Abstract
Although sleep problems are often seen as a clinical feature associated with autism, and children with autism are reported to have more sleep disturbances than typically developing children, there is a paucity of studies in the area and findings are restricted by problematic methodological approaches. The present study addressed these limitations, with parents of children with autism (as defined by two independent indices of the disorder) reporting more difficulties with sleep for their children than did parents of typically developing children on seven of eight sleep problem domains assessed. The methodological advances implemented are seen as supporting the reliability of the findings, and the need for further refinements to advance the understanding of sleep problems in children with autism is discussed. 10.1177/10883576060210030301
Source: http://www.citeulike.org/group/12475/article/7084184
 
 Court case … ‘mum’ wants to cancel adoption of autistic child
A ROMANIAN woman is trying to give away an abandoned autistic child — ten years after she adopted her.
Mihaela Popa adopted the girl aged 18 months in 1999 but claims doctors failed to tell her she was suffering from the developmental disability.
She has now asked a court to overturn the adoption so she can get rid of the teenager.
Child protection spokeswoman Svetlana Mihulet said: “The adoptive mother announced to us she wanted to cancel the adoption. A trial is under way.
“This is a very delicate case. Our only goal is to defend the child’s superior interest.”
The girl had been abandoned by her parents at birth.
Popa said: “I was given a certificate saying the child was perfectly healthy.”
Then six months later she said she discovered the girl was suffering from “severe mental handicap and autism”.
After giving birth to her own baby in 2008 Popa put the girl in an institution claiming she could no longer look after her.
She added: “I want to cancel the adoption because I was not told about the child’s real condition as I was entitled to.”
Under Romanian law adoptions can be cancelled but only if it’s in the child’s interest.
The case mirrors that of American nurse Torry Ann Hansen, 34, who sent “mentally unstable” seven-year-old Artem Saveliev back to Russia earlier this month because she claimed she had not been told about his behavioural problems.
She had adopted him in September last year and the case prompted Russia to threaten a freeze on all adoptions with the US.
Source:Â http://www.thesun.co.uk/sol/homepage/news/2948109/Mum-rejects-autistic-daughter.html
 
State Sen. Brian Joyce hopes that two ongoing investigations will bring more scrutiny to the practice of aversive therapy at the Judge Rotenberg Center (JRC) in Canton, spurring legislators to pass his bills that will more strictly regulate the practice.
The JRC is a private, public-funded school for special education children with severe challenges, including those who are developmentally delayed, autistic and emotionally disturbed.Â
Both the state’s attorney general and the U. S. Department of Justice have been investigating the center after complaints about a 2007 incident at the center, as well as complaints from more than 30 disability groups.Â
“We’ve seen horrible abuses, and family members have been interviewed, and I’m hopeful,†Joyce said.
The senator has been trying to ban the practice, which gives electric shocks and other pain-inducing treatments to students who have severe behavior problems, for about 10 years. He said the JRC is the only school in the country that uses this type of therapy.
The practice that Joyce most strongly objects to is shock therapy using a remotely controlled shock devise that is attached to the student through a fanny or backpack. According to a report of the New York State Educational Department, the students wear the devises for the majority of their sleeping and walking hours, and some are required to wear them during shower/bath time. Â
Though JRC lawyers argue that aversive shock therapy is already heavily regulated, Joyce said it’s not enough. He said he has heard of children being shocked “hundreds, sometimes thousands for times,†with some children being burned through the shock treatment.
An alarming case
One of the most alarming cases, he said, was in 2007, when a person made a prank call to the school pretending to be a JRC staff member. Joyce said the caller ordered the staff to awaken two students who were shocked repeatedly while their arms and legs were bound. One of the students was burned 77 times over a period of three hours.
The incident led the state attorney’s office to investigative the incident, which is still ongoing.   Since then, the JRC has cooperated with law and state officials in every way, and a number of changes have been made to prevent a similar occurrence, said Michael Flammia, a lawyer for the JRC.Â
Flammia also said students who undergo the process have to have parent permission, and approvals by a judge in a probate court, as well as a peer review committee and doctor before getting the treatment.
“It’s the most regulated form of therapy that exists,†he said.
But Joyce is not satisfied with current regulations, and he is pressing for more. His two bills aim to better control the aversive therapy, rather than ban it, which he thinks is a compromise that could sway house members to vote yes.
One bill would set up unified standards that specify the scope of techniques permissible under laws. The other bill would establish a commission to investigate electric shock therapy, as well as a peer review group, which would work with the states’ Department of Developmental Services to set up new standards.  Joyce said even though a peer group is currently involved with the approval process, it consists mostly of people who are affiliated with the JRC and he does not feel they provide adequate oversight.
“I want a true objective look at this – not a review by interested parties,†Joyce said.
Even though he is still in favor of banning shock therapy, Joyce said that he moderated his stance because he’s faced strong opposition in previous bills, including Rep. Jeffrey Sanchez, D-Boston, who has a nephew who is a JRC student and receives shock therapy. He said that Sanchez has been an effective spokesperson for the aversive therapy, saying it’s the only method that can keep his nephew from harming, and even killing himself.
