Tag: stigma

Should Mental Illness Funding Be Used on Addiction Treatment?

Posted by Natasha Tracy | Sep 6, 2012

If you read the Breaking Bipolar blog over at HealthyPlace you might have seen a question earlier this week:

Is addiction just like any other mental illness?

People have come down on both sides of this question on HealthyPlace and on Facebook but I think the overarching sentiment is that addiction is not just another mental illness as personal choices lead to its existence. No one causes bipolar disorder or schizophrenia through action but no one puts a drink in an alcoholic’s hand and forces them to imbibe. Moreover, addiction recovery is considerably simpler in that addicts get better by choosing not to use substances while other mental illness treatment involves months of treatment before any turnaround is seen and typically involves lifelong treatment.

But whether you think that addiction (or, more specifically substance abuse and substance dependence) is simply another mental illness or not, there is this question:

Should funds intended to be used on serious mental illness be used for addiction treatment?

Myths that Increase Mental Health Stigma and Decrease Compassion

Posted by Natasha Tracy | Aug 20, 2012

The Bipolar Burble blog is pleased to welcome guest author Jessica Gimeno from Flipswitch. Jessica is an online communications associate for The Balanced Mind Foundation and at only 28 is an amazing advocate for people with mental and physical illnesses.

Stigma and Compassion for Both Mental and Physical Illness

In our struggle to obtain mental health parity, I sometimes hear advocates claim or insinuate, “Everyone knows that emotional pain is worse than physical pain.” Really? Believe it or not, this comparison does not help us win society’s empathy and compassion. Have you ever sat at the bedside of a relative who was dying of cancer? It sucks. And if you’ve lived through physical pain but have no experience with mental illness, you’re less likely to have compassion for people with bipolar disorder, schizophrenia, or other stigmatized illnesses after hearing this claim.

Mental Pain is Worse Than Physical Pain?

I also know the claim is false. How? Well, I have many physical illnesses: myasthenia gravis (a neuromuscular autoimmune disease similar to multiple sclerosis), polycystic ovarian syndrome, asthma, and another respiratory illness. I also have bipolar II. (You might be thinking, how did she get so lucky?) The truth is: All illnesses—mental and physical—are hard. I know what it’s like to feel so depressed that you can’t get out of bed. That used to be my life. I also know what it’s like to endure many surgeries, not be able to feel your legs, and spend over a year lying in bed.

This article is not about bashing the mental health industry (an industry I work in, by the way)—it’s about expanding our worldview and helping others see our physical and mental pain more clearly.

Latest Bipolar Bites and Breaking Bipolar

Posted by Natasha Tracy | May 24, 2012

As per the usual, I’ve been a busy little beaver. I write about five mental health articles a week for blogs as well as other articles for clients. It’s the reason why I’m up on the latest research – I pretty much have to be; I spend most of my day looking at it.

And if you just hang out on the Bipolar Burble – I love you – you might miss a lot of interesting things. So here, without further ado is what has been going on at Bipolar Bites at Healthline.com and Breaking Bipolar at HealthyPlace.com.

Bipolar Bites

Bipolar Bites is a blog I started writing in February for Healthine.com. It contains what I call more “sciency” articles – those with facts and figures and study references. It’s for the mental health geek in many of us.

Recently at Bipolar Bites we’ve seen:

Medication side effect chat – antipsychotics and brain shrinkage and the danger of dry mouth.
A companion piece to the one I did on the biological evidence of depression – the biological evidence of bipolar disorder (part one and part two). Hint: there’s lots.
Something I’ve mentioned before – can people with bipolar disorder properly recognize facial emotion?
A pet peeve of mine is the notion that some people will commit suicide no matter what you do – I don’t believe that for a second.
An important issue and the data that supports it – do antidepressants work? And do they work as well as other medications?

Breaking Bipolar

Over at Breaking Bipolar I’ve got all kinds of advice for living with bipolar disorder:

Does Mental Illness Get Better or Worse?
How Do I Tell My Parents I Need Mental Health Help?
Relationships Can’t Fix Bipolar Disorder
Do We Internalize Mental Illness Stigma – Yes, and this affects recovery. Doctors can also sabotage treatment with medication.
What to think about when you travel – Travel Tips for the Bipolar
Why Worrying About Medication Side Effects Won’t Really Help You and What is Medication Tolerance (when medication stops working)
Mental illness, guilt and making amends.
Bipolar – Attack of the Body Snatcher – written at the behest of a reader
Power to the Crazy – Why Writing Off People with a Mental Illness Hurts You and Not Us
Depression Symptoms – Easy to Tear
Why It’s Ignorant to Write off Psychiatry – another shot across the bow of antipsychiatry

And while you’re perusing your articles of interest you might want to check out a series I did on mental illness and stigma or my piece for Sharecare: Succeeding with Mental Illness – Slow and Steady Wins the Race.

