Understanding Behavior and Emotions - Let's Look at the Circuitry
What goes on in the brain when everything seems to be going wrong, or - for that matter - right? Say, when you feel fearful rather than motivated? Last week, in a piece entitled Beyond the DSM, we reviewed how the NIMH is orienting its research toward learning more about how brain circuitry affects behavior and emotions. Part of this includes investigating brain systems according to five (admittedly arbitrary) distinct domains. In 2011, experts... (Source: John McManamy's SharePosts)
Source: John McManamy's SharePosts - May 19, 2013 Category: Mental Illness Authors: John McManamy Source Type: blogs
Mother's Day and Your Mother Issues: The Bipolar Question of the Week
Tomorrow is Mother’s Day. You know the drill. But what about if you have issues about your mother? What then?
I’m not prepared to air my mother issues in public. All you need to know is that all of my life I had to deal with a certain cognitive dissonance between what society saw as the ideal and what I experienced in reality. Then, it seemed, everyone woke up to the fact that there was no such thing as a Leave It to Beaver... (Source: John McManamy's SharePosts)
Source: John McManamy's SharePosts - May 11, 2013 Category: Mental Illness Authors: John McManamy Source Type: blogs
Beyond the DSM: Thomas Insel and Understanding Mental Illness
You may have heard that several days ago, Thomas Insel, head of the NIMH, announced in a blog post, Transforming Diagnosis, that “the NIMH will be re-orienting its research away from DSM categories.”
He went on to say that: “We will be supporting research projects that look across current categories – or sub-divide current categories – to begin to develop a better system.”
Thus: “Studies of... (Source: John McManamy's SharePosts)
Source: John McManamy's SharePosts - May 11, 2013 Category: Mental Illness Authors: John McManamy Source Type: blogs
Your Hero's Journey - The Bipolar Question of the Week
I may have mentioned that I have been working on a novel. I finished my first draft a few weeks ago. First draft is a polite term for a piece of writing that is as incomprehensible as it is unreadable. In this regard, there is little difference between the amateur and the master. A few drafts later, there is all the difference in the world.
This is the part of the enterprise where the left brain takes over for a little while. In essence,... (Source: John McManamy's SharePosts)
Source: John McManamy's SharePosts - May 5, 2013 Category: Mental Illness Authors: John McManamy Source Type: blogs
Human Behavior - A Small Sampling
We know that bipolar and other mental illnesses affect behavior, but what precisely is behavior? Rather than go for a definition, maybe it’s best to look at a select sampling of classic experiments and observations representing wildly disparate fields. Let’s get started:
Conditioned Reflex - Ivan Pavlov’s celebrated experiments into conditioned reflex on dogs set the scene for research into human behavior. What you may... (Source: John McManamy's SharePosts)
Source: John McManamy's SharePosts - May 4, 2013 Category: Mental Illness Authors: John McManamy Source Type: blogs
An Upside to Depression? A Darwinian Perspective
Perhaps some of you have figured out this riddle: If depression is heritable, what are its selective advantages? How could such a disadvantageous condition be passed on from generation to generation?
As I see it, there are two possible answers to this question, and both have to do with a branch of evolutionary biology called evolutionary psychology. The first answer is that depression is actually a positive adaptive trait, or at least one... (Source: John McManamy's SharePosts)
Source: John McManamy's SharePosts - April 30, 2013 Category: Mental Illness Authors: John McManamy Source Type: blogs
The Brain Circuit Model of Depression
You have heard depression described as a “chemical imbalance,” as if our brains were some sort of soup that could be brought back into balance by pouring in the right additives. It is far more accurate, instead, to think of depression as a breakdown in our neural circuitry. In this context, depression and other “psychiatric” disorders have a relationship to movement disorders that are the normal province of... (Source: John McManamy's SharePosts)
Source: John McManamy's SharePosts - April 30, 2013 Category: Mental Illness Authors: John McManamy Source Type: blogs
Friends in Your Life - The Bipolar Question of the Week
We know how important it is to have friends. Then it occurred to me. What is a friend? Rather than try to figure this out by myself, I thought I would ask you. But first this little story:
Over a period of two decades, the great operatic composer Giacomo Puccini collaborated on many projects with the conductor Arturo Toscanini. These included the premiers of La Boheme and The Girl of the Wild West, plus numerous performances of Madame... (Source: John McManamy's SharePosts)
Source: John McManamy's SharePosts - April 30, 2013 Category: Mental Illness Authors: John McManamy Source Type: blogs
The Problem of Identity
If you have bipolar friends on Facebook, you may have noticed multiple postings of an article in yesterday’s New York Times Magazine by Linda Logan, The Problem with How We Treat Bipolar Disorder.
