Mind Over Meds
Mind Over Meds or “how I decided my psychiatry patients needed more from me than prescriptions”–a psychiatrist’s story, from the NYT Magazine.
[L]earning the formal techniques of therapy was like navigating without a compass. While I learned how to form an alliance with my patients and begin a good dialogue, becoming a skillful therapist requires much more practice than busy psychiatry residencies allow.
Your Brain on God
Nifty interactive brain at NPR.org links to series of stories about science and spirituality.
[S]cientists…are using new technologies to analyze the brains of people who claim they have touched the spiritual — from Christians who speak in tongues to Buddhist monks to people who claim to have had near-death experiences. Hear what they have discovered…
Stress, Depression, and Asthma
A study looks at how a depression and stress combo can trigger asthma symptoms in children.
If your child has asthma and is experiencing symptoms of depression, you may want to reconsider buying advanced tickets to the Twilight’s Eclipse. New research shows asthmatic children with depression are 50 percent more likely to have an attack when placed in stressful environments, and this includes the box-office hits, too.
Workaholism and Chronic Pain
Take a look at the Workaholics Anonymous Brief Guide (pdf). In addition to the 12-steps (pretty much the same as A.A.’s, with “work” replacing “alcohol”) and a quiz (“How Do I Know if I’m a Workaholic?”), there’s Tools of Recovery list. What’s especially striking about them to this reader is how completely they sync up with suggested approaches to undoing stress-related chronic pain. Here’s a sampling:
Substituting We do not add a new activity without eliminating from our schedule one that demands equivalent time and energy.
Underscheduling We allow more time than we think we need for a task or trip, allowing a comfortable margin to accommodate the unexpected.
Playing We schedule time for play, refusing to let ourselves work non-stop. We do not make our play into a work project.
Concentrating We try to do one thing at a time.
Pacing We work at a comfortable pace and rest before we get tired. To remind ourselves, we check our level of energy before proceeding to our next activity.We do not get “wound up” in our work, so we don’t have to unwind.
Relaxing We do not yield to pressure from others or attempt to pressure others. We remain alert to the people and situations that trigger feelings of pressure in us. We become aware of our own actions, words, body sensations and feelings that tell us we are responding with pressure. When we feel energy building up, we stop; we reconnect with our Higher Power and others around us.
Accepting We accept the outcomes of our endeavors, whatever the results, whatever the timing. We know that impatience, rushing and insisting on perfect results only slow down our recovery. We are gentle with our efforts, knowing that our new way of living requires much practice.
Balancing We balance our involvement in work with our efforts to develop personal relationships, spiritual growth, creativity and playful attitudes.
A pretty good set of principles–workaholic, chronic pain-sufferer, or not.
12-Step Meetings in Los Angeles
Building a list of 12-step groups, with websites and phone numbers, on the resources page. Another bigger–but possibly outdated–list is here. See something crucial missing? Please let me know. Here, in the meantime, are the biggies:
Alcoholics Anonymous: (323) 936-4343
www.lacoaa.org
Cocaine Anonymous: (310) 216-4444
www.ca4la.org
Narcotics Anonymous: (818) 773-9999
www.todayna.org
Al-Anon: (818) 760-7122
www.alanonla.org
Social Media Addiction
College students are hooked on Facebook, et al. Didn’t really take a study, but…
According to researchers, students describe their feelings when they have to abstain from using media in literally the same terms associated with drug and alcohol addictions: in withdrawal, frantically craving, very anxious, extremely antsy, miserable, jittery, and crazy.
Online Dating Pay Site Takedown
A lively takedown of pay dating sites on the OkCupid Blog–simultaneously demystifying the online dating process.
There is a negative correlation between the number of messages a man sends per day to the reply rate he gets.The more messages you send, the worse response rate you get. It’s not hard to see why this would be so. A rushed, unfocused message is bound to get a worse response than something you spend time on.
UPDATE: The takedown was taken down when Match.com acquired OK Cupid.
Trust Study
At PsyBlog, a study shows people overestimate their own trustworthiness and underestimate the trustworthiness of others:
In one experiment people honoured the trust placed in them between 80% and 90% of the time, but only estimated that others would honour their trust about 50% of the time.
Alzheimer’s and Reading
Though talking may go, reading is still possible for many Alzheimer’s patients, reports the NYT:
Caregivers may be surprised to learn that reading ability is not always destroyed by Alzheimer’s. “All of my research demonstrates that people who were literate maintain their ability to read until the end stages of dementia”…
Obesity and Dementia Linked
Studies show a connection between obesity and dementia, reports Olivia Judson in the NYT:
In the United States today, around one-third of adults are obese. At the same time, dementia is already one of the most costly and devastating health problems of old age. The possibility that obesity today will lead to higher rates of dementia in the future is, therefore, deeply alarming.