Yosemite
I only went out for a walk and finally concluded to stay out till sundown, for going out, I found, was really going in. ~John Muir
A few articles of note from over the weekend and Monday:
- Acupuncture ‘lessens pain in brain not body’, scientists discover – Telegraph — “These results provide objective scientific evidence that acupuncture has specific effects within the brain which hopefully will lead to a better understanding of how acupuncture works.”
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- Bias in Psychiatric Diagnosis: Concerns about DSM-V — The Association for Women in Psychology — great collection of critical links.
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- New Recommendation: Why You Need More Vitamin D — Dr. Weil — We have known for many years that we need vitamin D to facilitate calcium absorption and promote bone mineralization. But newer research has shown that we also need it for protection against a number of serious diseases. In recent years, scientists have discovered that it may help to prevent several cancers, cardiovascular disease, autoimmune disorders, psoriasis, diabetes, psychosis, and respiratory infections including colds and flu.
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- Anti-depressant linked to breast cancer deaths — Daily Mail (study in BMJ) — Women taking a popular anti-depressant at the same time as a drug used to stop breast cancer recurring are more likely to die from the disease, doctors warn.
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- Smokers can quit without nicotine-replacement products. Really. — Los Angeles Times Many smokers are able to quit unassisted, say Simon Chapman and Ross MacKenzie of the School of Public Health in Sydney, Australia. They criticize what they call the “medicalization of smoking cessation,” because it’s not backed by evidence. Indeed, an analysis of 511 studies published in 2007 and 2008 show that two-thirds to three-quarters of smokers stop unaided and most ex-smokers report that cessation was less difficult than expected. LOVE IT when I’m validated. I’ve been saying this for years except in addition, my experience with nicotine replacement was that it extended the addiction and for me, in fact, I was unable to quit until I GAVE UP nicotine replacement since all it did was keep me hooked longer.
Jim Gottstein to host webinar on plans to curb the over-drugging of children
Planned for February 24th.
ICSPP’s 2010 Distinguished Lecture Series will begin with Attorney Jim Gottstein’s webinar presentation on PsychRights‘ Medicaid Fraud Initiative Against Psychiatric Drugging of Children & Youth
Background:
The massive psychiatric drugging of America’s children, particularly poor, disadvantaged children and youth through Medicaid and in foster care is an unfolding public health catastrophe of massive proportions. This catastrophe is being caused by the fraudulent promotion of these harmful practices by pharmaceutical companies sacrificing children and youth’s health, futures and lives on the altar of corporate profits. In 2009, Eli Lilly agreed to pay $1.4 Billion in criminal and civil penalties for such off-label promotion of Zyprexa and Pfizer agreed to pay $2.3 Billion for the illegal off-label promotion of Geodon and other drugs, yet the practice has not stopped. It is merely a cost of doing business to these pharmaceutical Goliaths and, in fact, caps their liability for these crimes. Most importantly, these settlements have not stopped the practice of child psychiatrists and other prescribers giving these drugs to children and youth and Medicaid continuing to pay for these fraudulent claims.
Purpose:
PsychRights‘ Medicaid Fraud Initiative Against Psychiatric Drugging of Children and Youth is designed to address this problem by having lawsuits brought against the doctors prescribing these harmful, ineffective drugs, their employers, and the pharmacies filling these prescriptions and submitting them to Medicaid for reimbursement. Each offending prescription carries a penalty of between $5,500 and $11,000. This is why it is expected that once their financial exposure becomes known to them prescribers and pharmacies will curtail the practice. Anyone with knowledge of specific offending prescriptions can sue on behalf of the government to recover for such Medicaid Fraud, and receive a percentage of the recovery, if any.
This webinar will walk through the requirements of the Federal False Claims Act as it pertains to this type of Medicaid Fraud and is for people and lawyers who may be interested in bringing such suits.
A bio of Attorney Gottstein, Esq. can be found here.
The Power Behind my Bipolar: Becoming Friends with Both Sides- Final Parts
This is a continuation of Jeremy’s story of healing which begins here. In the final part of this post Jeremy shares his recipe for healing. I want to state that this is his path and may not apply to everyone. As it happens, I use all his methods, save fasting. Fasting would be dangerous for me at this time during detox and it’s not always appropriate for people depending on the individual. Please read his healing advice as his experience and not a cure all for everyone.
