Fixing Yourself, Mental Health Research, and Teen Suicide Increase
Marie sent me a video meditation on all the stuff she’s bought to try to “fix” herself; it was one of the more creative blog entries I’ve received. Here’s the link to Marie’s video meditation and to her blog, Diary of a Bad Buddhist. I don’t know what “dialectical materialism” is, but it makes Marie happy, and at least it only takes up virtual space and not the space in her house!
GrrlScientist is quite prolific and sent me three entries, one relating to mental health research and two relating to suicide trends. In terms of the research material, I’d recently written about the potential utility of the enzyme Protein Kinase C in designing novel drugs for treating the mania phase of bipolar disorder, although I have reservations about the clinical study itself (too few participants). GrrlScientist covers a few other recent developments in bipolar disorder research.
I had seen the recent CDC report on teen suicide and wanted to bring it to your attention. I also remember last year when GrrlScientist wrote about her own suicide attempt and her experiences in the psychiatric ward (and no one taking good care of her parrots!).Thus GrrlScientist can write about suicide prevention from a personal perspective and I encourage you to visit her article.
Part of the speculation around the increase in suicide amongst teens is whether the 2003 mandatory “black box” warning for antidepressants had something to do with this trend. In other words, are teens killing themselves due to depression that is not treated, as doctors have become wary about prescribing SSRI-class of antidepressant drugs to children and teens after numerous reports of SSRI-induced suicidal ideation? GrrlScientist writes about this also.
Last week, I listened to a radio interview with one of the authors of CDC’s suicide trend and this question was raised. The author didn’t directly address it, only emphasizing that suicide is a complex behavior and is contributed by many factors. I think treating teen and child depression can get tricky, and the black box warning serves to make doctors aware of the risks involved when prescribing these drugs off-label (i.e. not approved by the FDA) for such vulnerable population of patients. That’s not to say that a doctor cannot prescribe an SSRI antidepressant for a patient whose condition requires immediate treatment, but the risk warnings caution doctors to carefully watch and monitor that patient if an off-label prescription is given.
Fear of Success and How Kids Become Bullies
Therapydoc writes about the fear of success. This was an eerie description how I used to feel:
…if your parents put you down, then you don’t think you’ve got what it takes to be someone. Having a gift at something doesn’t change your mind. Knowing you have certain strengths means nothing… If you’ve been abused then you might develop the fear that if you try to do something fabulous you’ll be PROVEN the idiot you think you are. You’re sure you’ll fail and everyone will KNOW you’re a loser as opposed to just guessing. From Therapydoc’s Tough Neighborhood- Fear of …
Therapydoc then describes what happens to some of the kids who live in an environment of constant put-downs that may be either emotional or physical (usually accompanied by violence). They become bullies and turn on the most vulnerable kids. These vulnerable kids are who the bullies are when the bullies are at home, being bullied by their parents.
These vulnerable kids learn not to draw attention to themselves, and when they become adults, they come to fear success, because it draws attention them. They self-sabotage to keep being invisible.
My question is, What’s a parent to do?
Parents whose children are vulnerable to bullies may want to do something to make the bullying stop, yet by acting, they draw additional attention to their children and adds fuel to the fire in the bullying cycle. But if they do not act, who knows how far some bullies will go, and what parents in their right mind would stand by and do nothing when their children are being tortured on a daily basis?
Do they talk to the bully child’s parents? That may be one approach, but I suspect that the bully child’s parents may often be the very reason why their kid has become a bully. These parents may very well be big bullies themselves, torturing their kid with emotional or physical abuse on a frequent basis.
I don’t know what the answer is, but I’d like to find out what you think may be solutions.
Depression Caretakers, Being Productive, Bipolar Disorder Myths
James Bishop is becoming one of my favorite mental health bloggers, and that’s not just because he displays the picture of a (smiling?) camel on his “about” page. James consistently writes quality articles on depression and bipolar disorder, and is working on a “health diary” software program to help people track their moods and health. Read more