depression introspection

R.I.P. Storms of Madness

Stephany at soulful sepulcher stumbled upon Tenuous at Best's post about how Dobro at Storms of Madness passed away suddenly.

Dobro's blog was (and has been) an encouragement to me. May she rest in peace. She will be missed not only by family but also by those whose lives she never knew she touched.

2-Year Anniversary: The Long and Winding Road

I'm aware that my blog has taken a significantly dark turn.  This may alienate some of my readers who seek happier, brighter topics. I don't think my posts have been negative; on the contrary, I think they've been positive. Positive and educational.

I've been exploring the topic of suicide recently because it's a subject that's quite near and dear to me, now more than ever before.

The Era of Quick Fixes

Pink magazine has an article called "Out of Darkness" on high-powered, successful women (likely in corporate America) who suffer from depression and try to hide it. There's an online exclusive but the actual article can only be read in the print version of the magazine.

Apart from the three resourceful sidebars accompanying the article, the one thing that I felt was missing from the article more of an emphasis on psychotherapy. The article seemed to focus heavily on women whose condition improved as a result of medication. There appears to be only one mention of a women whose condition improved with psychotherapy and medication.

While I understand that medication can be an important factor in assisting those with mental illness to recovery, it should not be the sole form of treatment. Mental illness does not only involve the chemical/biological activity of the brain, but it also involves the psyche — the part of us that comprises of our personalities and behaviors. This is why cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT) and dialetical behavioral therapy (DBT), among other forms of treatment, can be so beneficial. I'm not a fan of being on medication but I feel that 80 percent of my recovery comes from my weekly Christian counseling sessions. Therapy, medication, or other forms of treatment are not cure-alls, and I'm concerned when I read that people rely solely on medication for treatment. These are the people who are most likely to suffer relapses because after a while, their medication just "stops working."

Most people today are looking for a "quick fix." We do this with weight loss (alli), food (McDonald's), exercise (Fast Abs), and so much more. Then, it should be no surprise that people desire a quick fix to control their emotions. Some people use illegal drugs to dull the emotional pain in their life. Is it possible that psychotropics are the "legal" drugs that accomplish the same purpose?

Crazy Psychiatric Treatments

As if some psychotropic meds out on the market aren't bad enough, out from the archives of Neatorama is a post on 10 Mind-Boggling Psychiatric Treatments. Somehow Insulin-Coma Therapy made it to #1 and lobotomy was listed as #10. I don't know if they were placed in order of craziness. I didn't even read the text of most of the treatments. The graphics and headlines were enough to make me cringe.

(Hat Tip: Bob Thompson)

For No One

NOTE: This post heavily focuses on God, His impact on my life, and living according to the Bible.

When I talk to my husband about embarking on freelance writing, he often asks me: "What do you define success as?"

Hmm. Good question.

My responses vary:

"It's educating others and making a difference in other people's lives."
"Bringing in a decent income."
"Doing what I love to do every day."

But if I'm honest with myself, I define success as writing a brilliant piece, receiving recognition, being lavished with laud and praise over it, and winning a slew of writing and/or journalism awards. I've done it in the past. I'd like to do it all over again.

Back in my senior year of college, I won an award as the best student print journalism writer on Long Island. I beat out I-don't-know-how-many other college students on an island that boasts a population of 2.8 million (as of the 2000 census). Sure, it was just college but it opened my eyes and made me feel as though I had the potential to do that on a bigger scale.

Then comes Epic Fail. (Link provided for your amusement.)

Quote of the Week

"Advice is what we ask for when we already know the answer but wish we didn't."  — Erica Jong

Gun Ownership = Suicide?

Liz Spikol on The Trouble With Spikol linked to an article in the Chicago Tribune in which author Steve Chapman discusses whether buying a gun is a suicidal act.  Chapman argues "not really." Is it?

The Act and Follow-through of Suicide: Wrap-Up

I've always found it annoying when people say a suicide attempt is "a cry for help." And the best one — "She's just looking for attention." I ran into that quite a bit in high school.

While a suicidal person may not realize it (I certainly didn't), a suicide attempt is a cry for help. It's  an action that says "I've come to my breaking point. I've run out of options and I don't know what else to do. My problems are too much for me to handle and the only way out of them is to die." Suicide is the action which stem from thoughts that likely were never verbalized.

The majority of people who commit or attempt suicide aren't just seeking to die "just because."

...[T]wo doctors who are among the most often-cited experts on suicide...readily acknowledged the high degree of impulsivity associated with [jumping], but also considered that impulsivity as simply another symptom of mental illness. “Of all the hundreds of jumping suicides I’ve looked at,” one told me, “I’ve yet to come across a case where a mentally healthy person was walking across a bridge one day and just went over the side. It just doesn’t happen. There’s almost always the presence of mental illness somewhere.”

They feel as though they truly have "run out of options" and ending their life is the least favorite backup plan. The common thread that runs through all suicides is hopelessness.

So to wrap this series up, is it possible to prevent someone  from committing or attempting suicide?

