Family Education Group for Mood Disorders - Halifax

A poster photographed today at the Mood Disorders Program locaton in Halifax:

Please click on the photograph to magnify it.

From the OurHealthyMinds.ca website:

Mood Disorders Program

Often collaborating with family physicians, the Mood Disorders Program provides consultation, assessment, group therapy and follow up for people living with mood disorders, especially bipolar disorder. The program also provides services for people at high risk of developing a mood disorder as a result of family history, and focuses on mood disorder research and education.

Telephone: (902) 473-2585

Location

Mood Disorders Program
QEII Health Sciences Centre
Abbie J. Lane Memorial Building, 3rd floor
5909 Veterans' Memorial Lane
Halifax, Nova Scotia
B3H 3E2

Also see:

Research: Mood Disorders (Dalhousie University)

Mood Disorders Research Group Contact Page

Re: The lost, beautiful mind of Ivan Car, Aug. 21.

A letter to the editor published in yesterday's edition of the Ottawa Citizen:

After reading this article, I wish first to offer thanks to Anouk MontpetitCar for sharing her story about her husband Ivan Car's [pictured] struggles with depression - a battle he fought bravely but sadly lost.

Car's story is more common than one might think - and so often, these kinds of stories go untold and unnoticed. By sharing her husband's story with Citizen readers, MontpetitCar has not only provided a glimpse into what is a severe, chronic and disabling illness, but also the frustrations that someone with mental illness faces in seeking appropriate treatment as quickly as possible.

As with any other severe, chronic and disabling illness, quick response, expertise and ongoing care are all necessary if one is to recover. Unfortunately, it appears that by the time Car decided to seek the services offered at the Royal Ottawa Mental Health Centre, it was too late; he was too tired to face what lay ahead.

Perhaps he would have received the proper care and treatment if the waiting lists for psychiatric treatment at mental health facilities weren't so very long and if the Ministry of Health hadn't decided over 10 years ago that psychiatric emergency services should only be provided at local hospitals that have certain emergency-room capabilities. (An exception was made for the Centre for Addiction and Mental Health in Toronto, which still operates emergency services at the Clarke Institute on College Street.)

Because of this government decision, the Royal - which has obvious expertise in mental health - was forced to close its emergency services department in 2000. Former patients of the Royal speak fondly of the empathetic, caring environment and expert care received at the emergency room prior to this forced closure.

I and many other families I know have experienced the extreme difficulties of sitting for hours in a hospital emergency waiting room with a severely ill loved one who is in immediate need of psychiatric services. Often, very sick people never receive psychiatric services because, due to their illness, they are unable to wait and are unlikely to return, no matter how severe the symptoms.

There are real practical benefits to receiving emergency service at a mental health centre as opposed to an emergency room geared to treating fevers and broken bones. When someone is suffering from mental illness, it is imperative that appropriate mental health care begin at the first encounter between the health provider and the client. It can make the difference between success and failure.

Given the recent discussions about "client-centred" care, it is incumbent that two things happen - that the wait list for psychiatric services be addressed and that emergency services be returned to the Royal where specialized, therapeutic care goes beyond dispensing of medication.

Cynthia Clark, Ottawa Chair, Family Advisory Council, ROMHC

Image credit

Tragic cases show how much we misunderstand mental illness

An opinion piece published in the January 8th edition of The Chronicle Herald:

By Lezlie Lowe (pictured)

How many times have I heard this?

"She had everything."

Last time was New Year’s Day, when a family member and I were chatting about the November suicide of Daron Richardson, the 14-year-old daughter of Ottawa Senators assistant coach Luke Richardson.

Daron was a top student and hockey ace. She had, as it goes, everything.

Well, sure she did. She had pools, private school and iPods, but not her health — not her mental health.

It’s not uncommon to hear this logic tossed around: the better off a person is, the less likely he or she will suffer from psychiatric disorders.

And it’s true; mental distress is more prevalent in lower income households in Canada. But wealth, by no means, acts as a prophylactic against depression or psychosis. Just ask the family of Ali Reza Pahlavi, the son of the former Shah of Iran, who suffered from depression and shot himself Tuesday.

Mental illness isn’t a plague of the underprivileged or the fate of those who aren’t smart enough or committed enough or canny enough to seek out help, take their medication and stay in treatment.

Mental illness can be tweaked by our actions, sure. But it isn’t a choice. Ask yourself: if your best friend developed pancreatic cancer, would you ever say, "I just can’t understand it. He had everything."

And what of convicted killer Glen Douglas Race?

Race was a normal Dartmouth kid. Did he have everything? Perhaps not yachts, ponies and private jets, but by all accounts he had all the things most of us need to get by. And more than many have. Nevertheless, Race faced steady psychotic episodes. He was diagnosed with paranoid schizophrenia in 2001 in his second year at Dalhousie University.

