Saturday, May 31, 2008

Enlightened Living: Understanding Constancy in Relationship


Sigmund Freud had a nephew named Ernst with whom he would play peek-a-boo. Freud would hold a teddy bear at the edge of Ernst's crib and then drop it out of sight. Ever the scientist, Freud noticed that, at a young age, Ernst would immediately lose interest when he could not see the bear. When the bear came back, so did Ernst, so to speak. As Ernst got older Freud noticed that, when the bear was out of view, Ernst would reach over the edge of the crib to find the bear.

From this experience Freud developed a theory of cognitive development that would later come to be called ‘object constancy'. Basically, object constancy suggests that, at some point in our early development, humans express the capacity to understand that ‘out of sight' doesn't mean ‘gone'. This is a very important idea, as it is one of the core elements of interpersonal relationship and informs everything from romantic love to jealousy to Borderline Personality Disorder.

read more ...

Wednesday, May 28, 2008

Myvesta UK: Spending Sprees Plunge Mental Health Patients Into Chronic Debt

By Myvesta UK

Excessive Spending - A Common Symptom and A Terrible Curse


Average household debt reached £9,216 (excluding mortgages) in May, according to the charity Credit Action. One in four people with mental health problems is in debt, which means that a staggering 2.5 million people are estimated to be struggling with debts while dealing with illness.

People with mental health problems are three times more likely to be debt-ridden than the general population as personal borrowing reaches record levels in the UK.

The number is likely to be even higher among those with bipolar disorder as over-spending is often part of the condition, according to experts. They warn that financial troubles result in mental health problems such as anxiety, depression and even suicide, and urge lenders, debt collectors and health professionals to be alert as the credit crunch worsens. They advise that
“When you are well, consider putting some safeguards on your money so that you cannot
over spend it when you become high.”

Gail Porter has it. Stephen Fry made a documentary about it. Sophie Anderton, Adam Ant, Russell Brand, Richard Dreyfuss, Kerry Katona and Tony Slattery are all sufferers. And now Britney Spears, too, has bipolar disorder, at least according to the media, in whose unforgiving
glare she has undergone her very public meltdown.

At times, it seems as though bipolar illness is the latest celebrity fad – like wheat intolerance, perhaps. But the apparent spike in celebrity sufferers points to something else: that awareness amongst both clinicians and the public is growing and some of the stigma attached to admitting to mental health problems has begun to diminish.

It has been suggested that having a celebrity's ultra-outgoing personality might dispose someone to bipolar illness. My heart goes out to anyone in the public eye who does have bipolar. It is an
unforgiving illness that makes you behave, both when manic and depressed, in ways that can leave you deeply ashamed when you're in a fit state to reflect on your behaviour.

Bipolar expert, Dr Ronald R Fieve, describes bipolar excessive spending in his book Moodswing like this:
“the lifestyle of the manic depressive who is in a high tends to be a glorious scattering of money”.
This "glorious scattering of money" can take many forms:
  • It may be wild shopping sprees with a self-medicating overtone.
  • It may be crazy investments when our bipolar grandiosity is telling us we can do no wrong.
  • It may be extravagant gifts to family, friends or charity - again arising from manic grandiosity.
  • Or in some very distressing scenarios, it may be spending a fortune on travel, hotels, pornography, prostitution, champagne and lingerie in an extra-marital affair, cybersex, or whatever outlet manic hypersexuality can find.
  • Gambling more than one can afford, for example on horse racing.
It is not always about a spending spree - Patty Duke, Oscar winning actress, did her share of bipolar excessive spending, which she describes candidly in her autobiography - but the best example of how bipolar ruined her relationship with money was Patty asking two strangers she literally met in a car park to become her business managers (no prizes for guessing how that worked out!)

Comedian and writer Stephen Fry, who has bipolar disorder, has called for better understanding about the links between debt and manic depression. He said: "My own bipolar condition has caused me to go on plenty of giddy spending sprees.

"Because so much stigma still surrounds mental health, many people can't get a job, are on the poverty line, and can't get credit from anyone but doorstep lenders charging up to 400 per cent interest."

Negative attitudes towards people with mental distress may be manifested by physical and verbal abuse, problems in the workplace or discrimination by providers of goods and services. Negative attitudes are sometimes evident in the development of government policies on
mental health.

About 1 in 100 people develop this condition at some point in their lives. The majority of these are ordinary, everyday people. It can start at any time during or after the teenage years, and can affect children and the elderly. It affects as many men as women. The rapid cycling form of the illness occurs in about 1 in 6 cases. Bipolar disorder is often not recognised as an illness, and people may suffer for years before it is properly diagnosed and treated. Like diabetes or heart disease, bipolar disorder is a long-term illness that must be carefully managed throughout a person’s life.

During a manic or high phase, shopping sprees are common. During a low phase, a person may feel so depressed they are unable to leave the house or even answer the phone. Unopened bills pile up. Juggling creditors while trying to recover from an acute phase of bipolar disorder can leave them vulnerable to relapse.

It is not your fault; it is not a character disorder. Neither mania nor depression is a sign of weakness, nor that someone has just given in. It is not something that people are able to just pull themselves out of it.

Chris Fitch, of the Royal College of Psychiatrists, says financial problems are the result of more than overspending. "People with mental health problems are often on low incomes, experience high unemployment rates, and are reliant on benefits. Borrowing money or not paying the bills can often feel like the only options," he said.

Lenders must tread a fine line between not discriminating against people with mental health problems and protecting vulnerable customers whose spending is out of control as a result of illness. But many people in debt report unhelpful, aggressive responses from lenders, resulting in greater anxiety, stress and more debt.

Joanna Elson of the Money Advice Trust said: "The stress of unmanageable debt has a direct impact on an individual's physical and mental well being.

"The guidelines are voluntary but they are designed to encourage good practice by creditors, debt collection agencies and money advisers working with people with debt and mental health problems."

According to Mind's chief executive, Paul Farmer: "Living with bipolar disorder greatly increases the likelihood of falling into debt. In many cases, people are using credit they cannot afford to repay, which means they become trapped in a spiral of debt that further compounds their mental health problems.

"Banks and other lenders should not be encouraging their customers with bipolar disorder to take out more loans when they are already in lots of debt."

Rachael Watson, 34, a PhD student from Blackburn, has bipolar disorder, and over the past few years has racked debts of £35,000. She bought a £14,000 car, using a credit card, days before she was admitted to hospital for mania. While depressed she shopped for unnecessary clothes and food, in the hope it would make her feel more in control. Unable to face the world when she is depressed, phone calls and letters from the bank go unanswered.

Every time she got into debt, her bank encouraged her to release equity from her home to pay back what she owed. As soon as her debts were cleared, they offered her more credit. She is now being pursued by the bank, which has made her so anxious she has been prescribed extra
medication. The bank phones her up to 10 times a day and sends letters demanding payments she simply cannot afford.

Recovery from bipolar disorder can be hampered by the additional stress and practical problems presented by financial difficulties. Whether it is repairing the damage caused by excessive spending during episodes of 'mania', dealing with loss of earnings as a result of illness or taking steps to prevent future problems, financial health can be as important a factor in returning to wellness as other forms of help, treatment and support.

As well as being a consequence of mental ill health, financial problems can increase the stress of day-to-day life and become a 'trigger' for illness.

Healthy Sense of Humor = Mental Health?

From Missouri Western State University:


DAWN M. MILLER
DEPARTMENT OF PSYCHOLOGY
Missouri Western State University
Sponsored by BRIAN CRONK(cronk@missouriwestern.edu)

ABSTRACT
Recent studies have determined that having a sense of humor leads to a relationship with a person’s overall mental health. The purpose of this study is to determine if there is a correlation between the two variables. Two questionnaires were distributed to students on the campus of Missouri Western State College and the results were scored. The data were analyzed and a significant correlation was found between sense of humor and mental health. As scores on the Multidimensional Sense of Humor Scale increased (showing a high sense of humor), scores on the mental health survey decreased (showing great mental health). Further implications are discussed in the paper.

