April 18, 2011|By Karen Weintraub, Globe Correspondent
Q. How is your latest book about having Asperger’s syndrome different from your first, “Look Me in the Eye’’?
A. I resolved to write a book that answered the people who asked for more insight. I felt that by elucidating how [my autistic traits] affect me, it would allow people insight into other people in their lives, and might thereby offer them an opportunity to find their own path out of disability.
Q. You emphasize that Asperger’s slows down development, but that people with it can catch up eventually.
A. Life stank for me when I was little and I see how much better it’s gotten with understanding and wisdom and practice and age. I want to show young people today that life does get better. I want them to be able to see examples of people like me.
Q. But not everyone will be as successful as you’ve been in turning what some see as a disability into a career as a best-selling author, public speaker, and car restorer.
A. It’s certainly true that not everyone will emerge in the way that I have, but it’s generally true that the vast majority of people with any kind of autistic disorder improve with age. Autism is a condition where we’ll always be autistic, we will not always be disabled.
Q. You seem to bristle at the talk of finding a cure to autism.
A. When you talk about a cure for something that is really the way you are and the way you were born, it’s sort of like telling your kid what a piece of trash your ex-husband is. The kid knows the ex-husband is half him, therefore anything bad about the ex-husband is him. If you say how evil or ugly the autism is, well that’s you. And so, I suggest that talk about autism as disease and talk about autism as cure has a powerfully corrosive effect on people who are touched by it.
Q. You offer a lot of tips in your book on how to fit in socially.
A. I think we need to learn how to behave in society such that society will accept us, and that will tremendously improve our quality of life.
It’s very important that we learn to behave in ways that society will accept while still remaining true to ourselves.
Read in Full: http://articles.boston.com/2011-04-18/lifestyle/29444348_1_autistic-traits-autism-car-restorer
MONTREAL – Grade 11 student Shaun Perrier usually keeps to himself at school. But on Tuesday he stood onstage facing 400 students in the auditorium at Laval Liberty High School because he had a message he wanted to share.
Poised and reading from a speech he wrote, Perrier talked about the challenges he faces and the obstacles he has had to overcome.
“I may not look it, but I’m very different from the rest of you,” Perrier said.
It’s because, he told them, he has Asperger’s syndrome, a developmental disorder.
Perrier, 17, is an honour roll student at the Chomedey school. He came up with the idea of talking to students, many of them classmates, about what it is like growing up with the autism spectrum disorder.
“Social rules are difficult for us to understand, and it’s hard for us to conform to the world around us,” said Perrier, 17. “It is kind of like when you learn algebra for the first time – you don’t understand its purpose or how to do it on your own.
“School can be gruelling for someone like me. Part of Asperger’s means you like things to be routine, structured and working smoothly. School is none of that.”
When he first came to the school, Perrier said he would have preferred if everyone were quiet, sitting down and doing their work instead of having to listen to students bad-mouth the teacher and throw a beach ball across the room.
“True story,” he said.
His mother, Debra Burger, and Leslie Klein, a psychologist who has worked with Perrier, later joined him onstage to answer questions.
Her son wants to raise awareness, Burger said afterward. He wants people to know that there are people with autism and Asperger’s in the community and mainstream schools who are able to succeed if they have a bit of help, she said.
“He wants to be understood, and he wants people to know why he is the way he is.”
Bullying has been part of Perrier’s school experience. When he was in junior high, for example, he had bathroom doors kicked in on him, Burger said.
But she praised staff at Laval Liberty and Laval Junior High School – they share the same building – for acting swiftly when something happened.
http://www.montrealgazette.com/health/School+gruelling+someone+like/4605245/story.html
Fri, Apr 15, 2011
Teenager Jessie overcomes disabilities to run business
But when you consider that Jessie Carter-Kay, from West Bridgford, also has a range of learning disabilities, including autism and dyspraxia, it’s even more remarkable.
“Jessie has demonstrated that having a learning disability is not a barrier to success,” said her father, Peter Kay, who has nominated Jessie for an Outstanding Achievement Award for 4Uth.
“Even though she has a lot of support because of her difficulties, Jessie has achieved a lot for her age.”
Jessie and her mother, Jill, set up the Pulp Friction Smoothie Bar project in 2008.
They travel to community events on a bike with a pedal-powered blender on the back and create smoothies.
They started with one bike, but the business has now expanded to seven bikes and has seen them travel around the country.
Mr Kay said it is also an opportunity to offer other people with learning disabilities vital work experience.
“It has really taken off – people like the idea and like what we do – and it’s now at the stage where Jessie will be director of her own successful community interest company,” he said.
