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Archive for July, 2011

 

The Autistic Self-Advocacy Network is looking for an intern in the DC area for the Fall 2011 semester. The intern would assist with administrative and other tasks, such as research, to support ASAN’s important work. Requirements include good organizational and time management skills, proficiency with Microsoft Office, and professional communication skills. This is an unpaid internship, but ASAN is happy to work with interns to arrange course credit. This is a great opportunity for someone eager to work in the disability rights community and gain valuable skills. Being a self-starter and having excellent computer skills is a must, as this position will occur primarily via telecommuting.

 

 

We are looking for someone who is able to adapt to and tackle fast-paced work, including frequent short-notice assignments and deadlines. The ability to manage multiple responsibilities is a must. A few key duties include: research on questions relating to policy and human service practice, processing reimbursements, drafting announcements, data entry, maintaining the schedule of the President, developing short publications, summarizing policy and research articles and assisting other staff in administrative responsibilities on an as needed basis. The position is split between clerical/administrative work and substantive research and communications activities, varying on an as needed basis.

If you are interested, please contact Melody Latimer at mlatimer@autisticadvocacy.org with a résumé and why you are interested in the position. Applicants with disabilities are strongly encouraged to apply.

 

 

The Autistic Self Advocacy Network (ASAN) is a non-profit organization run by and for Autistic people, fighting for disability rights in the world of autism. Working in fields such as public policy, media representation, research and systems change, ASAN hopes to empower Autistic people across the world to take control of their own lives and the future of our common community.



Christy Matta, M.A. Updated: Jul 18th 2011

 

Emotions, such as anxiety, have evolved to help us focus our attention on the most important information in the environment around us. If we’re anxious, we must in some way be threatened, so we pay attention to potential threats around us. If you were anxious about walking alone along a dark city street, paying attention to potential threats can keep you safe.

 

However, when this attention to threat is exaggerated, your anxiety levels and symptoms of anxiety increase and are present even when you are not in danger. In one study, people trained to attend to threats, experienced anxiety in response to stressors, while people trained to avoid paying attention to threats had reduced symptoms over time (MacLeod & Bridle, 2009).

 

So what has all this got to do with life satisfaction? In a recent study in Emotion, Sarah Cavanagh and colleagues asked the question: if increased attention to threats leads to anxiety, then does increased attention to positive information lead to greater life satisfaction (2011)? Previous studies had found that when you feel happy, you tend to notice more positive things around you, such as rewarding words and positive images. Cavanagh and her colleagues explored whether this increased attention to positive things in your environment lead to positive changes in life satisfaction over time.

 

Read in Full:

http://www.mentalhelp.net/poc/view_doc.php?type=doc&id=43869&cn=1



By Douglas Eby

 

Jodie Foster once commented about Russell Crowe, “He’s a very light, funny guy. He has a little leprechaun side to him.” But, she added, “He has that glacier intensity. He is truly intense.”

 

Intensity is one of the reasons we enjoy the performances of acclaimed actors, and it is a key personality quality of many gifted and talented, creative people.

 

In her post Tips for Working With Emotional Intensity (she notes it is her contribution to SENG’s Blog Tour celebrating their National Parenting Gifted Children week), Christine Fonseca provides a summary:

 

“Intensity comes in the form of cognitive intensity – those aspects of thinking and processing information that all gifted individuals use to problem solve. It relates to the attributes of focus, sustained attention, creative problem solving, and advanced reasoning skills. Most people think of cognitive intensity as intellect, or ‘being smart’ – all good things.”

 

She continues, “But a gifted child’s intensity does not stop there. The emotional aspects of a gifted individual are also intense. Emotional intensity refers to the passion gifted people feel daily. It also refers to the extreme highs and lows many gifted people experience throughout their lifetime, causing them to question their own mental stability from time to time.”

 

She adds, “This type of intensity is a natural aspect of giftedness. However, in my experience, it is also one of the most misunderstood attributes – and it is the reason gifted kids sometimes struggle.”

 

She is author of Emotional Intensity in Gifted Students: Helping Kids Cope With Explosive Feelings.

