Health care is awesome, bro.
Lie still with your eyes closed. Treatment begins in five, four, three, two, one. Treatment begins now.
Rattalattarattalattasqueeeeak!
Rattalattarattalattasqueeeeak!
Rattalattarattalattasqueeeeak!
– The Eggbeater
I don’t fall asleep again. My alpha waves providing a willing conduit for the low-frequency electromagnetism passing out of the machine, the veritable egg with blue beak.
I use the blanket though. Sit up fast when the session is over. Any concerns? I don’t want to slow the doctor from his important tasks.
But I’ve been reading “Unhinged.” Coming to terms with how little psychiatry knows about the drugs they distribute, the illnesses we harbor. I’ve been surprised to read the muckraking author Dr. Carlat confess to accepting the free Starbucks (that full meals are delivered to his receptionist) from the drug company reps even as he unmasks far deeper concerns. Troubled to see thoughts and feelings ascribed to mere chemical processes; there is no walking back of those chemical processes to an outflow of our consciousness.
We are our own psychiatry. Nothing less.
There are 10,000 genetic sequences that lead to schizophrenia, Carlat writes. A lack of understanding, even, about what causes depression. There are hunches and the observation that follows drug ingestion. We have yet to integrate biology into psychiatry, much less, I think, recognize our emotional and electrical bodies. We have yet to learn — much less teach others — to think as the creators of our conditions, as the only ones able (frequently after drugs have stabilized our fragile selves) to walk ourselves back from the precipice.
The only ones capable of discovering the language we need to keep the Beast at bay.
Like so many mental-health bloggers, I couldn’t resist a trip to Side Effects. Jude Law as psychiatry’s new normal: where the high-dollar couch has become a showpiece. You don’t get comfortable here. This is fast-draw shrinkage, followed by a question or two, followed by a referral to someone who has actually been trained in unraveling the unspoken beliefs that underlie and support the feelings and behavior. Only Law gave no referral.
Therapy? What time is therapy? Audiences don’t need no stinkin’ therapy.
The eggbeater says my session is complete. Doctor wants to make sure 30 minutes of head vibrating haven’t left me stewing over any questions or concerns.
I confess I have none. No questions. No concerns. Nothing for him. Not for the hardware.
But I would like to borrow this blanket.
It can boggle the mind how little is known about mental illnesses!
I’d be careful what you read:
http://www.madinamerica.com/2013/02/five-decades-of-gene-finding-failures-in-psychiatry/
Jay Joseph
February 15, 2013
Molecular genetic attempts to uncover “schizophrenia genes” go back to the beginning of the 1970s and earlier.4 In a highly publicized case a generation ago, Sherrington and colleagues believed they had identified a genetic marker for schizophrenia, but this result was not replicated.5 Despite the sequencing of the human genome and the publication of more than 1,700 schizophrenia molecular genetic studies, we have witnessed over 40 years of gene finding claims, and over 40 years of subsequently non-replicated findings. A 2012 study, co-authored by many of the world’s leading schizophrenia molecular genetic researchers, compared 732 previously identified “hypothesis-driven candidate genes” for schizophrenia with genome-wide association study (GWAS) results. The researchers found no association between these previously identified genes and schizophrenia, and concluded that their negative results “suggest, but do not prove, that many traditional ideas about the genetic basis of SCZ [schizophrenia] may be incorrect,” and that “it is possible that the next few years will lead to marked changes in major hypotheses about the genetic basis of SCZ.”6
Quite honestly, I believe mental illness has its origins in how we are failing to meet the manifold needs of children.
Information for Parents: How to Lower Your Child’s Risk for Schizophrenia:
http://www.schizophrenia.com/prev5.htm#dweck
i’m pretty indiscriminate in my reading, but specific in my digestion.
the paper: http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3077530/
what it demonstrates, according to the author i cited in this post (and i regret if i did not put this in proper context above, though i think i did), is that “over 10,000 gene variants appear to have a role in ‘causing’ schizophrenia,” which is still pretty much like throwing up your hands and saying we have no idea. it demonstrates both a feat of genetic research (or ‘genome-wide scans’) but also our utter cluelessness at the same time.
carlat quotes a nytimes writer calling the discovery a “landmark. the kind that says you have 10,000 miles yet to go.”
Sorry I think I was reading that wrong. I admit I had half a brain on what I read here and half trying to listen to The Big Bang Theory my daughter was watching while home sick.
But, my point I was trying to make is about genes and the factors that contribute to expression of disease. We may carry a lot of genes that don’t get expresssed UNTIL we have an environmental influence.