Jessie, who attended Foxwood School in Bramcote, said: “I like that the smoothie bar gives me more independence. I like cleaning and making everything tidy.”
The family is now setting up an allotment in Stapleford, where young people with learning disabilities can gain work experience growing fruit to use on the smoothie bikes.
Jessie has also been involved in a number of community projects and has worked with Broxtowe Borough council and the UK Youth Council, including helping to create a DVD about personal safety for young disabled people. She also spoke at a conference at Nottingham Trent University on education and disability.
As a nominee for the first ever Notts 4Uth Awards, run by the Nottingham Post and Notts County Council, Jessie is now in with a chance of winning £250 of vouchers of her choice.
The awards, which will culminate in a ceremony at County Hall on September 30, celebrate teenagers and young people in the county who have made outstanding achievements.
Jessie said: “I am really happy. It is nice to be nominated and I am very excited.”
Source:
Mad, Bad and Sad: A Historical Romance
Lisa Appignanesi’s book Mad, Bad and Sad: A History of Women and the Mind Doctors from 1800 to the Present is a romantic tour through the last 200 years of psychiatry and the feminine, although probably not in the sense you’re thinking of.
The romantic movement was a literary and artistic phenomena that emerged in the 1800s as a backlash to the rationalism of the enlightenment. They railed against science as a dehumanising force, although this view was not its most lasting legacy.
Perhaps the biggest impact of the romantic movement was to seed the idea that the scientific and the humane were contradictory and incompatible, suggesting that it is not possible to be both scientific and compassionate, rational and poetic, or objective and understanding at the same time.
These are the two cultures, of which C. P. Snow famously spoke, and applied to the mind the romantic view suggests that an interpretative psychology touches the very core of our humanity, whereas the empirical barely scratches the surface.
It’s a false dichotomy because we are neither the facts of biology nor the feelings of the mind. We are at all times, both. Each is just a shadow of the whole that, paradoxically, has no single identity.
Read in Full: http://mindhacks.com/2009/04/17/mad-bad-and-sad-a-historical-romance/
ScienceDaily (Apr. 10, 2011) — Being low mouse on the totem pole is tough on murine self-esteem. It turns out it has measurable effects on brain chemistry, too, according to recent experiments at Rockefeller University. Researchers found that mice that were bullied persistently by dominant males grew unusually nervous around new company, and that the change in behavior was accompanied by heightened sensitivity to vasopressin, a hormone involved in a variety of social behaviors. The findings suggest how bullying could contribute to long-term social anxiety at the molecular level.
“We found that chronic social stress affects neuroendocrine systems that are paramount for adaptive mammalian social behaviors such as courtship, pair-bonding and parental behaviors,” says Yoav Litvin, M. S. Stoffel Postdoctoral Fellow in Mind, Brain and Behavior. “Changes in components of these systems have been implicated in human disorders, such as social phobias, depression, schizophrenia and autism.”
Read in Full: http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2011/04/110407202536.htm
Dr Chris Steele explains the dangers of hypertension
Mon 11 Apr, 2011 10:00 am BST
Everyone knows high blood pressure is bad for you, but most of us are pretty ignorant of its symptoms and consequences. So what is it, and why should you be aware of it?
High blood pressure or hypertension is a condition in which the body’s blood pressure is above the normal range. Having high blood pressure is one of the main risk factors for both heart disease and stroke, the two leading causes of death in the UK.
Your blood pressure is the amount of force on the walls of your arteries which occurs when blood flows through them. If this is too high, your heart has to work harder to send blood around the body.
How do I know if I have high blood pressure?
Most people with high blood pressure don’t have symptoms. The only way to know if you have high blood pressure is to get it checked by your GP.
The medical gadget used to measure blood pressure is called a sphygmomanometer (pronounced sfig-mo-man-meet-er) or BP machine!
When your doctor checks your blood pressure, they will give you two figures e.g. 135/80.
The first or top figure (135) is called the systolic pressure. This is the pressure in your arteries when your heart contracts.
The second or bottom figure (80) is called the diastolic pressure. This is the pressure in your arteries when your heart relaxes between beats.
Medical experts now agree that systolic readings in or above the range 140-159, and diastolic readings in the range 90-99 need to be treated. For example, a BP reading of 170/100 would need to be treated with medication, whereas a reading of 135/80 is fine.
Health problems linked to high blood pressure
High blood pressure increases your risk of life threatening conditions such as:
- *Stroke
- *Heart attack
- *Heart disease
- *Kidney disease
Who should have their blood pressure checked?
High blood pressure is common. Around 40 per cent of adults and 50 per cent of people over the age of 65 have high blood pressure.
