The Effects of Mental Illness on Relationships

Often times we as mental health consumers get caught up in our own problems and dilemmas surrounding our illness, that we forget about those who due to association with us are affected as well. I'm not in any way saying that the pain and anguish that we as consumers suffer should be looked at in an empathetic way, but the fact remains that our mood changes and other symptoms that trouble us also trouble those in our lives as well. If we look at it in the proper context than we would see that not only do we suffer from the disease in of its self, but we should take note that as a whole our lives that we lead affect other people as well. In taking note of that fact, we should be aware of how we effect others and keep in constant communication about the thoughts and feelings others have about how the disease is effecting them. We should do this so that communication lines are open that will one, inform us of when we might be symptomatic, and two, to allow the growth for healing when our disease takes effect on the people that we love regarding their emotions, patience, and other introspective thoughts.

In my own experience I had to deal with the notion of being able to get past the thought process that I was the one suffering and the disdain that I had for someone in my support network who claimed that they were as well. This would even lead me to the point of being angry at someone who insinuated that I was not the only person who hurt. This thinking is a poor way to manage our illness and will only cause more pain and less support from the ones that love us as they in turn in a sense wear down as they feel that their emotions are not included in your own thoughts as well. In essence this is a thoughtless way to think, but one easy to understand for other consumers whose main existence sometimes consist of keeping one's self in balance mentally. However, it is a harmful train of thought that needs at some point in a persons personal journey of recovery to be examined and steps put in place to let our supporters know that we care and understand how they feel as a person who champions us in our struggles as well.

NAMI although best known for the support of families and consumers who have been the victim of this disease has made great strides in bringing relief and understanding to its members. But there is still lacking a fundamental way to break the barriers of the actual problem that exists perpetuated by this disease, where neither the consumer our they loved one is in cue with the other person. Sure, there are groups for families of people effected and there are groups for the consumer themselves, but none exist in an effort to bring about a true all around healing form a disease that effects every facet of a person's life, and leaves much destruction in its path especially in the way of relationships.

In celebrating this Independence Day I began to reflect on things regarding our disease. We as consumers seek freedom from things like forced injections and forced electroshock treatments, as well as forced hospitalizations and other sketchy happenings in the mental health field which bring us a sense of imprisonment without due civil hearings which we are a part of. We seek the right to choose our own health provider even though many of our states individual systems are run in a one system serves all scheme. While all of these are important to our cause we also need to be aware of the freedom that other people have in the right not to have their rights infringed on by someone who is seeking their rights to be preserved. I know that this is a tight rope walking train of thought, but we need to accept that even though we may have an illness and be suffering symptoms, it is not an entitlement to us to force others to accept the actions that we present with when symptomatic. If we start with the basis and use it in the context of us as consumers and how we relate to those who support us, and adapt our issues of being symptomatic and how it effects them, and make sure that we are the ones that change adhering to the fact that we are the ones with the disease and recovery is a responsibility, then we would be able to see it on a larger scale as well. I hope you had a happy Fourth of July and that you brought to remembrance those who have laid down their lives so that we are afforded the rights which we have today. God bless.

J.D.Grace, QMHPP Consumer Advocate

View the original article here ezine.com

Effects of tobacco use among rural African American young adult males

ScienceDaily (Aug. 1, 2011) — Tobacco related disease is a primary source of mortality for African American men. Recent studies suggest that "alternative" tobacco products may have supplanted cigarettes as the most common products used by young African Americans, according to new research published in the August 2011 issue of Otolaryngology -- Head and Neck Surgery.

While the tobacco-related disease burden is higher in African American adults, prevalence rates of tobacco use among young African American teens are surprisingly lower than those reported for whites. This picture changes in early adulthood. According to the National Survey on Drug Use and Health conducted between 2002-2005, 29.7% of white males 18 years of age and older reported smoking cigarettes in the past 30 days as compared to 33.6%% of African American men.

Study results show cigarettes were the most common product ever (54%) and currently (39.9%) used. Participants who attended school for 12 years or attended religious services were less likely to use cigarettes. Marijuana and blunts, mini-cigars, were used next most commonly. Only 35 respondents (8.9%) currently used mini-cigars. Other products, bidis/kreteks, smokeless tobacco, and pipes were used uncommonly in this sample.