 Joyce feels that legislators have voted repeatedly against the ban, through the urging of Sanchez, and JRC supporters. Now, he thinks these two bills could be the compromise that spurs both the house and senate to pass his bills.Â
“It’s a harder thing to argue against than the outright ban,†he said.
The new legislation has the support of many educators, including Alan Dewey, who oversees special education for the Canton School Department. He thinks there’s a need for the treatment because of severe cases that he’s seen, including a child who tried to take his own eyeball out with his thumb. But he also feels that there has to be stricter regulations enforced.
“It needs stronger oversight, so I think it’s a good bill,†he said.Â
The school has about 220 students from seven states, including Massachusetts, New York, New Jersey, Rhode Island, Ohio, New Hampshire and Florida. About half those students receive aversive therapy.
Sen. Brian Joyce said that his legislation aims to limit aversive therapy to “just a few of the most extreme cases†performed with licensed clinicians, used only on self-abusive or dangerous kids.
But Flammia argued that there are some students who may not be dangerous to themselves or others, but are capable of disrupting classrooms, and are in need of the treatment.
 “If students were smashing computer on the ground, or disrobing, or screaming at the top of their lungs, they could not be treated,†he said.
Adding that the JRC treats the most serious behavior problems imaginable, Flammia said students on aversive therapy have been exposed to every other treatment possible. He said the only other alternatives have been to place the children on powerful psychotropic drugs, which had led to them being barely conscious during the day and in some cases becoming obese. JRC parents prefer aversive therapy to their children being heavily drugged, he said.
Whether or not the legislation is passed, the JRC is bound to be under intensive scrutiny as long as it continues aversive shock therapy. The U. S. Department of Justice’s investigation, launched this February, was spurred by letters from 31 different disability groups. The September 30 letter states that “almost every national disability organization agrees that the use of painful procedures to change a person’s behavior is unnecessary, inhumane, and should be banned.â€
The center has also been the target of complaints and investigations by a number of state and out-of state agencies. Since the school was founded in 1971, the states of California and Rhode Island have withdrawn their students and passed forms of legislation banning aversive therapy in their own states. New Jersey has suspended any new referrals to the school.
“My hope is that these investigations will shed light on what is happening behind the walls of the JRC,†Joyce said.
 
 Mother’s love: Virginia with Danny, aged four
Who’ll be there to care for our autistic son when we’re gone? Writer Nick Hornby’s ex-wife tells of her fears for the future
By Virginia Bovell
Created 1:20 AM on 25th April 2010
In his book 31 Songs my ex-husband, the writer Nick Hornby, spoke of the ’40 terrifying years’. It was his guess at the amount of time our son Danny will be alive, once Nick and I are gone. We both fear for his future and wonder who will support him and fight for the things he needs when he cannot express for himself what they are.
Danny was diagnosed with autism when he was three years old. He is now 16 and, alongside his severe learning difficulties, this year he has been in and out of hospital with chronic gastrointestinal problems.
He is often in intense pain and is on a fair bit of medication. We keep daily charts, we observe changes in minute detail, we adjust dosages – it is like a meticulously calibrated battle plan.
When he is well, it is as if he doesn’t have a care in the world. He is cheerfully non-verbal – he has only a few words, such as ‘momma’, and ‘diddle’ for daddy. He is also happily and unresentfully dependent on others for most of his waking life.
On a good day I am optimistic for Danny, but if I’m honest, worry often keeps me awake at night. Because he doesn’t speak, and understanding him requires close observation, I wonder who will love him enough to give him the levels of meticulous attention that a parent would.
But besides being loved by his father and me, he is blessed with a strong network of friends and support workers who I know will always look out for him.
We receive financial help from Islington Council, which means I can employ a support worker for Danny when he isn’t at school.
This money covers only eight hours a week, but I am fortunate to be able to pay for more myself. I know from my work with the National Autistic Society and with Tree House, the autism education charity I helped set up, that some families battle to get any funding at all.
There are residential care homes but many adults with autism still live with their families, even in their 50s. Parents who have given up work to support their child are faced with the awful prospect that there will be no one to fill their role when they die.
I hope one day Danny will achieve enough independence to live on his own. But he will, as far as I can tell, need some kind of care for the rest of his days.
He can dress himself, but without guidance he would more often than not choose to walk down the road in pyjamas, back-to-front and inside-out. He has a right to do this, of course, but on the other hand he has a right to be protected from ridicule, not to mention traffic hazards to which he is still oblivious.
Just like any parents, we are hoping he will have a safe, fulfilled, stimulating and enjoyable adulthood. What this means in practice for Danny is rather different, though.
Trampolining is likely to be a permanent source of joy, and I hope he will acquire enough independence to feel pride in making his own toast, cleaning his teeth unsupervisedor accessing YouTube – which he loves – on his own.
Read More …Â http://www.dailymail.co.uk/health/article-1268648/Writer-Nick-Hornbys-ex-wife-tells-fears-autistic-sons-future.html
 
Pro-surfer’s Asperger’s Syndrome Enhances His Surfing
Beyond a few words, Marzo, 20, finds it hard to hold a conversation. Ask him a question, and finding an answer seems to cause him pain. Chat with him for half an hour, and the words never never flow any easier, because Marzo has autism.
He has a milder form known as Asperger’s syndrome. Labeled a disability, Asperger’s may help to explain why Marzo is so good on a surfboard.
