Like everyone, I have an opinion about almost everything that comes up in a conversation. Just because you have an opinion does not mean that they are worth talking about for the most part. With that said, let me say this, I don’t usually talk about gay rights, gay issues, gay matters or anything gay unless I am talking about one of my ex gay roommates and how fun they were or I am explaining that being gay was not the WORSE part of being married to a man, who just happened to be gay. It was his lying, cheating, conniving, hateful, spiteful actions that really overshadowed being gay for the most part.
The other day though, a headline caught my eye. Wanda Sykes comes out and announces she is proud to be gay! I have to admit, I didn’t have an immediate reaction to that. But my brain, hard wired as it is, starting running through what I had seen Wanda in, did I like her, had I found her funny, and so on and PING, all of a sudden, it hit me. Wanda had been married before and she had talked about it in one of her HBO specials or something like that on TV. Not that I care personally about Wanda. I don’t know her. She makes me laugh and when people make me laugh, I WANT to like them.
So I had to really restrain myself from using my super private investigator powers to find her home phone number and call her. Yeah, really. I just want to say to her “Wanda!!!!!! Instead of coming out of the closet and being proud, how about coming out of the closet and apologizing for being a big, fat liar!!!!!”
Really. I do want to say that to her. And to all the other people who have been acting like heterosexuals for year, even going so far as being married to someone of the opposite sex. Yes, that is right. Wanda was married to a man, five years her junior until 1998. Wasn’t she gay then? Or was she bi trying to be straight? That looks even more ridiculous in print than when I was just saying it out loud to my husband yesterday.
I don’t’ care if Wanda and these other folks coming out are gay, bi, straight or curly cued. What I do care about is they these folks come out with their mantra of gay and proud of it and they are how old.. 35, 45, 55??? How old was George Takei from Star Trek when he finally came out? Almost in his 60’s? That doesn’t sound like you are really proud of who you are. Proud or not, what is being overlooked is that many of these folks were LYING about who they are, who they loved and the types of lives they were living. The headlines should read something like this – “Wanda Sykes comes out and says, Hey guys, I’m really sorry, but I’m gay and I haven’t been honest for the past 30 years, but I’m going to be now. I will still be funny and hope you like my jokes, and I’ll try to be straight with you from now on. (Straight as in honest, not sexual.)
Give me a break, yes, I know there is still discrimination toward gay people. There is still discrimination against race, age, sex and many other things. And for the most part, none of these other groups can HIDE who they are and what they are. If you’re old, people can tell. If you have a skin color, people can see it. And thankfully, most of us can tell the sex of other people pretty quickly. Sexuality? That is a whole ‘nother ball game though.
So GAY PEOPLE – come out, come out, wherever you are!!!!! If you want us to accept you and respect you, then be respectful and be honest. No one likes being lied to. And frankly, don’t come out just when you think it’s safe or you are finally too old to give a rat’s butt about what others think. Come out now, while you’re young, before you marry an hetro for whatever reason you might possess to do such a thing. Be yourself. Be true and BE HONEST. That is a headline to be proud of, no matter who you are. If you don’t act ashamed, then maybe fewer people will try to treat you shamefully.
And Wanda, if you are going to come out next month, as black… we already know that, just like we suspicioned for a very long time you were gay. Thanks for clarifying that finally.
Wednesday, November 26, 2008
Tuesday, November 18, 2008
Road to Recovery
“Mom, the doctor says I am in remission.” I had no idea what these words meant. This was the beginning of a conversation nine months ago, that I never expected to have with my son or anyone else for that matter. Remission and recovery were magic words that we talked about but I never really expected them to be real. Ten years ago, when Josh was diagnosed with bipolar disorder, we had talked about it being a goal, but I don’t think I ever really let myself think of it as a reality.
These days’, people are talking about recovery and remission from mental illness. This is a great step forward.
Remission aims for the virtual elimination of a person’s symptoms and restoration of a person’s quality of life at home, at work and in the community. A person achieves remission when symptoms are absent for at least six months according to professionals who focus on a recovery strategy.
As with other illnesses such as cancer or diabetes, the early detection of mental disorders greatly increases the chances that an individual will receive treatment and experience a better quality of life. In other words, the earlier the treatment plan begins, the better the odds are at for a higher rate of recovery.
