Category: depression

Emotional Overreactions and Depression

Emotional Overreactions and Depression

Posted by | Feb 19, 2012

Yesterday I was having a good day. This doesn’t happen to me all that often but I was being all productive and downright cheery. Miracles. Every day.

But then something happened. It wasn’t an earth-shattering thing, it was just a thing. A life thing. A thing that your average person would feel bad about but not the end of the world.

Just the end of my world.

Depression

Depression is a funny thing. Not so much funny ha ha but more funny want to slit your throat. Depression makes you believe things that aren’t true. Depression makes you believe that you are lowly, that you are nothing, that you are unlovable, that you are unlikeable, and a host of other things all seemingly designed to tear you to the floor.

And it’s really unfortunate when life events work to confirm, or seemingly confirm, these false beliefs.

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What’s the Worst Mental Illness?

What’s the Worst Mental Illness?

Posted by | Jan 17, 2012

I, as a good little webmistress, keep an eye on my web analytics. So yes, I know some things about my audience, and one of the things I know is what people are searching for when they find me. This sometimes influences what I write about, like today: What is the worst mental illness?

What is the Worst Mental Illness?

That depends on how you judge it. You could judge it by suicide rate, in which case:

  1. Anorexia is the worst with about a 20-25% suicide rate*
  2. Bipolar is second worst with about a 15% suicide rate
  3. Schizophrenia is third worst with about a 10% suicide rate

You could judge the worst mental illness based on disability rates in which case you would probably get:

  1. Schizophrenia as the worst
  2. Bipolar as second worst
  3. Depression as third worst (although more people with depression are on disability overall)

Perhaps schizophrenia is the worst as it’s associated with more psychosis (delusions and hallucination). Perhaps major depression is worst because of the number of treatment-resistant cases.

Or perhaps the answer is simply this: The worst mental illness is the one you have.

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Drug Trials, Antidepressants and Placebo Effect – Is it Bad?

Posted by | Dec 12, 2011

When drug trials are conducted, the gold standard (and requirement for FDA approval) is a double-blind placebo-controlled study. In this kind of drug study participants are randomly assigned to receive either the medication or an inert (does nothing) pill known as a placebo. Neither the doctor not the patient knows whether they are getting the placebo or the real drug.

The study then compares what happens to those who received the real drug versus those who received the placebo and determines the efficacy of the real drug.

The Placebo Effect

This is critical because of something known as the “placebo effect.” The placebo effect is this odd scenario where people get better just because you give them a pill, even if the pill does nothing. Doctors and scientists don’t understand the placebo effect but not only will people get better on a placebo, but they will even experience side effects – something that isn’t possible given that the placebo is inert. But the brain is a powerful thing and something we don’t fully understand.

Treatment vs. No Treatment OutcomesAnd one of the problems with antidepressants (and many medications) is that sometimes they aren’t better than the placebo. Additionally, sometimes when they are better than the placebo, it’s only by a small margin. Drug companies have to prove that their drug is statistically significantly better than a placebo in order to get FDA approval but even this statistically significant amount can be very small.

However, this isn’t a piece about how effective are when antidepressants are compared to placebos. This is a piece about how effective antidepressants are compared to no treatment.

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The Daily Athenaeum Response Regarding the Depression Article

Posted by | Nov 10, 2011

Last night I received a response from John Terry, the managing editor at The Daily Athenaeum. While I am rather disappointed to its content as it seems to have missed my points, I do appreciate someone from the paper taking the time to answer my email.

Objection to the Depression Article and Abusive Comments

Depression Article Response

One of the points John makes is that they cut off comments because the comments became “abusive, attacking.” While I don’t agree, the comments seem pretty tame to me, I will say that I do agree with his point that it isn’t acceptable to abuse or attack the author of the article or other commenters. In my opinion, the issue with The Daily Athenaeum’s piece has more to do with editorial permission to publish and less to do with the individual author. Any one person can be ignorant and uninformed but that’s when it’s up to the editor to step up and make sure that such content does not get published.