INTRODUCTION
When people hear the word, “psychology”, they most likely associate it with mental disorders. Psychologists have studied the field of mental illness and disorders for many years; however, there is a new area to research. Positive psychology turned the focus from the negative aspects of psychology to the more optimistic aspects, such as happiness, courage, and sense of humor.

Although the concept of positive psychology is rather new, the idea of sense of humor dates back to biblical times (Martin, 2001). Also, in the 13th century, physicians and philosophers described laughter and its health benefits. Sense of humor is a universal, multifaceted concept and thus has many definitions. Martin (2001) describes sense of humor as “habitual individual differences in all sorts of behaviors, experiences, affects, attitudes, and abilities relating to amusement, laughter, jocularity, and so on”. Because humor is so extensive, it can be labeled as a personality trait, a stimulus variable, an emotional response, a mental process, and a therapeutic intervention.

Despite the fact that humor is universal, the content of the humor differs across cultures and genders. Every culture has a set of rules, norms, and values that decide what kind of humor is appropriate. For instance, Americans prefer jokes that consist of sexual or aggressive content, whereas Chinese humor is rather restrained and concealed (Nevo, Nevo, & Yin, 2001). Gender is another issue that causes difference in humor and content. Women prefer jokes with less aggressive and less sexual content than do men. However, both men and women favor to have women as the target of jokes. When it came to creating and appreciating humor, men scored higher on creation and women scored higher on appreciation (Nevo, Nevo, & Yin, 2001).

Many theories have been created that explain the concept of humor; though three main theories help us to understand. First, incongruity theories concentrate on perceiving humor and the cognitive processes involved in it. Second, relief theories state the belief that laughter is a release of energy that has been suppressed. Finally, superiority theories describe that humor comes from a person’s aspiration to feel better than the other (Graham, 1995).

Having a sense of humor includes many benefits. Individuals with a greater sense of humor are more motivated, cheerful, trustworthy, and have a higher self-esteem. They are also more likely to develop close, social relationships (Kelly, 2002). One of the greatest benefits of having a sense of humor is the influence it has on health. First, humor can be interceded by social relationships, which may create health-enhancing effects. Second, humor has an indirect effect on stress levels. By having a humorous outlook on life, stressful experiences are often minimized. Third, physiological processes are influenced by humor. For example, laughing may reduce muscle tension, increase the flow of oxygen to the blood, exercise the cardiovascular region, and produce endorphins. Finally, humor corresponds with positive emotional states (Martin, 2001) and is known to be an indicator of mental health.

Mental health, or psychological well-being, is another multifaceted concept with many definitions. It is the ability to overcome psychological distress, develop psychologically and emotionally, become aware of others, and maintain social relationships (Zeman, 2003). Statistical definitions compare individuals who are on the outer ends of the bell-shaped curve to “normal” individuals who fall in the middle. Moral/spiritual definitions are used in traditional cultures and focuses on the characteristics that provide evidence of mental health. Finally, subjective definitions approach how disorders are either present or absent (Qualls, 2002). Mental health can be characterized by six essential factors: self-acceptance, personal growth, autonomy, environmental mastery, personality integration, and an accurate perception of reality (Compton, 2001).

People with great mental health have a high self-esteem, strong sociable encouragement, and are members of warm, compassionate families (Zeman, 2003). Maintaining mental health over time is extremely important; however, risk factors exist for mental illnesses. Preserving mental health can be accomplished by three characteristics. First, having a low risk of disease or disability; second, functioning well, both mentally and physically; and finally, being fully engaged with life (Qualls, 2002). There are three main categories of risk factors for mental illness. Genetics can influence mental health by delaying development, causing physical illness, or producing a low IQ, which may result in problems in communication and academic failure. Another risk factor is the family and close relationships. Parental conflict, inconsistent discipline, abuse, loss of friendships, and parental mental illness are all factors that may lead to mental illness. External factors that may cause mental illness include socioeconomic status, discrimination, and poor education (Zeman, 2003).

Many mental health theories of structure exist to help in the understanding of the concept. Compton, Smith, Cornish, and Qualls (1996) believe mental health is divided into three areas: personal growth, subjective well-being, and the stress-resistant personality. Personal growth refers to the development of a person’s psychological qualities and potentials. The most well-known theory on the idea of personal growth is Maslow’s self-actualizing person theory. Subjective well-being refers to positive emotions and the outlook one has on life. Stress-resistant personality refers to the factors that increase physical health outcomes. Compton (2001) also adds the area of religiosity to mental health.

Not much research has been conducted on sense of humor and mental health. The purpose of this study is to determine a correlation between the two concepts. I am expecting to find a positive correlation.

read more ...



NYT: Mindfulness Meditation, Based on Buddha’s Teachings, Gains Ground With Therapists

From NYTimes.com:

Lotus Therapy


Published: May 27, 2008

The patient sat with his eyes closed, submerged in the rhythm of his own breathing, and after a while noticed that he was thinking about his troubled relationship with his father.


“I was able to be there, present for the pain,” he said, when the meditation session ended. “To just let it be what it was, without thinking it through.”

The therapist nodded.“Acceptance is what it was,” he continued. “Just letting it be. Not trying to change anything.”“That’s it,” the therapist said. “That’s it, and that’s big.”

This exercise in focused awareness and mental catch-and-release of emotions has become perhaps the most popular new psychotherapy technique of the past decade. Mindfulness meditation, as it is called, is rooted in the teachings of a fifth-century B.C. Indian prince,
Siddhartha Gautama, later known as the Buddha. It is catching the attention of talk therapists of all stripes, including academic researchers, Freudian analysts in private practice and skeptics who see all the hallmarks of another fad.

Read more ...


Monday, May 26, 2008

NYT: A Stroke Leads a Brain Scientist to a New Spirituality


From NYTimes.com:

A Superhighway to Bliss

By LESLIE KAUFMAN

JILL BOLTE TAYLOR was a neuroscientist working at Harvard’s brain research center when she experienced nirvana.

But she did it by having a stroke.

On Dec. 10, 1996, Dr. Taylor, then 37, woke up in her apartment near Boston with a piercing pain behind her eye. A blood vessel in her brain had popped. Within minutes, her left lobe — the source of ego, analysis, judgment and context — began to fail her. Oddly, it felt great.

The incessant chatter that normally filled her mind disappeared. Her everyday worries — about a brother with schizophrenia and her high-powered job — untethered themselves from her and slid away.

Her perceptions changed, too. She could see that the atoms and molecules making up her body blended with the space around her; the whole world and the creatures in it were all part of the same magnificent field of shimmering energy.

“My perception of physical boundaries was no longer limited to where my skin met air,” she has written in her memoir, “My Stroke of Insight,” which was just published by Viking.

After experiencing intense pain, she said, her body disconnected from her mind. “I felt like a genie liberated from its bottle,” she wrote in her book. “The energy of my spirit seemed to flow like a great whale gliding through a sea of silent euphoria.”

While her spirit soared, her body struggled to live. She had a clot the size of a golf ball in her head, and without the use of her left hemisphere she lost basic analytical functions like her ability to speak, to understand numbers or letters, and even, at first, to recognize her mother. A friend took her to the hospital. Surgery and eight years of recovery followed.

Her desire to teach others about nirvana, Dr. Taylor said, strongly motivated her to squeeze her spirit back into her body and to get well.

Read more ....

Friday, May 23, 2008

NARSAD Researchers Showcase New Treatment Options For Severe Depression; Provide New Clues About Treating Clinical Anxiety And Schizophrenia


Medical News Today:

New findings from research supported by NARSAD, the world's leading charity dedicated to mental health research, and conducted by scientists at Washington University's School of Medicine (WUSM) now point to new options for treating preschool-aged children with significant clinical depression as well as those severely depressed adults who don't respond to standard treatments, such as antidepressants and psychotherapy.

Presented at NARSAD's 5th annual St. Louis Mental Health Research Symposium on May 18th at Washington University, the studies, conducted by four leading St. Louis-based researchers, shed new light on what happens in the brains of children and adults who are affected by clinical depression, anxiety disorders and schizophrenia. Coming at a time when more than 57 million Americans suffer from a diagnosable mental disorder, the new findings have immediate relevance in terms of new treatment options and different strategies for designing more targeted therapies for the future.

