hgh dhea metformin

Calendar

January 2011
M T W T F S S
 12
3456789
10111213141516
17181920212223
24252627282930
31  

Pages

Archives

Recent Posts

Blogroll





Archive for January, 2011

 

By Rick Nauert PhD Senior News Editor
Reviewed by John M. Grohol, Psy.D. on May 3, 2010 

A new study of British 12-year-olds suggests that nearly six percent may be showing at least one definite symptom of psychosis.

Children were asked whether they had ever seen things or heard voices that weren’t really there, and then asked careful followup questions.

The children who exhibited these symptoms had many of the same risk factors that are known to correlate with adult schizophrenia, including genetic, social, neurodevelopmental, home-rearing and behavioral risks.

“We don’t want to be unduly alarmist, but this is also not something to dismiss,” said co-author Terrie Moffitt, the Knut Schmidt Nielsen professor of psychology and neuroscience and psychiatry & behavioral sciences at Duke University.

The study appears in the journal Archives of General Psychiatry.

The children were participants in the long-term Environmental Risk Longitudinal Twin Study in Britain, which includes 2,232 children who have been tracked since age 5 and reassessed at ages 7, 10 and 12.

The British study is an outgrowth of research that the same group did earlier with a long-term cohort in Dunedin, New Zealand.

At age 11, those children were asked about psychotic symptoms, but the researchers waited 15 years to see how, as adults, their symptoms matched what they reported at 11.

By age 26, half of the people who self-reported symptoms at age 11 were found to be psychotic as adults.

“It looks like a non-trivial minority of children report these symptoms,” said co-author Avshalom Caspi, the Edward M. Arnett professor of psychology and neuroscience and psychiatry & behavioral sciences at Duke.

The findings provide more clues to the development of schizophrenia, but don’t solve any questions by themselves, said co-author Richard Keefe, director of the schizophrenia research group in the department of psychiatry and behavioral sciences at Duke.

Schizophrenia often goes undetected until adolescence, when the first overt symptoms – antisocial behavior, self-harm, delusions – begin to manifest in an obvious way.

But nobody knows whether the disease is triggered by the process of adolescence itself, or brain development or hormone changes. “It’s my impression that all of those things interact,” Keefe said.

Psychotic symptoms in childhood also can be a marker of impaired developmental processes, and are something caregivers should look for, Moffitt said.

“There is not much you can do except monitoring and surveillance,” Moffitt said.

“But we feel we should be alerting clinicians that there’s a minority to pay attention to.”

While the incidence of psychotic symptoms in this study was around five or six percent, the adult incidence of schizophrenia is believed to be about one percent, Keefe added.

There are some recent findings however, that many more people experience hallucinations and delusions without being diagnosed as psychotic, he said.

Source: Duke University

http://psychcentral.com/news/2010/05/03/children-can-display-symptoms-of-psychosis/13430.html

 



 

By Summer Beretsky 

There’s no question about it — airing a complaint and getting it off of your chest can be relieving. Letting a secret or a complaint sit inside of us can hurt.

The word “vent” calls forth images of air, smoke, or steam escaping through an opening from a confined area — like carbonation from a soda bottle.  It’s no surprise, then, that we describe ourselves as feeling “bottled up” when we’ve got something major to vent.

And now there’s a new way to do it online at blahtherapy.com.

BLAH Therapy’s premise is simple — it’s a chat website designed to let you twist that proverbial soda bottle lid anonymously and seek a release of pent-up steam.  Once you arrive at the site, you’re prompted to play the role of either “Venter” or “Listener”.  As a Venter, you’re given the floor to talk about anything that needs to be released from your mind. As a Listener, your job is to, well, listen.

Unlike the popular random webcam chat site Chatroulette, BLAH Therapy won’t pull up any potentially indecent video streams from your chat buddy.  It’s entirely text-based.

I first read about the service on Mashable this week, so I decided to test it out right away both as a Listener and a Venter.  For privacy purposes, I obviously won’t disclose the chat log for the scenarios in which I chose to be the Listener – I don’t want anyone’s presumably private venting session to become public.  I will, however, paraphrase the types of problems I ran into.

At first, when I logged on as a Listener, I had a hard time finding anyone who was willing to vent.

Stranger  hi
You hi there

[Disconnected]

Despite my best efforts at greeting them with a friendly hello, I was quickly bypassed. Similar scenarios continued for several minutes, so I changed my mind & decided to play the role of Venter.

You Hi
You Is anyone there?
You I’d like to vent, and stuff.
You But it takes two.

[Disconnected]

You Oh hi!
You Is anyone there?
You I know you’re technically supposed to be a “listener”, but I’d like it if you could at least acknowledge that you’re there. And that you’re listening.
You Anybody? Anybody at all?
You Okay.
You I guess not.

[Disconnected]

You Hey there
You So, here’s my vent: this is the fourth time I’ve connected to a “Listener”, and it seems like no one is there.
You It’s true: I’m venting about venting.
You Meta-venting, if you will.

[Disconnected]

Of course, as Blah Therapy grows, I imagine this situation won’t be as frequent. In fact, only 14 people were chatting yesterday when I ran into the above problems. At the moment I’m typing this, there are 155.

I decided to switch back over to the role of Listener and I found a real live human being — of course, my anonymous partner was also so excited about finding a real live chat partner that he didn’t start venting right away. Instead, we exchanged some small talk, joked about how we hope BlahTherapy doesn’t turn into Chatroulette, and then we started the process. My chat partner was excited to play the role of Venter — he said that in real life, he’s the Listener within his group of friends, so being able to vent was a valuable thing for him. I sat back and listened to him rant about a friendship that’s under stress because it’s also part of a work relationship.

Earlier today, I also successfully connected with a few people while playing the role of Venter. We started off with some small talk, and then I chose to lament about how there’s barely any time in the day for relaxation when I work for 8 hours, commute for 2 hours, and sleep for 8 hours. My listener asked a few probing questions to determine if it was really my schedule or my job that I was frustrated with:

Stranger  and what would your ideal job be
You Hmmm. Ideal job. Probably freelance writing.
Stranger  are you writing right now?
You Yes, actually.

During my next venting session, I decided to launch right in without making small talk. True story, by the way:

Stranger  hi
You So, I was at the train station in Philly and I’d just gotten a hot cup of tea.
Stranger  …
You I sat down on a bench to tie my shoe, and I set the cup down on the bench right next to me.
Stranger  …
You This woman comes along, completely unaware of her surroundings and she bumps right into me & the hot tea…and when I say “hot”, I mean boiling.
You I’d just had it poured.
You Spills all over me.
Stranger  that sucks
Stranger  was it a starbucks?
You I stood up, screamed at the top of my lungs (unintentionally, pretty much) and EVERYONE stopped to stare…but the woman just kept walking.
You Nope, Cosi.
Stranger  $4?
You Probably.

Humorous conversation, but less therapeutic than some would like. (And the burns are all cleared up now, if you were wondering.)

