Oliver Sacks, 82, died on Sunday. The New York-based British neurologist spent a lifetime working with complex cases, along the outer margins of human experience, at the intersection of brain, mind and the mysterious electricity that runs through our lives and connects us all.

Sacks was a gifted and generous writer, too, and shared what he knew in a wealth of highly-accessible books and articles, mostly in the form of extraordinary case studies—dispatches from the far-flung fringes of consciousness (including his own, such as his memorable memoir to weekend drug-taking during the 1960s).

He wrote of bizarre cases of brain damage; savants, amnesiacs, colourblind artists; a surgeon with Tourette’s, a man who developed a passion for music after being struck by lightning, and—the title of his bestselling book--The Man Who Mistook His Wife for a Hat.

Many neurologists lack Sacks’ sense of wonder. They are fixated on the machinery of the brain; Sacks was interested in the ghost in the machine, too. In his lifetime there has been an avalanche of new neuropsychological knowledge born of extraordinary advances in functional neuroimaging techniques. Brain scans are fascinating, but perhaps tell us little of human souls. They are the flickering shadows on the walls of Plato’s Cave.

An atheist by disposition, Sacks nevertheless had many encounters through his work with something larger, with the numinous. He was perhaps a kindred spirit to Albert Einstein, who described himself as both an atheist and a devoutly religious man.

Also evident in Sacks’ writing is his humanity; a deep compassion for his patients and an appreciation for the courage and dignity they brought to their peculiar, individual challenges. And for the never-ending creativity, resourcefulness and power of human brains, minds and spirits. Writing in The New York Times on the first day of 2011, Sacks said: “I have seen hundreds of patients with various deficits — strokes, Parkinson’s and even dementia — learn to do things in new ways, whether consciously or unconsciously, to work around those deficits. That the brain is capable of such radical adaptation raises deep questions. To what extent are we shaped by, and to what degree do we shape, our own brains? And can the brain’s ability to change be harnessed to give us greater cognitive powers? The experiences of many people suggest that it can.”

In fact, deficits in one area can stimulate extraordinary growth in another. Sacks wrote in An Anthropologist on Mars that illnesses and disorders “can play a paradoxical role in bringing out latent powers, developments, evolutions, forms of life that might never be seen or even be imaginable in their absence.” 

There are many examples of this notion that you need grit in the oyster to make a pearl, that roses grow out of the dirt, that some disadvantage can create unexpected advantage. In the book David & Goliath: Underdogs, Misfits and the Art of Battling Giants, Malcolm Gladwell  speaks of “desirable difficulties," citing one study that claims a third of entrepreneurs have dyslexia. “We see so many entrepreneurs who have dyslexia," he writes. “When you talk to them, they will tell you that they succeeded not in spite of their disability, but because of it. For them, they view their disability as desirable.”

Many great pioneers, creators and agents of social change have personal histories of hardship and trauma. Life’s hurdles can trip us up. But they can also make us extremely good at jumping.

Sacks' personal hurdle was his sexuality. Tragically, he felt he had to keep the fact that he was gay hidden from view. For more than half his adult life he was celibate, and alone, only finding a partner and falling in love at the age of 77. Perhaps such a famine in his personal life was not entirely unrelated to the extraordinary feast of his work and other interests.

Wake up call
Dr. Sacks is perhaps best known for his work with patients who had spent decades frozen in a catatonic state caused by encephalitic lethargica. He describes entering a ward of such patients in 1966: “I suppose the first impression was that I had entered a museum or waxwork gallery,” Sacks told NPR in 1985 (it’s worth listening to the interview to get a measure of his eloquence). “They were motionless figures who were transfixed in strange postures — sometimes rather dramatic postures, sometimes not — with an absolute absence of motion, without any hint of motion.”

Sacks was able to defrost these utterly frozen patients, to bring them back to life, sometimes quite suddenly, by administering the-then brand new Parkinson’s drug Levadopa or synthetic dopamine. Like Sleeping Beauty, these patients woke up. Their experiences became the basis for Sacks’ 1973 book Awakenings, which was adapted into a film starring Robin Williams and Robert DeNiro, and the Harold Pinter play A Kind of Alaska.

“It seemed to be the dawn of a new day, the birth of a new life,” said Sacks of the resurrections he performed. “There was great joy and a sort of lyrical delight in the world which had been given back. I remember one patient stroking leaves and looking at the night lights of New York on the horizon and everything was a source of delight and gratitude. This was the quality at first. But then, there were problems....”

The problems, Sacks goes on to explain, were ones of excess, going from one extreme to another. “The patients had had not enough life, not enough movement, not enough emotion, not enough dopamine, and now they started to have too much, and things started to run away.”

Most patients crashed and burned, but eventually climbed down from their manic, frenzied highs to reach some kind of balance, a middle way, a peace. They became philosophical about their lives.

“I think illness and deep illness may force one to think, even if one hasn't been a thinking person before,” continued Sacks. “Many of the patients seemed to be poetic, to have become poetic. Auden has a phrase about being ‘wounded into art’ and I sometimes felt that was the case with many of the patients.”

They came to accept that they had been asleep through much of their lives, and were grateful at last for the opportunity to live.

How many of us on this earth, too, have spent lengthy spells of our lives “asleep” in various ways? Who is too busy, afraid, angry, defended, depressed, anxious, stressed, numbed, stuck or otherwise diminished to see and to feel and to be? To be fully alive?

Two weeks before he died, Sacks wrote a final essay in The New York Times entitled “Sabbath.” It concludes: “And now, weak, short of breath, my once-firm muscles melted away by cancer, I find my thoughts, increasingly, not on the supernatural or spiritual, but on what is meant by living a good and worthwhile life — achieving a sense of peace within oneself. I find my thoughts drifting to the Sabbath, the day of rest, the seventh day of the week, and perhaps the seventh day of one’s life as well, when one can feel that one’s work is done, and one may, in good conscience, rest.”

Before we too find ourselves on our deathbed, before it’s all too late, we could all use some awakening. There is still time to engage and be moved and grateful for the wonders and experiences of the world. To live perhaps a bit more like Sacks, who described himself in February as a man of “extreme immoderation in all my passions.”

We should all be stroking leaves.

—John Barton

It’s summertime, that supposedly easy-living season when you might be able to slow down a little, maybe take a holiday, and possibly even read an actual book. If so, my personal top-10 ranking of the best self-help books can be found here.

Since it began in 1859, the self-help publishing industry has grown into an $11 billion business that shows no signs of slowing down. There are thousands upon thousands of self-help books, and some are truly terrible. But the worst I’ve ever encountered is the pernicious bestseller You Can Heal Your Life, by Louise Hay, which inexplicably has sold over 50 million copies.

“I believe we create every so-called illness in our body,” declares Hay. If you can limit yourself to having only “joyous, loving thoughts,” she says, you won’t get ill. And if you already are ill, you can cure yourself—all you have to do is “consciously release any mental patterns ... that could express as dis-ease in any way.”

Psyche+Soma
I do believe that the physical and the psychological cannot be separated, despite Western medicine’s tendency sometimes to do just that. There is a delicate interplay between the two—as the book Why Do People Get Ill? argues, we are psychosomatic beings and illness could certainly better be treated in a more holistic manner. And as a counsellor, I have found it can be enormously useful in the therapy room to explore the possible psychodynamic or symbolic meanings of clients’ symptoms.

But Hay goes to the absurd, simplistic extreme of arguing that the cause of any illness—or even any accident or injury—is all in the mind. It’s the kind of rigid cause-and-effect certainty, based on nothing more than Hay’s imagination, that would make that old Scottish skeptic David Hume turn in his grave.

More seriously, Hay rejects every basic principle of biology and medical science—most doctors, she says, only work “in one of two ways: They poison or they mutilate.” Peddling false hope for profit is dangerous and unethical. Anyone who follows her lead and shuns modern medical help in the wishful hope of being able to think themselves better is taking a huge risk. They are taking their life in their hands.

Hay represents a return to the Dark Ages, The Unenlightenment, when disease and disability were seen as some kind of divine retribution for moral lapses or sins. If you’re guilty these days of the crime of not thinking positively enough, of finding life difficult, unfair or frightening, well then, says Hay, you will be punished with some ghastly affliction. So not only are you ill, you must now also suffer the additional toxic burdens of shame and guilt, born of Hay’s oppressive judgement that you did this to yourself.

Here’s an extraordinary excerpt from a 2008 interview in The New York Times: 
When I asked her if, since people’s thoughts are responsible for their conditions, victims of genocide might be to blame for their own deaths, she said: “I probably wouldn’t say it to them. I don’t go around making people feel bad. That’s not what I’m after.” I pressed harder: Did she believe they are to blame? “Yes, I think there’s a lot of karmic stuff that goes on, past lives.” So, I asked, with a situation like the Holocaust, the victims might have been an unfortunate group of souls who deserved what they got because of their behavior in past lives? “Yes, it can work that way,” Hay said. “But that’s just my opinion.”

Making Hay
Hay, 88, is a former fashion model who was diagnosed with cervical cancer in the 1970s, something she attributes to her fury and lack of forgiveness over the abuse she suffered as a child, including reportedly being raped at age 5. She refused medical treatment for the cancer, and claims to have cured herself with positive thinking, diet and enemas. Writes The New York Times: “There is, she says, no doctor left who can confirm this improbable story.”

She wrote a small pamphlet of “cures” in 1976. This became the book Heal Your Body which spawned a vast New Age publishing empire whose innumerable titles promise health, wealth, and visitations from angels.

A big chunk of the book is “The List”—a compendium of various ailments and their causes:

• Cancer, for instance, is “caused by deep resentment held for a long time until it literally eats away at the body....the individual lives with a sense of self-pity....people with cancer are also very self-critical...carrying hatreds.” How does that message go down at, say, Great Ormond Street Children’s Hospital, or in oncology wards the world over, or among families that have been impacted by cancer, which by the way is most families: cancer will afflict 50 percent of us in the U.K. at some point in our lives.

• I’d like to see Hay address a roomful of people with diabetes and tell them its supposed cause: “Longing for what might have been. A great need to control. Deep sorrow. No sweetness left.”

• Aids is not caused by the HIV virus but from “a strong belief in not being good enough. Denial of the self. Sexual guilt.”

• “Most bladder problems come from being ‘pissed off,’ usually at a partner.”

• Old people increasingly find walking to be difficult, not as a natural consequence of the aging process but because “their understanding has been warped, and they often feel there is no place to go.”

• Strokes are caused by “negative thinking”; miscarriages by “fear of the future.”

• Animal bites are caused by “anger turned inward. A need for punishment”; bug bites by contrast happen when you have “guilt over small things.”

• “Accidents are no accident. Like everything else in our lives, we create them.”

These deranged ramblings would be funny if they didn’t inflict so much pain on vulnerable people who are already suffering. Blaming the victim is an insult to anyone who has ever got sick; to the memory of any family member, friend or colleague who has died of anything other than natural causes. As someone who has struggled with chronic illness I find Hay’s philosophies to be at best highly presumptuous and at worst deeply offensive.

Such irresponsible quackery should come with a health warning.

So a buffoonish ultra-conservative known mostly for his hair has decided that he wants to run the country. Boris Johnson? No, not yet, though that day will undoubtedly come. It’s the other one, the billionaire property tycoon Donald Trump, who on Tuesday declared that he’s going to run for President. Don’t laugh. It could happen. The White House may well yet be rebranded The Gold House. Despite TV shows like The West Wing, Veep or House of Cards, so often the truth of American politics seems far stranger, more comical, and more sinister than fiction.