These posts were originally posted on “Lotus Work,” Jeremy’s blog.
Jeremy continues:
As I stare at the previous posts, I realize that I never described the emotions that used to run my life. I guess it is important to know where you have come from before you can know where you are going. I don’t want to focus on the hell I went through, but rather how I discovered heaven on earth. I was one of the fortunate ones who never thought about ending their lives. I only thought about how I can improve my situation.
I guess Hell comes in many forms. Mine was the late nights of no sleep and the constant chatter that my mind would produce. It was usually chatter about things that I needed to do in the future or my review of the events that happened during the day. It made me frustrated because all I really wanted to do was sleep. The next day would come and it would be a nightmare. I would run through the days like I was in a movie and was waiting for the director to yell, “Cut.” My lack of sleep played with my emotions. I was short-tempered around those close to me and drove them crazy.
The other end of the spectrum was the dark cloud that descended upon me. I spent more days under this dark cloud than I would wish upon anyone. I would sleep all day and all night. I didn’t leave my room or what must have been my cave. This was the place where I dreamed my way out of this feeling. My imagination was what kept me going and helped to restore me back to the world.
I guess I could tell you more details about my experience, but I would rather have you imagine it or simply ask me. I am extremely comfortable about talking about it because I feel that I am success story BECAUSE of it. I owe all my happiness in life with family, career, and self to my barrage of free flowing emotions. I’d rather share what steps I took to “cure” myself and how I live my life. You will be amazed because the remedy is not some high tech, new scientific method. It is actually ancient ways that have been practiced since the dawn of man.
Part 4
So I AM sitting here eating my organic peanut-butter wheat crackers with a side of cold organic rice milk and I am thinking, “How did I end up at this point?” I can tell you last year I would have been polishing off an ice cream sundae with a tall glass of milk. I am not knocking ice cream sundaes because I still enjoy them, but something has been altered between then and now. The great thing is that it is wonderful to me. So cheers, [organic rice milk raised up in the air], “Here is to the rest of my life and in good health.”
How did I make my Hell work for me? How is it possible to turn your life from “get up, go to work, go to sleep, repeat” to GET UP, GO TO WORK, GO TO SLEEP, REPEAT.” It is the how you say it and what happens in between. To me it was really easy. No matter what changes you make in your life it has to start with two things, Intention and Attention. My intent was simple, get healthy and enjoy life to its fullest. The attention part was were I used my emotions to propel me.
This was how I became friends with my 2 sides. I had to find out HOW they can HELP me. I learned that when I am restless and have an abundance of energy that it is not the time to go shopping online or spend countless hours surfing the web with no purpose. This was a weakness, but also my strength. I used my abundance of energy to work out (uses up all my energy to help me sleep) and surf the internet for ways to improve my body, mind, and spirit. I also used it to meet new people and try new things. The really tricky part that I had to master is to always take a step back while fully engaged. This served me well because I was able to gain knowledge in the very act. An example would be when I started working out. I wanted to do everything, but I took a step back and listened to my body. It said, “Be gentle and kind to me, and I will work wonders for you.” I have never been disappointed yet.
During my periods of low energy is a time to reflect and rest. Instead of staring at the TV and wallowing all day, “Why me?” (I was good at asking that question); I meditated and practiced Reiki on myself. It is a time for me to go inward and just get all comfortable in my skin. It is grounding period where I recharge my batteries. I also relax in bed and read many books on nutrition, healing, and other feel good books that jump out at me on amazon or the library. I let my imagination run wild sometimes just staring at the clouds forming shapes in the clouds like a little boy.
This went on for a few months and the day came where I was ready to release the medications that have been my crutch for one-third of my life. I remember thinking well here goes nothing and I heard my body say, “Thank you.” I felt like a wounded bird who was mended with a cast and finally healed. The bird knows instinctive how to fly, so it was my turn to fly. I remember flushing the toilet with the rest of the pills there, saying “Thanks for all the memories.”