Quote of the Week

"A woman is like a teabag...  You don't know how strong she is until she's in hot water. " — Eleanor Roosevelt

The Act and Follow-through of Suicide: Part IV

Compilation of Statistics Regarding Suicide

Scott Anderson in his NYT article weaves the grim statistics of suicide in and out of his story. Here's the morbid list:

General

• The nation’s suicide rate (11 victims per 100,000 inhabitants) is almost precisely what it was in 1965.
• In 2005, approximately 32,000 Americans committed suicide, or nearly twice the number of those killed by homicide.
• The National Institute of Mental Health says that 90 percent of all suicide “completers” display some form of diagnosable mental disorder.

Demographics

• Both elderly men living in Western states and white male adolescents from divorced families are at elevated risk.

Premeditation vs. Passion

• [T]he person who best fits the classic definition of “being suicidal” might actually be safer than one acting in the heat of the moment — at least 40 times safer in the case of someone opting for an overdose of pills over shooting himself.
• In a 2001 University of Houston study of 153 survivors of nearly lethal attempts between the ages of 13 and 34, only 13 percent reported having contemplated their act for eight hours or longer. To the contrary, 70 percent set the interval between deciding to kill themselves and acting at less than an hour, including an astonishing 24 percent who pegged the interval at less than five minutes.
• “Sticking one’s head in the oven” became so common in Britain that by the late 1950s it accounted for some 2,500 suicides a year, almost half the nation’s total. By the early 1970s, the amount of carbon monoxide running through domestic gas lines had been reduced to nearly zero. During those same years, Britain’s national suicide rate dropped by nearly a third, and it has remained close to that reduced level ever since.

The Act and Follow-through of Suicide: Part III

Premeditation vs. Passion

Author Scott Anderson in his NYT magazine article, "The Urge to End It All," notes:

Just as with homicide, researchers have long recognized a premeditation-versus-passion dichotomy in suicide.

The Act and Follow-through of Suicide: Part II

The British Coal-Gas Story

According to Scott Anderson's NYT article, the little-known British coal-gas story — even among mental health professionals — is a good example of how suicides can be prevented if one takes away the means:

For generations, the people of Britain heated their homes and fueled their stoves with coal gas. While plentiful and cheap, coal-derived gas could also be deadly; in its unburned form, it released very high levels of carbon monoxide, and an open valve or a leak in a closed space could induce asphyxiation in a matter of minutes. This extreme toxicity also made it a preferred method of suicide. “Sticking one’s head in the oven” became so common in Britain that by the late 1950s it accounted for some 2,500 suicides a year, almost half the nation’s total.

Those numbers began dropping over the next decade as the British government embarked on a program to phase out coal gas in favor of the much cleaner natural gas. By the early 1970s, the amount of carbon monoxide running through domestic gas lines had been reduced to nearly zero. During those same years, Britain’s national suicide rate dropped by nearly a third, and it has remained close to that reduced level ever since.

Experts seems to insist that committing suicide is proof of an underlying mental illness. Suicide that stems from impulsivity, among these experts, is also considered part of a mental illness. Anderson subtly argues against this, and I find myself agreeing with him:

How can this be? After all, if the impulse to suicide is primarily rooted in mental illness and that illness goes untreated, how does merely closing off one means of self-destruction have any lasting effect? At least a partial answer is that many of those Britons who asphyxiated themselves did so impulsively. In a moment of deep despair or rage or sadness, they turned to what was easy and quick and deadly — “the execution chamber in everyone’s kitchen,” as one psychologist described it — and that instrument allowed little time for second thoughts. Remove it, and the process slowed down; it allowed time for the dark passion to pass.

Would this mean that if people had less access to suicidal means that promoted "ease, speed, and certainty of death" (ESCOD), a number of suicides could be averted? It appears so. Anderson continues to make a case using the Ellington Bridge in Northwest Washington as an example:

Celebrity Sensitivity: 135 Famous Celebrities and Their Mental Health

The Pop-Crunch Show has a list of 135 Famous People Who Struggled with Depression. I sit on the fence and think that it should probably be retitled "135 Famous People Who Struggled with Mental Health Issues."

But then again, we could throw nearly every celebrity in there, huh? I'm bummed that Tom Cruise isn't on the list.

John Grohol interviews Wyeth's VP of Medical Affairs on Pristiq

Dr. Grohol interviewed Dr. Phil Ninan, Wyeth's VP of Medical Affairs on Pristiq, its efficacy, and surrounding issues. It was quite an interesting interview (and long) but here are some highlights that I chose to comment on. I'll be making some comments in between Dr. Ninan's answers due to the extensive length. Some parts of the answers have been truncated.

The Act and Follow-through of Suicide: Part I

“What was immediately apparent was that none of them had truly wanted to die. They had wanted their inner pain to stop; they wanted some measure of relief; and this was the only answer they could find. They were in spiritual agony, and they sought a physical solution.” — Dr. David Rosen, psychiatrist and Jungian psychoanalyst

A recent article in New York Times magazine suggests that those who exhibit suicidal behavior or have had unsuccessful attempts are least likely to die by way of suicide.

The author, Scott Anderson, delves into the psyche of what drives a person to commit suicide. And he attempts to answer the "what" question by evaluating the "how."