Mental Health

The over-prescription of opioid painkillers in the United States has pushed us over the edge in nearly every aspect; with so much drug overdose deaths occurring, our life expectancy is lowering. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, 63,000 people died in 2016 from a drug overdose – a nearly 21% increase from 2015 and three times the amount of deaths related in 1999. Individuals in the 25-54 age group are most at-risk, as many have been prescribed the medication for injuries or post-surgeries, and many others abusing medication that isn’t theirs. The unfortunate circumstance of America is that our population is dying not just due health reasons such as cancer or old age, but also due to reasons that could have involved more preventative measure. Unintentional injuries such as both vehicle accidents and drug overdoses are becoming the leading cause of death in the United States. Previous declines in life expectancy in the United States were due to health epidemics such as the AIDS virus and fatal influenza rates. Barnett, assistant professor at Harvard University’s T.H. Chan School for Public Health, stated in an interview, “If just as bad as anybody could have feared. As a country, we have not reached the peak of this problem.” While several steps from the government has been taken – such as expanded healthcare education to communities and referring medication that is said to be less addictive than others – there is still more work that needs to be done. As a nation, we need to come together and support one another more. We need to broaden our knowledge on ourselves, others, and how various circumstances can impact one another. Many people feel that if someone becomes addicted, it’s not their problem so they shouldn’t worry about it. Essentially, each person contributes to the larger sense of home that we call America and because of this, we need to look further into what we can do as individuals to help our communities thrive more.

Break-ups and divorce can be challenging, especially if you or the other person are still at odds or have some emotional attachments left. While some people break ties, and go their separate ways, others are choosing to remain friends. The reasons for this could vary; some may hold a connection of friendship even if the romantic interest isn’t there – others may hold on because of comfortability, yet others may choose to remain friends for their own benefits. Recent studies are showing that your reasoning behind staying friends with an ex-partner could show signs of psychopathy, and here’s why: A new study published in the journal Personality and Individual Differences states that staying friends after splitting isn’t a sign of maturity, but rather a sign of psychopathy. First, what is psychopathy? Psychology Today notes that being uncaring or un-empathetic, irresponsible, showing “superficial charm” or outright lying, possessing a “grandiose sense of self-worth”, narrowing of attention, selfishness, inability to plan, and violence are a few key characteristics of psychopathy. The study that was described by Independent, a UK-based news source, found that participants who remained friends with their exes displayed darker personality traits like psychopathy. Many exes are emotionally less supportive, less helpful, less trusting, and less concerned about the other person’s happiness, making their only motivation for selfishness. The results found that individuals may keep their ex around for sex, money, or information, and some individuals exerted “false charm” in order to keep the ex around to continue reaping benefits from them. The article from Independent notes that although many of us exhibit characteristics of selfishness, those with psychopathy are un-empathetic, which is a key difference that makes them lean more towards the mental illness. Does this mean that if you remain friends with your ex, you are a “psychopath”? Absolutely not. Everybody has their own reasons for remaining friends with someone from their past, and you very well may have the best intentions. After all, it’s the intentions that truly underline mental illness and if you can feel empathy for them and do not maintain the friendship for purely selfish reasons, you likely are not experiencing psychopathy. If you are, seeking treatment for this could be very beneficial because you can develop the tools you need to understand your motivations behind this.

Whether you’re holding onto your current job for the salary, the comfortability, the location, the position title, or a different reason, the motivating factor behind your position is an important one. How you feel about your job and what propels you to continue working each day gives you some meaning to your life – it’s what we often talk about when we first meet someone, because we spend so much time at work that it, in part, reflects a little bit about who we are and what we’re about. If you are holding onto your job for the wrong reasons, this could be very detrimental to your health. Forbes Magazine states that 20% to 40% of people report hating their job – an alarming statistic, to say the least. Staying in a job that you don’t like raises many concerns, including:

