Mental Health Awareness: Wanted Compassion and Understanding

By: Elise Ronan | Ops & Blogs | The Times of Israel

Impressions we make are essential to how we view each other. Social awareness, some call it mindfulness, of the unsaid signals we emit are part and parcel of human interactions. But what happens when a person doesn’t understand the nuances and the secret handshake of unwritten social rules? What happens when these people become so overwhelmed by their environment that they exhibit actions, such as a meltdown, inappropriate yelling – laughing, or experience a panic attack complete with hysterics and uncontrollable crying?

It’s one thing if the helpless person involved is a child. Most of society has all sorts of qualifiers for a child that has issues and mental health concerns. But, as a person ages, society’s tolerance for such actions not only becomes mute, but in most part disappears altogether. Mental illness becomes an unspoken burden in part because it is sadly ignored,  swept away by families due to societal derision. As a person ages the stigma associated with mental illness becomes as much of a weight as the illness itself.

Society lacks basic knowledge about mental health issues. And in many ways tabloid journalism is to blame. The issues are sensationalized, especially when a violent individual commits some unspeakable crimes. (Ignoring the fact that most heinous crimes are actually committed by person considered sane.)The news will drone on and on about a subject that they know nothing about, simply making life unbearable for those already viewed to live on the fringes of society. The uneducated make conjectures, elicit ignorant opinions and promote fear instead of trying to enunciate understanding of what mental illness is and what it is not.

-Mental illness covers a wide range of illnesses. HERE Everything from ADD to autism to panic attacks to PTSD to the more severe forms of schizophrenia.

-The overwhelmingly vast majority of persons with mental illness are NOT violent. In fact they are more likely to be the victim of a violent crime than the perpetrator. HERE

-With help recovery is possible. HERE

It is important to remember that those with mental health illnesses are trying their best. What they need is understanding and acceptance. We can talk about accommodations and we can talk about civil rights until we are  “blue in the face,” but in truth, if someone is uncomfortable around a person with a mental illness, there will never be friends, employment and a successful navigation of society. Can comfort be taught? Can compassion become part and parcel of society?

First, what society needs to understand is that meltdowns, panic attacks, “episodes” are personal to the person. It is how the effected individual is feeling at that one given moment in time. Their being overwhelmed is about how they are processing the sensory information before them. They are in that space and they cannot necessarily remove themselves from that tornado that is their mind. (And as I have said before this inability to see beyond themselves-mindblindness- becomes more problematic as a person ages. A meltdown by a 10-year-old is taken alot differently than a meltdown by a 200 pound, 6 foot tall, grown-adult-male.) HERE, HERE, HERE, HERE

Second, yes, once their “episode” is over, they are capable of understanding what has happened. They realize, once they feel better, if they have been mean, cross or had been inappropriate. “I’m sorry,” is something heartfelt. Apologies abound. They truly feel embarrassed when they have digressed in the presence of their peers and they truly feel shame.

But unfortunately if their actions have frightened someone, scared off a potential friend, or have lost them a job, sometimes there really is no going back. What is lost is lost. The question becomes how do you teach them to understand their feelings in the moment and to control themselves? How do you teach them that impressions are real and that they have consequences before these consequences are life effecting?

Lastly, so what is a parent or caregiver to do? It is trying to teach the idea  that it is the little things that become important when talking about perception. It is the little things that become important when preparing someone for the future.

Walking out of a room, class or environment when they start to feel overwhelmed is a typical self-help method. (Making sure that they leave the room before they exhibit any negative actions is important also, and part of a long process of education.) Trying to get them to understand that their “tone” in a conversation is essential to how their emotional state is perceived is important for social interactions at both school and work. Teaching them the appropriate way to horse-around (even though it seems that in a school setting typical male bonding is seen as anathema in the first place in today’s world) and what to say as a “joke” in public is a good place to start, when teaching about community acceptance. Getting them to understand the necessity of therapy and medication to their own well-being. Promoting a healthy attitude towards exercise, food and self-care can also help in their navigation of the world.