Since he was a little boy, when his difficulty in communicating became evident, Marzo zeroed in on water. He wanted to be near the water, to be in it — a focus so intense that it was actually obsessive, according to his mother, Jill Marzo. Obsession is part of Asperger’s.
Surfing Obsession Leads to Stardom
In the water, “he was comfortable in his skin,” said Jill Marzo. “Out of the water, he is not comfortable, even today. In the water, it’s like he can breathe.”
Marzo spends hours a day in the ocean, year after year. Some Asperger’s obsessions, such as fixating on train schedules or “Star Wars” or lightbulbs, can disrupt. But Marzo’s water obsession evolved into surfing, where obsession is required to succeed.
Marzo’s obsession has made him a star surfer. He’s a favorite with surfing magazines, is sponsored by Quicksilver apparel and earns an income that reaches into the six figures.
Surfing Fame Leads to Struggle
But on dry land, says his mom, Marzo’s a fish out of water, unable to process easily anything that takes quick thinking. He struggles in getting around, meeting strangers and answering questions. It’s too much too fast for his brain to take in, and the attention that accompanies his surfing fame makes for an uncomfortable experience.
“It’s got to be more simple,” said Marzo. “You know? Simple. Surf and eat and sleep, you know? My three top things.”
That might sound simple enough, but it’s never simple to live with Asperger’s.
For Marzo, though, it just happened to work out: He needed the water, and the sea was there to catch him.
Source:Â http://abcnews.go.com/WN/autistic-surfer-clay-marzo-masters-waves-struggles-land/story?id=10477337
 
Stephen Wiltshire … memorises skylines in 20 minutes then goes and draws them.Â
April 26, 2010
Think you’ve got a good memory? Good enough to draw a city skyline like Sydney’s after gazing at it for only a few minutes?
Acclaimed London artist Stephen Wiltshire’s is.
He’ll be in Sydney this week to show off his extraordinary talent for drawing cities in intricate detail.
The 36-year-old artist, who was diagnosed with autism when he was three, hopes to produce a poster-size pen and ink drawing of the harbour city after examining its skyline for just 20 minutes.
He’s already impressed many around the world with his large-scale intricate panoramas of New York and London.
Before drawing those two world-famous cities, he memorised the position and size of hundreds of buildings and landmarks while on 20-minute helicopter rides.
His four-metre long panorama of London on a curved canvas took five days to complete in 2007, with not one sneak peak at a photograph of the city for help.
Last October he followed up with a jaw-dropping 5.5 metre-long drawing of New York City, including the Empire State Building, which took just three days.
When he arrives in Australia, one of Stephen’s first stops will be Sydney Tower so he can gain a birdseye view of the skyline before getting down to work at Customs House on Tuesday.
Sitting in his tiny studio perched in a loft above his gallery on London’s famous Pall Mall, the quietly spoken artist is excited about his first visit to Australia.
“I have never been there before,” Stephen told AAP. “I wanted to go because it’s a nice, beautiful city. It’s going to be amazing.”
Stephen has been invited to Sydney by Autism Spectrum Australia (Aspect) to mark autism month.
His arrival was delayed by more than a week because of the recent disruption to air travel in Europe following the Icelandic volcano eruption.
While he won’t decide on what exactly will be in his Sydney drawing until the last minute, he admits remembering all the detail of a city’s skyline is difficult even though he makes it look relatively easy.
“I find it hard work to put in lots of information in just a few days,” he said.
“Sometimes it’s hard to remember because there’s lots of detail.
“My favourite is New York. They have the big avenues and lots of yellow taxi cabs. The traffic is chaotic and it’s full of people.”
Stephen’s amazing talent for drawing was discovered when he was just five years old and sketching London’s double decker buses.
His family and teachers soon discovered that his art work was one of the key ways he could communicate.
By age nine he had moved on to St Paul’s Cathedral, the Houses of Parliament and Tower Bridge.
His works were so good that Sir Hugh Casson of the Royal Academy described him as “the best child artist in Britain”.
Then as a teenager his attention switched to American cars such as Cadillacs and Buicks before enrolling as a fine arts student at City & Guilds.
In 2006, he was awarded an MBE for services to art by Prince Charles.
Aspect’s education and research executive director, Dr Trevor Clark, hopes Stephen’s talents will help raise awareness of the one in 160 Australian children with autism.
“Stephen’s talent is rare, but he highlights how important it is for potential to be realised and developed from an early age and how this can help with developing independence and self expression,” he said.
AAP
A new study suggests common antidepressants help the cardiovascular system.
Researchers at Loyola University Medical Center say selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors (SSRIs) provide benefits by affecting the way platelets, small cells in the blood involved in clotting, clump together.
In a study of 50 adults, the researchers found that platelets were slower to clump together, or aggregate, in participants who were taking an SSRI to treat depression.
As depression is associated with an increased risk of cardiovascular disease, this finding could indicate a beneficial side effect for people who take SSRIs to treat depression, said Evangelos Litinas, MD, research associate in the Center’s pathology department.