We know Trump’s politics: the law of the jungle. In his get-rich, self-help, self-homage book Think Big, he writes: “The world is a vicious and brutal place. We think we’re civilised. In truth, it’s a cruel world and people are ruthless. They act nice to your face, but underneath they’re out to kill you.” Poverty is regarded as a moral failure—if you were foolish enough not to have been born with a wealthy property developer as a parent, as Trump was, well, that’s your problem; you are one of life’s “losers” (a favourite Trump word). Trump’s would be a government by the rich for the rich.

What of the man himself? To be near him—as I was last summer when I interviewed him in Trump Tower for a magazine article—is to sit in a wind tunnel of self-promotion; a nonstop volley of bluster, salesmanship and foghorn declarations of greatness. A favourite tactic is to cite “unnamed sources” who affirm his brilliance; another is simply to offer self-serving statements of grandiosity that just aren’t true. Surely he doth protest too much. We might conclude that, like so many narcissists, he must be compensating for some chronic, deep-rooted insecurity. Or is it all just an act, the perpetuation of a rather cartoonish public image, a kind of parody of tycoonery that he plays up to and makes fun of even, all in the interests of notoriety and maximizing the bottom line?

Narcissists don’t often voluntarily seek counselling as that would imply they were less than perfect. In many ways, Trump is the exact opposite of a typical client, who might be unsure, lacking in confidence, anxious, emotional, low in energy, afraid, highly sensitive, guilty, socially awkward, and so on. So can we learn anything from Trump? Might looking at someone on the far, opposite, extreme end of a spectrum from where we are perhaps move us towards some kind of healthier position in the middle; some kind of balance? I’m not saying we should be like Trump—far from it—but sometimes we could all use just a little bit of what he has. And sometimes lessons come from unexpected quarters (the Dalai Lama said our enemies are our best teachers).

Here are 3 things to take from Trump:

• Consider a different narrative. A few years ago, a young up-and-coming American golf pro called Natalie Gulbis told an interviewer that she’d been dumped by Ben Roethlisberger, the Super Bowl quarterback. A little while later, she met Trump, who scolded her. “I never want to read that again,” he said. “From now on, I want to read that you dumped him. You don't get dumped.” It may not be exactly true, but just thinking about things in a different way can be empowering and break us free from our relentlessly punitive internal dialogue, which plays in our heads constantly like a broken record. A CBT therapist might encourage you to challenge your “negative automatic thoughts” (“he dumped me—I’m worthless”). Trump, unerringly a believer in “positive thinking,” replaces them with the opposite extreme, relentlessly positive automatic thoughts (“I dumped him—he’s worthless”). These are just as distorted; in his book The Art of the Deal, he calls this “truthful hyperbole . . . an innocent form of exaggeration.” Whatever you tell yourself about your life, your relationships, you, how about playing with some different interpretations and then settling on something in the middle? These are called alternative balanced thoughts (“it didn’t work out but we’re both moving on”).

• Don’t let anyone intimidate you. Trump can walk into a meeting, appear on TV, make a presentation to thousands of people and not be in the slightest bit nervous. Few of us have such ice-cold blood running through our veins, nor would we want to, but being able to feel like you have every right to be on this earth, to think what you think, do what you do and be who are, without apology, is something we can all achieve—regardless of who you are, what you’ve done, or how you feel about yourself. In fact, someone can only take that away from us if we let them (as Eleanor Roosevelt said: “No-one can make you feel inferior without your consent”). “Don’t let people push you around,” advises Trump in Think Big.

• Act now, think later. If you think about a good idea for long enough, it’s possible to turn it into a bad idea. Worrying about all the things that could go wrong before you’ve even taken the first step, all the barriers you might encounter along the way, can be paralysing. It’s a much bigger barrier than the actual barriers themselves, which may turn out to not be there, or not that bad, or useful, changing your direction in an interesting way and teaching you something. Clients will sometimes speak of their big plans “next year” or “after my mother dies” or “when the kids are grown up.” We tell ourselves that when the planets are all aligned, then I’ll take that courageous step. But our “conditions” ensure it never happens. We make ever-more detailed plans as a defence against acting on them.

How about just doing it, starting today? That’s what Trump does. He gets things done. “Do not wait around for the ‘right time’ or until you are perfect,” he writes in Think Big. “It will never happen. Start right away. You will learn more from doing than you would learn from anything else.” If you still don’t do it, maybe you might allow for the possibility that actually you don’t really want to and, with relief, give it up.

You don’t have to be anything like Donald Trump (really, it’s better that you’re not). You don’t have to “think big.” But telling better stories about yourself, taking your rightful place in the world and among your fellow humans, and acting rather than endlessly cogitating, will all help you become somebody much more important than Trump: you.

CAITLYN JENNER

I’ve heard lots of different reactions from friends and family to the Vanity Fair cover of former Olympic gold medalist Bruce Jenner, who has been rechristened as a woman called Caitlyn. They range from “beautiful,” “amazing” to “train wreck,” “horror show” and everything in between.
Some people might find it hard to understand the desire to change genders, just as it can be hard to understand the desire to believe in religion X, vote for political party Y, or indulge in hobby Z. But in a civil society, we fully respect the rights of people to do these things (within the law), and we abhor discrimination, prejudice and all forms of attack.
Transgenderism is as old as the hills, but only now, thanks to people like Jenner, Leelah Alcorn, former boxing promoter Frank Moloney, Chaz Bono, Eddie Izzard, Danny La Rue, Chelsea Manning, Jan Morris and Grayson Perry, is it becoming widely accepted and understood as a vibrant and valid thread in the tapestry of modern culture. Jenner’s very public transformation empowers all kinds of different people to accept and be proud of who they are.
One thing that didn’t change in the gender reassignment process: Jenner’s courage.
—John Barton

Kim Kardashian may have broken the internet, but Caitlyn Jenner united it
From The Guardian:

Caitlyn Jenner’s Vanity Fair cover was expected to create a controversial, watercooler cultural moment, but it turned into something much more extraordinary. Because the image of Caitlyn Jenner – winner of an Olympic gold medal as a man named Bruce, and member of the Kardashians, the family pop culture loves to hate – brought no controversy, only applause. Kim Kardashian may have broken the internet, but Caitlyn Jenner did something even more astonishing. She united it.

Jenner, Annie Leibovitz and Vanity Fair produced an image that won the world over. And this, in a society where acceptance and understanding of transgender issues – while progressing – is still in its infancy. The magazine is not yet on newsstands, and while the interview is available online for digital subscribers, the overwhelming majority of comment has been based on the cover image. In it, Jenner wears an ivory satin corset, so that her cinched waist, falling just above the coverline (“Call me Caitlyn”) forms the central focus. An hourglass woman’s body in white, in a 1950s cut bodice, surely references Marilyn Monroe – in the minds of Leibovitz and the Vanity Fair art directors, anyway, if not of Jenner. Monroe stands for all-Americanism, for blue-chip Hollywood glamour (as opposed, perhaps, to the modern Kardashian brand of fame), for ultimate femininity and for vulnerability. But while Jenner’s hands are out of shot, behind her back, the photo spotlights the strong muscles of her arms and thighs, reminding us of those Olympic medals, and serving as an antidote to the unguarded, exposed, Monroe-ish appeal of her corsetted waist and coy, expression, half-turned from the camera.

In guidelines reissued yesterday, the media-monitoring organisation GLAAD warns against “superficial critiques of a transgender person’s femininity or masculinity. Commenting on how well a transgender person conforms to conventional standards of femininity or masculinity is reductive and insulting.” I hope it does not break these guidelines to say that the cover image draws on the iconography of strong American women. Jessica Lange, to whom many have noticed a resemblance, has had a four-decade acting career. (Next spring, Lange will return to Broadway, starring alongside Gabriel Byrne in a revival of the Eugene O’Neill play A Long Day’s Journey Into Night.) Cindy Crawford, of whom Jenner’s Coke-can curls and athletic body are also reminiscent, has sustained a modelling career since the 1980s, and most recently starred as the take-no-prisoners Headmistress in the music video for Taylor Swift’s Bad Blood. Lena Dunham captured the spirit of the image immediately after its release, when she tweeted: “I just want Caitlyn Jenner to take me out and teach me how to drive a stick shift in heels.”

• Caitlyn Jenner's Big Début (The New Yorker)

• Here's what I learned after creating Caitlyn Jenner Twitter bot @she_not_he (The Independent)
 

PICKS OF THE WEEK

What is Impostor Syndrome?
Can’t take a compliment? Feel like a fake? Convinced you’ll be unmasked at any moment? From quickanddirtytips.com:

Impostor Syndrome is a pervasive feeling of self-doubt, insecurity, or fraudulence despite often overwhelming evidence to the contrary.  It strikes smart, successful individuals.  It often rears its head after an especially notable accomplishment, like admission to a prestigious university, public acclaim, winning an award, or earning a promotion. 

Impostor Syndrome doesn’t discriminate: people of every demographic suffer from feeling like a fraud, though minorities and women are hardest-hit.   

Impostor syndrome comes in 3 flavors:
Type #1: “I’m a fake.”
Type #2: “I got lucky.” 
Type #3: “Oh, this old thing?”


How does psychotherapy really work?
From Psychology Today:

Psychotherapy is a strange process. Two people get together and they talk. Somehow through this conversation, one of them offers help and the other receives it. From an outsider’s perspective, there are all sorts of ideas about how this so-called “talking cure” works—most of them, by the way, are not true. One is that your therapist knows all the answers. Another is that he or she will tell you what to do. Another is that people listen to their therapists because therapists have it all together—also, not true. While we might wish for therapy to work in these ways, that’s not how it works at all.

The poet, Rainer Maria Rilke, understood something about the mystery of how an interpersonal encounter can change someone’s life. In his Letters to A Young Poet, he wrote, “Ultimately, and precisely in the deepest and most important matters, we are unspeakably alone; and many things must happen, many things must go right, a whole constellation of events must be fulfilled, for one human being to successfully advise or help another.”

The psychoanalyst, Wilfred Bion, took it one step further. He wrote, “When two people meet, an emotional storm is created.” I like this idea because it begins to convey something of the way in which psychotherapy is an alive, dynamic, turbulent process, not just a sterile exchange of ideas or mechanical prescription for behavior change. Therapy is a vital process, a charged experience. Its power to transform and bring about lasting personal change cannot really be understood from psychology textbooks or experimental research, necessary and helpful as these methods are.


U.K. NEWS

Government quells fears it could scrap coalition’s mental health funding pledge
Promises, promises. From Community Care:

The Conservative government will invest the extra £1.25bn in children’s mental health services over the next parliament that was promised by the coalition prior to the election, the Department of Health has said.

The funding pledge was included in the coalition’s 2015-16 budget proposals set out in March. But the Conservatives election victory means that chancellor George Osborne will announce an ‘emergency budget’ in July that will replace the coalition plans with his party’s own spending commitments.

Mental health organisations feared that the Chancellor could scrap the coalition’s promise of more investment in mental health services for children and new mothers but the Department of Health insists that the funding will be made available.

A DH spokesperson said: “Our commitment to mental health is clear — we are investing £1.25 billion over the next five years and we expect local commissioners to give real terms funding increases [for mental health] this year.”

The DH issued the statement in response to a report from six leading mental health organisations that warned that services are “heading for a real crisis” without urgent action on funding.
 

Frequently bullied kids 'twice as likely' to be depressed at 18
From Medical News Today:

A study of just under 4,000 teenagers in the UK has found that bullying - "victimization by peers" - during adolescence is associated with a higher risk of depression in young adulthood.