Is BLAH Therapy something you should consider playing around with? Well, it depends on who you are and what you’re looking for. Let’s look at the pros and cons:

Pros:

• You can let loose and get complaints of all shapes and sizes off of your chest. The strangers don’t know you and you never need to interact with them again. If someone starts to judge or reacts in a way you’re uncomfortable with, you can click “Disconnect” and find someone else.

• It reminds me of Postsecret, in a way, because it can be an outlet for letting go of secrets — which when bottled up can cause distress.

• For some people, listening to the problems of others is therapeutic in and of itself.

• It’s good when venting to a friend isn’t appropriate (say, if the situation is about your friend).

Cons:

• The listeners are NOT mental health professionals, so heed any advice cautiously — perhaps in the same way you’d take advice from, say, a friendly single-serving acquaintance from the checkout line at the grocery store. Be smart. They’re everyday people who, like you, merely have an interest in either venting or listening.

• You never truly know if an interaction on the internet is private. Chatroulette, for example, is an “anonymous” (yes, the quotes are necessary) website where users can chat with strangers via both text, webcam, and audio. However, YouTube user PianoChatImprov recorded his now-famous Chatroulette interactions, edited them together, and posted them to YouTube (NSFW due to language, but brilliantly creative and absolutely worth watching). There’s no real guarantee that a Listener will keep your venting session private.

• There’s also no guarantee of getting a legitimate chat partner, but that’s what the “Disconnect” button is for.

• Just because the site is text-based and somewhat safer-feeling than Chatroulette, it doesn’t automatically follow that all participants are going to follow the rules and keep things PG.

And, before you venture off to start listening or venting, here are some tips:

• It’s difficult to play the role of Listener without stepping in to do some venting of your own. In fact, it’s near impossible — so no matter which official role you choose on the website, you’ll be playing a little bit of both roles.

• For the courtesy of the Venter, make sure you’ve got at least ten minutes to spend as Listener. Most vents aren’t quick little Twitter-ish blurbs in 140 characters or less. Real empathy takes some time.

• I found it difficult to play the role of Venter without exchanging at least a few niceties with my anonymous partner. If you feel the same sense of awkwardness, try making small talk first.

• Check out some of PsychCentral’s resources — like Guidelines for Good Listening — if you want to brush up on your listening skills first.

Bottom line: if venting helps you to feel better, and if anonymous (and sometimes unpredictable) interaction sweetens the deal, you’ll have fun playing with BLAH Therapy.

Do you think that anonymous chat is an effective method for releasing pent-up steam? Does anonymity help us to express our feelings more? Give it a try and let us know how your venting or listening session went in the comments.

Source:  http://psychcentral.com/blog/archives/2010/05/02/feel-like-venting-to-a-complete-stranger-try-blahtherapy-com/



By Therese J. Borchard


Daniel Lukasik, creator of the site Lawyers With Depression asked me awhile ago to write a guest post on work and depression. You can click here to read the original post.


Just when I think our world has moved a baby step in the right direction regarding our understanding of mental illness, I get another blow that tells me otherwise. For example, awhile back I quoted an intelligent woman who wrote an article in a popular women’s magazine about dating a bipolar guy when she was bipolar herself. She recently discovered that she had jeopardized a job prospect because the article came up — as well as all those who referenced it, like Beyond Blue — when you Googled her name. So she requested everyone who picked up that article to go back and change her real name to a pseudonym.


Because talking about bipolar disorder in the workplace is pretty much like singing about AIDS at the office a hundred years ago or maybe championing civil rights in the 60s.


I totally get why this woman created a pseudonym. Trust me, I entertained that possibility when I decided to throw out my psychiatric chart to the public. It’s risky. Extremely risky. Each person’s situation is unique, so I can’t advise a general “yes ” or “no.” As much as I would love to say corporate America will embrace the person struggling with a mood disorder and wrap him around a set of loving hands, I know the reality is more like a bipolar or depressive being spit upon, blamed, and made fun of by his boss and co-workers. Because the majority of professionals today simply don’t get it.


Not at all.


They don’t get it even though the World Health Organization predicts that by 2020, mental illness will be the second leading cause of disability worldwide, after heart disease; that major mental disorders cost the nation at least $193 billion annually in lost earnings alone, according to a new study funded by the National Institute of Mental Health; that the direct cost of depression to the United States in terms of lost time at work is estimated at 172 million days yearly.


I realize every time I publish a personal blog post — one in which I describe my severe ruminations, death thoughts, and difficulty using the rational part of my brain — I jeopardize my possibilities for gainful employment in the future. I can pretty much write off all government work because, from what I’ve been told, you have to get a gaggle of people to testify that you have no history of psychiatric illnesses (and, again, all it takes is one Google search to prove I’m crazy).


It’s totally unfair.


Do we penalize diabetics for needing insulin or tell people with disabling arthritis to get over it? Do we advise cancer victims to use a pseudonym if they write about their chemo, for fear of being labeled as weak and pathetic? That they really should be able to pull themselves up by their bootstraps and heal themselves because it’s all in their heads?


But I don’t want to hide behind a pseudonym. I use my real name because, for me, the benefit of comforting someone who thinks they are all alone outweighs the risk of unemployment in the future. Kay Redfield Jamison did it. She’s okay. So is Robin Williams. And Kitty Dukasis. And Carrie Fisher. Granted all four of those people have talent agents ready to book them as speakers for a nice fee.


In their book, “Living with Someone Who’s Living with Bipolar Disorder,” Chelsea Lowe and Bruce M. Cohen, MD, Ph.D., list the pros and the cons of going public with a mood disorder. I’m paraphrasing a little bit, but here are the pros:


  • *There’s nothing disgraceful about the condition, any more than there would be about cancer or heart disease.
  • *Carrying a secret is an enormous burden. Sharing it lightens it.
  • *The more people who know and are looking out for you, the more likely you’ll be able to get help before the problems turn serious.
  • *Sharing the information lessons the burden on your partner.
  • *Lots of people have psychiatric issues; maybe your boss or family member does too.
  • *Taking about the diagnosis is an opportunity to educate others.

The authors suggest telling your employer under these circumstances:


  • *If you are taking a new medication and may need time for adjustment.
  • *If your schedule doesn’t allow for regular, restful sleep–which is an important factor in controlling the disorder–or if you need to request certain adjustments to your schedule, like telecommuting.
  • *If you need to be hospitalized or take a leave of absence.
  • *If the disorder is affecting your behavior or job performance.
  • *If you need to submit benefit claims through your employer rather than the insurance company, or if your employer requires medical forms for extended absences.
And the cons:


  • *Prejudice and stigma about psychiatric disorders are still common in our society. A disclosure of bipolar disorder [or any mental illness] will inevitably color your employer’s and coworkers’ perceptions of his job performance: “Did Jerry miss that meeting because the bus was late, or because he was off his meds?” Potential problems include discrimination, stigmatization, fear and actual job loss.
  • *You can’t un-tell a secret.
  • *Your chances for promotion could be hurt.
  • *The employer is under no obligation to keep your condition secret.
  • *Discrimination is illegal but difficult to prove.
  • *You could be written off as “crazy.”

