Mental Health

Dr. Sandra Steingraber, biologist, author and cancer survivor, is an internationally recognized authority on the environmental links to disease. Her latest book, Raising Elijah: Protecting Our Children in an Age of Environmental Crisis, is a moving memoir combined with compelling research. Join us for a compelling lecture on protecting our children in a toxic environment and Dr. Steingraber’s call to action.

Tuesday, March 20, 2012
7:00 pm
Providence Day School
McMahon Fine Arts Theater
5800 Sardis Road, Charlotte 28270
Register here

About Dr. Steingraber

Called “a poet with a knife” by Sojourner magazine, Steingraber has received many honors for her work as a science writer. She was named a Ms. Magazine Woman of the Year and later received the Jenifer Altman Foundation’s first annual Altman Award for “the inspiring and poetic use of science to elucidate the causes of cancer.” The Sierra Club has heralded Steingraber as “the new Rachel Carson,” and Carson’s own alma mater, Chatham College, selected Steingraber to receive its biennial Rachel Carson Leadership Award. In 2006, Steingraber received a Hero Award from the Breast Cancer Fund and, in 2009, the Environmental Health Champion Award from Physicians for Social Responsibility, Los Angeles.

Re-posted from the CleanAirCarolina website.  Please consider attending to learn more about how clean air quality and environment does not just affect you, but so many future generations.  The time is NOW!

“… Culture writes on illness. That’s evident in the battle around a French documentary about autism entitled “Le Mur” or “The Wall.” Today, a court in the northern city Lille will decide whether the film, released online last year, should be censored at the request of psychoanalysts in the country, since it essentially charges that their approach to the disorder ignores decades of scientific progress….”

Unfortunately, until we know why so many kids have autism and how, I am not sure there is one person can say that what will work for one will not work for another.  Mostly, success is measured in families not in large scientific studies.  To those who go against the “scientific”, there is much mud-slinging, yelling and berating, but what else to do when there is not much offered by the scientific community in the way of cause, effect and cure!

Sadly, in our experience anyway, it led to much more in the way of fruitlessness, there was no help, no options, no answers.  It was basically figure it out yourselves, induce ridicule, often contempt, certainly a healthy dose of scorn and mirth, but still you endure, all in the hope that you will help your child out of the fog.

Which in the end, I suppose we did.  Although, in my house the last few weeks ~ sometimes I wonder, so when I read this:

FOX & FRIENDS: Dr. Bob Sears answers, “Can children outgrow autism?”

Jan 26

I realize it’s maybe not just me that thinks this stuff… 😀

I never thought in a million years I would be able to work while my son was young.  An obvious need to replenish was held against a desire to not allow him to slip into feeling un-loved or not wanted – again, but here we are just one short year working alongside him to heal his deep-seated trauma and I am back to work.  Now, I work from home so that obviously makes things a little easier for both of them and me! Still, they are respectful of my hours and for the most part understand that I can do this and still love and take care of them, which I do. I was worried, I was expecting a return to the behavior we had seen in the past when an event occurred that he was anxious about, but to his credit, he has handled it like a trooper.  It just goes to show how important it is to talk about healing, rather than medicating, his behavior.

Last week I sat down to watch ABCs expose regarding children in foster care and medications. “… Foster children are medicated with psychotropic drugs up to 13 times more than other kids. Michael Piraino, the chief executive of the National CASA Association, a foster children’s advocacy group, said that, as a population, foster children tend to be more troubled than their peers. …”

This makes me so crazy and so very sad, of course these kids are troubled, who wouldn’t be?  It seems to me that if we are going to take these kids away from trouble at home, we should have a better place for them to live. They certainly should be treated to mental care, because everything we know now tells us that physical care is just not enough.  Just for one minute imagine how it would be to be living in a troubled home with abusive or negligent parents and then someone swoops in to save you, to take you away and give you a better life.  It seems great on the surface but in “rescuing” this kid, what really happened is that the child was taken away from everything they know, and everyone they love, regardless of how bad that life may have been.  If that’s what and who you know, that is your normal.  They are confused, angry, stressed about what is happening, and worse, what comes next.  To me, as an adult, I get nervous and anxious in new situation, but I have coping skills, I have learnt through experience to handle my overwhelming desire to turn and run by looking at each situation rationally. Our kids don’t have that wealth of experience on their side to pull from. Their childhood is supposed to be safe enough for them to learn how to handle things like this, if we interrupt that development, that learning phase, how are they supposed to learn how to handle it?

