BeyondNow - Suicide Safety Planning

Had a post from beyondblue show up on my Facebook page a few minutes ago. It could be something a few around here could find very useful.

"Today we’re proud to share our Australian-first suicide safety planning app, BeyondNow.

Safety planning is exactly what it sounds like – creating a plan to stay safe during those really difficult moments. The BeyondNow app makes this suicide prevention tool even more valuable by putting your plan in your pocket – you’ll always have it on hand if you need it. It can be hard to think clearly when you’re in a suicidal crisis or having thoughts or feelings about suicide. Having all your warning signs, coping strategies, reasons for living and support listed in one place means you can focus on working through the steps until you feel safe. We hope that you and your loved ones will never need this app. But if you do, we hope it can guide you through the tough times.

You can download the app from the App Store or Google Play."

You can find our more on the BeyondNow web page.

I haven't looked at it fully myself but it looks good & perhaps it can be used for other types of crisis or distress too. Hopefully this is something that will help when we need it most.

Take care all.

The information contained in this blog can not be considered medical advice. These are only my own thoughts, feelings & ideas. If you or someone you know are having problems with mental illness please seek qualified medical advice.

Supporting a friend with a mental illness.

The daughter of a Facebook friend of mine posted a fantastic little piece on supporting someone close to you who has a mental illness. While it specifies depression and anxiety, what it says covers so much more. I just thought I would share it here.

Take care, stay safe.

The information contained in this blog can not be considered medical advice. These are only my own thoughts, feelings & ideas. If you or someone you know are having problems with mental illness please seek qualified medical advice.

Bipolar Research Subjects Needed - Sydney

Early next week I'm off to Sydney to participate in a bipolar research study at the CADE Clinic, an outpatient service based at the Royal North Shore Hospital in Sydney. The study 'Thinking Clearly With Bipolar Disorder' is being conducted by Dr Genevieve Curran.

She is seeking adults with bipolar disorder to participate in a research study that investigates how bipolar & lithium alter brain cognition (memory, concentration, attention, etc). It doesn't matter if you use lithium or not, subjects from both groups are needed.

From what I understand the study involves a session talking with Dr Curran, a session on a computer playing games, solving puzzles, etc & then possibly an MRI scan.

More information on the research study can be found on the CADE website, by calling Dr Curran (02 9462 9900) or by emailing her at grcurran@nsccahs.health.nsw.gov.au.

I you feel you could suitable for this study please participate. In the long run the study could benifit us all, you never know.

Until next time, take care.

Mark.

The information contained in this blog can not be considered medical advice. These are only my own thoughts, feelings & ideas. If you or someone you know are having problems with mental illness please seek qualified medical advice.

Small Irish Poll Shows Depth of Stigma.

An article by Paul Gilligan (CEO, St Patrick's University Hospital) published in the Irish newspaper Sunday Independent has highlighted how bad stigma can be and that it is costing lives. The stigma surrounding mental illness makes people reluctant to discuss their problems and they often feel they cannot seek help.

A small poll of 300 people at St Patrick's University Hospital in Dublin produced some shocking results, even for those used to seeing how bad stigma can be. The poll showed that:

• 20% of people believe that those suffering mental health problems are of below average intelligence.
• Over 40% considered seeking help for mental health problems is a sign of personal failure.
• Two-thirds expressed reluctance to hire someone with a history of mental illness, believing them to be unreliable.
• Over 30% admitted they would not willingly accept someone with a mental illness as a close friend.

Considering that there is a probability that some participants in the research wouldn't want to admit to having a negative view, it is quite possible the true levels of stigma could be much higher.

Gilligan goes on to discuss factors that go into creating (and maintaining) the stigma. These include human factors such as fear and a lack of understanding/knowledge. Then there is denial, both by the sufferer refusing to believe they could have a mental illness, and those who don't even believe there is such a thing as mental illness.

UQ Law Students Raise Awareness of Mental Health Issues

The University of Queensland Law Student Society (UQLS) will delve into the reasons for a high rate of depression, stress and anxiety among law students at a mental health forum this month. 

UQ and law firm Allens will host ‘Mental Health in the Australian Legal Profession,' forum at the University on September 12. 

The program has a line-up of expert speakers including psychologist David Whittingham, Legal Services Commissioner (QLD) John Briton, Annette Bradfield, Deputy President of the Queensland Law Society and special guest Kate Carnell, CEO of Beyond Blue. 