Now that I have thoroughly confused you, I thought I’d ask you for your input on this very controversial topic. What do you see as the pros and cons? Would you advise, say, your son or daughter, to go public with a mood disorder? Why or why not? (You can use a pseudonym in answering, of course).


Source:  http://psychcentral.com/blog/archives/2010/05/02/to-tell-or-not-to-tell-your-boss-bipolar-and-depression-in-the-workplace/



 

By Rick Nauert PhD Senior News Editor
Reviewed by John M. Grohol, Psy.D. on May 4, 2010

New research suggests puberty that arrives earlier or later in adolescent boys relative to their peers is associated with antisocial behavior.

Researchers discovered the atypical timing can trigger chemicals that are related to antisocial behavior, a finding that has implications for parents with aggressive boys.

“Aggressive behavior can begin very early, even in preschool, and might be related to poor impulse control, difficulties in the family or just overall general problem behavior,” said Elizabeth J. Susman, professor of biobehavioral health at Penn State University.

“We wanted to find out if earlier or later timing of puberty in adolescents has any biological factors related to it.”

Susman and her colleagues looked at how the timing of puberty affects cortisol, a stress hormone, and salivary alpha amylase, an enzyme in saliva used as indicator of stress.

Their findings appear in the May issue of Psychoneuroendocrinology.

The researchers found that lower levels of the alpha amylase in boys who experienced earlier maturity and higher levels of cortisol in boys who experienced later maturity are related to antisocial behavior. They found no similar correlation in girls.

“This is the first study to show that the timing of puberty moderates biological risks of antisocial behavior,” said Susman.

“The implication is that parents should be especially sensitive to picking up signs of earlier or later puberty in their children. Parents and health care providers should be aware of how puberty can be stressful — behaviorally and biologically — on the kids.”

Why the findings are statistically significant for boys and not girls remains unclear.

“At puberty, boys produce a lot of testosterone and testosterone is a stress hormone as well,” added Susman.

“It may be that compared to girls, boys just have more biological hormone changes that may lead to antisocial behavior.”

The researchers used a child behavior checklist to test 135 boys and girls ages 8 to 13 for signs of antisocial behavior — aggression, rulebreaking, social and attention problems, defiance, and conduct disorder.

Researchers also collected saliva samples before and after a stressful laboratory test, while pediatric nurses determined the stage of puberty for each child.

“We had the children tell a story and do a mental arithmetic test,” said Susman.

“To evoke a stress response, the children were told that judges would evaluate the test results with those of other children.”

Statistical analyses of the children’s cortisol and salivary enzyme levels, as well as the timing of puberty and symptoms of antisocial behavior, suggest that overall, antisocial boys are characterized by a later onset of puberty and higher levels of cortisol.

However, boys who reached puberty earlier and had lower levels of the salivary enzyme specifically showed greater problems related to rulebreaking and conduct disorder. These boys were also more aggressive than those in the group that experienced puberty later.

“We have shown that the relationship between cortisol, salivary amylase, and antisocial behavior is linked to the timing of puberty,” said Susman.

“This is the first study to show how the timing of puberty moderates biological vulnerabilities in children.”

Source: Penn State University

http://psychcentral.com/news/2010/05/04/aggression-tied-to-timing-of-puberty/13463.html



 tired

 Chronic fatigue symptoms include an overwhelming sense of weariness that is not eased much by sleep (file picture)

By Daily Mail Reporter
Last updated at 3:59 PM on 29th April 2010

A pioneering doctor who specialises in treating people with chronic fatigue syndrome went before the General Medical Council today over claims her treatment has ‘no clinical basis’.

Dr Sarah Myhill could be forced to remove clinical and nutritional advice from her website amid fears it is a ‘risk to patient safety.’

The chronic fatigue syndrome specialist advocates alternative treatments including vitamin and mineral supplements to patients from her private practice in Powys, Wales.

But she is now the subject of a GMC investigation after complaints have emerged about her advice.

Dr Mayhill’s outraged supporters have launched an online campaign to save her from they perceive as a ‘witch-hunt’ at the hands of her governing body.

A panel of experts will now decide whether the doctor’s registration should be restricted and subject matter removed from her website during the investigation.

Dr Myhill allegedly provided ‘inappropriate’ treatment to a patient last year after she recommended vitamin and magnesium injections for suspected chronic fatigue syndrome, also know as ME.

A group of eight GPs complained about this patient’s treatment in June 2009, the hearing in central London was told.

Another anonymous complaint from a ‘clinical scientist’ was made in February this year about her website.

The GMC had denied claims of an organised ‘campaign’ against Dr Myhill.

Gary Summers for the GMC said: ‘It needs to be said clearly that the GMC has received two independent complaints which are before you today and has not launched a campaign against this doctor.

‘The GMC’s role is to investigate these complaints without fear or favour. The GMC will not allow the blizzard of email and web traffic to bend us off course.’ 

The group of Yorkshire doctors, who have not been identified, claim Dr Myhill’s advice had ‘no clinical benefit’.

She had recommended the patient seek help in administering vitamin B12 and magnesium injections from the surgery.

Read in Full:  http://www.dailymail.co.uk/health/article-1269823/Chronic-fatigue-syndrome-specialist-treating-patients-clinical-basis.html?ITO=1490



Allison Pearson

Allison Pearson, author of I Don’t Know How She Does It, has written for the Daily Mail about her depression. Photograph: Suzanne Plunkett/AP


Kira Cochrane


The Guardian  29 April 2010


Novelist Allison Pearson is the latest in a long line of high-profile women to talk publicly about their depression. All these women had pretty terrific lives – or that’s how it looked from the outside. So what went wrong?


In 2002, Allison Pearson emerged as the chief chronicler of a very modern female malady: the crazed pursuit of the perfect life. Her novel, I Don’t Know How She Does It, which started life as a column in the Daily Telegraph, told the story of that rarely sighted beast, a female hedge fund manager, and followed her struggle to juggle two children with her very full-time job. The protagonist, Kate Reddy, may have had a nanny and a husband who was both gainfully employed and nifty in the kitchen, but her life seemed full of comic anxieties. (The novel opened with her attempts to “distress” some Sainsbury’s mince pies that her daughter was taking to school, so that they looked appropriately, maternally, handmade.) And while the book depicted an aspirational bubble that floats way over most of our heads, it found an immediate audience. In fact, it became a bestseller, the film rights were sold, and Oprah Winfrey – that essential filter of the modern female experience – described it as a “bible for the working mother”.