My heaven began long before I flushed down the sewer. It really began when I set my intention and focused my attention towards what I believe. There were obstacles along the way, but I looked at them as challenges and opportunities to learn and grow. My mom always said, “What doesn’t kill you , will always make you stronger?” Boy, is she a smart woman. I look through the same eyes today and only see rainbows of opportunity instead of never ending dark clouds. I know I am one with nature because I cycle just like the ocean tides, the waning and waxing moon, and the hibernating bear. I choose to live in the present moment and not dwell too far in the past. My future is left for me to decide. Some days it is wonderful and some days it is crappy, but each time it gets here it will be the only time it does, so I make full use of it. read more…
Clouded leopard cubs (very short video):
I recently came upon Jeremy’s story of recovery on his blog. He’s agreed to allow me to repost all five parts. This is the first two parts in one post. The remainder will be posted tomorrow in a second post for this blog.
Jeremy writes:
In this repost from last year, I outline my path back to wellness from Bipolar using simple alternatives that don’t involve conventional prescription drug means. I started listening to my inner wisdom that was shouting “change”.
I continue to experience the wonders of life free of medication. I have made adjustments along the way to remain balanced. Some of these include changes in my nutrition, meditation, and exercise.
It is my belief that all dis-eases and dis-orders signal a change is needed. This is hard for many to swallow because it involves a drastic paradigm shift away from what they have been taught over the years. We all have this inner power and we need to stop giving it away to others.
The Power Behind my Bipolar: Becoming Friends with Both Sides
I want to tell my story, but not for a high five or a kudos. It is not to get an “atta-boy” or a pat on the back. I want to tell it because it is time to look at the view atop the mountain that I have been climbing for over ten years. I want to tell it because I hope that maybe someone is looking for a glimmer of hope no matter what DIS-ease your body is telling you. My story is meant to be told for my own well-being and it is my last step to fully embrace it.
Our society has a carved out the mental disorders as something that needs to be suppressed and fixed. However, our solutions are not perfect. It started for me in college during a time when most push themselves to the brink by partaking in activities that may be foreign to many. I was no stranger to this. I stayed up late during the week studying and then partied hard on the weekends. My diet consisted of an incomplete breakfast, a lunch of more carbs, and pizza or some other unhealthy choice. There was no salad or pure, raw foods mixed in anywhere.
My only exercise was walking to class (took the bus for the long walks) and lifting kegs. I never learned the art of quieting the mind, so I turned to TV to help. My way of coping with any stress was to shove things in my body such as alcohol, food, and other dangerous chemicals. I was pushing myself to the limit in the wrong direction.
My stress levels intensified as the semesters came and went until my spirit finally had it. My body, mind, and emotional well being were pushed to the brink. There are many theories about WHY someone has a manic experience, but to me it was simple. My spirit said, “If you can’t change, then I will help you.” My body was in one place, my mind in another, my emotions were out of wack, so an explosion took place. It was a recipe for mania. I know that anyone in the same circumstances would have a similar experience.
I will skip over all the years of medication and hospitalization that I endured in the beginning of this. I was told that I would have to be on medication for the rest of my life and there was no cure. Funny thing is that I was a psychology student and read all about this the semester before. I remember thinking that I shouldn’t believe it. I heard that most people who were diagnosed this way, don’t believe they are sick. Well I was sick, but relying totally on medication and the doctors was not the complete way to regain my health.
I am not condemning all the wonderful doctors and nurses that helped me along the way. I am not condemning the medications that I chose to take. They all helped me to get to where I am today. Although, I felt like I was giving my power away. We all have the power to return to homeostasis if given the chance.
I really owe much to my family because they always stuck by me even when I was unbearable to watch or be around. I AM blessed to have such wonderful support in my transition to health.
The Power Behind my Bipolar: Becoming Friends with Both Sides- Part 2
My change back to my homeostatic, natural self (better than the word “normal”) was certainly not a transformation that occurred over night. It was certainly an evolution of thought that met much resistance from many sources, including myself. It was something that I pondered and planned for over ten years since I was diagnosed, at a subconscious level. It really struck my conscious level earlier this year after two “a-ha” moments.
