Much to the world’s chagrine, Carrie Fisher is not Princess Leia.

Carrie Fisher is a writer.

And she’s very, very funny.

Both talents are verified in Wishful Drinking.

I loved this memoir not because it exposed any great truths about bipolar disorder or addiction, but because it exposed great truths about learning to live with them.

Honest, open and hilarious, Fisher points the spotlight on her own life and directs us through an amazing production.

Bravo, Ms. Fisher! Bravo!

Over 120 million people worldwide suffer from depression, one of the leading causes of disability according to the World Health Organization (WHO).

Despite these alarming statistics, many people with depression don’t know that’s what ails them. Lots of sufferers think their symptoms are due to lack of sleep or a poor diet. Others know they’re depressed, but they’re too tired or ashamed or, believe it or not, too sad, to seek treatment.

And the sad thing is…

aside from the depression, I mean…

the sad thing is that these people suffer needlessly. With treatment, chronic depression gets better. Take it from me…I know! Treatment works. And lifting depression feels wonderful!

According to Dr. Mitchell Mathis, deputy director of the Division of Psychiatry Products at the Food and Drug Administration (FDA), “…the best way to treat a patient with the more severe form of major depressive disorder is through both therapy and prescribed antidepressant medication. They work best in combination with one another.”

I want to point out that therapy might be necessary initially, and is absolutely vital for teens and kids, but is not a life-long commitment for most. Chronic depression is a biologically-based illness that responds well to medication and/or lifestyle changes including awareness of appropriate sleep needs, dietary adjustments, and limited (if any) alcohol consumption.

Here are some of the most common symptoms of depression:

~Depressed mood, feelings of sadness

~Loss of interest in previously enjoyed activities

~Changes in appetite or weight

~Disturbed sleep

~Slowed or restless movements

~Fatigue

~Loss of energy

~Feelings of worthlessness

~Excessive guilt

~Trouble thinking, concentrating, or making decisions

~Recurring thoughts of death or suicide

If you experience more than three of these symptoms, see your doctor.

At your initial appointment your doctor will take a medical history.

BE HONEST! The information you share will enable the doctor to evaluate symptoms, rule out medical causes of depression, and determine if you suffer from major depression or another illness or disorder.

Work with your doctor. Get better. Depression is treatable, and it’s worth it.

You’re worth it.

It is letters like the one below that keep me writing about mental health issues and that treatment works and recovery is possible…

“I read your book today, started it today and finished it tonight, and i wanted to thank you from the bottom of my heart. My son has been battling Bi-polar disorder his whole life. (My mother also suffers) He was DX at age 7 and these days hope of recovery or well being is slim. He is now 13 and new issues are arising. Your book shined a new light of hope for me, and the courage to continue fighting his battle, and helping him to fight his battle. God Bless you Kate, your husband, and your three Children. Your journey touched my heart and made me feel not alone in the hopes of my son’s recovery towards feeling well. I hope to one day share his story and have the courage that you have now. Thanks so much for being a wonderful mother and human being.”

If you have a loved one with a mental illness, remember that yours is a journey shared and that hope always exists.

Blessings!

When you have an appointment or firm commitment, allot 15 extra minutes to get where you need to be.

Traffic snarls and unexpected events happen all the time. Don’t let them throw off your plans and cause unnecessary stress.

If you’re traveling by air, plan to arrive at the airport one hour before domestic departures.

And ALWAYS carry reading material...if you spend extra time waiting, spend it pleasurably — not anxiously.

This is the most recent installment in an ongoing series elaborating on 52 proven stress relievers identified by researchers at Texas Woman’s University.

Families Empowered and Supporting Treatment of Eating Disorders…

…is a volunteer run virtual community you must check out if you love someone who struggles with an eating disorder or body image issues.

As described on their website, F.E.A.S.T. “is an organization of and for parents and caregivers to help loved ones recover from eating disorders by providing information and mutual support, promoting evidence-based treatment, and advocating for research and education to reduce the suffering associated with eating disorders.”

FEAST  relies on the following guiding principles to fulfill their mission of helping families, caregivers, communities and medical personnel to properly support people working to recover from eating disorders:

~ Eating disorders are biologically based mental illnesses and are fully treatable with a combination of nutritional, medical, and therapeutic supports.

~ Parents do not cause eating disorders, and patients do not choose eating disorders.

~ Parents and caregivers are a powerful tool for a loved one’s recovery from eating disorder.