"Tobacco-related disease disparities are magnified in the rural counties of the Black Belt region in rural Alabama," said study author William Carroll, MD. "The Black Belt counties are named for the rich dark soil that supported the agricultural industry of an earlier era. These counties are predominantly African American, among the poorest counties in the US, and are characterized by striking health disparities when compared to the remainder of the state and the nation as a whole."

The study included interviewer administered surveys that were completed among African American males, aged 19 to 30, in five of the Black Belt counties of rural Alabama. Participants were stratified by income (above and below poverty level) and educational level (12th grade above/below) with target representation in the stratification table informed by U.S. census data for the Black Belt counties. Distribution of survey participants within the stratification table was monitored to ensure representative sampling of the Black Belt counties.

Cigarette use prevalence in rural Alabama far exceeds that measured statewide for African American men of the same age. Effective community based intervention must target cigarette initiation and cessation in this vulnerable population.

Otolaryngology -- Head and Neck Surgery is the official scientific journal of the American Academy of Otolaryngology -- Head and Neck Surgery Foundation (AAO-HNSF). The study's authors are William R. Carroll, MD; Herman R. Foushee, Jr., PhD; Claudia M. Hardy, MPA; Tammi Floyd; Catherine F. Sinclair, MD; Isabel Scarinci, PhD.

Story Source:

The above story is reprinted (with editorial adaptations by ScienceDaily staff) from materials provided by American Academy of Otolaryngology - Head and Neck Surgery, via EurekAlert!, a service of AAAS.

Journal Reference:

W. R. Carroll, H. R. Foushee, C. M. Hardy, T. Floyd, C. F. Sinclair, I. Scarinci. Tobacco Use among Rural African American Young Adult Males. Otolaryngology -- Head and Neck Surgery, 2011; 145 (2): 259 DOI: 10.1177/0194599811404968

Note: If no author is given, the source is cited instead.

Disclaimer: This article is not intended to provide medical advice, diagnosis or treatment. Views expressed here do not necessarily reflect those of ScienceDaily or its staff.

View the original article here sciencedaily.com

Corporal punishment may have long-term negative effects on children's intelligence

ScienceDaily (July 26, 2011) — Children in a school that uses corporal punishment performed significantly worse in tasks involving "executive functioning" -- psychological processes such as planning, abstract thinking, and delaying gratification -- than those in a school relying on milder disciplinary measures such as time-outs, according to a new study involving two private schools in a West African country.

The findings, published by the journal Social Development, suggest that a harshly punitive environment may have long-term detrimental effects on children's verbal intelligence and their executive-functioning ability. As a result, children exposed to a harshly punitive environment may be at risk for behavioral problems related to deficits in executive-functioning, the study indicates.

The study -- by Prof. Victoria Talwar of McGill University, Prof. Stephanie M. Carlson of the University of Minnesota, and Prof. Kang Lee of the University of Toronto, involved 63 children in kindergarten or first grade at two West African private schools. Their families lived in the same urban neighborhood. The parents were largely civil servants, professionals and merchants.

In one school, discipline in the form of beating with a stick, slapping of the head, and pinching was administered publicly and routinely for offenses ranging from forgetting a pencil to being disruptive in class. In the other school, children were disciplined for similar offenses with the use of time-outs and verbal reprimands.

While overall performance on the executive-functioning tasks was similar in the younger children from both schools, the Grade 1 children in the non-punitive school scored significantly higher than those in the punitive school. These results are consistent with research findings that punitive discipline may make children immediately compliant -- but may reduce the likelihood that they will internalize rules and standards. That, in turn, may result in lower self-control as children get older.

"This study demonstrates that corporal punishment does not teach children how to behave or improve their learning," Prof. Talwar said. "In the short term, it may not have any negative effects; but if relied upon over time it does not support children's problem-solving skills, or their abilities to inhibit inappropriate behaviour or to learn."

