The Writer's Almanac: "Self-Knowledge" by C.K. Williams

Self-knowledgeby C. K. Williams Because he was always the good-hearted one, the ingenuous one, the one who knew no cunning,who, if "innocent" didn't quite apply, still merited some similar connota- tion of naïveté, simplicity,the sense that an essential awareness of the coarseness of other people's motives was lackingso that he was constantly blundering upon situations in which he would take on good faithwhat the other rapaciously, ruthlessly, duplicitously and nearly always successfully offered as truth. . .All of that he understood about himself but he was also aware that he couldn't alter at allhis basic affable faith in the benevolence of everyone's intentions and that because of this the worldwould not as in romance annihilate him but would toy unmercifully...

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Psychminded.co.uk: 'Mental illness is petrifying'

From Psychminded.co.uk"EXCLUSIVEby Adam James.....Day-to-day life as an inpatient on a psychiatric unit is being documented on an internet blog by a woman diagnosed with bipolar disorder.Mandy Lawrence, aged 45, was admitted into a six-bed NHS psychiatric unit in Bedfordshire on Friday last week and is writing about her experience.The blog is believed to be the first by a patient while an inpatient on a mental health unit.In the candid blog Ms Lawrence describes her crisis in the days leading up to her admission and concerns over who will care for her daughter.On admission she writes of her worries of being prescribed a new anti-psychotic, its side effects, ward conditions, staff, other patients and her struggle with anxiety. Anecdotes range from consultations with her psychiatrist to watching...

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Wall Street Journal: Wrong Prescription: How America's Failure to Treat The Seriously Mentally Ill Endangers Its Citizens'

WSJ: How the emptying of state-run mental hospitals produced a social disasterBy PAUL MCHUGHThe Insanity Offense By E. Fuller Torrey Norton, 265 pages, $24.95There are times and situations that call for prophets. Not fortunetellers or soothsayers, but biblical prophets like Amos or Jeremiah who furiously proclaim the old truths, puncture our pretensions and predict from current tribulations worse to come if what lies deeper than sin -- idolatrous worship of false gods -- continues. E. Fuller Torrey, a psychiatrist who cares for patients with schizophrenia and manic-depression, is to my mind the doctor nearest in character to an ancient Hebrew prophet.In "The Insanity Offense," he describes the grim consequences -- in death, violence and suffering -- of laws that, beginning in the late 1960s,...

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Your own brand of unhappiness ...

"Happiness is always a by-product. It is probably a matter of temperament, and for anything I know it may be glandular. But it is not something that can be demanded from life, and if you are not happy you had better stop worrying about it and see what treasures you can pluck from your own brand of unhappiness." - Robertson Dav...

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The Old Scout: Summer's Here: Everybody in the Pool

The Old Scout:June 3, 2008School is winding down and small children are staring out the windows at freedom and counting the days until the heavy hand of grammar and spelling will be lifted from their backs. My sandy-haired daughter dove into the pool on Memorial Day and has been amphibious ever since. She loves swimming and has to be extracted after four or five hours, before she turns prunish, and since the pool is a public pool, not our own — sensible people in Minnesota don't own swimming pools, any more than people in Tucson build backyard hockey rinks — this requires an adult to spend those hours sitting under an umbrella, reading a book and trying not to look at a clock.I don't do pool duty because the sorts of books I read aren't suitable...

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Business Week: The Analysis: Revelation Is Still a Risk

From Business Week:Assess the situation before discussing depression with your supervisor and peersIn the 10 years since Diane Coutu came out to her current employer about her clinical depression, the only negative result she has experienced is her own occasional fear that her colleagues will react badly. So far, not one has.Quite the opposite, Coutu, a senior editor at Harvard Business Review, has found supervisors and peers alike to be sympathetic and understanding. They make no big deal about her illness. And letting go of the secret has lifted a tremendous burden from her emotionally, making her job easier. Still, she concedes that the decision to go public doesn't necessarily make sense for everyone with depression.Experts agree."It depends enormously on your employer's character and...

