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Welcome to Flipswitch’s mood disorders in the media.   On Mood Disorders in the Media, we take a closer look at one instance of how the media is currently handling mood disorders.  News, movies, tv, radio, the internets……if it’s somehow connected to the media, it’s fair game.

Did you know that people are getting depressed while watching blue people that live in communal setting in nature?  According to the media news reports, there’s something about the peace of the land and these blue folks that has people all sad and blue because life out here in the real world just isn’t as carefree.

No, we’re not talking about the smurfs.  We’re talking about Avatar.

In Avatar, a blue humanoid species known as the Navi live on the planet Pandora, existing in a manner that is very similar to Native Americans of centuries past.  They commune with nature in a tranquil and peaceful way, going so far as to do some kind of vulcan mind meld with the roots of trees……or something……I was still getting used to the 3D glasses to tell you the truth.

But my point this week isn’t to talk about the giant James Cameron 3D smurfs.  No.

What’s got me in a tizzy is the fact that out of all the important things the media could bring up about depression and put on the front page of newspapers, what the media settled on was something that was relatively titillating and meaningless.

They could’ve focused on the very real problem of suicide and how depression eats away at so many people until they just don’t want to face life anymore.

They could’ve focused on families that watch as their loved one’s suffer needlessly from the ravages of a severe depression.

They could’ve focused on the fact that the rates of getting better for people that receive treatment are astoundingly good.

They could’ve really focused on a million things. But no.  Instead, we get the short shrift of listening to babble about people that are sad because they don’t live on another planet in a movie.

Mind you, the follow up and ramifications of just what  this “depression” really means to these people is never really addressed in any of these stories.   Only that something so banal as being upset by a movie is occurring is “neato.” Not that people that are depressed because of the movie aren’t truly suffering.  They have every right to combat their own pain.  But that is NOT why the media is covering this story.  I’m sure there have been people that were depressed after that dog died at the end of Marley and Me, as there probably are with virtually every movie.  Instead, this is part of a giant media strategy to sell a movie; namely, Avatar.  And much worse, it’s done at the expense of the very serious issue of depression and suicide.

Look, if the Avatar-depression story had been part of a long line of stories, many of which addressed the more important issue of mood disorders, I would’ve been much less annoyed by the media this go round; but that’s not been the way it has gone at all.

Instead, the media has stuck to the script of shock and awe, letting things that are shocking, regardless of merit, rule the airwaves and the front pages.

But  I say no!  Depression is serious business.   Suicide is not something to be taken lightly.  The true pain that people in these times go through is not to be made light of, regardless of how titillating a factoid is.

I know these people have to sell newspapers and adspace, but our media can do better.

Let them know that it’s serious business to you too.

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Hey there. This is Aime Lynn with Flipswitch’s Erasing Negative Thoughts.  On each edition of Erasing Negative Thoughts, we identify one way of stinkin thinkin and show how it’s more often than not, either completely untrue or extremely exaggerated.  All too often hand in hand with depression, don’t fall prey to these outright false ways of thinking.

On this edition of Erasing Negative Thoughts, we’ll cover the distorted way of thinking pattern known as “Emotional Reasoning”.

“I’m so overwhelmed with work. I know I’m doing a bad job.”

“I’ll feel awful. I am awful.”

“I don’t feel like going out and being around people, so I shouldn’t go out and be around people.”

These are just a smattering of examples of emotional reasoning.

Emotional reasoning occurs when you simply think that reality matches the way you feel instead of anything to do with evidence or physics or anything else in the world.  Nope.  You feel it, therefore it’s true.

Except, that’s not how the world really works does it?

I mean, you don’t say, “How much gas do I have in my tank?  The gauge says empty, but I feel it’s full, so it must be full.”

You don’t say, “I don’t feel hot, therefore I know I won’t get sunburned on a sunny day.”

No, of course, not. That’s just silly.

Yet, these are exactly the types of warped thoughts people all too often employ in the depths of a dark depression.  They become certain that they are so worthless simply because they feel they are, even going so far as to argue as good as any lawyer against those people that try to dispute this “truth”.  They wall themselves off from opportunities to feel better because they’ve let their feelings overcome reality.

But the good news is it doesn’t have to be that way.  Stop and think: I feel this way.  So what?  What’s the actual evidence for my belief.  Maybe more importantly, what’s the evidence against my negative belief.

Live a life based on reality, not just what you feel.

This has been Aime Lynn with Erasing Negative Thoughts here on Flipswitch.

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What goes into defining a problem exactly?

This seems like a simple question to answer.  Leg causing immense pain (broken leg).  Smoke filling lungs causing profuse coughing (house is on fire around you).  Have a hard time keeping eyes open (am likely sleepy).

In fact, however, how somebody gets to the bottom of what’s wrong to any given problem is one of the long standing problems of philosophy, and for that matter, the scientific method.   The main issue goes something like this:  If something’s wrong, and I’m not sure what’s causing it, and there are a zillion things to choose from that go into that, how do I know where to even start to look?

