Top Ten Myths about Mental Illness: #1

Source: PRNewswire

"Misconceptions about mental illness are pervasive, and the lack of understanding can have serious consequences for millions who have a psychiatric illness," according to NARSAD (or the National Alliance for Research on Schizophrenia and Depression).

NARSAD is the largest not-for-profit organization raising and distributing funds for psychiatric research, and they surveyed mental health professionals nationwide to determine the most common myths about mental illness. NARSAD received 102 responses from the experts.

"Misconceptions about mental illness contribute to the stigma, which leads many people to be ashamed and prevents them from seeking help," said Constance Lieber, NARSAD President. "Dispelling these myths is a powerful step toward eradicating the stigma and allaying the fears surrounding brain disorders."

As many of you know, I have spent the last year and a half working with adults dealing with acute mental illnesses and related crises. I do individual and group counseling and case management stuff. I've had the chance to hear a lot of tragic stories and work with some amazing individuals.

I've worked with people with major depression, drug and alcohol addiction, homelessness, sexual abuse history (abused and abusers), domestic violence (both the abused and abusers), schizophrenia, and much more. One of my supervisors forwarded this article title "Top Ten Myths about Mental Illness" to me, and I'd like to use it to open up a discussion on mental health, sharing my opinions on each of the 10 myths, one or two myths at a time for the next week or so.

Top Ten Myths about Mental Illness
Myth #1: Psychiatric disorders are not true medical illnesses like heart disease and diabetes. People who have a mental illness are just "crazy."

Fact: Brain disorders, like heart disease and diabetes, are legitimate medical illnesses. Research shows there are genetic and biological causes for psychiatric disorders, and they can be treated effectively.

I can't count how many times I've tried to convince my clients that they need to consider their mental illness as a disease, and that just like diabetes, you need to monitor your symptoms daily and use coping methods to counter-act those symptoms. And many of my clients say that they have never thought of it this way.

It hurts my heart to think about how many people believe this myth, that psychiatric disorders aren't real medical illnesses.

I think that many people who have never experienced serious mental illness believe, perhaps not even consciously, that those who struggle with mental illness are just weaker or lazier than themselves, and that's why they are struggling. (I'll talk about this more later this week.)

There are real chemical imbalances. There are synapses on the nerves that are firing messages through the brain that are not getting to the right destinations. There are imbalanced seritonin levels. That is why there is psychiatric medication, which is a proven intervention for mental illness. (Intervention not cure)

From Web MD, "Experts believe genetic traits, along with stressful events, illness, medications, or other factors, can lead to an imbalance of certain brain chemicals called neurotransmitters, causing depression. "

There are many different conditions that can trigger these imbalances, though, such as chronic stressors, social stressors, drugs or alcohol use, hormones, recent child birth, long term diseases, and even types of infections.

(However, mental illnesses are classified into two seperate divisions in the DSMIV. There a mood disorders (Axis I) and thought disorders (Axis II). Mood disorders are like depression, bipolar disorder, schizophrenia. Thought disorders are personality disorders like Narcissistic, borderline personality disorder, and antisocial personality disorder. Thought disorders have less research supporting the effectiveness of medicine as the primary means of treatment. Insurance companies don't pay for medications related to Axis II disorders.)

But I look forward to continue to discuss this concept more later this week.

Thoughts? Anyone read this whole thing?

Confessions

That's me winking, in case you can't tell ;)

I learned quickly that if I was going to survive mommy-hood, there was no room for being a control freak. So it's been interesting picking my battles with my adorable toddler, Eliza Monster!!! Here are some confessions that I think are funny and not terrible enough to be locked deep in my mommy vault.

1. Yesterday, Eliza and I were leaving Mother Goose story time at the library and made a pit stop at the bathroom. While I was washing my hands, Eliza ran from one stall to the next flushing the toilet, then running to the next toilet and flushing that one and running back to the other, and so on. She did this like 5 times. I thought about how most moms would intervene. Instead I shrugged and rearranged the diaper bag in the stroller. Sanitary? No. Environmentally friendly conservation of water? No. Safe? Not so much.
2. Eliza and I were sharing oreo's this afternoon. Yum. We were dipping them in milk and munching. This got messy fast with 'Liza creating a chocolate goatee and chocolate coated hands. Eliza held her hands up to me and said, "Messy!" and then I realized that I apparently have not taught her to use napkins because she started trying to wipe her hand off on her dress. I stopped her and so she immediately started wiping her hands off on my skirt. Again, Yum. After wiping her down with wipes, I found residual damage on the ground that looked like chocolate rain splotches on our floor. More scrubbing ensued. (This is a confession also b/c I felt guilty about feeding her oreo's. But not really. More like I felt like I should feel guilty for giving her oreo's. Hence I felt guilty for not feeling guilty.)
3. Today Finnegan was resting on one of our chairs. Eliza found him and grabbed his tail and started pulling. Finnegan dug his claws into the chair. I looked up from whatever I was doing in the kitchen when I heard a dragging sound. Eliza was dragging the chair across the floor via the cat's tail. Poor Kitty.
4. Eliza dropped some yogurt covered raisins on the floor of the doctor's office this morning. I didn't even move to stop her. 10 second rule? Some other lady there was like, "Oh! don't eat that off the floor!" right as Eliza popped it into her mouth.

