Albert writes about self esteem and three stages of cultivating compassion towards yourself. When you consider the concept that “depression is anger turned inward”, cultivating compassion becomes a critical component of healing the self. For Albert,

“When I found out I was a Highly Sensitive Person – reading the psychological research on the character and biological trait – I cannot describe how healing it was to my self-esteem. Understanding and realising there was nothing wrong with me – it was just a character trait, one the world had shunned.”

I’m also a sensitive person, although I’ve found that with practice, I’ve developed some protective callouses around my sensitive muscle. I’m now better at letting other people’s emotional baggage bounce off me instead of internalizing it. On the other hand, I can get highly stressed and high-strung, and that’s something I’ve learned to accept and work with instead of trying to “fix”.

Andrew writes about shortcut to happiness and two ways to find and maintain happiness: choosing happiness and maintaining happiness as an ongoing process. I was just speaking with a colleague today about a lecture I’ll be delivering in April on figuring out what we want to do with our lives. My colleague said that it’s important to do what makes us happy, and I agreed with the caveat that many of us haven’t figured out what “happy” means for us personally. If you don’t define “happiness” for yourself, you may not recognize it even if you tripped over it. Andrew writes:

Remember there are no shortcuts to happiness. You have to take some alone time and start writing what it is in your life right now that makes you unhappy. Make a big list, and then prioritize all the issues you come up with.

(Let me throw a wrench in this one: if the law of attraction asserts that what we focus on, expands, then would making a big “unhappy” list keep these unhappy things in our consciousness, even if it is meant to help us rid of these unhappy things?)

Rena believes that she is a poster child for Prozac, after being put on medication and light therapy following a failed suicide attempt:

So, to make a long blog post short, I used affirmations, Prozac and the love of a good dog and great family to dump the abusive guy, go back to America and start my own freelance writing business. I look forward to getting out of bed now.

What I found interesting was that in the same blog, by a different author, was a short article on “treating depression with minimum medication” and focusing on managing the environment stressors in the person’s life.

Walter is “a PhD-trained biochemist working in genomics and cancer biology who’s interested in understanding the molecular and cellular mechanisms that control health and disease.” He sent an interesting article on the genetics of panic disorder by citing studies looking at the blood cells of people with- and without panic disorder. Walter’s article is written at a level that not everyone may understand, even though most of the concepts on there should have been covered in high school biology - for example, “phenotype, lymphocyte, gene expression, functional cluster analysis”. (I read somewhere that we should be writing at an 8th grade level.)

It’s also important to note that the study cited uses a very small sample size - less than 20 patients in each study group (or “study arm” as clinical trial researchers call them). This was not listed among the problematic factors of a study looking at genes that may be different in people who experience panic disorder, but I think the small sample size is a big problem especially when the study was then used to create a predictive test. The potential consequence is causing people to panic about possibly having a panic disorder and maybe even receiving unnecessary or inappropriate treatment for their (mis)-diagnosis.

Thank you for submitting your best blog articles and personal stories on depression, bipolar disorder, and mental health to my blog carnival. Due to the large number of submissions, I am unable to include all submissions for this edition, but personally visit and read each entry.

Until next time!
Jane

Welcome to another edition of Jane’s Mental Health Source Page “carnival”, a carnival that reads more like a story (much work but worth your internet reading time) than a list of blog links (easier but so boring). People are finally starting to know that I mean it when I say “top quality posts only, please!” because I’ve received many excellent entries to include in this edition, and only had to exclude about 60% of the posts, as opposed to about 80%-90% of all entries in the past.