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Gazette.net: Peer support offered to those suffering from mental illness

from Gazette.net:by Kristi TousignantWhen JoAnn Anderson feels like laughing, she buys DVDs of comedians’ stand-up routines for $5 at Wal-Mart, finding a release in the comedic punch lines and witty jokes.For Anderson, however, it is not just about entertainment. Anderson has bipolar disorder, and the videos allow her to feel good as a way to deal with her mental illness.‘‘If you can laugh at something, maybe it’s not that bad,” Anderson said.Anderson, 49, of New Carrollton and friend Regina Prophet, 47, of Temple Hills, who suffers from schizoaffective disorder, have reached out to those suffering just like them. The two lead a mental illness support group as a part of the county’s chapter of the National Alliance on Mental Illness, based in Greenbelt. New to the county, the group started...

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National Post: Mental illness alone can’t explain murder-suicides

From the National Post:Linda Nguyen, Canwest News Service Published: Friday, May 30, 2008OTTAWA -- Mental illness alone seldom explains why some people kill their spouses and children, according to Canadian experts in psychology and family homicide.Sources told the Calgary Herald that Joshua Lall -- who killed five people, including himself, inside an upscale Calgary home earlier this week -- recently reported hearing voices and thought he was possessed by the devil.Calgary police confirmed late Friday that Lall stabbed his family to death, along with a tenant in his home, on Wednesday morning.But Martin Daly, a professor in neuroscience and behaviour at McMaster University in Hamilton, said mental illness is seldom enough to drive someone to kill his whole family."People with major psychiatric...

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Globeandmail.com: Celebrity breakdowns: 'Is crazy the new black?'

from Globeandmail.com:Whether it's a bid for publicity or a desire for sympathy, more stars are pitching their inner demons to the media - prompting some to wonder if mental illness has finally come out of the closet. Hayley Mick reports.In a world where Lindsay Lohan gets million-dollar offers to come out as gay, and pregnant 17-year-old Disney star Jamie Lynn Spears spikes magazine sales, the latest taboo to hit publicist gold is mental illness.Kirsten Dunst is one of a string of celebs to put their inner struggles in the spotlight, saying last week that she had been in rehab - not for the drug habit expected of stars such as singer Amy Winehouse - but for depression."Depression," the actress says, "is pretty serious and should not be gossiped about."Gossip is unavoidable, though, with bloggers...

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Beyond Blue: Five Humor Strategies? Make That Ten ...

Therese Borchard recently posted this item on her blog, "Beyond Blue." I love Therese and her blog, but I realize first of all, she's a nicer person than I am, and secondly, that the mentally ill mind works in strange and mysterious ways.So with that in mind, here is my AMENDED list of five humor strategies to help you find laughter every day ...In the "America Fitness" article I quoted yesterday, I found a list of humor strategies by Joyce Saltman, a Gestalt therapist from Southern Connecticut State University, who believes laughter is a prescription for survival. Here are some of her recommendations on how to find laughter everyday. 1. Have a place devoted to humor. Designate a section at work as a place for a new joke of the day, everyday.I have whole areas of my house that make me laugh....

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Daily Mail: How the wrong drugs could be causing your depression

From The Daily Mail:By Lucy ElkinsFeeling worn out? Having trouble getting out of bed each day? Finding it hard deciding what to do with your time? Turn up at your GP's surgery with these symptoms and the chances are you will be diagnosed with depression.Two million people in Britain are taking antidepressants, yet according to a new book, many of these people aren't mentally ill at all but have been misdiagnosed.In Beating Stress, Anxiety And Depression, Professor Jane Plant, a leading scientist from University College Hospital in London, and Janet Stephenson, a psychologist at a London hospital, claim the medical profession's approach to mental illness and depression in particular is wrong - with medics often mistaking symptoms of a physical condition for depression.'A study by an American...

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FINALLY figured out where I have been going wrong!

In retrospect, it seems so obvious.Match.com? Nope? Yahoo personals? Uh-uh. E-Harmony -- puhleeze.All this time, as Johnny Lee sang, looking for love in all the wrong places.Here they all are, ripe for the picking, emotionally available, willing to relocate, tall, dark (or light) and handsome.And gelded.One of the best sites for true love you will ever fi...