But in the end we do need to accept the fact that there is also just so much anyone person can do to accommodate the world-at-large as well. We also need to understand that no matter how hard those with mental health issues do try, there is always going to be that one person who is just totally unaccepting towards them. This person will, no matter what, never forgive the ill for who they are. They will never see beyond the disability or mental health issue. Honestly, its better to teach the effected individual how to identify these antagonistic people and to just stay away from them. You can’t please everyone and honestly it’s not even worth trying.

As I have always taught my children this primary life lesson…wherever you go in life there is always going to be one “shmendrick.” The trick in life is to NOT be the “shmendrick.” That is basically impressions in a nutshell. That is the basic goal of those with challenges.

In the meantime, May is Mental Health Awareness Month. Maybe one day there will be more give and take with society. Maybe one day the partnership will actually be 50-50. But until that time we work, we teach and we hope that the stigma of mental illness will be lifted and those that are forced onto the fringes of society will be accepted, understood and welcomed into the world inwhich they live.

Technorati Tags: Mental Illness,Mental Disorders,Awareness,Understanding,Compassion,Mental Health Awareness Month,May,Mind

Studies Confirm Women Face Depression After Abortion, Other Problems

by Steven Ertelt -LifeNews.com Editor - September 28, 2010

Washington, DC (LifeNews.com) – A new study with a very limited sample of women having abortions, just 69, has received considerable attention for supposedly disproving the plethora of peer-reviewed studies confirming women who have abortions face both depression and other mental health problems.

Other recent studies from the last two years provide nearly irrefutable evidence that abortion affects women in a myriad of ways — making it so they face everything from depression and relationship problems to PTSD and elevated risks for abusing drugs or alcohol.

An August study published in the Journal of Pregnancy and involving 374 women who had abortions — more than five times the number of women who appeared in the new study — found women having high rates of post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) symptoms for women having both early and late abortions.

Approximately 52 percent of the early abortion group and 67 percent of the late term abortion group met the American Psychological Association’s criteria for post-traumatic stress disorder symptoms (PTSD).

The authors of the study say those high rates are the result of women facing pressure or coercion to have an abortion or, at minimum, ambivalence about having it — showing more pre-abortion screening is needed to rule out abortion as an option for many women.

A May 2010 study put out by researchers at the University of Manitoba in Canada found women who have had abortions are about four times more likely to abuse drugs and alcohol as those who carried their pregnancy to term. The authors confirmed a link between abortion and the substance abuse issues.

The study appeared in the April issue of the Canadian Journal of Psychiatry and it showed women having abortions were 3.8 times more likely to have substance abuse disorders.

That was the case even when other factors such as exposure to violence were included that could have raised the risk outside of abortion.

The Canadian study also found abortion associated with other mental health conditions such as mood disorders, but substance abuse proved to be the strongest link when it comes to post-abortion problems for women.

Meanwhile, three studies alone published in peer-reviewed medical journals at the end of 2008 show abortion causes problems for women.

Dr. Priscilla Coleman, a professor of Human Development and Family Studies at Bowling Green State University, and her colleagues published a study in the Journal of Psychiatric Research showing an abortion-depression link exists.

The research team found induced abortions result in increased risks for a myriad of mental health problems ranging from anxiety to depression to substance abuse disorders.

The number of cases of mental health issues rose by as much as 17 percent in women having abortions compared to those who didn’t have one and the risks of each particular mental health problem rose as much as 145% for post-abortive women.

For 12 out of 15 of the mental health outcomes examined, a decision to have an abortion resulted in an elevated risk for women.

"What is most notable in this study is that abortion contributed significant independent effects to numerous mental health problems above and beyond a variety of other traumatizing and stressful life experiences," they concluded.

Researchers at Otago University in New Zealand reported their findings in the British Journal of Psychiatry and found that women who have abortions have an increased risk of developing mental health problems.