The forum is part of The University of Queensland's Law Student Society's strategy to stem the unusually high rate of mental health issues among law students.

The full article and forum details are available on the University of Queensland website. 

The information contained in this blog can not be considered medical advice. These are only my own thoughts, feelings & ideas. If you or someone you know are having problems with mental illness please seek qualified medical advice.

Dandelions and Bad Hair Days: Cover released.

Suzie Grogan, the driving force behind the upcoming release Dandelions and Bad Hair Days, has made public an image of the cover for the anthology. The cover artwork is by Ingrid Eva Creative and is a brilliant pictorial representation of the title.

The book is a collection of articles, stories & creative writing from sufferers of mental illness (including me!). Due out early October, all profits from the sale of Dandelions and Bad Hair Days will go to mental health charities such as SANE UK. A great book for a great cause.

Cheers

The information contained in this blog can not be considered medical advice. These are only my own thoughts, feelings & ideas. If you or someone you know are having problems with mental illness please seek qualified medical advice.

A little bit up, a little bit down

Haven't really been writing much the last few weeks, probably because I have been having periods of feeling a little down & the energy/desire to write much has been seriously lacking. The past few weeks haven't been bad compared to the past but the lack of motivation & energy has been there. A lot of time all I've wanted to do is sleep with no drive to do anything else.

It hasn't been all bad, I've had periods where I've felt a little up, even if they are in the minority. The best thing about this, despite how up & down things have been, is that I feel that right now I can cope, rather than just giving in to the depression. It's a nice change from the past.

Guest Post: No more wriggling out of writing ……

Social networking sites can be a great place to meet people & find information about subjects that interest or have relevance to you. It was through Twitter that I met Suzie Grogan, the author of No more wriggling out of writing......, a site dedicated to writing, Keats, and, a little strangely perhaps, mental health issues. Suzie is a freelance professional researcher & writer on a diverse range of subjects.

Each month or so Suzie invites someone to do a guest post for the mental health section of her site & I was surprised & honored when she asked if I would be interested in doing this months. When she asked I had no idea what I would write about but what finally arrived was "One year on: a new life". This short article looks at the last year or so of my life and the amazing changes that have taken place.

So take a stroll over to Suzies great site and see what a difference a year can make once you start getting things right!

Cheers.

 

The information contained in this blog can not be considered medical advice. These are only my own thoughts, feelings & ideas. If you or someone you know are having problems with mental illness please seek qualified medical advice.

Back to school - it's never too late

Returning to the halls of learning is something I've considered on & off for years but never followed through with. Over the years I've even signed on for a few courses but the steam quickly ran out and they fell by the wayside. It's pretty hard to keep going with depression continually pulling you down. I would get a lot done in the first few weeks while the energy was up, but when it was gone, nothing.

I think a lot of the problem was I was trying to do it all by distance education so I wouldn't have to face sitting in a classroom situation with a whole lot of strangers. The problem for me was that there was no structured learning. What I was doing was easy for me but I couldn't keep myself grounded with the need to get things completed & sent in for assessment. I also had no-one around to encourage & support me

So this time I'm biting the bullet & trying a return to the classroom if possible. In my mind I'm a lot better now than at any time I've tried studying previously and I also have some great support close at hand. I'm also hoping the more structured environment will assist in keeping me motivated, or at least to get things done for fear of failing!

Talk yourself up: Self Affirmation

A couple of weeks ago I posted Mind Over Matter, about a press release suggesting what a person thinks about an illness plays an important role in their health outcomes. With mental illness, could this be even more important? What is self affirmation and how can it be used by a sufferer to help improve their life?

Self affirmation is nothing new, it's been around for decades and is a major part of many self-help books. Dr Norman Vincent Peale called it 'The Power of Positive Thinking', one of the most famous books on the subject. It's not a complicated procedure & you don't really need a book to tell you how to do it. All that's involved is telling yourself, usually at least once a day (the more the better), something good & positive about yourself. It's something anyone can do.

Computers to identify the at risk?

The other day I posted an article about the possibility that a blood test could help identify those with depression, a great step forward. Now it looks like the researchers are getting computers involved in identifying those at risk of mental illness.

A press release by the Welcome Trust suggests that a computer programme may be able to identify those at risk of mood disorders & anxiety. According to research published in PLoS ONE, an open access journal, computers can be 'taught' to differentiate between brain scans of adolescents to identify those most at risk of psychiatric disorders like depression and anxiety.