Read more ....

The Earth Times: Public Service Campaign Takes on Attitudes Trivializing Depression

The Earth Times: Public Service Campaign Takes on Attitudes Trivializing Depression


WASHINGTON, May 21 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- In its latest effort to help Americans understand the seriousness of depression and the importance of seeking treatment, the Depression Is Real Coalition today distributed a groundbreaking series of PSAs titled, "It Is Depression" to media outlets nationwide. Spoken from the perspective of experts on the front lines of depression treatment, the PSAs urge the public to recognize that depression is a biological disease that can be as debilitating as other major illnesses like cancer, diabetes and heart disease.


One print advertisement from the campaign poses a provocative question that illustrates popular misconceptions about depression: "You'd never say, 'It's just cancer, get over it.' So why do some say that about depression?" The words appear to be written in chalk on a school blackboard."What people may not understand is that depression is not just a matter of being in a bad mood, or something that's in a person's mind. It's just like any other biologically-based disease. It has symptoms. It can be disabling, and even fatal," said David Shern, PhD, President and CEO of Coalition member organization Mental Health America. "In fact, depression is a condition that commonly co-occurs with chronic diseases like diabetes and heart disease."


Monday, May 19, 2008

Jezebel.com: Is Blogging Better Than Prozac?


From Jezebel.com:


Yesterday on CNN.com, Anna Jane Grossman tackles the very heart and soul of personal blogs. Grossman says some may question why people share their deepest thoughts and feelings with strangers online, but the better question is: Why not?


Grossman writes, "Overeating, alcoholism, depression — name the problem and you'll find someone's personal blog on the subject." Grossman spoke to Stacey Kim, whose husband died of pancreatic cancer. "Kim curled up next to her husband and held him as he succumbed to a long battle with pancreatic cancer," Grossman explains. "The next morning, she went online to post about the experience."


Stacey's emotional blogging helped her cope. "Right after he died, people kept asking if I was in therapy," she says."I'd say, 'No, but I have a blog.'"




CNN.com: Your blog can be group therapy

By Anna Jane Grossman

(LifeWire) -- When a 24-year-old woman who called herself "90DayJane" launched a blog in February announcing she would write about her life and feelings for three months and then commit suicide, 150,000 readers flocked to the site. Some came to offer help, some to delight in the drama. Others speculated it was all a hoax.

Few, however, questioned why she would share her deepest thoughts and feelings with strangers online. In the age of cyber-voyeurism, the better question might be: Why wouldn't she?

Overeating, alcoholism, depression -- name the problem and you'll find someone's personal blog on the subject. Roughly 12 million Americans have blogs, according to polls by the Pew Internet and American Life Project in 2006, and many seem to use them as a form of group therapy.

A 2005 survey by Digital Marketing Services for AOL.com a found nearly half of the 600 people polled derived therapeutic benefits from personal blogging.

read more ...

Saturday, May 17, 2008

Enlightened Living: Self Esteem Doesn't Make Better People Of Us



The American philosopher and psychologist William James first coined the term self-esteem in his seminal work The Principles of Psychology. He suggested that self-esteem can be objectively measured through a simple ratio of goals and aims to attainment. What he was talking about is what we refer to today as an evidence-based measure.

Since it was first introduced in 1890, the notion of self-esteem has morphed into something entirely different than was originally intended. Our modern interpretation is no longer an objective and measurable equation of "do good/feel good". It has, in fact, come to mean something quite the opposite. We have lost sight of the "do good" piece and now, apparently much to our detriment, focus solely on the "feel-good" piece.

As our culture has become more and more centered upon how negative experiences may impact development, we have come to shelter, shun, and sugarcoat everything so as not to bruise the allegedly fragile egos of those around us. This tendency actually falls within the realm of agency, which is a component of codependence, and is especially evidenced with regard to children.

With the increased focus on children as the center of culture, we have also become more inclined to treat children with kid gloves (pun intended). In generations past, you were a star because you showed athletic promise, unusual scholarship, or were an asset to the community. These days, you're a star just because someone tells you it's so. And that is the crux of the problem.

Psychologist Jean M. Twenge, in her 2007 publication, Generation Me: Why Today's Young Americans Are More Confident, Assertive, Entitled - And More Miserable Than Ever Before

asserts a fascinating statistic. In the 1950s, 12% of teens agreed with the statement, "I am important' - by the 1980s, a staggering 7 times that many, that's 80%, agreed with that same statement. So, we're doing a good job of boosting self-esteem, right? Well, here's the catch.

An exhaustive 2005 study published in Scientific American by psychologist, Florida State University professor and PT Interactions Blogger Roy Baumeister demonstrated that less than 200 of the more than 15,000 articles published on self-esteem between 1970 and 2000 met any sort of standard for academic or scientific rigor.

Baumeister's Scientific American article, in addition to both challenging and largely discrediting the existing research on self-esteem, also demonstrated that artificially boosting self-esteem actually lowers performance. Further, high self-esteem was found to have no positive correlation with a person's ability to have successful relationships. Quite to the contrary, Baumeister writes, "Those who think highly of themselves are more likely than others to respond to problems by severing relations and seeking other partners."

Baumeister and his team also found that, again contrary to previous belief, low self-esteem does not cause teens to engage in earlier sexual activity. In fact, those with high self-esteem were found to be less inhibited and more likely to be sexually active.

In another contrary finding, there was no correlation of aggression and violence with low self-esteem, also a commonly held belief. In point of fact, perpetrators of aggressive and violent acts typically hold a more favorable, and possibly even inflated, view of themselves.

In conclusion, Baumeister addressed the core issue of what has become the "self-esteem movement". This is the idea that higher self-esteem leads to happier people. And I quote, "It seems possible that high self-esteem brings about happiness, but no research has shown this outcome. Any correlation between the two is just that, a correlation."

For her part, Twenge points out that no other generation has been raised with a higher sense of self-esteem than the current. That is something of great concern, she suggests, as it turns out that some of our cultures most deeply entrenched beliefs are, in fact, an ultimately destructive influence.

The work of Baumeister and Twenge may also help to account for the higher rates of narcissism being reported by several studies. In one 2007 report, released by San Diego State University, 16,000 Narcissistic Personality Inventory tests reviewed from 1982 to the present suggested that today's college students are more narcissistic, have a greater sense of entitlement and are increasingly likely to agree with statements like, "I think I am a special person" and "If I ruled the world, it would be a better place."

It would appear that all of this evidences several topics of conversation. The first is the need to return to self-esteem as an objective measure of character and performance. Secondly, it has implications for parenting, in that it calls to light an attention to building an authentic and grounded sense of self in our offspring, rather than an over-inflated and unrealistic self-perception. It also lends perspective to service professionals, in that we must recognize that there is an apparently preconditioned cultural imperative that must be taken into account when working with young adults and adolescents. And finally, it calls to account a generation whose self-perception appears to be wildly distorted, providing for them a staging point for developing a truly authentic character.

In the Yoga tradition, there is a phrase that is often heard, "You are perfect just the way you are." The intention of this sentiment is that, by recognizing both our limits and abilities, we come to a deep and authentic understanding of ourselves, and that this ‘self' to which we are so attached is both brilliant and flawed...but, it is, ultimately, both. That recognition and acknowledgment takes courage, but it is a necessary element in the evolution of our personal consciousness and authentic self, for as Buddha said, "Too pure water has no fish."


Friday, May 16, 2008

The Good Life: What Is Positive Psychology, and What Is It Not?

Positive psychology is the scientific study of what makes
life most worth living. It is a call for psychological science and
practice to be as concerned with strength as with weakness; as
interested in building the best things in life as in repairing the
worst; and as concerned with making the lives of normal people
fulfilling as with healing pathology.


Nowhere does this definition say or imply that psychology should
ignore or dismiss the very real problems that people experience.
Nowhere does it say or imply that the rest of psychology needs to be
discarded or replaced. The value of positive psychology is to
complement and extend the problem-focused psychology that has been
dominant for many decades.

Click here to read the full article ...

Anger in the Age of Entitlement: Emotional Pollutants II




Here are more emotional pollutants identified by the people in
our survey that are almost guaranteed to cause a negative response in
bystanders.