Read in Full:Â http://psychcentral.com/news/2010/04/27/side-effects-of-depression-meds-improve-heart-health/13206.html
Why More Intelligent Men (But Not Women) Value Sexual Exclusivity
Throughout evolutionary history, humans were mildly polygynous. A species-typical degree of polygyny correlates with the extent of sexual dimorphism in size (the extent to which the male is larger than the female). The more sexually dimorphic the species, the more polygynous it is. This is either because males of polygynous species become larger in order to compete with other males and monopolize females, or because females of polygynous species become smaller in order to mature early and start mating.
I personally believe it’s the latter; I believe men and women could potentially be the same size except for the fact all human societies are invariably polygynous to various degrees. In fact, women’s (but not men’s) average height in society is partly determined by its degree of polygyny. The more polygynous the society, the shorter women are on average, while men’s average height is unaffected.
Read in Full:Â http://www.psychologytoday.com/blog/the-scientific-fundamentalist/201004/why-more-intelligent-men-not-women-value-sexual-exclusivit
A marriage made in hormones:
The New York Times has a fantastic article on how the way married couples relate to each other can have a major impact on health, although there are many intriguing interpersonal subtleties that go beyond simply being in a ‘good’ or ‘bad’ relationship.
The piece reviews the extensive evidence on how stress impacts on the immune system and discusses how, in general, marriage has a host of health benefits. However, relationship conflict can have some dramatic negative effects on well-being. In one eye-opening study just getting couples to discuss a marital disagreement slowed minor wound healing down by up to a day.
One of the most interesting bits of the article tackles the link between risk for heart disease and arguing style, noting that even in happy couples, specific ways of resolving disputes had an impact on health – although interestingly different styles had a different effect on men and women.
The women in his study who were at highest risk for signs of heart disease were those whose marital battles lacked any signs of warmth, not even a stray term of endearment during a hostile discussion (“Honey, you’re driving me crazy!â€) or a minor pat on the back or squeeze of the hand, all of which can signal affection in the midst of anger. “Most of the literature assumes that it’s how bad the arguments get that drives the effect, but it’s actually the lack of affection that does it,†Smith told me. “It wasn’t how much nasty talk there was. It was the lack of warmth that predicted risk.”
For men, on the other hand, hostile and negative marital battles seemed to have no effect on heart risk. Men were at risk for a higher coronary calcium score, however, when their marital spats turned into battles for control. It didn’t matter whether it was the husband or wife who was trying to gain control of the matter; it was merely any appearance of controlling language that put men on the path of heart disease.
In both cases, the emotional tone of a marital fight turned out to be just as predictive of poor heart health as whether the individual smoked or had high cholesterol. It is worth noting that the couples in Smith’s study were all relatively happy. These were husbands and wives who loved each other. Yet many of them had developed styles of conflict that took a physical toll on each other. The solution, Smith noted, isn’t to stop fighting. It’s to fight more thoughtfully.
A thoroughly fascinating article.
Link to NYT piece ‘Is Marriage Good for Your Health?’.
Source:Â http://www.mindhacks.com/blog/2010/04/a_marriage_made_in_h.html
A Declining Relationship? Recharge It Through “Indifference”
For Alcohol-Dependent Women With Supportive Spouses, Couples Therapy Can Be The Best Choice
Article Date: 22 Apr 2010 – 0:00 PDT
Barbara McCrady and Elizabeth Epstein wanted to know whether cognitive behavior therapy worked better for alcohol-dependent women when delivered as couples therapy than when delivered as individual therapy. They reported recently that both treatment methods worked well, but women treated in couples therapy maintained their gains a bit better than those in individual therapy. Also, women suffering from depression in addition to alcohol-dependence did better in couples therapy. Their paper appeared recently in the Journal of Consulting and Clinical Psychology.
Epstein is an associate research professor at the Center of Alcohol Studies. McCrady, formerly a professor of psychology at Rutgers, now directs the University of New Mexico’s Center on Alcoholism, Substance Abuse and Addictions.
Alcohol use disorders hit women particularly hard, physically and psychologically. Epstein and McCrady cite earlier studies’ findings that between 4 and 8 percent of women under age 44 are alcohol-dependent, that as many as 65 percent of alcohol-dependent women have some additional psychiatric disorder, and that women are less likely to seek treatment for alcoholism than men. Alcohol-dependent women have high rates of distressed marriages and not much support from members of their social networks when they try to break that dependence. Until recently, there has not been much research on unique treatments for alcohol use disorders in women.
Read in Full:Â http://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/186204.php
Borchert’s earlier screenplay was the basis of the acclaimed movie My Name is Bill W. which starred James Woods, James Garner, and JoBeth Williams. The premiere of the movie also falls during the National Council on Alcoholism and Drug Dependence, Inc.’s (NCADD) 24th Annual Alcohol Awareness Month with its theme, “When Love Is Not Enough: Helping Families Coping With Alcoholism.”
Lois Wilson fell in love with a man whose alcoholism brought his life and their relationship to the brink before he began his personal recovery and helped found Alcoholics Anonymous. Lois and many of the other wives of early AA members also began to band together for mutual support, formalizing these meetings into Al-Anon Family Groups in 1951.
