Mental Health Update

I got to the birth center and my midiwfe said she’d like to monitor my contractions and the baby’s heartbeat for a few minutes. She did, and it was clear I was having good, strong contractions every three minutes or so. I was now feeling that I needed to get in different positions during the contractions and really concentrate when I was having one. Jon showed up and began helping me handle my anxiety that the baby might be coming too early.

It’s time for change. It’s been three years since I kicked my husband out for having several affairs and began gaining weight. I’ve been feeding my feelings of depression, anxiety, and fear ever since then. This kind of behavior is over! Life is passing me by as I engross myself each evening in television and junk food. I have become a person I don’t recognize. I know who I think I look like until I look into the mirror and see a stranger looking back. Who is this person I ask myself? Where did I go and what did I do to myself?

Unfortunately, the researchers or articles doesn’t even mention if medication may be a cause. Since many mood stabilizers are forms of salt and it is well researched that Hypernatremia {which is an abnormally high plasma concentration of sodium ions} causes brain shrinkage and that lithium can cause hypernatremia….

Depression is a real issue affecting the life's of many African Americans. I would venture to say that many of our young men and women that are incarcerated suffer some form of mental illness. Unfortunately many in our community refuse to see mental illness as an "illness" but rather a character flaw. Mental illness is no more a character flaw than is diabetes...it is a bona fide medical illness which is in many cases is a result of hormonal of chemical imbalances in the brain.

Before I begin to induce hypnosis in cancer patients, I explain to them that pain isn’t a simple, pure thing. There is hard pain, there is soft pain, burning pain, cold pain, stabbing, cutting, heavy pain. I think of all the possible adjectives that I can to describe the pain so that my patient will listen to me. Then I point out to the patient, “You know, pain in some part of your body doesn’t hurt you half as much as it does in another part of your body. “ I know from psychiatric practice that people can displace sensations.

A new pilot study carried out at Boston University School of Medicine and MacLean Hospital, at the Department of Psychiatry, Harvard Medical School, show that yoga causes a rise in gamma aminobutyric acid (GABA) the primary inhibitory neurotransmitter in the brain.

Before the authority expired, trade negotiators were able to sign a new trade agreement with South Korea. Although the deal with South Korea reduces many tariffs, certain types of U.S. beef will not be allowed into South Korea because of concerns about mad cow disease (note to the USDA: if mad cow testing was mandatory, South Korea probably wouldn’t have this concern).

David: "No, my friend, I’ve been battling suicidal depression. I had an attempt in March of 2004 in Portland and then a serious attempt in December 2005 in Prague. I took 100 ten milligram valiums and 100 ten milligram ambiens and I washed it down with a bottle of whiskey. It should’ve been enough to kill a horse. I didn’t even close my eyes."

It’s that time…the time of the month that women loathe. For me, I tend to get a knot in my stomach that won’t go away for a week straight. But it’s not a pain knot, it’s an anxiety knot. I tend to clean more, work more, and worry more during this week than any other.

Help! I’m drowning. I have 112 unanswered e-mail messages. I’m a writer — imagine how many unanswered messages I would have if I had a real job. Imagine how much writing I could do if I didn’t have to answer all this e-mail. My eyes are dim. I have a mild case of carpal tunnel syndrome. I have a galloping case of attention deficit disorder because every time I start to write something, the e-mail icon starts bobbing up and down and I’m compelled to check whether anything good or interesting has arrived.