With most mental illnesses typically manifesting themselves during the adolescent years & early adulthood, the earlier that those at risk can be identified the better. Early intervention could result in a delay or even prevent the illness appearing in those at risk.

Mental Illness: How Prepared is Your GP?

A tweet from Black Dog Tribe today led me to this video by Professor Lewis Wolpert where he mentions that he doesn't think most GP's are prepared enough to deal with patients with mental illness. Additionally, he voices something that I totally agree with - that unless you have experienced a mental illness you can never really understand what it's all about.

Friends, people I've worked with & even anonymous posters on a number of forums I frequent have all said the same thing. A lot complain about GP's who try & look at other causes, or don't have an understanding how bad it really is. Or those that give a prescription for some form of mild anti-depressant with absolutely no follow-up at a later date. Sadly a lot of people with mental illness find, after working up the courage to initially mention their problem, that doing anything more themselves is just too hard. They just won't go back and seek further assistance.

I know for myself it was talking to other sufferers that started making it easier for me to deal with my illness. Doctors, psychiatrists, psychologists & other mental health workers just didn't seem to understand just what it's like. No offence at all to those working in the mental health field, they do what their training & experience tells them to do. But sometimes this just isn't enough, and the sufferer feels let down by the system or just fall through the cracks.

My old family GP was a good doctor, I liked going to him & he was the first one I opened up to about my problem. He tried to help, arranged anti-depressants, got me to see a psychiatrist and try and get me going in the right direction. Only problem was that I really didn't enjoy my sessions with my psychiatrist (for some reason he thought going for a walk or getting a job to occupy my mind was the solution - for someone who couldn't leave the house!). Additionally, my initial (and incorrect) diagnosis of severe depression was the one that stuck for the next 11 years.

After I was diagnosed I did a lot of research on the subject and it wasn't long before I realised I wasn't just depressed, I was more likely bipolar. But no-one seemed to listen. Everything was directed at trying to fix my depression and it wasn't working. They seemed to go deaf when I mentioned my periods of mania - they were very short compared to my long periods of depression - and it just slipped by. And some of the medications I tried during this period are great for treating depression, but were some of the worst for treating bipolar, making things even drastic.

It was only after moving to another area a couple of years ago that anything really changed, and even that took a more than a year of seeing my new GP. But eventually I had a few things go badly wrong for me and early last year I went to my doctor hell bent on getting help. I booked a long appointment and we spent the time really going through everything & at last he really listened, He seemed to understand. My diagnosis was changed & added to, booked in with a new counsellor and, probably most importantly, was changed to more suitable medications.

The last 12 months have been totally different for me, after an initial period of switching meds and tweaking them to meet my needs. Probably still some changes to be made there, but it has been a much better year than I had experienced in a long time. Still a long way to go, just heading in the right direction. But it was my actions that brought about this change. I was still being treated as just suffering depression until the time I just about forced my GP to listen. I was lucky & he did really try to understand & for that I'm grateful. Sadly a lot of sufferers just can't bring themselves to make the sort of stand I did.

With up to 10% of the population suffering from a mental illness at some stage it is probably something that needs to be looked into. This feeling of not being listened to or understood by others is a big reason why only about 1 in 5 sufferers will seek professional help, and it's very likely there are many more who don't follow through after an initial treatment or two.

So what is your experience with GP's and mental health workers? Good? Bad? Indifferent? What can be done to improve the situation? I have no idea myself, though if I think about it during my next manic period I'm sure I'll find a solution, I just need to be able to hold onto it. ;)

Let me know your thoughts.

Cheers.

The information contained in this blog can not be considered medical advice. These are only my own thoughts, feelings & ideas. If you or someone you know are having problems with mental illness please seek qualified medical advice.

Current Happenings: I'm Keeping it All Together

A few of you may have noticed that lately I've been posting mainly news & information rather than anything about what's been going on in my own world. Part of this is because of the new direction the blog has taken, almost on it's own, to report happenings from around the world in regards to mostly mental health issues & to help raise awareness of the subject, hoping to help ease the stigma surrounding mental illness.

The other reason is that I've been going through a really good period lately, including a short run of mania, that has made it hard to get my own thoughts in any real order. But right now things are quite good so hopefully I'll be able to get a bit more done. I have a few more articles of my own in the works, as well as doing a guest post on another blog in the near future - more on that later.

