Flipswitch

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

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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!!!

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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.”

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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.

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Popularized by a slew of old school psychiatrists, most notably, Thomas Szasz, this is another oldie but goodie from the supporters of anti-psychology:  there is no such thing as mental illness.

As the argument goes, illness is a medical concept based on the biology as used in medical practices, practices that have the ability to confirm and deny the existence of illness based on very strict physical scientific tests.  Yet, psychology can identify conclusively no causative origin of “mental” illness in the body.  Psychologists can’t look at the brain and say, “that’s where the depression comes from. take that part away and people will go back to a nice happy state of being.”  Nope, it’s a sham!

Instead, say the anti-psychology crowd, what they’re doing is suggesting that “acceptable” behavior is what the body must be like when it’s working, and if someone misbehaves, it must be because their body is out of whack.  So, to the anti-psychologist crowd, what we’re talking about is not “illness” in the traditional sense, but “behavior” and the ordinary natural problems of life that occur.  And this goes all the way to even the most extreme of cases.  The mania of bipolar disorder?  Not an illness but an expressed choice.  The disorganization of word salad versions of schizophrenia?  Not a an illness but a bad way of dealing with the world.

So, to these people, there is no reason to stigmatize people as somehow “disordered” or “mentally ill” if their grief over the loss of a loved one lasts a long long time.  Grieving is normal even if it takes a long time.  There is no such thing as a mentally ill slave that want to escape the slave master.  And there is no such thing as depression clinically.  It’s just people understandably getting upset about natural life problems, even if they have a hard time expressing it.  Unfortunately, they say, we’ve chosen to use medical metaphors to describe behavior, metaphors that we have come to believe are real; falling for our own hype about being psychologically scientific with diagnosis.

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Argument number 1:   All psychology is a scam!!!!! If there is one mantra that arises from the anti-psychology/anti-psychiatry movement over and over again, it is one simple idea:  All psychology is a scam.

Flim-flammery!  Shennanigans! Hocus pocus!  Baloney! Snake oil! Hoax!  Fraud! Suckers’ game! and on! and on! and ON!  Yep, this is THE central thing that anti-psychology types keep coming back to over and over again.

Psychology is “supposed” to be full of learned experts that can peer into the human mind and unravel it for you in intricate ways that they can offer to you in order to tell you quote “the truth” unquote and “heal” you.  Just one problem, they say.  None of that is true.  After all the years of training of your average psychologist, there is virtually nothing that they know that can’t be learned over a weekend with a send away kit from the ACME “Make Me a Psychologist” Company.  Their so-called “treatments”  don’t work, and never have, all too often making things at least worse if by nothing else than separating the unsuspecting sucker that buys into this smoke and mirrors from his or her hard earned cash.  Nope, these people are simply trying to feel superior to the rest of us by saying they’re experts of the mind, while stigmatizing normal behavior by saying it’s a “brain abnormality” when what they really mean is that society simply doesn’t like such normal behavior.  They cozy up to drug companies who are all too happy to dope us all up on the prozium du jour so that we sleep instead of take charge of our own lives.

And the antipsychology crowd turns to the past for its arguments as well.  “Have you even seen the horrible abuses that happened in the past because of psychology?  They used to say slaves were “mentally disordered” because they wanted to escape slavery.  We’re supposed to trust these folks?”  And much much more.

No, these people are modern day priests in a growingly secular society.  You see, it used to be the preacher that told you what was okay in the religion practiced by a society.  Now, with the rise of science, it is a psychologist that determines what reality is and, more important to our discussion, what it is not.  But of course, they have no more insight than did the charlatan preachers of old.  Perhaps much less in fact.

Instead, the anti-psychology crowd say two things: first of course is our trusty old mantra of “it’s all a scam!”  But further, to them, the ultimate goal of this scam is social control of people by a small group of elites and the apparatus of the state.  Not to mention, separating a sucker from his money!

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Our last show was on the basic arguments of the anti-psychiatry/anti-psychology movement. This movement has been highly critical of psychology, sometimes calling for abandonment of medical terminology in diagnosis, sometimes calling for an end to psychopharmacology, and sometimes calling for the ceasing and desisting of the whole enterprise of therapy.   The whole reason we’re doing these two episodes is to give people a familiarity with the very bare basics of the movement and some responses to it.

Why?  Because sooner or later, someone dealing with a chronic mood disorder will run into someone listing many of these same arguments or at least some variation of them.  If the average person has never considered some of these arguments, it can be tempting to unadvisedly completely discontinue treatment, even when discontinuing that treatment may have disastrous consequences.  In addition, such claims often make people feel quite guilty (guiltier than is already common with a mood disorder) for not being able to adequately and quickly come up with responses to such claims.  A person dealing with bipolar disorder may feel in their heart that they well are aware of what effect their medications are having on them and how well they’ve helped, but simply cannot express well enough anything to counter such claims.

But it’s also important for everyone to decide for themselves what is right and wrong.  The anti-psychology movement has made good arguments here and there that must be considered, regardless of views of the movement in totality. Unfortunately, the little war that the anti-psychiatry movement has with the mainstream anti-psychiatry movement has all too often been marked by the mainstream simply ignoring any points of the anti-psychiatry movement regardless of their merit, while, in turn, the anti-psychiatry community has amped up its rhetoric, making outrageous charges at times that can only lead to people dismissing them as cranks.

With that in mind, we’re doing this series to roll out five of the biggest claims of the anti-psychology/anti-psychiatry movement.  These are by no means all of the arguments that their movement makes, but they are the most representative of the flavor of arguments to which one will find one’s self responding.

