping across the world. Indeed, the website of the World Health Organization warns that by 2020 depression will become the second-most common cause of disability, after heart disease.

Read the rest of the article here ...


Thursday, April 3, 2008

The Guardian: Readers Recommend: Songs About Mental Illness


Dorian Lynskey
Friday February 29, 2008
The 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 Twisted, later covered by Joni Mitchell and Bette Midler, is a spirited riposte to the head-shrinkers: "My analyst told me that I was right out of my head/ I said dear doctor, I think that it's you instead." Californian punks Suicidal Tendencies make the same point with rather less elegance and rather more splenetic guitars. "I'm not crazy! You're the one who's crazy!" yelps Mike Muir, crazily.

Before LSD took off, the major threat to garage-rock bands' mental wellbeing appeared to be sexual frustration. If they had got more satisfaction, they might not have turned their amps up so loud, so let's hear it for thwarted libido. On their only hit, the Count Five seethe and fidget, fit to explode.

Though heavy metal later became rusted by cliche, Black Sabbath's Paranoid sounds genuinely unhinged. "I tell you to enjoy life/ I wish I could but it's too late," Ozzy yowls. Mind Playing Tricks On Me is gangsta rap at its most psychologically astute, cracking open the shell of thuggish bravado to reveal young men maddened by paranoia and guilt.

Noah "Panda Bear" Lennox and his mother both spent long periods on antidepressants. Take Pills flushes them away ("I don't want for us to take pills any more") with music that has a woozy, narcotic allure of its own. Choking intensity wracks Tindersticks' 4.48 Psychosis, named after the last play Sarah Kane wrote before hanging herself in 1999. 4.48am was when Kane's manic depression would regularly snap her awake.

Prior to making music, Kevin Coyne was a psychiatric nurse, so he knew better than to treat mental illness lightly. The House On the Hill has the same dishevelled lope as Neil Young's Tonight's the Night: the sound of someone coming undone while asking, "Who on earth will ever understand I'm really trying?"

Finally, two examples of unvarnished autobiography. Kristin Hersh wrote The Letter about her bipolar disorder during her Throwing Muses days, then shelved it because it made her feel sick. A decade later, a friend finally persuaded her to record it. A brave decision - it's distressing to hear, let alone to sing. When Dory Previn was ditched by André for Mia Farrow, she was institutionalised (not for the first time) and wrote songs as therapy. Although Previn's playful phrasing and country twang sweeten the pill a little, the spoken-word coda is indescribably disturbing. Quick, listen to Twisted again.

This week's playlist

1 Twisted Annie Ross
2 Institutionalized Suicidal Tendencies
3 Psychotic Reaction The Count Five
4 Paranoid Black Sabbath
5 Mind Playing Tricks on Me The Geto Boys
6 Take Pills Panda Bear
7 4.48 Psychosis Tindersticks
8 House on the Hill Kevin Coyne
9 The Letter Kristin Hersh
10 Mr Whisper Dory Previn

Give us your recommendations and learn how to download this compilation music.guardian.co.uk/readersrecommend

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

Sunday , March 23, 2008

SUNTI

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 contemplated suicide. She said she finally sought professional help.

“Mid-twenties life circumstances were poor and I really plummeted,” said Rowling. “The thing that made me go for help . . . was probably my daughter. She was something that earthed me, grounded me, and I thought, this isn’t right, this can’t be right, she cannot grow up with me in this state.”

Rowling said her usual GP was away, and the replacement doctor sent her away. “She said, ‘If you ever feel a bit low, come and speak to the practice nurse’ and dismissed me.”

Rowling added: “We’re talking suicidal thoughts here, we’re not talking ‘I’m a little bit miserable’.

Two weeks later I had a phone call from my regular GP who had looked back over the notes . . . She called me back in and I got counseling through her.

“She absolutely saved me because I don’t think I would have had the guts to go and do it twice.”

Cognitive behavioral therapy typically involves a series of sessions with a counselor and is designed to help patients control negative thoughts. The technique is recommended by the health department for depressive disorders, anxiety, bulimia and posttraumatic stress disorder.

Rowling, whose Harry Potter novels have sold more than 400m copies worldwide and spawned a billion dollar industry, said she was happy to discuss her mental health problems to challenge the stigma associated with depressive illness.

“I have never been remotely ashamed of having been depressed. Never,” she said in an interview with Adeel Amini, 22, for a student magazine at Edinburgh University.

“What’s to be ashamed of? I went through a really rough time and I am quite proud that I got out of that.”

Mental health campaigners welcomed Rowling’s decision to speak publicly about her struggle with suicidal depression.

Celia Richardson, campaigns director of the Mental Health Foundation, said: “JK Rowling is a wonderful role model and it’s brilliant she has chosen to talk about this.”

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 lives then continuing on in endless pain?...

...Even in a world with no lawsuits, would you still insist he be kept alive? If so, why? So he would continue to pay your fees? In which case, who are you really helping?

In a world with lawsuits, does it help the patient any to continue to stay alive just so you can collect money and not get sued?

Knowing the answer, is it any wonder that so many people in "treatment" continue to kill themselves anyway?



Suicide is always a choice. Whether it is rational or not is a case by case question. It isn't always irrational (what's euthanasia?) and it isn't always well thought out (obviously.)

1. The answer to your question, "would you keep him alive even if there were no lawsuits" is, yes, almost always. I say "almost always" because there is always the chance that some situation may arise, but I can't imagine it, and it hasn't happened. Lawsuits hardly ever drive my practice, lawyers are rarely on my mind. (see #4.)