This issue is illustrated in a famous example from 19th century France.  In a five story hospital, doctors were assigned to one of the two maternity wards, one on the 4th floor and one on the 5th floor.  Alarmingly, babies on the 4th floor started dying at an alarming rate while babies from the 5th floor remained roughly the same.

In this case of defining the problem, we have a clear answer: problem = babies dying.  But the question is actually much harder.  After all, we know the babies are dying, but where do we even begin to look for why that might be occurring?  Understand, if we choose to focus our energy on the wrong thing for too long in this example, more and more babies will die.

And there are tons of things in a hospital (even a 19th Century French hospital) to investigate.  Maybe we should look at the type of material the doctors aprons were made of.   Perhaps we should check the background of every nurse in the place to find out if anyone might be poisoning the children.  We could look at the delivery instruments .  We could look at the water supply we’re using for the procedures.  We could literally go on forever never getting much closer, meaning horrifically, more and more babies die.

And this is can become very much the issue when trying to figure out what our own issues are.  One day, you know that you’re upset because your girlfriend has left you.  In this case, problem = being upset, with you inferring that it’s the fact that your girlfriend left you  that’s the cause of your bad feelings.  Seems pretty straight forward: either get a new girlfriend or get the old one back.  Problem solved.

So you set out to indeed get a new girlfriend, devoting vast quantities of time, money, and energy towards getting another girlfriend.  However, the problem arises that while you’re certainly upset about losing your girlfriend, the fact is that you keep dating the most horrendous girls, the kind of girls that will surely leave you.  So, your “solution” to the problem is actually setting up the problem to occur over and over again, maybe even getting worse. The real issue, in this example, is that you feel so bad about yourself that you’ll date the first loser chick that knocks on your door, no matter how much she’s got “I’m going to leave you in 2 months” written all over her face.

Pretty scary, huh? This could be YOU!

Well, really, there’s no way around it except to choose a method of figuring out what’s wrong and having faith that your hitting near the mark.

On Flipswitch, we always argue that more information is never a bad thing.  So, you may want to choose some method that is as objective as possible and lists as much information about your problem as possible.  Maybe you make a pro’s and cons lists.  Maybe you make a diagram.  Who knows?

Regardless of what method you choose, I encourage you to be as open to ideas as possible. And  there’s one thing that is almost always consistent in your own process:

The STARTING FEELING THAT CONCERNS YOU.

Maybe the only thing you know for sure is that you’re crying because you feel life is meaningless sometimes.  So many people find it hard to put a finger on just what’s wrong.  It’s VERY common.

But from that one realization, you can then start to think of what’s similar about all the times you cry: Do you tend to cry at the same times every day?  Are you around the same people when you cry (or nobody)?  Do you feel tired at those times? And on and on.  It’s true: information is power, and the more info you have when defining your problem, the more power and options you have to combat that dreadful feeling.

Repeating patterns are one of the key things to look for when defining your own problem.  And that’s where mood charts can become very useful, because they help find patterns in your own moods.    We’ll talk more about them in a later posts.

The main thing is to have an open mind and be diligent in collecting information about your own problems and then having faith that by taking steps to address your own negative feelings, you’ll finally  be able to feel better.  (By the way, that’s not just me blowing smokestacks of sunshine into the okie phanokie.  The research suggests that if you getting control of your problems is generally a better idea than not).

Wait…..you’re still stuck on that baby dying story aren’t you?  You skipped over everything else to get to what happened in that case didn’t?  Go back right now and read the rest of this post.  Go on, I’ll wait.

Now that we’re all caught up, I can tell you that the hospital figured out that perhaps they should not overwork their doctors.  You see, the doctors weren’t specialists back then.  The same guy that handled people with cancer was the same guy that gave you eye exams.  In this case, the same guy that delivered you as a baby, also pulled double duty in performing autopsies on you when you died.  And that was exactly the problem.  Doctors on the 4th floor were rushing up from their shift in the morgue (you know that place with all those diseased and dead bodies) to help deliver new babies all without….wait for it…..washing their hands.    Why yes, it is very gross isn’t it.  And yay, washing hands and wearing gloves became a much more popular practice (though I would’ve suggested the doctors either deliver babies or examine dead bodies but not both).

I would point out though, the hospitals didn’t shut down because they thought they might make the wrong choice or because they were unsure of what the problem was.  No.  They got down to business and worked feverishly until they addressed the issues by defining the nature of the problem and its cause down to the nth degree.  In the end, just like you when you define you’re  problems well, those doctors made a lot of people including themselves a lot happier.

This week’s batch of Mood Disorders In the News

1.  Major Movements In the Rebecca Riley Case

2.  Junk Food Could Contribute To Depression

3.  Treating Depression By Stimulating Brain’s Pleasure Center

4.  New Study Suggests Psychodynamic Psychotherapy Works

5.  Depressed Workers Have Decreased Productivity Even After Treatment

6.  K-Fed Reports That He Was Overweight Because He Was Depressed

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So the topic of the week is Denial, which, let me tell you, we ALL do.  Currently, I feel like I am CONSTANTLY surrounded by Denial.  Nobody wants to admit it though and pointing it out to my specific friends is getting sort of old.