The study found that women who had abortions had rates of mental health problems about 30% higher than other women. The conditions most associated with abortion included anxiety disorders and substance abuse disorders.

Abortions increased the risk of severe depression and anxiety by one-third and as many as 5.5 percent of all mental health disorders seen in New Zealand result from women having abortions.

A third study, from a team at the University of Queensland and published in the December issue of the British Journal of Psychiatry, found women who have an abortion are three times more likely to experience a drug or alcohol problems during their lifetime.

The study showed that women who had experienced an abortion were at increased risk of illicit drug and alcohol use compared with women who had never been pregnant or who gave birth.

In 2009, a review of studies examining various types of prenatal loss and the effects on subsequent parenting has concluded that abortion may be "particularly damaging to the parenting process."

Technorati Tags: abortion,abortions,Planned Parenthood,PTSD,effects of abortions,women's health,depression,religion,guilt,Margaret Sanger,eugenics,anxiety disorders,parenting

America’s secret genocide against veterans

Originally posted at the Examiner - By Kerry Patton

America is filled with an unprecedented amount of patriots willing to selflessly sacrifice everything they have to protect and defend this great nation. However, many combat veterans have felt betrayed by America’s leaders starting at military command levels all the way up to the White House. Yesterday, the Marine Corp Times disclosed at least one combat veteran’s distrust and anger toward America’s leadership–Medal of Honor recipient Dakota Meyer.

In his new book, Into the Fire:A Firsthand Account of the Most Extraordinary Battle in the Afghan War, Myers blasted military leadership as he revealed betrayal and leaderless managers within the ranks. In at least one account, he explains how military leadership refused artillery support to troops engaged in a fierce battle against the enemy which left many American troops killed in Afghanistan.

Video: Vets feel abandoned after secret drug experiments

Military leaders have placed too many constraints on our warriors. They have implemented rules of engagement that only make sense to those working behind closed doors. But those very leaders, in coordination with our elected officials, have also neglected the American warrior on another front that is far away from the battlefield–home. In fact, some may argue that the neglect and abandonment can be construed as a form of genocide.

The secret American genocide against US service members is nothing new though. It has been going on for many years yet too few are actually taking a stand to stop the madness. Today, its time some truths are exposed.

Dakota Meyer - Medal of Honor recipient.

According to a 2012 CNN March report, between 1955 -1975, more than 7,000 service members were exposed to at least 250 different chemical and biological agents at the US Army Edgewood Arsenal in Maryland as part of a secret military experiment. These troops were used as guinea pigs—psychologically and physically destroyed.

While the Edgewood Arsenal experiment was exposed and shut down for obvious ethical reasons, the US military found alternative means to continue the destruction of our service members. To understand this, one only needs to observe some numbers stemming from the first Gulf War.

During the first Gulf War, the United States sent approximately 900,000 service members to the Middle East. As of 1996, the Veterans Administration estimated that approximately 489,000 of those Gulf War veterans received medical care at their facilities—more than half of those sent abroad. More alarming is the fact that an estimated 10,000-12,000 Gulf War veterans have died in a one year period since the end of the war in 1995 to 1996. These statistics come from multiple references which include the Department of Veteran’s Affairs.

Our service members are not the only ones who have suffered from the secret American genocide. Service member’s families have been targeted as well. In 1995, Life Magazine published an article titled, THE TINY VICTIMS OF DESERT STORM – Has Our Country Abandoned Them? The article covers an alarming crisis which entails a plethora of ailments among service member’s new born children.

“The federal Centers for Disease Control (CDC) confirmed that Gulf vets were unusually susceptible to a dozen ailments–from rashes to incontinence, hair loss to memory loss, chronic indigestion to chronic pain. But in August a Pentagon study concluded that neither the vets nor their loved ones showed signs of any ‘new or unique illness.’ Veterans’ advocates disputed that finding, as did the National Academy of Sciences’ Institute of Medicine, which declared that the report’s ‘reasoning . . . is not well explained.’ And while there is, as yet, no absolute proof that Gulf vets’ babies are especially prone to congenital problems, patterns of defects have begun to emerge–patterns unlikely to result from chance alone.” (Life. 1995)

The first Gulf War should be construed no differently than the ongoing war in Afghanistan and the recent debacle in Iraq. As noted in a previous article written, Who will stop the American Veteran suicide epidemic, the psyche of our service members has been crippled to the point that suicide among the ranks is overwhelming. Yet our leaders still believe they have no clue why?