In her worldly success, and her approach to life, it was assumed that Pearson was very similar to her protagonist. She’s a high-flying journalist who has won a number of awards; her partner is New Yorker writer Anthony Lane; she has two children. In precis, it’s a convincing portrait of a perfect life. But yesterday, her comic tone was jettisoned. Pearson has been writing for the Daily Mail for some years now, but this column was to be her last, she said, because she has depression. She had always wanted to be “the best kind of girl”, but recently she found herself in a psychiatrist’s consulting room, assessing just how unhappy she was. The psychiatrist asked if she’d had any suicidal thoughts, and “I didn’t mention the strange allure of a nearby motorway bridge at dead of night . . . Eventually, I blurted into the silence: ‘Sometimes, I think it would be easier not to be. Not to be dead. I have two children, I can’t leave them. But just to stop, you know. To not exist for a while.”


Pearson went on to describe herself as a “sandwich woman”, one of a generation who had waited until their 30s to have children and then, just as their offspring were “sleeping through the night, one of [their] parents fell ill”. The stress of this situation – and a job on top – has taken its toll. “Is it women who are mad, or is it the society we live in?” she asked. “We always suspected there would be a price for Having it All, and we were happy to pay it; but we didn’t know the cost would be to our mental health.”


Over the last few months, many other stories like Pearson’s have emerged – tales of apparently enviable lives laid low. In January, the popular novelist Marian Keyes posted a message on her website attesting to her “crippling depression . . . I can’t eat, I can’t sleep, I can’t write, I can’t read, I can’t talk to people”. In February, an inquest found that the bestselling author Susan Morgan – who wrote under the pen name Zoe Barnes – had killed herself. In March, on Desert Island Discs, the actor Emma Thompson recalled the depression she had experienced after her divorce from Kenneth Branagh in the mid-1990s, saying that she didn’t think she had stayed “sane. I should have sought professional help.” And over the last few years, a number of memoirs of depression have been written by women. The former Elle and Red magazine editor, Sally Brampton, wrote Shoot the Damn Dog. The former Scotland editor of the Observer, Lorna Martin, wrote Woman on the Verge of a Nervous Breakdown. And the former deputy literary editor of the Observer, Stephanie Merritt, published The Devil Within. The mood of these memoirs was captured in a long, unflinching article by the American writer Daphne Merkin in the New York Times, in which she described her depression as “the sadness that runs under the skin of things, like blood, beginning as a trickle and ending up as a haemorrhage, staining everything”.


This deluge shouldn’t come as a surprise; over a period of decades, study after study has suggested that women are diagnosed with depression at twice the rate of men; in recent years, one study found this specific ratio occurring across nine different countries, regardless of economics and culture. As Merritt, who has written widely on the subject, points out, these findings are open to question – “because it’s possible that, for men, drug and alcohol abuse could be symptoms of a depression that they just can’t articulate. It could be that women are more able to ask for help.” But there is no doubt that the numbers regarding women and depression are stark – 11.2% of the female population are experiencing it at any one time.


Read in Full:  http://www.guardian.co.uk/society/2010/apr/29/women-depression-allison-pearson



By Rick Nauert PhD Senior News Editor
Reviewed by John M. Grohol, Psy.D. on April 23, 2010


The evidence continues to mount that successful study habits should include plenty of napping.


Researchers report people who take a nap and dream about a task they’ve just learned perform it better upon waking than either those who don’t sleep at all or those who sleep but don’t report any associated dreams.


The study is found online in Current Biology, a Cell Press publication.


The learners in the study were asked to sit in front of a computer screen and learn the layout of a three-dimensional maze so that they could find their way to a landmark (a tree) when they were plopped down at a random location within the virtual space five hours later.


Those who were allowed to take a nap and also remembered dreaming of the task found the tree in less time.


“We at first thought that dreaming must reflect the memory process that’s improving performance,” said Robert Stickgold of Harvard Medical School.


“But when you look at the content of the dreams, it was hard to argue that.”


In a couple of cases, the dreamers said they recalled just the music from the computer maze. One subject said they were dreaming that there were people at particular checkpoints in the maze, even though the real maze didn’t have any people or checkpoints.


Another said they dreamed about an experience they’d had tromping through bat caves and thinking that the caves were like mazes.


“We think that the dreams are a marker that the brain is working on the same problem at many levels,” Stickgold said.


“The dreams might reflect the brain’s attempt to find associations for the memories that could make them more useful in the future.”


In other words, it’s not that the dreams led to better memory, but rather that they are a sign that other, unconscious parts of the brain were working hard to remember how to get through the virtual maze. The dreams are essentially a side effect of that memory process.


Stickgold said that there may still be ways to take advantage of this phenomenon for improving learning and memory.


For instance, it may be better to study hard right before you go to sleep than in the afternoon, or to take a nap after a period of intense afternoon study.


More generally, people might take notice of the study habits or mental processes while awake that lead them to dream about something they need to remember.


Perhaps other more directed ways to guide dreams could even prove useful to make your brain work on what you want it to at night.


But, Stickgold said, the most exciting thing to him is the notion that this line of evidence might elucidate a deeper question that has seemed almost impossible to tackle: Why do we dream? What is its function?


“Some have viewed dreaming as entertainment, but this study suggests it is a by-product of memory processing,” he said.


Whether you have to remember your dreams to get the benefits isn’t yet entirely clear, but Stickgold suspects not. After all, he said, people generally remember only a small fraction, no more than 10 to 15 percent, of their dreams.


The researchers hope to follow up their study by manipulating the learning environment in ways that boost incorporation into dreams. They also plan to study the same phenomenon following a full night of sleep as opposed to a nap.


Source: Cell Press


http://psychcentral.com/news/2010/04/23/naps-and-dreams-help-academics/13116.html


The Secrets of Sleep


From birth, we spend a third of our lives asleep. After decades of research, we’re still not sure why.


By D. T. Max


Cheryl Dinges is a 29-year-old Army sergeant from St. Louis. Her job is to train soldiers in hand-to-hand combat. Specializing in Brazilian jujitsu, Dinges says she is one of the few women in the Army certified at level 2 combat. Level 2 involves a lot of training with two attackers on one, she explains, with the hope of “you being the one guy getting out alive.”


Dinges may face an even harder fight in the years ahead. She belongs to a family carrying the gene for fatal familial insomnia. The main symptom of FFI, as the disease is often called, is the inability to sleep. First the ability to nap disappears, then the ability to get a full night’s sleep, until the patient cannot sleep at all. The syndrome usually strikes when the sufferer is in his or her 50s, ordinarily lasts about a year, and, as the name indicates, always ends in death. Dinges has declined to be tested for the gene. “I was afraid that if I knew that this was something I had, I would not try as hard in life. I would allow myself to give up.”


