Dino Might
Dino Constance has been fighting with his wife for a couple years, primarily over the custody of their baby son, who was removed from their home and put in foster care in the wake of allegations of domestic violence. The divorce has been especially ugly, made more so by the charge that Constance hired four different people to kill or wound his ex-wife. His defense team is preparing to claim Constance is mentally impaired. I have no idea what Constance did or why he did it, but his defense better be using that claim for real. There’s nothing I hate more than when defense lawyers use insanity to try to excuse a client who isn’t really insane.
Just sayin’.
Although his photo in this article certainly makes him look unhinged. Maybe it was just a bad hair day.
Mental illness defense possible
Liz | 3:16 PM | Uncategorized
Thursday’s International: Headlines
Good news from Wales: ‘Stigma surrounding mental health is slowly disappearing’
Bad news from Australia: Mental illness a burden on productivity
Further tragedy at Guantanamo (as if there weren’t enough already): Saudi Arabia identifies apparent suicide victim at Guantanamo Bay prison
Similar tragedy in Japan: Another Japan Suicide
Liz | 12:57 PM | Uncategorized
The Trouble With Spikol: Print Edition: Philip Dawdy!
A column about our friend over at Furious Seasons.
I don’t remember how Philip Dawdy and I first became aware of each other, but we quickly identified as kindred spirits.
He’s bipolar; I’m bipolar. He worked at an alt-weekly; I worked at an alt-weekly. He wrote about mental health in a way that got in people’s craws; I do that too. Finally—and perhaps most important—we both have mental health blogs, though they’re very different.
Dawdy’s blog Furious Seasons is more serious. It’s more analytical. He doesn’t feature photos of cute animals. He doesn’t confess things like having a crush on Jeremy Northam. (Not that there’s anything wrong with that. Jeremy’s dreamy!)
Dawdy’s strength lies in his willingness to be disliked. He challenges accepted notions. He’s on the front lines when a pharmaceutical company lies, or when research is fudged by pundits. He’s combative, sometimes annoyingly so, but in the interest of providing information you won’t get elsewhere. As a result, he’s the most rigorous online mental health journalist out there.
A San Francisco Bay native, Dawdy fell into journalism by accident. An aspiring novelist, he started writing music reviews about 13 years ago, and found he liked it—so he went to the University of California at Berkeley to learn news writing. Since then he’s racked up a ridiculous number of journalism awards, and garnered serious cred as a tough investigative journalist.
Dawdy was at Seattle Weekly for four and a half years, and spent much of that time writing about mental health—a subject that didn’t come naturally. “It’s another one of those accidents in life,” he says. “In January 2004 I wrote a feature about a Seattle public radio DJ who’d committed suicide the previous summer, and the article included my own ruminations on depression, bipolar disorder and somehow not killing myself. The response to the article was humbling—more letters and calls than Seattle Weekly had had in its 30-year history.”
Dawdy’s editors recognized the potential of having him continue to cover the subject. But despite national honors from the National Mental Health Association and other regional awards and accolades for his coverage of the subject, Dawdy left Seattle Weekly last year when the paper’s new owners Village Voice Media took over.
“I quit because I found our paper’s new editorial management to be utterly clueless as newspeople,” he says. “They’d forced me away from writing about mental health, and then one of the new editors asked me to commit a crime in order to report a story. And the paper began running fake stories—fun stuff like that. So I quit.” It was a loss for print journalism but a win for the online world.
Dawdy actually started the blog a couple years ago, when he found out that Village Voice Media—formerly New Times—was taking over.
“I knew they’d want none of the mental health reporting I did, and certainly not with the frequency the situation demanded,” he says. “I’d worked for New Times during grad school, and knew they didn’t fancy stories that smacked of social issues, and they didn’t care for reporters who pursued such stuff.”
Given the political blogs Dawdy was into, he figured it might be the perfect approach for mental health issues too—a sort of hedge against the possibility that the print mental-health beat was nearing extinction.
“The ironic piece of what launched me into doing the blog is that I’d done a lot of reporting in homeless shelters, state hospitals, treatment centers and residential housing facilities the previous two years, and had really been amazed at how little care and results for schizophrenics had improved despite the advent of the atypical antipsychotics—the alleged silver bullet in treating schizophrenia,” Dawdy says. “I saw far too many patients in real-world clinical conditions who were getting zero benefit from the meds and whose bodies were being blown up in the process. Then all of a sudden in September 2005 there was independent scientific evidence of what I’d been picking up on in the field. And I sort of jumped on that and other evidence on those medications right out of the chute.”
