I just ate a tasty meatball sandwich, hoping it'd provide the necessary ballast for my daytime dose of nausea-inducing Effexor. We'll see.

Meanwhile, news from the genetic front re: schizophrenia. It just keeps coming...

Genetic Disturbance Linked to Schizophrenia

Posted by liz at 12:52 PM | Permalink | Comments (7)

Wright or Wrong?

Is Barack Obama’s pastor really that controversial?

Obama’s speech at the Constitution Center last week was the first time in my life I heard a major political figure speak in depth about race. The speech was roughly 5,000 words—almost the length of a State of the Union address.

To deflect the controversy over Rev. Jeremiah Wright, Obama didn’t need to deliver a 5,000-word speech on a subject that isn’t high on voters’ lists of concerns. The economy, war, healthcare—these are issues people vote on. But Obama didn’t want to waste the opportunity for discourse. And I’m glad he didn’t.

Of course, within those 5,000 words, he had to thoroughly chastise Wright. Among other things, he said, “[Wright’s] remarks … expressed a profoundly distorted view of this country—a view that sees white racism as endemic.” He called Rev. Wright’s comments “wrong.”

I understand why Obama said that, and I’m guessing Rev. Wright—who’s being called a hatemonger—gets it too. But I don’t see the need to condemn everything the reverend has said.

Other than saying black people have gotten AIDS from the government (read The New York Times’ Nicholas Kristof for an interesting commentary on that), Wright’s excerpted remarks suggest a man whose primary belief is that racism has caused grievous harm to African-Americans and to American society in general.

As Rice University religion and philosophy professor Anthony Pinn said on National Public Radio’s All Things Considered, “Folks including myself may be taken aback by the inflammatory nature of the rhetoric, but I don’t think very many of us would deny that there is a fundamental truth: Racism is a problem in the United States.”

Some of Wright’s other remarks struck me as unspectacular for the same reason. They’re either true, or they’ve been said many times before.

Let’s break down one of them, just for fun, from 2001:

“We have supported state terrorism against the Palestinians and the black South Africans, and now we are indignant. Because the stuff we have done overseas has now been brought back into our own front yard. America’s chickens are coming home to roost.”

Saying the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, were a result of failed American foreign policy isn’t new now and it wasn’t groundbreaking then. One of the first calls I got after the attacks was from a college friend who said exactly the same thing, and I think he might’ve used the chickens line.

From Michael Moore to Ann Coulter, people from every side of the political spectrum have long suggested we made our own bed.

In June 2002 Market & Opinion Research International and Harris Interactive did a poll of Europeans regarding the reason for the 9/11 attacks. A majority of the people asked believed that U.S. foreign policy was partly to blame.

Around the same time Rev. Wright gave the sermon from which these remarks were taken, the Christian Science Monitor reported: “But from Jakarta to Cairo, Muslims and Arabs say … a mood of resentment toward America and its behavior around the world has become so commonplace in their countries that it was bound to breed hostility, and even hatred.

“And the buttons that Mr. bin Laden pushes in his statements and interviews—the injustice done to the Palestinians … —win a good deal of popular sympathy.”

Emphasis mine. And Pastor Wright’s.

The 9/11 Commission Report references the same problem—that of “millions of Arabs and Muslims angry at the United States because of issues ranging from Iraq to Palestine to America’s support for their countries’ repressive rulers.”

Having said what he did about foreign policy, in fact, makes Rev. Wright guilty of one thing he hasn’t been accused of: banality.

The phrase “state terrorism” in reference to Israel—whether you agree with it or not—is also banal. In 2004 the prime minister of Turkey—an ally of Israel—accused Israel of “state terrorism” after roughly 60 Palestinians, including children and innocents, were killed, and thousands were left homeless after their houses were destroyed.

It was the Israeli newspaper Ha’aretz, in fact, that posed the question: Was Israel practicing “state terrorism”? The prime minister answered, “When you look at the structure of what has happened, how else can you interpret it?”

In July 2006 The Nation published an article headlined “Israel’s State-Sponsored Terrorism.”

Even Tikkun—a magazine of Jewish thought—has characterized Israel’s policies toward Palestinians as “state terrorism.” Is it really so incredible that Pastor Wright might say the same thing?

As for U.S. complicity regarding Israel and South Africa, that too is pretty uninventive. More U.S. aid goes to Israel than to any other country. And the U.S. spent two decades opposing U.N. sanctions against apartheid.

When the Comprehensive Anti-Apartheid Act was presented to Ronald Reagan in 1986, he vetoed it. From personal experience, I can tell you I muddied many pairs of jeans during sit-ins to get my complicit college to divest from South Africa, and I’m not sure it would’ve happened at all if the bad publicity didn’t embarrass them.