What I take issue is that people attribute suicidal thoughts to externalities which are at best mitigating. Zoloft doesn't make you suicidal. Period. It may help, it may make you more emotional, but the act itself is yours. Own up.

2. Can a person have perfectly rational reasons for killing himself? Sure. Does that matter? No.

Here's the reason. No one in George Clooney's America will agree with me, I'm sure, but I am certain they are wrong. "Under perfectly rational conditions, why can't a guy consent to kill himself?" Because your own happiness or misery is a secondary issue, secondary to your existence. Why? Because your life is not yours. It's mostly yours, but to the extent that it affects other people in any way, you have a responsibility to them. Maybe to help them, but at least not to harm them. Your life is a publicly traded company. You may have majority ownership, but you still are subject to a Board and to your shareholders. If you want to kill yourself, everyone you have touched in any way gets to vote. Good luck.

In these posts I am trying to make a very subtle distinction. It is the duty of the psychiatrist to try to do whatever necessary to keep you alive; but it is not his fault (short of gross negligence) if you succeed. Neither is it Zoloft's fault, mania's fault, alcohol's fault, capitalism's fault, your ex's fault...

"You know, if you kill yourself, it puts that option on the table for your kids when they hit your age." Get it?

Let's all hear this at least once: you did not get to choose to be born, neither will you choose to die. If you care nothing about your own life, so be it. But you have a responsibility to improve the lives of those around you-- I don't mean good samaritan style, I don't mean person by person, I mean that your life has a net positive effect on the people in your life, in general. Some people need to get punched in the face, I get that, it's not a nice thing to do, but I'm sympathetic. But overall, miserable or not, you have to leave the world better off than you came into it, to the best of your ability. Miserable or not, painful or not, like Prometheus you will bring fire to man and take from man the expectancy of death, and you will stay chained to the rock.

Mistake me not; I would not, if I might,
Change my misfortunes for thy vassalage.

Lo, I am rockfast, and thy words are wave
That weary me in vain. Let not the thought
Enter thy mind, that I in awe of Zeus
Shall change my nature for a girl's, or beg
The Loathed beyond all loathing-with my hands
Spread out in woman's fashion-to cast loose
These bonds; from that I am utterly removed.

Tuesday, April 1, 2008

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 we're using our imagination here. We're not bound by topography.


Let's explore why you feel, as you describe it, "chained" to this particular task, even though you admit it affords you little pleasure. Do you see how such behavior might prove self-defeating? It's a prime example of what we in the field call "acting out." And we've seen this before, correct? Has it not been a staple of your every sexual relationship? Persephone wished to spend half the year abroad, absorbing other cultures and customs, and this bothered you a great deal, didn't it? Rather than confront the issue, you chose to bottle it up, to repress it. Now, these feelings can be subdued and left to simmer for a time, but eventually they will erupt, as they did when you trained all three of Cerberus's heads to attack any poor soul toting luggage. You claimed it was a preventive measure, but, really, how many of Hades' residents make a point of traveling?


You may not have realized your motivation at the time, but, with hindsight, we're able to recognize this as an expression of your desperate desire to control situations, often at the expense of those closest to you. We, as mortals, must learn to accept that some things are bound to exceed our grasp, and that these things therefore must be left to God. Gods, yes, plural, excuse me. We must not force the boulder, but instead learn to let it be, to let the boulder merely be.


Very often this type of complex is rooted in a particularly affecting incident in one's childhood, so let's try an exercise. I want you to go back, way back, perhaps back to your formative years at the Lyceum, and describe to me what young Sisyphus is feeling. Anger, yes. Humiliation, good. Well, not good, but ... continue. Why do you—why does he—feel this way? I understand this is difficult, but voicing the hurt inflicted by the cruelty of one's peers can be very cathartic, and, remember, this is a safe, nonthreatening environment. What, exactly, did they call you?


I apologize. Awful timing, really. That was most definitely not a snicker; I choked on my saliva. Must've gone down the wrong pipe. Ever do that? I'm terribly sorry. But so, right, you were prone to these tantrums, these "sissy fits," on account of being separated from your parents, which is a normal and healthy response. I think what's important to keep in mind is that, no matter how hard you may feel you have it, things could always be much worse. Put yourself in Hermes' winged shoes for a moment—no doubt you're aware of his reputation as one who "gets around"—and imagine your dismay when your fellow students happen upon your Valtrex. That taunt practically wrote itself.


I'm afraid we're out of time, though there is one final matter to discuss. You missed our last session, and, because you failed to notify the office in advance, it is our policy to bill you for it. Now, I understand these things happen, but did this "emergency" perhaps involve a rock formation of some kind?

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 them to seek help, and monitored their progress.

Read more here ...

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

Tapei Times
By 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, by inference, under-medicated. Those opposed to such rampant use of drugs note that diagnostic rates for bipolar disorder, in particular, have skyrocketed by 4,000 percent and that overmedication is impossible without over-diagnosis.

To help settle this long-standing dispute, I studied why the number of recognized psychiatric disorders has ballooned so dramatically in recent decades.

Read the rest of the article here ...

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.

How do you see yourself?

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 are magnified, assets and strengths are ignored. We have a tendency to compare; this leads to low self-esteem; a strong feeling of inadequacy and constant unhappiness.

A low self-esteem is the proverbial ball and chain; it drags you down in almost every area of your life – from your romances and your relationships to your work, your ability to achieve your goals.

This is a mixture of techniques that has worked tremendously well – it is based on cognitive psychology, with a touch of Zen.


Read more and take the Self Concept Inventory here...

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