Bipolar

Bipolar is the new ADHD. It seems that a good share of my clients come to me after first visiting a practitioner who has diagnosed them with bipolar. After doing a thorough assessment (the cornerstone of any good diagnosis) I can often determine that the person is NOT BIPOLAR. My only guess is that it is en vogue to diagnose a person as bipolar and if there is a lot of media attention on bipolar and the client comes in saying I think I have bipolar, too many practitioner are not taking the time to explain to people about the complex nature of bipolar. Bipolar disorder (at the highest estimate) impacts 1.6% of the population, which would indicate that many people are being medicated for a disorder that is not being properly diagnosed.

I would like to say that if a person is properly diagnosed as bipolar the possible treatments and services that the person can access can provide many successes (and sometimes failures).

However, I am sure that those who are accurately diagnosed with bipolar disorder would attest to the fact that it is much more complex than: mood swings (which is often the number one reason that people believe they have bipolar disorder). Mania is very different than “feeling good”. In fact, it really represents a diversion from non-depressed mood that is distinct and erratic. If left untreated it can lead to delusions, and hallucinations. It lasts for MANY days can include: not sleeping or needing sleep for a week, flight of ideas, active as if driven by a motor, psychomotor agitation, excessive involvement in high-risk activities with out though of danger (this would be a diversion from “normal” behavior) among other symptoms. These episodes are often quite extreme.

Please, if you are diagnosed bipolar, get appropriate treatment. If you are skeptical, ask for a second opinion. The medications that treat bipolar disorder are serious drugs and often have serious side effects. If you are bipolar they can exponentially improve your functioning, but if you are not, they should not be taken.

Owning A Dog Is Good For Your Health

Ok, this is where I blog about my dog. I love my dog. Her name is "Robot" and she is a pitbull. She reminds me to get lazy, to get dirty, to get rowdy. She IS unconditional love.

A UK study reveals that owning a dog is good for your health. And having a pet dog improves your physical and mental wellbeing more than having a cat.

This is the conclusion of a study by a senior lecturer, Dr Deborah Wells, from the Canine Behaviour Centre of Queens University, Belfast, Northern Ireland.

Dr Wells has published her study in the British Journal of Health Psychology.

The study is a review of research papers that have explored the connection between domestic dog ownership and human wellbeing. In her research Dr Wells found papers that suggest domestic dog ownership can prevent people from getting ill, recover more quickly when they do fall ill, and give warning of early signs of cancer, seizures and hypoglycemia.

She also explored the research into dogs and human psychological health, including the therapeutic role that dogs play in aiding the disabled and also in hospitals, prisons and residential homes.

An Israeli research paper said it was likely that animal companions helped people with schizophrenia feel motivated and calmer. And another UK study suggested that the companionship of a dog helped children with chronic illnesses endure painful treatments.

Some of the evidence was found to be weak, but in other areas Dr Wells found strong evidence to suggest that dog owners have lower blood pressure, lower cholesterol, and are less likely to have minor and serious health problems.

In one paper dated 1985, Dr Wells found that dog owners had an 8.6 higher one year survival rate after a heart attack compared to people who did not have a dog.

Dr Wells suggests there could be a number of reasons for the health benefits of dog ownership. There is the more obvious direct effect of increased physical activity, but then there are also indirect effects such as that brought by increased social contact and the possibility that the human-dog bond provides a psychological buffer against stress.

Comparing cat and dog ownership, Dr Wells found evidence that people who take cats and dogs from rescue centres reported reductions in minor health problems such as headaches, dizzy spells and colds as soon as one month after taking their new companion home. However, it was only those people who had taken dogs, as opposed to cats, that still had the improved health conditions up to ten months later.

Guidelines for the control and responsible ownership of dogs (Australian Government).

Article on Dogs Smell Cancer in Patients' Breath (National Geographic).

Why Do Good? Brain Study Offers Clues

Why Do Good? Brain Study Offers Clues
01.22.07, 12:00 AM ET MONDAY, Jan. 22 (HealthDay News) -- People may not perform selfless acts just for an emotional reward, a new brain study suggests.

Instead, they may do good because they're acutely tuned into the needs and actions of others.

Scientists say a piece of the brain linked to perceiving others' intentions shows more activity in unselfish vs. selfish types.

"Perhaps altruism did not grow out of a warm-glow feeling of doing good for others, but out of the simple recognition that that thing over there is a person that has intentions and goals. And therefore, I might want to treat them like I might want them to treat myself," explained study author Scott Huettel, an associate professor of psychology at Duke University Medical Center, in Durham, N.C.

He and lead researcher Dharol Tankersley, a graduate student at Duke, published their findings in the Jan. 21 online issue of Nature Neuroscience.

