Psychotherapies
Maybe this is for therapists only, but take a look at Wikipedia’s long list of psychotherapies if you’ve got some time to kill and some curiosity about the different approaches to therapy that are out there.
The list goes from Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (which I’ m a fan of) to Wilderness Therapy (haven’t tried).
The list skips several letters, so if you want to make a name in the therapy world, come up with something that starts with K, X, Y, or Z–you’ll stand alone. Zootherapy, anyone?
Birth Weight
Not mental health per se, but with big psych impact: A NYT article about how early habits (really early–starting in the womb) can get someone set on a course for obesity later in life.
Depth = Happiness
A (small) study relayed by the NYT suggests more deep conversation and less small talk promotes happiness. So, surprise (?), therapy is good.
What is TMS?
Psychologist Dr. Eric Sherman talks about treating chronic pain with talk therapy at Where the Client Is:
I have received photos from former patients in which they are break dancing, sky diving, or performing yoga contortions worthy of Cirque du Soleil. All of them had been advised to undergo surgery to correct disc herniations, the presumptive cause of their incapacitating pain. At the time of these photos, all of their scans would be unchanged, yet they are engaged in activities that are impossible for anyone who suffers from back pain.
Fat Discrimination
An essay in the NYT, For Obese People, Prejudice in Plain Sight, by Harriet Brown.
“As soon as I shook the interviewer’s hand, I knew she would not hire me […] She gave me a look of utter disdain, and made a big deal about whether we should take the stairs or ride the elevator to the room where we were going to talk. During the actual interview, she would not even look at me and kept looking to the side.”
Happiness Politics
Elizabeth Kolbert asks, What can policymakers learn from happiness research? in a New Yorker book review. A quick tease:
[T]he relationship between money and well-being turns out to be a lot less straightforward than is generally assumed.
Depressed Parenting
Being a parent is difficult and demanding on the best of days. But, as the L.A. Times reports, when parents are depressed, it gets much tougher–and kids are the ones most affected.
The fallout from parental depression doesn’t just go away. […] Children caught in the cold grip of a parent’s depression can carry patterns they grew up with into their own parenting — and beyond, says William Beardslee, a professor of child psychiatry at Harvard Medical School. “The payoff for dealing with this well is so high that it can have a positive effect on the next few generations.”
Tourette’s Syndrome Q&A
MDs answer reader questions about living with Tourette’s syndrome –part of the NYT’s Consults blog. Linked from there, Patient’s Voices–audio, including Louis Centanni, a comedian with Tourette’s.
Beer Goggles or “Attentional Myopia”
From PsyBlog, What Alcohol Does to Your Mind: Attentional Myopia takes a look at the narrowing effect drinking has on thinking:
According to a growing body of evidence collected over the last three or more decades, people’s Jekyll and Hyde behaviour while drinking can be understood by a simple idea which has some intriguing ramifications.
The alcohol myopia model says that drink makes our attentional system short-sighted and the more we drink, the more short-sighted it becomes. With more alcohol our brains become less and less able to process peripheral cues and more focused on what is right in front of us…
More here.
Behavioral Optometry vs. ADHD
Another massive mental-health related piece in the New York Times magazine–Concocting a Cure for Kids with Issues.
[Some] parents often don’t trust the mental-health professionals who usually treat children with “issues,” as we euphemistically tend to refer to problems like learning disabilities, attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder, autism or other developmental difficulties. […] That’s why some of these parents end up seeking the services of people like Stanley A. Appelbaum. Appelbaum is a behavioral optometrist…