5. Pettiness
It's making a big deal out of
nothing or focusing on one small, negative aspect of something with no
attempt to see the bigger picture. It's making less important things
more important than the most important things. Pettiness is usually a
function of resentment; for the resentful, nothing is too petty to
resent....



6. Sarcasm
It comes in many forms. Sometimes
it's just poorly-timed humor - saying the wrong thing in the wrong
context. Sometimes it's innocently insensitive, with no intention to
hurt or offend. More often it is hostile and meant to devalue. The
purpose is to undermine a perspective you don't agree with or to shake
someone's confidence, for temporary ego gain or strategic advantage....


7. Victim identity
(P)eople who identify with injuries,
defects, or weaknesses tend to see only negative aspects of themselves
and their experience....

8. Enmity
Henry Kissinger once said that even
the paranoid have enemies. Paranoid or not, emotional polluters can
hardly avoid making enemies. Other people see their negativity or
casual disregard of others as rejection or put-down and certainly do
not see the core hurts, regret, or remorse that cause it. Far from
invoking greater understanding, which is what emotional polluters
really long for, their behavior creates little but an impulse for
revenge in others...


Click here to read the full text of this article...

Anger In The Age of Entitlement: Emotional Pollutants



You've got them (all of them) under your skin. Emotional pollution is transmitted covertly by body language, facial expressions, and tone of voice and more overtly by language and behavior. The negative effects of the more subtle forms of emotional pollution are nearly as great as the more dramatic forms. This post will list the top four emotional pollutants.

1. Entitlement
Entitlement is the primary emotional pollutant because it plays some part in all the others. Think of how you react when you see people who behave as if they deserve special treatment or consideration. They expect to cut in front of you in line, smoke wherever they want, drive anyway they like, say anything they want, and do anything they like. By making their rights superior to yours, they imply that you don't count....

2. Resentment

The most common emotional pollutant, resentment is based on a perception of unfairness for not getting the expected help, appreciation, consideration, praise, reward, respect, or affection. It is one of the most unpleasant emotional states to be near, in part because it carries a powerful sense of entitlement - it's only fair that the world give me what I want. More to the point, resentful people are so caught up in their "rights" and so locked into their own perspectives that they become completely insensitive to the rights and perspectives of others, which means that you will certainly feel shut out and diminished in their presence.

3. Anger
An isolated expression of anger, like an isolated display of entitlement or resentment may not be polluting. However, it is rare to see an isolated expression of anger, simply because it is the most contagious of all emotions. ...

4. Superiority
Superiority is the implication, at least through body language or tone of voice, that you are better than someone else. Emotional polluters tend to have hierarchical self-esteem, i.e., they need to feel better than someone else to feel okay about themselves. Not surprisingly, this form of distorted self-esteem lies at the heart of racism, sexism, and all other prejudicial points of view....


Click here to read the full text of this article ...

Emotional Pollutants II | Psychology Today Blogs

Longmont TimesCall: Faith groups examine role in easing mental illnesses




LONGMONT
— The public is invited to a free half-day conference Tuesday in
Boulder on the role of faith groups in addressing depression.

The
HOPE Coalition of Boulder County, formed in 2003 by community members
to educate and raise awareness about depression and suicide prevention,
is hosting the conference in honor of Mental Health Month, spokesman

Keith Matney said.


The conference, titled “Depression Over the Life Cycle & the
Role of Faith Communities,” will address depression in youth,
middle-aged adult and older adult populations, focusing on prevention
and intervention strategies for faith groups, a press release said.


The event is from 8 a.m. to noon at First Congregational Church, 1128 Pine St. in Boulder.


“It’s very spiritual dealing with mental illness: You feel
isolated and alone and trapped inside yourself,” said Matney, who
also works with a number of local mental illness programs.


“You’re forced to reconcile with a lot of psychologically
profound questions that are very difficult,” he added.


“It’s suffering that is invisible.”


Matney said the coalition, with the National Alliance for Mental
Illness, hosted its first interfaith conference on mental health last
year; 121 people attended.


More than 50 faith communities are expected to attend, he said. Those
from Longmont include First Congregational United Church of Christ,
LifeBridge Christian Church, St. John the Baptist Catholic Church and
New Creation Church.


Matney said this year’s conference aims to give faith groups the
tools to help and support those affected by mental illnesses, including
depression, schizophrenia, bipolar disorder, obsessive-compulsive
disorder, panic disorder, post-traumatic stress disorder and
personality disorder.


“Very often, those affected by mental illness are connected to
their faith communities. Either they approach someone directly in the
clergy first or someone in the congregation,” Matney said.


“But we’ve found that those individuals don’t have
the skills, knowledge, resources or training to work with the
individual or the family and point them in the right direction.”


Two Longmont churches, which have representatives attending
Tuesday’s conference in Boulder, are already reaching out.


LifeBridge Christian Church provides counseling and a support group for
those with depression, anxiety and fear, care ministry coordinator Abby
Carney said.


She said the church trains laypeople to serve as on-site counselors and can refer individuals to Christian counselors.


“We try to take away the taboo by talking about (mental illness)
and so people will be more willing to open up and come forward for
help,” she said.


First Congregational United Church of Christ in Longmont, with partners
the OUR Center and the Mental Health Center, provides a drop-in center
at 501 Fifth Ave. called Soft Voices.


There, those with mental illness can find a safe, supportive
environment, said John Parsons, church member and Soft Voices
volunteer. He said guests come for games, puzzles, art therapy, a quiet
place to rest or friendship.


The drop-in center was created five years ago, he said, and since then,
First Congregational has held a church service devoted to those with
mental illness. During the church’s annual meeting in 2007, it
unanimously passed a covenant to be an “open and supportive
church” to those affected by brain disorders.


“I can’t tell you how many (church) members, through the
last five years, have come forward to one of us talking to us about
their personal situation,” Parsons said.


“There’s still a stigma around mental illness, and
we’re very aware as a congregation of the struggles against that
stigma.”

Medscape: Interview With Thomas R. Insel, Director of the National Institute of Mental Health

from Medscape:

On behalf of Medscape, Elizabeth Saenger, PhD, former Editorial Director, Medscape Psychiatry & Mental Health, interviewed Thomas R. Insel, MD, Director of the National Institute of Mental Health, about the current state of psychiatry and mental health in the United States. Dr. Insel explores where we have made the most progress in research and clinical practice and discusses the clinical challenges that must be addressed as the field progresses.

Medscape: Dr. Insel, as Director of the National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH), you are in a unique position to give us an overview of psychiatry and mental health in the United States today. Where have we made the most progress in research and clinical practice?

Dr. Insel: Progress in clinical practice has been most impressive in terms of treatment. Compared with when I trained some 30 years ago, we now have the ability to relieve the symptoms of most major psychiatric disorders, from schizophrenia to bipolar disorder to major depressive disorder, as well as most anxiety disorders. Those treatments fall largely into 2 categories: pharmacologic therapy and psychotherapeutic interventions, such as cognitive behavior therapy. Both categories of treatment have become more targeted and have proven effective, so we have made progress. In a nutshell, I would say we are at a point where most treatments get us better but not well. A series of recent studies have uncovered where we still have management difficulty, suggesting that while many available treatments have efficacy, perhaps they aren't as effective in the real world, for several reasons. First, medications are often discontinued by the people who actually could benefit from them. Second, many people don't actually get access to the care that would be most helpful. And third, some evidence-based treatments, particularly certain psychosocial interventions for schizophrenia and bipolar disorder that we know are helpful, are not provided widely enough to reach the people who most need them. So from a treatment perspective, what is perhaps most frustrating is that some of what we have learned through research and efficacy trials is actually not being used extensively; too many people with major mental illnesses are outside of the healthcare system and end up either in the criminal justice system or in other social services not immediately linked to good medical care.

Medscape: What can NIMH do to change this?