About 90 per cent of people with high blood pressure have no obvious cause for it – officially known as Essential Hypertension. Although the actual cause is unknown, there are known risk factors for high blood pressure, including:
- *Age
- *A family history of high blood pressure, heart disease or stroke
- *Obesity
- *Smoking
- *Excessive alcohol consumption
- *Lack of exercise
- *Diet high in fat
- *Diet high in salt
- *Stress
- *African-Caribbean or South Asian descent
Women who have had toxaemia in pregnancy may also be at an increased risk.
In the remaining 10 per cent of people, high blood pressure may be related to other medical conditions such as diabetes, kidney disease or disorders of the adrenal glands, which sit on top of the kidneys.
Many experts think that everyone over the age of 35 should have their BP checked every three to five years.
What are the symptoms?
It’s not called a silent killer for nothing. High blood pressure is usually without any symptoms until it has reached a very high level. When it does cause symptoms, the most common are:
- *Headaches – especially as pain at the back of the head, or as a tight band around the head
- *Dizziness
- *Nausea
- *Nosebleeds
- *Shortness of breath
- *Blurred or double vision
- *Palpitations – irregular heart beat
- *Drowsiness
Anyone who experiencing some of these should contact their GP immediately.
Lifestyle changes which can help lower blood pressure
If your blood pressure is slightly high your doctor will probably suggest some lifestyle changes to try to lower your blood pressure. These will include:
- *Stopping smoking
- *Reducing your alcohol consumption
- *Reducing the amount of salt and saturated fat in your diet and increasing fruit and vegetables
- *Regular exercise
- *Weight reduction if you are overweight
Reducing stress levels will also help, as may taking up some form of relaxation such as yoga, meditation or even self hypnosis. Alternative therapies such as aromatherapy may help, as can courses in stress management.
Medication
When lifestyle changes don’t help with controlling high blood pressure, treatment with drugs is necessary.
Drug treatment is not usually started until it is found that the blood pressure is consistently high over three or more measurements.
This is because many people experience’ White Coat Hypertension’, which is an increase in blood pressure, resulting from the anxiety caused by someone, such as your doctor, measuring your blood pressure!
Many people don’t feel relaxed when visiting hospitals or the GP’s surgery, and as result develop a raised blood pressure which eventually settles down as the patient becomes relaxed.
Initially a simple ‘water’ tablet or diuretic, which gets rid of excess water from the body, after being taken each morning, may be enough to bring the BP down into the normal range. When taking this type of medication, you either pass water more frequently or pass more water each time you urinate.
If a diuretic isn’t enough, extra drugs may be used, such as beta blockers, calcium channel blockers, or ACE (Angiotensin Converting Enzyme) inhibitors, Angiotensin II inhibitors, Alpha blockers and other types of hypotensives.
Side effects
Some of these drugs can cause an unfortunate side effects. In men, impotence, or to give it it’s full medical term, erectile dysfunction, can occur.
Sadly, some men with impotence don’t tell their GP that they have this problem. If they did, their GP might identify their medication as the cause and change the therapy immediately!
Other side effects of some of these medications can include dry mouth, feeling tired, cold extremities, drowsiness, nasal congestion, diarrhoea, skin rashes, anaemia and even loss of taste. These adverse effects are not common and do not occur with all hypotensives, but users should be aware of them and report them to their doctor.
Patients taking any of the ACE inhibitors could experience a dry irritating cough, which is not controlled by cough medicines, and may have to change their medication. Because ACE inhibitors can affect kidney function, patients have blood tests to specifically assess kidney health before they start treatment, within a few weeks of starting these drugs, and ideally every 3 to 12 months thereafter.
Patients taking beta blockers may experience sleep disturbances, dreams, asthma, alopecia (hair loss), dry eyes and skin rashes. Certain conditions such as gout, diabetes and raised cholesterol can be made worse by certain blood pressure drugs.
Most patients taking hypotensives experience no problems from their medication, so don’t be alarmed by this list of potential side effects. Raised blood pressure can kill, so treatments should never be stopped.
Thankfully, there are a large number of drugs for high blood pressure, so if one doesn’t suit you, your GP can easily suggest an alternative.
Source: http://uk.health.lifestyle.yahoo.net/Spotlight-on-blood-pressure.htm
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Following Boruch (Work-in-progress trailer), from Paula Eiselt.
“After battling bipolar disorder, alcoholism, and drug addiction for over thirty years, forty-seven-year-old Boruch Hoffman, a Hasidic Jew from Brooklyn, is sober and eager to live the life he never had. FOLLOWING BORUCH is a feature length documentary that follows Boruch over one year as he strives to find the job and wife he always prayed for but was never able to fulfill.†(From the web site).