To remove a child and be egotistical enough to think that you have saved them is ignorant or at least requires more forethought than I think we realize.

These kids are hurting, they are scared, they are angry and worried. How is that NOT going to give them some kind of behavioral problem.  Add to that, foster care is not permanent care, in effect they no longer belong anywhere, they feel different, alienated and alone, how is that better?

These kids are lashing out in pain, anger, anxiety, hurt and depression not because of defiance and probably not because of chemical imbalances – we poke them with a stick and then wonder why they scream.  It’s a problem certainly, so, to take away that natural response, to diminish that rage and angst, someone somewhere has decided to medicate them, to drug them so in effect, they don’t react to their situations.

In our case, we honestly thought that when we adopted our son, we were doing a good thing.  We truly thought it was beneficial to both of us.  Guess what?  Regardless of whether it was right or not, in his mind, he didn’t get a say, he never got a chance to decide, it was all decided for him. He was fearful, anxious, stressed out by all the changes, by his lack of voice and choices.  He had no idea what was going on, he was confused and scared and his brain remembers that. It has scared him, now he doesn’t feel like he belongs anywhere, he doesn’t feel normal or like he fits in. He feels thrown away and unwanted, he tells us he is a bad kid.

I could certainly medicate that anxiety out of him, I could medicate the depression, I could medicate the anger, life would probably be easier for both of us for a while. What I can’t do is force him, when he turns a certain age, to take his medication. Then what? Then how does he recover? How does he face all those bottled up, drugged down feelings in his teenage years? How does that work?

I don’t need to write about that part of the story because in our hearts we all know how that looks.  We have all seen the crimes committed, the suicides, and the behavior associated with many of these kids. We look around and shake our heads and wonder what happened.  Well, honestly, when it really comes down to it, we don’t need to look too hard do we?

Give these kids a voice, let them heal, let them talk, give them a chance to excel and achieve – then maybe we can say we did the right thing, but not yet, certainly not yet.

PARTICIPATE IN THE DEVELOPMENTAL TRAUMA DISORDER FIELD TRIAL STUDY

The Developmental Diagnosis Study is a critically important study that is being conducted to improve and expand trauma-related diagnoses for children. There are seven Field Trial sites across the country including our site in the Greater Boston area of Massachusetts. Each site will interview at least 100 children and guardians. Eligible children are ages 8 – 17. Interviews take two- to three- hours to complete, and can be conducted at the Trauma Center in Brookline, our affiliate clinic in Acton, or at another office or program as available. Participants will be compensated $50 for each child participating in the study. Participation in this study is an opportunity to transform the field and to develop appropriate diagnoses and treatment models for children who have experienced trauma. Children do not need to have mental health problems or histories of traumatic events to sign up. All children ages 8-17 are welcome. To participate or make a referral, please contact the clinical research coordinator Regina Musicaro: (617) 232-1303, x 310 or rmusicaro@jri.org.

CONTACT INFORMATION FOR OTHER SITES:

Western Michigan University, Kalamazoo MI
Connie Black-Pond, MA, LMSW, LPC
(269) 387-7065
black-pond@uchc.edu

University of Pennsylvania and Drexel University, Philadelphia PA
Elizabeth Nicholls, Study Coordinator
(215) 571-4256
elizabethgnicholls@gmail.com

Beth Israel Medical Center, New York, NY
Emily Upshur, Ph.D.
(212) 420-2474
eumupshur@chpnet.org

Anchorage Mental Health Center, Anchorage, AK
Joshua Arvidson, MSS, LCSW
(907) 762-2817
jarvidson@acmhs.com

DePelchin Children’s Center, Houston, TX
Adrienne Tinder, Ph.D.
(713) 558-3912
ATinder@depelchin.org

University of Connecticut Health Center, Hartford, CT
Rocio Chang, Ph.D.
(860) 679-1728
CHANG@uchc.edu

University of Connecticut Health Center, Hartford, CT
Ms. Joan Levine, M.P.H.
(860) 679-2132
LevineJ@uchc.edu

I speak to many people about health issues, mainly because we always show up in the statistics (so many kids with asthma, autism, ADHD etc) and we have to watch B’s diet carefully to avoid multiple different reactions. Anyway, as I talk to people the conversation will often veer off course to vaccinations. Full disclosure, both my kids have had most of their vaccinations, if I had to choose again then… well I don’t have to so it doesn’t matter what I say now. Over the course of the years I certainly noticed multiple reactions after each doctor visit. G particularly always hit a super high temperature afterwards, both would be lethargic, have red eye circles, pain in the injection sites, and after the chicken pox vaccine B didn’t utter a single sound for over a week! Disconcerting to say the least, but I always kept going thinking that I was doing what was best for our kids.