The study published in The BMJ was led by experimental psychologist Prof. Lucy Bowes of the University of Oxford in the UK.

It had a longitudinal observational design to examine the relationship between bullying at 13 years of age and depression at 18 years of age.

A survey about bullying was completed at the younger age, and a computer-based clinical assessment of depression was completed as the 3,898 participants entered adulthood in the Avon Longitudinal Study of Parents and Children (ALSPAC), a UK community-based birth cohort.

A dose-response relationship was observed between increasing amounts of adolescent bullying and depression in later years:

• In the group of teenagers who had reported no victimization at all, just over 5% went on to have depression

• A greater burden of the mental ill health was seen among the teenagers who had reported being bullied at 13 years of age between one and three times in a 6-month period - 7.1% had depression at 18

• The proportion of depressed people at this age rose to 14.8% in the teenagers who had reported being bullied by their peers more than once a week.


Glan Clwyd Hospital: Mental health care was 'horrific'
From BBC News:

The leader of the Welsh Conservatives has called for a full inquiry into the NHS after a damning report into care at a mental health unit in Denbighshire.

Andrew RT Davies said assurances were needed that there could be no similar failings elsewhere after "institutional abuse" was found at the Tawel Fan ward at Glan Clwyd Hospital in Bodelwyddan.

Families described patients being treated like animals in a zoo.

Betsi Cadwaladr University Health Board has since apologised.

Mr Davies called on the Welsh government to establish a Keogh-style inquiry - set up following the Mid-Staffordshire Hospital scandal - and hold a "full and frank" debate in the assembly to ensure measures have been put in place to protect the NHS in Wales from a repeat of the problems at Tawel Fan.

"We have to have action to make sure this doesn't happen again," he told BBC Radio Wales.

Big White Wall: Expanding mental health access through the digital sphere
From Health Affairs:

There is a preponderance of evidence that conventional approaches to the provision of mental health care do not meet the needs of a large portion of the population. Due to limitations of scale alone, there is an inherent misalignment between the number of individuals who can benefit from mental health assistance and the availability of traditional services.

Yet scale is not the only issue. Stigma, accessibility, and medical models of treatment are equal deterrents to seeking help. Poor mental health impacts us all and carries a huge socio-economic cost. Technology offers a solution and is already helping those experiencing depression, anxiety, and other such problems to lead healthier, more productive, happier lives.

Big White Wall (BWW)—a digital and behavioral health and well-being service facilitated by health care professionals—is one of these solutions. In the organization’s name, “big” recognizes the infinite nature of human emotion; “white” conveys the blank canvas the service provides; and, “wall” symbolizes shelter and support, as well as the barriers we sometimes need to break through to improve mental health.

We developed BWW in the United Kingdom in 2007, and in 2013, it was designated a High Impact Innovation by the National Health Service (NHS). In 2014, it became the first digital mental health service to receive Care Quality Commission registration, and in 2015, it was formally endorsed by the National Health Service (NHS) and promoted through NHS Choices.

Big White Wall expanded to Australasia in 2011, and to the United States in 2014. Our experience has shown that providing a wide range of behavioral health self-management services, anonymized peer support, and immediate access to evidence-based tools via a digital platform empowers people to seek assistance for their mental health challenges for the first time.

U.S.A. NEWS 

Clinton's campaign will make substance abuse, mental health key issues
From the Washington Post:

Hillary Rodham Clinton's policy advisers held discussions with stakeholders in Iowa and New Hampshire who are involved in helping people dealing with substance abuse and mental illness, as Clinton looks to make those issues a large part of her 2016 presidential campaign.

Clinton senior policy advisers Ann O'Leary and Maya Harris participated in Google hangouts Thursday and Friday with treatment providers, law enforcement officers, local politicians and others in Iowa and New Hampshire, a Clinton aide said. The groups discussed the scourge of opiate addiction, which is decimating New Hampshire and is a growing problem in Iowa, and the use of methamphetamines in Iowa.


Group sues to close Jewish gay counselling service
More death throes of the ridiculous “pray the gay away” practice known as “conversion therapy.” From Breitbart News:

Jury selection begins today in a trial that pits a $340 million left-wing group against a small Jewish non-profit. The result could be the closing of all counseling services in New Jersey that aim to help those with unwanted same-sex desires.

The Southern Poverty Law Center is using New Jersey’s strong Consumer Protection Act to sue a group called Jews Offering New Alternatives to Healing (JONAH) that refers men and women to psychological counselors working in the field known as “sexual orientation change efforts.”

SPLC claims JONAH defrauded four men by telling them their same-sex desires could be treated and they could become purely or largely heterosexual. The case is a blueprint for how SPLC intends to go after similar counseling services around the country. Indeed, SPLC and a group called Truth Wins Out, run by gay activist Wayne Besson, have spearheaded a legislative effort to outlaw counseling services to minors with unwanted same-sex attraction. They have been successful in California and New Jersey, which now outlaw the practice.

The case that will be heard over the next month in Superior Court for Hudson County, New Jersey, focuses on the claims of four men who voluntarily approached JONAH to help them with unwanted same-sex attraction. None of them self-identified as gay at the time and each wanted the attractions to end. JONAH, which works from what it calls “Torah values” referred the men to counselors who treated them.

SPLC is now claiming that JONAH made promises that do not comport with scientific findings about the permanence and changeability of homosexuality and that the treatment they underwent was odd. SPLC also claims that homosexual desires do not need to be “cured” and that it’s impossible anyway. All this adds up to consumer fraud, according to the suit that has been going on since 2012.

Former NY Giant Kareem McKenzie to be a counsellor
From Patch.com:

Not too long after he retired from the National Football League, Kareem McKenzie knew he wanted something more.

The two-time Super Bowl champion and former New York Giant was faced with a difficult task: Transitioning out of the game he loved for so long and into a more ordinary life.

“You can only go to the gym so many times, visit family and friends. You have to find something to do with your time,” he told nflplayerengagement.com. “If not, everything becomes very chaotic and dangerous. An idle mind is the devil’s playground.”

Then, it hit him: He would help others going through what he was.

McKenzie is on track to earn his Masters of Education in Professional Counseling in 2016 from William Paterson University. He will begin work on his doctorate after earning his master’s ... McKenzie’s goal is to provide counseling to professional athletes, and retired members of the military, by helping them navigate their non-rigid schedules and performance expectations.


WORLD NEWS

How to fix Canada's mental health system
From The Globe and Mail:

One in five Canadians will be affected by mental illness in their lifetimes. The cost to the country’s economic is staggering: $50-billion a year in health care and social services, lost productivity and decreased quality of life, estimates the Mental Health Commission of Canada. The personal costs are more devastating – unemployment, family breakup, suicide.

Canadians who seek help for a mental illness will most often be prescribed medication, even though research shows that psychotherapy works just as well, if not better, for the most common illnesses (depression and anxiety) and does a better job at preventing relapse. According to a 2012 Statistics Canada study, while 91 per cent of Canadians were prescribed the medication they sought, only 65 per cent received the therapy they felt they needed. Access to evidence-based psychotherapy, which experts say should be the front-line medical treatment, is limited and wait lists are long.

“MENTAL" HEALTH

“I think, therefore I am.” Cogito, ergo sum. From this absolute, penned in 1637, René Descartes laid the table for the predominant Western belief that the “self” is a mind that inhabits a physical body, but is separate from it, like a ghost in the machine.

Four centuries later, such “Cartesian dualism” has given rise to an NHS that completely atomises each human patient that walks through the surgery door. The patient is either having a mental problem or a physical problem. If the former, prescribe drugs. If the latter, examine the dysfuntional body part. There is seemingly no overlap between the two on the GP’s flowchart. Even in neuropsychiatric wards where the two elements supposedly come together, patients are divided into those whose symptoms have an “organic” origin (ie. physical) or are “non-organic” (ie. psychological), with different approaches for both. Really, the NHS should take a dose of its own medicine and have some CBT for such “black and white thinking.”

What of the man suffering from chronic headaches since the death of his partner? Or the woman having a major existential crisis as a result of a diagnosis of cancer? Or the high-achiever who, on the morning of an important meeting, wakes up one day unable to walk?

The fact is, we are neither our minds, nor our bodies, but a complex whole that is greater than the sum of its parts. We ignore the mysterious interplay between those parts at our peril. As the book Why Do People Get Ill? argues, a patient is a gestalt and could better be treated in a more holistic manner. We are psychosomatic beings. Eastern medicine gets this; the western kind does not.
—John Barton


Dropping the word 'mental' from 'mental health'
From Huffington Post:

There are many polarizing words that are used when it comes to describing mental health: "Crazy," "insane," "nutcase." All of them are wrong and perpetuate a stigma. So Eric Norwine, a mental health advocate and producer of the film "Walking Man," is offering a different, more holistic solution -- and frankly, one that makes sense.

Norwine told HuffPost Live host Nancy Redd that one way we can eliminate the stereotype is to stop singling out mental health as its own category and consider it a part of our overall health.

"I think that ... the brain is the most complicated organ in the body and it's the one we forgive the least when it breaks," he said. "That makes no sense. You would never tell someone with a broken leg to run."


U.K. NEWS

David Tennant to play 'acid-Marxist' psychiatrist RD Laing in biopic
From The Guardian:

David Tennant is to play RD Laing, known as the ‘acid Marxist’ and ‘high priest of anti-psychiatry’, in a new film about the controversial 1960s residential treatment centre Kingsley Hall.

Titled Metanoia, the biopic will chronicle the infamous Scottish psychiatrist’s efforts to create a safe haven for people diagnosed with psychosis and schizophrenia, where there were no locks on the doors and no antipsychotic drugs were administered, at his site on Powis Road in London’s East End. Kingsley Hall opened to residents in 1965 and continued to operate through the height of the flower power movement until 1970. Laing was known for advocating the medical use of LSD, still legal at the time of the centre’s opening, and argued for the breaking down of divisions between patient and health professional. 

Writer-director Robert Mullan, the author of three books about Laing, told Screen: “In the late 1960s, and throughout the 70s, RD Laing was seen as the high priest of anti-psychiatry and the so-called ‘acid Marxist’ – lauded by supporters for his daring and experimental work with disturbed people.

“In truth, Laing simply tried harder than other psychiatrists to sympathetically understand the cracked minds of the people who came to see him. He gave them time and tried to see the world from their point of view. His books sold all over the world and his reputation was global.”

Former Doctor Who Tennant, who will star opposite Mad Men’s Elisabeth Moss in the film, told Screen he had “long been fascinated by the life and work of RD Laing”. He said: “This is a wonderful opportunity to celebrate and discover this important man and I am honoured and thrilled to be involved in telling this story. Robert Mullan’s passion for the subject is inspiring and the presence of the brilliant Elisabeth Moss makes this something I cannot wait to start work on.”


The case for independent investigation of deaths in mental health institutions
From Open Democracy:

INQUEST is a charity which provides help to people bereaved by a death in custody or detention in England and Wales. Earlier this year we published a report on mental health deaths, drawing upon our work with families, and our statistical monitoring and policy work.

The single most important factor highlighted by this report was the absence of a pre-inquest investigation mechanism. Reliance upon the NHS Trusts’ internal inquiry has often been problematic, since the death may have been caused or contributed to by the failures of the hospital’s staff or procedures.

Without the pre-inquest support of an independent investigatory body coroners may be unable properly to investigate systemic failings or to provide insight or guidance on the prevention of future deaths.