An untreated mental disorder can lead to a more severe, more difficult to treat illness, and to the development of co-occurring disorders, with more severe symptoms, occurring more often.
Hearing from a mental health professional that recovery is an achievable goal can make a tremendous difference in a person’s approach to treatment and success. Hearing from family and loved ones that it is achievable and even more so, has been achieved makes it seem real and attainable.
One thing that NAMI Texas has accomplished to move our members forward on the road to remission and recovery is to have written another curriculum. This education program, Great Minds Think Alike, is written for teens and can be taught by adults AND teens who are involved in a recovery program. The best leader of all is one who leads by example.
Great Minds Think Alike, GMTA aims at two distinctive goals. To helps teens to recognize and understand their illness and then to set a goal of recovery and how to plan for a successful recovery.
It is a cornerstone belief of NAMI TX that ALL children and youth should have every opportunity to find success in their daily lives. This is often not the case for children and youth with mental health needs. The barriers these young people face frequently prevent them from recognizing even the smallest of success. GMTA is a program that will enable youth to have a better understanding of what success can look like, and how to achieve their own success.
Everyone needs to know that serious mental illness is not necessarily a life-long diagnosis -- a person can recover and enjoy a full and productive life at work and at home, with episodes of illness progressively tapering off. Does this mean there is a cure? No and there is no vaccine either. But managed symptoms, healthy life styles and achieving a quality of life is really all that any of us wants and expects, isn’t it?
For more information on GMTA and other NAMI Texas programs, email Deborah Rose at dcr@namitexasvft.com.
These days’, people are talking about recovery and remission from mental illness. This is a great step forward.
Remission aims for the virtual elimination of a person’s symptoms and restoration of a person’s quality of life at home, at work and in the community. A person achieves remission when symptoms are absent for at least six months according to professionals who focus on a recovery strategy.
As with other illnesses such as cancer or diabetes, the early detection of mental disorders greatly increases the chances that an individual will receive treatment and experience a better quality of life. In other words, the earlier the treatment plan begins, the better the odds are at for a higher rate of recovery.
An untreated mental disorder can lead to a more severe, more difficult to treat illness, and to the development of co-occurring disorders, with more severe symptoms, occurring more often.
Hearing from a mental health professional that recovery is an achievable goal can make a tremendous difference in a person’s approach to treatment and success. Hearing from family and loved ones that it is achievable and even more so, has been achieved makes it seem real and attainable.
One thing that NAMI Texas has accomplished to move our members forward on the road to remission and recovery is to have written another curriculum. This education program, Great Minds Think Alike, is written for teens and can be taught by adults AND teens who are involved in a recovery program. The best leader of all is one who leads by example.
Great Minds Think Alike, GMTA aims at two distinctive goals. To helps teens to recognize and understand their illness and then to set a goal of recovery and how to plan for a successful recovery.
It is a cornerstone belief of NAMI TX that ALL children and youth should have every opportunity to find success in their daily lives. This is often not the case for children and youth with mental health needs. The barriers these young people face frequently prevent them from recognizing even the smallest of success. GMTA is a program that will enable youth to have a better understanding of what success can look like, and how to achieve their own success.
Everyone needs to know that serious mental illness is not necessarily a life-long diagnosis -- a person can recover and enjoy a full and productive life at work and at home, with episodes of illness progressively tapering off. Does this mean there is a cure? No and there is no vaccine either. But managed symptoms, healthy life styles and achieving a quality of life is really all that any of us wants and expects, isn’t it?
For more information on GMTA and other NAMI Texas programs, email Deborah Rose at dcr@namitexasvft.com.
Wednesday, November 12, 2008
Dallas Morning News – page 13A
Dallas Morning News – page 13A
Insane killers need to be locked up for life – Mark DavisMr. Davis can be heard on WBAP talk radio 820 from 8:30 to 11:00 AM, weekdays.
If you have not read this editorial, open up your web browser and find it and read it now. Now before you think you know what this article says, realize that you don’t. At least not all of it.