It’s sooo easy to see that they’re having an issue either with The Pot (yes, I mean smoking a lot of pot, never a good idea even in small amounts) or doing poorly in class because they’re not studying or doing any of the reading RATHER THAN because the “class is boring” and “the professor does not know how to teach (which is what they are CONVINCED of).”  Even if I am able to convince them to put a little effort into their class or stop smoking the pot (yes, I will be using that phrase for the rest of eternity to describe the wayward smoking efforts of stoners everywhere), it’s rare that they actually see and admit that it’s an issue.  SO, they just eventually go right back into the same pattern or don’t put an honest effort into fixing the problem because they STILL don’t think there is one… even if changing their pattern helps the issue!!!

One of my friends is still positive that the pot was not the cause of the issue.  I’m at a lost of how to convince them that if they make even small changes, they could be A LOT less stressed and see what I so clearly see.  Any suggestions?

Yet, in their defense, I guess I would have to admit that while I see their denial so clearly and don’t understand why they don’t, I have realized that it’s harder to see my own denial, and even when I do it, I rarely put in the effort to change things, EVEN when I HAVE defined the problem.

For example, my biggest issue lately is with my sleeping pattern which is starting to make it even harder to pay attention in my classes.  I can’t seem to stay up during the day, and so getting my homework done by the deadline I set is becoming more and more tough.  Seriously, if I sit down on my bed for more than 10 minutes, I’m out like a light.  I know I always say that I try and get 8 hours of sleep and even though I often do, I’m still going to bed at 12am on one night and 3am the next.  Plus the naps from 8:30pm-10:30pm probably are not helping.  That just makes it even harder to go to sleep by 12am because I’m not tired and I feel like I have even more homework I need to do before I go to bed.  Yet, even though I can admit that it’s an issue once I really think about my patterns causing the issue, I don’t convince myself that it is such an issue to actually make the changes.  So, I guess I can give my friends a break.  The denial is not doing any of us good though.

This is Ryan with another round of Flipswitch’s Mood Disorders In the Media.  On Mood Disorders in the Media, we take a closer look at one instance of how the media is currently handling mood disorders.  News, movies, tv, radio, the internets……if it’s somehow connected to the media, it’s fair game.

Well, it was bound to happen  sooner or later.  A show about depression and bipolar disorder and growing up……….we could only avoid it so long.

Love it or hate it, here it is.  We’re finally going to deal with it.

Yes.  Yes.  Yes, that’s right.  You know what I’m talking about.

Ladies and gentlemen, boys and girls, …..today we talk about…….The Twilight Series.

Okay, okay!  Girls, calm down, please!  And if you guys over there  can stop looking annoyed for just one moment, we can get through this promptly!

Look, for better or worse, the Twilight series of books and movies have been hugely successful, raking gobs and gobs of money, with more sequels planned for the future.  Maybe it’s the Romeo-and-Julietness of it all or the fact that we all just simply like stories about werewolves and vampires;  whatever it is, fans just can’t seem to get enough.

In the latest movie installment of the series, New Moon, the main character of the whole shebang, Bella, goes through a trying break up with a boyfriend, Edward, and is flung into the depths of heartbreak and sadness, eventually leading her to do some dangerous things in order to get him back.

Vampires and werewolves aside, it’s an interesting take on an extremely common part of life, a part of life that many people are first introduced to in high school and sometimes, even junior high.  Girl meets boy, girl falls for boy, girl and boy share romance, boy changes  suddenly on girl, boy leaves girl, girl becomes distraught, spending hours, days, weeks, months, etc pining for her lost love.   Sure, that’s the basic thing going on in New Moon, but I was also describing three of my friend’s from high school’s lives as well.  It’s just that common.  Sure, in my case, it was more like: boy meets girl, girl tells boy to leave her alone, boy comes up to girl two weeks later to profess his love for girl, girl explains that she doesn’t remember boy at all, girl introduces boy to girl’s football player boyfriend, boy runs away before he gets beat up….but…..okay let’s move on.

A lot has been written about the tumultuous relationship between Bella and Edward in the media, with more than a few news segments on the dark  (say quote) “depression” that Bella experiences after Edward leads.  ABC news, for example, called Bella’s condition a “classic case of clinical depression.” The media has sought out shrinks and experts of all stripes to talk about Bella’s depression.

But this brings up a perfect opportunity to talk about something media hasn’t adequately addressed when talking about Bella’s feelings: namely, duration of mood.

Remember this mantra: sadness and depression are NOT the same thing. Oh, they’re related alright, but they are NOT the same thing.

For someone to have clinical depression, they have to experience a sad (say quote) “depressed” mood for most of the day for at least two weeks.  But it’s important to remember that depression as a disorder isn’t usually given unless that sadness lasts at least a couple of months. Why is that?

Well, let’s go back and remember why mood disorders are disorders at all:  They are incongruent with reality. That means they don’t match what’s going on in the world.  If your dog dies and suddenly your all happy the next day, your mood isn’t congruent to the situation.  that’s a problem.

But in the Twilight Saga, Bella has lost the love of her life.  And well…. she’s not happy about it.  In fact, she’s not happy about it for quite a while.