FFI is an awful disease, made even worse by the fact that we know so little about how it works. After years of study, researchers have figured out that in a patient with FFI, malformed proteins called prions attack the sufferer’s thalamus, a structure deep in the brain, and that a damaged thalamus interferes with sleep. But they don’t know why this happens, or how to stop it, or ease its brutal symptoms. Before FFI was investigated, most researchers didn’t even know the thalamus had anything to do with sleep. FFI is exceedingly rare, known in only 40 families worldwide. But in one respect, it’s a lot like the less serious kinds of insomnia plaguing millions of people today: It’s pretty much a mystery.


If we don’t know why we can’t sleep, it’s in part because we don’t really know why we need to sleep in the first place. We know we miss it if we don’t have it. And we know that no matter how much we try to resist it, sleep conquers us in the end. We know that seven to nine hours after giving in to sleep, most of us are ready to get up again, and 15 to 17 hours after that we are tired once more. We have known for 50 years that we divide our slumber between periods of deep-wave sleep and what is called rapid eye movement (REM) sleep, when the brain is as active as when we’re awake, but our voluntary muscles are paralyzed. We know that all mammals and birds sleep. A dolphin sleeps with half its brain awake so it can remain aware of its underwater environment. When mallard ducks sleep in a line, the two outermost birds are able to keep half of their brains alert and one eye open to guard against predators. Fish, reptiles, and insects all experience some kind of repose too.


All this downtime comes at a price. An animal must lie still for a great stretch of time, during which it is easy prey for predators. What can possibly be the payback for such risk? “If sleep doesn’t serve an absolutely vital function,” the renowned sleep researcher Allan Rechtschaffen once said, “it is the greatest mistake evolution ever made.”


Read More:  http://ngm.nationalgeographic.com/2010/05/sleep/max-text



 

New College Addiction? Social Media, Facebook or Friends

By Rick Nauert PhD Senior News Editor

Reviewed by John M. Grohol, Psy.D. on April 23, 2010

A new study suggests American college students are “addicted” to the instant connections and information afforded by social media.

According to researchers, students describe their feelings when they have to abstain from using media in literally the same terms associated with drug and alcohol addictions: in withdrawal, frantically craving, very anxious, extremely antsy, miserable, jittery, and crazy.

In the study, University of Maryland researchers conclude that most college students are not just unwilling, but functionally unable to be without their media links to the world. However, the study was based upon self-report by students engaging in a set of unnatural and largely unrealistic behaviors.

“I clearly am addicted and the dependency is sickening,” said one person in the study.

“I feel like most people these days are in a similar situation, for between having a Blackberry, a laptop, a television, and an iPod, people have become unable to shed their media skin.”

In the new study, “24 Hours: Unplugged,” 200 students at the College Park campus were asked to give up all media for 24 hours. After their 24 hours of abstinence, the students were then asked to blog on private class websites about their experiences, report their successes and admit to any failures.

The 200 students wrote more than 110,000 words: in aggregate, about the same number of words as a 400-page novel.

“We were surprised by how many students admitted that they were ‘incredibly addicted’ to media,” noted project director Susan D. Moeller, a journalism professor at the University of Maryland and the director of the International Center for Media and the Public Agenda which conducted the study.

“But we noticed that what they wrote at length about was how they hated losing their personal connections. Going without media meant, in their world, going without their friends and family.”

Building upon that observation, an alternative explanation is that the students may have identified the “media” as what they were craving, but were actually missing the social connections afforded by the media. In other words, the students were “addicted” to the social ties — friendships and relationships — with others.

“The students did complain about how boring it was go anywhere and do anything without being plugged into music on their MP3 players,” said Moeller.

“And many commented that it was almost impossible to avoid the TVs on in the background at all times in their friends’ rooms.

“But what they spoke about in the strongest terms was how their lack of access to text messaging, phone calling, instant messaging, email and Facebook, meant that they couldn’t connect with friends who lived close by, much less those far away.”

“Texting and IM-ing my friends gives me a constant feeling of comfort,” wrote one student.

“When I did not have those two luxuries, I felt quite alone and secluded from my life. Although I go to a school with thousands of students, the fact that I was not able to communicate with anyone via technology was almost unbearable.”

The student responses to the assignment showed not just that 18-21 year old college students are constantly texting and on Facebook — with calling and email distant seconds as ways of staying in touch, especially with friends — but that students’ lives are wired together in such ways that opting out of that communication pattern would be tantamount to renouncing a social life.

Very few students in the study reported that they regularly watched news on television or read a local or national newspaper (although a few said they regularly read The Diamondback, the University of Maryland student newspaper).

They also didn’t mention checking mainstream media news sites or listening to radio news while commuting in their cars. Yet student after student demonstrated knowledge of specific news stories.

How did they get the information? In a disaggregated way, and not typically from the news outlet that broke or committed resources to a story. “To be entirely honest I am glad I failed the assignment,” wrote one student, “because if I hadn’t opened my computer when I did I would not have known about the violent earthquake in Chile from an informal blog post on Tumblr.”

“Students expressed tremendous anxiety about being cut-off from information,” observed Ph.D. student Raymond McCaffrey, a former writer and editor at The Washington Post, and a current researcher on the study.

“One student said he realized that he suddenly ‘had less information than everyone else, whether it be news, class information, scores, or what happened on Family Guy.”

“They care about what is going on among their friends and families and even in the world at large,” said McCaffrey.

“But most of all they care about being cut off from that instantaneous flow of information that comes from all sides and does not seem tied to any single device or application or news outlet.”

That’s the real takeaway of this study for journalists: students showed no significant loyalty to a news program, news personality or even news platform. Students have only a casual relationship to the originators of news, and in fact rarely distinguished between news and more general information.

While many in the journalism profession are committing significant resources to deliver content across media platforms –print, broadcast, online, mobile — the young adults in this study appeared to be generally oblivious to branded news and information.

For most of the students reporting in the study, information of all kinds comes in an undifferentiated wave to them via social media. If a bit of information rises to a level of interest, the student will pursue it — but often by following the story via “unconventional” outlets, such as through text messages, their email accounts, Facebook and Twitter.

Students said that only the most specific or significant news events — for example, a medal event at the Olympics — merited their tuning into to a mainstream outlet. Even news events that students cared about were often accessed via their personal interactions.

To learn about the Maryland vs. Virginia Tech basketball game, for example, one student told of “listening to someone narrate the game from a conversation they were having on their own phone” (although he would have preferred watching it on TV) and another student told of calling her father to learn more about the earthquake in Chile.

Source: University of Maryland, College Park

http://psychcentral.com/news/2010/04/23/new-college-addiction-social-media-facebook-or-friends/13108.html

 

New Approach for Opioid Addiction

By Rick Nauert PhD Senior News Editor
Reviewed by John M. Grohol, Psy.D. on April 23, 2010

Experts have developed a new multifaceted treatment program for young adults addicted to opioid drugs.

The approach was announced at the National Institute on Drug Abuse’s (NIDA) Conference in Albuquerque, N.M.

The new treatment product, Buprenorphine Treatment for Young Adults, was based on research by NIDA’s Clinical Trials Network in partnership with the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA).