Jeannette wrote about a precarious period when you wean yourself off one medication and start a new medication for depression, but this post covered more ground than that. Jeannette knew herself well, and during that “in between time”, she did what she could to get through (remaining alert to her own warning signals, trying acupuncture) although it was tough - it always is. She also knew when it was time to call the psychiatrist’s office and was told she had to wait 2 weeks before she could be seen. I don’t understand why the clinic didn’t immediately give her 3-5 referrals; it’s hard enough to call for mental health help without getting into an appointment bottleneck, but that’s the sad “norm” for our medical clinics today. Thankfully, Jeannette’s new med kicked in the next day. She also likes her psychiatrist once the appointment date came around. “Sure the stress of life gets me down a bit, but being up more than down is so much different than what I have ever experienced. I have hope.” Hang tough, Jeannette!

In contrast to Jeannette’s experience with her psychiatrist, Suni’s psychiatrist either hasn’t learned how to listen or can’t listen because it conflicts with his perception of his job (I’m guessing “diagnose and prescribe” rather than “sitting down with patient and have a detailed discussion and Q&A to establish rapport”). Suni is questioning her original diagnosis of bipolar disorder, and her psychiatrist appears convinced that bipolar disorder was the correct diagnosis. To be fair, that could be a possibility, but if it was, the psychiatrist did a lousy job of explaining the basis and rationale for his continued belief that she has a form of bipolar disorder.

Readers must understand that the medical community truly isn’t well trained to deal with patients who request “non-medical alternatives”, at least not yet, and the psychiatrist indeed had a point in his argument about “alternative” therapies not being FDA approved. Yes, FDA-regulated drugs can have dangerous side effects as well, but at least what is known is required by law to be spelled out in detail in the package insert (”PI”), while on the other hand, we hear about the (sometimes fatal) side effects that some supplements or alternative approaches have only after the media reports them. Thus, the doctor can only give you lots of pamphlets on things he can talk intelligently with you about, and have scientific data to look into if you ask questions. Still, this doctor could, at minimum, listen to his patient. I wish Suni well on her quest for a better relationship with a healthcare professional, because that makes a huge difference in mental health help.

Therapydoc shared her post about borderline personality disorder, as if in response to Suni’s search for answers regarding her belief that she suffers from BPD rather than from bipolar disorder of any spectrum. Her post includes the current Diagnostic criteria for 301.83 Borderline Personality Disorder, which illustrates why psychiatric diagnoses are so tough. One who suffers from bipolar disorder or depression or another anxiety disorder may identify with many of the symptoms listed in BPD. I can take cold comfort in the reality that our current medication technology for mental illness act like blunt instruments that cover a gamut of mental health symptoms, and medication used for one condition may often be approved for treating another condition. Still, that doesn’t get doctors off the hook for talking with (caring about) a patient who desires clearer answers.

I was struck when reading Isabella’s 8 points of “emergency preparedness for winter depression” by how big a part “human-to-human interaction” plays in staving off depression. Having some form of daily interaction with another human being makes a big difference in depression no matter what season, at least that’s what I’ve personally found. And no - instant messaging doesn’t count… Skype may be OK, because you get to verbally interact with someone, but nothing beats a real life, interpersonal interaction for the richness of stimuli (sound, sight, smell, even touch) your neurons gain. In fact, human interactions by way of social connectedness has been observed to play an important part in your immune system, as I’ve written about in another weblog.

According to Dr. Vitelli’s blog bio, he’s “still trying to decide what I want to be when I grow up.” You and me both, Dr. Vitelli, and for now, I’m happy with exploring and blogging along the way (I’m beginning to think that I may never get to the point of having “grown up” but that I’m meant to continue “growing and exploring”). Dr. Vitelli shares a short history of Richard Dadd, a painter who suffered from mental illness but didn’t gain the level of notoriety as, for example, Van Gogh. Still, I was amazed at the level of detail of Dadd’s magnum opus, The Fairy Feller’s Master Stroke. I was fixated on how the ground in this painting appeared to have a physical dimension.