Bereaved families often struggle to be involved in the internal investigations and face barriers to disclosure of basic information and relevant documents. Families have described an atmosphere of “them against us” and “a battle to the end”. It does not inspire family or public confidence when an organisation investigates itself over a death in which it may be implicated.

In the past year political parties have amplified their commitments to improving mental health care. The Conservatives and Liberal Democrats have called for mental health conditions to be given equal priority to physical health, while Labour has vowed to invest in child and youth mental health services. And last year a statutory duty of candour placed a legal duty on health and social care providers to be open with patients or their families when things go wrong.

All this is welcome. The starting point must be a post-death investigative framework that is independent.

• Man restrained under Mental Health Act with a towel over his head died after 'excessive police force' (mirror.co.uk)


Practice mindfulness says charity
From The Independent:

A mental health charity has suggested that mindfulness treatments should be more widely available on the NHS, after revealing the results of a new YouGov survey.

Originally an ancient Buddhist practice, mindfulness is a form of therapy aimed at increasing people’s awareness of themselves, their emotions and the environment around them, through meditation, yoga and breathing.

As part of Mental Health Awareness week, the Mental Health Foundation has called for the NHS to make the practice available in all areas of the country to help those suffering from anxiety, stress, and depression.

According to a new survey, that is a significant number of us.

YouGov and the Mental Health foundation have reported that 29 per cent of people are stressed; whilst 24 per cent suffer from anxiety and 17 per cent from depression.

In addition, the survey, which looked at over 2,000 British adults, reports that nearly half of workers struggle to switch off from work, and that nearly two thirds of people would be likely to take part in activities that reduce stress if given the option.

Mental Health Foundation CEO, Jenny Edwards CBE, said:

"Mindfulness is one of the most encouraging practices to support good mental health.

"Mindfulness Based Cognitive Therapy is recommended by the National Institute of Health and Care Excellence (NICE) and endorsed in the Chief Medical Officer’s Mental Health report, for reducing the risk of recurrent depression, cutting relapse rates in half.

"However, the evidence to date is that only a handful of Clinical Commissioning Groups make Mindfulness available in their area," she added.

U.S.A. NEWS

How can couples rebuild trust after an affair?
A 12-minute NPR radio report on relationships, trust and adultery featuring the marvelous Esther Perel, New York-based Belgian psychotherapist and author of Mating in Captivity. 

Perel on trust:
“It is one of the most magnificent experiences one can have. It is an experience among friends. It is an experience from a child to a parent and a parent to a child. It allows me to know that I am not alone. That is one of the most fundamental experiences that come with trust is: I am not alone. In archetypal language, you could say that once we are thrown out of Eden, we are on a quest for trust. For that solid ground. For that sense that tomorrow will arrive when today ends.”

And on affairs:
“I look at affairs from a dual perspective. Hurt and betrayal on one side. Growth and self-discovery on the other. What it did to you, and what it meant for me. And so when a couple comes to me, in the aftermath of an affair, I will often tell them this: Today, in the West, most of us are going to have two or three relationships, or marriages. And some of us are going to do it with the same person. Your first marriage is over. Would you like to create a second one, together?”


A therapeutic role for ecstasy and other psychedelic drugs?
Medical Daily:

Prior to 1985, psychiatrists in the United States and elsewhere legally used MDMA as a prescription drug to intensify the effectiveness of psychotherapy. A new study may help MDMA, now an illicit club drug referred to as ecstasy or molly, reclaim its former good reputation. MDMA, the researchers believe, may help reduce self-criticism and increase self-compassion when combined with other forms of therapy.

The Drug Enforcement Administration approved the first clinical trial using MDMA along with psychotherapy to treat anxiety among people with life-threatening illnesses, Al Jazeera reported on Tuesday. Earlier this month, the Journal of Psychopharmacology published an analysis of data provided by 135,000 random participants — including 19,000 who reported using LSD, psilocybin, and mescaline — and found the use of psychedelics does not increase the risk of developing mental health problems. Other recent studies found MDMA-assisted psychotherapy would not cause harm to post-traumatic stress disorder patients and might even be useful for those who get no help from other treatments. 

It appears more than a few researchers are revisiting the therapeutic use of psychedelic drugs. One such researcher, Dr. Sunjeev K. Kamboj, a senior lecturer in psychology at University College London, wondered about the similarities between ecstasy and Eastern meditation practices. Specifically, both contribute to a compassionate mindset, leading Kamboj to theorize that MDMA-assisted psychotherapy might increase pro-social attitudes toward the self.

Textual healing: A new therapy trend on the rise
From abc27:

Through Talkspace, a therapist is a text away. According to CNN, the startup has raised more than $13 million in financing, a sign the innovative business may have found a new way to deliver a service to the tech-oriented contingent of the public.

The startup is designed as an easy, transparent service – following a trend of recent startups. Users are paired with a psychotherapist and can send text messages to them any time, any day, for $25 a week. Talkspace also offers couples therapy for $149 a month.

Roni Frank, co-founder of Talkspace, said a lot of people are intimidated by the face-to-face nature of traditional therapy, and despite efforts from many in the mental health community, there still is an overarching stigma around mental health.

“It’s always easier to text. It feels so normal,” Frank told CNN. “There is a healthy distance when you are texting.”

Alex Finkelstein, general partner at Spark Capital, which is working with Talkspace, says the concept of on-demand therapy fills a major need for many people.

“There’s a massive need for therapy on-demand,” Finkelstein told CNN. “You could be in the middle of an eating disorder episode or a marriage dispute, and you can literally be communicating with your therapist in minutes.”

Roni Frank, along with her husband, Oren, co-founded Talkspace in 2012.

Talkspace hopes to infiltrate big markets, including China, and partner with American universities to work with students struggling with mental health issues.

“We have so many college students reaching out,” Roni Frank told CNN. “The mission is to bring therapy to a billion people around the world.”


How the army is overhauling services to help soldiers with PTSD
From ThinkProgress:

Even though fewer troops are now going into war zones, Army officials are still struggling to connect soldiers with the appropriate treatment for post-traumatic stress disorder amid a surge in PTSD cases in recent years. However, an impending overhaul of the Army’s mental health care system could help extend immediate, personalized care to those who need it most.

The proposed reforms would bring an influx of mental health specialists to meet the growing demand among soldiers. On-base intensive mental health resources would replace private psychiatric hospitals, and counseling teams would work closely with troops. Doctors who tag along with soldiers in these units regularly meet with commanders to discuss the progress of the people whom they consider to be high-risk cases.

Mental trauma counts among the top issues affecting members of the Armed Forces. Last July, a national survey of more than 2,000 members of Iraq and Afghanistan Veterans of America — which includes members of the Army, Marines, Air Force, and Navy — found that more than 60 percent of respondents said they have been diagnosed with PTSD or traumatic brain injuries. More than 30 percent of respondents also said they have thought about taking their own lives since joining the military.
 

More kids getting mental health treatment
From CBS News:

The number of U.S. children and teens being treated for mental health issues has risen by about 50 percent in the past 20 years -- with most of those kids having relatively mild symptoms, a new study finds.

The research, published in the May 21 issue of the New England Journal of Medicine, comes at a time of growing concern over young people's mental health treatment.

In particular, some worry that kids with milder issues are being overtreated with antidepressants, stimulants (such as those used for attention deficit hyperactivity disorder) and antipsychotic drugs, said lead researcher Dr. Mark Olfson, a professor of clinical psychiatry at Columbia University in New York City.

According to Olfson, his findings suggest that kids with less serious symptoms account for a large share of young people getting mental health care -- whether that means medication or "talk therapy."

"But we don't know if that's a positive or a negative development," said Olfson. "When you're looking at trends across the whole U.S., you can't tell who does or doesn't 'need' treatment."

And at the other end of the spectrum, he said, there are plenty of kids with more severe symptoms who are not getting treatment at all.

So, the story is more complicated than "U.S. kids are being overtreated," Olfson noted.


May is Mental Health Awareness Month--here's why companies should care
From Forbes:

Most people spend the majority of their waking hours working. During those long hours, the office setting either promotes good mental health or contributes to poor emotional well-being. Despite the large role that office culture plays in employee well-being, most companies rarely – if ever – mention the subject of mental health.

Employers certainly can’t prevent all mental health problems. Genetics and past traumatic experiences are just a couple of the factors that can influence a person’s mental health. But there are steps employers can take to reduce stress and promote resilience.

• Taking a 'mental health day': Your rights in the workplace (Fox News)

Amanda Seyfried: anxiety caused her to seek counseling after admitting she was 'drunk' on Letterman
From The Inquisitr:

Amanda Seyfried has suffered from anxiety attacks that go beyond the typical butterflies-in-the-tummy stage fright. The actress says that at one point, she even got drunk prior to a televised interview because she thought it might help alleviate her anxiety, reported the Daily Mail.

The turning point occurred in 2012, when Amanda was nervous about an interview with David Letterman. Seyfried resorted to booze in an attempt to blast her nerves. But when she realized that alcohol wasn’t the solution for her extreme anxiety, the actress sought professional counseling.

Then age 29, Amanda had been scheduled on the Letterman show to talk about Les Miserables. Instead of publicizing the show, however, she earned attention for her broadcast confession that she was “pretty drunk” from gulping whisky shots.

Although she thought drinking whisky was fun at the time, watching it after the show aired made her recognize that she needed help.

“It made it fun for me, but then I watched it and was like ‘That is not what I want to promote about myself,” said Amanda.

Seyfried also has opened up about her generalized anxiety when it comes to live stage performances, reported Theater Mania.


WORLD NEWS

Australia: Early intervention key to men's mental health efforts
From ABC Online:

More than 1.3 million men in Australia experience mental health problems every year. Too few of them seek help because of the stigma that still exists around the issue. Now, there’s a push to focus on early intervention strategies, write Lynne Malcolm and Olivia Willis.

Men suffer from mental health problems at very similar rates to women, but are far less likely to seek professional help.

They are overrepresented in the group of people who act out under stress, and have significantly higher rates of suicide when compared to women.

Max Birchwood, professor of youth mental health at the University of Warwick, says one the biggest barriers is that young men do not feel comfortable discussing their emotions.  

‘Wellbeing is a problem because people don’t develop the concepts very well in their minds, they don’t communicate, it’s not part of everyday discourse,’ he says.

‘One thing we know for absolutely sure, young people, particularly young males, do not seek help.’


Cambodia: the legacy of the Khmer Rouge
From VOA Learning English:

Cambodia has some of the world’s worst mental health statistics. Experts say the large number of cases is partly a result of Khmer Rouge rule in the 1970s.

The Cambodian government spends little on mental health services. The World Health Organization says such services are, in its words, “critically neglected.”

Experts do not believe that will change anytime soon, because few Cambodian students are interested in psychiatry as a career -- they have little or no interest in the treatment and prevention of mental disorders.

Most Cambodians live in rural areas. But few mental health services are provided there. So people must go to psychiatric centers in cities, like the Khmer-Soviet Hospital in Phnom Penh. It is one of the busiest clinics in the country.

Yem Sobotra is the director of the clinic. He says that, 15 years ago, it cared for between 70 and 150 patients every day. When our reporter visited recently, the daily average was 400. The clinic has just 10 psychiatrists and 10 nurses or aides. So most patients are treated for just a few minutes and leave with a bottle of pills.

