Go Monica!
My interest in football waxes and wanes according to the fate of my home team, the Eagles. (Go E-A-G-L-E-S!) Unfortunately, this often means I swing between hope and despair, the worst scenario possible for a person with bipolar disorder.
But there’s someone who struggles with this a lot more than I do: Nathan Vasher’s mom, Monica. (Nate plays for the Chicago Bears.) Thanks so much to Joe S. for sending me the link to this ESPN.com cover story about Monica’s battle with bipolar disorder, and her family’s dedication to her. Despite her problems, she must be one hell of a lady to have so much love in her life.
The piece by Gene Wojciechowski is so lovely and respectful, I think we should all send Wojciechowski emails of thanks for treating this story with such empathy, and for telling the story at all. His email address is at the bottom of the article.
Vasher’s mom has to prepare for Super Bowl too
liz | 1:31 PM | Uncategorized
Headline: understatement of the century
Jail not right for people with mental illness
liz | 11:21 AM | Uncategorized
Pro-life propoganda or real-life results?
I’m decidedly pro-choice, as many PW readers know. But I’m interested in this question of mental health issues for women who get abortions. LifeNews.com’s editor Steven Ertelt released an article saying that Planned Parenthood is misleading women by telling them that for most, abortion doesn’t affect them negatively. The pro-life movement, naturally, says women are emotionally scarred for years.
My experience and the experience of my friends shows that abortion needn’t be traumatizing. I thought I’d have emotional problems as a result, but I didn’t. My friends didn’t either. But the article linked below suggests otherwise. In fact, a researcher featured in the piece says, “Our study is strongly suggestive of a link between abortion and developing mental illness.” Sounds like total hogwash to me, but I’m willing to hear otherwise.
Planned Parenthood Misleads Women on Abortion’s Mental Health Risks
[Image from DHD Multimedia Gallery]
liz | 3:42 PM | Uncategorized
Depression Confession: Jade Goody
In the U.S. Jade Goody isn’t exactly a household name. But in the U.K. she’s widely despised. A cast member on Celebrity Big Brother, Goody was crass, rude and mean, and now, according to a source at Fametastic, she’s depressed. The website also says:
A source told the Sun: “Jade has struggled since leaving the house a week ago and learning that she has become the most hated figure in Britain.”
She’s been admitted to a mental hospital, where it’s said she’s suffering a complete breakdown. Goody bullied her South Asian castmate in what some said were racially motivated incidents. Because she was on the program, she didn’t know how the outside world was perceiving her.
Goody has made £8 million from her many reality TV appearances. She wrote a memoir and even has her own perfume, among other projects.
liz | 2:22 PM | Uncategorized
True confession: Tues., Jan. 30, 2007
Again, in two parts:
1. I read a People magazine article about Tyra Banks gaining weight.
2. In it, she refers to a “muffin top”—which occurs when your pants are too tight and your fat bulges over the waistline. (Something many people know about, it seems.)
Never again will I be able to look at a muffin without thinking of that.
liz | 12:07 PM | Uncategorized
TMS gets less positive review
Contrary to the glowing media reports of almost magical properties, an FDA advisory panel has essentially concluded that TMS doesn’t work. Better said, the NeuroStar machine made by Neuronetics failed to impress them. The two most revealing quotes from a WebMD article:
Perhaps a reasonable person could question whether there has been an effect at all,” says Thomas G. Brott, a neurologist from Mayo Medical School in Jacksonville, Fla., and the advisory panel’s chairman.
AND
Diana Zuckerman, Ph.D., president of the National Research Center for Women and Families, told the panel the company’s studies did not show the device could help patients. “It’s not a statistically significant difference, and it’s not a meaningful difference,” says Zuckerman, a clinical psychologist and epidemiologist. “Yes, it is safer than ECT, but it doesn’t appear to actually work.”
Device For Depression Criticized
liz | 11:24 AM | Uncategorized
Breaking: Psych facility admits wrongdoing!
I can’t breathe. I’m in shock. A hospital has admitted a mistake. I love them! Of course it was in Vermont, where people are a bit more humane anyway. (They wouldn’t wear Birkenstocks if they weren’t.)
Benjamin R. Petrie III hanged himself on Jan. 21 at Fletcher Allen Healthcare center (pictured). From Vermont’s WCAX TV News:
Last week, hospital psychiatry chief Robert Pierattini said workers in the psychiatric unit failed to check on the person who committed suicide at prescribed 15-minute intervals. No one checked on him for an hour, and when they did he was found dead, he said.
Imagine how different the world would be if hospitals admitted their mistakes. Then other hospitals could learn from them, and do things differently, and bad things would happen less frequently. Maybe that sounds idealistic and naive, but I can’t help thinking that it’ll be a long time before the staff at Fletcher lets that happen again.
liz | 4:19 PM | Uncategorized
Speaking of Jewishness…
I just saw a news brief about yet another suicide bombing in Israel. And I thought I should try again to email my Israeli friend Irit to see if she’s okay. But I’ve tried doing that for more than a year now—maybe two, actually—and I never get a response. I’ve started to try to reconcile myself to the fact that she might be dead, but still, every time I see something about a new bombing, I try to find a list of names to see if she’s on it.
The situation in Israel is so tragic. I can’t believe I’ve gotten to the point where I wonder regularly if a friend of mine is alive. It’s terrible.
liz | 4:14 PM | Uncategorized
My grandfather gets a grant
Okay, no, it’s not my grandfather. But the name “Nathan Kline” does strike me as particularly Jewish-oldster. The Nathan S. Kline Institute for Psychiatric Research has just been awarded a million-ish dollar grant to study schizophrenia and violence. Should be interesting.
liz | 3:22 PM | Uncategorized
Snow makes me sleep?
Today I’m home and have been unable to rouse myself until now. It snowed a lot last night, and the streets and cars are covered. Generally, I love snow so staying abed can’t be directly related to that. On the other hand, I do get more lethargic and depressed in cold, difficult weather.
When I tell people that, they always ask if I suffer from Seasonal Affective Disorder. I tend to say no. To me, it just makes sense that my depression gets a bit worse when it’s dark and cold and forbidding outside. I don’t feel the need to saddle myself with another diagnosis code just because of a change that seems very natural to me. I think the bipolar gets worse, not that I develop another illness.
Now researchers at University of Rochester are trying to classify SAD as a subtype of major depression. Noting that the syndrome is underdiagnosed, they want to make the change so that more physicians will be on the lookout for it—and more likely to address it with light therapy.
I think instead of sitting here with a big light on my desk, I’m going to take a walk in the sun and snow. That’ll probably do me some good.
[Photo by aricee via Flickr]
liz | 12:18 PM | Uncategorized