It showed that young adults given longer term treatment with the medication buprenorphine were less likely to use drugs and more likely to stay in treatment, compared to those who received short-term detoxification without followup medication.

Buprenorphine helps relieve drug cravings.

“Buprenorphine had been proven effective with adults, but until recently, evidence was lacking that its anti-addiction properties would work in this important group of younger patients,” said NIDA Director Dr. Nora Volkow.

“The new product includes a three-hour training package that examines opioid use among young adults and looks at research results showing the effectiveness of buprenorphine for this age group.”

The training program is in a suite of buprenorphine products developed by the Blending Initiative.

Among them: training for addiction professionals about laws governing the office-based use of the treatment; a discussion of how to select appropriate patients; and an explanation of how buprenorphine works.

Yet another product outlines the results of a NIDA clinical trial comparing short-term detoxification with buprenorphine versus clonidine, another addiction treatment.

This spring’s conference is titled “Blending Addiction Science and Practice: Evidence-Based Treatment and Prevention in Diverse Populations and Settings.”

In addition to the new buprenorphine products, the topics range from controlling heroin and opioid addiction in young adults to understanding genetic changes in the brain that underlie addiction.

“Rapid advances in our understanding of the mechanisms behind addiction have expanded our treatment horizon dramatically in recent years,” said Dr. Volkow.

Source: National Institute on Drug Abuse

http://psychcentral.com/news/2010/04/23/new-approach-for-opioid-addiction/13118.html



What’s the Difference Between Your Boyfriend and Your Friend?


by Jen Kim


I’ve never been “friends first” with a boy, though the concept is quite fascinating.


Imagine you meet someone that you’re not attracted to. Then later, as some times goes by, suddenly, you begin to notice all these fantastic qualities about them that you didn’t know existed, and boom! You’re in love! Is that a 90s sitcom plot or what?!


I love this idea. Many experts advise that couples should be friends first. Then the relationship is based on personal compatibility, not just sexual chemistry.


New York social psychologist, Dr. Grace Cornish avers that romances that begin as friendships are more likely to succeed:


“As friends first, you like each other first. You develop a respect for each other. You’re looking out for each other’s best interests. I urge people–marry your best friend.”


Moreover, friendships keep you rational, stable and logical.


“You’re always kind to your friend. You’re looking for your friend to get ahead by looking out for his best interest. In a friendship you’re equally grounded. You’re not looking for any kind of ownership. There’s no respect if you become possessive and controlling.”


Cornish continues,


“If you have a genuine friendship, you’re not going to pretend to be someone you’re not so a person can marry you. Some people are on their best behavior until they cross the threshold. Then, they let their guards down. But your true nature will surface when you’re a person’s friend first. When you’re true friends from the beginning, you don’t have to pretend.”


I don’t disagree with anything Cornish says, but why does she make it seem like honesty, kindness and respect are only inherent in friendships, not in romance?


Jealousy and possessiveness occur in all relationships- including friendships. I’ve been envious of new friends that supplant old friendships. I also have friends who don’t share their different friend circles, for fear of social miscegenation. Also, everyone has had or been a “bad friend” at some point in their lives, right?


I’ve found that the only real distinction between friend and boyfriend is the attraction factor. A boyfriend is actually a friend that you’d like to get kinky with as soon as possible.


When I meet someone, I can size him up in about 30 seconds and decide whether or not we will ever see each other naked.


If I’m attracted to a guy, then I really can’t befriend him. I’ll be “friendly,” but a real friendship requires some level of honesty and ease. I know some people are capable of masking their true feelings, a la Joey Potter, but that’s just not in my nature. It just sounds like your waiting for the inevitable letdown, you know?


According to Paul Dobransky, PT Blogger and co-author of The Secret Psychology of How We Fall in Love,


Successful romantic relationships have three phases:


1. Attraction
2. Bonding in friendship
3. Commitment


This list makes more sense. Attraction must always be present and must always come prior to any romantic connection. It doesn’t have to be physical, but I think there needs to be something about that person that turns you on.


Read in Full:  http://www.psychologytoday.com/blog/valley-girl-brain/201004/why-friends-first-doesnt-work


Understanding Male Friendships


Male friendships: Yes, we have them.


I am thrilled to be blogging for Psychology Today on the topic of men and their male friendships.  It has long been established that people with friends live longer, healthier lives.  Men’s lives are shorter than women’s. By helping men to better connect with other men through supportive friendships, I hope to help enrich men’s lives.  My initial postings will be based on my research on more than 400 men and 120 women into how they define friendships, how they make and maintain friendships, and the suggestions they offer for enhancing friendships.  Some of these postings will come from my book on men’s friendships and some will come from other events and research that I come across.


Two initial points to be made from the book and one observation:


1. Men, from an early age, are socialized by society to have difficulty establishing and maintaining friendships.  We have been raised to compete with other men and not co-operate with them.  We have been raised to hide our vulnerabilities and have often lacked friendship role models in our fathers.


Yet we have friendships with other men – do they look like women’s friendships? No.  But we have them and we value them.


2. Aristotle has written that friendships are the purest type of virtuous interaction, a giving of oneself to the other.  He observes that one can only be friends with a peer! If you have something to gain from someone else, or that person has something to gain from you, it is not a true friendship as one must be equals to participate in a friendship. Consider in your own life, whether your closest friends are peers.


Read in Full:  http://www.psychologytoday.com/blog/buddy-system/200809/understanding-male-friendships


When a new romance leaves no room for friends


A once-best friend is suddenly made the ‘odd person out’

QUESTION


Dear Irene,


I’ve known Pete since third grade and I’ve always felt close to him, as though I could trust him with my life. But our friendship doesn’t seem to be the same way for him although he used to say it was.

He recently started dating a girl who asked if she could be my friend. Of course I said yes, because I want to support him in any choices he makes. But lately things have gone sour. She thinks we have become too close, and has been making up stories about me “harassing” her when I have been nothing but nice.


Now he says that he doesn’t want to be friends with me, because she’s the best thing that’s ever happened to him. I’ve tried to talk to him about it but he completely ignores me. Also, she knows things about me that only he could have told her, and it hurts me that he would share my personal information with somebody, especially when that person doesn’t like me.


Read in Full:  http://www.psychologytoday.com/blog/the-friendship-doctor/200912/when-new-romance-leaves-no-room-friends


Are your friends really there for you?


Are your friends really there for you?
by Carolyn Rubenstein

When we honestly ask ourselves which person in our lives means the most us, we often find that it is those who, instead of giving much advice, solutions, or cures, have chosen rather to share our pain and touch our wounds with a gentle and tender hand. The friend who can be silent with us in a moment of despair or confusion, who can stay with us in an hour of grief and bereavement, who can tolerate not knowing, not curing, not healing and face with us the reality of our powerlessness, that is a friend who cares. –Henri Nouwen

The happiest and most successful people I know seem to have a secret weapon: they get an incredible amount of support from their friends and family. Their friends and family really are there for them! They champion and stand by them during the best and hardest of times. This observation made me think about my own life and friendships. Are my friends true? Am I a true friend? In evaluating these conditions, I came up with a friendship “test.” Essentially, it’s a list of questions I try to answer when I evaluate whether a relationship is worth continuing.