Here’s one question for everyone:  Should Bella be happy that she’s lost the love of her life?  Should she have gotten over it in a couple of days and been cheery?  A week?  2 weeks?  How long?

The point I’m making here is that sometimes feeling sad is not only okay, it’s necessary.

If Bella had been like, “I don’t care.  Who needs boyfriends and love anyhow?” that would seem a lot more problematic than the fact that she’s sad.

Being sad when sad things happen is okay.  That’s not neccessarilly depression.  Now if everything is by and large always sad, then you may have a deeper problem.

Psychologists have other options for what Bella may have been going through.  One of the most common diagnosis given by psychologists to people in Bella’s situation is called Adjustment Disorder. It’s named Adjustment Disorder because the person experiencing distress is having problems adjusting to life after some new change, say like, oh I don’t know, possibly…..getting used to living without the love of your life.

Much more, this process resembles grief, very much in the same way we might lose someone in a car accident or to a dreaded disease.  The person is gone and we have to learn to move on without them, which is not always easy.  And grief can take a long time.

And we can grieve for all sorts for losses, be they jobs, loved ones, or even possessions.  But that doesn’t mean, in and of itself, that the depression is all there is.  Remember, if a loved one dies, it’s absolutely normal to experience a little grief over it; that mixture of sorrow, sadness and longing for the good times to be back.

The idea of the length of sadness of Bella is important to address, because if the media doesn’t address that, then everyone that’s ever been dumped at one time or another, suddenly qualifies for having a depressive disorder.

So, at the end of our journey, let’s give the media credit for trying to explore depression in a meaningful way, but we’ll have to deduct points for failing to recognize that being upset over loss is okay sometimes and that life does move on.

The media stories tended to look at Bella’s destructive behavior after Edward left and how she keeps letting her emotional state be thrown off by this tumultuous relationship, something that’s REALLY common in romance at virtually any age.  Kudos to the media for raising our awareness on that.

So, a mixed bag this week in Mood Disorders In the Media.

Phew, we got through it. We got through Twilight.  I feel like I’ve been released from prison.  (gasping with joy)  I’ll see you next time for  more Mood Disorders In the Media.

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The gang starts the week off by revisiting the idea of defining the problem.  In every person’s life, sooner or later, they’re going to have problems.  And sooner or later, they’re gong to have to deal with those problems.  But in every case, the one common denominator is that somewhere and somehow, each individual has to define what their specific problem(s) is(are).  There is no one single way to go about the activity, with literally tons of different things you can try.  Maybe you read a book on what you think the problem might be, maybe you make a pro’s and con’s list, maybe you get feedback from others…. the possibilities are limitless.  Whatever the case, it is a bridge that must be crossed in order to properly address whatever the issue is.  In our examples, since we are a mood disorders show and all (wink wink), the crew focuses this show with examples related to bipolar disorder and depression.

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Hey guys, it’s   Aime Lynn with Flipswitch’s Erasing Negative Thoughts segment.  On each edition of Erasing Negative Thoughts, we identify one way of “stinkin thinkin” and show how it’s more often than not, either completely untrue or extremely exaggerated.

On this edition of Erasing Negative Thoughts, we’ll cover the thinking pattern known as “Disqualifying the Positive.”

We’ve all done this one, right?:

“Sure I get A’s on all my tests, but I made a C on this one. I’m just a C student.”

“This person said he didn’t like me. I don’t have any friends.  Sure, lots of people hang out with me, but they don’t count.”

“I’ve just not ever been happy. Sure there were times when I thought I was happy, but I don’t really think I was now.”

And on and on.

Disqualifying the positive is a particularly insidious distorted way of thinking because it allows you to gloss over literally mountains of evidence to the contrary of your other distorted ways of thinking.  Why?  Because, regardless of all that evidence, none of it counts.  No no no. Only the negative beliefs are right because “insert excuse X here.”

And if all the positive things in life no longer get to count, the bad things aren’t just bad, they’re REALLY since there are no longer any positives in your world.  It would be funny if it weren’t so detrimental to you.  On the one hand you’re already unhappy for various reasons.  And on top of that, that already bad feeling is made worse by this false belief that positives either don’t count or, even worse, don’t exist at all.

But if you stop and think for a moment, positive evidence does exist all around you.  In fact, positive evidence is kind of the reason most of the other distorted ways of thinking we talk about here aren’t really true either.

You’re always a failing?  What about that B you got on a test 3 months ago.  You say it doesn’t count because it was 3 months ago, but believe me…..it counts.  If nothing else, you could at least change your thoughts to the more accurate description, I haven’t made the grades I’ve wanted for the last 3 months.  I would doubt that even that would be universally true though.

All those friends you have don’t count because, they’re not that close, they’re not real friends, whatever whatever what..ever.

Not disqualifying the positive means basically looking around you for all that you do right, even when you’ve made a few mistakes.  By not disqualifying the positive, your real problems become much more manageable because suddenly you have a mountain of successes with which to short circuit absurd claims of your universal awfulness as well as a good amount of evidence that you can learn and succeed even when your screw ups are quite real.

So, the next time you say, “It’s all so bad, I always screw up” stop and think for a moment; what about that time I didn’t screw up.”  Yep, it’s that easy.

