Mental Health Update

International exhibition Watercolor-2006 is traveling around Lithuania. Now it is opened in Plunge. However, how does it relate with art therapy club of the hospital for the people with psychiatric disorders?

It’s also the only way the medical establishment knows how to “fix” the startling numbers of children suffering from the highest rates of chronic disease ever measured, including mental disorders. This phenomena is not at all unrelated to the skyrocketing rates of autism, ADHD, diabetes, cancer, learning disabilities, asthma, bowel disorders and eczema.

Sometimes though you have to wonder about the real motivations behind some of the psychiatric research that does go on. Take, for example, this study on the differences between the brains of diagnosed schizophrenics and other people. The immediate idea is obviously to establish just where things have “gone wrong” inside those brains, with a view to gaining insights both upward (through knowledge about function and the sense that dysfunction is involved here) and downward (into possible biological malfunctions, in neurochemistry, genes, etc).

In an article in the November issue of the journal Behavioral and Brain Sciences, Matthew C. Keller, a postdoctoral fellow at the Virginia Institute for Psychiatric and Behavioral Genetics, and Geoffrey Miller, assistant professor of psychology at the University of New Mexico, address why diseases such as depression and schizophrenia persist. The answer, they say, is that they reflect the accumulation of harmful mutations.

When last we met, I was complaining about my sad ass state of depression and lethargy. I have since visited my trusty doctor, Dr. Fabulous (whom I love!!! She’s gooooood!) and things are looking up.

I wanted to see if I could move the hip joint to see how this all fit together and had a short moment of terror as it pulled out of the socket and i was left holding the upper section of the mans leg. My anxiety heightened as thoughts raced through my head that I really messed something up and that perhaps the school would be upset with me. I realized that someone had removed this section of the leg intentionally to show others how the initial surgery took place. I attempted to put things back to the way I found them and decided that perhaps I should go check on the gals who invited me to the lab.

The way families interact can bring about a transformation in a child. The catch is that the transformation can be a good one or a harmful one. A chaotic, confrontational home life can cause any child to develop attention and behavior issues. Children with Learning Disabilities, Attention Deficit Disorder (ADD), Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD) or Aspergers syndrome (commonly misspelled Aspbergers or Asbergers; humorously as Assburgers) are especially sensitive.

I used to read all kinds of research on bovine spongiform encephalopathy - BSE or mad cow disease - and one of the places where you can find information is on the cdc website. The cdc maintains a list of countries and the results of their monitoring programs. At some point I read about Portugal and how they have had quite a few positive tests and that their monitoring program is too under funded to be effective. While in the UK I have avoided beef to avoid bse and I certainly wasn’t going to stop being paranoid in Portugal so I avoided it there as well.

I’m not speaking of any particular addiction, as we all have one or two in our lives. However, for sake of discussion, the primary addictions that people fall to when they find that their lives are faltering are alcohol and drugs. Of course, these usually come into play once their addictions to depression and negative situations overtake their lives and they feel as though they have no where left to turn. But, as we peel away the negative situations and tend to the depression through medical assistance, they are better able to accept that now they must eliminate the substance addiction.

I met my friend, R., for breakfast. It was the second time I had seen her since she had walked out on her marriage in order to save herself from becoming even more mentally unstable than she already was. She told me this morning that she had to leave because she couldn't live the lie anymore...couldn't continue going on getting up every day and pretending everything was going to be alright. Since she left she's begun therapy with a new psychiatrist who has diagnosed her with bipolar disorder and she has begun the medication that is needed to help her put the pieces of her life back together again.