Here We Go: Holiday Depression Articles
They’re coming for you …
From one of my favorite people, Therese Borchard, a slideshow of advice. It’s delightful and totally on point.
liz | 11:48 AM | Uncategorized
Art Spikol Pursues Parental Humiliation, 32 Years On
Here’s an item from Michael Klein’s Inquirer column a couple days ago:
Daddy’s little girl
In December’s Philadelphia Magazine, which looks back at 100 Philly moments from the last 100 years, an item asks: “Does anyone know why the hell we once put Telly Savalas on the cover?”Art Spikol, art director in 1976, says staff heard that TV’s Kojak was coming to town and thought he’d work for April. “I . . . knew that Telly alone would never move copies, so I brought along a little girl who was the cutest thing I’d ever seen,” Spikol recalls.
His 7-year-old daughter, Liz.
Which would have been fine, except for a detail he says he missed: “Liz’s peekaboo white underpants, which became a talking point for all her little classmates at the Philadelphia School,” Spikol says. “Very embarrassing.” Liz Spikol is now executive editor of Philadelphia Weekly.
Just kidding with the title. I love my dad.
liz | 3:49 PM | Uncategorized
Another Message From Someone Who Knew Zal Chapgar
Thanks to friends who continue to write in about Zal. He is inspiring people to reach out. This is from Benjamin Simmons:
I haven’t spoken to Zal in a couple of years, but I wish to God now that he and I had kept in touch. I never recognized his issues as indicative of mental illness, I just remember having long conversations in Bloomsburg at late-night parties with him that always turned back to his depressed existential musings. He was a terrifically sharp guy, and I always took his comments with a grain of salt – philosophical musing for its own sake. I wish I’d taken him more seriously, and recognized just how miserably desperate he really was for some kind of meaning out of life. I implore anyone who sees this same kind of depression in a friend or loved one to do everything in their power to help, and I offer my profound condolences to the Chapgar family for their loss.
liz | 2:25 PM | Uncategorized
Comment of the Day: I Am Lame As F**k
This comment just in from Mia:
eww liz your lame as fuckk
jessica simpson does not have a mental disorder. get a make over ugly whore. your prolly the one with the disorder, fucking picking on people so much richer, hotter and famous than you. like seriously. way to be a lame.
Not only am I prolly the one with the disorder; I most certainly am! Mia, you gotta read this site more often, girl! True, though, Jess is more famous, richer and hotter. But she’s always complained of having a flat butt, my body issue, so I feel we’re kindred spirits.
liz | 1:59 PM | Uncategorized
Extraordinary Mental Health Project
If you spend any time working in the world of prison services, you learn how many people in jails and prisons are suffering from mental illness. It’s staggering. Still, numbers just don’t have the power of images, which is why multimedia projects — derided by some old-school journalists — can make the difference between extrapolating and emotion.
The project Trapped: Mental Illness in America’s Prisons is just devastating. I’m sure there will be hand-wringing over different aspects of the presentation (sensationalist? ethical?) but this is an important project. How else can we make the public aware of what this problem really means in felt terms? Of the despair and pain? Of how broken the system is?
There are many facets to the project. A print article, a short documentary, video interviews with prisoners, video interviews with inmate watchers, and still photos. It’s remarkable that one person did all of this, but I think this could be the future of journalism.
Big thanks to Alli Katz for sending me the link to this, which I now bequeath to you. Feeling depressed today? Don’t click. Go to cuteotters.com or something.
liz | 11:07 AM | Uncategorized
Post By Becca: Schizophrenia for Dummies
Part of an ongoing series.
1. What’s schizophrenia?
The prefix schizo- comes from the Greek word schizein, “to split.” The schism in the mind of the schizophrenic is not a personality split. (See Dissociative Disorders.) The schism is a splitting off of the basic reality of the individual from the basic reality that others can share.
2. What are the different subtypes?
Paranoid Schizophrenia – People with paranoid schizophrenia exhibit positive symptoms of psychosis, wherein certain brain functions work to excess, such as delusions and hallucinations that are of a paranoid nature. Common delusions include being sent secret messages, being persecuted by others, having one’s thoughts controlled from another source, and being a religious figure or the victim in a religious narrative.
Catatonic Schizophrenia – People with catatonic schizophrenia bear mostly negative symptoms, or the absence of normal functions. They usually lack expressiveness of speech or facial movements. Sometimes, they exist in a catatonic stupor, where they might remain stiff in a literally petrified state despite any number of activities occurring in their immediate environment.
