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POPSBill Gate's syndrome With Internet delusion, patients typically incorporate the Internet into paranoid thoughts, including a fear that the Web is somehow monitoring or controlling their lives, or being used to transmit photographs or other personal information. The delusions are fueling a chicken-and-egg debate in psychiatry: Are these merely modern examples of classic paranoia fed by the current cultural landscape, or is there something about media like reality television and the Internet that can push people over the sanity line? “There is the old saying that just because you’re paranoid doesn’t mean there’s not somebody after you,” said Dr. Jeffrey A. Lieberman.
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POPSLook Closely, Doctor: See the Camera? Psychiatrists say that other movies whose characters are living in a unreal world or being watched by malevolent forces, including “The Matrix,” “Edtv” and even the film based on George Orwell’s “1984,” have come up in conversations with psychotic patients. But the premise of “The Truman Show” (“What if you were watched every moment of your life?” according to a promotional blurb) is strikingly similar to what patients describe as their own experiences. Reinforcing their beliefs is the fact that in the movie, Truman is right about being watched and recorded at all times. Every other character is part of the conspiracy.
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POPSPatch Adams hospital - Gesundheit - still not built but such an answer for community based services There will be 30,000 square feet devoted to the arts in a fully arts-centered hospital. There will be a school for social change and in-depth agricultural programs. Staff persons who've served for four years and want a little distance from the intensity of the hospital can create their fantasy living space in our village. I want to tell all readers that the journey has been heavenly all along the way. Simply being in an idealist quest is its own reward. I've never felt I've sacrificed anything or thought it was a hard journey. Hard would have been having to work in corporate medicine and lie to patients and myself every day. My concern for humanity's future drives me to want to put whatever efforts I can to changing everything that hurts people and nature. The Gesundheit! Institute is that for me, and so many others.
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POPSShooting at Arkansas Dem HQ Before you make assumptions about the shooter's motive, consider that a bomb and hostage situation at Clinton HQ last year turned out to have more to do with drugs and mental illness than political ideology. When we know more, I'll post it.
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POPSExpert concerned by DIY genetic tests While DIY gene tests may have their place, often they can only highlight a factor, or give a likelihood rather than a certainty. I would think they would also tend to be used by people who expected to find problems. It being hard for their view of the results to be either objective, or subject to comparison with other possibilities and cases. I have trouble imagining a better test than family history, and the fact remains, that despite any number of tests our genes wont change.(Yet?) An interesting thing I heard which is somewhat related particularly with the statistics regarding the likelihood of cancer from any number of sources, is that by the age of 85 50% of people will have had some form of cancer. (One of the side effects of living for another generation.) I can't be sure of the accuracy of the figure, but it makes me feel more comfortable about smoking. At least if I'm going to get cancer, I can get it doing something I enjoy.
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POPSPlacebo Very good article on market place of bizarre therapies and drugs in treatment of 'mental illness'. Deserves critical engagement of intellect which won't please some. (BTW, 'placebo' means 'I will please').
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POPSThe Urge To End It All "Quite inadvertently, the British gas conversion proved that the incidence of suicide across an entire society could be radically reduced, upending the conventional wisdom about suicide in the process. At least a partial answer is that many of those Britons who asphyxiated themselves did so impulsively. In a moment of deep despair or rage or sadness, they turned to what was easy and quick and deadly — “the execution chamber in everyone’s kitchen,” as one psychologist described it — and that instrument allowed little time for second thoughts. Remove it, and the process slowed down; it allowed time for the dark passion to pass."
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POPSObama Shifts on Abortion Another disappointment , really. Obama's not a doctor -- and it shows. By making a distinction between "mental distress" and "a serious physical issue," he makes the far too common mistake of discounting mental illness -- like depression -- as a "real" and damaging illness. What he should do is leave the medical stuff alone and think like a lawyer -- which he is. Is there a reason to limit a woman's choices at a certain stage of pregnancy and, if so, what are they? Arguing from a position of ignorance is never a good idea.
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POPSPsychiatric Emergency Rooms are Appalling My dissertation research uncovered dozens of stories of abusive and incompetent psychiatric emergency rooms. I hope at least these woman's death will draw attention to an invisible and longstanding American problem.
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