To say Race’s illness was debilitating is an understatement. Race has been sentenced to life in prison for the upstate New York killing of Darcy Manor, a husband and father of two. He also stands accused of the first-degree murder of two Halifax men, Michael Paul Knott and Trevor Charles Brewster. Race’s parents and brother spoke publicly Wednesday, offering condolences to the families of the victims and raising this issue: Race needed more help than his family could give. And, more importantly, Race needed more help than the Nova Scotia mental health care system could offer.

Several families are in mourning now, Glen’s mother Donna Race said, because her son didn’t get the care his illness required.

The Involuntary Psychiatric Treatment Act, which could have forced Race into care and kept him from harming others, didn’t become law until July 2007, two months after the then 26-year-old was arrested trying to cross the U.S.-Mexico border with a rifle.

That policy is in place now. And it’s something. But it’s not enough. Our financial commitment to mental health still demonstrates a grave misunderstanding of its pervasiveness and seriousness.

As the Race family pointed out this week, in a painful and oft-repeated reminder, the system needs cash.

One in five Nova Scotians suffers from mental illness and Nova Scotia spends less than five percent of its health care budget on mental health.

In June, auditor general Jacques Lapointe released a report saying the province was failing to meet mental health treatment standards. Moreover, those failures were inadequately unmonitored, with no plan for a fix.

In short? We treat mental health like a joke; like it’ll clear up on its own.

Especially, we imagine, when those suffering from it have everything.

(llowe@herald.ca)

Photo credit

The Jack Project - Mental Health First Aid Canada - Youth Course

Also see:

The Jack Windeler Memorial Fund

Last March, Jack Windeler, a first-year student at Queen’s University, died of suicide. To help others, Jack’s family and friends have raised $300,000+ for the Jack Windeler Memorial Fund, administered through Kids Help Phone. The focus is on youth mental health to

1. educate ‘emerging adults’ aged 16-20 as they transition from high school to college/university, and


2. to build a micro-site to counsel youth who are suffering.(supported by Kids Help Phone counsellors)

Jack’s high school (Ridley College) and university (Queen’s) are leading efforts by providing training in “Mental Health First Aid”, which teaches skills so you can help someone who is developing or experiencing a mental health problem. The goal is to broaden the approach across Canada.

Serum S100B: A Potential Biomarker for Suicidality in Adolescents?

Structure of the S100B protein. Based on PyMOL rendering of PDB 1b4c.

The abstract of a paper published online by PLoS One:

By Tatiana Falcone, Vincent Fazio, Catherine Lee, Barry Simon, Kathleen Franco, Nicola Marchi, and Damir Janigro*

Cleveland Clinic-Lerner College of Medicine, Cleveland, Ohio, United States of America

Abstract

Studies have shown that patients suffering from depression or schizophrenia often have immunological alterations that can be detected in the blood. Others reported a possible link between inflammation, a microgliosis and the blood-brain barrier (BBB) in suicidal patients. Serum S100B is a marker of BBB function commonly used to study cerebrovascular wall function.

Methods

We measured levels of S100B in serum of 40 adolescents with acute psychosis, 24 adolescents with mood disorders and 20 healthy controls. Patients were diagnosed according to DSM-IV TR criteria. We evaluated suicidal ideation using the suicidality subscale of the Brief Psychiatric Rating Scale for Children (BPRS-C).

Results

Serum S100B levels were significantly higher (p<0.05) and correlated to severity of suicidal ideation in patients with psychosis or mood disorders, independent of psychiatric diagnosis. Patients with a BPRS-C suicidality subscores of 1–4 (low suicidality) had mean serum S100B values +/− SEM of 0.152+/−0.020 ng/mL (n = 34) compared to those with BPRS-C suicidality subscores of 5–7 (high suicidality) with a mean of 0.354+/−0.044 ng/mL (n = 30). This difference was statistically significant (p<0.05).

Conclusion

Our data support the use of S100B as an adjunctive biomarker to assess suicidal risk in patients with mood disorders or schizophrenia.


Citation: Falcone T, Fazio V, Lee C, Simon B, Franco K, et al. (2010) Serum S100B: A Potential Biomarker for Suicidality in Adolescents? PLoS ONE 5(6): e11089. doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0011089

Copyright: © 2010 Falcone et al. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.

*E-mail: janigrd@ccf.org

To download the entire paper, please click here (PDF).

Also see:

Serum Biomarker May Help Predict Suicidality in Adolescents

Identifying Suicide Risks in Adolescents


Image courtesy of Emw. This image is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 Unported license.