Dr. Insel: NIMH has 2 basic targets. One concerns the treatments we have now, which are good, but not good enough. We need to step back and understand more about the mechanisms and pathophysiology of these illnesses in order to develop a next generation of treatments that are far more effective. We have antipsychotic medications for schizophrenia that reduce the hallucinations and delusions, but people treated with these agents still don't go back to work. The reason for this is that schizophrenia is associated with cognitive symptoms and cognitive deficits that do not respond to current treatments. NIMH has recognized this as an important area for future medication development or cognitive remediation treatments that begin to help people with schizophrenia -- not only to have control over their hallucinations and delusions, but also to recover to an extent, allowing them to really participate in society and be gainfully employed. We need a new generation of research to be able to accomplish these kinds of goals, taking us from simply ameliorating symptoms to really facilitating recovery.

The second target has to do with optimizing currently available treatments. For instance, we know that in the treatment of depression roughly half of patients will respond to an antidepressant, such as an SSRI. Another group will respond to psychotherapy, such as cognitive-behavioral therapy. But what we don't know yet is who will respond to which treatment, and unfortunately we are in a situation of basically treating by trial and error. For example, someone can be on an SSRI for 8, 10, or 12 weeks before we recognize that it is not helpful. That is an awfully long time for someone with a very serious, often life-threatening illness to be on a medication without our knowing whether it is helpful. So what we would like to do is to develop a set of biomarkers and predictive tests to help us personalize treatment. In summary, the 2 main NIMH treatment targets are (1) developing new and more effective treatments, and (2) optimizing the use of current treatments.

Medscape: It sounds like psychopharmacogenetics?

Dr. Insel: Pharmacogenomics could be part of the way we personalize treatments, but so far it hasn't fully delivered on the promise that many of us had 5 or 10 years ago. I suspect that in terms of treating depression, schizophrenia, and autism, as well as other psychiatric disorders, we won't be dealing with a single genomic test, but rather a biosignature that includes clinical history, family history, perhaps a brain imaging result, as well as genomic data. Hopefully these factors will collectively help us to understand and predict who will respond best to which treatment.

Medscape: Where would you say that NIMH has made the best investments in terms of its funding and energy?

Dr. Insel: Identifying our best investments depends on how outcomes are measured. There are a number of places where I feel we've made big investments but are still waiting for the ultimate outcomes. We have already seen interesting results from the last 5- 6 years from our investment in large effectiveness clinical trials as opposed to the traditional efficacy trial. These large-scale practical trials involve 10,000 patients in 200 sites across the country, including primary care sites, private practices, and community mental health centers. These sites were selected to be what we would call "more real-world" kinds of settings, and to address how well current treatments work and for whom they work best. The studies, which go by a variety of acronyms, have focused on adolescents with depression, adults with major depressive disorder, chronic schizophrenia, and bipolar disorder; most are now complete and have generated highly informative results. We now have very good data showing that antidepressants, such as SSRIs, when combined with cognitive-behavior therapy, work very effectively in adolescents with depression, which was not as clear before this very large-scale trial was launched.

We also have data on the treatment of schizophrenia suggesting that some of the older, less expensive, antipsychotic medications should be considered as front-line treatments; in head-to-head comparison these agents appear to be roughly as effective as many of the newer and more expensive medications. We also have some very interesting results from studies of depression and bipolar disorder that help us to better understand which treatments are best for which patients and, in addition, how to proceed when initial therapy is unsuccessful. What is the next best choice? These are questions important to practitioners that previously we didn't have answers to; these are not the kinds of trials that pharmaceutical companies are likely to mount because they involve head-to-head comparisons between active medications, rather than comparing a medication with a placebo. So such investigations have been a large -- and, I believe, very effective -- investment.

I think the other major investment for us has been attempting to get a better handle on the basis of these disorders in the brain, in terms of both genetics and imaging. I suspect that if you look back 20 years from now and ask what were the most important developments in the 1990s and the first decade of the 21st century, in psychiatry it would be the reformulation of mental disorders as brain disorders. This is a rather slow and iterative process, but it is certainly truer in 2008 than it was in 1988. We have begun to recognize that each of these disorders, from autism, to schizophrenia, to mood disorders, to anxiety disorders, can be studied as a brain disorder involving specific brain circuits; usually these circuits include some part of the prefrontal cortex. We don't know fully where the circuits have gone astray, but we are increasingly reformulating the etiology of mental illnesses to involve altered development of brain connections. They may manifest much later in life, as with schizophrenia, which generally shows up around age 18 or older. But more and more we understand that though the manifestations may appear late, the underlying problem might be developing far earlier and affect the way brain connections form. We now think about major psychiatric illnesses as developmental brain disorders with the potential to be addressed through very early intervention.

Medscape: What are the most pressing issues that we face now in mental health in terms of not only research, but also preparing and attracting potential scientists to the field?

Dr. Insel: The challenges are at several levels; one entails having a workforce with the breadth and scientific expertise to understand major psychiatric illnesses as developmental brain disorders. However, we don't yet have all the tools to address this challenge. Even with the power of modern genomics and imaging, we still know just a small fraction of what we need to in order to predict and preempt these illnesses. So part of the challenge will be bringing in the next generation of scientists -- trained as both brain and clinical scientists -- to understand how we can have the greatest impact on psychiatric illness.

Another challenge in mental healthcare are the tremendous health disparities we struggle with in patients with psychiatric illness, a problem less frequent in neurological illness and other areas of medicine. It is fair to say that much of the mental healthcare still occurs outside the healthcare system. I would even point to something as rarified as a university environment, often harboring a counseling center in the same building as the campus health center. Students who present with schizophrenia, bipolar disorder, or major depressive disorder -- which we now think of in biomedical terms -- will most likely go to the counseling center, which likely has no communication with the student health center. This scenario symbolizes what we see in the whole community, where most people being treated for these disorders are outside the healthcare system. For example, bipolar illness is often misidentified, if identified at all, in those who are imprisoned, homeless, or recognized in school as having a disciplinary problem rather than a medical illness. So a major challenge ahead is helping the public, the medical community, and patient families understand that these are medical illnesses which shouldn't be attributed to personal weakness, or some mysterious force that can't be addressed in a typical hospital or clinic setting.

Medscape: Do you think this sort of thinking might be a legacy of the mind/body split, or is it related to something else?

Dr. Insel: Such thinking is partially due to 300 years of what we call Cartesian dualism, in which disorders of the mind are not considered disorders of the body or brain. The 1990s -- or "decade of the brain" --helped address this issue as we increasingly came to understand the association between the "mind" and "brain," or at least understand that mental events could be studied as brain events. An extension of this development is the understanding of mental disorders as brain disorders; however, this remains an evolving and incompletely understood process. I think it also must be recognized that psychiatry has played a large role in encouraging this attitude; for many years much of the psychiatry discipline has perpetuated the division between itself and medicine. In terms of my own education, we were essentially trained as a subdiscipline of psychoanalysis, with a very distant relationship to the rest of the medical school and with little emphasis on understanding these conditions as medical disorders. For example, we were taught in great detail that peptic ulcer disease was related to psychosocial stress. And the recognition today that this is a disease having to do with a specific, treatable bacteria reminds us that we need to be open to understanding mental or behavioral disorders within the realm of medical causes.

Medscape: Can you expand on the relationship between psychiatry and medicine?

Dr. Insel: Depression is an interesting example because it is highly prevalent, highly disabling, and even though the condition is imminently treatable, doesn't get treated often enough. If you ask nonpsychiatric physicians to characterize depression -- which is extremely common in private practice -- they will most likely be aware of Hollywood's interpretation of the illness, generally involving sadness, tearfulness, and perhaps hopelessness. But in fact for most men with depression, irritability or somatic complaints are more likely symptoms. Also, people don't recognize that depressed patients usually present to a private-practice office, not to a psychiatrist or community mental health center.

The morbidity and mortality associated with depression is only partly associated with suicide. For example, a person who suffers a myocardial infarction (MI) may have an increased risk for depression in the weeks after the MI, and we have come to learn that the presence of depression following an MI increases cardiovascular mortality approximately 2- to 3-fold. This is a greater risk for mortality from a cardiovascular event than is associated with almost any other cardiovascular variable, except, perhaps, being in cardiac failure; post-MI depression increases mortality risk more than the presence of an arrhythmia, the magnitude of the change in enzymes, or even infarct size. So obviously depression is not just a disease involving mood and cognition, but rather a condition affecting the whole body with implications for a wide range of medical disorders, including not only cardiac disease, but also immune conditions, cancer, and, as more recent data suggest, osteoporosis. Depression is a complex, physiologic event with numerous medical complications that need to be understood and appreciated if we're to focus on and succeed in treating the whole person.