Oh, and did I mention I got name a mental health hero? (Thanks to Chato Stewart for the drawing seen above.)

Thanks all for your continued to support. I shall continue to do what I do as long as you keep your eyeballs facing forward.

Why Natasha Tracy? Why a Nom de Plume?

Posted by Natasha Tracy | Mar 17, 2012

Last week on HealthyPlace’s Breaking Bipolar I mentioned that I use a nom de plume. Yes, that’s right, Natasha Tracy is not my legal name. I don’t think this should come as a gigantic shock to anyone given as writers have been writing under pen names since the beginning of the written word.

But apparently it did come as a shock. And apparently people felt betrayed by this piece of information. And apparently some people felt like being rather nasty about it. And apparently some people felt like becoming ex-readers over it.

Well, OK, fine, that’s your prerogative. But I have my reasons for not using my real name. Here are a few.

Lights, Camera, Bipolar in Action

Posted by Natasha Tracy | Mar 8, 2012

As many people know from my last post on hypomania, last week I was filmed for a documentary by Andy Fiore. The documentary is about bipolar disorder and I was one of three people interviewed. Michael Schratter of Ride Don’t Hide, an international tour and movement to battle mental illness stigma, was also interviewed.

Dr. Oz Show – The Shock That Could Save Your Life – Electroshock Therapy for Depression

Posted by Natasha Tracy | Jan 25, 2012

As many people know the Dr. Oz show, did 30 minutes today on electroshock therapy. I’m going to talk a little about the Dr. Oz show’s representation of electroshock therapy and add a few additional facts.

First off, the Dr. Oz show is a source of entertainment, like anything else on TV, so he added drama that wasn’t particularly necessary. That is the way of the show, and TV, however. Specifically, the show started off with scenes of electroshock therapy being given pre-1950 which is when you see people having convulsions in the bad old days before people were anesthetized during treatments. This is not the best way to start a show that is supposed to educate about current treatment, but he does balance this later on.

The Good About the Dr. Oz Show

I was impressed really. They did do a lot of things right and they did share a lot of facts about electroshock therapy, now known as electroconvulsive therapy (ECT). What the Dr. Oz show did right:

Represented the modern procedure accurately and even showed the procedure being performed
Mentioned repetitive transcranial magnetic stimulation (rTMS) as an alternative therapy (rTMS uses magnetic waves rather than electricity)
Stated that almost all insurance companies cover ECT (to the best of my knowledge this is true)
Spoke that it should be used judiciously
Placed it in a reasonable historical context
Tried to reduce stigma and fear and increase awareness around the procedure
Mentioned memory loss (twice) as a side effect

The Bad about the Dr. Oz Show on Electroconvulsive Therapy (ECT)

As with all things in life, nothing is perfect. Some things you should know that weren’t altogether accurate about the show:

Only talked about right unilateral brief-pulse ECT – while this is considered the most modern form of ECT it is not the only type. Before getting ECT you need to know what type you are getting in order to accurately judge the risks.
Stated that ECT “reset the chemical messengers / receptors” in the brain – the truth is we don’t know exactly how ECT works, we only know that it does. It’s likely it works in multiple ways but “resetting chemical messengers / receptors” is mostly just a simplified concept and not medically accurate or at the very least, not medically complete.
Didn’t mention the other side effects of ECT – while memory loss is generally considered the most concerning, other side effects are also possible.

Altogether, I thought it was a good show, and if a tad flamboyant, represented ECT well but there are other things you should be aware of.

Why are People Antipsychiatry? Part 3/3

Posted by Natasha Tracy | Jan 24, 2012

So, I’ve talked about what antipsychiatry is and the history of antipsychiatry a little, and in this third and final part in the series I look at why people are antipsychiatry.

Now, I understand that this is a theory and will only be true for a percentage of people. And I understand that no matter what I say, I will have a deluge of people disagreeing with me.

Nevertheless, I write:

Antipsychiatrists are Scared

Antipsychiatry History – How Did We End Up With Antipsychiatry?

Posted by Natasha Tracy | Jan 15, 2012

Last week I discussed the antipsychiatry movement in general, including some of their critiques of psychiatry – in this piece I will look at why antipsychiatry exists at all. After all, there doesn’t seem to be an anti-cardiology or anti-oncology group – what makes psychiatry so special?

Again, Henry A. Nasrallah, MD’s article: The antipsychiatry movement: Who and why nicely encapsulates this topic, but for those of you wondering about the history of antipsychiatry, here goes.