Rethinking Mental Disorders

An article posted May 20th on Care2.com:

By Kristina Chew

Psychiatric or mental disorders such as schizophrenia, bipolar disorder, depression and psychosis are better understood and treated as 'disorders of the brain' according to an article by Tom Insel, M.D., Director of the National Institute of Mental Health, and Philip Wang, M.D., Deputy Director of NIMH. The article, Rethinking Mental Illness, is published in the May 19th issue of the Journal of the American Medical Association. The authors note that, while there have been many 'insights gained from genetics and neuroscience'---such as twin studies that show high heritability for autism, schizophrenia, and bipolar disorder---such research explains only a 'fraction of the heritability' of mental disorders. (For instance, some182 genes have been identified as linked to eating disorders, and some 100 to autism.) These should rather be seen as 'disorders of brain circuits':

"The genetics of mental illness may really be the genetics of brain development, with different out comes possible, depending on the biological and environmental context."

Other advances in the field of genetics contribute to a reconceptualization of mental disorders. Epigenetics looks at the inherited changes in gene expression caused that are caused by something other than than changes in the underlying DNA sequence; Insel and Wang note that:

"The same twin studies that point to high heritability also demonstrate the limits of genetics: environmental factors must be important for mental disorders......The advent of epigenomics [the study of the factors that control genes], which can detect the molecular effects of experience, may provide a powerful approach for understanding the critical effects of early-life events and environment on adult patterns of behavior."

Further, the authors write that the behavioral and cognitive symptoms that indicate 'mental illness' may actually be the 'late stages' of neurological processes that, if detected at early stages, might be better and more fully treated:

"As a result, interventions, rather than being ameliorative or rehabilitative, could become preemptive or even preventive. But this transformation in diagnosis and treatment, which can be informed by recent progress in cardiovascular disease and cancer, will depend on an intense focus on the genetics and circuitry underlying mental illness to ensure new approaches to detecting risk, validating diagnosis, and developing novel interventions that may be based on alter ing plasticity or retuning circuitry rather than neurotransmitter pharmacology."

As an example, in the past several years, autism has gone from being seen as a psychiatric, and even psychogenic, disorder, to a neurological/neurodevelopmental one, with significant consequences in how autism is conceived of, treated and, too, perceived by the public. Autism was once thought to be caused by bad parenting, by 'refrigerator mothers' who were emotionally withdrawn and 'cold,' and therefore did not 'bond' with their children, who 'withdrew into autism'; the damage wrought to families and individuals by these misconceptions is unmeasurable. Seeing autism as a neurodevelopmental disorder---due, perhaps, to 'abnormalities' in synapses in the brain does change how autistic individuals are see by others.

Similarly, understanding that an eating disorder such as anorexia nervosa is biologically based rather than simply putting the blame on parents, on our society's and culture's equating being thin with success, has significant changes on treatment and, again, understanding, and this can make a huge difference in people's (parents, for sure) lives. Societal factors do play a role, but seeing anorexia as biologically based---a recent study of brain imaging has found neurocircuit dysregulation in anorexics---can have real changes for people's lives and, hopefully, for the ultimate outcomes of those diagnosed with these conditions.

Also see:

NIMH Builds New Framework for Understanding Mental Illness

Image credit

Her life story goes from fearful to awesome

An article published in today's edition of The Province:

By Lora Grindlay

For the 11th year, Coast Mental Health will present six people with Courage to Come Back awards for overcoming injury, illness and adversity and for inspiring those around them while doing so. Recipients will be celebrated at a gala dinner at Vancouver's Hyatt Regency hotel on April 30. Today we profile the recipient in the mental-health category. Find more at coastmentalhealth.com

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No longer is Tina Tomashiro's life ruled by fear.

Her days are now measured in achievement and accomplishment: Three years since she last used crack cocaine; four courses of the 11 she needs to be a paralegal completed; a full-time job as office manager of Pivot Legal Society; the correct medication and the self-awareness to control her depression and paranoid schizophrenia; mastering the art of doing perfect circles on her rollerblades.

And now a Courage to Come Back award -- a testament to her willingness and determination to change the life she once lived. It was the life of a homeless, drug-addicted woman with an untreated mental illness suffering severe trauma following a violent assault in 2002.

"I was totally unemployable four years ago because of my mental health, because of self-esteem. I had low self-worth, very little support," said Tomashiro, 39 (pictured).

Tomashiro struggled with mental illness for years and was diagnosed with depression in 1999 and with schizophrenia in 2005.

In the years between the diagnoses she was the victim of a violent attack at the hands of someone she thought she knew.

"I'm a little too trusting, a little too nice," she said. "I actually thought I was going to die that night."

Tomashiro believes the attack triggered something inside her.