Here at Flipswitch, we openly admit that we have a bias against many of the more outlandish claims of the anti-psychiatry movement.  We are disturbed by the seeming hero worship in that community, the use of linguistic gymnastics to make points and the vast oversimplification of complex issues that occurs all too often with some of their claims.  That being said, we still will try to be as fair as possiblto the spirit of their arguments.

We will by no means go to the extreme depths of detail that some of these positions entail, instead giving you broadbrushed strokes of ideas.  In that spirit, we’d like to emphasize that this is not a forum to proselytize for or against the movement.  Instead, we’re much more interested in how such discussions affects a person with a mood disorder, how the rhetoric of such conversations can be ratcheted down, and how one can move forward to take control of their own health.

In the end that’s what it’s all about.

In the next few day, each day, we’ll roll out one of the arguments from our show that we highlighted in text form, so you can get a flavor for the intormation.

The Flipswitch Crew

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Hey all, it’s me, Ryan, again!

I was just surfing the internet, for something to do when I found myself at CNN.com and an interesting article on the United States Representative Patrick Kennedy was highlighted. According to the article, he has been struggling with Substance Abuse for most of his life in conjunction with depression, which any of you who are continual listeners of Flipswitch will know is very typical, and has decided that he needs to check himself into his local hospital to better treat his illness.

Kennedy commented in the article that he decided to make this public because it is going to be a significantly longer stay than he expected. He felt his admission could also help to alleviate some of the stigma that a lot of people struggling with mental illness and addiction face when getting help. I think this is very courageous on his part, if he is doing it for the right reasons, and I also feel that his admission can help all of you to realize something important when dealing with your own illness.

You can be successful and still suffer from mental illness. It is not an easy road, but most things in life aren’t easy. You may have a more severe form of Bipolar Disorder or Depression, which may limit the successes in your life; however, there are still things that you can accomplish and be successful at no matter how severe your illness.

Anyway, here is the link to the article.

It’s not long. Take a read. You may find yourself thinking, as I did, that he has a sense of pride in admitting he needs to enter the hospital’s program. This may seem strange to you, but I think what you must realize is he is proud that he is dealing with his problems. He is happy he is getting help and confronting his issues head-on. It’s the appropriate feeling he should have, too. Each and every one of us should feel happy and proud when we face the issues in our lives, no matter what they are, because we are making ourselves better and taking personal responsibility.

Peace Y’all! Ryan

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Guess who’s who of the co-hosts.

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Just in case you haven’t noticed, Flipswitch has a new flash player on depressedteens.com that has all the episodes available.  Here’s what it looks like:

You can embed it on your own page or just check back to the depressedteens site online.  Also, friend us on myspace where we also have a player.

Of course, there are invididual episode players on the depressedteens.podbean.com page and you embed them as well.  Now, more Flipswitch easier!  Hooah!

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Hey everyone,

I know it’s been awhile since I’ve written here. Part of that was because of school…finishing up senior year being a bit stressful, and part was because of my laziness, but that’s finally ALL OVER NOW (maybe not the laziness). Yes, I graduated high school! Wooo party!

But not really. I’ll actually be spending most of my summer having to be responsible. In other words, I got a job (as a day camp counselor). But there’s still fun to be had this summer, and before I know it, I will be starting out as a freshman all over again in college.

That aspect about the near future has got me thinking. I remember my friend Andrew said something referring to this in his salutatorian speech at graduation; he said something along the lines of, “I remember just four years ago that we were all starting off as nervous little freshmen. And to most, we’ll be doing that all over again.

Now, I remember I loved being a freshmen in high school…I thought it was the coolest thing ever and I never really knew why the other kids hated freshmen so much. I’d say we were pretty awesome. Later on, I “saw the light” so to speak, and I grew to hate freshmen. They all just seemed so immature and annoying…which made me start to think: are the older students in college going to think the same of me when I start this fall?

Now, I know that I shouldn’t really care what people think because “it’s not supposed to matter.” I am my own person…I guess. But the people in college aren’t going to be like my parents; they’re not going to love me “no matter what.”

So, I guess what I’m trying to say…or more so ask is: why do I constantly hear the same advice about how I shouldn’t care what other people think about me? Right off the bat, I know that advice is complete nonsense. I mean, I judge people daily, so how can I expect people aren’t doing the same with me? That’s right, I can’t.

Also, I think my first question should be restated, because, really, I could care less what the older kids in college think about me. I’m going to care about what the people my age think. They’re the ones that I’m going to have to make a good impression on. They’re the ones I’m going to want to be friends with. They’re the ones that I’m mostly going to talk to for the next four years.

Unfortunately, this is a blog mostly comprised of questions, and I can’t really give advice on the matter since I’m going through it myself, (which is why I’m writing about it here right now). I guess all I’d have to say is, yes, that you should be your own person and not try to conform to other people too much. Hang out with who you like and try to avoid those that you dislike; it’s worked out for me pretty well so far. And also, I think it’s good if you don’t go out of your way to impress someone…because then you or whoever else looks like you’re/he’s trying too hard and that’s kind of lame. So, (yeah, people give this advice alot too, but really) be yourself, and  you’ll fin d your own niche. People aren’t always going to like you, me, or that other guy. That’s just how life is.

Emily

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Hey everyone,

How is everything going? I hope everyone is enjoying their summer break even though it’s still a little chilly out here in the Sunny (read sarcastically) Midwest.