That’s it for this round of Erasing Negative Thinking.  I’m Aime Lynn, catch you next time.

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On this week’s theme, we talk about the very beginnings of getting a grip on your problems.  When it starts, people invariably know at least one thing: they don’t like how they’re feeling.  But from there, they have to figure out what’s wrong and why?  Maybe it’s one specific situation that you’re not happy with.  More likely, it’s a number of things that are related.  If nothing else, someone can at least define the nature of how they’re doing.  Are they sleeping well?  Are they eating well?  Are they feeling happy?  Are they feeling lonely?  Are they angry? and on and on.  The more you can define the problem. The more you can come up with solutions to “STARVE THE BEAST” of bipolar disorder and depression.

Ryan and Chris talk about how to define lousy feelings more accurately with a real world example from a special guest host (hint: Teeny Teen).

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Hey guys, it’s   Aime Lynn with Flipswitch’s Erasing Negative Thoughts segment.  On each edition of Erasing Negative Thoughts, we identify one way of “stinkin thinkin” and show how it’s more often than not, either completely untrue or extremely exaggerated.

On this edition of Erasing Negative Thoughts, we’ll cover the thinking pattern known as Overgeneralization.

This one’s a biggy.

It’s not, “I messed up this one time on this project. Oh no.  I mess up EVERY on EVERY project.”

It’s not, “I’m not going out tonight with my friends.”  It’s, “I NEVER go ANYWHERE at all.”

I made a bad grade on a test?  Is it because you ALWAYS fail no matter what you do?

These are just few examples of overgeneralization.  Overgeneralization occurs when you take one single event and infer from it a pattern of life that is almost always true, regardless of how much evidence to the contrary there is.  You can usually tell when overgeneralization is going on because examples often make use of words like “always” “never” or “every”: words that extend one isolated incident to every incident that has ever happened to you.

But overgeneralization is pretty easy to disprove.  “My MOTHER never lets me do anything!”  HIGHLY unlikely.  I mean, she lets you go to school.  She lets you take bath.  Etc.  Maybe not always what you want, but then again, who gets to do everything they want?

You always fail?  You formed a sentence to convey the meaning that you always fail. That’s a success. By definition, you’ve already disproved that you always fail on tests.  Assuming that you’re talking about failing one test in 8th grade math, the fact that you were passed to 8th grade likely means you didn’t fail at least what was necessary to get that far.

And on and on.  It’s very rare that claims that use words like “always” or “never” are true, so why are you thinking that way?

Many other distorted ways of thinking are sub-forms of overgeneralization.  And we’ll talk about those more in the coming weeks.  For now, stop ALWAYS beating up on yourself.  You NEVER give yourself a break.  (Hey, if you can do it, so can I)

Join us next time for another way to start Erasing Negative Thinking.

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Flipswitch is moving to a new site within the month!  That means you’ll need to find the new podcast on itunes or go directly to the new site (bpkids.org) when it launches and subscribe to the new podcast directly under the “For Teens” section of the site.  Listen up!

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News for the 1st week of January 2010:

1.  Earlier Bedtimes May Help Protect Adolescents Against Depression And Suicidal Thoughts

2.  Depression Saps Endurance Of The Brain’s Reward Circuitry

3.  For Depressed Workers, Stress On Job Lowers Productivity

4.  ECT Under Scrutiny by the FDA

5.  Valproate Works Better With Lithium Than Alone

6.  Antidepressants May Change Personality, Leading To Reduced Depression

7.  Antidepressants Cut Risk Of Hospital Readmission For Suicidal Youth

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Who’s new on flipswitch?  Aime Lynn, that’s who.  In this clip, we learn just a little about Aime Lynn and discuss some of the upcoming issues of the year.

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Ryan talks about how the media’s reaction to the Fort Hood tragedy is one of the few where psychological state is tossed aside as irrelevant in favor of the shooter’s religious background.

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More Mood Disorders In the News. This Week’s headlines.

1.  Despair gene linked to depression and schizophrenia.

2.  At-Risk College Students Reduce High Blood Pressure, Anxiety, & Depression Through Transcendental Meditation

3.  African-American Teens’ Mental Health May Be Boosted By Ethnic Pride

4.  Long-term Depression Treatment Leads to Sustained Recovery for Most Teens

5.  Geodon officially okayed for use with bipolar disorder

6.  Smoking Tied to Suicide Risk in Bipolar Disorder

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Ryan and Chris discuss the fundamental concept of the week:  Do you really believe that it’s possible to get better?  Do you really believe that if  you do something, it will make a difference?  The science continually says that people that take consistent and active steps in order to fight their depression have a very high rate of getting better.   However, people all too often fall into the trap of giving up and getting frustrated, using negative self-talk like, “It’s no use.”  But it is of use.  Ryan and Chris get the ball rolling this week, talking about why you should take it to the bank that taking positive action against depression gets results!