To sum up, I guess Noam Chomsky would be a lot scarier if he were black. He’d get a lot more press too.

Church of Chomsky, anyone?

Posted by liz at 01:34 PM | Permalink | Comments (7)

Doesn't everyone start the week on Wednesday? I know I do. So what's up? Over at FuriousSeasons, one of Dawdy's readers has made a rather odd video of a dramatic reading of the Zyprexa documents. Those big pharma folks love their roleplays. Check it out.

Speaking of Zyprexa, check out CL Psych's lovely and lengthy discourse on same, honoring the trial in Alaska. Click here for pimpage.

Pharmalot explains Lilly settled that Alaska suit for $15 million, which seems like a lot to me, but probably isn't to them.

And finally, in celebrity news, J.K. Rowling admits a history of depression and suicidal ideation, and she's not embarrassed to talk about it:

"The funny thing is, I have never been remotely ashamed of having been depressed. Never. What's to be ashamed of? I went through a really rough time and I am quite proud that I got out of that."

That's the spirit.

Posted by liz at 09:59 AM | Permalink | Comments (1)

So how'z it goin'? I feel a little loopy these days because I'm just pumped up the volume on my Effexor, which I was hoping to get off of, but have now doubled. Wrong direction, indeed, but what were the options? Staying in bed was getting rather, uh, moldy. Okay, that's an exaggeration, but I missed two days of work and it actually occurred to me: Things can fall apart so quickly. In a matter of days, you feel like you can't hold a job, and can't pay your rent that month, and can't pay the bills, and it's such a fast rush to the bottom. I see how it happens. Now, clearly, it wasn't going to happen to me. But the fact that you think it is going to happen is the problem. The fact that your total downfall seems more plausible than anything else is what's dangerous. So, yeah, gimme more of the Effexor. I haven't been so pleased by a medication's benefits in many years. It really, really works for me.

Posted by liz at 03:30 PM | Permalink | Comments (11)

Ah, migraines. My old friends. My sweet loves. When they come, I almost welcome them because they're so familiar. And, of course, because I know relief is around the corner.

Anyway, today I have to double my Effexor. Fun times. Below is an article about a young woman who will be featured on MTV's True Life, in a segment called "I Have Schizophrenia." She volunteered to expose herself and her experience with illness. From the Daily Press:

Most of Main's peers don't know about her experience or diagnosis yet, she said. ... Main hopes that taking her story public will help ease the stigma associated with schizophrenia.

"I'm not my mental illness, it's just something I have to deal with," she said. "I don't want to hide what I am, and what's a part of me."

As someone who has shared her own story ad nauseum -- and who was on a documentary too -- I say only this to Main: be careful what you wish for. This might not end up the way you hope.

MTV to put spotlight on local student's mental illness

Posted by liz at 11:37 AM | Permalink | Comments (3)

According to Thaindian News, which should know, Jim Carrey is writing a self-help book about depression to address people who want to get better without meds. From the article:

Carrey, who had himself gone through years of depression after his meteoric rise to fame in the 1990s, had been using Prozac and other medicinal drugs to try and control his dark thoughts.

The 46-year-old actor stated that trying to numb the pain with medication was not the way to get rid of the problem, and that he hopes his book will be able to help people to focus on what is causing the problem.

Speaking of Thailand, my ex-husband is there right now, and I haven't heard from him. I thought he might be able to send an email to let me know he's okay but apparently the Internet cafe situation in Bangkok isn't so great. At least that's what I'm telling myself. Paul, if you're out there, and if you're emailing other people, please email me too. As you know, I always assume my loved ones have died if they don't check in every few days. So throw me a bone.

I wish Jim Carrey could write a self-help book for worried Jews. It could be called: They're Not Dead, They're Just Not Near a Phone.

Posted by liz at 02:03 PM | Permalink | Comments (3)

This one is especially relevant to this site, so I'm posting it all below, so as to force you to read it. [In hypnotist's voice] YOU MUST READ IT...

Last week the House of Representatives passed the Paul Wellstone Mental Health and Addiction Equity Act, a parity bill that would require insurance companies to cover mental illness and addiction the same way they cover physical conditions.

Sounds good, right? But it’s not all pinwheels and lollipops.

The bill, sponsored by Patrick Kennedy, faces competition from a Senate parity bill passed last fall. That bill—sponsored by Patrick’s dad, Sen. Edward Kennedy—was far less expansive (read: popular with insurance companies and more Republicans). Now there’s going to have to be some compromise, and I’m guessing it won’t come on the part of Eli Lilly or Aetna.

