Goodbye, Anti-Sacred and Profane Writing Machine
After a long battle with cancer, PW staff writer, Guardian columnist, punk-rock novelist, NME gadfly, gender-twisting rebel comedian and poet Steven Wells has gone on to other things. Well, not really. According to Steven, there’s no such thing as the afterlife, and if there is, I guarantee he’s really, really pissed off right now. I can just picture him at St. Peter’s Gates, saying, “Fuck me! This shit actually exists?”
We’ll all miss Steven so much, and I’ll say more about that later. For now, I’m wishing the best to all family and friends who are hurting. That’s what Steven really cared about in the end, though he was very passionately annoyed by knitting, as well.
Steven was often told he was anti-American. I loved his passion, and he cracked us the fuck up every day. This video was part of a series he did for PW called Steven Wells’ America, in which he took sacred cows and basically grilled them for dinner. Below, he reflects on the religiosity of an America that voted for Bush a second time (Steven was a staunch atheist). Toward the end he smiles a bit, so you know that he knows he’s being ridiculous. And that’s part of what was so cute about Steven — he’d rant, but then laugh at himself.
liz | 10:41 AM | BIG PHARMA, Funny or Offensive?, GLBT, Song of the Day, alternative treatments, anxiety, celebrities, children, cute fix, depression, hospitals / hospitalization, media, meds, military, philadelphia, phobias, politics, random, religion, suicide, violence
Mental and Obsessed
My column this week — out tomorrow — is about the TV show Mental. I have so many objections to the show, it took a long time to write. I could only fit in one of my central points, which is that … Well, I’ll let you read it tomorrow.
This was on NAMI’s Twitter feed recently:
Watch “MENTAL” on FOX-TV Tuesday 9:00 PM ET. Does it stigmatize or open minds? NAMI is monitoring. Send comments to smarch@nami.org.
There are also a couple feeds about the new A&E show Obsessed, which documents real people with real illness. Though some of its elements are sensationalized, I actually appreciate that the show will raise an awareness of what some people grapple with. Though Nidia’s OCD is incredibly extreme, I think any person with OCD will recognize themselves in it (at least I did).
The show also advocates Cognitive Behavioral Therapy as the most effective treatment for anxiety disorders, which is unusual in a world of Valium, Xanax, Ativan, Klonopin, etc. The doctors explain things fairly well, though of course judging by the first episode, the show is pretty much like OCD: Extreme Makeover. But based only on the first episode, I believe that it will ultimately help the public understand the secret shame and fear many people suffer in silence with.
Poor Susan Boyle
The star of Britain’s Got Talent, who shocked the world by being ugly yet talented, is having a kind of breakdown from all the stress and pressure and media savagery. She’s in a mental health clinic now, where, her brother reports, he suggested she went to have some tea and relax. (I’ve never been in a mental health clinic in the U.S. where having tea and relaxing were on the agenda, so I’m eager to go crazy on my next trip to London.) In case you’re not familiar with Boyle’s tale, here is some info on her loss:
Embedded video from <a href=”http://www.cnn.com/video” mce_href=”http://www.cnn.com/video”>CNN Video</a>
Judge Piers Morgan on Susan’s issues:
Questions are being asked about who is responsible for her mini breakdown. Her brother tries to explain, including his belief that she misses her cat, Pebbles:
I hope she feels better soon.
liz | 11:55 AM | anxiety, celebrities, media
Voulez Vous Texté Avec Moi, Ce Soir?
One time I found a guy’s cell phone on the pavement and I wanted to return it to him. So I looked to see who he’d last called and easily found someone to contact. But then … my curiosity got the better of me. Here in my hand I had someone’s life in miniature, and yes, I looked at his photos.
I guess I thought maybe he had a cat and there’d be photos of his cat. If someone found my phone they’d see photos of my hamster (R.I.P., Popcorn), my sugar gliders and my dog. So why not have a quick Cute Fix? What I found on the phone was all porn. Raunchy porn of men doing things to other men, with closeups. Still photos, mind you. Which made me feel so guilty. I mean, what kind of monster was I? Violating someone’s privacy that way? It was terrible. It vitiated the Good Samaritan vibe I felt when I went to the guy’s house to return his phone. I shamefully handed it over. I wanted to apologize, as well as say, “Your life looks a hell of a lot more fun than mine is.”
Random story, I know. But the world of cell phones is so interesting. The first cell phone my family had was huge. Not quite this bad, but close.
Nowadays, they’re slim and chic and people have porn on them. But there are perils, especially for the mental health of the American adolescent. Take this excerpt from a recent New York Times article:
American teenagers sent and received an average of 2,272 text messages per month in the fourth quarter of 2008, according to the Nielsen Company — almost 80 messages a day, more than double the average of a year earlier.
The phenomenon is beginning to worry physicians and psychologists, who say it is leading to anxiety, distraction in school, falling grades, repetitive stress injury and sleep deprivation. …
“Among the jobs of adolescence are to separate from your parents, and to find the peace and quiet to become the person you decide you want to be,” she said. “Texting hits directly at both those jobs.”
Psychologists expect to see teenagers break free from their parents as they grow into autonomous adults, Professor Turkle went on, “but if technology makes something like staying in touch very, very easy, that’s harder to do; now you have adolescents who are texting their mothers 15 times a day, asking things like, ‘Should I get the red shoes or the blue shoes?’ ”
As for peace and quiet, she said, “if something next to you is vibrating every couple of minutes, it makes it very difficult to be in that state of mind.
“If you’re being deluged by constant communication, the pressure to answer immediately is quite high,” she added. “So if you’re in the middle of a thought, forget it.”