When Love is Not Enough is the story of Lois Wilson and her life with Bill Wilson. The reach of her and their stories is unfathomable and inseparable from the larger stories of AA and Al-Anon and the influence their lives would exert on the larger story of the professional treatment and recovery of individuals and families affected by addiction to alcohol and other drugs. As William Borchert suggests:
“In the end, Bill Wilson’s alcoholism proved not to be the tragic undoing of this brilliant and loving couple, but rather the beginning of two of the twentieth century’s most important social and spiritual movements- Alcoholics Anonymous and Al-Anon Family Groups.”
There are presently more than 114,500 Alcoholics Anonymous groups (with a combined membership of more than 2 million) and more than 25,000 Al-Anon/Alateen groups (with a combined membership estimated at more than 340,000) hosting local meetings worldwide.
When Love is Not Enough is clearly more than a love story, though it is surely that. Readers of Psych Central and the people they serve will discover in this movie six profound lessons about the impact of alcoholism and alcoholism recovery on intimate relationships and the family.
1. Prolonged cultural misunderstandings about the nature of alcoholism have left a legacy of family shame and secrecy. Centuries of debates between those advocating religious, moral, criminal, psychiatric, psychological, medical and sociological theories of alcoholism failed to offer clear guidance to individuals and families affected by alcoholism. When Love is Not Enough is in part a poignant history of the hidden desperation many families experienced before the birth of Alcoholics Anonymous, Al-Anon, and modern alcoholism treatment. Lois Wilson and Anne Bingham helped change that history in 1951 when they organized 87 groups of wives of AA members into the Al-Anon Family Groups.
2. Alcoholism is a family disease in the sense that it also wounds those closest to the alcohol dependent person; transforms family relationships, roles, rules, and rituals; and isolates the family from potential sources of extended family, social, and community support. And, it has far reaching, long-lasting effects on the physical and emotional health of the family and children. When Love is Not Enough conveys the physical and emotional distress of those struggling to understand a loved one who has lost control of drinking and its consequences.
It vividly portrays the disappointment, confusion, frustration, anger, resentment, jealousy, fear, guilt, shame, anxiety and depression family members experience in the face of alcoholism. The recognition that significant others and their children become as sick as the person addicted and are in need of a parallel pathway of recovery were the seeds from which Al-Anon and Alateen grew.
3. The family experience of alcoholism is often one of extreme duality. When Love is Not Enough poignantly conveys this duality: brief hope-inspiring interludes of abstinence or moderated drinking, periods of peacefulness, moments of love and shared dreams for the future — all relentlessly violated by explosive bouts of drinking and their devastating aftereffects. Memories of that lost person and those moments and dreams co-exist even in the face of the worst effects of alcoholism on the family.
It is only in recognizing this duality of experience and the character duality of the alcoholic that one can answer the enigmatic question that is so often posed about Lois Wilson’s contemporary counterparts, “Why does she/he stay with him/her?†As clinicians, we can too often forget that these family stories contain much more than the pathology of alcohol or drug dependence (White, 2006).
4. Family recovery from alcoholism is a turbulent, threatening and life-changing experience. The hope of all families and children wounded by alcoholism is that the drinking will stop and with it, the arrival of an idyllic family life. Lois Wilson’s story confirms what research on family recovery from addiction is revealing: recovery from alcoholism can destabilize intimate and family relationships. Stephanie Brown and Virginia Lewis (1999), in their studies of the impact of alcoholism recovery on the family, speak of this as the “trauma of recovery.”
People recovering from alcoholism, their families, and their children can and often do achieve optimum levels of health and functioning, but this achievement is best measured in years rather than days, weeks, or months. That recognition in the life of Lois Wilson underscored the need for sustained support for families as they went through this process.
5. We cannot change another person, only ourselves. If there is a central, singular message from Lois Wilson’s life and from the Al-Anon Family Groups program, this may well be it. Al-Anon’s defining moments came when family members stopped focusing on how they could change and control their addicted family member and focused instead on their own need for regeneration and spiritual growth, the overall health of their families and the comfort and help they could offer each other and other families similarly affected.
Their further discovery that AA’s twelve step program of recovery could also guide the healing of family members marks the birth of the modern conceptualization of family recovery. The 2009 Al-Anon Membership Survey confirms the wide and enduring benefits members report experiencing as a result of their sustained involvement in Al-Anon—irrespective of the drinking status of their family members.
6. The wonder of family recovery. As a direct result of Lois’s groundbreaking work in co-founding Al-Anon and the impact it has had on the field of alcohol and drug treatment, family recovery from alcoholism is a reality for millions of Americans today, and the hope, help, and healing of family recovery has become the most powerful way to break the intergenerational cycle of alcoholism and addiction in the family.
The growing interest in the lives of Bill and Lois Wilson — as indicated by a stream of memoirs, biographies, plays, and films — is testimony to the contributions that Alcoholics Anonymous and Al-Anon Family Groups have made to personal and family recovery from alcoholism and to the ever-widening adaptation of the Twelve Steps to other problems of living (Wilson, 1994).
Psych Central readers will find much of value in “When Love Is Not Enough — The Lois Wilson Story,†including the power of Al-Anon as a tool of support for clients living with someone else’s alcoholism. A DVD of the movie and a Viewer’s Guide, for use as a tool in family and community education, will be available at www.hallmarkhalloffame.com on April 25th, the day of the movie’s premiere.