5. I put on a Little Einstein movie for Eliza to watch while I blogged about this.

6. I have started packing boxes slowly, getting ready for our move. I've gotten about 15 packed so far and a lot of organization done.
When I pack boxes, I put Eliza in a box. She loves it. Seriously.

(Eliza's wearing her Brazilian soccer outfit from Uncle Robby)

In other news, I've loved getting to play soccer this season. Steve and Eliza came to my last two games. Every time I got subbed in Eliza started sobbing as I ran onto the field. However, Steve said that she's been able to track me on the field. Apparently when I go in for a tackle, though, she often says, "Mommy, oh no!" or says "Uh oh!"
She has learned how to cheer, though! Steve said that during our last game, Eliza yelled, "Come on guys! Go!" So... she already cheers louder than Steve. Nice to have some fans! :)

Egg Hunter

Happy Easter! Our neighbors were running out the door to church at the same time as us and offered to photograph our family, and so we could take pics of theirs too. It's priceless to get the opportunity to get all three of us in one picture. Love it!

Our neighbors are a sweet family that have two boys, one a little older than Eliza and one a little younger. She LOVES when they're outside at the same time that she is. We'll miss Everett and Tate when we move.




Saturday Morning was our ward's Easter Party complete with a building wide egg hunt (excluding the chapel) for the kids and a visit from someone dressed as the Easter bunny and a brunch. Eliza's reaction to the Easter Bunny was one of fear. She would sign a scared shiver to us when we'd ask her about whether she wanted to see the easter bunny or not. I figure not trusting a strange, giant, furry creature is probably a pretty good instinct, though, so no big deal. Hehe.
Eliza scored a pretty good amount of eggs. We found a small sunday school classroom with like 10 eggs in it and no big kids around. The door just happened to close behind us so Eliza had free reign. We caught a video of that too!



I went to the movie Coraline a few weeks ago which is 3D, so here is Eliza rockin' the 3D glasses and neon orange paci. Totally rad.

Hope you all had a great Easter.

By the way, all the Eliza outfits featured in this post were thanks to Oma! Thanks, Mom!

Sleepy 'Liza

So I mentioned that we installed the toddler bar on Eliza's crib last week, so that she's now in her Big Girl Bed!

This installation has spawned many a disruption to our otherwise peaceful nights and naptimes. Forutunately, I believe we are on the downhill (knock on wood). The last two nights, it only took Eliza one reminder to get back in her bed and go to sleep. YAY!

We were all getting a little bit grumpy.

It kind of felt like when we originially "sleep trained" Eliza back when she was like 4 months old, having to let her cry it out. After one week of consistent, exhausting, hard work, it really started working.

For anyone one who's actually curious, some of the things we had to do to help make this work was to install Eliza's old baby gate on her door frame, so she can open her door and call for us and not just fall asleep behind the closed door on the ground. There were some times in the middle of the night that I would hear her and go check on her and she'd be whimpering to herself in a yoga-like child's pose on our wood floor behind the door. SOooo sad, I know.

We also give her a sippy cup to go to bed with but if we had to remind her to go back to bed more than 3 x's, then we took away her cup (after warning her). But when we go in to check on her a few minutes later and she's still in her bed, she can get it back and we give her lots of praise for staying in her bed.

I also gave her the opportunity to choose which of her stuffed animals or books she wants in her bed with her to make it a little more exciting for her, but I don't think I needed to because she acts like she likes it a lot. I think most of all she likes that it gives her more independence. There's not much Eliza likes more than that! Independence and Ba-ba's (pacifiers).

It's April, Fool!

This is my favorite April Fool's joke this year:

click here:
Announcing: SLC Feminist First Ward

I wish it were real.... :(

FYI- Don't go read it if you are sexist and think Feminists are evil or stupid (and don't tell me about it either).