Michael Hausauer, a psychotherapist in Oakland, Calif., said teenagers had a “terrific interest in knowing what’s going on in the lives of their peers, coupled with a terrific anxiety about being out of the loop.” For that reason, he said, the rapid rise in texting has potential for great benefit and great harm.
“Texting can be an enormous tool,” he said. “It offers companionship and the promise of connectedness. At the same time, texting can make a youngster feel frightened and overly exposed.”
liz | 10:25 AM | anxiety, children, media, random, side effects
High Anxiety: Dontrelle Willis
Congrats and good luck to pitcher Detroit Tigers Dontrelle Willis who’s back to work after a lengthy struggle with anxiety issues. From the New York Times:
For privacy reasons, [manager Dave] Dombrowski declined to talk specifically about what treatment Willis received for the anxiety disorder, and how it was diagnosed.
On Tuesday, Willis discussed his treatment in general terms. Asked whether he saw a psychologist or a psychiatrist, Willis answered, “Yeah, something like that,” and added that he saw more than one at a time. “Like a team,” he said. The therapy, he said, mainly involved talking to doctors, then to teammates.
“With all the professional things that were going on, they said I needed to relax and have fun and get back to my old self,” he said. “That’s what I’ve been doing. It was just one of those things. I think I was putting a lot of emphasis on every pitch unnecessarily, and they said, ‘Well, just go back to what you were doing before.’ ”
Dombrowski said the team followed the doctors’ recommendations for treatment, which required putting Willis on the disabled list after supplying the commissioner’s office with supporting medical documentation. Willis added that he is no longer undergoing therapy.
“Our goal all along was to put him in a position where he could come back and pitch well for us,” Dombrowski said. “We let the doctors guide it, not the baseball people.”
Dontrelle Willis, Back From Anxiety Disorder, Is Seeking a Return to Form
liz | 12:54 PM | anxiety
Coming Soon to a TV Screen Near You: You!
Sounds like A&E is doing the reality thing with crazies, this time. From a press release:
A&E explores the world of individuals suffering from extreme anxiety disorders, including Obsessive Compulsive Disorder, Panic Disorder and Hoarding, and tells the stories of their struggles to overcome them in the new original nonfiction series “Obsessed.” The eleven episode, one-hour series debuts Monday, May 25 at 10pm ET/PT following the season premiere of the Emmy-nominated “Intervention.”
“The series sheds a light on the vast world of anxiety disorders, while offering those who suffer from these debilitating afflictions a path to recovery,” said Robert Sharenow, Senior Vice President, Nonfiction and Alternative Programming, A&E Network and BIO. “Like ‘Intervention,’ Obsessed takes an honest and unflinching look at a difficult subject, programming that has come to resonate with our viewers and that underscores the essence of our brand.”
The essence of our brand? That makes me feel icky.
Of course, the cases are very extreme, or it wouldn’t be fun:
In the series opener, Helen, a single mother of three is tormented every day by her OCD as it’s making her life a nightmare. Her anxiety was spiked when her father died in a car accident. She has extreme panic attacks while driving and she obsessively puts on her father’s bloody clothes from that fatal night. Through Cognitive Behavioral Therapy, (CBT) widely described as the most effective treatment for OCD, Helen must face her fears and try to come to terms with her father’s death and her inability to drive. Meanwhile, Scott is a germaphobe who doesn’t keep a trashcan in his house, doesn’t have any pictures on the wall, washes his hands 50 times a day and sleeps on the sofa because it takes him too long to make his bed in the morning. His OCD has caused him to be desperately alone and he must face his fears through CBT in hopes that he can have a successful relationship.
So let me amend my header, here: Coming Soon to a TV Screen Near You: People Who Are Just a Skosh Stranger Than You Could Ever Be.
liz | 4:07 PM | alternative treatments, anxiety, media
Okay, Guys, Here We Are
I brought TTWS’ unconventional mental-wellness tips to Huffington Post and they can now be seen on that vaunted site. Please click here. Please click here. Please click here. Because it’s good when you get hits, or something.
Let’s keep adding more tips.
liz | 2:02 PM | alternative treatments, anxiety, depression
I No Longer Remember How to Make a Video
But I tried. I keep getting flack from my subscribers for being missing in action. So here’s the latest.
liz | 11:56 AM | anxiety, bipolar disorder, depression, philadelphia, random
Treatment for Panic Attacks
For those of you without health insurance and/or little money and access to appropriate resources, the University of Pennsylvania is doing a study on treatments for panic attacks. Normally such studies make me nervous, but given that this is the Center for Psychotherapy Research, I doubt they’ll be shoving meds at you. Here’s the info from Penn:
If you are experiencing the following symptoms, please call 215.662.2837
A panic attack is a sudden rush of anxiety that includes some of the following symptoms:
▪ palpitations ▪ shortness of breath
▪ nausea ▪ trembling
▪ fear of going crazy ▪ abdominal distress ▪ dizziness ▪ fear of dying
▪ hot flashes ▪ chest pain
▪ feelings of unreality ▪ fear of losing self-control
▪ feeling of chokingIf you are between 18-70 years old, you may be eligible for FREE therapy treatment as part of a research study.
The purpose of this study is to compare the effectiveness of three types of therapies in treating panic disorder. If you decide to participate, you will complete a brief phone screen, a diagnostic interview, and then be randomly assigned to one of a three therapy treatments.
Participation in this study includes treatment at NO cost to you, regular assessment by a diagnostician, occasional questionnaires, and daily tracking of your panic attacks outside of therapy.
Please call 215.662.2837 for more information and to see if this study is right for you.
UNIVERSITY OF PENNSYLVANIA HEALTH SYSTEM
Jacques Barber, Principal Investigator
Center for Psychotherapy Research
Panic Relief: 215.662.2837
liz | 11:10 AM | anxiety