I think a lot of the ‘environmental influences’ are truly inadequate nutrition (we have plenty to eat, unfortunately most of it is crap compared to food 50 years ago), disconnected relationships (we have so many ways to ‘reach out and touch someone’ and are so unable to really sit and understand one another, and cultural programming, and the constant anxiety modern society induces.
Celiac disease is like this. (I know a lot about that because of attending a few celiac research meetings on the matter). A person can have the gene with NO active celiac disease state UNTIL environmental influences (like stress or trauma) tips the balance and the body starts the immune response.
Honestly, I think depression is like that. I think what happens is similar to an auto-immune response to a wide variety of environmental influences/stresses/expectations. I am partway through a book on narcissism called Trapped in the Mirror: Adult Children of Narcissists in Their Struggle for Self.
One of the things that really got me was the idea that the children of narcissists have the message implanted (through both overt and covert messages) into them that they have “no right to exist”.
Think about the implications if such an idea was deeply embedded into our psyches. I think we would inevitably be trying to honor that edict we aren’t even aware exists.
I’ve been wrestling with the concept of mental illness for a LONG time. I’ve done a fair bit of reading that suggests mental illness can be healed holistically, taking a mind, body, spiritual approach within the context of a loving relationship (not sexual relationship, I mean) with nonjudgmental, noninvasive “space holding” from another, while the body heals itself. When the body is in constant fight/freeze/flight mode, there is no way to heal. All the resources are exhausted simply surviving.
I’m still searching for any kind of study that proves we can treat bipolar holistically. I have a friend whose bf had ultra rapid cycling bipolar II and could not take medications for it. I think out of every 10 days, he’d have 7 that were productive and 3 he couldn’t even get out of bed.
For my own mood issues, I’m expanding my search deep into Eastern healing modalities to help me prevent relapse. I have seen a big improvement and I will be curious to see how long this period of calm will last this time.
i’m sure you’re right. i swept over that point pretty quickly. i used to speak to a doctor friend frequently who was fond of saying ‘genetics loads the gun, the environment pulls the trigger.’ i tend to believe along the lines of what you are describing here, though i’m quit sure i haven’t done as much research as you have. in any event, the environmental explanatino goes along way w/ me and i personally feel we’re overdue (particularly in the states, i think the EU operates more closely to the precautionary principle when it comes to approving new industrial chemicals) for an overhaul of the way we monitor toxics and potentialities of cumulative exposures.
i’m happy to hear you have a regimen that seems to be working. was reading a book on buddhist healing. written by a western author, which may explain the didactic nature of it. i was surprise, turned off. but there are plenty more where that came from.
Just curious, which book?
‘modern buddhist healing.’
Thanks.
Yeah, I find that sometimes the way material is presented turns me off. I’ll take a look at that book, though.
My husband is reading this book called Eastern Body, Western Mind by Anodea Judith, which I will be reading next. My scientific and skeptical mind used to think chakra energy healing was a bunch of hooey, but after I’ve had more progress healing my PTSD through craniosacral work (a body modality that uses energy and very light tactile touch) than I ever experienced with talk therapy, I’m more open to alternative ideas than ever.
I just learned recently in neuroscience teleseminar that there is a totally different perception in the Eastern mind than in the Western mind. Eastern countries look at things as wholes, and synergistically, while we Westerners look at things in parts and analytically.
I think this accounts for the greatest difficulty in adopting Eastern mindsets. We have to de-condition from what we know before we can adopt a new way of looking at things.
It’s not just “culture shock” but “perception shock”. We have to change the fundamental ways we perceive things.
Of course, our ego has a tendency to block new ways of thinking, so entrenched it can be in our outdated belief systems.
Because I can’t use chemical means of healing my mood problems due to complex-PTSD, I have to explore any and all alternative options that exist.
does self-esteem get a look in here? You didn’t want to waste the doctor’s time but you are entitled to if he’s been messing with your brain. My 2c worth.
:) i would have if it was anything w/n is control. thanks.
I’m curious if you’ve tried meditation. And if so, how did it go for you?
oh, yeah. for years. sometimes i’m not able to. when i have a good handle on things i try to do a couple 20 min. sessions a day or so. irreplaceable.
I was thinking about trying it. Do you have any suggestions for a good method? Website? etc.
i’ve tried a number of variations (and any tradition will have a number of variations) but the one i work w/ the most i was first taught at a tibbetan buddhist temple. i would recommend finding a temble and learning in person if possible. otherwise, i would order http://www.amazon.com/Diamond-Mind-A-Psychology-Meditation/dp/1570627630. there are a lot of good books out there but this one came to mind first. :)
Thank you. I’ll check it out.