Lancaster, Pennsylvania, Will Never Be the Same
That’s where I’ll be for a recovery-themed conference all day Thursday, so I’ll not be blogging.
liz | 11:36 PM | Uncategorized
Incubator Babies: More Than Just Cute
Joe was up early this morning, and sent in this interesting note about a study that says incubator babies are less depressed as adults. He writes:
“Interesting, I would have believed that the temporary separation at birth might have led to a different outcome but in the long term,”
Children who received incubator care as babies may receive more emotional support from their mothers throughout childhood because they were perceived as more vulnerable, the researchers said.
“This reminds us where it is popular to claim that mental illness is a function of nature (bad genes, a deficiency of neurotransmitters) – nurture and other environmental factors play key roles which are largely disregarded in the medical model.”
Thanks, Joe!
liz | 9:36 AM | Uncategorized
Veteran’s Day Flew By
Here are some headlines to keep you warm tonight:
Veterans Day Highlights Need for Military Mental Health Care
U.S. Still Losing a Brigade’s Worth of Vets Every Year to Suicide
Veterans care will be challenge for Obama
Unspoken illness among veterans
Mental health charity helping US war veterans gets boost
And don’t forget: One of every four homeless people you walk over/around is a veteran. Do with that what you will.
liz | 4:44 PM | Uncategorized
Side Note: Philly.com Officially Out of News
Headline right now:
liz | 11:38 AM | Uncategorized
If You Love Cats or the Humans That Love Them
Say a little prayer (or whatever) for Holly (pictured) and for her human companion, Susan, who’s suffering now because Holly’s really sick. From Susan’s blog:
She’s just a cat. Just a cat. But she is also my best friend and I love her so much.
The apartment is empty without her and I am looking at one of her catnip mousies and her food bowl and tears are rolling down my face onto the keyboard.Stay Strong Holly. Sweet little fur ball
Hang in there, Susan. I’ve been there and it’s hard. For people who suffer from our troubles, a pet is never just a pet. My cat’s death broke my heart, and I’m not afraid to say it. Prepare for the worst but hope for the best. I’m pulling for you both.
liz | 11:31 AM | Uncategorized
Best Comment of the Year
Sorry, regular TTWS commenters. I received this comment from Mark Costin today and love it so much, I’m just going to go ahead and crown it king:
You are a Cunt. Dont be Jealous because Dana Perino is more attractive than you. 90% of you liberals are just unattractive people so you take it out on the wealthier attractive people…dont take it out on the conservatives, take it out on your poor ugly parents. Thanks!!
There are so many interesting details here. Why the capitalization of “cunt” and “jealous”? As for looks, I’m going out on a limb here, I know, but I actually don’t think Dana Perino is totally and completely hotter than me. She’s taller and blonder, true. But we both have pretty flat butts, and from the front I think I win. Her hair is thin, mine is thick. Her features are not “ethnic,” and she’s got those ice-blue eyes and lovely coloring … Okay, fine. She’s hotter than I am. So be it.
But in general, I think we liberals are doing pretty well these days:
Laura Bush vs. Michelle Obama
Joshua Bolten vs. Rahm Emanuel
Bill O’Reilley vs. Rachel Maddow
Sarah Palin vs. Tina Fey … oh, wait a minute …
Perhaps you question some of my assessments. I think Rahm Emanuel is hot in a heavy-lidded, somewhat-Israeli kind of way
and I think Rachel Maddow, when she’s not too dolled-up, is a soft-butch fantasy.
So, commenter Mark Costin, you very unfriendly and profane conservative, I’d like to have a Dem vs. GOP smackdown with you in terms of looks. You send me your photo and we’ll post it here, and we’ll let the readers decide who’s prettier, you or I.
I await your beauty.
liz | 9:05 AM | Uncategorized
Not Taking Meds Made Me Do It: Kill My Partner and Myself
Carol Anne Burger (pictured), a journalist who lived in Boynton Beach, stabbed her partner, Jessica Kalish, more than 200 times with a screwdriver then briefly tried to cover the murder up before she shot herself to death a day later. She wrote for HuffingtonPost’s OfftheBus:
An editor described Burger as “very excited” about her job and not depressed in “any way.”
Hanna Ingber Win, the associate editor for The Huffington Post’s “Off the Bus” election coverage, said she exchanged e-mails with Burger last week and was happy with her contributions.
“We were joking that she was on fire. She was really pumping it out,” Win said. “I would never imagine this. She was excited about the election.”
That’s just a journalistic side note, however. From the Palm Beach Post:
Carol Anne Burger was fighting for her life.
Racked by economic and romantic reversals, she struggled against moods that swung from sadness to anger.
Her e-mails and an eight-page letter, subsequently e-mailed to Boynton Beach police by a friend in close touch with Burger during her final months, depict a bright, idealistic and compassionate woman struggling to keep her head up while caught in a painful, humiliating situation.
She was unemployed and having to sell her house because of the breakup of her long-term relationship with her partner. Worse, she was still living in that house with her former mate, who had found another lover and spent happy hours on the phone and computer with that other woman.
In the end, it was too much.
“Carol Anne suffered bouts of depression and would cocoon herself for a few days until she felt better,” wrote Helen Gale of California, Burger’s close friend, in her letter to police.