Boruch Hoffman, the charismatic hero of “Following Boruch,†has been a much-loved dinner guest in our home on numerous occasions over the past several years. He possesses a “bigger-than-life†personality, a great sense of humor, and a sharp intellect, all of which have helped him on his quest for spirituality and emotional well-being. We are so delighted that he is sharing his personal story on film and a bit in awe of his unflinching courage.
One of the things that will make this film (it is currently in post-production) so unique, is that it is being made by the subject’s neice, director and producer, Paula Eiselt (along with executive producer, award-winning filmmaker, Marco Williams). Also, it gives viewers an eye into the intricate support network of the Orthodox and Hasidic Jewish communities in Brooklyn.
http://blogs.psychcentral.com/therapy-soup/2011/04/bipolar-sober-and-spiritual-new-film-hero/
April is Autism Awareness Month, and in helping to promote awareness of autism, I’m pleased to provide an excerpt from the book, Living Well on the Spectrum by author Valerie L. Gaus, Ph.D. The book is a self-help book that helps a person with an autism spectrum disorder identify life goals and the steps needed to achieve them.
One of the concerns I often hear from people with an autism spectrum disorder is about work and their career. In fact, just last evening while hosting our weekly Q&A on mental health issues here at Psych Central, the question came up whether a person should tell a potential employer about their Asperger’s (the mildest form of autism).
While I am not a lawyer, my suggestion was that it probably wasn’t relevant for many jobs and not something that I personally would share with a potential employer during the interview process (while you’re trying to put your best foot forward). But as I said last night, it all depends on the situation, the specific job and its responsibilities, and how comfortable the person is talking about these concerns with a stranger and potential boss. It’s something that I feel like can always be shared later, after the job is obtained.
Read on for the excerpt…
Work is one of the greatest sources of pride and fulfillment for adults. Making an important contribution to others and maintaining financial independence are crucial to health, happiness, and self-confidence. Yet the majority of adults on the spectrum are either unemployed or underemployed. This is one of the most devastating issues for my patients and their families.
If you are on the spectrum, you may be having difficulty finding or keeping a job, or dealing with the multiple stressors that come with work life. Many of my patients ask me if they should disclose their ASD (autism spectrum disorder) diagnosis to their employer. Depending on your diagnosis and the extent to which your ASD differences have affected your work life, you may be considered a member of the class of people protected by the Americans with Disabilities Act. Employers are required to make “reasonable accommodations†for any employee with a disability who is otherwise qualified to do the job.
This law covers all types of disabilities, but disclosure and accommodation can be a very delicate issue for people with ASDs. ASDs are not obvious, like visual or other physical disabilities. Also, the needs of employees with ASDs will vary greatly from one person to the next.
Because this is a legal issue, I advise you to consult an attorney specializing in disability law before disclosing to an employer. I always advice my patients to ask themselves the following questions and make sure they can come up with clear answers before moving forward on disclosure to any person. If you have any difficulty answering these, you may want to discuss the issue with a trusted person who knows you well.
http://psychcentral.com/blog/archives/2011/04/06/should-you-tell-your-employer-you-have-autism/
Reviewed by John M. Grohol, Psy.D. on April 12, 2011
Unbeknownst to most individuals, 90 trillion bacteria reside in the human digestive tract. The bacteria help the immune system stay on track and alert for infections.
New research suggests stress can harm the good bacteria and overstimulate the human immune system. However, the exact mechanism by which stress interferes with the bacteria has yet to be determined.
In new research, Michael Bailey, Ph.D., attempted to discover how stress changes these bacteria and if there was any sort of biological function associated with effects on these bacteria.
Bailey and colleagues used mice to learn how bacteria help to maintain a balanced immune system. In a series of experiments, researchers subjected one group of mice to stress by placing an aggressive mouse in a cage of more docile mice.
They then compared biomarkers from blood samples taken from the stressed mice to a control group.
Compared to the control mice, the stressed animals showed two marked differences: The proportion of one important type of bacteria in the gut (Bacteroides) fell by 20 to 25 percent while another type (Clostridium) increased a similar amount.
Also, levels of the two biomarkers jumped tenfold in the stressed mice, compared to controls.
http://psychcentral.com/news/2011/04/12/in-the-lab-stress-harms-gut-bacteria/25222.html
Article Date: 12 Apr 2011 – 0:00 PDT
A new study published in the current issue of Psychotherapy and Psychosomatics by a group of British investigators outlines the clinical characteristics of self-injury during treatment.
