Disease

What is Stigma?

Stigma is the use of stereotypes and labels when describing someone, and it is often attached to people who suffer from mental health issues. We don’t fully understand how the brain works yet, but one thing we DO know is that it is an organ. Yet our society doesn’t readily accept brain disorders the way we accept other organ disorders. Why is this so?

Stigma is a harsh reality for people who have mental health problems, because it prevents them from enjoying a normal and productive life. So many people today feel uncomfortable about mental health issues, despite the fact that there is growing evidence that more and more people are developing these problems. In fact, many people are so uncomfortable with the stigma that they would rather suffer in silence than get help they need.

Here are a few of the most common misconceptions about mental health problems:

On September 30th 1998 I was crossing the street in a crosswalk when a young man ran through a red light running me over at 40 mph. He dragged me down the street as he tried to leave the scene of the accident.

I sustained many injuries to my body ranging from soft tissue to bone displacements. What I thought was the worst injury, the brain injury that changed my perception of the whole world, wasn’t the worst one at all. The worst injury that happened began that day, it continued well into my recovery going un-noticed and there were no tests to diagnose this illness.

This captor has very sharp teeth and claws that dig deep down into the most inner core of ones being. It is invisible; the symptoms slowly creep in un-noticed until it is usually too late for most people.

As time passed I lost the ability to do many things. At first it was bigger things that I was unable to do for myself and as time passed it progressed in to every area of my entire life.

In every moment of our life we have the choice to think any thought we like. Sometimes we forget that we have the freedom to choose what we think in any moment. It does not matter what is happening in our life and what we are surrounded by.

We can choose to change are vibration and feeling happier, just by our intention. If your current thoughts are heavy and feel like they are holding you down. Choose to change your mind on what you feel. A soft loving smile will start to raise your vibration and increase your loving feeling for yourself and others.

Know that your thoughts have an attraction and similar vibrations will be drawn to you. Feel 100% happy in each moment just by choosing to. When we raise our vibration with positive loving thoughts, of things we can appreciate with joy; imagine these things being drawn into your life.

You are a creative being allow yourself to think your highest thought. Dream your sweetest dream, feel your vibration raise, lightening and starting to glow like a magnet; feel the energy of love coming around you. Feel the power of your self-love and appreciation. Use your breath to connect to your finer feeling levels by consciously breathing.

August in Florida has a daily ritual that Floridians take with a grain of salt. It’s the daily storms that pass by and that are filled with more electricity than in a 4th of July fire works display. It’s no wonder they call Florida the "Lightening Capital of the World". Because rain clouds can be literally feet away from you and dump a huge storm on the people across the street and meanwhile your side of the street remains dry. It just depends on where you are located at the moment to the degree you get rained upon.

The other day, the clouds were trumpeting and announcing the coming of a storm, or so I thought. Most of the people remained in the pool which totally surprised me. In Charlotte, at the very sound of thunder, we all jumped out of the pool for the next 20 minutes. Here though, they wait for the serious stuff, the lightening. That’s what signals to the people here that the real storm is on the way.

With the current interest in mental health topics, a mental health language has emerged with words such as manipulation, boundaries, limits, rescuing, dependence, and codependence. Many people are unclear what these words mean when applied to relationships. I would like to bring some clarity to one of these terms ? MANIPULATION ? and how it relates to the other terms mentioned above. Webster’s New World Dictionary defines manipulation as:

"managing or controlling artfully or by shrewd use of influence, often in an unfair or fraudulent way; to alter or falsify for one’s own purpose."

In relationships, manipulation can be defined as:

any attempt to control, through coercion (overt or covert), another person’s thoughts, feelings or behaviors.

From this definition, manipulation would seem to have no advantages. However, if you are codependent and defined by others, there can be many advantages. When you allow others to control your thoughts, feelings, behaviors, and make decisions for you,

– you do not have to think for yourself;

– you can avoid taking risks and making difficult decision;

– you can avoid taking a stand on controversial issues;

– you can avoid feeling responsible for negative outcomes;

On July 18, 2005, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration(FDA) approved vagus nerve stimulation as a treatment for chronic depression. On August 18th, I was a part of a conference call hosted by the manufacturer of the vagus nerve stimulator.

According to Company officials, it is going to take a long time for reimbursement to reach universal coverage by third party payers at the overall policy level. The procedure was just approved by the FDA. Insurance companies are giant bureaucracies with many layers of people whose only job is to say “NO”. It is just a fact of life that reimbursement will take time to “grind” through the system.