“There Must Be A Better World Somewhere"

Sometimes I wonder
Just what am I fighting for?
I win some battles
But I always lose the war
I keep right on stumblin'
In this no-man's land out here

But I know
Mmmmm yes, I know
There must be a better world somewhere

Flying high
Some joker clips my wings
Just because he gets a kick
Out of doing those kind of things
I keep on fallin' in space
Or just hangin' in mid-air

But I know
Ohh yes, I know
There has just got to be a better world somewhere

Every woman I want
Only wants herself
Everybody I love
Seems to love somebody else
And every woman
Got a license to break my heart
And every love, oh it's over
Over before it gets a chance to start

If it ain't dead
Maybe in the here after
Instead of tears
I'll learn all about laughter
But meanwhile I'm stuck out here

It just ain't fair, but I know
I said I know
Oh yes, I know
There must be a better world somewhere
There's just gotta be
Gotta be a better world somewhere

General Election

Manifesto watch: Where parties stand on issues relating to counselling and psychotherapy

The BACP—The U.K.’s leading counselling professional body—does a good job of outlining the commitments and election promises from the main parties with respect to mental health services, with links to their manifestos. From www.bacp.co.uk:

Over the last week or so, the political parties have published their manifestos for May's general election. It has been extremely positive to see how many of these manifestos have succeeded in addressing at least one of our key policy areas. 

Over the last 12 months we have been proactively campaigning to stakeholders, influencers and the Government on behalf of our members. Our key campaign areas include parity of esteem, counselling in schools and improving access to counselling. These manifestos demonstrate the positive influence that our work in these areas has had on the political agenda.

BACP’s Chief Executive, Hadyn Williams, says:

“There is real cause for celebration in the manifestos of the main political parties. It is extremely encouraging to see that our lobbying activities have been so successful and that politicians are recognising the importance of counselling and psychotherapy in such a significant way.

“We look forward to continuing to work with the next Government following the election to develop further the plans laid out in their manifesto.”

• Vice links up with Mind for mental health project (The Guardian): “The Vice Guide to Mental Health” is aimed at raising the profile of mental health issues in the runup to the UK general election.

• Mind’s General Election site (Mind): We want the next generation of MPs to make mental health a priority.

• The General Election: Anyone but “Camilibegg" (world of therapy): Human and chimpanzee DNA is 99 percent the same. How infinitesimally small then the difference between Miliband, Cameron and Clegg?
 

U.K. news

Mental health charities can help people where the NHS cannot
From The Guardian‎:

With one in four people suffering from mental health problems each year, and one in 10 young people, the challenges facing services are significant. This is a sizeable population and a range of responses is needed for their treatment, including community-based options.

The role of the voluntary and community organisations in supporting mental health conditions is well established. These organisations are rooted in their communities, are trusted by the people they work with, have a long history of social action and user-led interventions, sit outside of clinical settings, and are able to offer significant and effective levels of support.

The NHS Five Year Forward View explicitly refers to the voluntary and charitable sector as having an important role in helping to meet key challenges facing the health and social care system, and it argues for a new relationship with patients and communities.


U.S.A. news

Crunch on campus
Wall Street Journal:

Universities are hiring more social workers, psychologists and psychiatrists as demand for campus mental-health services rises. But persistent budget gaps mean that students in some cases foot much of the cost of the positions.

Students at George Washington University will be charged an additional $1,667 in tuition next year, a jump of 3.4%. More than $830,000 of the resulting new revenue will pay for mental-health services.

Regents at the University of California system are weighing a plan to hire 70 additional psychologists—a 40% increase—and 20 more psychiatrists—a 60% jump—to keep up with the demand at counseling centers across its 10 campuses. Administrators estimate the annual cost of the hires would top $17.4 million, and they plan to raise a mandatory annual student services fee to $1,242 from $972 by the 2019-2020 academic year to cover some of the expense.

“The demand [by students] so outpaces the supply of appointments that it’s very hard to get a weekly appointment, even for students having pretty serious symptoms that interfere with their academic function,” said Elizabeth Gong-Guy, executive director of counseling and psychological services at UCLA and president of the Association for University and College Counseling Center Directors.


Survey: Majority of Texans affected by mental health issues
From the Brownsville Herald:

More than half of all Texans have been affected by mental health issues, either at home or at work, yet one in three would not know where to go if they or a family member needed help with a mental health condition, a survey conducted last summer among randomly selected Texas voters shows.

Baselice and Associates, Inc. conducted the Texas Mental Health Survey for the Dallas-based Meadows Health Policy Institute to measure awareness and knowledge of mental health among Texans, and to gauge if more or less attention or more or less spending should be directed toward mental health issues in Texas.

Key findings indicate that:

>> Seventy-six percent of Texans have a friend or family member who has experienced a mental health issue.

>> Nine in 10 Texans believe it is harder for people to talk about a mental health condition than about a physical health issue.

>> Sixty-seven percent of Texans believe that more state and local funds should be spent addressing mental health.

>> Thirty-one percent of Texans would not know where to go if they or a family member needed help with a mental health condition.

>> Thirty-three percent of Texans would consider a career as a mental health professional.


Effects of bullying even worse than effects of abuse by adults
From Forbes:

According to a new study, those bullied by peers often suffer even worse long-term mental health outcomes than those maltreated by adults early in life.

The effects of both sorts of abuse are well-documented, but this is the first study to examine whether bullying, on its own, results in dire psychological problems later in life on par or worse than maltreatment by adults. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) define “maltreatment” as including “acts of commission” (child abuse) and “acts of omission” (child neglect).

Researchers presenting at the Pediatric Academic Societies (PAS) annual meeting in San Diego examined data from more than 4,000 participants in the UK ALSPAC study (Avon Longtitudinal Study of Parents and Children) and 1,273 participants from the U.S. Great Smoky Mountain Study. The studies collectively provide data on both bullying by peers and maltreatment by adults at intervals occurring early in life (between 8 weeks and 16 years) and mental health outcomes between the ages of 18 and 25.

After adjusting for a variety of other factors, the results showed that children who were bullied, but not maltreated by adults, suffered worse outcomes later on than those maltreated by adults but not bullied.


MHA Partnership with THE LOVE EFFECT
From Mental Health America:

Mental Health America has formed an exciting new collaboration with THE LOVE EFFECT Organization. Founded by filmmakers and actors Drue Metz, Tyler Atkins, and Ari Blinder THE LOVE EFFECT is both a powerful film and a campaign to raise awareness on depression, suicide and most uniquely: LOVE.

Check out their campaign here: http://kck.st/1HeHrj7 Mental Health America has formed an exciting new collaboration with THE LOVE EFFECT Organization. Founded by filmmakers and actors Drue Metz, Tyler Atkins, and Ari Blinder THE LOVE EFFECT is both a powerful film and a campaign to raise awareness on depression, suicide and most uniquely: LOVE.

Check out their campaign here: http://kck.st/1HeHrj7


A stroll in Ikea: The ultimate test of a relationship
From International Business Times:

A clinical psychologist has started using Ikea for communication exercises after finding most couples end up arguing during a visit to the Swedish store.

Dr. Ramani Durvasula, a clinical psychologist and professor of psychology at the California State University in Los Angeles says a trip to Ikea stores, "literally becomes a map of a relationship nightmare."

According to Dr. Durvasula, as couples stroll through the different picture perfect indoor layouts at Ikea, differences over colours and other interiors' choices often lead to long personal arguments.


World news

United Arab Emirates: Employees fear disclosing mental health issues to bosses
From The National:
 
Workers are keeping mental health issues from their employers for fear that an admission may harm their careers.

Experts are calling for better strategies to change outdated attitudes to mental health in the workplace and to provide a better way for employees to disclose any medical issues. Dr Deema Sihweil, a psychologist at Carbone Clinic, Dubai, said patients feared telling their employers about a mental illness as it would, they thought, mark them out as weak.

“It is an extremely common occurrence for patients to seek psychological services without informing their employers, for fear of being ostracised, held back from promotions, or even fired,” she said.

Jared Alden, a psychotherapist, said employers often had a “shopper’s mindset”.

“They might think of their workers as easily replaced and thus why bother with an employee that might need accommodating,” said Mr Alden, of the German Neuroscience Centre in Dubai Healthcare City.

“Most people think that depression and anxiety are very hard to treat, when the truth is most things in mental health can be treated very effectively.


India: Early counselling key in helping youth combat stress
From the Times of India:

Youth finding it difficult to cope with academic stress, relationship problems and family pressures would do well to receive early counseling at the school and higher secondary level. Problems of stress are common among most young people and intervention should start early on, senior psychiatrist at Hospicio hospital Dr Doreen Dias says. "Young people don't want to visit a psychiatrist and many of their issues can be addressed by counselors at the school and higher secondary level. The counselors can then refer cases of those with severe mental illness symptoms to us. Unfortunately, we don't have this kind of referral system. As a result, youth's problems come to the fore only once parents bring them to us after the problem has gotten worse and after they have noticed a change in their eating and sleeping habits."

The youth lead stressful lives today, rushing from five hours of school to four hours of tuitions with a mere two hour break. "Their schedules are so packed that there's little time for recreation and relaxation. Recreation hours too are scheduled and a child is expected to excel there as well. All these are contributing factors," she says.

 

U.K. news

The death of the “headclutcher” picture of mental ill-health
From BBC News:

A campaign backed by Stephen Fry has been launched to try to change the type of images used by the media for stories about mental health. But what is wrong with the ones currently used?

A solitary figure, with their head in their hands, more often than not cast in dark, sombre lighting. These stock images, often termed the "headclutcher", have become a familiar sight in media portrayals of mental illness.

Charities and campaigners have, for many years, lamented the use of such imagery, arguing that people with mental illnesses do not always "look" depressed.

Charlotte Walker, who has bipolar disorder, says these pictures can be harmful, and that images of people in distress have become synonymous with mental illness.

"It's the only image we see of mental distress," she says, "unless it's about obsessive compulsive disorder, in which case you always get someone washing their hands, or self-harm, where you get the obvious. It's too reductionist."

• How a visual cliche about mental health can slip through (The Guardian)


Wristbands for the mentally ill?!
From The Guardian:

If you’re wondering how much work is still left to do in dissipating stigma around mental illness, look no further than recent comments made by Chamali Fernando, the Tory parliamentary candidate for Cambridge.

When asked at hustings how authorities, such as the police, could better help those with mental health requirements, Fernando apparently suggested that vulnerable people could wear colour-coded wristbands denoting their condition, immediately alerting public figures to any special needs they might have.

When this statement hit Twitter, it was immediately seized upon and ridiculed by opponents, and with good reason: the last thing sufferers of any form of ill-health want is to make everyone they meet aware of their condition. It’s hard enough when Katie Hopkins is calling your debilitating mental illness “a passport to self obsession” without hanging a sign around your neck declaring: “I AM MEDICALLY SAD, PLEASE BEAR THIS IN MIND WHEN DEALING WITH ME.” Fernando’s main competition for the seat, incumbent Lib Dem MP Julian Huppert, wasted no time in making political capital from the comments, pointing out – correctly – that singling mentally ill people out with wristbands would only exacerbate the continual stigma that surrounds mental health issues.


Hundreds of mental health experts issue rallying call against austerity
From The Guardian:

Austerity cuts are having a “profoundly disturbing” impact on people’s psychological wellbeing and the emotional state of the nation, hundreds of counsellors, psychotherapists and mental health experts have said in a letter to the Guardian.

They said an “intimidatory disciplinary regime” facing benefits claimants would be made worse by further “unacceptable” proposals outlined in the budget.

These amounted to state “get to work” therapy and were both damaging and professionally unethical, they said.