The first was that I developed gout a year and half ago. Gout is basically a form of inflammation that occurs in your joints from a build up of uric acid. It settled in my foot and knees. I don’t wish it upon anyone because it feels like daggers stabbing you without putting any pressure on that area. I was fortunate enough to have health insurance, so I paid a visit to a specialist and my primary care. They put me on a drug and I was told that there is no cure and I may need this for the remainder of my life.
I started taking the medication and was good for another six months until I had another bout. I returned hobbling to my primary care and he decided that I need to increase my levels of it. I was curious about WHAT causes this. He went into the science behind it, but I continued to ask why it occurred. His next answer stunned me. He basically said that only God could explain that and gave a warm smile to my disenchanted look.
I had a flurry of emotions after leaving. I decided that day after finding out how much all the new medications would cost me to ditch that band aid. My life went on without the medication for a week or two and the pain subsided. It was during that time of pain that I had a difficult time playing with my daughter, Ava. I was not only in pain from the gout attack, but I was so out of shape. I got winded and tired playing with my one year old on the FLOOR. The battle plan inside of me really began at that point. I dreamed of walking my daughter down the aisle for her wedding in GOOD health. This was my second, “a-ha” moment.
I began to read about how the body works feverishly. I knew that I had to change and I was going to use my “manic” ways to do it. It was at this point that I began to gain my power back and was willing to listen to my body, mind and soul. I began researching like a mad scientist on what areas of my life I can improve on. I read books about nutrition and was so drawn to the 4 “doctor dudes”. (see under Overall Health links on my blog) They basically said that digestion is like your second brain and that you need to get rid of things that are not good for your body and add what is. I thought pretty simple stuff.
It was on. I was pumped. I basically changed my lifestyle 180 degrees and drove my wife, Corrine crazy. I went through our cabinets and got rid of all the food that didn’t seem natural for our bodies. (High Fructose Corn Syrup is in everything) I began going to the gym on a regular basis. I started meditating. Corrine really helped keep me in check at this point because my old ways were resisting its eminent death and the battle ensued.
I was ready to go off of my bipolar medications, but got no medical support. I thought well, I choose to take it each day, so I can choose not to take it. I knew that my body and mind had to be ready and it needs to occur gradually. I tapered off my medications over a period of four months. It would be idiotic to discontinue one’s medication suddenly and I was no idiot.
I knew that during this period, I would have to learn to come to grips with my emotions, so I constantly asked them what they were telling me instead of cramming them back into my psyche. I started wearing my emotional baggage instead of putting them in a suitcase to carry around. I like my clothes and they suited me well.
The rest of this story will be posted tomorrow.
A beautiful article in Psychiatric Times, of all places, that discusses the power of love and consideration towards those with psychosis….and it’s deeply healing and restorative nature:
Elvin Semrad’s major contributions to the training of psychotherapists were to help us see our patients truly as human beings; to understand their psychopathology as defenses against intolerable feelings of loss or failure; and to teach us that through empathic connections with our patients, we could help them bear these feelings and thereby begin to help them heal. He often told us that “people become psychotic because they are mad, sad, or scared and cannot stand it.” He stressed that rather than getting preoccupied with treating symptoms, we need to help patients feel the feelings that have become unbearable to them and then find ways to solve the same kinds of life dilemmas with which we all struggle. He once said in response to a presentation of a psychotic woman, “There are 2 main approaches: A, do something with the problem, with the person who has the problem and help her master it; or B, stay away from the problem, from the person and do something to her.”…
…The idea that by talking and encouraging patients to experience feelings we could help such seriously impaired people seemed both incredibly exciting and humane but, at the same time, overwhelming. Trainees were stuck between those supervisors who said, “medicate these patients, get them out of the hospital as quickly as possible,” and “don’t talk to them about emotionally loaded subjects—they can’t stand that and will regress,” and Elvin Semrad who urged us (within the context of establishing an empathic relationship with the patient) to go right to those emotionally loaded subjects. He said, “In order for it to heal, it has to hurt like hell!” (read rest here)
H/T Recovery from Schizophrenia. I saw this other places as well. It’s nice that this is getting attention in a mainstream psychiatric journal.