 

Gifted kids grow up – and we may still experience intensity and its challenges as adults.

 

Read in Full:

http://blogs.psychcentral.com/creative-mind/2011/07/channeling-intensity-through-creative-expression/



By Rick Nauert PhD Senior News Editor
Reviewed by John M. Grohol, Psy.D. on July 18, 2011

 

The relationship between stress and alcohol is complex and a subject of detailed investigation. For example, acute stress is thought to lead to alcohol consumption, yet the ways that acute stress can increase drinking are unclear.

 

A new study investigated whether an acute stressor can alter the subjective effects of alcohol.

 

“Anecdotal reports suggest that alcohol dampens the physiological or negative emotional effects of stress, but this has been hard to demonstrate in the lab,” said Emma Childs, Ph.D., research associate at the University of Chicago.

 

“Another way that stress could increase drinking is by altering alcohol’s effects. For example, if stress reduces the intoxicating effects of alcohol, individuals may drink more alcohol to produce the same effect.”

 

Childs explained that the body’s reaction to stress involves separate physiological and emotional consequences that occur at different times after the stress.

 

“For example,” she said, “the increase in heart rate and blood pressure, the release of cortisol, and also the increased feelings of tension and negative mood each reach a climax and dissipate at a different rate. Therefore, drinking more alcohol might have different effects, depending on how long after the stress a person drinks.”

 

Results of the study are available at Early View of the journal Alcoholism: Clinical & Experimental Research.

 

Read in Full:

http://psychcentral.com/news/2011/07/18/stress-influences-response-to-alcohol/27824.html



By John M. Grohol, PsyD
Founder & Editor-in-Chief

 

Not surprisingly, people who suffer from depression often have difficult romantic relationships — when they have them at all. They tend to take out their depression more on their partner than they would a stranger or friend.

 

In a relationship where one person is depressed, depressed individuals have a “higher tendency than non-depressed individuals to repeatedly ask for reassurance, demand support in a hostile manner, and display negative behaviors, such as a reduced tendency to smile. Consequently, depressed individuals often burden or alienate their partners.”

 

People in romantic relationships can typically infer and understand their partners’ thoughts and feelings with a fair amount of accuracy. Even in complex social interactions, couples often know what each other is thinking about the situation. A new study suggests that depression can alter this empathic accuracy in women, but not in men.

 

Researchers tested their hypothesis in a laboratory experiment that depression might impact our ability to accurately infer our partner’s thoughts and feelings by examining 51 couples who had been living together for a minimum of 6 months.

 

Read in Full:

http://psychcentral.com/blog/archives/2011/07/19/depression-and-empathy-in-couples/



By Psych Central News Editor
Reviewed by John M. Grohol, Psy.D. on July 20, 2011

 

For veterans suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), a new therapy may offer help from an unexpected avenue — surfing.

 

For the last few years, Britain and the United States have done quiet experiments with a new form of therapy for veterans suffering from combat stress, using a resource neither nation lacks along their coasts: surf.

 

“Ocean therapy,” or surf therapy, will surprise long-time surfers mainly because of the official-sounding name; the idea that an ocean and a surfboard can be good for the body and mind is otherwise not very new. But recent studies have tried to quantify just what happens in the water.

 

The United Kingdom’s National Health Service is still conducting trials in Cornwall, where waves wash in from the Atlantic, to determine whether “surf therapy” deserves taxpayer support. The idea caused outrage at the Daily Mail, where outrage is something of a business model.

 

“It’s important that the NHS uses its funds for medicine and equipment rather than watersports,” a British taxpayers’ advocate, Fiona McEvoy, told the Mail late last year. National Health defended the trials on the grounds that they were cheap — £250, or about $400 per person — and aimed at saving money on demand for antidepressants and other drug therapies.

 

Read in Full:

http://psychcentral.com/news/2011/07/20/surf-therapy-for-ptsd/27933.html



Drive: The Surprising Truth About What Motivates Us

http://www.amazon.com/Drive-Surprising-Truth-About-Motivates/dp/1594484805/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1311129071&sr=8-1

 



 

SOME parents and doctors are colluding to deliberately misdiagnose school children as autistic so they can get help for other problems, a medical professional claims.