Deliberate self-injury (DSI) is significantly associated with personality disorder (PD). However, there are gaps of DSI as an indicator of severity of psychopathology, as moderator of outcome and with regard to its response to different treatment programs and settings. In this study, the investigators compare 2 samples of PD with (n = 59) and without (n = 64) DSI in terms of clinical presentation, response to psychosocial treatment and relative outcome when treated with specialist long-term residential and community-based programs. They test the assumption that DSI is an appropriate indicator for long-term inpatient care by contrasting the outcomes (symptom severity and DSI recidivism) of the 2 DSI sub-groups treated in the 2 different approaches. PD with DSI had greater severity of presentation on a number of variables (early maternal separation, sexual abuse, axis-I comorbidities, suicidality and inpatient episodes) than PD without DSI. With regard to treatment response, the investigators found a significant 3-way interaction between DSI, treatment model and outcome at 24-month follow-up. PD with DSI treated in a community-based program have significantly greater chances of improving on symptom severity and recidivism of self-injurious behaviour compared to PD with DSI treated in a long-term residential program. Although limitations in the study design invite caution in interpreting the results, the poor outcome of the inpatient DSI group suggests that explicit protocols for the management of DSI in inpatient settings may be beneficial and that the clinical indications for long-term inpatient treatment for severe and non-severe PD may require updating.
Sources: Journal of Psychotherapy and Psychosomatics, AlphaGalileo Foundation.
http://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/221994.php
NICE Consults On Draft Recommendations For The Longer-Term Management Of Self-Harm
Article Date: 12 Apr 2011 – 2:00 PDT
NICE is currently developing a clinical guideline on the longer-term care of adults, children and young people who self-harm. As part of this process, draft recommendations have been published on the NICE website today (12 April) for public consultation.
This new guideline will follow on from the NICE guideline on the short-term physical and psychological management and secondary prevention of self-harm in primary and secondary care (NICE clinical guideline 16). The new recommendations focus on the longer-term psychological treatment and management of self-harm.
Self-harm commonly involves self-poisoning with medication or self-injury by cutting. People can self-harm for numerous reasons, for example, they may self-harm in order to obtain relief from a particular emotional state or overwhelming situation.
Dr Fergus Macbeth, Director of the Centre for Clinical Practice at NICE, said: “Self-harm is when someone damages their body on purpose. It is not usually an attempt at committing suicide, but a way of expressing deep emotional feelings, such as low self-esteem. Although the physical effects of self-harm can often be treated easily, the underlying cause of the behaviour needs further attention.
“Our previous guideline on the short-term treatment of self-harm focused on the first 48 hours of an incident. This new guideline aims to help healthcare professionals support people that are known to self-harm in reducing and then stopping the behaviour.”
The draft recommendations are now available for public consultation. Anyone wishing to submit comments should visit our website for more information on the consultation process. Draft recommendations issued for consultation include:
– Working with people who self-harm: Health and social care professionals working with people who self-harm should aim to develop a trusting, supportive and engaging relationship with them and ensure that people are fully involved in decision-making about their treatment and care.
– Risk assessment: When assessing the risks of repetition of self-harm or suicide, identify and agree with the person who self-harms the specific risks for them, taking into account:
– methods and patterns of current and past self-harm
– specific risk factors and protective factors (social, psychological, pharmacological and motivational) that may increase or decrease the risks associated with self-harm
– coping strategies that the person has used to either successfully limit or avert self-harm or to contain the impact of personal, social or other antecedents
– Care plans: Care plans should be multidisciplinary and developed collaboratively with the person who self-harms and their family, carers or significant others. The care plan should identify realistic and optimistic long-term goals, including employment and occupation and identify short-term treatment goals (linked to the long-term goals) and steps to achieve them
– Interventions for self-harm: Consider offering six sessions of a psychological intervention specifically structured for people who self-harm with the aim of reducing self-harm. The intervention may have cognitive-behavioural, psychodynamic or problem-solving elements. Therapists should have significant experience of working with people who self-harm, and be able to work collaboratively with the person to identify the problems causing distress or leading to self-harm.
– Treating associated mental health conditions: Provide psychological, pharmacological and psychosocial interventions for any associated conditions as described in the relevant NICE guidelines, for example, borderline personality disorder (NICE clinical guideline 78), depression (NICE clinical guideline 90),bipolar disorder (NICE clinical guideline 38) etc.
Notes
About the guidance
1. The draft guidance will be available on the NICE website from 12 April, 2011.
2. The focus of this new guidance is the longer-term psychological treatment and management of self-harm, and does not include recommendations for the physical treatment of self-harm.
http://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/222048.php