Should a mental health parity bill actually become law, it’ll be a bittersweet victory. By equating mental illnesses with physical illnesses—apparently a necessity in order to get access to healthcare—we run the risk of furthering the so-called “medical model” of psychiatry, which tells us that mental illnesses are biological illnesses whose primary remedy lies in medication.

Don’t misunderstand me. I love my meds. And for many years I used the “chemical imbalance” tag as a sort of talisman to protect me from people who might believe my psychosis and depression were a result of a character weakness.

I didn’t want it to be my fault. I wanted it to be my brain.

But over the years I’ve become frustrated by the system’s reliance on the medical model. Its dominance eliminates so many possibilities—not only for diagnosis but for treatment. For those of us in recovery from mental illness—those of us living fulfilling lives despite the struggle—the primacy of biological psychiatry feels restrictive.

I don’t need to tell you that pharmaceutical companies have a serious investment in the medical model. And they make a persuasive case to the public.

The FDA gave pharmaceutical companies the go-ahead to do TV advertisements in 1997, and since then we’ve become accustomed to the ridiculously self-parodic prime-time ads—those featuring an unshowered person who’s suddenly romping through fields like a Bollywood star after taking a pill that just happens to have an unbelievable list of side effects. Such ads are allowed only here and in New Zealand.

The claims made on these highly influential ads are often misleading or flat-out false. An important study released a couple weeks ago in the journal PLoS Medicine evaluated the effectiveness of four antidepressants—Prozac, Effexor, Serzone and Paxil—in more than 5,000 people. The study’s authors found these drugs were no more effective than placebos for treating mild to moderate depression. Yet antidepressants are the most prescribed drugs in the U.S. There were 118 million prescriptions written for them in 2005.

Studies like this one tell us we must find other ways to feel better. And lucky for us, there are plenty of options, which is perhaps the best reason of all to shift away from the exclusivity of the medical model. In his fascinating new book Comfortably Numb: How Psychiatry Is Medicating a Nation, Yale psychiatry lecturer Charles Barber, who worked for many years as a public health provider, quotes the American Family Physician, the Archives of General Psychiatry and the American Journal of Psychiatry to support his claim that cognitive behavior therapy can be just as effective as antidepressants in treating depression.

Barber also points to progressive approaches in other countries. In 2004 the U.K.’s National Institute for Health and Clinical Excellence (NICE) issued “Clinical Guidelines for Depression,” which Barber cites in his book. They are: 1) sleep and anxiety management, 2) watchful waiting, 3) exercise, 4) guided self-help and 5) cognitive behavioral therapy.

As for antidepressants, NICE suggests them only as a last resort, “not recommended for initial treatment of mild depression because the risk-benefit ratio is poor.”

Those risks are often minimized. Side effects aren’t just irritations to be endured briefly and then surmounted. They can be intense and debilitating, and there can be long-term impact. For severe mental illnesses—like schizophrenia, bipolar disorder and major depression—it’s fair to say medications are generally a necessity. But I’ve only recently come to understand that the greatest tragedy of these illnesses can be their cure.

And meds can’t work alone. I asked Barber about that in an email. He wrote: “What we’ve overlooked, in our simple-minded impatient-for-the-quick-fix fashion, is that recovery—even when it involves medication—occurs over time and in a social context. Relationships matter. Families matter. Doctor-patient relationships matter. Recovering patients will tell you that they get better (and get worse) under the influence of and in connection to other people.”

If that’s so—and I believe it is—the notion of what mental illness is must not be hogtied by an equation with biology.

Just a few days before the parity bill passed the House, another decision was made in the halls of power: The FDA gave Wyeth approval to make a new antidepressant that’s a variant of Effexor. Wyeth loses its patent on Effexor in two years, so it created a chemical mix, Pristiq, that’s almost indistinguishable from the original product. The New York Times quoted psychiatrist Daniel Carlat as saying, “Is there a compelling public health reason for Wyeth to be releasing another antidepressant into the market, with no clear advantages over others? Not that I can see.”

By the time Pristiq hits the shelves, we may have a parity bill to pay for it. I’m just not sure we’ll want to buy it.

[illustration by the awesome Alex Fine]

Posted by liz at 10:30 AM | Permalink | Comments (13)

I've never been a Radiohead fan, but I losered out at the Marvelous in West Philly and actually bought the album that was playing. Like some dork in High Fidelity, I asked the guy behind the counter, "What's that music you're playing?" And he told me it was the new Radiohead, which I pretended meant something to me even though it didn't. I liked it so much, though, that I'm now completely stuck on it -- so much so that I had a vivid dream last night about watching a vintage Radiohead video (when Thom Yorke looked like pre-Idol Clay Aiken) that was so beautiful, it made me cry. It had a Darjeeling Limited slow-motion pretentiousness about it, only it wasn't as boring as Darjeeling was.