For decades, psychologists and neuroscientists have puzzled over the tendency of humans to engage in altruistic acts -- defined by Huettel's group as acts "that intentionally benefit another organism, incur no direct personal benefit, and sometimes bear a personal cost."

Experts note that altruism doesn't seem to provide individuals with any survival edge, so how and why did it evolve?

To help solve that puzzle, Heuttel's team had a group of healthy young adults either engage in a computer game or watch as the computer played the game itself. In some sessions, the computer and participants played for personal gain, while in other sessions, they played for charity.

The researchers used high-tech functional MRI (fMRI) to observe "hot spots" of activity in the participants' brains as they engaged in these tasks.

Participants were also asked to complete a questionnaire aimed at assessing their personal levels of selfishness or altruism.

Huettel said he was surprised by the study results.

"We went into this experiment with the idea that altruism was really a function of the brain's reward systems -- altruistic people would simply find it more rewarding," he said.

But instead, a whole other brain region, called the posterior superior temporal cortex (pSTC), kicked into high gear as altruism levels rose.

The pSTC is located near the back of the brain and is not focused on reward. Instead, it focuses on perceiving others' intentions and actions, Huettel said.

"The general function of this region is that it seems to be associated with perceiving, usually visually, stimuli that seems meaningful to us -- for example, something in the environment that might move an object from place to place," he explained.

This type of perception would have allowed humans' more primitive ancestors to quickly pick out a potential threat -- a crouching lion, for example -- from amid a mass of less important stimuli.

It's much less clear why pSTC activity gets ramped up in the brains of altruistic people, however. "That was really surprising to us," Huettel said.

The researchers found that pSTC activity was highest when study participants were observing the computer play the game on its own -- not when they were playing themselves. "That gets to this idea of agency -- watching somebody else play the game," Huettel said. "You are thinking, 'Oh, the computer pressed the button -- somebody else did that.' "

The bottom line, he said, is that altruism may rely on a basic understanding that others have motivations and actions that may be similar to our own.

"It's not exactly empathy," he said, but something more primitive. "We think that altruism may have grown out of -- at least in part -- such a system."

Another expert said the Duke study raises even more questions than it answers.

"It's a really interesting study," said Paul Sanberg, director of the Center of Excellence for Aging and Brain Repair at the University of South Florida College of Medicine, in Tampa. "It would be really interesting, now though, to see if people who had damage to that [brain] area were much less altruistic."

Huettel said he's pondered that possibility. "For example, we don't know if people who are sociopaths, or people who are autistic, might show differences in this region," he said. "It's a good question, but we don't have data that shows anything one way or another. This is just a jumping-off point."

Sanberg said the study also showed only an association between heightened pSTC activity and altruism, not a direct cause-and-effect relationship. "That needs further study," he said.

But the Florida neuroscientist said this type of work is helping unravel the mysteries of human consciousness and behavior.

"These functional studies with high-level human behaviors are shedding important light on the contribution of different brain areas," Sanberg said.

More information

Find out more about the human brain at Harvard University.

You have rights!

Those who are in therapy have rights. Many of these are clearly defined such as, informed consent/confidentiality, etc. Others are rights that many people do not exert because they are unclear if it is “ok”. You have a right to disagree with the therapist, you have a right to tell a therapist they are wrong, you have a right to be angry at a therapist and to voice that sentiment to the therapist. On the occasions when a client has told me that I have done something that has upset me, I have never been offended…it has always strengthened the therapeutic relationship. You have a right to work on the things that are important to you. Many times I have ideas of things that I think I want to talk about, but if the client comes in with something else, most of the time, that is what we talk about. You have a right to privacy from the therapist. Just because a therapist asks you something, does not mean you MUST answer it. It is ok to say that something is private or uncomfortable to talk about. You are allowed to pick and choose your therapist. All therapists are different, and the most important thing is that YOU feel comfortable with the therapist!

Our Human Desire to Help Others

goodness graciousness: Our Human Desire to Help Others

This is a great article by Jennifer at goodness graciousness. It explains a lot of what I would like to achieve with this site.

-MoirSolace

Teenage Wasteland

From The New England Journal of Medicine:

Volume 355:2717-2719		Number 26

Uncovering an Epidemic — Screening for Mental Illness in Teens

Richard A. Friedman, M.D.

Courtney, a 15-year-old from Portland, Oregon, always knew she was different from the other kids. "I had a sense that something was going on, but I was afraid to say anything because I didn't know anyone else had a similar problem," she said. Like thousands of U.S. teens, Courtney participated in a mental health screening program that was offered in her school. "Teenagers have a hard time asking for help," she explained. "Without the screening, I'm not sure how I would have gotten the help I needed."