Urban Monk aka Albert writes comprehensive articles on aspects of mental and spiritual perception, and his article, Psychology’s unique contribution to your Compassion and Self-Esteem, may be an eye-opening read for those of you who want to better understand your relationship with yourself - specifically, your perception of who you are. This is a very long read, but worth the investment. Interestingly, I recently just purchased a book by The 14th Dalai Lama called, “How to see yourself as you really are”‘ it’s one of those moments when things happen in my field of consciousness that tells me to pay attention, because “this is important”. When we consider that depression has often been referred to “turning anger inward”, our perception and relationship with ourselves may literally be a defining factor of our management of a depressive condition.

Finally, Suni also submitted a second entry that I will write about in a separate, non-carnival related post, because I received a similar topical question from Quint, and the subject warrants an individual article, which I’ve written here (link is activated 11/22/2007).

Announcement re: carnival editions for December 2007 and January 2008 Thank you all for the many positive and encouraging comments relating to my mental health carnival. I love the fact that you recognize my effort in making these carnivals “different” from the many carnivals you find out there, and that you enjoy my personal commentaries and occasional stories that weave these entries together into a coherent post.

I will be taking a vacation from publishing carnivals and resume carnival editions in February 2008 because I’ll be giving birth to our first child. My husband and I will be learning to be parents and function on very little sleep. I’ll post new articles when I can string thoughts coherently together, but I want to take advantage of this time to do something I’ve wanted to do for a while: republish my favorite posts from the archives and share with you many of my personal writings that’s become buried amongst hundreds of articles on this website.

Until next time
Jane

Welcome to the October 30, 2007 edition of carnival of depression, bipolar disorder, and mental health journeys.

GrrlScientist looks at a well-covered media topic from a fresh angle: Is There A Genetic Link between SSRIs and Suicidal Ideation? She writes, “A new study provides preliminary data suggesting that a gene variant is linked to suicidal ideation triggered by SSRI treatment in a small subgroup of people taking citalopram (celexa).” The study to observe changes in proteins that affect glutamate signaling. Although this study is preliminary and only limited to one antidepressant within the SSRI class, it suggests at least a couple of things to me: 1) the possibility of using a genetic test to help identify those patients at great risk for developing suicide ideation on SSRI type of antidepressants, thereby helping physicians better manage and monitor for those risks, and 2) the role of glutamate signaling in mental illness, including depression and bipolar disorder. I’ve read years ago about the effects of lithium and valproate (BP drugs) on glutamate signaling.

Isabella’s World Mental Health Day: A Cultural Round-Up was an interesting “mental health tour” around the world, looking specifically at certain cultural groups as well as suicide trends. This was particularly timely, as I had received an email asking for mental health resources relating to Asians, for which there is a lack of information and (in my opinion) support and awareness. In many cultures, depression is still depicted as a character flaw and something to be ashamed about. This fosters continual denial and prevents people from seeking treatment for otherwise manageable diseases.

Megan Bayliss’s A conversation about self-harm was a very smart way to present a set of frequently asked questions about self-harm. It was presented as a conversation that helps us understand how someone who self harms processes this coping mechanism. For example: Question: As you said, you have a cut to show people how you feel - yet you keep your self-harming behaviour a secret? Answer: To you it doesn’t make sense but to me it makes perfect sense. The cut is a visual display of my pain. I don’t have to share it if I don’t want to but to me it represents everything that is under the skin. And if I really have to show someone how I feel inside I can just show them my cuts.

Marcella Chester covers some recent events surrounding anger and how law enforcement make judgment calls that sometimes may have deadly consequences. One of my friends formed a company specifically to pair law enforcement personnel together with professional actors to help law enforcement better manage situations of mental health crisis.

Thank you to all those who submitted articles to this edition of my mental health carnival. Congratulations to those whose entries made it into this carnival! Please note that even if your entries were not selected (my selection criteria have become stricter, and I limit each edition to include only 3-4 entries), I personally visit and read each and every one of your submissions. To submit your best articles for consideration in a future carnival, please use this link.

Until Next Time!