For more stories of therapy healing and transforming the lives of people with psychosis see here. For recovery stories that may or may not include traditional psychotherapy see here.
Very short cute video
In Silence
Be still.
Listen to the stones of the wall.
Be silent, they try
To speak your
Name.
Listen
To the living walls.
Who are you?
Who
Are you? Whose
Silence are you?
Who (be quiet)
Are you (as these stones
Are quiet). Do not
Think of what you are
Still less of
What you may one day be.
Rather
Be what you are (but who?) be
The unthinkable one
You do not know.
O be still, while
You are still alive,
And all things live around you
Speaking (I do not hear)
To your own being,
Speaking by the Unknown
That is in you and in themselves.
“I will try, like them
To be my own silence:
And this is difficult. The whole
World is secretly on fire. The stones
Burn, even the stones
They burn me. How can a man be still or
Listen to all things burning? How can he dare
To sit with them
When all their silence
Is on fire?”
by Thomas Merton from The Strange Islands: Poems by Thomas Merton
Healing does not mean curing, although the two words are often used interchangeably, While it may not be possible for us to cure ourselves or to find someone who can, it is always possible for us to heal ourselves. Healing implies the possibility for us to relate differently to illness, disability, even death, as we learn to see with eyes of wholeness. Healing is coming to terms with things as they are. –Jon Kabat-Zinn, from Letting Everything Become Your Teacher
The last few days online:
- Lilly settles with Mississippi: $18.5 million — as Furious Seasons says, “That brings Lilly’s total settlements to date to around $2.8 billion and there’s still more to go.” Zyprexa is a deadly drug.
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- Lilly: “Execute the *%#&*! out of them” The Carlat Psychiatry Blog –A new paper, written by Glen Spielmans and Peter Parry and published in the journal Bioethical Inquiry, shows how various drug companies, particularly Eli Lilly and AstraZeneca, manipulated science and lied to doctors in order to sell their drugs. While this is not exactly news, the intriguing aspect of this article is that the authors reproduce e-mails and slides that are the smoking guns of deceptive sales practices. And let me tell you, these gun barrels are hot and you can still smell the gun powder.
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- Mindfulness and Pain, Part 2: Body Awareness — Urocyon – Ignoring and mistreating our bodies is encouraged a lot by our society. It’s way too easy to fall into treating your body like some sort of balky telepresence robot, for your mind to force into doing its bidding–sometimes to the breaking point. We are encouraged to ignore things like hunger signals, and push through injuries. Your body is not some kind of machine separate from the rest of you–and if you treat an actual piece of machinery like that, it will break down too!
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- Growth from Suffering Fable — Traumatic events are “profoundly disturbing,” cause significant anxiety and stress, can give rise to “dysfunctional patterns of thinking,” including “repetitive intrusions of thoughts and images,” cause unpleasant, potentially significant physical reactions, and can cause or exacerbate psychiatric disorders. Said bluntly, traumatic events are bad. Posttraumatic Growth (PTG) is how adaptive personal development arises from the harsh circumstances of traumatic events. PTG is the consequence of “the struggle with in the aftermath of trauma.”
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- Finding a better way to grieve : The New Yorker
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- ‘Dr. Nobody’ Says 74% of Medical Schools Don’t Ban Ghostwriting | BNET Pharma Blog — Seventy-four percent of top medical schools have no policy prohibiting ghostwriting, according to a new study in Public Library of Science Medicine. The study was conducted by Dr. Jonathan Leo (top) and Jeffrey R. Lacasse, whom regular readers will remember were responsible for twisting JAMA into knots when they pointed out — correctly — that one of its authors had failed to disclose a conflict of interest with Forest Labs (FRX). A JAMA editor famously called Leo “a nobody and a nothing” for doing that.
New book: Manufacturing Depression: The Secret History of a Modern Disease
I’ve not read this book but it looks interesting. Below is an excerpt from a review from the Brooklyn Rail:
Gary Greenberg opens his new history of depression with a riveting tale of scientific ingenuity. A young, unknown marine biologist with an interest in mussels happens to discover the neurotransmitter serotonin and helps spur the antidepressant revolution. Lest we get too excited, though, Greenberg deflates our hopes just a few pages in. Great science stories involve chance discoveries that change our everyday lives, he says—but this is not the kind of story he is going to tell.