When we get talking about the vaccine subject, many folks will start to get angry about the parents who choose not to vaccinate their kids. This kind of irks me I admit. It’s at this moment, sometimes, I like to play devil’s advocate and dare to ask if they agree that a woman’s body is her own to do with as she likes, that only she has the right to choose what happens to her body, including choosing whether or not to keep a baby incubating in there. So many, in fact more often than not, many, many of the folks who disagree with another parent’s choice not to vaccinate their kids, interestingly find that their own doctrine of a woman’s right to choose is unfailing. Strikes as such a dichotomy to me.

It makes me wonder though how many of them would really utter these sentences if they had the whole story! “Me, well hell yes I have the right to choose to let a baby grow in my body, and if I choose to keep it, sure I would let someone in a white coat tell me to stick vaccinations in them year after year. If the government and doctor tells me my kid needs them, who am I to question their training?

Of course if anything bad happens I will totally consider myself one of the unlucky ones. I also know and totally accept that I have no means of real compensation, but of course I will indeed happily spend the rest of my life (and retirement fund) caring for a child who will never mentally be more than 9 years old or … add your own side-effect here.

Right on – Sign me up! Seriously all you people who choose not to vaccinate are just scared little selfish sheep, scared of your own shadows! Yes,  please go ahead stick my kid now, and guess what – actually you don’t even have to tell me about it! I TRUST YOU! I totally TRUST you are doing this for my own good! I mean lets face it, my kid hasn’t got the same right to choose as me and I am educated and smart and trusting because pharmaceuticals have been proven safe, time and time again right?!” 

All I am saying is educate yourself, really educate yourself. Don’t walk into a healthcheck without knowing exactly what you are putting in your child. Whichever side of the debate you fall on, it’s always wise to get information from both sides before making an informed decision, and if you still choose to vaccinate then at least you can say honestly you chose wisely with all the information you had at your disposal.

Dr. Mercola has this article “Health, Liberty and Forced Vaccination” including the video from the National Vaccine Information Center on his page. Very informative and worth spending 14 minutes of your life watching, if nothing else to only validate you argument against people who choose not to vaccinate.

He cites the following “… After 50 years of heavy prescription drug and vaccine use, Americans are waking up to the fact that they are not healthier, but are sicker than ever before. And they are asking a lot of questions.

More of us are wondering why doctors inside and outside of government are insisting that every child get 70 doses of 16 vaccines starting on the first day of life and why that list includes expensive new vaccines for mild diseases, like chickenpox, and for diseases you can’t catch in a classroom, like hepatitis B.

More of us are asking why we have to get a flu shot every year and why health care workers are losing their jobs if they don’t.

More of us are looking at vaccine studies published in the medical literature, many of which are paid for by drug companies or public health agencies promoting one-size-fits-all vaccine policies, only to discover that a lot of those studies are the best junk science that money can buy. More of us are watching doctors paid by Pharma persuade journalists to demonize anyone asking questions about vaccination so other people are afraid to speak up because they know they will be targeted for humiliation and persecution. …”

I don’t care one way or the other if you vaccinate your child. I truly believe that’s totally your choice, but it should be your choice not someone else’s who has a vested economical interest in your child getting that vaccine. Before you choose to allow that needle in your child’s arm, read what’s in that vaccination, what are the side-effects, what should you watch out for, is this something your child really needs today? Don’t take my word for it, I don’t have a medical degree, but I do know that sometimes profit comes before, well, most things. Just being informed so when the nurse goes to stick your child with 3 live vaccines at a time in one sitting you will know what to say, how to say it and WHY you are saying it. Don’t lose your right to choose how and what medical decisions you make when raising your child because today you might agree with their decisions but tomorrow …