Linda was a married mother of three, in her mid-thirties, with a promising career in academia. Then, in 1989, after years of swimming against the current, she checked into a psychiatric hospital.
“The moment the psych-unit... (Source: John McManamy's SharePosts)
Source: John McManamy's SharePosts - April 27, 2013 Category: Mental Illness Authors: John McManamy Source Type: blogs
Creativity and Flow - The Bipolar Question of the Week
A few days ago, I finished the first draft of a novel I probably won’t make a dime on. That’s the way it is with things we love. We do it because we do it. Really, that’s all there is to it.
We have discussed the creative process numerous times here at HealthCentral. Creativity is a natural part of our adaptation process. All of us - everybody - needs to be skilled in adapting to novel situations in order to survive and... (Source: John McManamy's SharePosts)
Source: John McManamy's SharePosts - April 24, 2013 Category: Mental Illness Authors: John McManamy Source Type: blogs
The DSM-5 and You
As most of you know, the DSM-5 - psychiatry’s diagnostic bible - is due out next month. This latest edition will supersede the current DSM-IV that has governed our modern conception of mental illness since 1994 and arguably (through the DSM-III) since 1980. You can now pre-order the DSM-5 on Amazon, which will be available for shipping on May 22.
Earlier this year, we took an extensive look at how the DSM-5 will affect how doctors... (Source: John McManamy's SharePosts)
Source: John McManamy's SharePosts - April 22, 2013 Category: Mental Illness Authors: John McManamy Source Type: blogs
Walking for NAMI - A Day in the Life
I’m sure this happens to you all the time: On Saturday, my alarm went off at 6 AM. More than 3,000 people were scheduled to show up for the San Diego NAMI Country Walk in three hours. My head was definitely not in the game that time of morning, not for a Walk, not for my own funeral, not for anything.
Actually, my head had not been in the game - this particular one - the whole week. I had other projects that required my time. Plus,... (Source: John McManamy's SharePosts)
Source: John McManamy's SharePosts - April 15, 2013 Category: Mental Illness Authors: John McManamy Source Type: blogs
More on Recovery (Lessons from IKEA)
Last week, I posted Taking a Fresh Look at Recovery. The piece proved especially fresh to me, as somewhere in the middle it turned off in a direction I hadn’t anticipated. The comments I received brought a new level of freshness into the dialogue, several layers of it actually. Let’s get started:
Willa started off the conversation by observing that “recovery is a concept that frames the rest of my... (Source: John McManamy's SharePosts)
Source: John McManamy's SharePosts - April 13, 2013 Category: Mental Illness Authors: John McManamy Source Type: blogs
You Be the Mental Health Czar - The Bipolar Question of the Week
I recall six or seven years ago someone asking me what the biggest issue we needed to address in mental health. I drew a blank. Who do you think I am? I was tempted to reply. God’s assistant? (Assistants always know more than the people they work for.)
Here’s what we’re dealing with: We need more money for treatment and for access to treatment. But for what? So bad doctors can overprescribe meds that often make us feel... (Source: John McManamy's SharePosts)
Source: John McManamy's SharePosts - April 7, 2013 Category: Mental Illness Authors: John McManamy Source Type: blogs
Taking a Fresh Look at Recovery
I helped with a new website overhaul for NAMI San Diego, where I serve on the board. As part of the overhaul, I uploaded my own 13-article series on recovery. Recovery is a recurring theme here at HealthCentral, but is always worth reviewing. Let’s get started ...
Although there is no precise definition to recovery, there is a strong general consensus that reclaiming the lives we once led - or even staking out a much better one for... (Source: John McManamy's SharePosts)
Source: John McManamy's SharePosts - April 7, 2013 Category: Mental Illness Authors: John McManamy Source Type: blogs
