Points of Interest, vol. 2 #4

In an effort to return to a regular weekend schedule, I present the creme de la creme of my web browsing put together in a mere five days time, and still overflowing with thoughtful, touching, funny and poignant goodness.  Today I have peer support, intuition, schizophrenia, salience, religiosity, spirituality, diet soda, cotton candy, and a bunch of other vaguely defined subjects.  So pull up a chair, sit down and dig in to the absolute best I could find on the internet-

From the Archives: Man as an Island

One of the features of humankind that has long been thought to be unique to us is the theory of mind.  This is our ability to deduce what another might be thinking, a critical base for such behaviors as for empathy, socialization, even battle and strategy.  It is so prevalent and so innate that we often do it without realizing it, anthropomorphizing machines, televisions, the computer, animals, even the clouds and the waves.  Imagine a world where no one did this.  Imagine for a minute not even realizing that the people you interact with daily have their own minds inner workings and dealings.  This is the world of Asperger Syndrome.

 

  

From the Archives: Modern Medicine for the Manipulation of the Mind

First Published May 29, 2008.

  It turns out that trust is chemical, at least according to modern neuroscience and research into oxytocin.  Oxytocin is a hormone produced by the neuron part of the pituitary gland that has long been known to strengthen uterine contractions in childbirth and to start milk production in breast feeding.   More recently, scientists have started to understand its role in brain and behavior with key role in trust.

From the Archives: Fearing Fear Itself

First Published on March 10, 2008

He who fears he shall suffer, already suffers what he fears. ~Montaigne, Essays, 1512

Fear is a very primitive emotion, setting off a chain reaction of events that pumps our blood full of adrenaline, raises our heartbeat, tenses our muscles, expends our energy, and quickens our thoughts. This is the essence of the so called “fight or flight mode.” It is very necessary for our physical survival that we recognize danger and react to it. Its result is a complete shutting off of higher centers in the brain, in order to focus all our faculties on a threat.

While fear is good for survival, the behavior that results has lead to some of the ugliest, most savage, animalistic atrocities that our race is capable of.

My Top 5 All Time Christmas Movies

    Now that I am out of the closet as a Christmas Junkie, I thought I would go ahead and share my 5 most favorite Christmas movies, in an exercise in Narcissism and self indulgence, and perhaps start a little lively debate.

Points of interest, #37

Welcome one and all to an irregular installment of my irregularly irregular collection of the very best of all things mind, soul, and body on the internet (That I could find, anyway).  Today I have Mormons and basketball, Pygmy Tarsiers, Mogwai, kilobunnies and kilorats, the spirituality of chess, and husbands in the doghouse to help heal your social phobia, ADHD, Bipolar, Depression, amnesia, self harm, or whatever else it is you are in need of.  So here is all I got…

Carnival time

   I am about a week late, but many thanks to the Carnival of Mental Illness, which included my story Depression series and my depression post.  For anyone interested in issues of mental health, Check it out.

Depression, My story part four- Fight the Power

  As I recovered from depression, I discovered a whole new ailment, anxiety.  One of the first side effects the medication gave me was panic attacks.   I had a lot on my plate, really.  I had to toe the line, with no relapses.  I worried incessantly about the future.  I worried about my patients.  I worried about the rumor mill surrounding me.  I worried about the impressions, fair or otherwise, that others had of me. I worried about stigma.