On this week’s show, we did a show on disclosure. Emily, Ryan, and I discussed the different questions and concerns we had regarding when to tell someone about your depression or bipolar disorder. Disclosure entails how much information to tell, who to tell, and when to tell. We didn’t have a clear-cut answer for you guys, but WE DID say that you should tell someone who you trust. Telling someone about your problems helps relieve some of the stress you hold in while worrying.

The reason I am talking about disclosure today is this weekend my sister’s friend’s fiancé had a drug problem and the day before his wedding he overdosed on cocaine.  When we talk about disclosure, we don’t just limit it to depression and bipolar disorder. You should find someone you trust to disclose any information to. Telling someone your problems helps you; it is all about self-help!

I hope you guys take this into consideration and please let us know about any questions or concerns you may have. Enjoy the rest of the week guys!

Gopi

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Hey there, It’s that summertime that’s hitting everywhere now.  Summer is an interesting time.  Everyone’s planning vacations, kids are getting out of school for summer, the really stand up college folks are starting their summer classes to get ahead, people are moving out of their apartments more around that time, and on and on.  It’s just a  time of change.

It’s ironic that it’s six months earlier around January 1st, then, that people start making resolutions for the year.   Not that there isn’t a lot going on then too, but the change in the air of summer just seems to much more palpable.

Perhaps it has something to do with the sunny, warm, relaxing nature that is so often associated with the season.  Flowers in full bloom, beach trips, fun with friends; there are a ton of different things going on that all point to growth and vitality.  Maybe under such rosy conditions, the world calls for us not to think too hard about things.  After all, why think about the future or doing things better at all?  Things are rosy.

But I’d suggest that, indeed, summer is the perfect time to review one’s patterns in life.  It is a perfect time to recommit one’s self to living a more scheduled structured life that fights against the onset of depression or the exacerbation of cyclic bipolar disorders. Think about it.  Conditions are perfect.   Need to get into a good exercise program?  You’ll feel a lot more like doing that in the warm weather than the freezing cold.  Need to refocus on planning for the coming year?  A lot of people are getting out of school with a little time on their hands perfect for planning.  And on and on.

In addition, the summer offers an often unique set of challenges that are practice for staying committed to one’s own health.  For instance, the summer is a time when many people fall into the habit of not going to sleep at a good time, since there’s often no early class in the mornings or new friends demand that you go out with them at night.  As well, new changes in time commitments often cause people to fall into a pattern of aimlessness in how they manage their time.    And woah, the parties that often happen.  It’s a microcosm of the pitfalls of all life wrapped up in one season.

But this is no time to slack.  It’s an exciting time to put your commitment to your own health into practice.   It’s a great time reaffirm that you are in control of your own life and your health by doing what you know is best for you.  It’s a great time to reassess how your decisions related to health are doing and figure out what else you might be able to do to get further down the road to good health.

Remember, you can never reach the point where there is absolutely nothing you can do to get better.  That goes for everyone.  Nobody is perfect, but we can try to always get better.   And as I always say, if you focus on taking control of your health, in the end, you’ll feel better than if you hadn’t taken control of your health and just ignored doing what you can to get better.  That’s just the way it is.

Good luck out there.

Chris

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Aloha, listeners!

So, the other day, I’m at work and it’s getting to be around lunch time, so I want food. I didn’t bring any lunch with m like I should, because money is always an issue in college. Thus, my options were limited to being hungry, getting McDonald’s, or getting Subway.

To let you all know, I don’t make decisions very easily and choosing between McDonald’s and Subway became the difficult decision of the moment. I weighed the pros and I weighed the cons—McDonald’s is tasty and unhealthy, and Subway doesn’t put enough ingredients on and is healthy (depending on what you get).

After choosing Subway, eating it, going home, sleeping, waking up, and then thinking about a blog topic, I realized this is a perfect example of life. We make choices constantly, most of the time subconsciously, and they affect the way our day goes, who we see, what we say, and how we act. My decision to go to Subway consequently did all of these things. I was no longer able to say to someone, “I had McDonald’s for lunch.” I also missed the chance to run into a friend at McDonald’s, though I also allowed for the chance to run into one at Subway.

This all may seem trivial, and kind of silly, but it’s true. If you are suffering with depression, you don’t even want to make daily choices, but in reality that is a choice—you chose to not choose. What are the results? Sometimes you are stuck in bed all day, you don’t run into friends, you don’t get the chance to talk to people, and you don’t get the chance to actively deal with your illness. If you are suffering from Bipolar Disorder, you may be making the wrong choices. What happens when you decide to go over to a friend’s house or dorm and you know they drink a lot? You take away the options of hanging with other friends who don’t drink, and increasing the likelihood you will drink, dealing with your disorder in a negative way.

Whatever the situation, I now realize that even simple decisions are affecting my life in pretty significant ways. Like this morning I chose to sleep in a little extra, giving myself less time to do what needs to be done.

Cheers, Ryan

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Hey you guys how’s it going? Hope everyone’s summer break or last fewweeks of classes is going well.

So, I wanted to talk about something a friend of mine brought up a month back. She stated that people who suffer from depression choose to be in that state; however, she also mentioned that they should want to get better if they wanted to come out of the depressive state of mind.

As we’ve previously discussed the first comment is FALSE, but I believe the second comment has some truth to it. Depression drains your energy, hope, and drive, making it difficult to do what you need to make feel better; but the key to recovery is to start small and build from there— ie. self-help.