One reason for these self-induced atrocities among service members can be linked to drugs they are prescribed. Mefloquin, commonly known as Lariam, an incredibly controversial anti-malaria drug, was developed by the US Army. It was then licensed to Hoffman-Roche for world-wide distribution. The drug subsequently came under scrutiny when American, Canadian, and Australian service members who took it in Somalia and during the Global War on Terror displayed dangerous neuropsychiatric side effects linked to using it.

“Mefloquine is a zombie drug. It’s dangerous, and it should have been killed off years ago,” said Dr. Remington Nevin, an epidemiologist and Army major who has published research that he said showed the drug can be potentially toxic to the brain. Great! So we now know that US service members are prescribed neuro-toxins! So what are some of the side effects coming from the drugs issued to PTSD and TBI victims?

While a lot of this sounds like one major conspiracy theory, it is not. Our service members have been used and abused and more importantly, they have been seriously mismanaged. Not only has the United States killed our own brave warriors, American leaders have pushed them to the point that they are now killing themselves.

When less than 75% of all children residing inside the United States have been deemed unfit for military service, as Fox News reported in 2009, we have a problem. But we have a greater problem considering the large majority of our volunteer force is made up of generational volunteers. Take into consideration the amount of children who come from military families who would love nothing more than follow the footsteps of their parents and grandparents who fulfilled uniformed service. How many of them are also unfit for duty?

The current wars fought in Afghanistan, throughout the Middle East, and Africa has placed a serious mental strain on our service member’s children. In fact, more than 2 million American children have had a parent deploy to Iraq or Afghanistan. Over 4,300 children have lost a parent in Iraq or Afghanistan. At least 19,000 children have had a parent wounded in action. Of these numbers, it is apparent that mental health among our service member’s children has become strained.

Between 2003 and 2008, outpatient mental health visits provided to children of active duty parents doubled from 1 million to 2 million, according to a Army Times article Military Children Seeking Mental Care written in 2009. How many of them will be capable in obtaining a security clearances in the future once they check the box on that dreaded SF 86 or E-Qip claiming they once sought psychological treatment?

During a time when the federal government is seeking to reduce the deficit, they have implemented more and more reductions in federal funds to veteran needs which assist America’s secret genocide against our nation’s defenders.

President Obama’s new medical proposal seeks to save $1.8 billion from the Tricare medical system in the fiscal 2013 budget and $12.9 billion by 2017, the latter amount adding up to 0.99% of the $1.3 trillion deficit for a single year built into Obama’s proposed budget.

To accomplish this spending reduction, service members should expect a 30% to 78% increase in Tricare annual premiums for the first year. In five years, service members will expect an increase ranging from 94% to 345%.So now, veterans who need medical and psychological support will face an economic burden in which they won’t be able to afford.

Dakota Meyer has every right to be furious over military leaders and even those politically elected who have utterly neglected and abandoned US service members and veterans. They have done everything in their power to ensure the veteran does not survive—some would call this genocide.

Kerry Patton, a combat disabled veteran, is the author of Sociocultural Intelligence: A New Discipline in Intelligence Studies (Continuum Intelligence Studies) and the children’s book American Patriotism. You can follow him on Facebook or at www.kerry-patton.com.