Increasing inequality and poverty, families being moved out of their homes and new systems determining benefit levels were part of “a wider reality of a society thrown completely off balance by the emotional toxicity of neoliberal thinking”, according to more than 400 signatories to the letter. The consequences were “most visible in the therapist’s consulting room”.

The letter’s writers said it “sounds the starting bell for a broadly based campaign of organisations and professionals against the damage that neoliberalism is doing to the nation’s mental health”.


New review recognises the importance of counselling in those affected by infertility
From the Royal College of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists:

The psychological impact and private agony of infertility must be carefully considered by healthcare professionals, suggests a new review, published today (Friday 10 April) in The Obstetrician & Gynaecologist (TOG). The review identifies infertility as a complex state and life crisis and sets out the dangers of neglecting the emotional impact of involuntary childlessness and viewing it solely in biological or medical terms.1

The article provides an introduction to infertility counselling in the UK, within the context of fertility treatment. This includes an explanation of the differences between the three main types of counselling, implications, support, and therapeutic counselling, and the role of various bodies, including the Counselling Service, Human Fertilisation and Embryology Authority and British Infertility Counselling Association.
 

TfL spends millions on counselling for 'stressed' staff
From the Evening Standard:

London transport chiefs are spending millions of pounds to pay for counselling for stressed employees, it has been revealed.

Transport for London spent £3.1m on staff counselling from 2010 to 2014 in what union bosses said was a reflection of the "massive pressure" faced by employees.

Almost 5,000 staff members were given counselling for causes including stress, anxiety, train suicides and harassment, a Freedom of Information request by London Loves Business showed.

RMT general secretary Mick Cash told the website: "These figures are a reflection of the massive pressure that staff find themselves under against a background of cuts to numbers, services and safety.

“They serve as the clearest evidence that staff are bearing the brunt of Boris Johnson’s cash-led attacks across the London Underground network and reinforce the unions determination to fight his plans.”

And Finn Brennan, from the Aslef rail union, added: "The £3m spent on counselling is money that is extremely well spent.

"TfL employees do a very important yet difficult and stressful job. One of the big worries is the closure of ticket offices which will lead to reduction in staff. This will definitely leave staff more vulnerable."

Responding to the Freedom of Information request, TfL said the health and wellbeing of its staff is "paramount".


U.S.A. news

Obama calls for end to 'gay conversion therapies'
Following a massive petition and commentary in support of a ban, including this one from world of therapy, President Barack Obama has denounced the so-called “pray the gay away” practice of conversion therapy. From the BBC News:

US President Barack Obama has condemned psychiatric therapies designed to "repair" gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender youth.

Mr Obama's statement was in response to an online petition calling for a ban on conversion therapies. It gained over 120,000 signatures in three months.

The petition was inspired by Leelah Alcorn, a 17-year-old transgender youth who killed herself in December.

Some conservative groups and religious doctors support conversion therapy.

"We share your concern about its potentially devastating effects on the lives of transgender as well as gay, lesbian, bisexual, and queer youth," White House adviser Valerie Jarrett wrote in response to the petition.

"As part of our dedication to protecting America's youth, this administration supports efforts to ban the use of conversion therapy for minors."


Baseball teams nurture players' mental health
From The New York Times:

For Cubs General Manager Jed Hoyer, Josh Lifrak is just like the hitting coach John Mallee or the pitching coach Chris Bosio.

Lifrak is the director of the team’s mental-skills program, while Mallee and Bosio are two vital members of Manager Joe Maddon’s coaching staff. Hoyer looks at each of them in a similar way, and he knows what that means in terms of a shift in thinking when it comes to mental health and major league baseball.

“I think that it used to be the kind of thing that people would talk to people. They didn’t, like, advertise it,” Hoyer said. “Some guys were ashamed of it, and some people didn’t want to have any part of it. I think now it’s almost impossible to find someone who doesn’t understand that your mental-skills coach is no different than a hitting coach or a pitching coach. He’s a guy that can really help your players get better.

“That’s a shift from, like, partial acceptance to, like, total acceptance in a very short amount of time.”

Lena Dunham’s mental health “workout selfie”
From Huffington Post:

Lena Dunham shared a powerful "workout selfie" on Instagram yesterday. "To those struggling with anxiety, OCD, depression: I know it's mad annoying when people tell you to exercise, and it took me about 16 medicated years to listen," she wrote. "I'm glad I did. It ain't about the ass, it's about the brain." There's a lot to take from this selfie, beyond her "slim figure" and the fact that she is wearing a sports bra. Yet again, Dunham is working to combat the stigma surrounding mental health.


World news

Germany: Psychotherapy proven to normalize brain activity
From Medical Daily:

For years, psychiatrists and psychologists have lacked physiological proof of the "disordered" mentalities they diagnosed. Brain imaging technologies changed all that by offering hard evidence of the differences between the brains of patients and of people without mental illness. Now, a recent study from German scientists confirms theories of mental dysfunction underlying depression, while the research also shows how depressed brain activity can be normalized following psychotherapy — minus any form of drug therapy.

For some time now, neuroscientists using brain imaging technologies have been able to examine the changes that occur in the brains of patients as a result of mental illness. Depression, in particular, marks the brain in a particular way.

“The human brain responds to depression,” Dr. Svenja Taubner, lead author and professor in the department of psychology at the University of Kassel, explained in a press release. “Patients typically show hyperactivity particularly in the amygdala, the striatum, and other limbic regions.”

Along with this characteristic hyperactivity, depression also produces generalized network dysfunction, as neuroscientists conceptualize it, in the cortico-limbic loops. Since depression affects the functioning of the brain, it only stands to reason that successful treatment would impact the brain as well. In other words, patterns of hyperactivity should normalize as a patient’s mood stabilizes.

However, this is where brain imaging studies fall short — some studies show increased hyperactivity in limbic and subcortical regions following psychotherapy treatment, while others show decreased hyperactivity. Taken together, the studies did not prove psychotherapy could normalize the brain of a patient. For the current study, then, the researchers wanted to confirm the positive effects of psychotherapy.


Australia: Refugee experiences of mental health services
From the Australian Institute of Family Studies:

It can be challenging for anyone to attend a mental health service.

But for a young person who has fled a war-torn homeland, is currently learning the language, culture and systems of a very different country, and who is anxious about what their family and friends will think of him or her for attending a mental health service – it can be a very difficult experience indeed.

The stigma around mental health problems is often greater within refugee communities, with a common perception being that only those who are seriously disturbed or “crazy” use mental health services.

These are some of the barriers that young people from refugee backgrounds face in accessing and using mental health services. For the small number of this population who do access these services, no previous research has explored their experiences.

In order to address this need, we conducted in-depth interviews with 16 young people (aged 18-25) who were refugees. We asked them a range of questions about being clients of Australian mental health services.


Botswana: Pre-marital counselling critical
From AllAfrica.com:

Lack of pre-marital counselling leads to families and marriage disintegration in Botswana.

This was said by the chairperson of the newly found The Family Institute Trust, Mr Tebogo Duna, when briefing the media in Francistown on April 10.

He said given the rising divorce rates, one of the best things they could do to help save marriages was pre-marital counselling. Mr Duna said couples who attended pre-marital counselling had the opportunity to discuss issues that most couples argued about and most of these often led to divorce or separation.

Kurt Cobain remembered

Kurt Cobain, Nirvana’s lead singer, took his own life 21 years ago this week. And today sees the U.K. release of a new documentary about him, Montage of Heck, made in cooperation with his family and Courtney Love (their daughter, Frances Bean Cobain, was an executive producer).

Cobain is supposedly another exemplar of the “tortured artist” theory of creativity. Someone who felt too much, who burned too brightly, who flew too close to the sun. When he killed himself in his Seattle apartment with a shotgun, he joined the infamous “27 club” of tortured artists who succumbed to their demons—he, Janis Joplin, Jimmy Hendrix, Jim Morrison and Amy Whitehouse all died at 27. They became immortal through their untimely departure from the stage. Only the good die young, friends, family and fans might say.

But the mentally ill often die young, too. There is nothing rock and roll about chronic depression and a suicidal mindset. These mind monsters are indiscriminate in hunting their prey, and are just as dreadful and terrifying and unglamorous for musicians, artists and writers as for the rest of our species. You can be tortured and not an artist. Conversely, too, you can be an artist who is untortured, untroubled and free. Misery is not a prerequisite for masterpiece. You don’t have to be Touched with Fire to feel the electricity and wonder and mystery of our world, and harness that energy to create something beautiful. And to live it, too.

Writes novelist Matt Haig in The Telegraph:
The tortured rock star is only the most recent incarnation of the troubled artist cliché that has been around for centuries. From troubled painters like Caravaggio and Van Gogh and Rothko to poets and writers like Plath and Sexton and Hemingway. Creative talent and tormented minds, we are told, are sides of the same coin.

I hate this idea. The idea that creativity is the bedfellow of misery. I have also come to hate my own former silent glorifying of Cobain’s death. When I was 24 I nearly took my own life, not because I’d listened to too much Nirvana, but because I was ill.

From the moment depression and anxiety smashed into me, derailing me completely for a few years, I realised that there was nothing glamorous about mental illness. It was exactly as glamorous as physical illness. Not long before Cobain shot himself he had been hospitalised due to bronchitis. Cobain had suffered from bronchitis. Bronchitis, in almost all our minds, remains as unglamorous as ever, no matter how many rock stars suffer from it.

I would love it if death-by-depression was seen in exactly the same way as death-by-bronchitis. It should be. Because glamorising suicide is almost as unhealthy as demonising it. It inhibits our understanding.

So, let’s be clear. Depression is an illness. It is not a ticket to genius. It is not an interesting personality quirk. It is horrible and all-consuming and really hurts. Depression is not the person, it is something that happens to a person. And when that person feels no way out, they sometimes take their life.

From RYOT:
Fans were of course disheartened by the death of Cobain, as they were when Jimi Hendrix, Janis Joplin and Jim Morrison died. But there was a sentiment that at least these artists truly lived the lives they had, succeeding at doing what they loved, which is what most people want, but only the rare few get ... Cobain’s death was not the cliché of a tormented rock star; it was mental illness.
Robin Williams’ death was the most recent manifestation of the alleged creative talent-suicide archetype. Always smiling and making people laugh, Williams’ depression was a major shock to everyone. But experts believe something good came of it: Creativity was finally separated from misery, the stigma surrounding mental illness began to subside, and the floor opened up for discussion about mental health, Mashable reports.

• Kurt Cobain: One heck of a life (BBC News)‎
• Kurt Cobain fans pay tribute to late Nirvana star on the anniversary of his death (mirror.co.uk‎)

U.K. news

Myths and realities of mental health
From The Guardian:
A friend tells me that well-meaning people often ask her what the special talent of her son with autism is. She tends to answers: “Gabriel’s special talent is having a meltdown in the supermarket because the flicker of the fluorescent lights bothers him so much.” The question my friend is asked is born of the Rain Man effect; fiction and the media are full of cases of art/maths/music savants with autism. But such coverage of autism doesn’t help my friend much. In the supermarket she’s still the recipient of disapproving looks when Gabriel, now 11, is screaming on the floor.
The Germanwings tragedy has brought mental health on to the front pages. More attention on the impact of mental illnesses is warranted; far less is spent on care of these than of physical conditions. However, it also highlights the tendency for myths and rare but salient incidents to colour public perception in unhelpful ways.
People with developmental disabilities and their families are disadvantaged socially (divorce rates and isolation are high) and economically (family income is significantly lower). Society’s attitudes to disability and to mental illness are critical to their quality of life and we have a long way to go.