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McSweeney's: A Word to the Graduates

BY DAVID HOLUB- - - -Friends and family, faculty, and, of course, the graduates: I am honored that you have invited me to be your commencement speaker.If you would have told me five years ago that I'd be where I am now, I would have said, "Why don't you back up and give me some personal space?" Why? Because I didn't know you then and what was it your business where I'd be in five years? It still sort of makes me mad. And, knowing you, you would have persisted, and I would have said, "Why are you so infatuated with what I'll be doing in five years?"Honestly, when I was asked to be a commencement speaker, I thought, "What's the use?"No one remembers their graduation speaker. Ask your parents. Graduation speeches are usually some old man pontificating about following your dreams and setting your...

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NYT: Clinic Treats Mental Illness by Enlisting the Family

From the New York Times:By ANEMONA HARTOCOLLISIt was hard to tell just who was the patient, as the Cunanan siblings — Jennifer, Adrian and Anthony — sat in a row on three chairs in a sparsely decorated therapist’s office at Beth Israel Medical Center in Manhattan.It was Jennifer Cunanan, 27, who did most of the talking, describing life with Adrian, 30, a computer consultant who has bipolar disorder and who went through a severe manic episode in March. He would go two days without sleeping, she said, then become so frazzled that he depended on his family to carry out life’s daily chores, like shopping and cleaning.“All of us would like someone to sweep up after us,” Ms. Cunanan said, half understanding, half resentful, as her brother listened, his eyelids drooping from exhaustion.Adrian’s brother...

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New Book Brings Mental Illness to the Forefront

(PRWEB) June 7, 2008 -- Outskirts Press author Two Lenz gives readers a first-hand look at the American mental health care system in Walking Through Walls: Overcoming the Barriers of Serious Mental Illness. In 39 years of hospitalizations, Lenz finds the inner strength to make it through, and shares her hope--and insights into the country's treatment system--in this remarkable book.May 12, Denver, CO and Las Vegas, NV Research shows mental illness troubles an estimated 26.2 percent of Americans--6 percent severely--and is blamed as the leading cause of disability in the U.S. and Canada among those ages 15-44. But those staggering numbers don't make it any less lonely for people who travel the poorly understood roads of the American mental health system.Now, one woman is seeking to increase...

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Strib: Love's Dark Journey

From the Minneapolis Star Tribune:By Kim Ode, Star TribuneJune 7, 2008Lynda Cannova came through the door of the coffee shop, her face strained and drawn. She looked like one of those marathon runners in their final miles, their eyes betraying a fear that they've spent their last reserves, that there's no more left. If they can only reach the finish line.If only there were a finish line. For the past seven years, Cannova's life has seemed an unending pursuit of doctors, money, appointments, time, beds and peace of mind for her 26-year-old son Tony, who has a form of schizophrenia. "It's like I can't catch up to anything, even to him," she said.She was in the midst of an especially bad stretch of whipsaw emotions. A weekend earlier, she'd driven from the Twin Cities to Duluth, where Tony has...

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Strib: Boys Still Face Emotional Challenges

From the Minneapolis Star-Tribune:By JEANNE JACKSON DeVOE, Newhouse News ServiceJune 6, 2008By fifth grade, boys know that there are certain rules on the playground. They know that they're not supposed to cry, especially in front of other boys, or show they are scared."If a boy doesn't do something he normally would do -- he's scared to play tackle football -- some people would yell at him, 'sissy' or 'baby' or 'wimp,' " said 11-year-old Thomas (not his real name).Thomas said he burst into tears recently because other kids were teasing him and he got into an argument with one of his friends."I totally burst out crying after lunch, but normally boys try to keep that in or hold it until they're alone," Thomas said.Even in this new millennium, boys struggle with the unwritten, unspoken rule that...