So while I haven't been overly active, emotionally I'm in a good place right now & have been interacting better with those in my life. Maybe it's the fact it's summer here & the extra sunlight is doing me good, or perhaps it's good things happening in my personal life that has me feeling this way. I don't really care what the cause is, I'm just going to ride this wave while it lasts. Everyone deserves some happiness in their lives so I will not be denying mine!

So here are my ratings which covers the last couple of weeks, it's looking good:

Emotional: 8.0

Interactions: 7.0

Activity: 5.0 (need more exercise, think I'm putting on weight again....)

Cheers

The information contained in this blog can not be considered medical advice. These are only my own thoughts, feelings & ideas. If you or someone you know are having problems with mental illness please seek qualified medical advice.

Concerns over use of Depakote by Children with Bipolar Disorder

 February 14, 2012

The Consumer Justice Foundation, a for-profit corporation whose staff of professional consumer advocates provide free online educational resources to the public regarding the potential dangers of using certain prescription medications, hereby alert the public of a recent study performed that reviewed the effectiveness of Depakote when compared to other common medications prescribed to treat bipolar disorder in children.

Specifically, this study, which was performed by researchers at Washington University in St. Louis and that was published in the January 2012 issue of Archives of General Psychiatry, reviewed the progress of 290 children who took part in the study for up to eight weeks. The children subjects were broken down into three groups, and each was given a certain medication: one group was given lithium, one was given risperidone, which is commonly referred to as Risperdal and one group was given divalproex sodium, which is commonly known as Depakote to measure the progress regarding their manic episodes.

Over the course of the eight-week study that was led by BarbaraGeller, M.D., 68.5 percent of the children taking risperidone showed improvements in their manic symptoms, compared with only 35.6 percent of the children taking lithium and 24 percent of those taking divalproexsodium. In addition, some of the subjects experienced Depakote side effects that included weight gain that averaged 3.7 pounds. Throughout the study, 26 percent of the children taking Depakote discontinued their participation.

This study was funded by the National Institute of Mental Health and was designed to provide an analysis of which prescription medications that were commonly prescribed would generally perform the best for children who were between the ages of 6 and 15 years old. The study concluded that those using Risperdal showed the most improvement with their symptoms.

About the Consumer Justice Foundation

The Consumer Justice Foundation, whose Web site is located at http://www.consumerjusticefoundation.com, is a public resource that's been built and maintained by a group of concerned professionals who want to provide general information for consumers regarding the potential dangers involved with the use of Depakote while pregnant. This resource is not to be considered as medical or legal advice, which should only be dispensed by a licensed medical doctor or a Depakote lawyer.

(Sorce: PRWeb)

The information contained in this blog can not be considered medical advice. These are only my own thoughts, feelings & ideas. If you or someone you know are having problems with mental illness please seek qualified medical advice.

Asperger's Syndrome: Parents Blamed In Irish Article

An article by Dr Tony Humphreys, a clinical psychologist, appeared in the print edition of the Irish Examiner on the 3rd Feb 2012 where he suggests that Aspergers syndrome, an autism spectrum disorder (ASD), is NOT a neurological condition, but the result of 'cold parents' who are unable to give their children the love & attention they need. Since publication the Irish Examiner has been in damage control & Dr Humphreys forced on the defensive as a result of the backlash the article created.

As this article is yet to appear in the online version of the paper, I reproduce it here in full:

"A team of researchers at Cambridge University is currently exploring the connection between high-achieving parents, such as engineers, scientists and computer programmers and the development of their children. Professor Simon Baron-Cohen, who is the director of the Autism Research Centre at the university, says there are indications that adults who have careers in areas of science and math are more likely to have autistic children.

In studies in 1997 and 2001 it was found that the children and grandchildren of engineers were more likely to be autistic and that mathematicians had higher rates of autism than other professions. What is shocking is that Dr Baron-Cohen and the team of researchers are one: assuming that autism is a scientific fact and, two: missing the glaringly obvious fact that if the adults they researched live predominanently in their heads and possess few or no heart qualities, their children will need to find some way of defending themselves against the absence of expressed love and affection and emotional receptivity.

After all, the deepest need of every child is to be unconditionally loved and the absence of it results in children shutting down emotionally themselves because to continue to spontaneously reach out for love would be far too painful.

Children's wellbeing mostly depends on emotional security - a daily diet of nurture, love, affection, patience, warmth, tenderness, kindness and calm responses to their expressed welfare and emergency feelings. To say that these children have a genetic and/or neurobiological disorder called autism or ASD (autistic spectrum disorder) only adds further to their misery and condemns them to a relationship history where their every thought and action is interpreted as arising from their autism.