Self-help consists of taking action and setting goals; but just the thought of getting up to do something may seem intimidating at first. Getting up to see friends and exercising may seem impossible but start small and stay focused. Start with a few small goals and try to find some friends or family members that can help you carry them out and build on them.

Here a few self-help tips about building relationships I found online:

1. Talk to one person about your feelings.

2. Help someone else by volunteering.

3. Have lunch with a friend.

4. Ask a loved one to check in with you regularly.

5. Accompany someone to the movies.

6. Call or email a friend.

7. Go for a walk with a buddy.

8. Schedule a weekly dinner.

9. Join a club.

10. Confide in a counselor or therapist.

These are just some tips I found, so try to find some that can work for you. Remember to start with small goals and then build on them.

The key thing to remember is to take care of yourself and enjoy things you like. Take care everyone and hopefully we will hear back from you.

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Howdy all!

Chris and I just finished recording an episode on Procrastination, which will be episode 47 (be sure to catch it), and it got me thinking: It’s been a long while since I’ve done a blog. I could lie to you all and say I didn’t have time and things just began to pile up with school and the MCAT coming up, but let’s be honest—it only takes about 10 minutes to sit down and write. So, I sit here reflecting, much like Gopi (not to as great an extent, though), on how I let procrastination turn an easy 10 minute task into a learning experience.

Procrastinating is an easy thing to do. For me it can take a simple half hour TV show that gets me derailed from what I am supposed to be doing, and let me tell you I caught a couple of them not writing this blog. I also find myself making up excuses like I need to clean my room in order to study. To be honest with you, my room is usually a mess and when I don’t have anything to do it doesn’t make my priority list. So, why do I do it?

Simple anwser: I don’t know. It seems to happen to everyone, especially the people I know at school. Everyone puts off big papers, big projects, and simple homework assignments until it’s almost too late to even get them done. This makes for a hectic time around the end of the year, and with it comes a whole bunch of complaining. I complain, my roommates complain, my neighbors complain, my classmates complain, and it always centers on two things: One, I shouldn’t have done this, what was I thinking?! And two, what was this teacher thinking. He/She assigned too much, this is outrageous to ask me to do, and what is the point of having me doing this anyway?

What does this equal? A WHOLE LOT OF STRESS and it’s all unnecessary. After I go through a hectic period that is caused by my procrastination, I vow to myself that I will be on top of things next time, and not go through this again. What actually happens, though, is Sportscenter is on and is far more appealing than starting to study for the MCAT, and I once again get stressed out.

It’s something I can’t shake, sometimes I am better than others, but procrastination usually pokes into my life at some point and I am left scrambling to get things done.

After doing the show, however, there are several things I can do. I will do my best to implement them and let you all know how it goes!

Cheers, Ryan

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Hey you guys, how’s it going? So, I finally finished up my last semester and it feels great! I can really get used to not getting up at 6am.

The last week of my semester was pretty brutal because I procrastinated ona lot of things I knew I had to get done. I had:

2 lab presentations

4 finals

1 final lab report

….all due within a week and a half.

Obviously,waiting until the last minute was not a smart idea, trust me! I guess I had some trouble staying motivated; I didn’t avoid procrastination and it led to a lot of stress because of the time crunch. But like I promised, I tried using one of the stress tips I gave in a previous blog—meditation. I clearly remember, Monday morning I was so stressed out from all the last minute studying and writing that I had to take ten minutes to just sit and relax. I sat on the ground, took deep breaths, and cleared my head. It sounds silly, but it helped me regain focus.

My point is, people: do not procrastinate! You may think to yourself, “Hey, I have plenty of time,” but after saying that to yourself for 4 days, there really isn’t that much time left. The best advice I can give is: try to make a schedule and follow it! As you all know I love to write things down and use an agenda, but like any college student I “slipped”.

Procrastination got the best of me; trust me it was not a good feeling.

Please listen to me and just try to write things down and follow them. After I realized I was running out of time, my “game plan” definitely saved me. Invest in an agenda…lol!

Gopi

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Hey everyone, hope all is well. It has been a while since I’ve written something since I am finishing up my last semester and it has been pretty hectic. Anyways I hope everyone is doing well and enjoying the nice weather, finally!

I wanted to discuss a topic that we will be doing a show on later: how to have fun with out going out drinking and partying. I know this may sound a little hypocritical of me, but there are many other ways that high school and college students can have fun, trust me!

I have not gone out to a party in about a month, but I’ve still been able to have fun while going out to dinner, going to the movies, hanging out with my girl-friends, and hanging out with my family. The reason why I am bringing this up is that as we previously mentioned, it is important for those of you who are suffering from bipolar disorder and or depression to stick to a regimented style of living.

Chris, Ryan, Emily, and I harp on this idea all the time, but this time I am stressing that having fun can consist of many other things instead of drinking and partying. My friends call or text me every Friday night to see what club I am going to, if I say I’m not going out they usually try to persuade me to go out. I just say no because I have other things to do.

My point is that, in college, many kids will try to pressure you to do things, but you need to decide what is right for you! Please let us know if you have any questions because as I mentioned earlier we are going to record a show on this and we can answer any questions you may have.

Well I must get back to studying for my P Chem Final…not fun!!! Take care and please let us know about any questions and concerns you may have.

Gopi

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We’ve gotten some really good feedback on the teen round tables, and we’re happy to say that very soon we’ll be bringing you even more of them with a whole new group of people.  Again, one set will be from high school and one set will be from college.  It will be interesting to see how the new batch of round tables’ responses match up with the past round tables.