Medscape: How do cultural factors affect the presentation of depression? And is there anything you would like to add to this discussion?

Dr. Insel: The cultural question is extremely important because America is changing so rapidly; we have to understand that depression may look different in people who grew up in other countries. NIMH has done some fascinating research investigating the risk for mental disorders in immigrants to the United States, showing that rates are actually higher in the next generation. So this sort of research has very important implications.

I think this issue of health disparities is especially critical. Our nation needs to understand the importance of providing treatment to people who need it most, but who may be least able to afford it. Part of what makes addressing mental disorders so difficult is that people with these conditions are often so disabled that they stop working, stop caring for their children, and may become homeless. Because so many of the costs associated with mental disorders are in the public domain, psychiatric illness is incredibly costly compared with other medical problems. Approximately 80% of antipsychotic prescriptions are paid through Medicaid or Medicare; there are really no other medical illnesses with this cost profile -- that is, with indirect costs such as social services and the cost that the public pays in both healthcare and nonhealthcare trumping specific medical costs. For example, in terms of psychiatric illness, the indirect costs of social services for issues such as unemployment, welfare, and aid to the homeless can be greater than for the healthcare itself. This is not the case for cancer, heart disease, or neurologic disorders. Thus we need to be thinking about how we treat psychiatric illnesses and develop therapies, not simply as a cost but as an investment; we pay tremendously for the care of people with mental disorders and are not doing so in a very efficient way.

Medscape: So you really have to look at the larger picture?

Dr. Insel: Absolutely. These are disorders that affect all of us and are extremely disabling. Besides just the emotional toll involved with mental illness, we also have to learn to effectively acknowledge and address the tremendous social costs.


UPI: 'Mad pride' gives voice to mentally ill


from UPI:
United Press International - May 10, 2008

NEW YORK, May 10, 2008 (UPI via COMTEX) -- U.S. residents suffering from mental illnesses have a new public voice, owing to the growth of so-called mad pride events, mental health professionals say.

Yale School of Medicine psychiatry lecturer Charles Barber said the growing mad pride movement represents a new generation's attempt to bring mental illness into the public eye without shame or remorse, The New York Times said Saturday.

"Until now, the acceptance of mental illness has pretty much stopped at depression," Barber said. "But a newer generation, fueled by the Internet and other sophisticated delivery systems, is saying, 'We deserve to be heard, too.'"

Molly Sprengelmeyer, who helped organize a mad pride group in North Carolina, said the events help challenge stereotypes of mental illness and improve the lives of those suffering from such illnesses.

"It used to be you were labeled with your diagnosis and that was it; you were marginalized," Sprengelmeyer told the Times. "If people found out, it was a death sentence, professionally and socially.

"We are hoping to change all that by talking."

Mad Pride ...


MAD PRIDE

(I'm waiting to join until I see what the t-shirts look like ...)

NYT: They're mad, and proud of it

from the New York Times:

By Gabrielle Glaser, New York Times
Published Thursday, May 15, 2008 4:35 PM


In the YouTube video, Liz Spikol is smiling and animated, the light glinting off her large hoop earrings. Deadpan, she holds up a diaper to illustrate how much control people lose when they undergo electroconvulsive therapy, or ECT, as she did 12 years ago.

In other videos and blog postings, Spikol, 39, a writer in Philadelphia who has bipolar disorder, describes a period of psychosis so severe she jumped out of her mother's car and ran away like a scared dog.

In lectures across the country, Elyn Saks, a law professor and associate dean at the University of Southern California, recounts the florid visions she has experienced during her lifelong battle with schizophrenia — dancing ashtrays, houses that spoke to her — and hospitalizations where she was strapped down and force-fed medications.

Like many Americans who have severe forms of mental illness such as schizophrenia and bipolar disorder, Saks and Spikol are speaking publicly about their demons. Their frank talk is part of a
conversation about mental illness that stretches from college campuses to community health centers, from YouTube to online forums.

"Until now, the acceptance of mental illness has pretty much stopped at depression," said Charles Barber, a lecturer in psychiatry at the Yale School of Medicine. "But a newer generation, fueled by the Internet and other sophisticated delivery systems, is saying, 'We deserve to be heard, too.' "

About 5.7-million Americans over 18 have bipolar disorder, which is classified as one of a group of mood disorders, according to the National Institute of Mental Health. Another 2.4-million have schizophrenia, which is considered a thought disorder. The small slice of this disparate population who have chosen to share their experiences with the public liken their efforts to those of the
gay rights movement of a generation ago.

Just as gay rights activists reclaimed the word queer as a badge of honor rather than a slur, these advocates proudly call themselves mad; they say their conditions do not preclude them from productive lives.

Mad pride events, organized in at least seven countries including the United States, draw thousands of participants, said David W. Oaks, director of MindFreedom International, a nonprofit group in Eugene, Ore., which tracks the events and says it has 10,000 members.

Recent activities include a Mad Pride Cabaret in Vancouver, British Columbia; a Mad Pride March in Accra, Ghana; and a Bonkersfest in London that drew 3,000 participants.

Members of the mad pride movement do not always agree on their aims. For some, the objective is to destigmatize mental illness. A vocal, controversial wing rejects the need to treat mental afflictions with psychotropic drugs and seeks alternatives to the shifting, often inconsistent care offered by the medical establishment. Many say they are publicly discussing their struggles to help those with similar conditions and to inform the public.

"It used to be you were labeled with your diagnosis and that was it; you were marginalized," said Molly Sprengelmeyer, an organizer for the Asheville Radical Mental Health Collective, a mad pride group in North Carolina. "If people found out, it was a death sentence, professionally and socially. We are hoping to change all that by talking."

read more ...



In Practice: Madonna-Whore: Not Complex



If you want to pass on your genes, you might hold out for a quality mate and raise your offspring with care. On the other hand, you might just enjoy promiscuous sex and let the pups fend for themselves.

What determines which strategy you’ll choose? Your mother — or rather, the early life experience she provides. That, and how your genes fold. At least it’s that way for rodents.

At the annual meeting of the American Psychiatric Association, Michael Meany, a psychobiologist at McGill, presented the results of years of work on mothering, genes, and behavior in rats.
If a rat mother is nurturant (she tends to lick and groom her pups, making her “high LG”), her offspring will be less anxious, better at facing stress, and good at parenting their own broods. Low LG mothers produce does who encounter puberty early, show greater sexual receptivity, enjoy an increased pregnancy rate, and neglect their young. Subsequent generations of female offspring will do the same — unless a lucky pup is “cross-nurtured” by a mother who licks and grooms, in which case the cosseted rat will grow up to be be calm and picky.

These responses typify two Darwinian strategies. If the early message is that life is

nasty, you pass your genes on any which way. If you begin with a quality environment, you choose a more patient strategy.

The personality variants result from the way the brain handles the usual suspects: stress-responsive hormones, serotonin, and oxytocin. But in Meany’s rat model, at the base of the difference is an extremely simple difference in epigenetics.

Remember epigenetics? It refers to changes in the configuration of chromosomes that maintain the same gene sequences. Here, neglectful rearing results in the methylation of single base, a cytosine, found in a “non-coding” region of DNA that turns out to influence the production of receptors for stress hormones, via a “glucocorticoid receptor promoter.” It's not your genes, it's how they're folded, a geometry that encodes the trouble you've seen.

A “histone deacetylase (HDAC) inhibitor” that helps reverse the methylation and refold the gene will make the low-LG offspring more resilient in face of stress. Absent this chemical re-parenting, once the methylation occurs — as it invariably does in the offspring of low LG mothers — it persists for a lifetime, muting the production of stress modulators even in flush intervals. The pattern will continue for generations, in a sort of rat family “culture of poverty.”

In human terms, if you, as a woman, get knocked up young and neglect your child in favor of more hot hookups, it may be a single methylated cytosine that’s to blame — or to praise, if that strategy works for you and yours. And if, as a man on the prowl, you think that the complaisant babe you’re ogling learned life’s lessons in the school of hard knocks, you’re probably right.

