Article Date: 13 Apr 2011 – 9:00 PDT
It is strange, and a little scary, how quickly my physical, mental, and emotional condition can change. My main physical variables are fatigue and pain, and my emotional state tends to follow them. Last weekend the pain was low but fatigue was high. I spent most of the time sleeping, even though two of my best friends were visiting from out of town and I desperately wanted to spend time with them. This fatigue was different from the chemo fatigue I have felt before. With the chemo fatigue, I felt like lying down, but I usually couldn’t sleep. With this new fatigue, I felt like lying down, but I usually did fall asleep. I didn’t feel like eating, and I lost some weight. I could feel myself getting weaker. I felt like my body was shutting down. I felt like I was close to death. And, truth be told, I was kind of looking forward to dying. I was tired of the constant struggle, tired of my life being dominated by my medical condition, and tired of feeling sick all the time. Try to imagine feeling sick every single day for a year – sometimes more, sometimes less, but always sick, never well, never waking up and feeling like getting out of bed. There is no way to know what that feels like other than experiencing it. That’s what I didn’t grasp when I was initially diagnosed. They tell you that they can keep you alive for an average, in my case, of two years, but they don’t tell you that you may feel like crap most of that time. When you understand that, it changes your thinking.
Tuesday was an interesting day. I taught my class at the university in the morning, and then my partner Grace drove us down to Seattle for two different medical appointments with very different purposes. The first appointment was at the University of Washington Medical Center, where I received a radiopharmaceutical injection intended to decrease bone pain for several months, although it often increases bone pain for a few days after the injection. Unfortunately, although I had specifically requested a drug called samarium, the UW Medical Center, in their infinite wisdom, decided to give me a different drug called strontium instead, and didn’t mention that until after the injection, when it was too late to do anything about it. Strontium and samarium have similar efficacy, but samarium is supposed to harm blood cell production less. Oh well. I felt like just another cog in the medical machine.
Read in Full: http://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/222290.php
Variety critic Leslie Felperin responded to her son’s diagnosis by watching every movie about autism she could find
Some parents go into understandable denial when confronted with the evidence that their child is on the autism spectrum, and some become consumed with a zealous need to seek a cure or ameliorate the symptoms with therapies. Given my profession, my way of dealing with our three-year-old son’s diagnosis of an autistic spectrum condition (ASC) has been to try and understand the condition as best I could through reading books and watching movies about people with autism. So for the last two years, my husband Tom and I have been working our way – frequently in tears, sometimes laughing with recognition – through as many features and documentaries about people with the condition as we could source. It seems to me from where I’m sitting (on the sofa and in the cinemas) that there are far more, and many more varied, cinematic depictions of autism than there ever were before. No doubt this has something to do with the fact that, now, the condition is much more frequently diagnosed.
We started our home autism film festival, naturally enough, with Barry Levinson’s Oscar-winner Rain Man. For many people – myself included – this was their first exposure to the notion of autism, and back in 1988 I was rather impressed with it. Now, having been a film critic for 20-odd years, and more importantly after learning so much about ASC, the film seems deeply flawed – both aesthetically (it’s more mawkish and slow-moving than I remembered) and in terms of how it treats the condition, promulgating as it does the very misleading notion that people with autism are likely to be savants with incredible memory skills, when the vast majority of them aren’t.
Even more irksome is the way the main function of the story’s autistic character, played by Dustin Hoffman, is to serve as a vehicle for delivering redemption – and, due to aptitude at card counting, a big bag of blackjack money to Tom Cruise as his shallow, car-dealer brother. Several other films have deployed autistic characters in a similar way – as quasi-holy innocents whose narrative function is to inspire those around them to be better people. There’s Nell (1994), for example, in which Jodie Foster’s autistic backwoods woman helps Liam Neeson and Natasha Richardson, playing her doctors, fall in love. Snow Cake (2006), in which Sigourney Weaver’s high-functioning autistic inspires Alan Rickman to get over grief for his dead son, is slightly less cringe-inducing than Nell, thanks largely to Weaver’s more credible, tics-and-all portrait.