Instead, the story that dominates Manufacturing Depression: The Secret History of a Disease is of scientific exuberance run amok, of coincidences and hasty conclusions, of a lust for money and for control over what Greenberg aptly describes as the landscape of mental suffering. Greenberg is outraged that “the depression doctors,” as he ominously terms them, have cornered the market on Americans’ internal anguish and have managed to convince millions of people that their unhappiness is actually a disease with a simple cause—a chemical imbalance—and a magic-bullet cure. It’s especially infuriating because this notion isn’t based in fact; it’s just a story we have allowed the medical establishment to tell us. There is no biochemical marker for depression, no good way to tell who is and who isn’t depressed. The tools doctors use to diagnose depression, as well as the other varieties of mental illness, are based on symptoms alone—whether someone is eating or sleeping more or less than usual, for example, or suffering from excessive guilt, or engaging in too much self-criticism. Most of what’s diagnosed as depression is, in other words, nothing more than the name our society gives to a particular kind of emotional and mental suffering considered worthy of fixing.
Greenberg, a practicing psychotherapist, is quite clear about his biases going into this affair. He believes ardently in the redemptive power of self-exploration, the process of fashioning one’s past and present into a coherent narrative that tries to make sense of the misfortunes, dashed aspirations, betrayals, and losses that inevitably make up human experience. Manufacturing Depression is his attempt to wrest control of the story back from “the depression doctors.”
In one sense, Greenberg has reclaimed the narrative very effectively. He has produced a tightly woven history showing that the medical establishment, despite claims to the contrary, knows almost nothing about the causes of depression from a scientific, biochemical, or neurological perspective. Along the way, the book explains the influence of germ theory, the transformation of German companies that made synthetic dye companies into titans of the pharmaceutical industry, and the endless warring between psychiatrists, psychologists and neurologists over what constitutes mental illness and who is qualified to diagnose and treat it. In a particularly revealing section, the book also demonstrates that street drugs such as LSD and Ecstasy are far more closely related to antidepressants and other psychiatric medications than we, doctors, or the pharmaceutical industry, would like to admit. (read the rest) — my emphasis
The book is found on Amazon here.
It is sometimes difficult to see and understand that changing conditions are not mistakes. They feel that way because we sometimes think that if we were only smart enough or careful enough, we could avoid all unpleasantness—that we wouldn’t fall ill or have misfortune. In fact, we usually haven’t done anything wrong. It’s just what happens. The Buddha talked of the eight great vicissitudes of life: pleasure and pain, gain and loss, praise and blame, and fame and disrepute. These changes happen to everyone. It’s just what happens. One of the great laws of the Dharma that I find myself often rediscovering is, “If it’s not one thing, it’s another.
–Joseph Goldstein, from One Dharma
Acceptance and Commitment therapy is the only off shoot of Behavioral Therapy that I have any tolerance for whatsover. I know lots of people love CBT and DBT but I have found them absolutely insufferable. See here why I like “ACT.” Wish they’d drop all these acronyms though.
From The Times: (article is apparently no longer available, I’m sorry)
A new book says that trying to be happy will only make you sad, writes Albert Buhr
Imagine your happiness depended on the following instruction: for the next minute, do not think of Daffy Duck. Don’t think of his daffiness. Forget he’s a duck. Whatever you do, resist the urge to contemplate any Loony Tunes character.
Your time starts now.
How you doing? Concentrate!
Let me guess: you blew it. You should consider that you might have Daffy Duck Disorder. But, of course, you were set up.
Trying so hard to forget something is a sure way of remembering. And when it comes to unpleasant thoughts and feelings, explains Russ Harris in The Happiness Trap, it’s often our very struggle to forget about them that ensures their perpetuation.
The Happiness Trap inhabits a special spot on the self-help shelf, because it goes cheerfully against the grain of so many books dedicated to the heroic pursuit of happiness. It is based on the new Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT), which presents a radical about-turn in modern, conventional forms of Western psychotherapy.