That is why I devoted an entire eighteen page chapter of my book to insurance codes and the reimbursement process. The Patient Advocate Foundation gave me permission to reprint its guide to the insurance reimbursement and appeal process. The Patient Advocate Foundation is a national non-profit organization that serves as an active liaison between the patient and their insurer.

If you are like me …you love your sleep!

Sleep deprivation has numerous positive but also negative effects. It may break our sleep neurons due to long times of sleeplessness causing malfunction. This will result in bad conduct or bad interaction or bad speech towards others.

Studies also illustrate that people deprived of sleep experience difficulties in thinking imaginative thoughts or terms. Also they suffer difficulties in delivering their declarations well. Without sleep, our brains grow weaker, and our actions and deeds will be affected.

Good sleep promotes regeneration of our system and maintains our good health and immune system function.

Physical and Other Dangers

Lack of sleep also poses dangers to ones body. As we have learned earlier, lack of sleep damages the brain and causes behavioral damages and because our brain controls the other functions in our body, sleep deprivation may also damage them.

It seems that people who lack sleep get sick more often. Also, sleep deprived persons are prone to accidents (particularly car accidents). I have found out in the internet that around 200,000 accidents are caused by sleeping drivers on their sleeping wheels.

In 1965, a chemist working to develop an ulcer drug accidentally discovered a substance 200 times sweeter than sugar. The FDA initially shunned this substance because it caused seizures and brain tumors in lab animals.

In 1981, the FDA allowed this brain tumor and seizure-causing substance to begin both sweetening and poisoning our food supply, pharmaceuticals, and children’s’ vitamins. Banned in children’s products in Europe, the chemical, aspartame, is now a big part of America’s diet craze. This is despite the fact that it accounts for more than 75% of the complaints reported in the FDA’s Adverse Reaction Monitoring system. (http://www.aspartame.ca/page_a3.html and http://www.dorway.com/jwnoasp.html)

Aspartame, once in the body, breaks down into various chemicals. One is the same toxin you get from a fire ant bite. Another is the smelly formaldehyde in which your science teacher stored animals to dissect. Yet another is methanol, the same main ingredient as in Prohibition Era moonshine - the same moonshine that was notorious for causing blindness. How many mothers, who would never think of giving their children moonshine, have stocked their cabinets with any of the now 5,000 products that contain aspartame? (http://www.dorway.com/betty/environ.txt)

A new research study has again shown that a diet rich in omega3 fatty acids can effectively treat and prevent depression and other mental disorders.

The research, published in the February issue of the journal, Biological Psychiatry, has actually shown that omega3 fatty acids and foods that are high in uridine were as good as (and often better than) anti-depressant drugs in reducing the symptoms of depression. The unpredictability of anti-depressant drugs has caused much concern for many years, with a large number of doctors and patients questioning their use, and raising concerns about the negative (rather than positive) effects they can cause.

Recently, both Merck and GlaxoSmithKlein (manufacturers of Paxil and Vioxx respectively) have been taken to court over withheld research results which show that antidepressant drugs cause children to behave violently and can increase the likelihood of suicide by up to 400%.

This has resulted in the FDA in the US announcing that it will ensure that all anti-depressant drugs manufacturers must include a ‘black box’ warning label on all antidepressant medications. The European Union has also warned its member states about the risks associated to antidepressant drugs, particularly since the Journal of the American Medical Association published a review of the 102 clinical trials on anti-depressants which showed that results are frequently misreported or hidden.

There are Many Resources for Online Suicide Help

First of all, if you are currently having suicidal ideations please immediately call:

1-800-SUICIDE (800-748-2433)

This is the National Hopeline and you will be connected to a trained counselor in your local area that can help you.

There are many sources of online suicide help and information. The newest source for online suicide help is www.preventsuicide.net The Preventing Suicide National Journal was started three years ago, and was the nation’s first suicide prevention journal aimed at advocates, and other concerned people who wanted to take action to prevent suicide in their own communities. Since the summer of 2002, over 15 issues have been published with the latest in best practices, technology applications for crisis intervention, legislative initiatives, grant opportunities, and the latest findings in the research field.

The first online suicide help version of the Preventing Suicide National Journal was published in July of 2005. Once again, the National Hopeline broke ground with the very first interactive online suicide help journal. The inaugural on-line edition started off with more of the same and a complete review of the recent three year study of the National Hopeline Network and how effective crisis intervention is when the best practices we know are followed.