Related:

Psychiatry as a weapon to silence religious and political opposition

Plus: Judge Orders Release of Brandon Raub, Detained Marine Veteran is Released

The Psychotics in Power Are Calling Us Mentally ILL  -  by Dr. Laurie Roth

Story of Reichstag Fire and summary of 3 incidents of veterans in this situation - Pro Libertate: 'This Isn't America' -- You Can't Say That Here

Technorati Tags: Veterans Benefits,Veterans,drugs,rationing,Veterans Hospitals,Big Government

Is This Where All the Ritalin Went? - Why Are They Drugging Our Soldiers?

Is This Where All The Ritalin Went?

According to an op-ed entitled “Why Are We Drugging Our Soldiers?” in the New York Times by Richard A. Friedman, “the number of Ritalin and Adderall prescriptions written for active-duty service members increased by nearly 1,000 percent in five years.” Might this explain, in part at least, the shortages of Ritalin and Adderall that have plagued students nationwide?

Since the start of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, there has been a large and steady rise in the prevalence of post-traumatic stress disorder among our troops. One recent study of 289,000 Americans who served in those countries found that the rates of the disorder jumped to 22 percent in 2008 from just 0.2 percent in 2002.

Given the duration of these wars and the length and frequency of deployments, when compared with other wars, perhaps such high rates of PTSD are not so surprising. Prolonged exposure to a perilous and uncertain combat environment might make trauma common.
But there is another factor that might be playing a role in the increasing rates of the disorder, one that has escaped attention: the military’s use of stimulant medications, like Ritalin and Adderall, in our troops.

There has been a significant increase in the use of stimulant medication. Documents that I obtained in late 2010 through the Freedom of Information Act, and have recently analyzed, show that annual spending on stimulants jumped to $39 million in 2010 from $7.5 million in 2001 — more than a fivefold increase. Additional data provided by Tricare Management Activity, the arm of the Department of Defense that manages health care services for the military, reveals that the number of Ritalin and Adderall prescriptions written for active-duty service members increased by nearly 1,000 percent in five years, to 32,000 from 3,000.

Stimulants are widely used in the civilian population to treat attention deficit hyperactivity disorder because they increase focus and attention. Short of an unlikely epidemic of that disorder among our soldiers, the military almost certainly uses the stimulants to help fatigued and sleep-deprived troops stay alert and awake. (A spokesman for Tricare attributed the sharp rise to “the increased recognition and diagnosis of A.D.H.D. by medical providers.” However, while there is greater recognition of the disorder, the diagnoses are concentrated in children and adolescents.)…

[continues in the New York Times]

 

Why Are We Drugging Our Soldiers?

Jon Han -  By RICHARD A. FRIEDMAN - Published: April 21, 2012  at the LA Times – h/t to MJ

SINCE the start of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, there has been a large and steady rise in the prevalence of post-traumatic stress disorder among our troops. One recent study of 289,000 Americans who served in those countries found that the rates of the disorder jumped to 22 percent in 2008 from just 0.2 percent in 2002.

Given the duration of these wars and the length and frequency of deployments, when compared with other wars, perhaps such high rates of PTSD are not so surprising. Prolonged exposure to a perilous and uncertain combat environment might make trauma common.

But there is another factor that might be playing a role in the increasing rates of the disorder, one that has escaped attention: the military’s use of stimulant medications, like Ritalin and Adderall, in our troops.

There has been a significant increase in the use of stimulant medication. Documents that I obtained in late 2010 through the Freedom of Information Act, and have recently analyzed, show that annual spending on stimulants jumped to $39 million in 2010 from $7.5 million in 2001 — more than a fivefold increase. Additional data provided by Tricare Management Activity, the arm of the Department of Defense that manages health care services for the military, reveals that the number of Ritalin and Adderall prescriptions written for active-duty service members increased by nearly 1,000 percent in five years, to 32,000 from 3,000.

Stimulants are widely used in the civilian population to treat attention deficit hyperactivity disorder because they increase focus and attention. Short of an unlikely epidemic of that disorder among our soldiers, the military almost certainly uses the stimulants to help fatigued and sleep-deprived troops stay alert and awake. (A spokesman for Tricare attributed the sharp rise to “the increased recognition and diagnosis of A.D.H.D. by medical providers.” However, while there is greater recognition of the disorder, the diagnoses are concentrated in children and adolescents.)