Over time, we have developed different methods for treating mental illnesses, and this helped so many people because each person has a unique way of learning, of coping, and of expressing themselves. Psychodrama therapy has been known to help people improve their relationships and communication skills, overcome grief and loss, restore confidence and well-being, enhancing learning and life skills, and more. Psychodrama therapy can assist in a variety of issues, such as eating disorders, autism, trauma, addiction, attachment concerns, and more. Psychodrama therapy can assist people with anxiety by increasing their spontaneity – the more a person can act out distinct roles and take on different approaches, the more they can reduce their anxiety levels. However, because spontaneity and anxiety are opposing forces, the less spontaneity used, the higher the anxiety levels can rise. How does psychodrama therapy work? According to the American Society of Group Psychotherapy and Psychodrama, psychodrama “employs guided dramatic action to examine problems or issues raised by an individual or a group. It clarifies issues, increases physical and emotional wellbeing, enhances learning and developing new skills.” There are 5 basic elements of psychodrama: 1) the protagonist, which is the person selected to represent the “theme”, 2) the auxiliary egos, which are group members who take on the roles of significant individuals from the event, 3) the audience, which are group members who witness the drama, 4) the stage, which is the physical space in which the drama takes place, and 5) the director, which is the psycho-dramatist who guides participants throughout the phases of the drama. A 2016 study conducted by a researcher in Italy examine the benefits of psychodrama therapy on students with mathematics anxiety, and found that it significantly decreased their anxiety surrounding the subject. Participants took part in 10 group sessions each of 90 minutes that were held weekly over a period of 3 months. Psychodrama proved beneficial in helping the students with elevated levels of anxiety before taking a test, assistance with their memory, improved self-esteem and motivation to learn mathematics. Psychodrama doesn’t just help students, however. Studies have shown that psychodrama therapy can help adults with anxiety surrounding a situation because it allows them to act out scenarios or replay a situation that once caused them distress. In doing this, they can better express themselves and understand the situation from others’ point of view.

Seeking treatment can be challenging, whether you have an addiction or a mental illness. Identifying the right time to seek treatment, along with recognizing the symptoms and overcoming the fear of stigma within healthcare can all be enough to stop someone from seeking help. By avoiding treatment, we are placing ourselves at risk for worsening our symptoms and never developing the tools that we need to overcome and manage them. One population that’s experiencing trouble with seeking help are Asian Americans, regarding eating disorders specifically. A preliminary analysis conducted by researchers at California State University, Fullerton (CSUF), involved an online survey of Asian Americans from late 2014 to early 2015 about eating disorders and other body image concerns. The study involved analyses of 212 participants, with approximately 77% of whom were female and an average age of 25. The study’s findings showed that:

Most of us experience negative script in our head; “I wish my arms were thinner” or “I don’t like my nose”. For some of us, these critical comments float right on by, and we give them no further importance or attention. For others, we cling onto these thoughts and soon enough, they grow into our self-esteem, our self-perception, and our overall self-image. Psych Central claims that 80% of women in the United States are dissatisfied with their appearance, and more than 10 million are experiencing eating disorders. Our negative self-talk can be detrimental to our mental, physical, and spiritual health, and here’s why: Body hate can hold you back from attending events, can consume your thoughts to the point of no longer enjoying the present moment, and can damage critical aspects of your relationships with others, such as intimacy with your significant other. If you are experiencing body hate, ask yourself these questions:

Mental illness takes a major toll on Americans, with Newsweek claiming that 1 in 5 Americans experience a mental illness every year. Conditions such as depression, bipolar disorder, and schizophrenia lead to feelings of hopelessness, major mood changes, and delusions, all of which can make daily life hard to manage. According to the National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH), the average life expectancy in the United States is 77.9 years old, with the drop-in life expectancy being due to serious mental illnesses. Why does mental illness impact life expectancy so much? Mental illness doesn’t just affect one’s psychological condition – it impacts physical health as well. The NIMH states that serious mental illnesses cause people cancer, heart disease, stroke, pulmonary disease, and diabetes. Furthermore, individuals with a mental illness are twice as likely to smoke cigarettes, and to be obese, as compared to the rest of the population. Poverty is another contributing factor to mortality, with poor nutrition and healthcare leading up to further economic troubles. For those of us with mental illness, seeking support and working daily to take better care of our health is critical for a longer and healthier life. Dr. Weiden, professor of Psychiatry at the University of Illinois College of Medicine reiterated for The Huffington Post the ways those with serious mental illness experience earlier death. He stated, “People with severe mental illness are less likely to take good care of themselves, more likely to smoke heavily and have sedentary lifestyles, and have more difficulty than most negotiating the complicated medical care system to go for appointments and follow-up care. And primary care physicians are not well trained or compensated for the additional complexities involved in diagnosing or treating medial problems in the severely ill.” The shocking fact is that suicide is not the main cause of death for those with severe mental illness; it’s lack of support and appropriate day-to-day health management. This brings a call to action to those of us who have a mental illness, a call to action that we strive hard each day to take small steps towards improving our mental and physical health so that we may overcome our challenges and live a happy and fruitful life. It’s a call to action for our loved ones, to take better care of us and listen to our needs and concerns, to be someone whom we can rely on.

According to the Schizophrenia and Related Disorders Alliance of America, approximately 3.5 million people in the United States are diagnosed with schizophrenia, and it is one of the leading causes of disability. Individuals with schizophrenia often experience delusions, hallucinations, disorganized speech, disorganized behavior, and negative symptoms such as feeling detached from oneself, general discontentment, anger, anxiety, and more. Most people recognize schizophrenia as a disorder that causes delusions and hallucinations, but there is much more that many don’t know.