~ Blaming and marginalizing parents in the eating disorder treatment process causes harm and suffering.

~ When available, patients should receive evidence-based treatment.

~ Families should be supported in seeking the most appropriate treatment in the least restrictive environment possible.

~ Food is medicine: all treatment should include urgent and ongoing nutritional rehabilitation.

~ When the family is supported, the patient is supported. Siblings and all family members are ~ affected by a family member’s illness, and deserve full attention to their needs.

~ Parents have unique abilities to offer other parents support, information, and the wisdom of experience.

If you or someone you know is living with or recovering from an eating disorder, check out F.E.A.S.T. today.
Get the help and support you deserve.

According to an article published in the January 2009 issue of the Archives of General Psychiatry, women with bulimia, when compared with healthy women, show different patterns of brain activity while doing a task that requires self-regulation. This abnormality may underlie binge eating and other impulsive behaviors associated with eating disorders.

In the first study of its kind, Rachel Marsh, Ph.D., from Columbia University, and her colleagues, assessed self-regulatory brain processes in women with bulimia without using disorder-specific cues, like pictures of food.

In Marsh’s study, 20 women with bulimia and 20 healthy controls watched a series of arrows on a computer screen and were asked to identify the direction in which the arrows were pointing while researchers observed their brain activity using functional magnetic resonance imaging.

Most people easily complete similar tasks when the direction of the arrow matches the side of the screen it is on—an arrow on the left side pointing to the left—but react more slowly and make more mistakes when the two don’t match. To adjust, healthy adults activate self-regulatory processes in their brains to prevent automatic responses and increase focus on resolving the conflicting information.

Women with bulimia, however, become more impulsive during the task, respond faster and make more mistakes when presented with conflicting information.

Brain activity patterns also differ between the two groups. When answering correctly to conflicting information, women with bulimia show less activity in brain areas involved in self-regulation than healthy controls. Women with the most severe cases of the disorder show the least amount of self-regulatory brain activity and make the most errors on the task.

Marsh’s research indicates that altered patterns of brain activity underlie impaired self-regulation and impulse control problems in women with bulimia. This information may help researchers develop better treatment approaches.

Dr. Marsh and her colleagues are now conducting additional studies on brain function in teens with bulimia, searching for indicators of the beginnings of the illness. They also recommend studying people in remission from an eating disorder. Comparison studies with impulsive people who have healthy weight and eating habits could also provide more information about which patterns of brain activity are most directly related to eating disorders.

We’ve known for decades that abused and neglected children develop anxiety, depression and addictions more often than other children, and that they’re more likely than their well-cared-for peers to engage in self-destructive behaviors or attempt suicide.

Until recently, what’s not been understood is whether the abuse causes biological changes leading to these tendencies, or if heritable traits predispose both the abuser and the victims to their respective behaviors. Now, researchers in Montreal report that people who were abused or neglected as children showed genetic changes that made them more biologically sensitive to stress. Abuse causes genetic alterations.

Scientists at McGill University and the Singapore Institute for Clinical Sciences compared the brains of 12 people who committed suicide and who suffered abuse or neglect as children to the brains of 12 people who committed suicide and had not suffered childhood abuse or neglect. The brains are preserved at Douglas Hospital in Montreal as part of the Quebec Suicide Brain Bank, which promotes suicide studies. The facts of the subjects’ upbringing were determined by extensive next-of-kin interviews and investigation of medical records.

As is now widely known, when people experience stress or anxiety the “fight or flight” hormone cortisol is secreted in large amounts. One way the human brain reduces the anxiety is to make receptors on brain cells that help clear the cortisol, inhibit the distress, and protect neurons from damage caused by extended cortisol exposure.

The McGill and Singapore researchers discovered that the genes responsible for coding these receptors were 40% less active in people who were abused as children compared to those who were not. They also found the same differences between the abused group and the brains of 12 control subjects, who had not been abused and  did not commit suicide.

The findings clearly indicate that abuse and/or neglect can result in changes at the genetic level, leading to increased risk of mental illness later in life.

This is one more reason to require that Child Protective Agencies focus on the wellness of a child above all else, including preservation of family units and parental rights.

During the initial months after my daughter Chloe fell ill with bipolar disorder, I was told by one medical practitioner that she thought the illness was schizophrenia. Having adjusted to the harsh reality and seriousness of bipolar disorder (sometimes called manic depression), I was terrified by the possibility that she could actually have schizophrenia.

It seemed so much worse.