It is frequently the case that it is when these children go to school that their emotional and social withdrawal of eccentricities are noticed, mainly by teachers, who themselves can struggle with how best to respond to these children. An unconscious collusion can emerge between parents and teachers to have these children psychiatrically assessed so that the spotlight is put on the children and not their adult carers' own emotional and social struggles. Regretfully, the relationship contexts of the childrens' lives are not examined and their mature development is often sacrificed on the fires of the unresolved emotiuonal defences of those adults who are responsible for their care.

It is important to hold to the fact that these carers do not consciously block their children's wellbeing, but the unconscious hope of children is that other adults (teachers, relatives, educational psychologists, care workers) that when they are emotionally and socially troubled, it is their adult carers who often need more help than they do.

Indeed, my experience in my own psychological practice is that when parents and teachers resolve their own fears and insecurities, children begin to express what they dare not express before their guardians resolved their own emotional turmoil.

A clear distinction needs to be made between the autism described by psychiatrist Leo Kanner in 1943 and the much more recently described ASD (autistic spectrum disorder, often referred to as Asperger's syndrome). The former 'condition' was an attempt to understand severely emotionally withdrawn children, the latter concept, which is being used in an alarmingly and rapidly increasing way, is an attempt to explain children's more moderate emotional and social difficulties. Curiously - and not at all explained by those health and educational professionals who believe that autism and ASD are genetic and/or neurobiological disorders - is the gender bias of being more diagnosed in boys (a ratio of four to one). This bias is also found with ADHD. Surely that gender phenomenon indicates the probability that boys are reared differently to girls and that due to social and cultural factors boys respond to the troubling behaviours of their adult carers in ways that are radically different to girls.

What is equally distressing is that, as for ADHD, a whole industry involving research, assessment, screening, education and treatment has been developed, despite the absence of any scientific basis or test for either the originally 'detected' autism or for the broader construct of ASD.

Sami Timimi, a consultant child and adolescent psychiatrist and two colleagues rigorously examined over 5000 research articles on autism and ASD and found no scientific basis for what they now refer to as mythical disorders. They outline their findings in their book 'The Myth of Autism' (2011). The conclusion of their indepty studies is that "there is no such thing as autism and the label should be abolished".

The authors are not saying that the children are not emotionally and socially troubled. What they are saying is - and I concur with them - that focus needs to be on the relationship contexts of these children's livews, and to take each child for the individual he or she is and to examine closely the family and community narratives and discover creative possibilities for change and for more dynamic and hopeful stories to emerge for both the children and their carers.

Dr Tony Humphreys is a consultant clinical psychologist, author and national and international speaker. His book 'All About Children" is relevant to todays article." 

As expected, the response from both parents & other professionals was fast & furious, with the vast majority outraged by the article. The debate has moved from the Examiner to other print media, television, radio & of course, the internet. Here are just a few of the responses:

"WHAT Dr Tony Humphreys is describing is not a new theory. In fact, he is returning to an idea popular 70 years ago, known as the Refrigerator Mother theory. The problem with that theory is that it assumed parents were universally cold and unconnected with their children, and it was wrong.

It was wrong and it was abandoned in the face of overwhelming evidence collected by psychologists, neurologists, epidemiologists and academic researchers.

Autism spectrum disorder (ASD) is a clearly defined condition with a common set of symptoms that are differentiated by their severity. That’s why it is known as a "spectrum disorder" because it covers a spectrum of severity. (Dr Humphreys’ comment that "autistic spectrum disorder, often referred to as Asperger’s syndrome" is simply incorrect. Asperger’s syndrome is an autistic spectrum disorder, not a name for it.)

At least, that’s how our scientific advisers explain it to us. What we see is a little different.

We see children who are unconditionally loved by their parents. We see parents who are warm and caring, but whose emotional temperature rises whenever those children are threatened or dismissed.

We have seen them fight and cry and despair. And we have seen them get back up and keep going under pressures that would break most of us. We have seen them take on authority, ignorance, and prejudice — and triumph.

Slowly, we have seen our country catching up with what those parents know: That ASD is no emotional withdrawal. The Department of Health fully acknowledges the condition and a method of diagnosing it.

The EU is so concerned that it is funding research to determine how widespread the condition is. Irish Autism Action is part of that project and its initial figures show that roughly one in every 100 children born here has ASD.