References
Al-Anon membership survey. (Fall, 2009). Virginia Beach, VA: Al-Anon Family Headquarters, Inc.
Borchert, W.G. (2005). The Lois Wilson story: When love is not enough. Center City, MN: Hazelden.
Brown, S., & Lewis, V. (1999). The alcoholic family in recovery: A developmental model. New York & London: Guilford Press.
White, W. (2006). [Review of the book The Lois Wilson Story: When Love is Not Enough, by W. G. Borchert]. Alcoholism Treatment Quarterly, 24(4), 159-162.
Wilson, L. (1979). Lois remembers: Memoir of the co-founder of Al-Anon and wife of the co-founder of Alcoholics Anonymous. New York: Al-Anon Family Group Headquarters, Inc.
Additional Resources
Al-Anon Family Group Headquarters, 800-4AL-ANON (888-425-2666), Monday-Friday, 8 a.m. to 6 p.m., ET.
National Council on Alcoholism and Drug Dependence (NCADD).
Source:Â http://psychcentral.com/blog/archives/2010/04/22/alcoholism-family-and-the-limits-of-love/
Therapy Can Help Even Very Distressed Married Couples, Largest Study Finds
ScienceDaily (Apr. 20, 2010) — The largest, most comprehensive clinical trial of couple therapy ever conducted has found that therapy can help even very distressed married couples if both partners want to improve their marriage. The study also involved the longest and most comprehensive follow-up assessment of couple therapy ever conducted.
“It takes only one person to end a marriage but two people to make it work,” said Andrew Christensen, a UCLA professor of psychology and lead author of the study, which appears in the April issue of the Journal of Consulting and Clinical Psychology, a publication of the American Psychological Association.
The study included 134 married couples, 71 in Los Angeles and 63 in Seattle. Most were in their 30s and 40s, and slightly more than half had children. The couples were “chronically, seriously distressed” and fought frequently, but they were hoping to improve their marriages.
“We didn’t want couples who would get better on their own,” Christensen said. “We wanted couples who were consistently unhappy. We excluded almost 100 couples who wanted couple therapy but who did not meet our criteria of consistent and serious distress.”
The couples received up to 26 therapy sessions within a year. Psychologists conducted follow-up sessions approximately every six months for five years after therapy ended.
Read More:Â http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2010/04/100419151119.htm
Serial Adultery: Is It Chance or Character?
In the comments to my previous posts on adultery, one recurring theme dealt with “serial” adulterers, people whose behavior shows a pattern of repeated cheating. This can involve repeated affairs within one committed relationship, or leaving one relationship for a lover, then leaving that person for another, and so on.
This is a great topic, if only because it allows me to tie together several of the things I’ve discussed before on this blog: adultery, strength, Kant, and procrastination. Wait—huh? OK, I admit, that last one is a bit of a stretch—but I mention it because the way I will look at serial adultery is very similar to how I look at chronic (or serial) procrastination in my chapter in The Thief of Time
The basic idea is that to Kant, lapses in character—whether in terms of putting a task off against your better judgment, engaging in extramarital activity, or any other failure to live up to the standards you set or accept for yourself—can be based on two factors. The first is affect, which Kant defines as a sudden impulse or craving which, while potentially very strong and seemingly overwhelming, is nonetheless momentary and fleeting. Understood this way, affect can overwhelm our rational decision-making and “make” us do things we know we shouldn’t. (I put “make” in quotes because we still have the choice to resist, but that resistance is more difficult under affect.)
Everyone experiences affect, and everyone succumbs to it at times, depending on his or her strength of will. To Kant, this does not signal or imply any viciousness of character, but “only a lack of virtue…
which indeed can coexist with the best will” (Kant, Metaphysics of Morals
But lapses can also be due to passion, which Kant defines as a persistent, steady desire that corrupts our rationality and influences our decision-making at a deeper level. Recall that for Kant, human beings have the ability (and responsibility) to be autonomous in their choices, resisting all external and internal influences until they have been considered and endorsed by their reason. Both affect and passion represent heteronomy (a failure of autonomy), but while affect simply overwhelms a person’s reason once in a while, passion actually worms its way into the process of decision-making itself. In Kant’s words, affect “produces a momentary loss of freedom and self-control,” while passion “surrenders both” (Anthropology
Given the corrupting nature of passion, then, it has a greater and more lasting effect on one’s strength of character. Giving in to affect, the occasional craving or impulse, can leave your overall strength fairly constant, but giving in to passion corrodes your strength by weakening your resolve to resist it—it’s working from the inside, so to speak, like a secret agent infiltrating a top government committee. So succumbing to passion not only results in a bad act then, but also makes it more likely that you will succumb to that passion—or another passion, or affect—in the future, because it lessens your strength of will. (Also, it implies some viciousness of character, since your very judgment is compromised.)
Looking For Smiles: How Stories Shape Relationships
As I think back on this ritual of ours, I focus on three things. First, it’s something we did together. Second, we kept at it. And third, we found a new way to see the problem. What started out as frustration ended up as a journey. Together we were looking for smiles.
Stories Couples Tell
When couples first come to my office, both people are frustrated, and there is often a lot that isn’t working. Each person has a story about his or her partner, which goes something like this: “He doesn’t care.†“I don’t matter.†“She doesn’t need me.†“Nothing I do is right.”