But something has seemed to shift seismically in the last five years or so, and people on the spectrum can now feature as proper protagonists, with the condition no longer their only defining characteristic. In the case of Bollywood megahit My Name Is Khan (2010), Shahrukh Kahn’s title character’s Muslim faith is just as important, and as much an engine for the film’s baroque melodrama, as the fact that he has Asperger’s syndrome, a form of high-functioning autism. Adam (2009) is a far from perfect romantic drama, but at least it shows Hugh Dancy’s eponymous “aspie” hero trying to have a sexual relationship with a neurotypical woman (ie someone not on the spectrum) rather than just inspiring others to fall in love.
Of the recent crop of features about people on the spectrum, one of the strongest is biopic Temple Grandin, a made-for-HBO movie (it screened on Sky Atlantic on Sunday night) about arguably the world’s most famous person with ASC. Based extensively on her own autobiographical writings, the film follows Grandin (played as an adult by Claire Danes) through her childhood and young adult years as she learns to use her own growing understanding of her condition as a means to gain insight into how animals think, ultimately becoming a veterinary scientist. Deeply cherished in our house for its scabrous honesty is Mary and Max (2009), an animated account of a penpal friendship between a young girl in Australia and a middle-aged man with Asperger’s which doesn’t stint on showing the alienation and loneliness experienced by people with the condition.
Some of the recent documentaries made about autism are even better, not just in terms of explaining and illustrating the nature of ASC but also as examples of excellent film-making. This year, the Thessaloniki documentary festival showcased some of the very best, alongside films about Down’s syndrome and other conditions, and programmer Elena Christopoulou was kind enough to send me several DVDs from the showcase.
There are roughly two types of documentaries about autism: overviews, which tend to feature an ensemble cast whose degree of impairment spans the spectrum, and single-subject stories that follow one person or a family through a particular period.
Of the overviews, the two best I’ve ever seen are The Autism Puzzle, made in 2003 but still very relevant, and the last year’s Neurotypical. The Autism Puzzle is freely available online and skilfully blends stories about people with ASC (including director Saskia Baron’s own brother) into a history of the condition’s discovery, and interviews with experts. Neurotypical concentrates more on giving a voice to people with the condition who see autism not as a disability but as a difference to be proud of. My favourite bit features a highly articulate man with ASC who recalls crying as a child at the end of Disney’s The Jungle Book because he couldn’t bear to see Mowgli join the human village, a world he felt he’d never been accepted into.
The single-subject stories deal with a similar range of people and an even more heterogeneous range of attitudes about autism. Some depict families intent on finding ways to “recover” their children from autism with alternative therapies (Beautiful Son, by Don and Julianne King, and to an extent The Horse Boy by Michel Orion Scott), and some focus on those deeply damaged by institutionalisation (including actor Sandrine Bonnaire’s harrowing account of her own sister’s autism, Her Name is Sabine).
http://www.guardian.co.uk/film/filmblog/2011/apr/04/autism-best-film-portraits
Award-winning actor Paddy Considine talks for the first time about being diagnosed with Asperger’s – at the age of 36.
11:58PM BST 09 Apr 2011
One way or the other, Paddy Considine has been acting all his life. In recent years his talents have won him acclaim both in Britain and Hollywood but as a child, he says, it was pure survival. “I got through with my ability to mimic others and make people laugh,” he says. “I swaggered through life but, in reality, I lived in fear pretty much every day. I acted like a completely normal person, and I suppose I was good at it. But, inside, it was a very different story.”
You will recognise the actor from his roles in gritty television dramas such as Red Riding; or as New-Age mystic Graham in this year’s word-of-mouth hit Submarine; or perhaps from his collaborations with cutting-edge director Shane Meadows in Dead Man’s Shoes and A Room for Romeo Brass. Today, however, we’re talking about his sortie into more prime-time drama: his starring role in the adaptation of Kate Summerscale’s best-selling book, The Suspicions of Mr Whicher.
What starts as a discussion about the problems facing a Victorian detective, placed under enormous public pressure to solve the brutal murder of a little boy, has suddenly segued into a conversation about the difficulties the actor himself faces on a daily basis.
Roughly a year ago, aged 36, Considine was finally diagnosed with Asperger syndrome, one of a spectrum of disorders relating to difficulties with communication and social skills that includes autism at its furthest extreme.
“For a few weeks after the diagnosis, I was wandering around thinking, ‘Who the hell am I?’ But naming my problem has helped me a lot. It’s allowed me to make sense of so many things I didn’t understand before – and is allowing me to move forward with my life.”