For more detail, you can download the first paper listed in this bibliography of Michael Meany's work. The essay concludes: “The quality of the environment influences the behavior of the parent, which in turn is the critical factor in determining whether development proceeds along an optimistic versus a pessimistic pattern of development. In mammals, . . . parental signals serve as a ‘forecast’ of the level of adversity that lies ahead. . . . various levels of environmental demand require different traits in the offspring. This is a simple, even obvious message, with significant social implications.” It’s also one that may be encoded reasonably simply in the mammalian brain, via DNA that’s responded to the way of the world.

Threat Level: Experts Say MySpace Suicide Indictment Sets "Scary" Legal Precedent

Threat Level from Wired.com:

By Kim Zetter EmailMay 15, 2008 | 8:39:09 PM

In their eagerness to visit justice on a 49-year-old woman involved in the Megan Meier MySpace suicide tragedy, federal prosecutors in Los Angeles are resorting to a novel and dangerous interpretation of a decades-old computer crime law -- potentially making a felon out of anybody who violates the terms of service of any website, experts say.

"This is a novel and extreme reading of what [the law] prohibits,"says Jennifer Granick, civil liberties director at the Electronic Frontier Foundation. "To say that you're violating a criminal law by registering to speak under a false name is highly problematic. It's probably an unconstitutional reading of the statute."

Lori Drew, of O'Fallon, Missouri, is charged with one count of conspiracy and three violations of the anti-hacking Computer Fraud and Abuse Act, in a case involving cyberbullying through a fake MySpace profile.

Drew is one of three people who helped set up and maintain a phony MySpace account in 2006 under the identity of a nonexistent 16-year-old boy named Josh Evans. The Evans account was used to flirt with and befriend 13-year-old Megan Meier, who'd had a falling-out with Drew's daughter.

The fake "Josh" ultimately turned on Meier and told the girl that the world would be a better place without her. Meier already suffered from clinical depression, and shortly after that final message she hung herself in her bedroom.

A nationwide community backlash ensued, after a news story published last year revealed Drew's role in the cyberbullying, and pressure was placed on Missouri authorities to charge Drew with a crime. But after investigating the incident, local prosecutors concluded last December that they could find no law under which to charge Drew.

That's when federal prosecutors began working to build a case -- a difficult task, given that there is no federal law against cyberbullying. On Thursday, the U.S. Attorney's Office in Los Angeles unveiled its solution by charging Drew with "unauthorized access" to MySpace's computers, for allegedly violating the site's terms of service.

MySpace's user agreement requires registrants, among other things, to provide factual information about themselves and to refrain from soliciting personal information from minors or using information obtained from MySpace services to harass or harm other people. By allegedly violating that click-to-agree contract, Drew committed the same crime as any hacker.

That sets a potentially troubling precedent, given that terms-of-service agreements sometimes contain onerous provisions, and are rarely read by users.

read more ...


Threat Level: Lori Drew Indicted in MySpace Suicide Case


From Threat Level - Wired Blogs:

By Kim Zetter EmailMay 15, 2008 | 2:01:41 PM


Lori_drew_3
A federal grand jury issued an indictment against a woman in Missouri
accused of creating a fake MySpace page to bully a 13-year-old girl.
The girl committed suicide as a result of the bullying.




Lori Drew was indicted this morning in Los Angeles on federal charges
for fraudulently using an account on MySpace. The indictment charges
Drew in four counts -- one count for conspiracy and three counts "for
accessing protected computers without authorization to obtain
information to inflict emotional distress," according to a press
release. The latter charge relates to the Computer Fraud and Abuse Act.





The indictment
(.pdf) alleges that Drew and her co-conspirators violated MySpace's
terms of service, which require registrants to provide truthful
registration information and refrain from soliciting personal
information from anyone under 18 or using information obtained from
MySpace services to harass or harm other people, among other terms.





If convicted on all four counts, Drew could face up to 20 years in federal prison.




“This adult woman allegedly used the internet to target a young
teenage girl, with horrendous ramifications,” said United States
Attorney Thomas P. O'Brien. “After a thorough investigation, we
have charged Ms. Drew with criminally accessing MySpace and violating
rules established to protect young, vulnerable people. Any adult who
uses the internet or a social-gathering website to bully or harass
another person, particularly a young teenage girl, needs to realize
that their actions can have serious consequences.”




Drew's co-conspirators include her daughter and another teenager,
Ashley Grills, who helped set up the MySpace account and sent comments
to Megan Meier that contributed to her suicide. It was reported earlier
this year that Grills was given immunity for her cooperation with the
investigation.




When asked at a press conference what this might mean for other people
who engage in similar behavior, O'Brien responded that, "Anyone who
engages in harassment and violates the law similar to Ms. Drew is
subject to investigation and prosecution on the right facts."



O'Brien said that Drew will be allowed to surrender to authorities
and said he expected that would happen next month in St. Louis,
Missouri.









Evil Deeds: Messiahs of Evil

My most recent post, The Trauma of Evil, addressed the psychological, philosophical and spiritual trauma devastating disasters like Hurricane Katrina, the cataclysmic Indonesian tsunami, the recent killer cyclone in Burma--and now, the massive earthquake in China, resulting in an estimated 50,000 dead or buried alive under rubble--leave in their tragic wake. Such incomprehensibly catastrophic events can, as I said, be viewed as forms of natural evil or "acts of God," as they are frequently referred to. Are they divine punishment, as some religious leaders contend? The work of Satan? A cyclical part of the eternal cosmic process of creation and destruction? Or just random, meaningless natural phenomena?

Next I want to further explore a specific variety of human evil: evil deeds, deliberate destructiveness, and man's monstrous inhumanity to man caused not by nature or God or Satan, but by infamous cult figures such as Adolf Hitler, Charles Manson, Jim Jones, David Koresh and others--including notorious 9/11 ringleader Osama bin Laden. In the next few posts, I'll be taking a look at the dangerous states of mind of these charismatic madmen and their fanatical followers, and the messianic psychology I believe many, if not all, cult leaders share in common. What is the psychology of such mass evil? Can perpetrators of such evil deeds be reduced to some standard psychiatric diagnosis? Or should human evil, as psychiatrist M. Scott Peck (1983) precariously suggested, "be defined as a specific form of mental illness and ...subject to at least the same intensity of scientific investigation that we would devote to some other major psychiatric disease"? It is vitally important for us to better understand the nature and psychology of human evil. As C.G. Jung (1963) warned more than forty years ago, "Today we need psychology for reasons that involve our very existence. . . . We stand face to face with the terrible question of evil and do not even know what is before us, let alone what to pit against it." The pseudoinnocence of denial--see no evil, hear no evil, speak no evil--and the naïve inability or unwillingness to recognize the reality of evil, renders us most susceptible to it.

read more...

Evil Deeds: The Trauma of Evil


JobWhat are the psychological effects of massive disasters like this week's cyclone in Myanmar (Burma) that may have claimed as many as 100,000 victims? The 2004 Indonesian earthquake and tsunami in which more than 200,000 perished? Hurricane Katrina? The recent mid-west twisters destroying property and killing eleven people? For many of those who barely survive such events, cheating death, the symptoms of acute stress disorder or posttraumatic stress disorder will likely be present, requiring some therapeutic intervention. What are the psychological, theological and philosophical issues victims of such tragedies struggle with? And what about the rest of us who witness such terrible suffering even from afar? Are we immune? How do catastrophic phenomena affect the human psyche? What are the emotional, existential and spiritual consequences of cataclysmic events such as cyclones, floods, famines, fires, hurricanes, earthquakes, tornadoes, and other so-called acts of God?