Despite the age-old debate over the effects of corporal punishment, few studies have examined the effects on executive-functioning ability. This new study uses a quasi-experimental design to derive data from a naturally occurring situation in which children were exposed to two different disciplinary environments. The parents of children in both schools endorsed physical punishment equally, suggesting that the school environment can account for the differences found.

There are many further questions that remain unanswered. "We are now examining whether being in a punitive environment day in and day out will have other negative impacts on children such as lying or other covert antisocial behaviors. Also, we are pursuing the long term consequences of experiencing corporal punishment. For example, what would children's cognitive and social development be 5 or 10 years down the road?," said Prof. Kang Lee.

The findings are relevant to current controversy. "In the U.S., 19 states still allow corporal punishment in schools, although more of them are now asking for parent permission to use it. With this new evidence that the practice might actually undermine children's cognitive skills needed for self-control and learning, parents and policy makers can be better informed," said Prof. Stephanie M. Carlson.

Story Source:

The above story is reprinted (with editorial adaptations by ScienceDaily staff) from materials provided by University of Toronto, via EurekAlert!, a service of AAAS.

Journal Reference:

Victoria Talwar, Stephanie M. Carlson and Kang Lee. Effects of a Punitive Environment on Children's Executive Functioning: A Natural Experiment. Social Development, 26 July 2011 DOI: 10.1111/j.1467-9507.2011.00617.x

Note: If no author is given, the source is cited instead.

Disclaimer: This article is not intended to provide medical advice, diagnosis or treatment. Views expressed here do not necessarily reflect those of ScienceDaily or its staff.

View the original article here

Positive effects of depression

ScienceDaily (May 4, 2011) — Sadness, apathy, preoccupation. These traits come to mind when people think about depression, the world's most frequently diagnosed mental disorder. Yet, forthcoming research in the Journal of Abnormal Psychology provides evidence that depression has a positive side-effect.

According to a new study by Bettina von Helversen (University of Basel, Switzerland), Andreas Wilke (Clarkson University), Tim Johnson (Stanford University), Gabriele Schmid (Technische Universität München, Germany), and Burghard Klapp (Charité Hospital Berlin, Germany), depressed individuals perform better than their non-depressed peers in sequential decision tasks.

In their study, participants -- who were healthy, clinically depressed, or recovering from depression -- played a computer game in which they could earn money by hiring an applicant in a simulated job search.

The game assigned each applicant a monetary value and presented applicants one-at-a-time in random order. Experiment participants faced the challenge of determining when to halt search and select the current applicant.

In addition to resembling everyday decision problems, such as house shopping and dating, the task has a known optimal strategy. As reported, depressed patients approximated this optimal strategy more closely than non-depressed participants did.

While healthy participants searched through relatively few candidates before selecting an applicant, depressed participants searched more thoroughly and made choices that resulted in higher payoffs.

This discovery provides the first evidence that clinical depression may carry some benefits. For decades, psychologists have debated whether depression has positive side-effects.

While researchers have recognized that most symptoms of depression impede cognitive functioning, scholars such as Paul Andrews of the Virginia Institute for Psychiatric and Behavioral Genetics and Andy Thomson of the University of Virginia have proposed that depression may promote analytical reasoning and persistence -- that is, qualities useful in complex tasks.

Past research provides some evidence in support of this possibility, but it focuses on individuals with low levels of non-clinical depression.

The forthcoming article shows that even severe depression might yield some beneficial side effects. Fully understanding the consequences of depression may help uncover its evolutionary roots and thus opening avenues for treatment.

Story Source:

The above story is reprinted (with editorial adaptations by ScienceDaily staff) from materials provided by Clarkson University.

Journal Reference:

Bettina von Helversen, Andreas Wilke, Tim Johnson, Gabriele Schmid, Burghard Klapp. Performance benefits of depression: Sequential decision making in a healthy sample and a clinically depressed sample.. Journal of Abnormal Psychology, 2011; DOI: 10.1037/a0023238

Note: If no author is given, the source is cited instead.

Disclaimer: This article is not intended to provide medical advice, diagnosis or treatment. Views expressed here do not necessarily reflect those of ScienceDaily or its staff.

View the original article here