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This Weeks Stories

1.  Group Culture Protects From Depression

2.  Thoughs of Suicide Long After Childhood Cancer

3.  Antidepressant Drugs Aim At Wrong Target?

4.  Significant Weight Gain, Metabolic Changes Associated with Antipsychotic Use in Children

5.  Mediterranean diet cuts depression risk

6.  Twitter Feud: A Bit of Fry Without Laurie

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You don’t have to point it out.  I am well aware—Magic Bullets do exist. Although, what I want to talk about here is not about how to make a healthy, delicious smoothie. What I want to talk about is health; and while a Magic Bullet can make a smoothie that’s a healthy option for a quick treat, there’s no magic bullet to keep you in good health.

We have all been taught throughout our years in school that health is based on, roughly, two important principles:

1.  a good diet and

2.  regular exercise.

To the surprise of many, these principles aren’t lies. Both diet and exercise DO provide our bodies with the necessary nutrients and activity to keep us living a balanced life. In addition, getting good amounts of sleep and staying away from harmful chemicals (Drugs and Alcohol) can add to our health. These are indisputable facts, so live with it. If you want to be healthy, do these things. Based on the observation that you are surfing this website, I am assuming two things: 1) you are in some aspect of your life affected with Bipolar Disorder or depression and 2) you want to learn how to successfully live with either of them.

Well, believe it or not, it involves everything about health mentioned above.   Not only useful for people not afflicted, if you are dealing with Bipolar Disorder or depression,  these facts about healthy living become exponentially more important to you. Bipolar Disorder is, at its nature, a disorder that involves disrupted biology in the brain, which in turn causes the mania and depression swings that make life difficult. Sleeping, eating, exercise, drugs and alcohol all play into this biology.

I could go into some of the biological mechanisms of each of these factors, but let’s keep it simple.  When you don’t get enough sleep, how do you feel?  Crabby, sluggish, and worn-out?   How do you feel when you go to walk upstairs and you have been sitting on the couch watching TV and eating McDonald’s? Exhausted?  The slightest over exertion can actually make you feel sick.  In the case of alcohol, it is by its very definition a poison.   Alcohol has the potential to kill you, your body doesn’t want in you and it has a huge effect on your biology—the same goes for most drugs, as well.    So, it makes sense to treat your body right by getting adequate sleep, exercising regularly, eating right, and not putting drugs or alcohol into your system, but the fact of the matter is this can be tough to do.  School work, daily chores, and myriad of other things can get in your way of staying healthy. Plus, playing video games and other extra curriculars can be a lot of fun too.

So, the question is: how do you incorporate healthy ways of living into your daily life?   One way is to rely on schedules and routines, which aren’t all that fun all the time.   For instance, you can start by setting a bed time, and then add into that schedule a time to exercise, do homework, have a snack, take medication, etc.   By doing this, you are allowing your body to learn what is normal (and healthy) and setting a consistency that will not disrupt your biology.  We at Flipswitch call it “Regimented Living” and it is a large component of what we call “dealing with your disorder effectively.” Here at Flipswitch, we have a motto that says, “You’re either dealing with your disorder or your disorder is dealing with you.” No matter what, then, you are dealing with Bipolar Disorder.   When you wake up in the morning, it’s a part of you.  When you eat, it’s a part of you.  When you exercise, it’s still there.   Any decision you make during the day will not only have an impact on you, it will also influence the Bipolar Disorder  or depression you are dealing with. So, in order to deal with your disorder and limit the negative effects it has on your life, you have to try and live as healthy as possible. While this isn’t the easiest thing in the world, it’s the only tried and true method, because like I’ve said, there are no magic bullets to living a healthy life.

Ryan

On this short discussion, Ryan and Chris talk about the central message of the blog and show: taking control of your health while you can.

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So what are we talking about this week?  What’s our first big issue?  What is on tap, so to speak?

To get us all moving on our new format, it’s important to get back to the basics….the very foundation of the whole endeavor.

I ask the question: If nothing else is learned from Flipswitch save one thing and one thing alone, what would that one thing be?

I think I definitely have the answer to that question.  It was part of our first show.  It is the thing that unites all other aspects of show, all other issues.  I am certain that every show we do in the future will be, underneath, really about this one basic message.

That message is our issue for this week. Let’s state it explicitly.

YOU’RE EITHER DEALING WITH YOUR DISORDER OR IT’S DEALING WITH YOU!

That’s a nice bumper sticker way of stating our issue this week,  and it’s all shiny and catchy and whatnot, but it really is meaningful for each and every person out there trying to come to terms with their own dark depression or out of control recurring manias.  It does roll off the tongue, but stop and think about it: what would happen if you did absolutely nothing at all to deal with your depression or bipolar disorder? Likely, not a very good outcome, I bet. Worse, probably a pretty scary and just outright painful outcome including more of the same deep well of pain that comes along with feeling so low in depression or the out of control manias and morbid lows that come with bipolar disorder.

Now stop and think, REALLY THINK about it.  What would happen if you did EVERYTHING possible to deal with your mood issues? Yeah yeah yeah. I know a lot of you are mumbling, “It’d all still be horrible.  Nothing matters.  I can’t do anything anyway.”  That’s the sadness talking, and it’s founded on an error of logic.

No, I’m willing to stake virtually anything on one simple fact:  I bet that you’ll do remarkably better by dealing with your disorder rather than doing nothing. And I’m willing to bet you’ll feel at least a little better.