Indeed, so good an actor is Considine that if he wasn’t telling me about his condition now, I would never guess he was a sufferer. True, sitting opposite him, the wiry Midlander can seem intense and as nervy as a racehorse. Yet at the same time he is funny, open and warm with no sign of the inability to relate to others that often comes with the condition.
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/health/8440800/Knowing-I-have-Aspergers-is-a-relief.html
Tuesday, Apr 12, 2011 15:46 ET
James Durbin and Paddy Considine: Asperger idols
Two high-profile performers are out to prove that being on the spectrum won’t get in the way of stardom
By Mary Elizabeth Williams
The entertainment industry gives a wide berth to stars who behave differently than most. Being unconventional or just a little off center has never stood in the way of stardom. But acting different is one thing. Being different has, traditionally, been a whole other kettle of fish. And nothing makes a person different in quite the way Asperger syndrome does. But in recent weeks, two very different high-profile performers have been out to prove that being on the autism spectrum doesn’t have to keep a person from going far.
First, “American Idol” contender James Durbin, the one with the fauxhawk who isn’t Paul, has been distinguishing himself this season not just for his shattering high notes but his groundbreaking role as “Idol’s” first contestant with either Tourette’s or Asperger’s (Durbin has both). Then, this week, British actor Paddy Considine, best known in the States for “In America,” “The Bourne Ultimatum” and the “Red Riding” miniseries, revealed in The Telegraph that he was diagnosed with Asperger syndrome last year at age 36, and spoke candidly of the “debilitating sense of detachment” his condition can bring. “Basic interaction with people — the touch of strangers — becomes a problem,” he said. “My response is to retreat into myself.”
In the past few years, thanks to the success of books like “Look Me in the Eye,” the public understanding about people with Asperger’s has increased dramatically, though the condition itself remains deeply enigmatic. We understand now that Asperger’s exists among our colleagues, friends and families. But the notion of someone with a condition that affects socialization being able to pull off rock star charisma still seemed like a stretch, until very recently. Is it possible for a guy with talent and creativity — but serious challenges when it comes to human interaction — to make it big in show business? “With a script, I just can’t get past the words,” says Considine. “They start to float in front of my eyes and I can’t pull them down or animate them. It can lead to me giving a very withdrawn performance.”
Apr 11 2011 By Samantha Booth
HEARING that your child has Asperger Syndrome can be devastating but mum Clare Johnson says discovering her son and daughter both had the condition was “like the sun coming out”.
The diagnosis of her two youngest children led Clare and her former soldier husband Malcolm to discover that they too have struggled with the condition all their lives.
She said: “We had always thought it was everyone else that was weird.”
And Clare’s eldest daughter, Ruth – the only member of the family NOT to have the condition – says that discovering the rest of the family have Asperger’s is the best thing that has happened to them.
She said: “It’s helped me understand why I’ve always felt so different. When I was a teenager, it used to make me so frustrated that they were so anti-social when all I wanted to do was be with my friends and do normal teenage things.
“They’ve always been so independent and happy with their own company. It was quite hard for me to understand.”
Clare, 55, and Malcolm, 57, who live in Brightons, near Falkirk, celebrate their 25th wedding anniversary in May.
Malcolm has served in Germany, Ireland and Kuwait during the first Gulf War as a soldier with the Royal Artillery, while Clare stayed at home with the children.
It wasn’t until seven years ago that their son Stephen’s teacher, Janice Lewis – whom the family nominated for a National Autistic Society Award – suggested there might be something wrong.
Clare said: “He was always clumsy but he was a big child who took after his dad in size. We just thought it was normal, as was the way he took things so literally.”
Stephen, who was initially diagnosed with dyspraxia, is now 21 and works as a home carer.
Ruth said: “When Stephen was diagnosed, it began to explain a lot but really it was just the tip of the iceberg.”
Many people with the syndrome have trouble socialising and, while recognising these traits in Stephen and Malcolm, Clare could also clearly see how social awkwardness had always impacted on her own life.
She said: “We used to have lovely neighbours who would just pop in to say, ‘Hello’. I just couldn’t deal with it and would hide from them.