Let's first make a distinction between natural evil and human evil: While, as a forensic psychologist, I generally write in this blog about evil deeds--human destructiveness-- now we are speaking about nature's own evil. Evil is an existential reality, an inescapable fact with which we all must reckon. (I discuss the controversial notion of evil in Chapter 3, "The Psychology of Evil," in my book Anger, Madness, and the Daimonic: The Psychological Genesis of Violence, Evil, and Creativity.) Virtually every culture has some word for evil, an archetypal acknowledgment of what Webster defines as "something that brings sorrow, distress, or calamity . . . . The fact of suffering, misfortune, and wrongdoing." We see human evil every day in its various subtle and not-so-subtle forms. But when evil strikes in suprahuman, transpersonal, cosmic occurrences such as drought, disease, and tragic accidents that wreak untimely death and destruction on multitudes of innocent victims, how do we make any sense of it? The biblical Book of Job addresses just this subject, as do major religions worldwide. Psychotherapists and mental health workers such as Red Cross counselors who deal with victims of evil are confronted daily with these profound questions: Why is there evil? Where does it come from? If there is a God, how could he or she condone it? Why me? Or why not me, as in the case of "survivor guilt."

Most of us try hard to deny or avoid the reality of evil: See no evil, hear no evil, speak no evil. Or we attempt to neutralize it, dismissing evil as maya or illusion, as in the Hindu and Buddhist traditions. It is tempting to deny the reality of evil entirely, due to its inherent subjectivity and relativity: "For there is nothing either good or bad, but thinking makes it so," says Shakespeare's Hamlet, presaging the cognitive therapies of Albert Ellis and Aaron Beck.

But, even for the emotionally detached, spiritually enlightened or geographically distant observer, the grotesque spectacle of natural evil can be subtly traumatic. This is especially true for individuals with a history of previous trauma. Patients suffering from ASD or PTSD are initially in a state of emotional shock or psychic numbing, as psychiatrist Robert Lifton termed it. They have been precipitously exposed to either natural or human evil, or both, and unable to psychologically process the experience. Denial is no longer a viable defense. They feel out of control, victimized, helpless, powerless, frightened, disillusioned. Often, they also feel angry about what has happened. Angry at god. Or with fate or life itself. They have abruptly been stripped of their childish belief in life's inherent fairness. Their Weltanschauung (worldview) has been shattered. Many will never be the same. Like Humpty Dumpty, the bits and pieces cannot be put back together exactly as they were. Rather, victims of evil must somehow reconstruct themselves anew, psychologically assimilating this devastating experience and its implications into a more mature, realistic Weltanschauung, a reconstructed, sturdier, more flexible platform or foundation upon which to stand in life--one which can withstand, accept, and even embrace the existential facts of anxiety, suffering, disease and death. A revised worldview which recognizes and honors what philosopher Alan Watts called the "wisdom of insecurity." Perhaps one with a more realistic religious or spiritual outlook, such as Job's transformed recognition of god or Yahweh as the ultimate source of both good and evil; or a more sophisticated psychological understanding of the non-dualistic concept of the daimonic in psyche and nature.

read more ...

Thursday, May 15, 2008

Psychology Today: Dare To Be Yourself


From Psychology Today:

A sense of authenticity is one of our deepest psychological needs, and people are more hungry for it than ever. Even so, being true to oneself is not for the faint of heart.





It starts innocently enough, perhaps the first time you recognize your own reflection.

You're not yet 2 years old, brushing your teeth, standing on your steppy stool by the bathroom sink, when suddenly it dawns on you: That foam-flecked face beaming back from the mirror is you.

You. Yourself. Your very own self.

It's a revelation—and an affliction. Human infants have no capacity for self-awareness. Then, between 18 and 24 months of age, they become conscious of their own thoughts, feelings, and sensations—thereby embarking on a quest that will consume much of their lives. For many
modern selves, the first shock of self-recognition marks the beginning of a lifelong search for the one "true" self and for a feeling of behaving in accordance with that self that can be called authenticity.

A hunger for authenticity guides us in every age and aspect of life. It drives our explorations of work, relationships, play, and prayer. Teens and twentysomethings try out friends, fashions, hobbies, jobs, lovers, locations, and living arrangements to see what fits and what's "just
not me." Midlifers deepen commitments to career, community, faith, and family that match their self-images, or feel trapped in existences that seem not their own. Elders regard life choices with regret or satisfaction based largely on whether they were "true" to themselves.

Questions of authenticity determine our regard for others, as well. They dominated the presidential primaries: Was Hillary authentic when she shed a tear in New Hampshire? Was Obama earnest when his speechwriters cribbed lines from a friend's oration?

"Americans remain deeply invested in the notion of the authentic self," says ethicist John Portmann of the University of Virginia. "It's part of the national consciousness."

It's also a cornerstone of mental health. Authenticity is correlated with many aspects of psychological well-being, including vitality, self-esteem, and coping skills. Acting in accordance with one's core self—a trait called self-determination—is ranked by some experts as one of three basic psychological needs, along with competence and a sense of relatedness.

Yet, increasingly, contemporary culture seems to mock the very idea that there is anything
solid and true about the self. Cosmetic surgery, psychopharmaceuticals, and perpetual makeovers favor a mutable ideal over the genuine article. MySpace profiles and tell-all blogs carry the whiff of wishful identity. Steroids, stimulants, and doping transform athletic and
academic performance. Fabricated memoirs become best-sellers. Speed-dating discounts sincerity. Amid a clutter of counterfeits, the core self is struggling to assert itself.

"It's some kind of epidemic right now," says Stephen Cope, author of Yoga and the Quest for the True Self. "People feel profoundly like they're not living from who they really are, their authentic self, their deepest possibility in the world. The result is a sense of near-desperation."

Read more ...


Psychology Today: Toxic Relationships

Are problematic relationships a new type of dysfunction? Some
mental health professionals have proposed that they be labeled a type
of disorder.

By: Megan Olden


In a move that could radically change the definition of mental
illness, mental health professionals have proposed that problematic
relationships be labeled a type of disorder. The next edition of the
Diagnostic and Statistical Manual (DSM), the profession's official
handbook, may include relational disorders: dysfunction that arises due
to interpersonal problems.

Michael First, M.D., an associate professor of clinical psychiatry
at Columbia University and editor of the most recent edition of the DSM,
explains that in these disorders the interaction itself is the illness.
"It's traits that combine in a very negative way," he says. "Neither
person is disordered per se."

This conceptual shift is problematic for some researchers,
including Steven E. Hyman, M.D., former director of the National
Institute of Mental Health. "It's a huge philosophical step that I don't
consider warranted," he says. Instead of defining the relationship as
dysfunctional, Hyman says such disorders could be explained as being
present in individuals, but only in specific contexts.



Hyman also worries that the new category could be problematic in
instances of child and spousal abuse.



"Defining a disorder in terms of a relationship instead of an
individual puts a victim of abuse on the same level as their abuser,"
argues Hyman.



Luckily, psychiatrists have some time to wrestle with this issue:
The next DSM is scheduled for publication around 2010.



Wednesday, May 14, 2008

Wicked Local.com: Patients with psychiatric disorders find hope in Tunefoolery

From WickedLocal.com:

By Francis Ma

Boston - Since the age of 21, Paul Thompson has used medication and therapy to deal with his schizophrenia. He desperately needed both of them, but they failed to give him what he wanted.

“You don’t get a sense of structure,” says Thompson. “That’s sadly lacking in the psychiatric circles. You have so much time on your hands and you tend to dwell on your illness. The entire day revolved around the negativity of my illness.”

This cycle continued until Thompson, along with three other like-minded patients, did what any artist would do when confronted with a dire outlook on life: He started a band.

When Tunefoolery launched in 1994 at the Cambridge-Somerville Social Club, the goal was simple — to use music as an outlet for their creativity. What Thompson didn’t fully realize was that Tunefoolery would grow to 50 members, and provide that much-needed feeling of hope to others suffering from psychiatric disorders. (Thompson prefers the term “psychiatric disorder” to “mental illness” because of the stigma that comes with the latter.)

“With Tunefoolery, as opposed to focusing on the negative, it focuses on our strengths and talents,” explains Thompson. “I’ve seen a lot of people fall through the cracks and into despair with no light at the end of the tunnel. When people have something to look forward to, it gives them a positive perspective.”

Read more...

Twitter Delicious Facebook Digg Stumbleupon Favorites More

 
Design by Free WordPress Themes | Bloggerized by Lasantha - Premium Blogger Themes | cna certification