The reason I’m so confident about this central message is simple:  if you don’t deal with your disorder, it will continue you unabated (that means full steam ahead, smartypants). It will fester and thrive, at least being as powerful as it ever was.  Unchecked, you’re playing a dangerous game.  In short, your issues will deal with you if you don’t deal with them.

But that’s a larger point that we’d like to make, part of that central theme of our show.  Our whole point out of all of this is that as bad as you feel, as hopeless as things seem, as painful as it all can be, the indisputable truth of the matter is that you CAN effectively fight against mood disorders.

Depression, bipolar disorder, dysthymia, cyclothymia, etc….these things work along a certain set of principles just like everything else.  And if that is true, then there are certain conditions that must be present for these disorders to thrive and get worse, conditions that if thwarted (ie if you actively take charge of your health and act against them) it becomes more and more difficult for them to continue to exist.

Now, that, of course, is a LOT easier said than done.  A LOT.  But the alternative is to let your  mood disorder ravage you which likely entails you feeling awful and out of control of your own life.  It doesn’t have to be that way.  You can change things.

So that’s it. That’s what we’ll be pounding on this week:  You have the power to control your health.  Deal with your issues or they’ll deal with you.

What do you think?

Let us know,

Chris

Hey folks!

We’ve got some interesting changes coming down the pipe here on Flipswitch.

From here on out, we’ll rarely be doing 30 minute shows anymore.  Instead, we’ll be doing something a bit more concentrated.  We’ll be rolling out a new issue here on the blog each week.  That’s one new issue each week.  And we’ll be publishing both blogposts as well as segments in support of that issue over the course of the week.

Think of it like this:  on Monday, we post a blog at 10 am about our issue of the week, let’s say for “catastrophic thinking” for instance.  The blog post would roll out some thoughts on that issue that we’ll be looking at over the course of the week.  At around 2pm or so that day, we might publish our learning the terms segment where we’ll define exactly what catastrophic thinking actually is.  On Tuesday, one of the co-hosts would do another blog about the topic of the week, while on Wednesday, we’d publish a segment giving practical examples of catastrophic thinking.  Thursday, yet even another blog post or segment.  And on and on until the end of the week.  Then, on Monday, we’d start with an all new issue, doing the whole thing all over again.

So, our new method of doing the show will have much shorter segments published more often and we’ll be making more use of our blog as well.  Stay tuned. It’s going to be quite interesting!

In other news (literally!), we’ll be making Mood Disorders In the News its own recurring weekly segment, typically posted on Wednesdays or Thursdays.   Things happen every day in the world of mood disorders.  It only makes sense that as part of our podcast we consistently bring you the current happenings in the world of mood disorders.

To sum up, more blog centric podcast spaced out in shorter segments over the week with a stand alone Mood Disorders In the News every week!  It’s going to be something.

The Flipswitch Team

What’s going on in the world of mood disorder in the 3rd Week of October 2009.

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On this episode, we take a closer look at the experience of loneliness and go over one clear method in order to deal with it.  In addition, we introduce our new co-host, Catie.

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Emily’s final show.  Take a walk down memory lane with Emily and find out what she’s learned and experienced in her time on Flipswitch.

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On this show we go over several ways to get involved fighting stigma on campus.  We also interview Active Minds founder, Alison Malmon.  Activeminds.org is an organization with over 200 chapters on campuses across the nation that fights stigma and gets conversations started about mental health.

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On this episode we give some common responses to some common anti-psychiatry claims.  On our last episode, we went over five common claims made by the anti-psychiatry/anti-psychology movement and this time we aim to answer them.

We also introduce guest co-host Jenn.

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It’s Emily here, about to go off to college…scared out of my mind. So far, I’ve just been worrying about packing, putting the actual packing off.  Procrastination is something I may never cease to do.

Recently, we did a show on Anti-psychiatry. Twice. So far, I think this has been my least favorite show–partly because it causes me stress leading to a headache which mostly stems from the frustration that I get from the topic in general.

Anti-psychiatry -> stress –> symptoms of stress –> frustrated/sad/unhappy Emily

I think the most frustrating part about the Anti-psychiatry movement is that I don’t necessarily disagree with everything about it.  It’s hard to be one-sided with this matter.

It’s like this: I know what’s right in my mind and I agree with almost everything having to do with psychology; BUT then there’s that smidge of opposition in my mind. For example, the 3rd argument of the Anti-psychiatry movement: Drugs are bad. A lot of the time when dealing with prescription drugs of any kind, the whole process of prescribing in itself is sort of an experiment because a doctor doesn’t really know whether a particular drug will work for that specific person or not. What the doctor and patient have to do, though, is try it out, because there is a chance the drug may help. However, sometimes a drug can do more harm than good. It’s very difficult to pick sides with this issue, because sometimes, the Anti-psychiatry movement does have a point, especially when they say drug companies aren’t solely motivated by caring and health, but also profit.

Despite all of the headaches this topic has caused me, I do think it’s important to talk about it because if it isn’t brought up, if people don’t hear both sides, then they won’t be able to determine what they believe in or agree with on their own; and then they’ll just settle with the only side they’ve heard, and THAT certainly isn’t fair.

