Eating Disorder Awareness Week

According to the National Eating Disorder Association, eating disorders are illnesses with a biological basis modified and influenced by emotional and cultural factors. The stigma associated with eating disorders has long kept individuals suffering in silence, inhibited funding for crucial research and created barriers to treatment. Because of insufficient information, the public and professionals fail to recognize the dangerous consequences of eating disorders. While eating disorders are serious, potentially life threatening illnesses, there is help available and recovery is possible.

Eating disorders are not just exclusively experienced by girls and women. Research has shown us that boys and men experience the disorder as well. Look here for more information about the subtypes of eating disorders, cultural and sex differences, resources, statistics and ways to love yourself and your body.

February has been a National Awareness Month for Eating Disorders world-wide. More information reduces stigma. And when stigma is reduced, hope is possible.

Here's to hope and loving yourself no matter what!


Resources

The Eating Disorders Association(EDA) in the United Kingdom strives to improve the quality of life for people affected by eating disorders. @http://www.edauk.com/

The National Eating Disorder Information Centre (NEDIC) is a Toronto-based, non-profit organization, established to provide information and resources on eating disorders and weight preoccupation. @ www.nedic.ca

The National Eating Disorders Association (NEDA) is the largest not-for-profit organization in the United States working to prevent eating disorders and provide treatment referrals to those suffering from anorexia, bulimia and binge eating disorder and those concerned with body image and weight issues @ http://www.nationaleatingdisorders.org/

Celebrating Psychoanalysis

Many people are unfamiliar with psychoanalysis and get a glimpse of it in caricatured form through movies, television or books. In these mediums, psychoanalysis is often presented as a stilted experience, where a couch-lying patient drones on about emotions and feelings to a stoic therapist who is busily taking notes. The other polar extreme is that the analyst, fatigued from his or her patient's narrative, falls asleep [1].

The misconceptions go even further where mental health professionals who work within other psychological treatment modalities are often misinformed about the mechanics of psychoanalysis, dismissing it as if it were a singular homogenized school of thought. Many are not even aware that research and empirical studies have shown that psychoanalysis and psychodynamic therapy are successful treatments [2].

Psychoanalysis is grounded on the observation "that individuals are often unaware of many of the factors that determine the emotions and behavior. These unconscious factors may create unhappiness, sometimes in the form of recognizable symptoms and at other times as troubling personality traits, difficulties in work or in love relationships, or disturbances in mood and self-esteem. Because these forces are unconscious, the advice of friends and family, the reading of self-help books, or even the most determined efforts of will, often fail to provide relief. Psychoanalytic treatment demonstrates how these unconscious factors affect current relationships and patterns of behavior, traces them back to their historical origins, shows how they have changed and developed over time, and helps the individual to deal better with the realities of adult life. Analysis is an intimate partnership, in the course of which the patient becomes aware of the underlying sources of his or her difficulties not simply intellectually, but emotionally - by re-experiencing them with the analyst "[3] .

Psychoanalysis has evolved over the last 100 years from Freud's initial model, and it has grown to include many different and compelling schools of thought. It is a rich, deep and involved process. It offers a modern vitality and introspection that many may not realize. And most of all, it needs to be celebrated as a viable option for the treatment of psychological symptoms [4].



Footnotes
[1] Serani, D. (2002). Understanding psychoanalysis. The Participant-Observer, 4(1): 4-6.
[2] http://www.apsa.org/pubinfo/efficacystudies.htm
[3] http://apsa.org/pubinfo/about.htm
[4] http://www.apa.org/monitor/oct05/closer.html

Resources
American Academy of Psychoanalysis
American Psychoanalytic Association
American Psychological Association: Division 39 - Psychoanalysis
American Psychological Association: Division 39 - Section: Psychoanalytic Reserarch Society
American Society of Psychoanalytic Physicians
Argentine Psychoanalytic Association
Asociacición Psicoanálitica Mexicana
Association for Child Psychoanalysis
Association for the Study of Dreams
Australian Psychoanalytic Society
Brisbane Centre for Psychoanalytic Studies, Australia
British Psychoanalytical
Buenos Aires Psychoanalytic Association
Canadian Psychoanalytic Society
Centre for Psychoanalytic Studies
International Psychoanalytical Association
Italian Psychoanalytic Society
IPSO
Mexican Psychoanalytic Association
Psychoanalysisarena.com/
Psychoanalytic Federation of Latin America
Sociedade Psicanalítica de Porto Alegre
The Swedish PsychoAnalytical Society


*Thanks to my many blogfriends who have suggested a post be written about psychoanalysis *

D'oh: Keeping Your Mental Alertness

Scientists have known for years that as we get older, the brain tends to function less efficiently, and electrical currents connecting different areas of the brain get weaker. Now studies have shown that this gradual deterioration can be reversed.