 

Parents are seeking the autism “label” because funding for the condition has increased and more assistance is available for autism than for other conditions.

 

The practice may partly explain a huge rise in the number of public school students with autism – up by 165 per cent over the past eight years.

 

Rates of other mental health diagnoses have increased by 75 per cent since 2003, according to the state government’s submission to a federal review of funding for schooling.

 

Clinical psychologist and manager of diagnostic assessment services at Autism Spectrum Australia Vicki Gibbs said there were various reasons for the surge in the number of children diagnosed with autism.

 

“The most obvious is that people are more aware of it than before and people are also more aware of the more subtle forms of autism. Another reason is autism now attracts more funding, especially in the early intervention years.”

 

Ms Gibbs said there was a small group of people happy to have their children diagnosed with autism because giving them a label was the only way they could get help.

 

“Some diagnosticians will give the child that label even when they don’t meet all the criteria,” she said.

 

“It’s the only way they can get help with their problems.”

 

About 6000 children in NSW public schools have been diagnosed with autism, creating the biggest challenge for educators in decades. The avalanche of children with special needs is being felt most acutely in mainstream classes, where there is too little funding to provide individual support.

 

“In the government school sector in NSW the number of students with a disability has increased 20 per cent in the five years from 2005,” the government’s submission said.

 

“The type and severity of disability is also growing, with many children also experiencing multiple disabilities.”

 

“Catholic and independent schools have also shown a rapid increase in the number of students with a disability.”

 

Expenditure on the problem in government schools has increased by just 9 per cent per year – $1.1 billion.

 

Latest figures from the Productivity Commission show public schools have 42,940 children with at least one disability.

 

The school funding review is due to report to the Federal Government by the end of the year.

 

Source:

http://www.dailytelegraph.com.au/news/faking-autism-to-get-help-for-kids-according-to-claims-made-by-autism-spectrum-australia/story-e6freuy9-1226097806649



 

ALPHAS: Ryan Cartwright, left,  as Gary Bell, Laura Mennell as Nina Theroux, Malik Yoba as Bill Harken, David Strathairn as Dr. Leigh Rosen, Warren Christie as Cameron Hicks and  Azita Ghanizada as Rachel in the new Syfy series.
ALPHAS: Ryan Cartwright, left, as Gary Bell, Laura Mennell as Nina Theroux, Malik Yoba as Bill Harken, David Strathairn as Dr. Leigh Rosen, Warren Christie as Cameron Hicks and Azita Ghanizada as Rachel in the new Syfy series.

Justin Stephens / syfy
Posted on Saturday, 07.16.11

‘Alphas.’ 10 p.m. Monday. Syfy.

 

Los Angeles Times

 

I don’t know about anyone else, but they had me at David Strathairn.

 

Alphas, Syfy’s new drama about ordinary people with extraordinary powers who come together to fight crime, is a fresh take on an old premise. It’s a sit-up-and-take-notice show that, while not the fanboy catnip Battlestar Galactica once was, should bring many more eyeballs to the struggling network.

 

Created by Zak Penn ( X-Men: The Last Stand, The Incredible Hulk) and Michael Karnow, it boasts a terrific cast, headed by Strathairn, who plays the deceptively paternal leader of a group of “alphas,” whose abilities come with refreshingly believable downsides.

 

The super-strength of former FBI agent Bill Harken (Malik Yoba) comes only in short bursts followed by exhaustion, Rachel Pirzad (Azita Ghanizada) can heighten her senses but only one at a time and at the expense of the other four, Gary Bell (Ryan Cartwright) can process digital information out of thin air but is autistic and Nina Theroux (Laura Mennell) can bend people’s will to her own but … well, it’s not clear what the downside to that is, but no doubt it has something to do with failed relationships.

 

Read in Full:

http://www.miamiherald.com/2011/07/16/2315603/syfys-alphas-heroes-have-issues.html

 

Related Article

New US Sci-Fi Tv Release – Alphas:

https://www.aspie-editorial.com/2011/07/15/new-us-sci-fi-tv-release-alphas/