They also have stories about their relationship: “We’re too different from each other.†“All we do is argue.†“We can’t agree on anything.”
Read More:Â http://www.mentalhelp.net/poc/view_doc.php?type=doc&id=36612&cn=289
Does Marriage Help Your Health and Happiness?
The two scientists were fascinated by each other’s work, which they often discussed over meals or while jogging together. Glaser suggested that they collaborate professionally, but finding common ground was a challenge: he studied virology and immunology; she was a clinical psychologist who focused on assertiveness and other behavior. In the early 1980s, however, Kiecolt-Glaser came across a book on the emerging field of psychoneuroimmunology, which concerns the interplay between behavior, the immune and endocrine systems and the brain and nervous system. The couple were intrigued by a science that lay at the intersection of their disciplines. […]
In their first research collaboration, they sought to measure the effect of psychological stress on the immune system. Although earlier studies had established that trauma and other major stress — like the death of a loved one or prolonged sleep deprivation — weakened the immune system, the Glasers wanted to know if lesser forms of stress, like those associated with the workplace or graduate school, had a similar effect.
Who would’ve thought that two scientists in unrelated fields would find a way to work together like that? It’s exactly those kinds of pairings that can result in startling new insights into a field where the common wisdom may be entrenched. Borrowing from other fields can allow us to look at old problems with new eyes.
Getting back to the question — does marriage help your health and happiness? Sure, as long as it’s a good marriage. Unhealthy marriages don’t help an individual’s health, and in fact may hurt it. Research has shown that people in unhealthy marriages might as well not be married at all — they are more susceptible to illness than happier couples, for instance.
Read in Full:Â http://psychcentral.com/blog/archives/2010/04/17/does-marriage-help-your-health-and-happiness/
When Choosing Romantic Partners, Quantity May Determine Quality
The context in which humans meet potential mates has a hidden influence on who they decide to pursue. In particular, when people have a large number of potential dating partners to select among, they respond by paying attention to different types of characteristics – discarding attributes such as education, smoking status, and occupation in favor of physical characteristics such as height and weight.
A number of studies in recent years have looked at what happens to humans when faced with extensive choice – too many kinds of chocolate, or too many detergents to choose from at the grocery store. Under such circumstances, consumer psychologists believe that the brain may become “overwhelmed,” potentially leading to poorer quality choice or choice deferral. Psychological scientist Alison Lenton, of the University of Edinburgh, and economist Marco Francesconi, of the University of Essex, wanted to know if the same was true of mate choice, given that humans have been practicing this particular choice for millennia. “Is having too many mate options really like having too many jams?” they ask. The study is published in Psychological Science, a journal of the Association for Psychological Science.
To find out how people respond to relatively limited versus extensive mate choice, Lenton and Francesconi analyzed data from 84 speed dating events, which is where people meet with a series of potential dates for three minutes each. Afterward, the men and women report their choices (a “yes” or “no” for each person). It should surprise no one that choosers generally preferred people who were taller, younger, and well-educated. Women also preferred partners who weren’t too skinny, and men preferred women who weren’t overweight. Beyond that, though, the attributes that speed daters paid attention to depended on how many opposite-sex speed daters attended the event.
Read in Full:Â http://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/185725.php
More Dating Choices = More Shallow Decisions
Nowhere is this more true than in the world of dating, where previous research has demonstrated the downsides of too many online dating choices. That’s why online dating websites like Match.com work hard to try and limit your choices (although they don’t always do a good job at it). And that’s why eHarmony makes a big deal about using personality characteristics to match you at a “deeper level†(there’s no research to back eHarmony’s claims — it’s just marketing).
Today, we add yet another study to the pile of research demonstrating the downfalls of too much choice.
Read More:Â http://psychcentral.com/blog/archives/2010/04/16/more-dating-choices-more-shallow-decisions/
For most people here comes that time in life when it is necessary to face surgery. The need for surgery may vary according to the seriousness of the diagnosis. A more serious diagnosis brings with it a more severe emotional reaction. For example, is common for people facing heart surgery, to feel extremely anxious and depressed about the outcome. The same is true for an individual who is facing surgery for the removal of a cancerous tumor. This is where mind and body very much come together. Medical procedures are not separate and apart from issues of mental and emotional health. We know that people with diabetes often feel depressed.
Very recently, I faced the need for surgery on my left shoulder, because I suffered a rotator cuff injury. While the diagnosis was not a serious, as one that is life-threatening, I nevertheless experienced a lot of anxiety leading up to the operation.
What were the reasons for my anxiety? I knew that this was not a life endangering procedure. I had full confidence in my surgeon. I saw my MRI pictures and clearly viewed the injury. I also had a lot of pain and reduction in motion of my left arm and shoulder as a result of the injury. Therefore, I was very confident in the fact that I needed arthroscopic surgery for this problem.
I let my feelings be known to my family and closest friends. Working in mental health all of these years. I knew it would be better for me to talk about my feelings rather than suppress them. Each time I brought this up with my wife, adult children, and very good friends, I was left with a feeling of dissatisfaction with their sincere responses. These are people I know and trust. All of them assured me that I would get through the surgery and be fine. So why was I bothered by this response?