Before screening, Courtney was part of a silent epidemic of mental illness among teenagers. We know from the National Comorbidity Survey that half of all serious adult psychiatric illnesses — including major depression, anxiety disorders, and substance abuse — start by 14 years of age, and three fourths of them are present by 25 years of age (see table).¹ Yet the majority of mental illness in young people goes unrecognized and untreated, leaving them vulnerable to emotional, social, and academic impairments during a critical phase of their lives. Even those who receive treatment tend to do so only after a long delay: 6 to 8 years for patients with mood disorders and 9 to 23 years for those with anxiety disorders.

But it is not psychiatric morbidity that makes headlines; rather, it is the most extreme consequence of psychiatric illness: suicide. In the United States, suicide is the third-leading cause of death among persons 15 to 19 years of age. In 2005 alone, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, 16.9% of U.S. high school students seriously considered suicide, and 8.4% had attempted suicide at least once during the preceding year.

These grim statistics argue strongly for early detection and intervention and provide a rationale for mental health screening among teenagers. The premise is that the primary risk factors for suicide — mood disorder, a previous suicide attempt, and alcohol or substance abuse — can be identified and treated.

The rest of the article here...


~~~

I strongly urge anyone interested in learning more about adolescent or adult depression to read this article in its entirety. Doctor Friedman has taken the time to address and dispel a number of myths and stigmas attached to adolescent and adult mental illness. His examination of the newest school-based initiatives in voluntary screening provide a clear look at another method for early diagnosis and assistance for those in need.

While I still believe that high school itself is the root cause of many adolescents' depression, it is comforting to know that attention is being paid to the healthy development of a sound mind. I have confidence that eventually the pursuit of mental health for children will lead many psychiatric professionals to recall just how awful high school was for themselves, and perhaps put 2 and 2 together.

What stuck me hardest in this article was Dr. Friedman's ability to quickly disassemble the commonly held notion that parents are always in a position to know what is troubling their children.

Does any parent ever remember the way they felt at the age of sixteen, when every emotion seemed epic and overwhelming? Can any adult be trusted to extend themselves quietly, empathetically, and without judgment, toward their juniors? Do adults forget how painful and awkward it is to forge an identity out of the meager accouterments around them-- fashion, television, friends, drugs, music, idols, sex, solitude?

I don't think I was all that different, and these are the things that swarmed around inside my brain when I was a teenager (less than 3 years ago!), and to some degree still do. There have been less than a handful of people who have listened without judgment, who have fought hard with me against my own isolation, and who have been there at the edge with me, telling me that I don't have to do it-- that I am not alone.

All I really want in this life is to return that favor. I wish more people felt that way, particularly more parents.

Change

As the New Year approaches, I have started thinking about New Year’s resolutions. This is the time of year when many of us begin asking ourselves about changes. Should I go on a diet?...Should I join a gym?...Should I organize my closet?...Should I read more books? In thinking about all the changes people are making for themselves at this time of year, I have thought more about the difficulty of change.

CHANGE IS HARD!

As a therapist, people and families come to my office all the time wanting to change something in their lives. I think that a person’s choice to come to a therapist is one of the hardest things to do. I really commend the bravery of anyone who is courageous enough to say that they want something to change! However, as hard as it is to say that you want change to happen, coming to therapist the first time is only the beginning on a difficult path of change. Most likely you will have to confront or examine things about yourself, your life, your views, your relationships, your actions, your choices or your experiences that are difficult to even think about, much less discuss! Everyday we wake up and put on your defenses against the things that are hard to handle emotionally, therapy’s job is to assist in removing those defenses and making changes in your life for the better.

The beauty of therapy, in this process, is that it is private. All of those things that we are scared to show, that are hard to say, that we are shameful of, or confused about are out-in-the-open, but only in that room! The therapy room is (at least in the best circumstances) a safe place. You can say or think about the things that are too dangerous to say or think about in your “real” life. The job of the therapist is not to “brainwash” you into living the life the therapist thinks is appropriate. The therapist’s job is to provide feedback, guidance and support in YOU MAKING CHANGES FOR YOURSELF. To assist in empowering you to make the choices/changes that will have the best outcome for you!

People often come to me and feel ashamed that they are in the therapist’s office. “I know other’s have it worse than me.” You know what, they are right. There are other people who have it worse…there always will be. But, that does not mean that you should live a life where you are unhappy, unsatisfied or miserable. Change is not available to only the neediest cases. It is available to everyone. Every person deserves the right to a life where they feel good/satisfied/happy. Whether you are having minor confusions in your life that you need help sorting out, or whether you are chronically mentally ill, you have the opportunity for change

IF YOU DESIRE IT.

I still don't know what I was waiting for

And my time was running wild

A million dead-end streets

Every time I thought I'd got it made

It seemed the taste was not so sweet

So I turned myself to face me

But I've never caught a glimpse

Of how the others must see the faker

I'm much too fast to take that test
-David Bowie