As well, we’ve updated our sound equipment, so the sound will be much better on our upcoming teen round tables.  We hope to roll it out for you in about a month.  In the meantime, we’ll be finishing up our last teen round table sets, finishing with a show on our overall impressions of the whole experience.  After that show, we’ll release both round tables in their relative entirety, with only minor edits for time.  So, you’ll get to hear the round tables uninterrupted, as well as some of the stuff that didn’t make it to air originally.  Good stuff!

We’re excited to be moving forward at Flipswitch and hope you are too.  Let us know what you’d like to hear or what you’d like us to cover.  We list to ALL of your suggestions.

Excitement!!!!!

The Flpswitch Team!

Chris, Ryan, Gopi, Emily

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On our show, we talk about a lot of things.  And more than one person has brought up this question: “Why should we listen to you people?  What makes you know so much?“  There’s a good answer to that and a not so good answer to that.

The good answer is that I have quite a few years of training in the psychological area and so know my stuff pretty darn well.  The other good answer is that our co-hosts all know what the stresses of high school and college are like first hand currently.  They don’t have to remember…they know.

The not so good answer is that it’s really hard to account for both the amazing amount of things that come up when someone is stricken with a mood disorder as well as the sheer momentum of a mood disorder.  By that, I mean it is easy to say things like “Get good sleep or it will eventually trigger a depression or a mania.”  But in the grips of a depression and especially in the grips of a mania, that sentence is just a string of words put together.  It becomes much like telling someone to get over their lifelong pet dog that was run over that day.  It just seems impossible if not absurd to suggest something so obvious and so, at the time, seemingly shallow.

Because of those things that are hard to account for with mood disorders, it’s often hard for us to convey a real taste of what true depression, true mania, true bipolar disorder, etc looks and feels like.  Worse, it’s sometimes hard for our co-hosts to think about because, indeed, they are a motivated bunch that, generally speaking, things are going pretty well for right now.  However, sometimes life clears all that away for you, and puts you face to face with the genuine souls that must deal with the stark realities of a mood disorder, the good, the bad, and the ugly of it all.

That’s exactly what happened with Claire.  We became aware of Claire after she asked permission to use part of one our videos in a movie she was putting together for Youtube.  After seeing her video, we knew we had to get her on our show, as her video was a perfect example of someone taking matters into their own hands to make things better for everyone.  In a word, it’s advocacy.

Upon meeting Claire, we were struck by the sometimes harrowing story of her depression:  thoughts of suicide, more than one long stint in a hospital, disruptions with school, interpersonal issues, etc.   Any one of the parts of her story would have been a lot for any of us to handle.

After hearing her story, one might well have expected Claire to be a reclusive and morbidly quiet person, almost crying when she had the energy.  But that wasn’t Claire at all.  She was quite different.  She was full of life.  Full of hope.  Full of desire to let us all in to her world in order to get the message out that things don’t have to be hidden, that there’s no shame in falling prey to a mood disorder as it happens a lot in this world.

And that is what passion for an idea can do for you.  It can give you the drive to think past the bad things that have befallen you in order for some greater purpose. In this instance, Claire’s passion was for bringing the specter of depression out of the stigmatizing dark world of “hide it at all costs” and making it something we could all talk about. Claire was/is trying to make the world better by making videos about mood disorders that shed light on the world.   And she’s got one golden rule going for her:  if you’re feeling something, it’s likely someone somewhere is also feeling the same thing.  Sharing your world with others really does help.

And that’s what really changed all of us at Flipswitch:  We got to see someone up close and personal that not only struggles and makes mistakes while dealing with depression, but also strives to overcome it and to be better.  Not to say that she always succeeds, but that she detests being depressed and the stigma that goes with it, aiming to fight it with every ounce of her being.  We got to see that fire.  It became quite real for us.  And we’re all better people for it.

In my next blogpost, I’ll talk a little bit about the actual video itself that became our centerpiece for the advocacy show and the things Claire did to make it and help get people talking about the all too often hidden problems of depression and bipolar disorder.  If you’d like to check out her video, it’s broken into three parts on youtube.  Just go to http://www.youtube.com/depressionfree.

Until next time, find your own way to bring light to the darkness.

Chris

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What’s up, all?

Another week has passed and I am one week closer to finals, and one year closer to graduating college. It seems like it hasn’t taken any time at all to get to this point in my life, yet when I look back on it I see almost 16 years of school done. It’s a scary thought, for all 16 of those years I knew exactly what my future plans would entail. Starting with elementary school and following the course laid out by others to college, so I would be qualified to function in the real world, but what happens after this?

I am currently faced with more options than I have ever been in the past. I am planning on going to medical school, but if that falls through I could still go to graduate school. If I feel like it I could try and wait a year on the sidelines and find a job to clear my head and get a better understanding of what might be best. In the end though, I feel like I don’t have enough information, haven’t been able to weigh the pros and cons about what will work for me, and thus I am facing a situation I am under-prepared for.

For this situation, all I can do is be as prepared as I can be. Get most of the important information and go from there. It is not the most ideal place or situation to be in, but it’s reality and it must be dealt with and a decision must be made. As long as I am true to myself and do the best I can, I am confident that most everything will take care of itself.

Sometimes in life you are dealt a poor hand, whether its brought on by you or chance, and the best you can do is face the situation. It will take a lot of courage, but face the situation and do the best you can.