“She also spoke of suicide several times last month,” Gale continued, “because of concerns about money and sadness at feeling isolated and trapped in a situation that was terribly uncomfortable.”
For months Gale had been trying to get Burger to take antidepressants, but Burger refused.
“I just don’t want to take drugs of any kind,” Burger wrote Gale on Oct. 15, one week before her death. “I’d rather just be sad than chemically dependent.” Angst, isolation tormented woman before killings
Gawker said, in a moment of really gross schaudenfreude about HuffPo’s take-anyone policy:
It was inevitable that the Huffington Post would somehow end up sullied by recruiting such a massive army of unpaid contributors. But few would have imagined something this awful….
In many ways, Burger had stacked the deck against herself: She continued to share a home with the former lover, in Boynton Beach, Florida, more than a year after they had broken up. She refused antidepressants.
liz | 2:57 PM | Uncategorized
Video of the Day: RIP Miriam Makeba
South African Singer Miriam Makeba Dies
liz | 12:33 PM | Uncategorized
Beast: Fed
My mother’s psychiatrist says, of depression, that sometimes you simply have to “feed the beast” — not the most original metaphor, but English isn’t his native language. What he means is that sometimes when you’re depressed, as people with bipolar disorder are subject to, you simply have to give in to it and hope it subsides. But fighting against it can actually make it worse.
So what does feeding the beast mean in such a context? Doing what I did this weekend: staying in bed for 48 hours, napping on and off, reading, watching a little TV, eating a bit, and not leaving the house. Some would have said, “Come on outside! Get some sun — you’ll feel so much better.” But that’s not always true. For me, this weekend was exactly what I needed: respite.
That kind of beast-feeding can’t last longer than a weekend, really, because then I start to get a little stuck. But I feel completely renewed this morning.
liz | 10:32 AM | Uncategorized
URGENT: Forced Electroshock
MindFreedom International — 7 November 2008
Human Rights Alert: Involuntary Electroshock
by David W. Oaks, Director, MindFreedom International
The past Wednesday morning after the historic USA election what were you doing?
I know what Ray Sandford, 54, was doing.
Each and every Wednesday, early in the morning, staff shows up at Ray’s sheltered living home called Victory House in Columbia Heights, Minnesota, adjacent to Minneapolis.
Staff escorts Ray the 15 miles to Mercy Hospital. There, Ray is given another of his weekly electroconvulsive therapy (ECT) treatments, also known as electroshock. All against his will. On an outpatient basis.
And it’s been going on for months.
Ray says the weekly forced electroshocks are “scary as hell.” He absolutely opposes having the procedure. He says it’s causing poor memory for names such as of friends and his favorite niece. “What am I supposed to do, run away?” Instead, Ray phoned his local library’s reference desk to ask about human rights groups, and the librarian referred him to MindFreedom International.
Ray called me at our office here at MindFreedom International about two weeks ago. At first I wasn’t sure I believed him.
Of course, MindFreedom International has documented proven cases of electroshock against the expressed wishes of the subject all over the world, including in the USA. MindFreedom succeeded in having the United Nations World Health Organization call in writing for a global ban on all involuntary electroshock.
But this is the first time I’ve been on the phone with someone getting court-ordered forced shock while living out in the community, on an outpatient basis.
This is the ultimate double whammy. I confirmed Ray’s story by calling two staff at Victory House as well as his court-appointed conservator, Tonya Wilhelm of Luthern Support Services of Minnesota.
Ms. Wilhelm said, “We are following the letter of the law.” She said the State of Minnesota had secured a variety of court orders that require Ray to have forced electroshock against his expressed wishes. Ms. Wilehlm says it’s all legal and she can’t do anything about it.
Krista Erickson, chair of MindFreedom’s Shield Campaign, sees it differently. “This is terrible. This is a serious human rights violation that should stop. I hope MindFreedom members and supporters speak out. Even if Minnesota is following the letter of the current law, the law ought to be changed. And Ray has not had the legal power to appeal to higher courts.”
I pointed out to Conservator Wilhelm that the public — when they find out about forced electroshock — is passionately opposed to their taxpayer money being used to force such brutality on citizens. Ms. Wilhelm did let slip that what is happening to Ray — involuntary outpatient electroshock — is not that uncommon in Minnesota.
But when Ms. Wilhelm found out we at MindFreedom are issuing one of our public human rights alert to you and others, at Ray’s repeated request, she said something chilling.
Ms. Wilhelm claimed she had a legal right to stop MindFreedom! Ms. Wilhelm told me, “Only I can give you permission legally to say anything publicly about this.”
I pointed out we are not a medical facility, and that if she falsely claims we’re doing anything illegal then this is defamation. Which really is illegal. Ms. Wilhelm laughed loudly in the phone, said “let our lawyers talk,” and hung up on me. I hope she hung up to read the First Amendment.
Let’s disobey Ms. Wilhelm!
Spread Ray’s alert far and wide! Speak out against this electrical torture, now!
Because… Remember… While the world marvels at the power of USA democracy:
If it’s Wednesday morning, then Ray Sandford is being led from his home — which is supposed to be his castle — to get another weekly forced procedure that can cause brain damage and wipe out memories.
Want to do something? Follow the jump.
liz | 3:23 PM | Uncategorized
