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POPSA Psychiatrist on Why Bipolar Disorder May be a Source of Humour This from the brilliant Blue to Blue blog by a practising psychiatrist in response to comments yesterday over her or merriment over the Onion's item on Obama's 'mood disorder'. It is one that I find I can accept and pretty close to my own CM comments this week. Anyway, it is good that the issue has been raised, and certainly an opportunity for others to visit this (often hilarious) blog.
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POPSThe Cost of Alcohol in UK A fifth of all hospital beds. These bare figures, dreadful as they are, do not begin to convey the devestation caused by alcohol to individuals and their families.
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POPSNew Benefit Rules will Drive Mentally Ill into Poverty Often as the last sentence above shows, those who feel well enough to work cannot or must do so without support or understanding. As ever, the suffering of mental illness is amplified often beyond the pain of the illness itself by structural and societal factors.
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POPSWorld Mental Health Day Although mental health problems occur on a massive scale across the world, discrimination, stigma and silence about the facts are routine. With stress, depression, anxiety increasing across the world it is bizarre that there is so little media coverage,
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POPSMentally Ill Killed by Medication
The gentle, artistic boy who played the cello and bass guitar was long gone. "At 15 Daniel was being bullied at school and then started to have strange thoughts, anxiety and sleep problems. A doctor prescribed him a powerful drug called Stelazine and that was the start of a nightmare which eventually led to his death. He had bad physical reactions to the medication straight away but every symptom was seen as more evidence of schizophrenia and treated with more medication. Alternative treatments were never an option; keeping him calm was the priority. "Daniel was really passive and never complained but my mum was convinced the medication was going to kill him. She changed GPs many times, went private, bought vitamins and demanded blood tests; getting better care for Daniel became her full-time occupation but she was accused of interfering. In the months before his death, Daniel suffered from three major epileptic fits brought on by drinking too much water. Why was he so thirsty? I
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POPSTen Dubious Clip Tips for Mental Health <<<Transcultural Psychiatrists would certainly have a few dilemmas with the above list. The serious Neuroanthropologist probably does too! But what the heck, I put them here just for fun! Mind you, the list might lead to some interesting questions about what could be considered the definitive TOP 10 FOR BRAIN HEALTH applicable across cultures!>>> (article author). There are grains of truth floating about in this fun , of course. I infer the writer is inviting readers to confirm the state of their own mental fitness by indulging in a healthy demolition of such breezy tips lists. I'd say you should be able to rattle off ten major objections to the list fairly quickly if your mental health is robust.
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POPSHow to Get Well <<<Once you have shifted your experience, your feelings will also shift. Once your feelings have shifted, you'll be able to get rid of the medication. Regrettably, in this culture of victimhood, we are all to willing to abdicate responsibility for ourselves and look elsewhere for solutions that are often better addressed through introspection and self-sufficiency. As we choose to take responsibility for ourselves by virtue of our actions, we undertake to reinvent or change our lives and experience. Should we fail in this, we will continue to be a slave to our neuroses.>>>
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POPSHypothosis gains validity from objections.
Do extremism and an unconditional adherence to religious dogma result from a failure of a portion of the frontal lobe to fully develop or, if fully developed, to activate? Studies suggest that faithful adherence to a single reasoning strategy on tests such as the Wisconsin Card Sorting Test means that parts of the frontal lobes are inactive, have failed to fully develop, or have even been damaged. Thus, unqualified disdain for divergent beliefs,for personal interpretation, and for creative theories like Darwin’s theory of evolution, may indeed have, at least a partial, biological explanation: a reduced utilization of that section of the brain which has played such a vital role in humanity’s creative advances—the frontal lobes. By unconditionally obeying religious tenets—or any dogma—some people may be relying on the phylo-genetically older, more posterior portions of the brain that store knowledge and enable consistent or stable behaviors and, unknowingly, circumventing the portion whi
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POPSComing Off Psychiatric Medication Good and growing website from a psychologist who has been through it. Useful links and discussions of major diagnostic categories, and some pointers to alternatives to medication.
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POPSOne in Four Struggle with Anger Anger is related to anxiety is related to fear. Anger is hostile, aggressive, destructive in word and deed. It is a sign of our cultural values, our moral values and our spiritual values. People are frightened.
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POPSEveryone is Becoming Sick And what angers me is that the genuinely ill and vulnerable lose vital resources, and become drowned in the culture of the pseudo-sick.
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POPSOestrogen may help treat shizophrenia I wonder sometimes if there are more than a few conditions with similar symptoms all tagged bipolar or schizophrenia. There are symptoms observed by the treating doctor, which can be qualified by an interview with the patient who is generally not in a state to give an objective description. Often the questions can be suggestive, and the answers can depend on whether the patient is prepared to co-operate, or be contrary. This study does point to an imbalance that can occur as a matter of course, and may show that many cases of bipolar disorder or schizophrenia, are not necessarily unusual, hereditary or chronic but can strike due to something as simple as an unbalanced diet, sleep deprivation, or a hormone deficiency. An unbalanced lifestyle can throw our minds off balance. It's all part of the same unit. Mind Body and soul
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POPSBlogging boosts your social life To blog or not to blog. Perhaps blogging is less intimidating that face to face contact, and there is the opportunity to put more thought into what is written, rather than having to have an instant, perhaps reflex reply when 'live' People have the chance to be more introspective and so are able to see themselves more clearly, while knowing that what they write is put on 'public' view. So improving confidence and communication skills. It also helps improve memory, to be able to stop a 'conversation', and pick up where you left off an hour, a day, or even a week later. Of course the text is there but the context must be remembered and it can be seen how attitudes and personal opinions both change and develop. People are becoming interested in the person underneath, rather than having personal appearances get between them Just reminded me of a book/movie "A Patch of Blue" but that's another story.
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POPSAnti-Depressants Little Use That the SSRI drugs such as paraoxetene, citalopram, the well known 'Prozac; drugs do help a small number of severely illi people should not disguise the fact that they do little for the majority, that the word 'depression' is thrown around liberally to cover general unhappiness, misery and spiritual crisis. There is tons of evidence that the current ideological fetish of reducing the human being to a network of chemical interactions is itself a sign of deep cultural malaise
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