“I’m an introvert…I love being by myself, love being outdoors, love taking a long walk with my dogs and looking at the trees,flowers,the sky.” — Audrey Hepburn
We’ve had no consensus in discussions here about introversion. We’re not shy or socially anxious except some of us are. Some of us like people, some of us would prefer to spend time with a book, thank you very much. Some of us fear the telephone, some of us dislike the telephone, some of us don’t mind it. Some of us can behave as extroverts, some don’t bother. And then there’s psychologist Elaine N. Aron’s theory about the Highly Sensitive Person , which seems a bit of an outlier in terms of introversion.
And the whole energy discussion–about how being with people drains us while it energizes extroverts–is compelling, but nobody has really been able to pin down empirically what that means. What is energy, in this context?
Well, a very interesting young thinker, Jennifer O. Grimes, has noticed this too. We’ve already heard Grimes’ energy theory, and we’ve heard from her mentor, Jonathan M. Cheek, at Wellesley.
Grimes has a master’s in interdisciplinary studies, combining philosophy, neuroscience, psychology. She is currently a research assistant at Wellesley and Harvard, and she continues puzzling over introversion.
“There is such a struggle at what is at the core of introversion/extroversion,” Grimes told me in a recent interview. “What we were noticing was a popular movement to bring a little more clarity to the definition, but there’s not been an awful lot of psychometric work with that.”
Grimes is all for the introvert-positive movement, to which this blog belongs. “I like its goal, ” she says. “But I’m not sure I like so much how it pulls it off, because some of the literature reads like an idiosyncratic account of a personal experience.”
Grimes, Cheek, and researcher Julie K. Norem (who also has done wonderful research into pessimism ) started trying to tease apart all the various definitions we see of introversion. They did a literature review, and examined  existing measurement tools–such as Marti Olsen Laney’s introversion scale . “I did a factor analysis of Laney’s scale,” Grimes says. “It really tests psychometrically as a shyness scale.”
Grimes, Cheek, and Norem developed a four-factor model of introversion, dividing it into Social Introversion (prefers solitude to people); Thinking Introversion (reflective and introspective); Anxious Introversion (shy and ruminative); and Inhibited Introversion (resists new experiences).
That’s interesting enough, but where Grimes went next in her exploration of introversion is compelling, likely to be controversial, and quite possibly right on the money—research (someday) will tell.
In her master’s thesis (read it here ) Grimes posits that introversion is not the opposite of extroversion, but that they are two different traits altogether. And she proposes something that has come up here from time to time: That introversion actually is on the autism scale.
Grimes’ thesis explains that if you take each of the factors this new model proposes and follow it along a continuum to their most extreme expressions, they correlate with the widely used Baron-Cohen Autism Spectrum Quotient.
Depending on how much we have of each factor  (and how they interact with other personality traits), we can be simply introverted or, moving along the continuum, have Asperger’s syndrome or, moving further yet, have autism.
Consider, for example, that many of us tend to think slowly and are not quick at communicating. At the introvert level, no big deal. Take that communication difficulty and move it along the scale Grimes proposes and you get to Asperger’s and then autism.
Place: Washington, DC | Agency: ANI
A team of researchers from the CHUM Research Centre (CRCHUM) has for the first time ever identified a new gene that predisposes people to both autism and epilepsy.
Led by the neurologist Patrick Cossette, the research team found a severe mutation of the synapsin gene (SYN1) in all members of a large French-Canadian family suffering from epilepsy, including individuals on the autism spectrum.
This study also includes an analysis of two cohorts of individuals from Quebec, which made it possible to identify other mutations in the SYN1 gene among 1% and 3.5% of those with autism and epilepsy, while several carriers of the SYN1 mutation displayed symptoms of both disorders.
“The results show for the first time the role of the SYN1 gene in autism, in addition to epilepsy, and strengthen the hypothesis that a deregulation of the function of synapse because of this mutation is the cause of both conditions,” noted Cossette, who is also a professor with the Faculty of Medicine at the Université de Montreal.
Until now, no other genetic study of humans has made this demonstration,†he added.
The different forms of autism are often genetic in origin and nearly a third of people with autism also suffer from epilepsy. The reason for this comorbidity is unknown.
The synapsin gene plays are crucial role in the development of the membrane surrounding neurotransmitters, also referred to as synaptic vesicles. These neurotransmitters ensure communication between neurons.
