Am I prete?

Well, today I’m packing and panicking and getting ready for my eights days in Paris. (I’ll still be blogging because there’s a computer in the apartment where I’m staying. It just might be erratic.) I’m going with my parents for their 40th anniversary. Yes, you heard that right. For their 40th anniversary, they could have had anything in the world, and what they wanted more than ever to commemorate this romantic milestone was to bring their daughter with them to the most romantic city in the world. I’m sorry, but if that isn’t the most Jewish thing in the world, I don’t know what is.

Here are two good reasons to get out of the U.S. for a few days:

Robin Givens (pictured) pretends to be an expert on depression and Owen Wilson — and FOX allows it

Headlines like this one: Mental health program faces bleak future

liz | 12:28 PM | Uncategorized

He’s got a thing going on…

I don’t know if it’s my age or the fact that we’re both from Philly or what, but I loooooove Billy Paul — and now it turns out there’s just one more reason to love him: He’s in recovery! (Also, and not incidentally, his website features a photo of him with his dog, Bijou. Anyone who loves his dog that much is okay in my book.) If you don’t know — Simon? As you’re from the other side of the world? But isn’t music the universal language? — Billy Paul is a soul singer whose biggest hit, I suppose, was “Me and Mrs. Jones,” a fabulous song brilliantly and recently referenced, BTW, by Amy Winehouse, another troubled musician — but that’s another story.

Anyhoo, September is National Recovery Month, and so the Grammy Award-winner and his wife, Blanche, will present their personal story at the Philadelphia Department of Behavioral Health and Mental Retardation Services‘ First Friday Series. The timing is awkward for those of you with jobs. But if you can sneak away, it’ll probably be quite interesting.

Date: Friday, September 7, 2007
Location: Community College Of Philadelphia
Bonnell Auditorium, 1700 Spring Garden Street
Time: 10:00am-2:00pm

But registration is required! So email wendy.williams-blackson@phila.gov for a registration form.

liz | 4:48 PM | Uncategorized

R.I.P. Michael Amyx

EVS sends this sad story, and it’s one of those times when an article really makes you feel like you knew the kid. Such a bright light. It’s especially disturbing because you don’t get a sense, as you sometimes do, that people were ignoring the situation or not paying attention to warning signs or anything like that. I think his mom, Kathy, got it right when she said, “I really think he was a depressed teenager that made a stupid choice.” If the rope broke, he would’ve looked back on that attempt as an awful moment in a difficult adolescence. The fact that he succeeded is the tragedy — a mistake.

The second-to-last paragraph made me cry.

Teen’s suicide is a loss that can’t be undone

liz | 3:16 PM | Uncategorized

AstraZeneca has some luck

Seroquel XR got the okay in the Netherlands for use in schizophrenia. Wait, I must be dreaming: I don’t see anything wrong with that!

AstraZeneca’s schizophrenia drug gets the nod in the Netherlands

liz | 10:36 AM | Uncategorized

Victory!

An important update in the case of Simone D., the Latina woman who was being compelled to have ECT against her will. The ostensible reason for the hospital’s insistence was that Simone would starve without the treatment, but her lawyers proved this was baseless. As in the John Kelly case, I have no doubt that this victory could not have been achieved without the work of activists and organizations like MindFreedom.

Thanks to Susan R. for getting me up to speed!

Simone D. wins!

liz | 3:44 PM | Uncategorized

Effexor and weight gain

Today I got the below reply to one of my scintillating YouTube videos:

Hey, I watched a video of yours where you said you gained weight directly because you took effexor. The reason I am watching a bunch of videos is because I have some mental illnesses and I recently got on effexor. I took paxil a couple years ago but stopped, but this isn’t about me.

I think you are sadly mistaken and trying to make excuses. Effexor can’t make you gain weight, unless your thyroid slowed down or some other medical connection occured.

Did you slow down on your daily activity? Did you eat more calories?

I know the satisfaction of eating junk food….when I was depressed a few months ago and all alone I would get fast food and eat 2000 calories worth of crap in 1 meal and it made me feel so good, my cravings were insane. Now I’m fortunate enough to move back with my parents and have an easier situation. I’m huge into nutrition and I like to lift weights to stay toned, and my diet is 90% good foods and I avoid sweets almost all together. I count my calories. Any weight I gain should go to muscle. I lost 20 pounds of muscle since my prime a few years ago before I got depressed.

You probably don’t care but I just had to speak up for some reason. I think you’re just making excuses and I hope you are, because I can’t see myself gaining “fat” from effexor 150mg. Especially if I lift weights, eat a great well planned diet, and do some walking.

You scared me….I guess. lol

It’s true that the connection between weight gain and Effexor isn’t exactly set in stone, and true, too, that when I’m depressed or anxious or … breathing, I tend to eat too much. Interestingly, while Wyeth may have worried about Effexor’s weightogenic properties in the past, it will no longer have exclusive rights to such worries for long; see: the Wall Street Journal’s Wyeth’s Pipeline Hits a Snag. I, on the other hand, will be worrying about them for years and years.

liz | 2:29 PM | Uncategorized

Ah, women

Thanks for the support, guys. I’m feeling somewhat better. The anxiety has been really out of control, something that doesn’t happen too often with me.

Susan S. is a help, as always, with the below article:

Women top men as seekers of online health info

No surprise there, right ladies?

liz | 10:42 AM | Uncategorized

As crazy as the man on the moon

Thanks to Joe G. for letting me know Lisa Nowak is going to plead temporary insanity. That’s what I’m pleading today, and perhaps in the last few days and the few to come. Seriously, I’m dealing with unbelievable anxiety issues.

Former astronaut Lisa Nowak will claim temporary insanity

liz | 3:43 PM | Uncategorized

Just Like You and Me: Almost half the population in Zimbabwe?

ZimOnline (cute name, that) reports that 40 percent of Zimbabweans suffer from mental disorders. This is staggering to me, but in a country where unemployment stands at 80 percent (!) I guess it’s not entirely unlikely. At the same time, demand for alcohol is extremely high.

Mental illness rife in Zimbabwe

liz | 3:53 PM | Uncategorized

Headlines: Monday Morning Edition

File under good news: Deputies Find Missing Woman

And a top o’ the mornin’: World experts to attend suicide conference in Killarney

Least surprising headline of the morning: Mental health funding helps many gain stability

liz | 9:07 AM | Uncategorized