Moreover, my objection is around the content and the effect it has on others. This takes precedence over even editoral judgement. That multiple people that such stigmatizing and minimizing remarks were acceptable to print at all is the problem, not the individuals, per se.

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Letters to the West Virginia University Regarding Depression Article Feedback

Posted by | Nov 8, 2011

The following is a copy of the two letters I have sent to the West Virginia University (see why I’m fighting their stigma here). I have yet to receive a reply. You are welcome to copy and paste any parts that you like and send them yourself. The most voices the better.

Send Your Email to the Newspaper and Other University Staff

I sent this letter to everyone at the paper as well as psychology and journalism heads at the school:

To: ‘DAnewsroom@mail.wvu.edu’; ‘DAPerspectives@mail.wvu.edu’; ‘Alan.Waters@mail.wvu.edu’; ‘Tracy.Morris@mail.wvu.edu’; ‘Kevin.Larkin@mail.wvu.edu’; ‘William.Fremouw@mail.wvu.edu’; ‘Maryanne.Reed@mail.wvu.edu’; ‘Diana.Martinelli@mail.wvu.edu’; ‘CHERUKURI@huffingtonpost.com’; ‘Danielle.Faipler@mail.wvu.edu’

CC: ‘velasconyc@yahoo.com’; ‘DASports@mail.wvu.edu’; ‘DAA&E@mail.wvu.edu’; ‘Erin.Fitzwilliams@mail.wvu.edu’; ‘John.Terry@mail.wvu.edu’; ‘Alex.Koscevic@mail.wvu.edu’; ‘Mackenzie.Mays@mail.wvu.edu’; ‘Lydia.Nuzum@mail.wvu.edu’; ‘James.Carvelli@mail.wvu.edu’; ‘Ben.Gaughan@mail.wvu.edu’; ‘Berry@mail.wvu.edu’; ‘Jeremiah.Yates@mail.wvu.edu’; ‘Jakob.Potts@mail.wvu.edu’; ‘Charles.Young@mail.wvu.edu’; ‘DACalendar@mail.wvu.edu’; ‘Matthew.Sunday@mail.wvu.edu’; ‘DA-Editor@mail.wvu.edu’; ‘BoFisher@mail.wvu.edu’; ‘Kyle.Hess@mail.wvu.edu’; ‘Alan.Waters@mail.wvu.edu’; ‘Pam.Dodson@mail.wvu.edu’; ‘chris.mcelroy@mail.wvu.edu’; ‘Jami.Christopher@mail.wvu.edu’; ‘roy.batesr@mail.wvu.edu’; ‘danewsroom@mail.wvu.edu’

To the Editors and Management of the Daily Athenaeum as well as the psychology and journalism professionals at West Virginia University,

After a lack of response regarding my prior feedback on the Depression can be treated through lifestyle changes article, I’m forced to again express my extreme disappointment in the handling of this situation.

I would like to encourage the editorial team to take this as an opportunity not only to acknowledge the questionable reporting, but also to help remove stigma from the mental health community. I strongly ask for:

  1. A retraction and correction of the published piece posted online, on Facebook and Twitte
  2. A series of education-focused articles on the mental health services available for WVU students and mental illness stigma
  3. A guest column on mental illness to be published (I would be happy to contribute this)

I am asking for professional journalism behavior as are the hundreds of other people who have read my articles on this subject. I look forward to your reply.

Natasha Tracy

Mental Health Advocate and Writer

https://natashatracy.com

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Coffee Good for Depression. Sybil Revealed. Bipolar Questions Answered. – 3 New Things

Posted by | Oct 16, 2011

Keep up with mental health news. Three new things in mental health to learn this week:

  • The more coffee (caffeine) your drink, the less likely you’ll be depressed
  • Clinical records of real-life Sybil (part of the basis of “multiple personality disorder”) show likely falsehoods and unethical treatment
  • Get your bipolar questions answered by a clinical psychologist

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