It views ongoing attempts to get rid of symptoms as creating clinical disorder. Positive thinking, it suggests, is a control strategy that merely addles the tired mind.
“ACT is a mindfulness-based behavioural therapy that challenges the ground rules of most Western psychology,” explains Dr Harris, a general practitioner and psychotherapist based in Melbourne, Australia. “It’s a therapy that makes no attempt to reduce symptoms, but gets symptom reduction as a by-product. A therapy firmly based in the tradition of empirical science, yet has a major emphasis on values, forgiveness, acceptance, compassion, living in the present moment, and accessing a transcendent sense of self.”
With a large body of empirical data to support its efficacy, ACT has proven effective with a wide range of clinical conditions: depression, OCD, workplace stress, chronic pain, the stress of terminal cancer, anxiety, PTSD, anorexia and drug addiction. A study conducted in 2002 by Steven Hayes, the co-originator of ACT, showed that with only four hours of ACT therapy, hospital readmission rates for schizophrenic patients dropped by 50% over the following six months.
“It is only through mindful action that we can create a meaningful life,” says Harris, who runs workshops for psychologists, life coaches, doctors and other healthcare professionals in the use of “mindfulness”.
“Of course, as we attempt to create such a life, we will encounter all sorts of barriers, in the form of unpleasant and unwanted ‘private experiences’ — thoughts, images, feelings, sensations, urges and memories. ACT teaches mindfulness skills as a way to handle these private experiences, allowing your feelings to be as they are, letting them come and go rather than trying to control them.
“In ACT, acceptance comes first. Y ou make room for your feelings and allow them to be exactly as they are. Then you ask, ‘What can I do now that is truly meaningful or important?’ This is very different from asking ‘How can I feel better?’”
Anyone struggling with conditions like acute anxiety or depression may at some point find themselves drawn to the philosophy of acceptance. (read the rest)
If you look up Acceptance and Commitment Therapy on Amazon you can browse to what has become quite an array of books that can be helpful to many.
Even a happy life cannot be without a measure of darkness, and the word happy would lose its meaning if it were not balanced by sadness. It is far to better take things as they come along with patience and equanimity. – Carl Jung
Mind altering drugs are drugs are drugs are drugs. Yup, legal, illicit or otherwise. And as this man in the video points out this is not about being hard-core anti-drug or anti-coffee. It’s about taking care of ourselves and not becoming DEPENDENT on artificial substances to keep us going.
It took me two years to quit caffeine after a life-time addiction. I’d like to make a note that I did not drink coffee upon adulthood until I was sedated on psych meds. Prior to that I abused it as a teenager to get high! Really. I would spoon several tablespoons of instant into hot water and down it before going to school. I quit that by the time I was 17 years old because I knew it was making me unstable.
So I started drinking it again in an attempt to boost myself up while sedated on psych meds. It ended up being one more dependency that I had to get rid of along with the 6 psych drugs. I was intensely addicted and I relapsed repeatedly, but finally I beat it. I’ve been mostly caffeine free for about 2 years. I rarely have a cup of green tea when I want a jolt. And that in general is no more than once a month.
Once after gettting “clean” I bought a cup of decaf and a health food store and they gave me a cup of real coffee. It was ugly. It was like I had shot up methamphetamine. Of course I’ve gotten chemically sensitive to everything. I do have adrenal fatigue like this guy talks about among my many health problems. I am eating and supplementing to heal that.
Here is a professional who understands the nature of stimulants and here talks about the most popular and celebrated stimulant, caffeine.
I highly recommend anyone who is on psych meds and drinks coffee in an addictive fashion watch this video, because we are even more likely to suffer from the negative effects of caffeine than other people.
This is a talk I gave at Alternatives in 2006 that addresses “What is trauma?” and how to heal it.
The talk is based on somatic and body awareness oriented therapies, primarily Somatic Experiencing developed by Peter Levine, Sensorimotor Psychotherapy / Hakomi developed by Pat Ogden, and Process Oriented Psychology created by Arnold Mindell.
Two useful books by Levine are Healing Trauma and Waking The Tiger.