Since then Dawdy has continued to break stories and hammer away at the issues that mean the most to him: moving psychiatry away from a medication-only or polypharmaceutical approach, and identifying and developing psychiatric drugs that actually work reliably. It’s the kind of message mainstream America—and a medical establishment enraptured by prescriptions and diagnosis codes—needs to hear.
“I suspect at some point the blogging will pay off, but I’m not sure of the when or how,” Dawdy says. “But I know I have some kind of role to play in forcing a new level of accountability into the mental health industry. It’s badly needed, and since only a few others are doing it, I’ll stick with it until it doesn’t make sense anymore. That could be tomorrow and it could be 20 years from now.”
For my part, I don’t imagine I’ll be mooning over Jeremy Northam 20 years from now, but I’ll probably still be on meds. If Philip Dawdy has anything to say about it, they’ll finally be the right ones.
Liz | 3:37 PM | Uncategorized
Solicitation from pharmaceutical distributor
I got this in my email today. Somehow it made me feel hopeful about honest medicine–especially the whopping part.
Take delivery of a massive concession on your medicine
honest types, paramount quality.
whopping mixture, including Hard to find drugs
No RX required.
Hush-hush with No waiting space or appointmnets requisitepay for in filing and Save! notwithstanding in addition
Liz | 11:55 AM | Uncategorized
Healthy debate, part II
Responses to my joust with Mike:
From Adam B:
It may be that receiving “treatment” will help this man. However, we need to consider that treatment and chemical restraint are not the same thing. I’ve been on the receiving end of chemical restraint and I did have horrible side effects, to the point where I stopped talking all together. It was like being in a prison. Eventually I got a psychiatrist who decided to try psychotherapy with me instead of so many meds. It was from the therapy, and not the drugs, that I was able to regain my life and my drive.
From Kent:
There are risks to using psych drugs, just like there are with most other kinds of powerful drugs. It seems much less a human rights issue when someone weighs these risks [and is aware of what they all are], and decides for themselves that the benefits of taking the drug outweigh the risk. Maybe if someone was guilty of a violent crime like this and was facing the choice of prison or being drugged inside a psychiatric institution, the latter might seem preferable - I don’t know. But I think there are some psych institutions that are probably not much better than most prisons, at least in regards to the living conditions that exist there.
The potential for injuries [or "side effects"] from these drugs shouldn’t be taken lightly. If you choose to take antipsychotic medications and the person prescribing them for you listens to you and takes seriously what you have to say about how they affect you, then you probably have much less risk of being severely injured. But many people have suffered terrible injuries from some of these medications, and some have been killed by them - that should never be forgotten.
From Sally T:
I just hope, for Donald’s sake, he does NOT end up at our fine Oregon State Mental Hospital. It’s an absolute disgrace.
Liz | 9:13 AM | Uncategorized
Something MUST be done
An abstract from a new study published by the American Psychiatric Assn.:
Treatment Prospects for Persons With Severe Mental Illness in an Urban County Jail
H. Richard Lamb, M.D., Linda E. Weinberger, Ph.D., Jeffrey S. Marsh, M.D. and Bruce H. Gross, J.D., Ph.D.OBJECTIVE: A retrospective study of inmates with severe mental illness in a large, urban county jail aimed to obtain information about their psychiatric and criminal histories and status, the psychiatric services they used while incarcerated, and the challenges they might present in psychiatric treatment after release. METHODS: The authors ascertained demographic characteristics, diagnoses, psychiatric and legal histories, and current psychiatric condition and treatment from jail psychiatric records of a random sample of 104 male inmates with mental illness and from electronic county mental health records and state records of criminal histories. RESULTS: Seventy-eight inmates (75%) were diagnosed as having a severe mental illness. Of these, 59 (76%) required inpatient care or its equivalent for part of their time in jail for the current offense. Of the inmates with severe mental illness, 92% had a history of nonadherence to medications before this arrest, 95% had prior arrests, 72% had prior arrests for violent crimes against persons, and 76% were known to have a history of substance abuse. CONCLUSIONS: A large percentage of persons with severe mental illness received their acute psychiatric inpatient treatment in the criminal justice system rather than in the mental health system. The persons with severe mental illness in this study would present a major challenge in treatment in any setting given their psychiatric and criminal histories. The resources of the mental health system need to be greatly expanded, with priority given to treating persons who are criminalized or who are in danger of becoming criminalized.
I’m so tired of seeing mentally ill people going to jail. It’s awful.
