stir-crazy.org

We had a very nice Icarus meeting last night I thought.  I told everyone that my ultimate end game was to live somewhere where I could spend time in a hammock.  Someone else at the group said that one of their friend’s had an epiphany that what is wrong with people is that they are not rocked enough and this person went out an bought a rocking chair.  I always sleep better on the train even though the beds aren’t that comfortable it sways side-to-side and it is the most comforting sensation ever.

Here is the ultimate love nest for Jeremy (my husband of nearly 4 years) and myself:

I wouldn’t mind having it in my living room.

Eli Lilly’s response to pending legislation that would make Massachusetts the first state to ban all pharmaceutical company gifts - completely.

Tango is being studied as a treatment for depression.  At this point I’m pretty sure anything remotely positive or physically active will be more effective than anti-depressants which is why I am still itching to get off them.  I’ve been meaning to take up dance for awhile.  I used to love to dance and want to take it up again because like the story reports:

“In learning tango movements you have to focus your attention and be completely in the present moment,”

Mindfullness as a treatment for depression is absolutely vital and nothing tango is nothing new, just another way to find it.

[Source: Sydney Morning Herald]

There is a flier going around and I thought I would post it here because one of the people organizing it put a lot of thought into the mission statement:

We recognize that we live in a crazy world and insist that our sensitivities, visions and inspirations are not necessarily symptoms of illness.  We call for more options in understanding and treating emotional distress and we believe that everyone, regardless of income, should have access to these choices.  We are committed to non-hierarchical and anti-oppression organizing.   We strive to balance wellness and action in our efforts to educate ourselves, our peers and our community about mental health and wellness.  We respect diversity. Everyone is welcome.

For more info or to get involved: contact umnicarus [at] gmail [dot] com

This guy in Texas actually microwaved his 2-month-old infant and she survived but had some pretty severe burns/injuries.  He also had punched her and put her in a safe and refrigerator before the microwave.  So bizarre.  Apparently dad, someone by the name of Joshua Mauldin  has a “long history of mental illness”  and his lawyer says “he’s under a lot of medication still, he’s still under the anti-psychotics and anti-depressants” and that he’s not going to get the “treatment he needs” in prison.  What kind of effective “treatment” is there for someone who stuff their kid in a microwave?

Prosecutors said that Joshua Mauldin had a history of “lying about being mentally ill to get out of trouble.”  This case is such a testament to how our culture and court system is regarding mental health.  As far as I am concerned, anyone putting a baby in a microwave has some serious problems  and it wouldn’t be a lie to get out of trouble.  Nor so I think that “mental illness” should be a a cop-out but I deeply dislike our legal and prison system in general.  He apparently had a hallucination during the incident feeling like “mud was running up his body and consuming him.”

I guess my question is what should be done to help Joshua Mauldin?  What made him nuke his kid in the first place?  If he was so fucked up what kind of woman would breed with him and maybe more importantly let him watch her child solo? He was sentenced to 25 years in prison and will probably be out in half that and it seems there is nothing to be done.  And the baby girl.  There’s someone that exists and lives and breathes in our world whose dad put her in a microwave and it burned off pieces of her.

I am a bit disappointed that the settlement in Alaska was ONLY $15 million, but Alaska is a very tiny state population wise (48/50) and because the case was focused around the increased costs of Medicaid due to Zyprexa I would still say that it is a respectable amount. And the amounts Zyprexa will cause them will be in the billions with so many states in line.

Eli Lilly and Co has urged patients to continue with medications that have been prescribed and discuss their concerns with their doctor, after the Connecticut Attorney-General [Richard Blumenthalin] accused the drugmaker of illegally marketing and concealing serious side effects of its top-selling schizophrenia drug, Zyprexa.

Their press statement goes on to say:

‘The tone and content of the release is a disservice to patients who may currently be taking Zyprexa to treat a life-threatening disease.’

and

‘We remain confident in the safety and efficacy of Zyprexa based on the depth and breadth of scientific research conducted around the world,’ it said.

‘We believe these claims are without merit and we will vigorously defend against them.’ [source: Forbes]

Ha ha ha! Eli Lilly should take to manufacturing crack since they are clearly smoking it! And people, if your doctor has you on Zyprexa you may want to consider that a red flag. Just a thought.

As I’ve said before: I have gained weight from Zyprexa (and other atypicals) but I’m not interested in suing Eli Lilly. But I am extremely gleeful everytime I see them get pinned to the wall. Money is the only language they understand. Wheeee!

I’m on week 2 of my elimination diet.  In the last week my skin has cleared up dramatically and I’m pretty sure it’s either dairy or gluten that I am sensitive to.  If it’s dairy I will stay vegan and if it’s gluten I’ll have to see how hard it is to stick to a gluten-free vegan diet.  I was just talking to one of my neighbors who also recently quit smoking and cut gluten out of her diet and was telling me how much better it made her feel.  She also encouraged me to try Bikram yoga which is the hot kind you do in a room heated to 105 degrees.  I also sweat a lot less than I used to but I think that’s mostly from not smoking as my body isn’t in a constant state of flushing itself out.  The kind of yoga I do now is just the YogaFit program twice weekly that they offer through my work.