It is true that the causes of ASD are unclear. There is clearly a strong genetic element, though how precisely it operates is not understood. There seem to be environmental elements though they are yet to be fully examined.

What people with autism and their parents need is more research that specifically addresses how the condition occurs — not the defrosting of an assumption over half a century old."

Kevin Whelan, Chief Executive, Irish Autism Action (Irish Examiner 07/02/2012)

"The article by Tony Humphreys claiming that autism is caused by "cold" or emotionally distant parents, displays such willful ignorance, lack of understanding and density of inaccurate and offensive statements that it is shocking that the Irish Examiner would publish it.

This kind of psycho-babble has been discredited for decades.

Autism is a biological, brain-based disorder. It is also a genetic disorder. The scientific evidence for these statements is overwhelming. We now know of more than 100 distinct genetic conditions that can result in autistic symptoms.

These conditions affect early development of the brain and researchers are making progress in understanding how that results in the specific symptoms seen in autism, which may range widely in severity.

In contrast, the claims by Mr Humphreys are a throwback to psycho-analytic theories that are completely unsupported by any evidence, as well as being actively damaging and hurtful.

In publishing this waffle, your paper does a disservice to responsible journalism and to all the patients, parents and teachers struggling to cope with the real disabilities caused by this condition."

 Kevin Mitchell PhD, Associate professor of genetics and neuroscience, Trinity College Dublin (Irish Examiner 07/02/2012) 

"It is at a minimum the responsibility of a newspaper editor to ensure that the content of the paper he edits provides balance and accuracy.

I was dismayed to read the offensive article published by the Irish Examiner written by Tony Humphreys (Feelgood, Feb 3), which demonstrated that neither balance nor accuracy were considered. The tone of the article dismisses the direct experiences of the parents and relatives of more than 30,000 Irish citizens who have an autistic spectrum disorder.

Here are the facts:

* Autism is a devastating neurodevelopmental disorder associated with significant burden of care on parents and relatives and the people affected.

* Brain development is atypical from an early age.

* Children with autism need an early diagnosis to ensure appropriate treatment and interventions.

* Early interventions have a demonstrable impact in limiting the impact of the disability. The only thing accurate that Mr Humphreys had to say was “children’s well-being mostly depends on emotional security” advocating for a nurturing style of parenting.

What Mr Humphreys fails to recognise or acknowledge is the extent with which the parents of the hundreds of children with autism that I have encountered manage their children’s challenges on a daily basis with love, humour, patience, nurturing and devotion.

They sacrifice careers and financial security to ensure that their children receive everything possible to realise their potential. A parent can simply do no more than this. Through this entirely one-sided representation of a 1950s hypothesis on the causes of autism, your paper has caused unnecessary distress to thousands of people in this country. It is simply unacceptable to state that the piece is an opinion piece.

It requires an immediate retraction and apology to all those affected by autism everywhere." 

Professor Louise Gallagher, Professor of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry, Trinity College, Dublin (Irish Examiner 08/02/2012)

"CLAIMS BY a prominent psychologist that parents were in some way responsible for their children’s autism by exhibiting a lack of love have been described as “outrageous” by Minister for Health and Children Dr James Reilly.Dr Reilly, who has a 25-year-old autistic son, said Dr Tony Humphreys’s remarks were a slur on parents with autistic children.

“It was utterly outrageous. The hurt that he caused people is absolutely astonishing,” he said.

Dr Humphreys drew an angry response from many parents of autistic children in a column in the Irish Examiner last week. He referred to a study purporting to show higher levels of autism in the children of parents involved in mathematics and science.

He said the researchers had missed the “glaringly obvious fact that if the adults they researched live predominantly in their heads and possess few or no heart qualities, their children will need to find some way of defending themselves against the absence of expressed love and affection and emotional receptivity”.

Dr Reilly said Dr Humphreys compounded his original offence by going on the Marian Finucane Show on RTÉ radio and stating that parents need not worry that autism had a genetic component.

“Another utter insult to parents. I say this to parents, let nobody set a limit on your child’s horizon,” the Minister said in an interview on TV3 News. “If one of your children has a problem with autism and the others don’t, it is not your parenting skills that are the issue.”

Dr Reilly’s son Jamie is now 25 and recently graduated from TCD with an honours degree in genetics. Both father and son spoke at a recent international conference on autism in Galway.

Dr Humphreys could not be contacted last night. He told TV3 that he regretted causing any offence, but did not regret speaking what he believed was the truth."