Posted by liz at 10:35 AM | Permalink | Comments (2)

Well, really, who gives a shit, but TMZ's recent speculation on the subject has tongues wagging in the comments section, and it's pretty interesting what they have to say. To wit (among others):

9. Oh my god!! Its like everyone has a bipolar disorder .....what's up with that? Posted at 6:36AM on Mar 10th 2008 by Britney's pink wig

11. Okay, listen up Hollywood:

Celebraties please go to the line which pertains to you.

Line 1. Bi-polar
Line 2. Drug problem.
Line 3. Alcholic
Lines 4 & 5: All of the above
Lines 6 - 10: Dead from all of the above.
Posted at 6:50AM on Mar 10th 2008 by Montana

12. I expect the police did do a quick check on her credit record and found nothing wrong before dismissing the claim. Bipolar is being diagnosed more often now for two reasons. One, it's more common than many people thought and must be treated if the person is going to have a normal life. Two, it's the diagnosis du jour so anybody with any sort of mental problems is being diagnosed as bipolar no matter what their real problem is. I don't know which is true of Courtney Love.
Posted at 7:45AM on Mar 10th 2008 by Bipolarsufferer

24. I guess doctors are diagnosing people with bipolar so that the pharmecutical companies can make even more money!! Who is in bed with whom?
Posted at 10:53AM on Mar 10th 2008 by Dallas

The suggestion that she's bipolar has really pissed Courtney off. She writes, on her MySpace blog:

and i hear now i am "Bi Polar" uhhhh...thats more nuts than I will ever be.

I may be Eccentric, i certainly speak my mind and am slow to put out a record i need to mean the world to ME, and im sur ei am quite Nuerotic but "Bi Polar" .
Thats just slander.I shoot straight from the hip and spellcheck has NOTHING to do with REALITY

Well, she's definitely sic.

Posted by liz at 03:09 PM | Permalink | Comments (2)

On this webpage, it looks like Eunice Kennedy Shriver is screaming in fright at the fact that the media is misrepresenting depression. Check it out here.

Posted by liz at 03:16 PM | Permalink | Comments (4)

Thanks to Joe for tipping me to the latest horror at Ancora psych hospital in New Jersey -- the sixth death in two years. From the Courier Post:

Felicia DeBraux, who suffered with an eating disorder, lost consciousness and died on Wednesday.

State lawmakers and mental health advocates say they are angry that three high-ranking members of the Corzine administration who knew about DeBraux's death sat through a five-hour legislative hearing about conditions at the hospital the day after she died and said nothing about it.

She is the sixth patient to die at Ancora in the last 20 months. ....

DeBraux's death became public after workers at Ancora told a reporter about it. The same workers reported that another woman, Courtney Hughes, 45, of Pennsauken, died in the same ward -- Ancora's Cedar Hall A Ward -- only a few months earlier.

This is so appalling, but when I heard there was another death at a psych hospital, I assumed it was Ancora. Why? Just to give you an idea, I did a search of NJ.com and APP.com for headlines about Ancora, and here's what came up for the past few months (sans links, sorry):

Errors in patient's care led to suicide
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Codey calls for guards at Ancora
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Hearings needed on state hospital
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Suit claims hospital workers in danger
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Ex-patient: Substance abuse at hospital
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Patients, kin tell of abuse at hospital
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For family of man Ancora turned away, despair at spiraling mental illness
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Nurse alleges litany of abuses at troubled hospital
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Admission, then death at psychiatric hospital
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Psychiatric patient commits suicide after escape
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[Ancora] State employee charged in drug case
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Prosecutors concerned a Mount Holly killer could escape Ancora
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State legislators: Not told about death at Ancora
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Ancora turnaround will take more than a year, official says
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UMDNJ may run mental hospital
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State considers UMDNJ takeover of troubled Ancora
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Ancora patient says 'drugs and alcohol flowed freely'
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6 more workers face sanctions in psych patient escape, suicide
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Ancora soon probed
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Shore woman was "doped up" unwillingly
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Ex-patient describes mistreatment by staff
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I'm sorry to write like a teenager, but WTF? I've been reading one horror story after another about Ancora, and I can't figure it out. Hearings. Transitions. Job reassignments. Yet people keep dying. As Joe writes:

"It takes deaths for the conditions at State psychiatric hospitals to draw attention. It takes more deaths for hearings. How many deaths does it take to institute real change rather than just the promise of it?"

Shut it down.

Posted by liz at 01:58 PM | Permalink | Comments (7)