The focus of his article revolves around the release of Dena Schlosser. In 2004, she cut her baby’s arms off. She was found insane and sent to Rusk State Hospital. Schlosser is being released by the end of the year.
As part of Schlosser’s release, she cannot have any more children. She cannot be around children unless supervised. There are mandatory mental health appointments. And this does not seem to satisfy Davis’s need for retribution. Davis is concerned for our safety based upon what he has written.
Davis actually has some very fine points.
1. It is natural for Schlosser to not want to spend the rest of her life in a mental hospital.
2. It is the job of her attorney to get the best arrangements for his client, within the guidelines of the law.
3. The law is what is allowing Schlosser to be released, four years after her crime.
4. No one really knows what Schlosser heard or thought when she cut baby’s arms off.
And then Davis starts to run amuck. He states that we as a society have allowed our logic to be clouded in regards to people who have committed crimes while suffering from a mental illness and that “we choose to endanger society rather than confront the necessity of confining – for life – those murderers who may not have known what they were doing.”
And this is where Davis starts to derail. First he begins to question Schlosser’s ability to make a decision and a moral one at that; and her ability to control herself. Davis states, “Often mothers hear those voices, feel those urges and restrain themselves from killing their children.” How it is that Davis has the ability to see into the minds of all these other mothers, but cannot see into the mind of Schlosser?
Davis states that we do not know if Schlosser is a threat to herself and to society. Again, I wonder if his source of information about this comes from the same source that assures him about the activities of other mothers and their thought control. Davis goes on to talk about the doctors treating Schlosser and how their assessments give him no comfort or assurance. He further states that he hopes “they feel great when Dena Schlosser is free to live a life largely indistinguishable from non-murderers.”
Finally, Davis says something that actually makes sense. Mr. Davis, your sarcasm is the only thing that actually has a ring of fact to it, even though that was not your intent. While Schlosser did kill her baby, she is not a murderer. She suffers from a disease that prevents her from making sound and sensible decisions and operating under the guidelines that we require and need as a cooperative, compassionate and functioning society. Saying she is a murderer is much like saying someone who has a heart attack has committed suicide. An extreme idea, completely wrong, however tragic the result. When you have a heart attack, your heart is sick. When you have a mental illness, you have a brain that is sick. Both can and do respond to treatment. Both need to be supervised by medical professionals.
Your comments show an underlying fear that is based upon ignorance and a lack of empathy that always leads down the same path – stigma and discrimination.
We don’t call our armed forces and wonderful military veterans murderers, though killing is involved. There is a reason, an explanation and an expectation of the circumstances involving war and all that it entails. We do not call a person who kills another while defending themselves, or their family and home a murderer. But death does happen in those circumstances. And a person who is suffering from a brain that does not allow them to see the difference between what is real and what is not, often times is involved in many tragic situations and yes, sometimes they can involve the death of another. But this does not make them a murderer. This makes them a person who is ill and who needs medical treatment. Studies show that almost 90 percent of those with a mental illness never commit a violent act of any kind. On the other side, more than one-fourth of persons with severe mental illness are victims of violent crime in the course of a year, a rate 11 times higher than that of the general population.
Davis said that “this is one of those cases of seeing the enemy and it is us.” You said the right thing, even if it was for the wrong reason. The enemy is us for allowing people like Schlosser and others to be ill and to ignore the warning signs. If we passed a man on the street exhibiting the signs of a heart attack or asthma and did nothing to help him, we would be criminals ourselves. So how is it that when we see the warning signs of mental illness and do nothing to assist the person, turning a blind eye is ok?
Wait, you don’t’ know what the warning signs are? Again, how can that be in this enlightened age of information?
Davis writes passionately and effectively, but unfortunately, there is not enough truth and facts in what he wrote today. He needs more information about mental illness and recovery and what both of these look like. I can help Mr. Davis. We all can help him. Write him at mdavis@wbap.com.
Insane killers need to be locked up for life – Mark DavisMr. Davis can be heard on WBAP talk radio 820 from 8:30 to 11:00 AM, weekdays.
If you have not read this editorial, open up your web browser and find it and read it now. Now before you think you know what this article says, realize that you don’t. At least not all of it.