Although mutations in other genes involved in the development of synapses (the functional junction between two neurons) have previously been identified, this mechanism has never been proved in epilepsy in humans until the present study.
The results of the study were published in the latest online edition of Human Molecular Genetics.
Gene linked to severity of autism found
Johns Hopkins scientists have identified a gene associated with autism that appears to be linked very specifically to the severity of social interaction deficits.
The gene, GRIP1 (glutamate receptor interacting protein 1), is a blueprint for a traffic-directing protein at synapses  those specialized contact points between brain cells across which chemical signals flow.
Identified more than a decade ago by Richard L. Huganir, professor and director of the Solomon H. Snyder Department of Neuroscience at the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, and a Howard Hughes Medical Institute investigator, GRIP1 regulates how fast receptors travel to a cell’s surface, where they are activated by a brain-signaling chemical called glutamate, allowing neurons to communicate with one another.
The new study, which tracked two versions of GRIP1 in the genomes of 480 people with autism, and lends support to a prevailing theory that autism spectrum disorders (ASD), molecularly speaking, reflect an imbalance between inhibitory and excitatory signaling at synapses.
Using 10 mice genetically engineered to lack both normal and mutant GRIP proteins, researchers watched what happened when each animal was put into a box where it could choose between spending time with a mouse it hadn’t encountered before, or an inanimate object. They compared the behaviors of these mice with 10 normal mice put into the same social situation. Mice lacking both GRIP1 and GRIP2 spent twice as much time as wild-type (normal) mice interacting with other mice as they did with inanimate objects.
“These results support a role for GRIP1 in social behavior and implicate its variants in modulating autistic behavior,” Wang said.
Finally, the team looked at the behavioural analyses of individuals in two families, each with two autistic brothers, and correlated their scores on standard diagnostic tests that assessed social interaction with their genotypes for GRIP1 variants.
In one family, the brother with two copies of the GRIP1 mutant variety scored lower on social interaction tests than his brother who had only one copy of the GRIP1 variant. The boys’ mother, although not diagnosed as autistic, had a history of restricted interests, poor eye contact and repetitive behavior. Tests showed she also carried one copy of the variant.
In a second family, the autistic brother with one copy of the GRIP1 variant had lower social interaction scores than his autistic sibling without a GRIP1 variant.
Because the GRIP1 gene resides in synapses where other genes also implicated in autism have been found, this location is potentially important in terms of clinical relevance, said Huganir.
The study was published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.
Apr
7
Individuality, Diversity, Equality, Achievement
Linking job seekers with vacancies in work related to autism, Aspergers and ASDs
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-south-asia-12810545
Our objective is to promote awareness to AD/HD (Attention Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder) and to provide information and as much free practical help as we can to those affected by the condition, both adults and children, their families in the UK and around the World via this website.
http://www.actorsforautism.com/
“A Beginner’s Guide to Autism Spectrum Disorders: Essential information for Parents and Professionals†“Embracing Asperger’s: A Primer for Parents and Professionals†“How Everyone on the Autism Spectrum, Young and Old, can …: become Resilient, be more Optimistic, enjoy Humor, be Kind, and increase Self-Efficacy – A Positive Psychology Approach†“Social Skills, Emotional Growth and Drama Therapy: Inspiring Connection on the Autism Spectrumâ€
The murder of a man she didn’t even know changed the landscape of Kay’s life. For the police and the murder victim’s partner, it was the neurological landscape of Kay’s mind that proved a challenge. Seattle provides the backdrop for this story of two people working together despite their differences, finding the way to solve the mystery and live with Charlie’s death.
Available at lulu.com (as paperback or pdf download) and Amazon.com
“A main character in the book is an autistic and faceblind woman. This
is not a profit-making venture. What I want the book to do is be part of the
increase in authentic (individual, unique) autistic characters out there in the
literary culture.” Jane Meyerding
http://www.planetautism.com/jane/
Stressed Out Working from Home? Join the Club
I love it when I read a study that confirms what I’ve been feeling or thinking. Psych Central’s Senior New Editor Rick Nauert discussed a few days ago a new study in the Journal of Health and Social Behavior that says women find it especially stressful to receive work-related communication at home, even when the phone calls or emails are within the working hours they defined.
Much more so than men.