Dr James Reilly, Irish Minister for Health and Children (IrishTimes.com 14/02/2012)

This is just a few replies from professionals, the responses from the general public are everywhere. A visit to the Autism in the Media page from the Irish Autism Action website will link you with many more responses if you want to read them, very few of them supporting Dr Humphreys position.


So what are your thoughts on the issue, are the parents to blame? Me, I don't think so. The environment surrounding a child may have some effect, but to dismiss Aspergers as totally the parents fault, as if they are emotional sink-holes is an insult to sufferers & their parents alike.

The information contained in this blog can not be considered medical advice. These are only my own thoughts, feelings & ideas. If you or someone you know are having problems with mental illness please seek qualified medical advice.

Time To Change: Make a pledge!

Time To Change is an organisation dedicated to ending mental health discrimination & the stigma surrounding mental illness. They are currently running a Time to Talk campaign to encourage people from all walks of life to speak out on mental health issues.

I have made my pledge to discuss my experience with mental illness & encourage you to add your voice to the thousands already speaking out. Make a pledge today to help end the stigma & discrimination associated with mental illness!

Cheers

The information contained in this blog can not be considered medical advice. These are only my own thoughts, feelings & ideas. If you or someone you know are having problems with mental illness please seek qualified medical advice.

Traumatic experience, silence linked

London, Feb 5 (IANS) People who suffer a traumatic experience often don't talk about it, and many forget it over time.

"There's this idea, with silence, that if we don't talk about something, it starts fading," says Charles B. Stone of Belgium's Universite Catholique de Louvain, the co-author of a study on the subject.

But that belief isn't necessarily backed up by psychological research-a lot of it comes from a Freudian belief that everyone has deep-seated issues we're repressing and ought to talk about, the journal Perspectives on Psychological Science reports.

The real relationship between silence and memory is much more complicated, Stone says, according to a university statement.

"We are trying to understand how people remember the past in a very basic way," Stone says. He co-authored the study with Alin Coman, Adam D. Brown, Jonathan Koppel of the universities of Pittsburgh, New York and Aarhus (Denmark) and William Hirst of the New School for Social Research.

(Source: Yahoo! News India)

The information contained in this blog can not be considered medical advice. These are only my own thoughts, feelings & ideas. If you or someone you know are having problems with mental illness please seek qualified medical advice.

Depression is an illness, not a life choice

Kim Lester from ABC Australia recently posted a story on The Drum about her own experiences with depression & suicidal thoughts. As I discussed in an earlier post, she found talking to someone about her problems helped a lot.

"On the few occasions that suicide is reported in the media - generally if the victim is famous or the act was committed in a particularly gruesome manner - there is one reaction that makes me want to scream.

"What a stupid thing to do."

Sure suicide is stupid, depression is stupid, and the public's understanding of mental illness is especially stupid. But a victim of suicide wasn't stupid, they just lost the battle.

No-one with a terminal illness would be called stupid for giving up the fight. For them it's a tough fight. They were brave to push on as long as they did. But depression is a private illness, the symptoms are mostly internal and many people don't like - or know how - to articulate it, so it's no wonder they don't understand why someone would take their own life.

I don't claim to know what goes through the mind of every person with a mental illness. I can only speak from my own experience, but that experience has given me an insight into why depression, if left untreated, can be fatal."

Read her complete story on The Drum website.

The information contained in this blog can not be considered medical advice. These are only my own thoughts, feelings & ideas. If you or someone you know are having problems with mental illness please seek qualified medical advice.

Finding An Outlet

Over the years, when I've been right down in the pit of my depression, I find myself with a need to write. It's an urge that just happens - I get an idea in my head, maybe a line or two, that just won't go away until I put pen to paper (or fingers to keyboard). Sometimes it's just those couple of lines that I'll write and maybe come back later to expand on, to make it something that may be worth reading. But most times I can't stop until I have a finished product.

I have no real control over what I write & never know what to expect. A number of years ago I was going through a really bad period around Christmas. One night I sat down & wrote a poem that left no doubt what my state of mind was - The Storm is a dark way to describe my depression. Yet the next night, Christmas Eve, when I think I was feeling worse, the need to write struck again.

The end result this time was Christmas Is, a poem with a religious message about how the meaning of Xmas is being lost in the modern day. It is a poem of hope, faith and love that in no way reflected how I was feeling at the time. And I am far from a religious person, only going to churches for weddings & funerals. It just shows how little control I have when the mood hits - instead of some bleak, depressing, suicidal prose I got this.