Liz | 4:57 PM | Uncategorized
R.I.P. sweet kitty
My sincerest condolences to TTWS friend Simon N., who explains his video thusly:
My cat died on May 9, 2007. I must confess a small part of me thought he’d live forever. He was always a mystery, arriving on our doorstep one day in 1992 and deciding this was his home - we didn’t have a say in the matter. In his own quietly persistent way he became part of the family and ‘the drifter’ that blew in on our doorstep became a much loved family pet. Although he never did quite play by the rules. We could never decide on a name for him - which seemed to suit our transient friend just fine. He was forever more just called “Pussy” and he didn’t mind one bit. He had no time for a collar, vet appointments nor even comfortable indoor living - he was his own cat and loved the outdoor life. For 15 years he endured the coldest winters, rain, hail n’ shine and spent every moment in the great outdoors. Attempts to domesticate him were hopeless - even on the coldest winter evenings I’d place him on my bed and invite him to stay the night. He’d curl up, purr and enjoy my company yet as soon as I turned out the lights to sleep he’d be at my door insisting to be let outside with a pitiful meow. Of course I’d let him out and he’d disappear into the night to do what cats have to do - it wasn’t my business. His days were spent in our garden - sleeping and exploring all its corners, hidden spots and loveliness. He truly loved that garden and found comfort in its safety. He honestly could see the beauty in flowers and the natural aesthetic of nature. The garden was his and he spent nights fighting neighbourhood cats who dared enter his domain. He endured a bite out of one of his ears after a particulary fierce battle - but even that didn’t faze him. He was tough but loyal to those he loved and for some reason he loved me the most. I don’t know what he saw in me but I felt the same way about him. I like to think in our hearts we were both ‘drifters’ who found an anchor in each other. When he passed I dug a hole in one of his favourite places he used to sleep in the garden. My mother collected flowers and we placed them in the ground with him and laid him to rest. The next day the tree overhanging his tiny grave dropped all it flowers and orange petals lay scattered where he rest eternally. It was beautiful and fitting for our garden loving cat. This video is a tribute to my friend “Pussy” - the original Mother Nature’s Son.
Liz | 3:29 PM | Uncategorized
Happy weekend?
Did y’all have a good time this weekend? I went to Brigantine, New Jersey. I love that little island.
I just want to say that I now have 302 subscribers to my YouTube channel. The notion that all those strangers want to see me piss and moan about my problems (above, most pathetically) is hard to fathom. Has television really gotten that bad? Soon I’ll be starting a poetry project on YouTube. That should get people really excited. Poetry’s hot hot hot. I’ll ask for audience participation, so get ready with your favorite poems.
Oh, and you don’t actually have to watch this video. You can see from the still shot that I look like crap, hence my amazement that people would want to watch.
LATER: Hero of the Day, submitted by a faithful TTWS reader!
Liz | 1:05 PM | Uncategorized
Er, lost in translation?
I got this excerpt from an article about hypnosis as a cure for depression. It’s actually more of a sales pitch than an article, but it helped cure my depression simply by exisiting. Pradeep Aggarwal, a member of International Medical & Dental Hypnotherapist Association, describes himself as a guru. Here’s what he had to say about depression:
Hypnosis reveals you are some of the expression of a person’s feelings when he is sad and depressed.
1.No one loves me.
2.No on cares for me.
3.I have no right to live in this World.
4.I am useless. I cannot do anything.
5.I am merely a burden on my parents.
6.Why has God created me?
7.Why and for whom shall I live?
8.I am waste person. I have no right to be alive.
Now, you know about how you feel when you are sad and depressed. Now, what you have to do is to replace all those negative thoughts with the positive feelings. You have to replace the above negative thoughts with the positive thoughts. If you do this while in the state of hypnosis, your subconscious mind is more responsive to suggestion and the chances of improvement are more while in the state of hypnosis rather than the normal state.
1.Every one loves me.
2.Everyone cares for me.
3.I have every right to live on this world and deserve to be one among the several living individuals.
4.I am highly talented and powerful. Everything is possible.
5.I am God’s gift to my parents.
6.God created me as a gift to my parents.
7.I have to live for myself and my well-wishers.
8.There is no talented person other than me. So, I have every right to be alive.
Now you have replaced all your negative thoughts with the positive and powerful thoughts. Now the sadness and depression have no place in your life.
You are now free and fresh with the positive and powerful thoughts guiding you instead of your sadness and depression.
Now, you will never again feel sad and distressed ever again in your life. Sadness and depression hold no place in your life.
All you have to do is to replace your sadness with the positive and strengthening thoughts.
Hypnosis: 10 steps to Control Sadness and Reduce Depression
Liz | 10:52 AM | Uncategorized
