Mood Spectrum, Internet and College Students, Forgiveness, and Talk Therapy
Welcome to the July 4, 2007 edition of carnival of depression, bipolar disorder, and mental health journeys. Congratulations to those of you whose submissions were accepted to this edition - and thanks to the authors who took the time to submit an entry. Even though I may not be able to include all submissions to this edition, I appreciate your consideration and read each and every entry sent.
If you submit an article that summarizes studies or scientific research: Please include links to references and cite the actual studies so that readers who wish to look at the actual studies may read the original source. I tend to be very strict about citations and source references because 1) this helps me maintain integrity of health information shared on this website esp. given the HONcode accreditation, and 2) my scientific background has made me a stickler for going to original sources whenever possible to look at studies conducted and assumptions made.
I understood Barbara’s argument to teach forgiveness to parents instead of children so that children do not fall to the hands of abuse. However, reality is such that the very people who should learn forgiveness usually end up being the ones who need to be forgiven. In my personal experience, forgiving is letting go of a hatred that consumes and at the same time, letting go of self-loathing that came from “having something bad done to me” when I was a small child and unable to help myself. Read more
Mental Illness and Abuse, Suicide, Introversion or Isolation
Talia commented about a woman’s experience with abuse at the hands of a mentally ill sibling, and asked a very good question: “how much sensitivity do the mentally ill deserve?” This and the original article from the abused woman hit home for me, because I know both sides. I have experienced depression, and the type of hurt that I can inflict or have inflicted on people around me when I was knee deep in it. As a small child, I have grown up with the wounds (mostly emotional and an occasional physical trauma like getting my fingers squeezed by a pair of pliers as punishment) of abuse from a mentally ill parent. Read more
Emotional Invalidation, Brands or Generics, Worrying, and More
Barbara’s article on emotional invalidation has a lot of details to help you recognize emotional invalidation and the many forms it comes in. What I’d like to see is a follow-up article addressing ways to respond within yourself and to the other person when you know you are facing emotional invalidation.
GrrlScientist was recent sent an article on Creating a Mouse Model of Bipolar Disorder to study the manic phase of bipolar disorder. GrrlScientist gave a good background of the biology of bipolar disorder and potential research directions in this area. What’s important to note is that the mouse system did not cycle between mania and depression the way humans do. This underscores the limitations of studying an illness that is often a manifestation of a complex, whole system by 1) picking apart its individual components and 2) using a different system, albeit a whole animal system. One of the limitations of modern medicine has been our fixation on “targeting” specifics, which makes sense on one level, but also means we may often miss unforeseen long term side effects. Read more