1. Does the person help me feel good about myself?


2. Is this person there for me during my hardest times?


3. Is that person willing to be around me even when I am not my best self?


4. Does this individual allow me to believe in the impossible?


5. Does he or she offer help and support in a way that does not make me feel guilty or obligated?


6. Does this person allow me to be me, without expecting me to reflect a predetermined label or expectation?


I hope you were able to answer “yes” to all six questions, but what happens if none of your friends are true friends? What if you had to answer “no” to (almost) every question? Does this mean that everyone in your life is somehow toxic?


Well, if that’s the case, then your best choice is simply to start over. I know people who have done this; it really is possible. You can jettison those toxic relationships and replace them with new, supportive friendships. By exploring new interests, hobbies, and pursuits, you’ll meet other people who are more mature, positive, and supportive.


So what questions do you ask yourself when you evaluate whether someone is a true friend? How would you start over and seek a new set of friends? Please leave a comment.


To read the incredible stories of cancer survivors who forged new friendships after realizing their current relationships weren’t working, get a copy of PERSEVERANCE today.


Other Articles You May Like:


Source: http://www.psychologytoday.com/blog/now-is-everything/200910/are-your-friends-really-there-you


When to Stop, Yield, or Go in Friendship


Confidence can come from all the different areas of your life, friendship included. That’s why it’s so important to routinely take an inventory of your friendships to make sure that each one is a healthy part of your life. So imagine yourself being at a traffic light. Now you need to ask yourself, “Does this friendship need to stop, do I need to yield and gather more information about our friendship, or am I good to go with it?”


Friendships can be a wonderful resource. They can provide us with emotional, psychological, physical, and even financial support. They can put a smile on our face, provide a place for our tears to fall, or offer an antidote to loneliness. On the other hand, friendships can sometimes be an unhealthy burden, a lure to trouble, or a culprit in your lack of confidence.


Let’s start with the friendship that may be negatively contributing to your confidence and may in fact be adding to your self-doubt. So what should you look for:


Top 5 List For When it may make Sense to Question a Friendship


1. Drama- If there are constant ups and downs in the relationship. Hint: Things are going great or not well rather than smooth and steady.
2. Finger Pointing- If your friend keeps telling you how you could be a better friend and never takes responsibility for her or his end of the relationship. Remember: There are two people who are equally responsible for the relationship. Are all your friends telling you how to be a better friend or do you just fall short according to this friend’s expectations?
3. Exhaustion- Your friend expects and assumes that you will always be the one to go out of your way to make yourself available to her and its not reciprocated. Tip: Friendships are about equal give and take over time and not hoping or wishing or waiting for someone to change.
4. Exclusivity- Your friend bad mouths your other friends and often puts you in a position to have to chose this relationship over another. Hint: Do people warn you about this relationship or does this person seem to go through a lot of friends?
5. Doubt- You find yourself questioning whether you want to call this person or make plans with them. Tip: Ask yourself what you would genuinely like to do not what you think you should do.


Do any of these sound familiar to you? If you’ve answered Yes to some of these, then it makes sense to take some time to examine your relationship.


Think about your relationships that involve no drama, finger pointing, exhaustion, exclusivity, or doubt. Clearly, those are the relationships worth your energy to nurture. When one of the top five issues arises, it’s time to decide if that minus is outweighed by the pluses of the relationship or if that minus overwhelms any pluses. Without pluses to compensate for the short-comings it might be time to put your energy into nurturing healthier relationships.


Friendships worth going towards are worth the effort. Communication will help make them better. Express your feelings and needs and problem solve when necessary. Delay action if more information is needed. Time will provide you the data to choose the wise path. If a relationship is in the yield zone, put the energy into improving it. Let your friend know what they are doing that bothers you and what they can do to make it better. Give them a chance. If change does not come, have the courage to stop and put your efforts where the yield is healthier.


Source:  http://www.psychologytoday.com/blog/think-confident-be-confident/200908/when-stop-yield-or-go-in-friendship


Awkward is the new normal


Why we’re attracted to awkward people
by Jen Kim

“Awkward.”


Have you heard this word before? Are you the one saying it or the one it’s being said to? Do you even know what it means? What does it mean? When did it get so popular? Why do girls always seem to say this whenever anything randomly happens?


Like, when you parallel park your car and hit the curb, why is that awkward? Why did Sophia say that to me last week? I have no idea.


I google searched the terms “awkward” and “psychology” to maybe find a connection between the two, but the first result was one of my new favorite Web sites, awkwardfamilyphotos.com, with doozies like these:(See Link)


You must check out the site for yourself to understand and experience the full gamut of awkwardness, whatever it might be. For me, I get a weird uncomfortable feeling that’s suspended somewhere between confusion and disbelief, usually followed by mild-to-severe laughter. A “What the?” look if you may.


I don’t even know if this is a positive or negative feeling.


For the most part, being socially awkward is a stigma. The media stereotype depicts it as someone who lacks self-confidences, reads a lot of manga and probably lives in a basement and/or is obsessed with staplers.


There are countless Web sites that offer guidance on how to deal with awkward behaviors. Recently, a Globe and Mail article cited a study that suggested that reading fiction can cure social awkwardness.


Researchers in Toronto found that readers of narrative fiction were more empathetic and had higher social acumen than those who read non-fiction. Follow-up research also suggested that people who read a New Yorker short story performed better on social reasoning tests than those who read an essay from the magazine.


“Those benefits, researchers say, may be because fiction acts as a type of simulator. Reading about make-believe people having make-believe adventures or whirlwind romances may actually help people navigate those trials in real life.”


I started to wonder, is being awkward necessarily a bad thing? According to today’s media, absolutely not. In fact, awkward (people) comedies are this past decade’s fundamental source of humor. Think of the title characters in “The 40-Year-Old Virgin”, “Zoolander”… basically any Ben Stiller movie.


Read in Full: http://www.psychologytoday.com/blog/valley-girl-brain/201004/awkward-is-the-new-normal


The Power of the Ex-girlfriend


Why you have a relationship with your boyfriend’s ex

Last week was a much needed week of rest. I went home to Los Angeles for spring break and saw old friends, where we did what we always do: gossip and talk shit.

This is a hobby that I would like to have outgrown a decade ago, but even science deems gossip:


“a useful social function in bonding group members together. In the distant past, when humans lived in small bands and meeting strangers was a rare occurrence, gossip helped us survive and thrive.”


That being said, the most flagrant use of gossip in my circle of friends is discussing people we don’t know. Specifically, the exes of our past, present and future boyfriends.