I‘d read all that was written about bipolar disorder and its treatment, occasionally catching snippets of information regarding schizophrenia; and my reading taught me that bipolar, while serious and life-threatening, was more treatable and had a more positive prognosis than schizophrenia.

According to many experts at the time, treated bipolar disorder could be managed, even stopped in its tracks. With proper medication and lifestyle choices, those diagnosed with manic depression could live happy, productive lives.

Patients with schizophrenia, however, did not enjoy the same prognosis. At the time, common theory indicated that schizophrenia, even when treated, continued to progress so that the patient would ultimately be unable to function “normally.”

Chloe’s degree of illness is severe and treatment resistant, forcing her medical team to experiment and use drugs “off label” as they tried to stabilize her.  Interestingly, some of the miracle drugs for Chloe had previously been used to treat schizophrenia or epilepsy, including powerful psychotropics such as antipsychotics and neuroleptics.

As Chloe got well using new and unusual combinations of medication, we realized that labeling an illness was less important than finding a treatment that worked; and I began to wonder about the connections between bipolar disorder, depression, psychosis, anxiety and schizophrenia. Were they really that different?

Lots of others were thinking about the same things, including a group of Swedish researchers who recently released an new analysis of a 30-year study indicating that schizophrenia and bipolar disorder share common genetic causes, suggesting that the two conditions may actually be different manifestations of the same illness.

Analyzing 9 million Swedish people over a 30-year period, Paul Lichtenstein and colleagues at Stockholm’s Karolinska Institute reported that close relatives of people diagnosed with either schizophrenia or bipolar disorder had an increased risk of both diseases, and that additional evidence from half-siblings indicated that the effect was due to genetic factors.

“We showed evidence that schizophrenia and bipolar disorder partly share a common genetic cause,”  said Lichtenstein. “These results challenge the current ‘disease classification’ dichotomy between schizophrenia and bipolar disorder, and are consistent with a reappraisal of these disorders as distinct diagnostic entities.”

I hope this news gives hope to many without it, and encourages doctors to treat each individual according to symptoms and needs rather than “disease classification.”

And I hope those reading this find wellness and a happy, productive prognosis.

Blessings!

Stop pulling your hair out!

Don’t put up with things that don’t work right.

If it can be repaired, do so.

If not, get rid of it.

First, identify and make a list of life’s little annoyances that continue to cause you aggravation. Write down things like the light bulb that blew out on the front porch, broken shoelaces, an alarm clock that isn’t reliable, or windshield wipers that leave your view streaky or blurry.

Second, prioritize the list.

Then repair, replace or discard every item on the list, from top to bottom.

This little bit of spring cleaning will greatly reduce stress by removing sources of ongoing irritation.

This is the most recent installment in an ongoing series elaborating on 52 proven stress relievers identified by researchers at Texas Woman’s University.

Plan ahead

If it’s predictable — and many things are — plan for it.

Take care of “to-dos” before they turn into crises, emergencies or late fees.

Some Examples:

Don’t let the gas tank get below a quarter tank.

In the event of a rushed morning before work, or worse yet, a real emergency, you won’t have to make another stop; and you’ll never wind up sitting on the side of the highway during rush hour awaiting the tow truck with a can of gas.

Keep a well-stocked pantry.

Always have enough non-perishable food items and bottled water on hand to feed your family for 72 hours. Stock up on items you know you’ll actually eat, including basics like tuna, peanut butter, jam, canned fruit and veg, canned spaghetti, a frozen loaf of bread, granola bars, etc. If the budget gets tight, the car breaks down, or a local disaster occurs, you’ll be okay for those first three days.

Maintain a supply of home staples.

When you open or unwrap the last  of any item that you regularly use  — detergent, shampoo, conditioner, bath soap, dish soap, toilet paper, paper towels, dog food,Tylenol — put that item on the grocery list and purchase it on your very next trip. DO NOT WAIT until a basic is nearly gone. If you have the storage space, buy several when these items are on sale to stretch the budget.

Buy bus passes, metro cards, postage stamps, etc. before the current items expire or run out.

When you only have a few uses left, write a note in your calendar as a reminder and make the purchase at the next opportunity. You’ll avoid missed meetings and late fees by delivering yourself and your mail on time.

Mark gift-giving events on your calendar, including a shopping trip the week before.

You’ll budget better and purchase more thoughtfully when you shop early, not as you drive to the wedding, shower, birthday party.

Do you have other “plan ahead” tips?

Hit the comment button and share them here.