Over the years I've found that this writing is a release for me, a way of getting tangled emotions & thoughts out. It's a personal therapy. Even this particular post is, it's coming out the same way as my other writings - just something I have to write at this very moment. This is my release for today.

Now I'm trying to get in the habit of writing even when I'm not depressed or waiting until the 'have to do it' feeling hits. I have found it a great outlet for everything that I would normally keep bottled up inside which would just leads to me feeling worse & worse if I didn't get it out. It is simply a way to help me deal with the situation. And I do think it does help.

Do you have an outlet to help you? If you haven't, maybe finding what works for you will help through the roughest parts of life. For me it's writing, but everyone is different so finding what works for you is trial & error. For me it was easy really, I just had the feeling that I HAVE TO DO THIS! It gets in my mind and becomes a compulsion, an obsession.

There is so much out there that can be used as your outlet. You could paint, draw, exercise, write or any number of things. Be creative in what you look at, it could be something that even you don't understand properly. If you get a feeling that there is something you just feel the need to do then give it a try, expand on it. Let it grow & feed it if you find it helps.

Have you found an outlet for your emotions? What do you do? Let me know, maybe your ideas & suggestions will help others by giving them ideas to work on. Your suggestions & thoughts could do more than you think - they may just save a life.

You can find more of my writings - my outlet on My Scribd Page.

Until next time......

The information contained in blog can not be considered medical advice. These are only my own thoughts, feelings & ideas. If you or someone you know are having problems with mental illness please seek qualified medical advice.

Talking to Someone

While medications play a very important role in the treatment of mental illness, they form only part of the solution. When you find the right medications they can help control the highs, lows & anxiety that is there, but being able too find someone to talk to about any issues you have can be a godsend. It is also one of the hardest steps sufferers can take. But once you make the decision you need help, who do you talk to?

When I finally admitted to myself that I needed help, I was in my GP's waiting room so he was the first I spoke to. Since then I've seen psychiatrists, psychologists, counsellors & spoken to many different people. The hardest part is getting 'comfortable' enough with someone to be able to open right up. Even now I find it hard to open up to professionals, family & friends - they know I have problems, but I just can't talk openly with them.

To my surprise, the people I have found easiest to talk to are other sufferers. The same is true for others I've worked with & spoken to. When you talk to someone you don't know or who haven't been through something similar there seems to be the constant thoughts of 'are they judging me?', 'do they really understand what I'm saying & what I mean?' or, worst of all, 'am I behaving as they expect me to behave?'.

But when talking to someone who has 'been there, done that', you just feel that yes, they do know what it's like to be you. It just seems so much easier to open up & be truthful with someone who knows what it's like. Yes, it's not the best solution & any ideas or suggestions they have to help you should be fully researched because no matter how similar their situation may have been, it is still NOT your situation.

I've also found it easier to talk to people who are not involved in my life in any way - strangers who can't judge you based on what they know of you, or discuss your problems with others you may know. This is where the internet & telephone help lines can be of great benefit, even just to get something out, or seek that little bit of advice/help that you might need right at that time.

In my worst times, I will even talk to myself. Not literally, but through writing. Poems, stories or even just notes to myself, putting my feelings, thoughts & emotions down on paper. Just to get them outside myself so I can study them or shake them off perhaps. It is at times a place I can find comfort when I'm not comfortable with talking to anyone else. Even writing this blog is a form of release for me.

My problem with writing is that it has become associated with my worst down times. My friends & family know that if I'm writing, it's not a good sign for my current mental state. It is a habit I'm trying to change, to move my creativity from just the bad & into the good as well. It is a slow process but I feel I'm making progress - I'm writing this blog when I'm not really at my worst and, hopefully, it will help keep me from sinking down.

So talk to someone, there are many different options available. Professionals may be able to provide more direct help than any others, but if you're finding you can't open up fully to them, then seek somewhere that you can as well. An anonymous phone call or a one off post in a forum is better than nothing. Even just writing notes to yourself can help get things out & improve your outlook.

It is a process, learning to talk to people. It probably won't be easy at first, but you can & do get used to it. As you talk more & more to someone you're comfortable with, it makes it easier to be open with those you aren't. And the more you can tell your doctor/counsellor about what you are thinking & feeling, the more direct help they can provide to get your situation under some control.

Take care.

The information contained in blog can not be considered medical advice. These are only my own thoughts, feelings & ideas. If you or someone you know are having problems with mental illness please seek qualified medical advice.