Dr. Mark Hyman who is my new favorite and author of the UltraMetabolism program I am going through (although I haven’t cut out caffeine or unrefined sweeteners completely and still drink Naked Juice) has a blog and wrote some interesting things about depression and food sensitivities I wanted to pass along:

“Depression” is simply a label we give to people who have a depressed mood most of the time, have lost interest or pleasure in most activities, are fatigued, can’t sleep, have no interest in sex, feel hopeless and helpless, can’t think clearly, or can’t make decisions.

But that label tells us NOTHING about the cause of those symptoms.

In fact, there are dozens of causes of depression — each one needing a different approach to treatment.

Just having an MD say that the term depression is pretty much meaningless makes me all warm and fuzzy inside.  He goes on to talk about how antidepressants are generally ineffective for many people and the many side effects of antidepressants.

The team of researchers that reported their findings in “The New England Journal of Medicine” took a critical look at all the studies done on antidepressants, both published and unpublished… After looking at 74 studies involving 12 drugs and over 12,000 people, they discovered that 37 of 38 trials with positive results were  published, while only 14 of 36 negative studies were published.

This isn’t just a problem with antidepressants. It’s a problem with scientific research. Some drug companies even pay or threaten scientist[s] to not publish negative results on their drugs.

Dr. Hyman is a proponent of functional medicine, which aims to treat the problems not the symptoms.  This sounds very logical to me and is what I am currently exploring.

A 23-year-old had been anxious and depressed most of her life and spent her childhood and adolescence on various cocktails of antidepressants.

Turns out, she suffered from food allergies that made her depressed. Food allergies cause inflammation, and studies now show inflammation in the brains of depressed people. In fact, researchers are studying powerful anti- inflammatory drugs used in autoimmune disease  such as Enbrel for the treatment of depression.

So after she eliminated her IgG or delayed food allergies, her depression went away, she got off her medication — and she lost 30 pounds as a side effect!

I don’t think that food allergies are the only cause of depression but I think it is a component and the American diet is terrible.  And I think it’s easier to clean up one’s diet and reap the myriad of other benefits from living a healthy lifestyle as well.  Dr. Hyman is having a book out next year called the UltraMind Solution which I am very interested to read.

There is a meeting to start a Minnesota MindFreedom chapter Tuesday, April 22nd. Gathering at 6:30, meeting at 7:00.  It’s at the Bryant Square Park and Community Center. (3101 Bryant Avenue South. Minneapolis, MN 55408)

What I want to know regarding all the semi-recent news story regarding finding antidepressants and antipsychotics in the water supply (which I’ve known about the former for quite awhile):

IS MY BRITA FILTER FILTERING THEM OUT OR NOT?

I am just curious.  Probably not though.  Maybe I need to invest in one of those reverse osmosis things.  Plus one’s skin is permeable.  It’s just kind of gross.

Quite bizarre, I think, but then the whole concept of sin is:

“You might be shocked to find out there are some denominations that do harm to people,” said Patricia Murphy, chaplain and assistant professor of psychiatry at Rush University. “Some congregations teach that depression is a sin … that’s the reaction they get when they turn to their pastor.”

Depression a sin? A biological disease of the brain? Or normal human reactions to our culture? A bad diet high in junk carbohydrates? It’s 2008 and people don’t know which end is up (neither of course, it’s a matter of perspective) and people are still being guilt tripped by their religious leaders. Read on:

“Studies have shown that faith leaders are least supportive [with mental health problems],” said Gregg-Schroeder. “There’s this attitude that if you pray harder, you’ll be able to pull yourself out of it. I’ve gone to funerals of people who were told to just pray to Jesus and stop taking your meds.”

Bad advice on two counts. Never automatically stop taking your meds and prayer/meditation/intention is great but only if YOU think it is. Not someone else. The crazy thing about this crazy world is that things only have the value that we give them and value in this case equals power.

“Depression patients with a strong, intrinsic, religious belief — it holds their life together,” said Dr. Harold Koenig, professor of psychiatry and behavioral sciences and associate professor of medicine at Duke University Medical Center. “These people do better.”

In a study that examined 1,000 patients over a six-month period, Koenig found that religious depression patients recovered from the depression faster than those who were non-religious.

“A person has to [also] be engaged in a religious community, attending religious services once a week or more, reading a scriptures at least three times a week and praying once a day,” said Koenig. “If they are doing that, they have a greater than 50 percent increase in speed of depression recovery.

If this article was slotted like so many others it would say that “Religion Causes Mental Illness” and I would agree that it is certainly capable of causing insanity on many levels. But it is a complicated subject for me personally.

[source: ABC News]