Understanding Cutting and Bullycide

 Psychological research suggests that there is a kind of perfect storm that takes place in this age range that makes suicide the second leading cause of death for individuals aged 10-24 (see Center for Suicide Awareness).

To begin with, anxiety disorders, eating disorders, and depression regularly emerge during adolescence (Giedd, Keshavan, & Paus, 2008). It is at this vulnerable time that bullying tends to peak, with rates of school bullying (thankfully) falling across the high school years, and rates of cyber-bullying never changing (Eisenberg & Aalsma, 2005; and Schneider, O'Donnell, Stueve, Coulter, 2012). This is the perfect storm our youth face:

It is when they are the most vulnerable for depression/anxiety/eating disorders that they are the most likely to be the victim of bullying.

There is a third layer to this perfect storm: Disorders like depression and anorexia are associated with what are referred to as ego-syntonic symptoms. Ego-syntonic symptoms (like someone with depression cutting their body or a person with anorexia engaging in self-starvation) are particularly difficult to treat because the individual sees their behavior as consistent with and helping them achieve a particular goal (ego-dystonic symptoms, in contrast, would be those of PTSD). This can be understood intuitively with anorexia, as the act of self-starvation results in a salient, explicit outcome of weight loss, which the anorexic individual desires (despite anorexia having the highest mortality rate among psychiatric disorders). It is less intuitive to see how cutting is ego-syntonic, but this can be understood by marrying two seemingly unrelated lines of research: the physical-emotional pain overlap and pain offset relief. To continue reading, click here. 

Jealousy and Envy: The Emotions of Comparison and Contrast

Jealousy and envy are emotional transformations of shame.

Published on July 13, 2013 by Mary C. Lamia, Ph.D. in Intense Emotions and Strong Feelings

Are you craving attention from a person whose focus is on someone else? Do you desire attributes that are possessed by another? When you experience jealousy or envy, you have measured your sense of your self against your image of another person and arrived at a conclusion that was motivated by the biological signal of the affect of shame. Technically, from the viewpoint of affect theory (Tomkins, 2008), an affect is the biological portion of our emotions. Thus, envy and jealousy are emotional transformations of the affect shame.
The emotion of envy is often confused with jealousy. Envy is directed at another or others, wanting their qualities, success, or possession. Jealousy involves thinking you will lose, or have lost, some affection or security from another person because of someone or something else—including their interest in an activity that takes time away from you. Both jealousy and envy involve comparisons and contrasts. Comparison suggests similarity or equivalence, whereas contrast focuses on differences. At times you may compare yourself with another, but most often you will be focused upon contrasts based on negative feelings. How you feel about yourself is determined to a great degree by the comparison and contrast of your sense of self with what you consider to be your ideals, which may be projected upon another person. Contrasting yourself with an idealized image of another person magnifies shame that can threaten your self-stability. Any threat to your esteem—your established sense of self—will likely activate shame (Catherall, 2012), and, when you come up short in such contrasts, shame is experienced as envy or jealousy of another. To continue reading, click here. 

Happiness Is Risky Business

5 Best Practices of Happy Risk-Takers

Published on October 22, 2012 by Angie LeVan, MAPP in Flourish!

By definition, risk defies common sense. C'mon, it’s not exactly rational to jump out of a plane (unless it’s groundbound and you've got a parachute), gamble in the midst of a bad economy, scale mountains, bungee from a bridge, or drive 30 miles over the speed limit—just for kicks. But there’s a tantalizing element to risk. An element of swagger and seduction. A provactive force that flirtatiously compels us toward the irrational: the thrill of the unknown.
Point blank: while risk doesn't always make sense and despite the fact that many people have a hard time managing the uncertainty that comes with risk-taking, risk does make life more interesting, more engaging and quite frankly, more exciting. And let's be honest, who doesn't enjoy a stir of excitement at least every once in a while? But does risk-taking make you happier?
We’ve been taught our whole lives that risk is a bad, bad thing. Why? Perhaps because risk can lead to failure, and we tend to believe that failure itself is a bad thing. And why should we believe otherwise? Society labels people as either not-at-risk (good) or at-risk (bad). In fact, our brains are wired to be alert of risky situations (and for good reason). Thus, it seems quite paradoxical to include risk-taking as one of the primary behaviors that leads to the ‘good life’.
Despite its bad rap, risk-taking is essential to learning what your limits are, to growing as an individual and to cultivating a thriving life. Risk is something to be fully embraced and celebrated! Without taking risks, it's impossible to learn the skills that enable you to thrive in life, like learning to manage emotions in uncertain circumstances - which life is full of. Unfortunately, some people indulge in reckless risky habits like drunk driving and excessive gambling. That's not the kind of risk I'm advocating. Most of you, however, dream of taking risks wrapped in the package of a cross-country move, a new romance, a bold careerchange or an exciting adventure like traveling to far and exotic places. And that's the stuff I want for you! The stuff - good stuff - you can have if you read on! Click here to continue reading. 