The focus of his article revolves around the release of Dena Schlosser. In 2004, she cut her baby’s arms off. She was found insane and sent to Rusk State Hospital. Schlosser is being released by the end of the year.
As part of Schlosser’s release, she cannot have any more children. She cannot be around children unless supervised. There are mandatory mental health appointments. And this does not seem to satisfy Davis’s need for retribution. Davis is concerned for our safety based upon what he has written.
Davis actually has some very fine points.
1. It is natural for Schlosser to not want to spend the rest of her life in a mental hospital.
2. It is the job of her attorney to get the best arrangements for his client, within the guidelines of the law.
3. The law is what is allowing Schlosser to be released, four years after her crime.
4. No one really knows what Schlosser heard or thought when she cut baby’s arms off.
And then Davis starts to run amuck. He states that we as a society have allowed our logic to be clouded in regards to people who have committed crimes while suffering from a mental illness and that “we choose to endanger society rather than confront the necessity of confining – for life – those murderers who may not have known what they were doing.”
And this is where Davis starts to derail. First he begins to question Schlosser’s ability to make a decision and a moral one at that; and her ability to control herself. Davis states, “Often mothers hear those voices, feel those urges and restrain themselves from killing their children.” How it is that Davis has the ability to see into the minds of all these other mothers, but cannot see into the mind of Schlosser?
Davis states that we do not know if Schlosser is a threat to herself and to society. Again, I wonder if his source of information about this comes from the same source that assures him about the activities of other mothers and their thought control. Davis goes on to talk about the doctors treating Schlosser and how their assessments give him no comfort or assurance. He further states that he hopes “they feel great when Dena Schlosser is free to live a life largely indistinguishable from non-murderers.”
Finally, Davis says something that actually makes sense. Mr. Davis, your sarcasm is the only thing that actually has a ring of fact to it, even though that was not your intent. While Schlosser did kill her baby, she is not a murderer. She suffers from a disease that prevents her from making sound and sensible decisions and operating under the guidelines that we require and need as a cooperative, compassionate and functioning society. Saying she is a murderer is much like saying someone who has a heart attack has committed suicide. An extreme idea, completely wrong, however tragic the result. When you have a heart attack, your heart is sick. When you have a mental illness, you have a brain that is sick. Both can and do respond to treatment. Both need to be supervised by medical professionals.
Your comments show an underlying fear that is based upon ignorance and a lack of empathy that always leads down the same path – stigma and discrimination.
We don’t call our armed forces and wonderful military veterans murderers, though killing is involved. There is a reason, an explanation and an expectation of the circumstances involving war and all that it entails. We do not call a person who kills another while defending themselves, or their family and home a murderer. But death does happen in those circumstances. And a person who is suffering from a brain that does not allow them to see the difference between what is real and what is not, often times is involved in many tragic situations and yes, sometimes they can involve the death of another. But this does not make them a murderer. This makes them a person who is ill and who needs medical treatment. Studies show that almost 90 percent of those with a mental illness never commit a violent act of any kind. On the other side, more than one-fourth of persons with severe mental illness are victims of violent crime in the course of a year, a rate 11 times higher than that of the general population.
Davis said that “this is one of those cases of seeing the enemy and it is us.” You said the right thing, even if it was for the wrong reason. The enemy is us for allowing people like Schlosser and others to be ill and to ignore the warning signs. If we passed a man on the street exhibiting the signs of a heart attack or asthma and did nothing to help him, we would be criminals ourselves. So how is it that when we see the warning signs of mental illness and do nothing to assist the person, turning a blind eye is ok?
Wait, you don’t’ know what the warning signs are? Again, how can that be in this enlightened age of information?
Davis writes passionately and effectively, but unfortunately, there is not enough truth and facts in what he wrote today. He needs more information about mental illness and recovery and what both of these look like. I can help Mr. Davis. We all can help him. Write him at mdavis@wbap.com.
Tuesday, November 11, 2008
Negative and Positve Symptons of Mental Illness by Guest Writer, John Hoezel
What are Positive and Negative Symptoms of mental illness? Positive symptoms are behaviors and beliefs that the person with mental illness has that should not be there. Negative symptoms are capabilities and skills that the person with mental illness should have, but they are missing or considered deficits.