Many of us who experience anxiety and depression have trouble with daily tasks such as completing deadlines or attending meetings; pangs of fear regarding social environments or deep feelings of hopelessness can leave us isolated and unmotivated. While there are many effective treatment methods to help rid some of the unwanted symptoms of anxiety and depression, a new trend is taking place that involves illegal drugs. Known as “micro-dosing”, this technique involves taking minute quantities of drugs such as LSD or psilocybin (magic mushrooms) or mescaline (found in the Peyote cactus) every few days to enhance creativity, productivity, heighten alertness, and boost energy. The Huffington Post notes that most people dose once every three days in the morning, and the doses are so small that they provide just enough for benefit but not enough for a heightened “trip”. How did this technique come about? Dr. Albert Hoffman, the Swiss chemist who discovered LSD, engaged in micro-dosing for a few decades of his life, and lived to be age 102. At age 100 he was giving lectures at the University still, and he stated that it helped him clarify his thinking. The Multidisciplinary Association for Psychedelic Studies covered an interview that was done with Dr. Hoffman in 1996, where he discussed his perspective of the power of psychedelics to allow further entrance into a “spiritual world” with deeper understanding of life and its meaning. He discussed how psychedelic drugs became illegal, and how perhaps further medical research could provide an opening for these drugs to re-enter psychological treatment in the future. He described the psychedelic situation in the past as this, “And back at that time, there were unfortunately many occasions where psychedelics were not treated with proper respect… the psychedelics came to be feared, and were taken out of the hands of responsible investigators and psychiatrists. It was a great loss for medicine and psychiatry, and for mankind.” While many people report benefits of micro-dosing, there has not yet been enough research to conclude that it is a safe and effective mode of treatment. Always consult a physician before taking any kind of drug and seek medical help if you experience any dangerous side effects.

The Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration notes that approximately 1,084,000 people in the United States have used anabolic steroids. These steroids are primarily used by bodybuilders and athletes, and are used to increase lean body mass, strength, and aggressiveness towards lifting. Another form of steroids has reached the market and are selling as “legal steroids” – but these steroids may be very dangerous and should be approached with caution. “Selective androgen receptor modulators, also known as SARMs, are pharmaceutical drugs that mimic the effects of testosterone”, according to CNN. They are not yet approved by the Food and Drug Administration, but they are sold to bodybuilders online and are marketed to help them look more lean and muscular. Many of these products contain substances that aren’t approved or are in doses higher than stated on the labels. A study conducted in November 2017 examined 44 products sold online as selective androgen receptor modulators and found that only 52% contained that exact product while 39% of them contained another unapproved drug. This breeds caution to any who are contemplating buying these products online, as many unwanted and dangerous side effects could occur. The U.S. Food and Drug Administration cautions that steroids or steroid-like substances have been linked to serious health risks including liver injury, kidney damage, heart attack, stroke, pulmonary embolism (blood clots in the lungs), deep vein thrombosis (blood clots that occur deep within the veins), severe acne, hair loss, altered mood, irritability, increased aggression, and depression. Other bodybuilding products are labeled as “dietary” supplements but are not truly dietary. Many supplement manufacturers can sell their products without first having to ensure their safety and effectiveness; without approval from the FDA, these supplements are likely to cause harm. There are several steps that you can take to ensure your safety in taking bodybuilding supplements; 1) Consult your doctor or physician regarding products and/or side effects; 2) Be aware of problematic categories such as weight loss, bodybuilding and sexual enhancement, because these often contain steroids and other prescription drugs that could harm your health; 3) Look for the USP (U.S. Pharmacopeia) Verified mark – this indicates that the manufacturer has voluntarily asked this trusted non-profit to verify the quality, purity and potency of the ingredients; 4) Report problems to the FDA or ask your doctor to report them.

The International OCD Foundation defines obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD) as “a mental health disorder that affects people of all ages and all walks of life, and occurs when a person gets caught in a cycle of obsessions or compulsions”. Obsessions, which often take the form of intrusive thoughts, can cause extreme distress in individuals. The symptoms of OCD can cause much anxiety and panic over real or imagined events, but thankfully there are forms of treatment that have proved to help many people with this disorder. There are several evidence-based treatments for those with OCD:

Throughout the day, we may experience many phone calls, emails to check, errands to run, deadlines to meet, and more. The day is filled with so many activities, and in between each one we are driving from one place to another, attempting to get it all done. Most of us tend to get into “automatic” or “zombie” mode – simply rushing through the motions without putting much thought into each movement we make. Is this hurting our mental health? What else are we doing throughout the day that’s discreetly damaging our mental health?