Mental decline as you age appears to be largely due to altered connections among brain cells. But research has found that keeping the brain active seems to increase its vitality and may build its reserves of brain cells and connections. Even new brain cells can be generated.

Yes, Homer Simpson, even you can generate new brain cells too.

Low levels of education have been found to be related to a higher risk of Alzheimer’s later in life. This may be due to a lower level of life-long mental stimulation. Put another way, higher levels of education appear to be somewhat protective against Alzheimer’s, possibly because brain cells and their connections are stronger. Well-educated individuals can still get Alzheimer’s, but symptoms may appear later because of this protective effect.

You don’t have to turn your life upside down to keep a healthy mental alertness.

Keep your brain active every day:

1. Stay curious and involved — commit to lifelong learning.
2. Read, write, work crossword or other puzzles.
3. Attend lectures and plays.
4. Enroll in courses at adult education centers, community college or other community group
5. Play games.
6. Garden.
7. Try memory exercises.
8. Do aerobic exercise - walking is wonderful.
9. Teach someone something.
10. Listen to classical music.



Resources

Alzheimer's Organization http://www.alz.org/maintainyourbrain/mactive.asp

AARP Online Games and Puzzleshttp://www.aarp.org/games/

Third Age Online Gameshttp://www.thirdage.com/living/games/sbt1/

The Memory Page – Tips and exercises to help you improve your memory at any age.

The New York Times Crossword Puzzlehttp://www.nytimes.com/pages/crosswords/

Resistant Depression Looks to the Vagus Nerve Stimulator

Many people who experience depression have found tremendous relief of symptoms from talk therapy and antidepressant medications. But, there are many people whose depression does not improve with these treatments. These individuals have what is known in the clinical field as "treatment resistant depression". Up until now, those individuals with chronic depression were offered intensive treatments like Electro-Convulsive Therapy as a last resort.

Technology continues to be one the great cornerstones in treating psychological and psychiatric disorders. On July 15, 2005, the FDA approved Vagus Nerve Stimulation as a treatment for chronic depression.

The Vagus Nerve Stimulator (VNS) is not related to brain surgery, although it is a treatment that affects the function of the brain. VNS uses specific stimulation of the vagus nerve to send stimulation to specific parts of the brain that are involved in mood. It is not like Electro-Convulsive Therapy (ECT), a treatment that involves stimulation of the entire brain, results in short term memory loss and sometimes pain. Patients who have used VNS do not feel the stimulation from the stimulator since the vagus nerve does not have the type of nerves that carry pain signals. Nor does VNS interfere with memory loss. Patients having Vagus Nerve Stimulation can continue taking their other medications without worrying about side effects or interactions as well.

The Vagus Nerve Stimulator is a small device implanted under the skin near the collarbone. A wire under the skin connects the device to the vagus nerve in the neck. A physician programs the device to produce weak electrical signals that travel along the vagus nerve to the brain at regular intervals. These intervals ease the symptoms of depression. Five months after it was approved for sale, The VNS treatment for chronic, unresponsive or "resistant depression" is winning favor in the medical and psychological community.

Houston-based Cyberonics says a growing number of psychiatrists and surgeons are being trained to use its Vagus Nerve Stimulator, and an increasing number of insurance companies are agreeing to reimburse patients for their costs. In order to be a candidate for this new treatment, you must be a severely depressed adult who had not responded to at least four different treatment regimens.

As of December 2005, 62 insurance providers had agreed to pay for costs associated with VNS therapy. And many other insurance companies have agreed to reimburse patients who use the device on a case-by-case basis.

For those who have endured depression for many years without relief from traditional interventions, this new technology can offer life changing results. And it furthers our understanding that depression is a real, biological issue!


References

Anderson, B. et al. (2005). Vagus nerve stimulation affects pain perception in depressed adults. Pain Research & Management. 10(1), 9-14.

George, M.S. et al. (2005). A One-Year Comparison of Vagus Nerve Stimulation with Treatment as Usual for Treatment-Resistant Depression. Biological Psychiatry. 58(5), 364-373.

Vagus Nerve Stimulation Therapy @ http://www.vnstherapy.com/