Links from over the weekend and the last couple of days:
- Irving Kirsch, P.h.D: Antidepressants: The Emperor’s New Drugs?– My awareness that the chemical cure of depression is a myth began in 1998, when Guy Sapirstein and I set out to assess the placebo effect in the treatment of depression. Instead of doing a brand new study, we decided to pool the results of previous studies in which placebos had been used to treat depression and analyze them together. What we did is called a meta-analysis, and it is a common technique for making sense of the data when a large number of studies have been done to answer a particular question.
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- Doctors cautioned on Zyprexa for adolescents | Los Angeles Times — The Federal Drug Administration on Friday issued a warning to doctors that adolescents taking the drug olanzapine have an “increased potential” — in comparison with adults taking the new-generation antipsychotic drug — for weight gain and metabolic disturbances that could result in diabetes or elevated blood cholesterol levels. (god knows I’ve seen hundreds of adults gain 100+ lbs in as little as a year, so what does this mean? and why don’t they warn EVERYONE)
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- Clinical trial research driven by marketing, not evidence – What’s worthwhile about the article in Bioethical Inquiry is that it makes very clear how widespread this practice of “marketing-based medicine” is and how unreliable our so-called “gold standard” of medical research — randomized clinical trials — really is. In too many cases, drug companies, which fund these trials and cherrypick the researchers whose names appear on them, not only ghostwrite the results to hide negative data and overstate the positive. But they also make sure that any truly negative trials never see the light of day. And then once the misleading results are published in supposedly reputable journals, the drug companies use prominent physicians (on their payroll) to market the hell out of them.
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- Pain and sensory management through mindfulness, Part 1 — Urocyon – A while back, I mentioned ordering in and reading Shinzen Young’s Break Through Pain. His central thesis is important here: “What people call “pain” is actually a combination of pain and resistance…The distortion in perception and behavior can be a big part of the horror of the pain” also expressed as “suffering equals pain multiplied by resistance”…Just by applying basic mindfulness, I had already started using pretty much all the techniques he suggests. (Along with some others; going into what has worked will probably turn this into a multi-part post.) This book would be a pretty good introduction for people who need more of an introduction to mindfulness, and he emphasizes that these are techniques which work, without depending on any specific belief system. I like Shinzen Young’s work, anyway, for a lot of the same reasons C4Chaosexpresses. He also strikes me as geeky in a very good way.
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- Toward a Mindful Society — interview with Jon Kabat-Zinn, Shambala Sun — As creator of Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction, Jon Kabat-Zinn has brought the benefits of meditation practice to hundreds of thousands of people and inspired a movement that is changing our society in many ways. In this exclusive interview with the Sun’s Barry Boyce, he discusses the philosophy, goals, and promise of the mindfulness movement.
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- Genetically modified seeds ‘are everywhere’ — NewScientist– thanks Monsanto
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- Meditation? Medication? Examiner.com – Studies demonstrate that mindfulness meditation is taking a place on the nonpharmacologic shelf.
Fish oil appears to halt development of psychosis (schizophrenia) in some young people
Today there are several articles out about a study involving young people who were determined to be high-risk for developing psychotic conditions. Here is an excerpt from an article from the BBC:
A three-month course of the supplement appeared to be as effective as drugs, cutting the rate of psychotic illness like schizophrenia by a quarter.
The researchers believe it is the omega-3 in fish oil – already hailed for promoting healthy hearts – that has beneficial effects in the brain.
A “natural” remedy would be welcomed, Archives of General Psychiatry says.
“The finding that treatment with a natural substance may prevent, or at least delay, the onset of psychotic disorder gives hope that there may be alternatives to antipsychotic drugs,” the study authors said….
….Alison Cobb, of the mental health charity Mind, said: “If young people can be treated successfully with fish oils, this is hugely preferable to treating them with antipsychotics, which come with a range of problems from weight gain to sexual dysfunction, whereas omega-3s are actually beneficial to their general state of health.
“These are promising results and more research is needed to show if omega-3s could be an alternative to antipsychotics in the long term.”(read the rest here)
Fish oil is likely to be only part of the picture in some people. We are holistic beings. This is great validating news for many who have found diet and supplements helpful in recovering from mental distress of all kinds.
