Exorcising Demons of the Past

   Witnessing a seizure is a very frightening experience.  Parents who witness seizures in children fear for their child’s life.  It is extremely traumatic.  Even now, as a trained professional, knowing all the steps I could ever need to take care of the problem, I will feel my heart rate climb with a knot in my stomach as adrenaline starts to flood my system to this day.

      So it’s not surprising that in the past, seizures were thought to be caused by demonic possession.  Many an epileptic in the middle ages were treated with exorcism.

Matthew 17:15- "Lord, have mercy on my son: for he is lunatick, and sore vexed: for ofttimes he afalleth into the fire, and oft into the water."

Depression in Recession

The BBC has an  Interesting Article on how the economic crisis is leading to an emotional crisis in many men in the face of trouble providing for their families.  The report on a survey that found men are twice as likely currently to report having suicidal thoughts, half as likely to discuss their trouble with friends or family, and while experience mental health problems in roughly equal numbers with women, they go untreated far more often.

This is interesting to me for several reasons.  The suffering goes on largely in silence.  Men don’t use health care in general to the extent that women do and they absolutely don’t use mental health care to the same extent.

Music Monday- Euthenasia Blues

In continuing the theme of dignity, disability, and respect from my last post I found this incredible video which makes my point ever so eloquently, so prop your feet up, sit back, and prepare to free your mind for the predicament that is the Euthenasia Blues.  Enjoy

Points of Interest, vol2, #2

    Well, I’ve done it.  I’ve shook off the winter blahs long enough to find all that is praiseworthy and of good report in the blogosphere specifically as it pertains to the mind, soul, and body.  I am excited to announce I have a real doctor job this summer, but I am afraid this has meant I just can’t seem to focus on blogging.  At the very least you can count on me to find elsewhere to focus on for you, the reader.

From the Archives: Depression and Stigma, a rant.

First Published Feb. 3, 2008.

One of the tried and true nuggets of anti-mormonism is the fact that Utah has the highest per capita rate of prozac use in the country. Why is this, they ask and insinuation is clear. Something must be wrong with that religion. Ooh its beating people down. they’re repressed, look, look, they’re repressed. Here is my answer to such critics, if you want to know who is responsible for high rates of depression in the Mormon community, go take a look in the mirror.

From the Archives: Truth, Authority, and Being “Right”

First Published May 21, 2008

If there is one thing that can make religion unpopular in today’s pluralistic society, It is the idea of claiming access to exclusive truth.  On my mission I learned firsthand how the act of sending someone to your door is felt deeply offensive for so many people.  It is one reason religion is just something you are not supposed to talk about, in the interest of keeping peace.  Religion is simultaneously deeply personal and deeply divisive. 

     When you feel a strong spiritual bond of community, spirituality and faith, the proselyting of others is seen as an assault on everything you stand for.  At the same time, helping others see what you have and sharing it also becomes important the more invested you become and the more joy you find in your faith.  Calm assurance that you are “right” has been used to justify coercion, violence and even genocide against outsiders through history.  This in spite of the fact that such actions are almost always roundly condemned in the holy writings of all the faiths involved.

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.