Until I type again, Ryan

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Tomorrow, we’ll be releasing a new podcast that does something a little different: a dvd commentary. What is a dvd commentary, you ask? A dvd commentary, for those of you not in the know, is an audio track often found on dvd’s that plays talking from the directors or actors of said movie or show. We’ll be doing the same thing, except this time, we’ll be doing a commentary track for the recent episode “Off the Rails” on 90210, the episode in which it is revealed that Silver is dealing with bipolar disorder.

In our commentary, we’ll talk about what the show got right about bipolar disorder, what it didn’t get so right, and some associated topics that someone like Silver might have to deal with regardless of whether or not it occurred on the show. Gopi and Emily will join Chris for the track.

A quick word on how to use this particular dvd commentary track. 1st cue up our podcast commentary. 2nd, cue up the episode of 90210 “Off the Rails” (we watched the episode directly on the CW website online). We have a little bit of an intro before we get into the show, so listen to the podast and when Emily clicks play on the episode, you do to. We also notify you when there’s a commercial break. Online, breaks are usually 30 seconds long, whereas on television, they’re typically 2 minutes long. If you watch the episode online, you should be able to follow along without any maneuvering. If you watch a rerun of the episode on the air or on a dvd collection (or even a vcr taped copy!), you’ll likely have to stop the podcast when we mention what’s on screen in the show and the commercials on your tv haven’t aired yet.

This commentary is something fun and new we’re trying and we hope you all will enjoy it. Look for it tomorrow.

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Hey guys and gals!

Life has been getting pretty hectic lately, considering the school year is starting to wind down and I have finals coming up. With all this extra work to do I have stopped working out, which makes me feel a little guilty, but it frees up much needed time. Not only has exercising gone completely out of the window (hopefully I can get back on it in a week or so), but being a college student my diet isn’t all that healthy either. Like all of you, McDonald’s calls my name pretty frequently and homemade meals consist of Mac’N Cheese, maybe a can of vegetables, and a hot dog. I don’t usually pay too much attention to my diet, but once again my Neuroscience Seminar opened my eyes.

It was this Tuesday when I got to hear another speaker from Loyola’s medical school. Her presentation was on Parkinson’s disease (a neurological disease where individuals loose their ability to move freely, sometimes lose memory function, and they shake a lot…if you want to know more just type it in Google. It is pretty fascinating, and you may know Michael J. Fox has this disease.). What she mainly focused on was treatment of the disease and how right now there really is no known cure; they can only treat the symptoms. Her research has found, though, very convincing evidence that diet can play a huge role in preventing and even possibly treating the disease. She has found that blueberries have a significant impact in keeping the brain healthy.

I don’t know about you, but this made me a little scared. Fruits aren’t something I come across daily, especially blueberries. But don’t fret too much about it, the point I want to make concerns you and me. Bipolar Disorder is also an illness that effects the brain of the individual living with the disorder, and while neurons aren’t necessarily being attacked they still need to be taken care of. There are specific nutrients (the good stuff in food, like vitamins and minerals) that brain cells need to function properly. Thus, it would make sense to eat healthy and take care of your brain.

Now just to throw out a disclaimer, I am not suggesting blueberries, and eating healthy, is going to 100% protect you from brain illness or cure you. All I am suggesting is that both you and I need to take care of our bodies and our brains, and eating healthy is a very important part of helping them stay healthy. By eating healthy, you give the brain all the nutrients it needs to run as close to normal as it can!

Until next time! Ryan

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Hey everyone!

It’s Emily here. The past few days have been pretty hectic because I’ve been getting back into the swing of things with school.

I actually find myself being more productive lately; I don’t know if that’s because I’ve been following my schedules that I’ve been making or if I’m just excited to get out of school. Whatever it is, it’s good to be not procrastinating as much. And since I haven’t been procrastinating as much as before, I can fit more things into my schedule, like exercise. This has been something I’ve really been happy with because exercising really does make me feel better and more relaxed in general. Like Gopi mentioned before, I also think exercising is an exceptional way of relieving stress. I know, at first it may seem to do quite the opposite and all it will make you feel is tired, but after awhile you get used to it and actually start enjoying moving around!

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Hey you guys,

How’s everyone doing? I don’t know about you, but this week for me went by super fast and now I am just really looking forward to graduation.

I have some bad news, I have not tried that distress tip that I gave—you know the one about meditating. It’s fortunate that I didn’t feel the need for it because I haven’t been feeling stressed out, however I’m sorry because I don’t have news for you guys about whether or not it works…yet!

So I was talking to Chris this past week about how I’m ready to finish the semester and just graduate. I have about 3 weeks left and it is so hard for me to focus, sometimes I just want to sit and do absolutely nothing. And he asked me: “Well what keeps you motivated?” Honestly, I don’t have a cookie cut answer; I know that I have to finish off the semester strong because in the end I will get graded on my performance on finals and presentations. Ultimately I keep telling myself “it’s almost over and just hang in there.” Think about the benefits in the long run, and you will realize that even though there are a few weeks left, they do matter.

Staying motivated or even getting that initial motivation to do something can be kind of difficult. Usually for me, it’s the initial motivation that boggles me. Now tell me, how do you guys usually approach a situation like this? Do you simply do what I do, tell yourself that no matter what, the job needs to get done? I’m curious because who knows, maybe one of you guys may have come up with something that is more effective.

I look forward to hearing back from you guys. Enjoy your weekends because I think it’s supposed to be nice and sunny…finally!