Jump in counselling for UK transgender children wins LGBT praise
From Reuters UK:
A growing number of children in Britain are being referred to the state-funded National Health Service (NHS) for counselling for transgender feelings, a development activists hailed on Wednesday as a sign of greater awareness of transgender issues.
The number of children - under 11 and some as young as three - being treated at the country's only specialist centre for children with gender issues has quadrupled in the past six years, rising to 77 this year from 19 in 2009, NHS figures show.
Experts say up to 1 percent of the world's population are transgender - a term used to describe people who feel they have been born with the wrong gender.
The rise in child referrals shows a greater understanding of transgender issues, said Richard Köhler, senior policy officer at human rights organisation Transgender Europe (TGEU).
"Transgender people now tend to be much younger when they come out, which is positive because they don't have to go through years of denial, and it means they have a supportive family," Köhler told the Thomson Reuters Foundation by phone. A growing number of children in Britain are being referred to the state-funded National Health Service (NHS) for counselling for transgender feelings, a development activists hailed on Wednesday as a sign of greater awareness of transgender issues.
The number of children - under 11 and some as young as three - being treated at the country's only specialist centre for children with gender issues has quadrupled in the past six years, rising to 77 this year from 19 in 2009, NHS figures show.
Experts say up to 1 percent of the world's population are transgender - a term used to describe people who feel they have been born with the wrong gender.
The rise in child referrals shows a greater understanding of transgender issues, said Richard Köhler, senior policy officer at human rights organisation Transgender Europe (TGEU).
"Transgender people now tend to be much younger when they come out, which is positive because they don't have to go through years of denial, and it means they have a supportive family," Köhler told the Thomson Reuters Foundation by phone.

Protecting mental health must begin in Britain's schools
From The Times:
Matthew Elvidge was a bright pupil, a scholarship student at Lord Wandsworth College in Hampshire. Good A-level results, via a gap year in Africa, took him to Newcastle University, which he left with a 2:1 in politics and economics.
That was in 2008, straight out into the straitened jobs market of a post-Lehman Brothers economic downturn. A year later, he landed a position in insurance.
Yet in the weeks running up to the start of the job, he began showing signs of anxiety and depression. He found it difficult to make decisions, he couldn’t sleep, he lost energy, his mood was low.
Neither he nor his family could understand why. Referred by his GP to the local mental health crisis team, he was assessed as anxious, low-risk but in need of counselling — and was discharged. That Sunday, the day before he was due to start his job, he took his own life. It was September 20, 2009. He was 23.
To this day no one knows why. Like many teenagers, he had experienced times of stress, but he had no visible signs of mental illness.

Education doesn't guarantee happiness
More research to “prove” what is surely blindingly obvious. From HealthDay:
Being well-educated doesn't necessarily mean you'll be happy with your life, a new British study suggests.
Previous research has found a strong link between low levels of education and mental illness, the authors of the new study said. So, they wanted to find out if levels of education were associated with mental well-being, defined as "feeling good and functioning well."
People with high levels of mental well-being are more likely to feel happy and contented with their lives because of the way they deal with problems and challenges, particularly relationship issues, the University of Warwick researchers explained.
The researchers analyzed the responses of more than 17,000 people in England. They were surveyed in 2010 and 2011.
People with varying levels of education had similar odds of having high levels of mental well-being.


U.S.A. news

Will the Germanwings crash affect how employers approach mental health?
From Forbes:
When news broke March 24 that a young co-pilot for Lufthansa’s low cost-airline Germanwings had intentionally crashed a passenger jet into the French Alps, killing himself and 149 others, people struggled for answers. What would make someone take his own life along with those of so many innocent people?
One possible answer came this past week when the airline revealed that the pilot, Andreas Lubitz, had previously suffered from deep depression. Debates began about how Lubitz’s mental health played into the tragedy, what treatment he might have received, and whether Lufthansa should have let him fly at all.
That discussion is a rare surfacing of an issue too often ignored—the problem of mental health in the workplace.
“To date, companies have focused on physical health much more than they have on mental health,” says Professor John A. Quelch, Charles Wilson Professor of Business Administration at Harvard Business School. In collaboration with Carin-Isabel Knoop, executive director of the HBS Case Research & Writing Group, he recently wrote the note, Mental Health and the American Workplace, exploring the extent of the phenomenon, its cost to organizations and employees, and some managerial responses.
In some ways, it makes sense that mental health issues get buried. “Most physical conditions are visible, either to the naked eye or on an X-ray,” says Quelch, who holds a joint appointment as Professor in Health Policy and Management at the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health. “Mental health conditions aren’t so readily identifiable.”
It’s clear from Quelch and Knoop’s research that most companies treat mental health as an afterthought.

9% of Americans are angry, impulsive...and have a gun
The right to bear arms and kill people with them in a moment of madness is apparently enshrined in the Consitution. Click here for a previous rant about guns. From Medical Daily:
Gun violence remains a prevailing and controversial issue in the United States, especially when coupled with mental health. Although criminal and mental health-related gun ownership restrictions do exist, withholding access to guns from people with anger issues would be a dubious proposition, at best. A team of researchers from Duke, Harvard, and Columbia universities have found that one out of every 10 Americans has a history of impulsive and angry behavior, as well as access to a gun.
According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, over 59,000 people were injured by the intentional use of a firearm in 2012, along with 11,622 people who died as the result of a violent gun incident.
"As we try to balance constitutional rights and public safety regarding people with mental illness, the traditional legal approach has been to prohibit firearms from involuntarily-committed psychiatric patients," Dr. Jeffrey Swanson, professor in psychiatry and behavioral sciences at Duke Medicine, said in a statement. "But now we have more evidence that current laws don't necessarily keep firearms out of the hands of a lot of potentially dangerous individuals."

California to provide counseling to mentally ill inmates
From Correctional News:
California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation (CDCR) officials announced recently that mentally ill inmates in the state’s prison system will now receive more humane treatment. The state filed a new policy earlier this month to allow mentally ill inmates to participate in counseling after an incident as opposed to receiving extended sentences or being sent directly to isolation cells.
"This is a very significant reform of the disciplinary process for prisoners with mental illness," Michael Bien, an attorney representing the state’s mentally ill inmates, told the Associated Press on April 3. "What's the point of punishing someone who's psychotic? When you bang on your cell or mouth off at your custody officer, let's talk about that. ... Don't punish [the inmate] and send him somewhere else.”

Children of undocumented immigrants face crisis
From DiversityInc:
In the midst of continual debate between political parties on establishing effective immigration reform, little attention is given to the fact the mental health of thousands of Latino youth, born in the United States and whose parents are undocumented immigrants, is being compromised.
“Anxiety and PTSD in Latino Children of Immigrants: The INS Raid Connection to the Development of These Disorders,” is a report by María Elisa Cuadra, a licensed social worker and Executive Director/CEO, COPAY Inc., a bilingual professional out-patient treatment and prevention care facility located in Great Neck, N.Y.
She discusses the plight of Latino children and adolescents, born in the U.S., whose parents are foreign born, living in constant fear and terror of INS raids.  And this fear is expressed verbally and behaviorally potentially leading to disorders.

Michelle Obama, Kerry Washington and Sarah Jessica Parker talk mental health
From the Huffington Post:
First Lady Michelle Obama and actresses Kerry Washington and Sarah Jessica Parker are here to drop some knowledge on Hollywood and the rest of the world: It's time to start prioritizing mental health.
The women discussed de-stigmatizing mental illness -- particularly for veterans struggling with Post Traumatic Stress Disorder -- in Glamour magazine's May issue. While many service members return home completely healthy, Obama noted, for the 11 to 20 percent of recent veterans who suffer from PTSD, it can be challenging to seek treatment due to fear of judgment.
"[W[hen we do come across someone who is struggling ... we have to develop a culture of open arms and acceptance so that they feel comfortable saying, 'I'm a veteran. And by the way, I need little help,'" she said. "This is something we need to do in this country around mental health as a whole -- de-stigmatizing mental health."
Washington also opened up about seeing a therapist in the magazine, citing that keeping tabs on mental illness is just as important as monitoring physical illness.
"I say that publicly because I think it's really important to take the stigma away from mental health," she said. "My brain and my heart are really important to me. I don't know why I wouldn't seek help to have those things be as healthy as my teeth. I go to the dentist. So why wouldn't I go to a shrink?"


World news

Saudi Arabia: Treating jihadists with art therapy
From NPR:
There are golf carts and palm trees and an Olympic-sized pool at the Mohammed Bin Naif Counseling and Care Center, a sprawling complex on the outskirts of Saudi Arabia's capital, Riyadh.
Once a holiday resort, the walled compound still looks like one — and not a rehabilitation center for convicted terrorists.
In the past year, the country has expanded counter-terrorism laws that make it illegal for Saudis to fight in Syria and Iraq. The kingdom has also expanded the terrorism rehab centers.
More than 3,000 young Saudi men graduated from the program since it began in 2008, including 120 former prisoners from a U.S. prison in Guantanamo Bay.
The centers only work with inmates not convicted for violent crimes. The Saudis claim a success rate of more than 80 percent of the detainees returning to their families as well-adjusted members of Saudi society.

Jamaica: Signs you need to get divorced now
Kimberley Hibbert of the Jamaica Observer lists 4 no-return circumstances that in her opinion should have you marching straight toward the exit sign that hangs in the background of all marriages, no discussion, no negotiation:
Both of you stood before the pastor at the altar and recited your marriage vows; you made a pact to remain through the worst conditions and stay together until death. But when the rubber hits the road, it's usually a different ball game, which more often ends in divorce.
From a biblical perspective you are allowed two exception clauses -- sexual immorality and abandonment by an unbeliever -- but forgiveness and counselling is also encouraged. But when not in the church, other factors also play a part in divorce.
Whichever side you're on, when faced with a difficult situation in a marriage, oftentimes couples end up playing the guessing game as to whether they should try to mend the broken pieces of their relationship or just call it quits.
Below are the signs you definitely need to call it quits.

She then outlines the 4 signs. They are:
1. Your partner is abusive
2. Infidelity
3. Homosexuality
4. No more love

I certainly agree with no. 1. But as for the others, her argument is perhaps a little too stridently hard core. People get or stay married for any number of reasons, which change and evolve over time. There are all kinds of nontraditional arrangements. Who is to say that whatever works between two consenting adults is right or wrong?

 

Facebook’s bid to help prevent suicides
Facebook is introducing a new initiative aimed at reducing suicides. The social media site is partnering with Now Matters Now, the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline, Save.org and Forefront: Innovations in Suicide Prevention, to offer help and support to Facebook users in distress.
    Here’s how it will work: If someone on Facebook posts something concerning, indicating thoughts of suicidal intent for instance, any of that person’s Facebook friends will be able to click on an icon to contact the friend in need, contact another of their friends for support, or contact a suicide helpline.
     Facebook, too, will be alerted, and if the post is sufficiently distressing, it will send the distressed person messages of support and useful resources.
     It's all a bit Big Brotherly, something devised by the "thought police." And yet, even if it is generated by a programmed bot in a vast, humming underground computer bunker somewhere in Silicon Valley, a well-timed message of hope really can make all the difference. It’s a helping hand, a voice in your darkest hour, a reminder that you’re not alone in this world.
     There are 1.4 billion active Facebook account users. That’s about a fifth of the population of the world.
      From ThinkProgress:
Preventing suicide is a difficult undertaking because it’s an action that’s carried out swiftly and desperately by those struggling to deal with their mental anguish alone, even if they may lead a seemingly normal life. However, not all cries for help are silent — especially on social media, where you may come across melancholic statuses from friends on your newsfeed.
Now, Facebook wants to capitalize on the confessional nature of its platform. The social media giant is rolling out a new suicide prevention tool — which it created in partnership with a few mental health organizations — that allows users to reach out to their troubled loved ones virtually and connect them with online resources after spotting the first sign of trouble.
While mental health experts believe that the app could better help concerned family and friends spark much needed conversations and connect distressed people with resources, some warn against overly depending on the social media platform for help with these sensitive matters when direct contact may prove more effective.
With the suicide prevention app, users who are concerned about a friend’s post can directly “report” it by contacting their friend, another friend for support, or a suicide prevention hotline. Facebook then examines the reported post to see if warrants intervention. If so, the friend in question will receive a message that gives him or her the option of reaching out to a friend, calling a suicide hotline, or looking over a host of suicide prevention materials, including video messages and relaxation techniques.