For example, Positive symptoms of schizophrenia can include: feelings of being controlled by outside forces, hearing, seeing, smelling or feeling things which are not there, (hallucinations) and unusual beliefs, (delusions).
Negative symptoms of schizophrenia can include: Loss of normal behaviors such as tiredness, loss of concentration and lack of energy and motivation; inability to hold a job, and reduced expression and emotions.
More Positive symptoms can include: Disorganized thinking, apparent in patients' speech patterns as schizophrenia progresses. Affected people lose their train of thought during conversations, make loose associations of topics (tangentially jumping from one topic to another apparently at random, or on the barest of associations), and give answers to unrelated questions. Disorganized behavior may range from simple problems sustaining goal-directed self-care behaviors such as personal hygiene to unpredictable and bizarre socially inappropriate outbursts. For example, people may not dress according to the weather.
Examples of Negative symptoms are detailed below. "Affect" refers to emotional expression. Affective flattening, distinguished by a restricted range of expressed emotions, is a fairly common negative symptom among some schizophrenia patients. Patients with affective flattening show relatively immobile and unresponsive facial expressions, often accompanied by poor eye contact and little body language or movement. "Avolition" describes a loss of motivation; the will or desire to participate in activities or to do things. Some patients with schizophrenia show avolition in that they will sit still for long periods of time, seemingly indifferent to their surroundings, and without displaying any interest in work or social activities. In extreme cases, this behavior becomes catatonia.
Disorganized symptoms include thought disorder, confusion, disorientation, and memory problems. Fortunately "New Generation Medicines" (NGM-future topic) can help greatly with positive, negative, and disorganized symptoms. Many times NGMs take away all the positive symptoms. If not they are typically markedly diminished. Geodon and Clozapine are two medicines that we have seen take away delusions and hallucinations, and also restore negative symptom deficits to the extent that productive work was restored. And we were pleasantly surprised at our son's new found awareness. For example he often said, "How could I have done that?" as he looked back on past behavior and thinking. Treatment today offers much hope, even in the face of both Positive and Negative symptoms.
For example, Positive symptoms of schizophrenia can include: feelings of being controlled by outside forces, hearing, seeing, smelling or feeling things which are not there, (hallucinations) and unusual beliefs, (delusions).
Negative symptoms of schizophrenia can include: Loss of normal behaviors such as tiredness, loss of concentration and lack of energy and motivation; inability to hold a job, and reduced expression and emotions.
More Positive symptoms can include: Disorganized thinking, apparent in patients' speech patterns as schizophrenia progresses. Affected people lose their train of thought during conversations, make loose associations of topics (tangentially jumping from one topic to another apparently at random, or on the barest of associations), and give answers to unrelated questions. Disorganized behavior may range from simple problems sustaining goal-directed self-care behaviors such as personal hygiene to unpredictable and bizarre socially inappropriate outbursts. For example, people may not dress according to the weather.
Examples of Negative symptoms are detailed below. "Affect" refers to emotional expression. Affective flattening, distinguished by a restricted range of expressed emotions, is a fairly common negative symptom among some schizophrenia patients. Patients with affective flattening show relatively immobile and unresponsive facial expressions, often accompanied by poor eye contact and little body language or movement. "Avolition" describes a loss of motivation; the will or desire to participate in activities or to do things. Some patients with schizophrenia show avolition in that they will sit still for long periods of time, seemingly indifferent to their surroundings, and without displaying any interest in work or social activities. In extreme cases, this behavior becomes catatonia.
Disorganized symptoms include thought disorder, confusion, disorientation, and memory problems. Fortunately "New Generation Medicines" (NGM-future topic) can help greatly with positive, negative, and disorganized symptoms. Many times NGMs take away all the positive symptoms. If not they are typically markedly diminished. Geodon and Clozapine are two medicines that we have seen take away delusions and hallucinations, and also restore negative symptom deficits to the extent that productive work was restored. And we were pleasantly surprised at our son's new found awareness. For example he often said, "How could I have done that?" as he looked back on past behavior and thinking. Treatment today offers much hope, even in the face of both Positive and Negative symptoms.
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