Yoga As Self Care

By KARISSE CALLENDER, MS

I can’t remember the date I began practicing yoga, but I remembered it being in 2009 when I fell in love with this practice.  In 2010 I really began adopting yoga into my life and found out that there were benefits on and off the mat.  In my opinion, yoga is much more than just getting on your mat, doing poses in a routine and saying “OM”.  It is about breathing, absorbing, being present, being aware and balance.

I recently began thinking about ways that I can incorporate aspects of yoga into my practice with clients.  There is something therapeutic about being able to focus on the present moment:  there is no need to worry about what can happen, may happen, might happen or can possibly happen.  You can focus on what is, at that moment.

There are many ways to incorporate yoga into your lifestyle and ways that it can possibly be helpful to clients.  Here are 3 of the several things that I have observed about what yoga can bring to your life.

* Awareness:  It is difficult to be practicing yoga (being at a class or doing your home practice) and not be aware of what you are doing.  You have to pay attention to what move comes next, how you feel, what is uncomfortable.  It allows you an opportunity to pay attention to yourself. Click here to read on. 

What’s Behind Your Anger?

By AARON KARMIN

If you’re struggling with out-of-control anger, you may be wondering why your fuse is so short. Anger problems often stem from what you’ve learned as a child. If you watched others in your family scream, hit each other, or throw things, you might think this is how anger is supposed to be expressed. Traumatic events and high levels of stress can make you more susceptible to anger as well.

In order to get your needs met and express your anger in appropriate ways, you need to be in touch with what you are really feeling. Are you truly angry? Or is your anger masking other feelings such as embarrassment, insecurity, hurt, shame, or vulnerability?

If your knee-jerk response in many situations is anger, it is very likely that your temper is covering up your true feelings and needs. This is especially likely if you grew up in a family where expressing feelings was strongly discouraged. As an adult, you may have a hard time acknowledging feelings other than anger.

Clues that there’s something more to your anger

• You have a hard time compromising. Is it hard for you to understand other people’s points of view, and even harder to concede a point? If you grew up in a family where anger was out of control, you may remember how the angry person got his or her way by being the loudest and most demanding. Compromising might bring up scary feelings of failure and vulnerability.

To continue reading, click here.

Neglecting youth with mental illness costs billions, expert says

BY CHARLIE FIDELMAN, GAZETTE HEALTH REPORTER MAY 27, 2013

MONTREAL — Neglecting mental health problems in young people costs Australia $30 billion a year and Canada is not far behind, a world expert in mental health services for youth says.

The human and economic toll of delaying care for mental illness in young people is huge, psychiatrist Pat McGorry of the University of Melbourne, Australia, told The Gazette in an interview Monday.

An economic report in 2009 measured the cost for Australia at $30 billion a year from direct and indirect costs of reduced productivity, McGorry said.

“You get premature death, unnecessary disability with people ending on welfare when they may not have needed to, and underachieving in school even if they struggle through, suicide and homicide and all the rest of it,” he said. “Canada and Australia are similar countries in terms of population and structure and the cost would be of the same order, if not higher, in Canada.”

The U.S. National Alliance on Mental Illness estimates the cost in the United States of untreated mental illnesses at more than $100 billion a year.

Considered the father of early intervention in psychosis, McGorry was a key speaker at an international conference on the topic held this week at the Douglas Mental Health University Institute, which in 2003 pioneered an innovative program called PEPP-Montreal (Prevention and Early Intervention Program for Psychoses) to pre-empt full-blown illness in youth with early detection and treatment.

The PEPP program aspires to recognize psychosis early, and offers holistic care that goes beyond medicine so patients can get back to their day-to-day lives, McGorry said. To read more, click here. 

Local teen fights mental health stigma with recovery video

JUNE 19, 2013

CINDY FILIPENKO
SPECIAL TO THE QUESTION

Dawn Archer doesn’t want anyone else to suffer mental illness in isolation. The 16-year-old Pemberton high school student has taken her message online, with a five-minute video on YouTube detailing her own battle — and recovery — from depression and anxiety.

“Within an hour of My Recovery Story being put up I had tons of messages coming in,” said Archer. “I had three people message saying ‘I had no idea other people felt like this, I thought I was alone.’”

The video format is a familiar one, most notably used by Amanda Todd, a teen who committed suicide last year after prolonged Internet harassment. As of Wednesday (June 19), Archer’s video was nearing 2,000 views and gaining exposure as B.C. media took interest.

Holding up a series of handwritten messages, Archer starts the video with: “For a very long time, I’ve felt sad, alone, stupid, different, upset — buy why?”

It’s a question this young woman has asked herself many times over the past decade.

“I can remember specific memories when I was a kid that I’d be upset for no reason, feeling very different from my friends … I think I’ve been suffering from depression since my parents divorced when I was five,” she said.

The depression that has dogged her since she was a young child intensified last summer in the midst of a deteriorating relationship with her then-boyfriend. The feelings lasted long after the break-up, with self-cutting the primary outlet for expressing her pain. By February of this year, she realized she needed help and sought it from her high school counsellor.

“Until then, I had never thought about the fact I might have depression, I just thought that was just how people felt sometimes.” To read more, click here.