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The Writer's Almanac: Religious Consolation

Religious Consolationby John UpdikeOne size fits all. The shape or colorationof the god or high heaven matters lessthan that there is one, somehow, somewhere, hearingthe hasty prayer and chalking up the mitethe widow brings to the temple. A childalone with horrid verities cries outfor there to be a limit, a warm wallwhose stones give back an answer, however faint.Strange, the extravagance of it—who needsthose eighteen-armed black Kalis, those musty saintswhose bones and bleeding wounds appall good taste,those joss sticks, houris, gilded Buddhas, booksMoroni etched in tedious detail?We do; we need more worlds. This one will fail. "Religious Consolation" by John Updike from Americana and Other Poems. © Alfred A. Knopf, 2001....

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Psychology Today: Self-esteem vs. Self-respect

from Psychology Today:By: Ellen J. LangerOur culture is concerned with matters of self-esteem. Self-respect, on the other hand, may hold the key to achieving the peace of mind we seek. The two concepts seem very similar but the differences between them are crucial.To esteem anything is to evaluate it positively and hold it in high regard, but evaluation gets us into trouble because while we sometimes win, we also sometimes lose. To respect something, on the other hand, is to accept it.The person with self-respect simply likes her- or himself. This self-respect is not contingent on success because there are always failures to contend with. Neither is it a result of comparing ourselves with others because there is always someone better. These are tactics usually employed to increase self-esteem....

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Psychology Today: The Buddha Goes to Therapy

How psychotherapy and meditation can help manage powerful emotions. A therapy session under the method of Zen Buddhism; Buddhist views on love.By: Mark EpsteinA Buddhist psychiatrist who has been meditating for decades elegantly describes how psychotherapy and meditation can help us manage our most powerful emotions--and make us feel more alive and whole in the process."Stop trying to understand what you are feeling and just feel," my first meditation instructor told me. This instruction seemed insanely simple: the ability to just feel should come as naturally as the ability to breathe. Yet, in twenty-five years as a psychotherapist and practicing Buddhist, I have found that most of us have not learned how to be with our feelings without rushing to analyze them, change them, or escape them.If...

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Psychology Today: Bookshelf

From Psychology Today:by Paul ChanceOne of the oldest ideas in cognitive psychology is that people use a set ofexpectations, called a schema, to interpret their experiences. We have, for example, a schema for restaurants: When we dine out, we expect to be seated at a table and offered a menu. Some psychotherapists now apply the schema concept to destructive patterns of behavior. According to psychotherapist Tara Bennett-Goleman, M. A., author of Emotional Alchemy: How the Mind Can Heal the Heart (Harmony, $24), most of these schemas involve fear--of abandonment, betrayal, rejection, and so on. Unrealistic expectations distort our perceptions of ourselves and our environments so that we deal with illusion rather than reality, leading to unhappiness. One of Bennett-Goleman's clients, for example,...

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Psychology Today: Domestic Drama: On-Again, Off-Again

Psychology Today: What drives couples to repeatedly break up and then make up?By: Elizabeth SvobodaIt's often the fleeting high points of a fundamentally rocky relationship that convince embattled partners to keep coming back for more, spurring a tortuous dynamic with no end in sight. "Often there is something that works very well for you about this person," says Gail Saltz, a Manhattan-based psychiatrist and author of Becoming Real. But when your mate's dreamy qualities are accompanied by deal-breaker ones like dishonesty or irresponsibility, it can be difficult to make a clear-headed assessment of whether to stay or leave.While problem behaviors may prompt a periodic hiatus, on-again, off-again couples continue to reunite out of a persistent hope that the moments of happiness and fulfillment...

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In The Name Of Love: Romantic Regrets--Who Needs Them?

By Aaron Ben-Zeév, Ph.D. in In the Name of Love:You miss 100 percent of the shots you don't take. Michael JordanTo err is human-but it feels divine. Mae WestRegret is basically a sorrow over a past alternative that was available to us, but that we missed. Regret is an emotion that, by use of our vivid imagination, bridges the past and present with an eye to the future. Two types of regret may be distinguished: short- and long-term regret . As a short-term emotion, regret is concerned with a loss caused by a specific, recent action; the long-term sentiment of regret is concerned with loss in the past, which has repercussions on the general course of life. In the short term, people regret their actions more than their inactions, but when people look back on their lives, those things that they...

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