These former love interests of our boyfriends have turned us into obsessive compulsive internet stalkers, hell bent on digging up as much dirt as we can via Twitter or Google. Don’t pretend that you haven’t spent a lone sleepless night Facebook stalking these mysterious girls, hoping that you share at least one friend in common, so you can access their pictures (even if their profiles are private).


Read in Full:  http://www.psychologytoday.com/blog/valley-girl-brain/201003/the-power-the-ex-girlfriend


Darling, Do You Admire Me as Much as I Desire You?


Men just look at pictures, women actually read the ads
by Aaron Ben-Zeév

“The desire of the man is for the woman, but the desire of the woman is for the desire of the man.” Madame de Stael
“The secret of happiness is to admire without desiring.” Carl Sandburg.


Professor Yehshieo Leibovitz, the great scientist and scholar, who was married to his wife for over 60 years, was once asked for the secret of a long term love. He replied: “The woman should desire the man and the man should admire the woman’s characteristics.” I was surprised at his reply as I felt sure that the opposite is true.
My surprise is based on the following two considerations:


(A) I have claimed that the complex experience of romantic love involves two basic evaluative patterns referring to (a) attractiveness-that is, an attraction to external appearance, and (b) praiseworthiness-that is, positively appraising personal characteristics. Falling and staying in love requires the presence of both patterns.
(B) Many studies have found that attractiveness is more important in determining men’s love for women than women’s love for men.


Read in Full: http://www.psychologytoday.com/blog/in-the-name-love/201004/darling-do-you-admire-me-much-i-desire-you


The One Dating Trait of a Successful Future Mate


Curiosity: the one trait in a date that leads to a lasting mate.
by Paul Dobransky, M.D.

Many people can never be quite sure whether they have a “good thing” going on in their romantic life, whether they’re single or married. In the thick of the desires of a dating life, the occasional emotional upheaval of an unmarried couple, and in the numerous stresses and duties that need a team approach in a committed partnership, one can find themselves wishing for there to be just one clue as to whether they are with the right person. It just happens that there’s an extremely quick and easy trait of character – a hidden “dealbreaker” for you to screen others with in your romantic life.


For many busy people with heavy workloads, duties, and stress, it might not occur at first that there are good and bad investments we make – even in the very first moments of spending time, energy, or any resources on a potential date, mate, or eventual spouse.


Read in Full:  http://www.psychologytoday.com/blog/the-urban-scientist/201004/the-one-dating-trait-successful-future-mate


Cultures of foreplay:


I’ve just read a fantastic article in the Journal of Sex Research on culture and how we decide what is a sexual disorder or ‘paraphilia’. It has a fascinating section where it talks about cultural variation in common or acceptable sexual practices and it touches on how foreplay differs between societies.


Kissing during foreplay, it seems, is not universal and seems to be a particular fetish of Western lovers.


Finally, in most cultures, sexual intercourse is preceded by some degree of foreplay—that is, sensory and sexual stimulation intended to induce arousal. This stimulation may be visual, tactile, or otherwise. When visual, it may be the sight of the partner or parts of his or her body or clothing, but these may vary across cultures (Bhugra, 2000). Kissing as part of sexual foreplay is common in the West but virtually unknown in other parts of the world (Ford & Beach, 1965). There are some cultures where penetration was the key element to intercourse, and neither foreplay nor afterplay was recorded. Ford and Beach pointed out that physical pain and biting are sometimes permitted as part of sexual foreplay and, therefore, such behaviors are likely to be readily incorporated into the sexual repertoire. Thus, individuals learn about methods of sexual arousal and sexual activity from their cultural habits and, in order to avoid being labelled and treated as deviant, they conform to prevalent and expected mores.


Unfortunately, the article is locked behind a paywall. Undoubtedly for your own good though. Imagine what would happen if you started to deviate from culturally accepted foreplay practices. Anarchy. And then where would we be?



Link to PubMed entry for article.


—Vaughan.


Source:  http://www.mindhacks.com/blog/2010/04/cultures_of_foreplay.html


Intimacy and Vulnerability: Can You Have One Without the Other?


Couples with truly intimate relationships want to connect deeply.
by Barton Goldsmith, Ph.D.

Intimacy, by its very nature, requires us to be vulnerable. Our partner, lover, or mate can know us to our very core, sometimes better than we know ourselves, and that can make any of us feel totally exposed. Intimacy can be intimidating. However, it is an amazingly freeing experience when you can be completely who you are with someone you totally trust.


Allowing ourselves to be open gives us the opportunity to let another’s heart touch our own; the loneliness in our lives melts away with every tender moment we let in. Despite its benefits, for many people this idea is terribly frightening. Someone may want to connect more than anything else in the world, but the fear of being that vulnerable holds them back. Not the greatest way to get through life. By avoiding intimacy, you never really let yourself be known, and you will never really know yourself.


We create a lot of who we are based on the reactions of others. When it’s someone we’re in love with, those reactions govern a large percentage of how we behave. We also will share parts of ourselves with someone we love because there is a real desire to connect. What we want is for the person we love to know who we really are.


Couples who have truly intimate relationships can’t wait to share their days and dreams with each other. They want to connect, and not just in the bedroom. Couples who choose to engage in an intimate relationship, and it is a choice, do so because they want closeness on all levels. In fact, a case can be made that intimacy itself is a great aphrodisiac. Most people will be more romantic with someone they trust than with a person they don’t really know.


So if the idea of intimacy entices you while at the same time causes you to put your guard up, there are any number of things you can do to help yourself open up. Talking about where you are to the one you love is really the best place to start. By saying the words, you will feel a little more trust and a little less fear.

Another step you can take is to do an intimacy inventory. Think about or write down what you believe you know about the one you love and what you think he or she knows about you. Ask yourself if you really “get” each other and talk about it.


Dedicating some time to going deeper and expressing what your needs, hopes, and fears are will lead you to feeling that there’s at least one person on this planet who cares and who totally understands you. Now that’s intimacy.


Source:  http://www.psychologytoday.com/blog/emotional-fitness/201004/intimacy-and-vulnerability-can-you-have-one-without-the-other




Springfield, IL- The Autism Program of Illinois (TAP) today announced the development of a new training curriculum, based on HBO Films’ recent movie release, “Temple Grandin”. The training is appropriate for use with caregivers, community members and professionals who interact with individuals with Autism Spectrum Disorders (ASDs).

The training, entitled “Different…But Not Less”, was created to accompany the movie, and provides stop points for discussions about behavior exhibited by the movie’s main character, Temple Grandin, who suffers from Asperger’s Syndrome, a form of autism.

The training, created by Julie Alderman, M.A., from The Autism Program of Illinois and Camille Randall, PhD., from The Hope Institute for Children and Families, offers explanations for the character’s behavior, tools for working with individuals with ASDs, and additional resources.

Read More:  http://www.basilandspice.com/mind-and-body/42010-autism-program-il-releases-temple-grandin-type-curricu.html