U.K. news
Julie Andrews: Counselling led me to love
From Film News:
Julie Andrews went to therapy to "get rid of some garbage" and ended up meeting the love of her life.
The actress is famed for her appearance in 1965's The Sound of Music and four years after it was released she married Blake Edwards. The pair met because they were both seeking counselling at the same place, with Julie explaining she needed help coping with her sudden rise to fame.
"We actually, our cars - I was going one way and he was going the other and Blake rolled down the window after smiling a couple of times and said, 'Are you going where I just came from?' And I was going to a therapist and he was coming from. Very corny, sorry about that!" she explained to British TV show Good Morning Britain.

The future of mental health in the UK: an election manifesto
Following on from the Royal College of Psychiatrists mental health manifesto for the next UK Government, Making Parity a Reality, comes this “secret manifesto” in The Lancet with further suggestions:
It is disheartening that half of the things we called for— proper liaison psychiatry services, a minimum unit price for alcohol, and investment in parenting programmes— have such robust evidence bases that they should have happened years ago. It is disgraceful that the remainder— adequate numbers of hospital beds for people with mental health problems, a maximum waiting time of 18 weeks to receive treatment for a mental health problem, and safe and speedy access to quality crisis care that does not often involve police cells—would just lift mental health up to the level of physical health care.

Children's services hit rock bottom – so what's next?
The government has fuelled a rise in mental health problems in children while at the same time dramatically slashing services designed to help them, as I’ve written before. Here Simon Newitt in the Guardian assesses the dire way we are treating our children, our future, concluding: “If we are going to continue to organise our society in such a way as to make the incidence of poor mental health more likely, then we can’t ignore the human and financial cost of not providing adequate public services to mitigate the consequences”:
It’s encouraging to hear leading politicians now talk and pledge openly about mental healthcare. In the past year or so, the state of our services – particularly for children and young people – has slowly risen up the political agenda. It’s a scandal that it has taken near systemic collapse to achieve this, but when even Norman Lamb, minister of state for care and support, is able to conclude that children’s mental health services “are not fit for purpose”, it is clear we’re about to hit bottom. Maybe we already have.
Multiple investigations and reviews have found the same failings, which might be summarised as the result of chronic long-term underinvestment in the face of growing demand. Mental health issues represent about a third of our overall burden of disease in the UK and cost more than £100bn a year.
Spending on services represents only 13% of the total NHS budget, with 67% of clinical commissioning groups spending less than 10% of their budget in this way. Worse, given half of all adult mental health problems (excluding dementia) start before age 15 and three-quarters by 18, it’s hard to understand why only 6% of these already limited funds go toward child and adolescent mental health. These are services which have also had to manage cuts of £50m since 2010. Funding for mental health research represents 5% of overall health research spending.
• Scotland: child mental health wait increases 'are horrifying'
From BBC News:
The number of young people waiting more than a year to be treated by mental health services has increased 10-fold in a year, according to figures released by Scottish Labour.
The party said the Scottish government "is letting down some of the most vulnerable children in Scotland".

“The Troubles” linked to half mental health cases in Northern Ireland
From BBC News:
A new study has claimed the Troubles are linked to half the cases of mental health issues in Northern Ireland.
The research was conducted by Ulster University on behalf of the Commission for Victims and Survivors.
It found almost 30% of the NI population suffer mental health problems, and nearly half of those are directly related to the Troubles.
The Department of Health said it had no official figures on "the level of directly associated mental illness".
However, it said "emerging evidence indicates that Northern Ireland has high levels of, often untreated, post traumatic stress disorder as a result of decades of violence".

USA news
Michelle Obama promotes awareness of mental health
From U.S. News & World Report:
Mental health care is not just a policy and budget issue for America, but also a cultural issue, Michelle Obama said on Wednesday.
The first lady said more than 40 million Americans experience a diagnosable mental health condition— like depression or anxiety— and there should be no stigma around mental health care.
"At the root of this dilemma is the way we view mental health in this country," she said. "Whether an illness affects your heart, your leg or your brain, it's still an illness, and there should be no distinction."
Mrs. Obama spoke at a mental health summit and the national launch of the campaign to "Change Direction."

World news
Kenya: How one woman is “fighting the funk” by helping others
From Public Radio International:
Sitawa Wafula had two strikes against her. But the Kenyan woman is making a huge difference for thousands in her nation in an area that receives scant attention: Mental health. Despite suffering from bipolar disorder and epilepsy herself, Wafula has been able to create a route to help others.
According to the Africa Mental Health Foundation, there are only 79 working psychiatrists in the East African nation. That’s one for every 500,000 people. Short of training more, Wafula wanted to find a way to make mental health resources more widely available.
In September 2014, Wafula launched an SMS-based helpline called “My Mind My Funk.” People can text in for free from any mobile network. General inquiries get an automated response, but desperate or suicidal messages are answered with a call from a licensed therapist.
Wafula knows all too well what it’s like to have no one to turn to for help. She was diagnosed with epilepsy, a condition that's often stigmatized in Kenya, when she was a teenager. Then a sexual assault sent her into a downward spiral.
“I got really, really depressed. I was suicidal. I didn’t have anyone to talk to tell what had happened to me,” Wafula says, speaking at her small, bare office in Ngong, a town on the outskirts of the capital city Nairobi.

Israel: 350 soldiers received psychiatric counseling after Gaza War: report
From Al-Bawaba:
More than 350 Israeli soldiers who took part in last summer's military onslaught on the Gaza Strip have since received psychiatric counseling for post-traumatic stress, an Israeli report has revealed.
The report, published Wednesday in the Israel Today newspaper said that soldiers had undergone treatment for symptoms associated with post-traumatic stress, including disorientation, low productivity and recurring nightmares.
The newspaper quoted a senior Israeli official as saying that the number of soldiers to receive psychiatric treatment following last summer's onslaught on Gaza was higher than those who did so following previous operations.
For 51 days this summer, Israel pounded the Gaza Strip by air, land and sea. More than 2,310 Gazans, 70 percent of them civilians, were killed and 10,626 injured during unrelenting Israeli attacks on the besieged strip this summer.
According to the UN, the Israeli military killed at least 495 Palestinian children in Gaza during “Operation Protective Edge.” The al-Mezan Center for Human Rights puts the number at 518, while the Palestinian Center for Human Rights puts it at 519.
All three figures exceed the total number of Israelis, civilians and soldiers, killed by Palestinians in the last decade. 

Saudi Arabia: counseling helps 2,950 extremists mend ways
From Arab News:
Maj. Gen. Nasser Al-Mutairi, director of the Mohammed bin Nayef Center for Counseling and Care, said that his facility has reformed 2,950 young men who are now all fully integrated in society.
Nasser made these remarks on Monday, during a lecture at the headquarters of the Muslim World League, where several Saudi experts talked about the experience of fighting terrorism in the Kingdom. However, the center's success of retrievals of youth in danger of becoming extremists currently stands at 13 percent.
Despite the grim data, 120 individuals coming from Guantanamo Bay were successfully integrated in society thanks to the center, with 98 percent of them giving up extremist ideas.
Al-Mutairi said the center has a five-year strategy based on three propositions: psychological treatment, rehabilitation and reintegration into society.

Australia: Large gap between rich and poor areas in use of mental health services revealed
From The Guardian:
Large socioeconomic and geographical inequality exists in patient use of mental health services, despite Medicare’s aim of providing universal health care.
Using substantial data obtained through freedom of information requests, researchers from Melbourne’s Monash University assessed more than 25m instances of mental health care over the four years to June 2011, undertaking the largest ever national study into mental health services.
The most highly qualified mental health staff – psychiatrists and clinical psychologists – were used up to three times as much by people in wealthier areas compared to those in the most disadvantaged ones, they found. However, use of less qualified mental health staff, like general practitioners, general psychologists and social workers, was more equitable across the country. Out-of-pocket costs to the patient are significantly less for these services compared to that of clinical psychologists and psychiatrists, for which a larger co-payment gap exists.
With research consistently showing higher rates of severe mental illness in the most disadvantaged areas, it was concerning that people living in those areas were accessing specialist services less, the authors of the research published in the Medical Journal of Australia on Monday said.

The developing world: When mental health is the best investment
Report on the global cost of mental health problems in GOOD Magazine:
Mental health disorders are among the most common debilitating afflictions in the world. This reality is almost certainly exacerbated in poorer countries, given a lack of mental health resources and the demonstrated linkage between poverty and the risk of developing adverse psychological conditions. Yet pervasive social stigmas about mental health still make it difficult to convince governments, businessmen, and donors to invest in campaigns for greater resources, especially in economically struggling countries. Fortunately, there may be a way to convince hardheaded people all over the world that contributing to mental health provision efforts will be in their interest. Even if they don’t participate out of the goodness of their hearts or the recognition of the realities of mental health’s personal ravages, there’s a good argument to be made that providing these service just makes practical business sense. Because these days, a growing body of literature suggests funding improved mental health resources is one of the best economic investments a country or company can make.
Among its constituent countries, the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development conservatively estimates that up to four percent of national GDP can be lost in a given year to mental health’s blow to productivity. In the U.S., these direct and indirect costs make mental health issues perhaps the most expensive chronic health issue in the nation. Thanks to a lack of data or serious investigations in many developing countries, we often don’t know what the equivalent numbers would be. But some estimates put the global costs of mental health at $2.5 trillion per year, with two-thirds of that amount coming from indirect expenses. And up to 45 percent of that global impact seems to be concentrated in the developing world. So the numbers may be fuzzy, but we’re still looking at hundreds of billions of dollars a year in preventable losses to the national economies of a collection of limited, small, and fragile nations. 

Two opposing views
Looking for meaning in your life?
From psychotherapist Dr Aaron Balick on Huffington Post UK:
Finding the right therapist for yourself is important, and your progress with them will depend a lot on chemistry. If you don't click with the first one you meet or speak to, try someone else. If you're meeting a therapist in the real world, you might want to book a session in with a few different people, so you can get a taste before you decide.
And then you can begin your journey - now, more than ever, we need to access the deeper parts of ourselves, so we can operate better and more authentically in this fast moving world. A depth psychotherapy is a bit like slow food in a fast food culture. Once or twice a week you slow down, chew slowly, and taste all the flavours. It's you're life, as far as we know you've only go the one, so make it count and find out who you are.

“It just exacerbates everything”
Creator of Seinfeld, Curb your Enthusiasm, and king of neurosis Larry David, via Mia Farrow (former partner of the kind of neurosis Woody Allen, on twitter.com: 
Larry David on psychotherapy: “I think it just exacerbates everything. Then you just become more focused on yourself. It does no good at all."