I came to realize that it wasn’t worried about getting through the surgery, and I wasn’t worried about whether or not the procedure would be successful. Instead, I came to understand that it was the anticipation of the pain after surgery was all for that I was distraught about. This was especially true because I was told that I would need 6 to 8 weeks of physical therapy in order to regain full functioning in my arm.
A lot of this became clearer to me after the surgery was over, and I met with my physical therapist. Things crystallized in my head when I asked him if it would hurt? Is immediate answer was direct and to the point, yes. It was going to hurt. Rather than feel alarmed or upset by his answer I actually felt relieved. I did not like either from him that I would be okay. Instead, I wanted the honest answer that he provided me with.
What you can learn from my experience:
1. If you need surgery your doctor with great care. It is important that you have full confidence in him or hire.
2. Learn all you can about your illness. Knowledge is power, and the more you know ahead of time, the more in control, you will feel.
3. Ask your doctor lots of questions about what to expect prior to, during and after the surgery.
4. Be open and honest about your feelings. At the very same time, do not expect too much of other people. Loving and caring people will do the best they can to understand you and help you. However, there was just so much they can do.
5. Accept the fact that anxiety about surgery is normal. If you believe that you are getting panicky about surgery consult a psychologist to help you reduce either anxious or depressed symptoms.
6. It is also a very common for people to experience depression and anxiety after surgery is over. If you stop and think about it that is not surprising. Surgery is an intrusion into a person’s body. The very process of surgery requires that an individual passively submit to the procedure. That temporary need for passivity is what causes depression. No one likes to feel helpless. In addition, remember that surgical procedures are traumatizing in nature. Trauma brings about all kinds of stress and emotional reactions.
7. If necessary, seek psychotherapy is feelings of anxiety and depression processed long weeks after recovery.
What are your experiences with surgery? How have you responded to loved ones and friends when they have faced surgery?
Source:Â http://www.mentalhelp.net/poc/view_doc.php?type=doc&id=36643&cn=5
 
Article Date: 23 Apr 2010 – 1:00 PDT
In the season of ducklings, blooming dogwoods and open-toed sandals, some people are struck with a mysterious malady – spring fever.
Purported symptoms include daydreaming, falling in love and having the irrepressible urge to stay outside all day. There is no cure, though some treat the disease by canceling appointments and lying in the grass beneath the drifting clouds.
Elvis caught it. So did the poet Alfred, Lord Tennyson and Mark Twain’s character Huckleberry Finn.
“It’s spring fever,” Finn exclaims in Tom Sawyer, Detective. “And when you’ve got it, you want – oh, you don’t quite know what it is you do want, but it just fairly makes your heart ache, you want it so!”
But is spring fever a real phenomenon?
“It depends on what you mean by ‘real,'” said Dr. Jon Abramowitz, professor and associate chair of psychology at the University of North Carolina. It’s not an official medical condition, he said.
“When the weather turns warm, people are definitely tired of being cooped up, and they get excited about the warm weather and getting to do stuff outside,” he said.
That excitement may trigger the brain to secrete endorphins, pain-relieving chemicals that suffuse a person with feelings of well-being. Endorphins chemically resemble morphine, the narcotic derived from poppies.
Spring activities, such as flying a kite or taking a leisurely bike ride, may also play a role because exercising can improve mood.
“Exercise is just as good as antidepressants for depression,” Abramowitz said.
Frisky feelings could also result from getting more sunlight, said Dr. Thomas Koonce, associate medical director at the UNC Family Medicine Center.
“It may be that spring fever is actually a resolution of the blues we get during the winter,” he said.
Variations in day length are associated with changes in levels of melatonin, a neurotransmitter involved in the regulation of sleep. Melatonin also plays a role in depression.
“We know from studies of big populations of people that the incidence of depression goes up in the fall and winter,” Koonce said. “And we think that that’s affected mostly by decreased sunlight hours.”
Koonce said that winter depression, sometimes diagnosed as seasonal affective disorder, is most likely to affect young women and people who have moved from sunny climates to darker, cloudier regions.
But what about spring fever’s link to love? After all, Tennyson said that it is in the spring that “a young man’s fancy lightly turns to thoughts of love.”
Koonce said there is little evidence that spring turns people to romance.
But he said that as warm weather returns, “People feel better. They have more energy. That would make them prone to a relationship.”
Several studies have found seasonal variation in sperm counts, with the lowest sperm concentrations occurring during the hot summer months.
Other research suggests that in the United States, there is a small peak in births in February and March, indicating conception the previous spring. But more babies are born in August and September, and they would have been conceived in the darkness of winter.
Spring Health Tips
Warm weather is a great incentive to exercise outdoors, Koonce said. “Twenty to forty minutes of exercise most days of the week is a terrific baseline,” he said.
But as you spend more time outside, make sure to stay well-hydrated. To reduce your exposure to pollen, which can affect people with allergies and asthma, exercise in the early morning. “Plants open up and flower as the sun comes up,” Koonce said.
Resume outdoor exercise gradually to avoid injury.
Take steps to avoid too much sun, which can lead to skin cancer. To reduce your risk, try wearing protective clothing and staying indoors during the brightest part of the day. “We must be very careful to protect ourselves from harmful sun exposure,” Koonce said.
Source
University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill School of Medicine