Stimulants do much more than keep troops awake. They can also strengthen learning. By causing the direct release of norepinephrine — a close chemical relative of adrenaline — in the brain, stimulants facilitate memory formation. Not surprisingly, emotionally arousing experiences — both positive and negative — also cause a surge of norepinephrine, which helps to create vivid, long-lasting memories. That’s why we tend to remember events that stir our feelings and learn best when we are a little anxious.

Since PTSD is basically a pathological form of learning known as fear conditioning, stimulants could plausibly increase the risk of getting the disorder.

The role of norepinephrine in the enhancement of memory was demonstrated in an elegant experiment led by Larry Cahill at the University of California, Irvine. He randomly gave a group of subjects either propranolol, a drug that blocks the effect of norepinephrine, or a placebo just before they heard one of two stories: an emotionally arousing one or a neutral one. He then tested their memory of the stories a week later and found that propranolol selectively impaired recall of the emotionally arousing story but not the neutral story. The clear implication of this study is that emotion raises norepinephrine, which then enhances memory. Block norepinephrine and you can impair emotional memory. With PTSD, a shocking combat situation elicits a hard-wired fear response — the flight-or-fight reaction — with intense emotional arousal and a surge of norepinephrine in the brain. This burns in the memory of the traumatic experience. It also promotes fear conditioning, a form of learning in which previously neutral stimuli in the environment — sights, sounds and smells, for example — become linked with a trauma. So, for a soldier injured in a bomb blast, anything like the sound of an explosion or the odor of burning is now a potent conditioned stimulus that can evoke the trauma and trigger symptoms of PTSD, like a flashback or startle reaction.

Because norepinephrine enhances emotional memory, a soldier taking a stimulant medication, which releases norepinephrine in the brain, could be at higher risk of becoming fear-conditioned and getting PTSD in the setting of trauma.

This possibility is supported by both animal and human studies. In rats, tiny injections of norepinephrine into the amygdala, a region of the brain that encodes fear, can enhance fear conditioning. And Marieke Soeter at the University of Amsterdam recently conducted an experiment in which college students were shown a picture paired with a small electric shock. Before viewing the pictures, subjects were randomly given yohimbine, a drug that releases norepinephrine in the brain, or a placebo. When students were tested 48 hours later, those who had received yohimbine had greater fear-associated learning and had a harder time “unlearning” the fear — when presented with the picture in the absence of a shock — than those students who had taken the placebo.

The study implies that soldiers exposed to elevated norepinephrine levels from taking stimulants are also at risk of relapse when re-exposed to the initial stressor. And because the treatment of PTSD involves unlearning fear responses, soldiers exposed to stimulants during trauma could well be more resistant to treatment.

And in fact, blocking the effects of norepinephrine with beta blockers can stop fear-conditioning and possibly even prevent post-traumatic stress disorder.

Roger Pittman, a psychiatrist at Harvard Medical School, led a small study in 2002 in which he randomly assigned emergency-room patients to either the beta blocker propranolol or a placebo within six hours of their experiencing a traumatic event. After one month, subjects who took the propranolol had significantly fewer symptoms of PTSD than subjects who took the placebo.

Does all of this prove that stimulants promote the development of post-traumatic stress disorder?

No. Because two things are correlated doesn’t mean there is a causal link. There are other factors that might play an important role, like incurring a traumatic brain injury, which is a known risk factor for the disorder, and growing steadily during these wars.

Still, it is an open question whether the use of stimulants in combat does more good than harm. The next step should be a rigorous epidemiologic study of a possible link between stimulants and PTSD in our troops.

Richard A. Friedman is a professor of psychiatry and director of the psychopharmacology clinic at Weill Cornell Medical College.

Related in Opinion

• Op-Ed Columnist: A Veteran’s Death, the Nation’s Shame (April 15, 2012)