Disorganized Schizophrenia – People who have disorganized schizophrenia display radically disorganized thinking, or incoherence, and may also have a flattened affect. They often speak in “word salad,” or schizophasia, which means using jumbled mix of words that don’t create meaning together.
3. What’s the difference between schizophrenia and schizoaffective disorder?
People with schizoaffective disorder are more high-functioning than schizophrenics. In a sort of cross between schizophrenia and bipolar disorder, schizoaffective disorder is classified by the presence of delusions or hallucinations as well as symptoms of mood disorder.
From the Mayo Clinic:
The term “schizoaffective disorder” was introduced in 1933 by a doctor who determined that some patients showed symptoms different enough from schizophrenia to warrant a separate diagnosis. They experienced psychosis — such as hallucinations or delusions, characteristic of schizophrenia — and also had symptoms of elevated or depressed mood.
Psychotic features and mood disturbances may occur at the same time or may appear on and off interchangeably. The course of the schizoaffective disorder usually features cycles of severe symptoms followed by an improved outlook. To establish a diagnosis, a person must have demonstrated, at some point, delusions or hallucinations for at least two weeks without evidence of mood disorder symptoms.
[Drawing of a cat by Louis Wain, an artist who has schizophrenia.]
liz | 3:36 PM | Uncategorized
Frenemy? No Way.
Someone said in a comment here that Furious Seasons is my frenemy site. According to the Urban Dictionary, “frenemy” means “an enemy disguised as a friend.” To which I protest. I love Furious Seasons! I’ve said for a while that it’s the best mental health blog out there. So this is a perfect segue into a plug for Philip’s winter fundraiser:
The goal is to raise $3,000 over the next two weeks. The fall fundraiser was a big success and ended early, and I hope that’s the case this time. I know full well how badly the economy stinks right now–I can assure you that the market for freelance writing of any kind is a disaster right now. I have a thing or two in the works right now, but I won’t be paid for them until February.
As a fellow journalist, I can attest that the job market is grim. But it’s vital that Philip be able to continue his work. He’s often the first to get there, as with Fred Goodwin and the loathsome Biederman, to name just two of the stories he essentially broke on the web. Can you imagine your online surfing world without Furious Seasons? I know I can’t. So give a brother some coin. (Yes, I know I’m too white. Shut up.) You can use PayPal.
liz | 10:24 AM | Uncategorized
Everyone’s Freaking Out About Fred Goodwin
I was once on the show The Infinite Mind (five years ago), which I mention in the interest of full disclosure, since everyone’s in a lather — appropriately — about full disclosure.
Host Fred Goodwin struck me a chilly, but when I was contacted by the show again to do another appearance, I agreed. That was before the Goodwin dust-up; I never heard from them after things got messy.
Having had my own minimal and highly naive experience with shilling, I can tell you most definitively that when you are asked to be unethical, you get a strange feeling in your stomach, like you’re at the top of a roller coaster. You can deny it all you want, but you know. I have a hard time believing all of these denials, therefore. If you want the whole story, your best bet is to go to John Grohol over at PsychCentral.
Dr. Fred Goodwin Update
It’s linktastic.
liz | 12:50 PM | Uncategorized
A Comment From One of Zal Chapgar’s Professors
From Gary Hardcastle:
I am a professor at Bloomsburg University, and I had Zal in one (or perhaps two) of my philosophy classes. He was a very smart student, and we knew that he was struggling with mental illness. I’m so very sad that his life ended so early, and with such pain, but I will remember him as a bright and motivated young man. If you’re struggling with mental illness, and especially if you’re a student, please, please seek help.
Thank you, Professor Hardcastle, for reaching out. Your openness will help students to feel less ashamed to come forward, I’m absolutely sure of it.
liz | 5:30 PM | Uncategorized
R.I.P. Zal Chapgar
The man who jumped from the Loews Hotel yesterday and lay on the ground for hours while passerby took cell phone photos, among other indignities, has been identified as a 23-year-old man who’s been struggling with depression for the last year. According to the Philadelphia Inquirer:
Because he was an adult, [his family's] ability to help him find the treatment he needed was limited.
“It was so hard for us to get him help,” his sister, Jasmine, said. “Everything was a struggle.”
I’m not clear on that cause-and-effect, but I’m guessing it’s what the family explained. Perhaps he didn’t know he was ill.
Police are calling his death a suicide.
Good police work.
To read more about Chapgar, go here.
Also check out Will Bunch’s exploration of the issue via suicide in media coverage here.
liz | 10:44 AM | Uncategorized