Meaning, if the boss emails or calls a guy, even if it’s outside normal working hours, the typical male doesn’t think much of it, takes care of it, no problem. A woman? Even it happens within 9 to 5, she frets a little.
Why?
Think long and hard, even if you aren’t Catholic.
Guilt.
And here it is again … Guilt. Guilt. Guilt.
Boy do I know that feeling. Because even though my role right now is to be the breadwinner, the “man†of the family, and my husband Eric is doing the majority of the homework, shuffling to sports, parent-teacher meetings, and household stuff (well, I have to admit, I never really succeeded at cooking anything edible), that message somehow doesn’t get to my prefrontal cortex. The only message I hear is: You are their mother. They need you. You should be with them right now. You are selfish in trying to work.
Read in Full: http://psychcentral.com/blog/archives/2011/03/11/stressed-out-working-from-home-join-the-club/
Loss of Job Can Cause Premature Death in Men
Reviewed by John M. Grohol, Psy.D. on April 5, 2011
For many men, the stress of not having a job may be greater than the stress associated with employment. New research shows unemployment can hasten death among men by a striking 63 percent.
Practically, in today’s turbulent economic times, recently laid-off men may benefit from aggressive cardiovascular screening and interventions aimed at reducing risk-taking behaviors.
Dr. Eran Shor, a sociologist from McGill University, reached these conclusions by surveying existing research covering 20 million people in 15 (mainly Western) countries, over the last 40 years.
The structure of the health care system (U.S. vs. Canadian vs. UK and others) did not influence mortality rate as the correlation between unemployment and a higher risk of death was the same in all the countries.
“Until now, one of the big questions in the literature has been about whether pre-existing health conditions, such as diabetes or heart problems, or behaviors such as smoking, drinking or drug use, lead to both unemployment and a greater risk of death,†Shor said.
Read in Full: http://psychcentral.com/news/2011/04/05/loss-of-job-can-cause-premature-death-in-men/25030.html
The Psychological Impact Of Being Out Of Work
Article Date: 03 Apr 2011 – 3:00 PDT
When the unemployed complain of fighting an uphill battle to reenter the job market, believe them.
Through a series of simple experiments, researchers from UCLA and the State University of New York-Stony Brook found that out-of-work Americans face discrimination that is unrelated to their skills sets or to the conditions of departure from their previous jobs.
“We were surprised to find that, all things being equal, unemployed applicants were viewed as less competent, warm and hireable than employed individuals,” said lead researcher Geoffrey Ho, a doctoral student in human resources and organizational behavior at the UCLA Anderson School of Management. “We were also surprised to see how little the terms of departure mattered. Job candidates who said they voluntarily left a position faced the same stigma as job candidates who said they had been laid off or terminated.”
The findings will be presented at an April 10 conference on unemployment at UCLA.
Read in Full: http://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/221063.php
Apr
6
Imagine you divided everyone in the world into two psychological groups. You put all the optimists on one side and all the pessimists on the other (let’s leave the realists aside for now).
Amongst the optimists the conversation would all be about fantastic plans for the future and how things can only get better.
Meanwhile the pessimists are having what might seem to the optimists like a depressing discussion. Far from working out how to make their dreams come true, they’re worrying about all the things that might go wrong. They’re worried that even the things they have will be taken away from them by some cruel twist of fate.
To the optimists, the pessimists seem too down on everything, always just a little too keen to pour cold water on any exciting plans.
To the pessimists, though, the optimists are out of touch with reality. Can’t they see what a nasty, cruel and accident-prone world we live in? They are deluding themselves!
Which is better?
Over the years psychologists have examined many aspects of pessimism and optimism. They’ve wondered whether there are more optimists or pessimists. And they’ve tried to find out which approach is ‘better’. Naturally both camps are fascinated to see which way this one goes.
In fact there’s good news for all. There are some advantages to optimism like it seems to make people feel better about life. But there are also advantages for pessimism in that thinking the worst helps some pessimists cope better with the world.
But we should be less concerned with which is ‘better’ or which camp is larger and more interested in why people see the world in such different ways in the first place.
After all, when an extreme optimist talks to an extreme pessimist, it’s like they come from two completely different worlds. How do people come to be polarized in this way?
Read in Full: http://psychcentral.com/blog/archives/2011/03/17/pessimism-vs-optimism/