Gopi

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Alright, when I sit down and feel like writing to you guys I find myself coming up with ideas, thinking about them, then deciding they aren’t good enough or won’t make sense. Other times, my colleagues beat me to the punch, or I find I don’t really know what I want to say about something, just that it’s bothering me. So, this sets up well for me to talk about frustration, and I will let it take off from here.

Getting frustrated sucks, even if it is something as simple as me not being able to express myself through this blog. Lately, it has caused me to not even want to think about what I might want to write, which hasn’t helped me solve the problem of getting an idea across to you guys. The experience though has given me something to write about. When I am first confronted with frustration I resolve myself to persevere, so in this case I thought harder and harder about what I could write about. Every idea though seemed too high minded or altruistic, and after about 3 days of thinking about what to write I finally decided I would come back to it later. I figured I would let myself think about it without having to write about it right away, but the frustration kept mounting and eventually I found myself hesitant to even sit at the computer to try and type.

I am sure you have all faced more intense frustration than this example (I know I have), but you can look at simple examples in your own life and find patterns to how you react to certain situations. In this case, I found out that after butting my head up against a problem and not being able to solve it, I became unwilling to want to deal with it anymore. How does this help me? Right now, I’m not sure, but I am able to predict before hand when I might become overly frustrated now. Knowing this I might be able to take myself out of the situation before the frustration completely gets to me that way I can come back to the problem sooner and less discouraged.

I don’t know what you will take from this, or if it even made sense, but at the least maybe the next time you get frustrated or angry you can look back on the experience and learn something from it. Analyze it a little bit, find some lesson and don’t just chalk it up to chance. Like triggering mania or depression, there are triggers to becoming angry, frustrated and irritable. Sometimes you can’t help it, but there are some situations you can take yourself out of before you have to experience these emotions.

I know my example seemed trivial, but think about Newton and his discovery of gravity…it all came about because an apple fell on his head!

Until we convene again! Ryan

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Hey everyone,

It’s Emily here. I haven’t really been up to much lately–mostly, I’ve just been trying to get back into the swing of things with school since break ended this week. Teachers have been giving us no mercy, despite the fact that we’re seniors, but life isn’t fair.

What’s really been bothering me lately (well, mostly just today) is the fact that I have trouble telling people when enough is enough in regards to academics. I’m sure you know the situation. A teacher assigns a project and then assigns you to a group. And of course, you are the one stuck doing the entire project yourself. This has happened to me twice in one class already and I am really sick of it. It may be my fault because I am generally the only person in the group who cares about the grade and therefore doesn’t trust anyone, but usually my group takes advantage of me so I will do the entire thing myself.

So my advice to myself and everyone else is…don’t be afraid to tell people no. One of the worst things that happens is getting taken advantage of, whether this is in a big way or small. Getting taken advantage of always puts me in a bad mood and then this causes problems between me and my friends because I would end up taking it out on them. Always do what you’re comfortable with–and this is something I have to work on too. I guess there is just something about some of us…we have this certain need to please everyone else even if it affects negatively.

Hope this wasn’t that much of a downer! Have a good week!

–Emily

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Hey everyone,

I hope all of you guys had a great spring break and got to unwind a little. My spring break definitely helped me relieve some stress and unwind a bit, I was in Costa Rica for a while and it’s definitely a serene place.

I was kind of in a jam this week, because I really didn’t know what would be a good topic to discuss; so I decided to Google “how to relieve stress.” I discovered that most sites just give you a list of steps you should follow. For example:

1. take a deep breath because this is your immediate defense against stress, 2. communicate- talk to anyone whether it’s family or a friend, 3. laugh to rediscover your sense of humor, 4.get fit– my personal favorite, 5. be organized because stress arises from being overwhelmed, 6. soothe the senses by lighting a candle or playing soothing music, and 7. do nothing- take a break and just mediate.

What do all of these really mean? Well, we have discussed some of these stress relievers on Flipswitch such as 2, 4, and 5. I am a firm believer in communicating with others because expressing yourself helps you realize what’s wrong and it helps relieve some burden that you have. As I previously mentioned on a blog, that communicating for me took some learning; so start practicing! As for the other ones, I think that 1 is more of a short term and “in the moment” stress reliever. Number 3 is also one of my favorite ones, because I myself have realized that laughing helps me feel less overwhelmed whenever I’m feeling a little stressed. Another one I usually do without realizing it is number 6; I play my favorite music and just dance it out. I have never tried number 7, but since I am throwing this idea out to you guys I will do an experiment. The next time I am feeling a little stressed I am going to mediate and I will keep you all posted.

Now here’s what some of you guys can do for me, try a couple of these out and let me know what you think, please!

Once again, I hope everyone enjoyed their spring break and hopefully we get some 60 degree weather. Take care and please let me know what you guys think.

Gopi

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I come from a tradition of skeptics; a general family of people whose favorite phrase is “Nuh uh!” It’s not unusual for me to turn an idea from every different angle before finally accepting whatever position I take. Some people find it to be one of my most endearing qualities. Some people want to kick me really hard because of it.

But dealing in the sometimes controversial area of mood disorders and mental disorders in general, I’ve run into a whole lot of people that have taken my old skepticism about things and amped it up about 10 notches. Mood disorders in teens? “Nahhhh, doesn’t exist. Teens are just spoiled and therapists are looking to make money.” Bipolar disorder? “Nahhh. It exists, but is usually confined to an extremely small population in psych hospitals, much smaller than we’re led to believe anyway.” Medications? “Nahhhh, simple mind control by _____ (choose your boogeyman: government, medical industry, psychiatric industry, monkeys with tasers, etc.), trying to keep us all in line.”