Emily

One of the clear things that keeps being returned by the critics of psychology is the number of abuses that have been done in its name over the years.  Some of these arguments are simply undeniable history.

Here’s a quick list of some bad mojo that’s gone on in the name of psychology:

Drapetomania: slaves are messed up because they don’t like being slaves.

Homosexuality: Up until at least the 70’s and actually even the 80’s, the gender of the person you had sex with could determine if you were mentally ill or not.  It took years of political activism by homosexual advocates to get the American Psychological Association to reverse its position.

Lobotamies: They used to push a spike into your frontal lobe, making you into little more than a zombie.  At the time, the inventor of this process was hailed as a genius for his “humane” treatment of mental illness.

Institutionalization of undesirables: At one time, it was not uncommon for unwed teen mothers to be such a shame to their families that they would be shipped off to mental institutions.  It was also not uncommon for “unruly” wives to be deemed mentally ill.

The horrid nature of institutions: In the 1970’s, an institution serving the mentally ill named Willowbrook was investigated for it’s horrid conditions.  It was one of the first times that photographic evidence of the nature of just how bad things were at such institutionswas recorded.  Films on Willowbrook are still available and it was the case that made Geraldo Rivera a household name.  Sadly, this was not an isolated incident.

And on and on.  There are a million of these little factoids in the annals of psychology.  The critics say these alone should be sufficient cause to cease and desist all psychological practice.

But the greater point that such critics make is that, all too often in the past, society has used the word “mental illness” to do horrible things to people that had done nothing wrong save make society a little uncomfortable.  Further, they point out that it is a society that would ship pregnant women to asylums in shame that are disordered.  Today, this is only a matter of degree.  These positions have been made quite public by philosophers and psychiatrists such as Michel Foucalt and RD Laing.

“You’re messed up because you’ve got depression.  It’s you.  It has nothing to do with the fact that you can’t get a job because the economy has tanked.  No, it must be you.”

You know what, say the anti-psychology people:  It’s all a scam!!!

The anti-psychology crowd is quite divided on this general claim: Psychotherapy doesn’t work.

On the one hand, they claim there is no such thing as mental illness, and so, any therapy that looks to cure it is simply wrong headed.  In addition, this side claims, the idea that simply talking to someone for one hour a week is somehow changing all that much is kind of ridiculous, and they point to a certain segment of studies that support that notion.  Oh wait, one thing does change, they say:  you’re out a hundred bucks after a visit to the learned “talker.”

On the other hand, another section of the anti-psychology crowd, claims that while there are no mental illnesses, we cannot deny that people have problems, be they life problems or whatever, and helping people come up with ways that they can overcome these problems is valuable.  This side of the argument points to the fact that, throughout time, there have been various versions of what are now known as psychologists or counselors; someone you would talk to about the issues you’re dealing with.  As well, they recount the myriad of instances of people that have been helped.

That being said, both sides of the anti-psychology crowd agree that in a better world, psychotherapy would look quite different.  It would, if it existed at all, focus on ways to be honest with one’s self and ways to take responsibility for one’s own behavior and would never in any way be forced upon anyone.  And certainly, it would not just always be about sitting in a room simply talking.

Still there remains a huge contingent that just says, “Look, save yourself all that money and just go and get a good friend to listen to you complain.  Then straighten up and take responsibility for your life.”

Interestingly, supporters of anti-psychology share much in common with the old anti-illegal drug campaigns of D.A.R.E. with their slogan “Just say no to drugs”, only in this case, they mean “Just say no to psychiatric drugs of any kind.”

If you couple this argument with the previous argument that disputes the existence of mental illness, this position isn’t that surprising.   After all, why would you take a mind-altering substance for an illness that doesn’t exist?  And of course,not to mention, it’s all a scam!

But the anti-psychology supporters don’t just rest there.  They take their case a step further by claiming that drugs are not only useless but actively harmful long-term to the average person.  They claim that drugs alter the brain in such a way that it was never meant to be altered, thereby, setting up the brain to react negatively biologically to the intrusion of these drugs.

Think of it this way: if you keep throwing little pieces of metal into a running engine, that engine may continue to run for a while, but it will, sooner or later, get bent out of shape and just kind of stop all together after a while of running very poorly.  So it is with the claims of the bad effects that psych meds have on people.  Each medication, so the claim goes, is like throwing little spikes into the pathways of your brain, slowly but surely causing your brain to burn out.

Plus,  they say, there are a huge amount of side effects that can cause problems at least as bad as the original reason for seeking treatment.  If an anti-psychotic makes you unable to walk well or makes you gain 40 lbs; then, not only will you be upset about what was going on in your life, but you’ll be upset that you’re overweight and having trouble walking as well.  And in some cases, the side effects can even kill you.

But mainly, so the anti-psychology argument goes, psych meds just don’t work.  They have little effect that’s better than a sugar pill and what studies do show benefit from them were done with questionable science conducted mainly with large amounts of money from the drug industry that just wants to, once again, separate the sucker from his hard earned cash.