And those are just the most obvious things. Some people will simply deny anything outside their own field of vision, even questioning the existence of things they can clearly see (could be an illusion. It’s philosophically called solipsism). After dealing with enough of these people, I now understand why some of my friends want to kick me from time to time.

I don’t bring this skepticism up to talk down about skeptics; rather, I realize that in life, there are so many constant naysayers on virtually every possible thing you can think of, that it becomes hard to know who to believe or what to do. I mean, every possible road you choose is possibly false according to a zillion people, right? And I’m a full grown adult that is control of more of his life than the average person in high school or even college. I can’t imagine the confusion that must be swirling around out there.

Skepticism is healthy, and the critics of life and the area of mood disorders more specifically, are a welcome benefit in helping us understand what we’re getting right and what we’re missing. But the question, after all is said and done is, “What do I do?” or “What do I believe?” That’s not an easy question to answer.

I can tell you, that after living on this rock for a while and after studying psych for many years there are some things that do seem to be true, regardless of how much criticism seems to come your way. These things related directly to what we talk about on Flipswitch.

1. The earlier you take charge of your health, both physically and mentally, the better off you’ll be. This means not backing down, cutting corners, or hiding from your problems. Eat all you want and whatever you want, there’s no way you’re going to fool the weight scale. Keep boozing it up all you want, but sooner or later, it’s going to take a toll on your life. Totally ignore getting good sleep, the research consistently finds that you’re putting yourself at risk for slipping into a depression or triggering a mania if you’re afflicted with bipolar disorder.

2. Being informed is always more helpful than not being informed. I’ve never run into or heard of anyone else running into information that wasn’t more helpful than not knowing the information. Sometimes painful information can hurt like finding out you’ve got diabetes, but not knowing and doing things that push that diabetes into even worse condition is a whole lot scarier. Never be afraid to learn as much as you can about your own health and the world in general.

3. Doctors are not infallible, but more often than not, they’ve got a point you should consider. I’m not saying everything that doctors say is right; rather, I’m saying that I’ve seen quite a few people that have gone from doctor to doctor only to complain that the doctors don’t know what they’re talking about. These people get hung up on the technicalities. A person I once met that had seen tons of doctors about his alcoholism comes to mind. He would complain that one doctor told him he had family issues which is why he drank, while another told him he simply had social anxiety which caused him to drink which was a problem, and yet another said he was drinking to combat loneliness and that it was a problem. He nitpicked and never faced up to the fact that, somewhere in there, they were all sort of saying very similar things. You’ve got issues, and to deal with them, you’re drinking and your drinking is causing a problem. Sure, be skeptical of doctors and their pronouncements, but maybe try to listen to them too.

4. Everything is related to everything else. This was what our first show was about. It is the defining feature in my mind about what wellness is. Sleeping too late? That’s causing you to be tired. Being too tired leads you to be cranky. Being cranky leads others to think you’re kind of mean. Other people thinking this leads to you having strained friendships at school. Strained relationships at school make you feel bad about yourself. Feeling bad about yourself makes you unable to focus fully on school work, your grades suffer, your parents get upset, so you get upset, so you got to bed late and sleep late and are cranky and on and on. And that’s just a direct line. There are not so obvious connections from one part of your life to every other. Perhaps that “you just don’t like to read” comes from the fact that you identify books with the fact that you did poorly in school which caused stress which led you to sleep late and become cranky etc etc etc. It’s ALL related. ALWAYS. Anyone that says different hasn’t searched enough.

There are more immutable truths in this world and any skeptic would be hard pressed to take issue with at least 3 out of 4 of those. And those are HUGE. So take charge of your health as soon as possible NO MATTER WHAT ANYONE TELLS YOU OTHERWISE. Wait…..you’re not being skeptical are you?!

Doh!, Chris

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Hey everyone, it’s Ryan!

I feel like it has been a while since I have posted something up here, but it’s only been about a week or two. Anyway, I was in my Neuroscience Seminar class (where different speakers from biology and medical departments come to discuss their research), and we had a very interesting topic brought up about pain and the different nerves and cells that are involved with certain pathways.

So not to get to deep into it, but the researcher discussed why we feel pain (physical) and how we can manage it with certain drugs and how those certain drugs act. Well, as he was going through specific drugs, like morphine, vicodine and what not, he showed a very interesting chart. The chart had the different drugs plotted on them and the two axis’s had been labeled with the severity of pain (low to high) and side effects (mild to harsh). After he showed this, he also commented on how morphine and other strong painkillers don’t really prevent the pain’s effects, but act on the brain so as the person doesn’t care and is in a certain “utopia.”

Anyway, this got me thinking about the individuals who struggle with Bipolar disorder and how their medications work. Mainly, I was thinking about how painkillers give the patient a certain type of feeling that often relates to them feeling “out of it” or not really apart of what’s going on. I have also heard similar complaints from a lot of individuals who use psychotropic drugs. That they do not feel like themselves, or that they are somehow detached from life.

You may think I am going to preach on how that doesn’t matter and you need to listen to your doctor and remain on your medication (which is still strongly encouraged), but I would much rather give the floor over to you guys to help educate me. I am curious to understand what/how you might be feeling with regards to being on medication. Does it make you feel detached? Are there side effects that make you really angry? Or perhaps it’s the greatest thing since sliced bread. Either way, I want to know, so leave your responses here.

Peace,

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