"I started being scared all the time," she said. "I think that somehow I snapped."

Following the attack, she lost her job of over two years at BCIT, began using crack cocaine and moved to Calgary where, when she wasn't living on the streets, she was in the psychiatric ward of a hospital.

Tomashiro returned to Vancouver in late 2004 and moved into the Stanley Hotel, a supported-housing program in the Downtown Eastside operated by the Portland Hotel Society. It was there that she reached rock bottom with a suicide attempt, but it's also where she started her comeback.

Dr. Bill MacEwan, a psychiatrist familiar to many in the Downtown Eastside, got her stabilized on medication. And she quit crack.

"Everything that happened from when I was assaulted, I just lived for fear," she said. "I used to use [crack] and it made me really scared. I just reached a point where I was tired of being scared. I was scared that I was going to wake up scared again."

Tomashiro now lives at the Portland's Pennsylvania Hotel in the Downtown Eastside, has renewed contact with her 17-year-old daughter and credits the Portland Hotel Society, Pivot Legal Society and MacEwan for investing in her life.

She's renovated and painted her single-occupancy room, repaired clothes for her neighbours, secured a $500-grant to plant a community garden, and threw a barbeque for the neighbourhood.

Tomashiro started an art program at the Carnegie Centre, promoted Pivot's Hope in Shadows calendar and has spoken publicly about her struggles with mental illness.

"I've changed so much in the last few years," she said.

Photograph by Nick Procaylo, The Province.

Doctors and dentists who 'substance abuse' helped

An article posted on January 28th by BBC News:

A pilot project giving special help to doctors and dentists with health problems has treated 184 people in its first year.

By Jane Dreaper, Health Correspondent, BBC News

62% of them had mental health problems, while 36% were battling drink or drug addiction.

Of the 78 who weren't working when they came into contact with the scheme, 46% returned to work.

The medical director of the project said she had been surprised at the extent of substance misuse.

The project has been hailed a success and there are plans to expand it.

A third of the medics contacted the service because they were already involved in disciplinary proceedings.

Depression was the mental health problem most commonly diagnosed by the NHS Practitioner Health Programme (PHP) - but the service also uncovered six cases of psychosis that hadn't previously been treated.

Of the 67 doctors and dentists who attended the service with addiction problems, 51 were drinking too much alcohol while 16 were abusing a range of drugs - including heroin, ketamine and cocaine.

'Embarrassed'

The PHP was set up because NHS clinicians are often embarrassed to seek help for these sorts of problems.

It also has to ensure that patients aren't put at risk by doctors and dentists who are unwell.

Five of the scheme's patients removed themselves from their duties after being told they should do so - and on two occasions, the PHP contacted the regulators to express concern about its patients.

Psychiatrists, anaesthetists and paediatricians were the specialties most commonly attending the service.

The PHP's medical director, Dr Clare Gerada, said: "This has been a real eye-opener.

"I thought at first we'd see a bit of stress and burn-out. But it soon became apparent how troubled some of these doctors and dentists were.

"I've been surprised at the degree and extent of substance misuse that we've seen.

"They're not the easiest patients in the world - and behind them are patients who could potentially be harmed.

"They tend to present at a late stage, but very few dropped out of treatment, and most of them tend to do well."

'Abstinent'

More than 80% of the doctors and dentists who were treated for addiction were shown to have stayed abstinent afterwards - compared with about 10% of the general population.

The service tests their hair and blood for evidence of alcohol or substance abuse.

PHP has so far operated in Greater London. Talks have begun to set up similar NHS services in Newcastle and Avon.

The chief medical officer for England, Sir Liam Donaldson, had the idea for the service.

He said: "The problem is there in all medical workplaces around the world.

"Previously, doctors found it extremely difficult to access appropriate and confidential care.

"From the number of patients accessing PHP during its first year, it's clear there is a need for this highly specialised service."

Photograph courtesy of the Practitioner Health Programme.

Industry-Academic Consortium Set Up to Bolster Schizophrenia and Depression R&D

An article posted today by Genetic Engineering and Biotechnology News:

A newly established international industry-academic consortium is to receive funding from the Innovative Medicines Initiative (IMI) to develop new models and methods for the discovery of treatments for schizophrenia and depression. Led by H. Lundbeck and Kings College London, the NEWMEDS (novel methods leading to new medications in depression and schizophrenia) project plans on partnering with major academic institutions in Europe and Israel as well as global pharma companies like AstraZeneca, Eli Lilly, GlaxoSmithKline, Janssen Pharmaceutica, Novartis, Orion, Pfizer, Roche, Servier, and Wyeth.

The research will focus on developing new animal models for the identification of treatments for schizophrenia. It will also examine how genetic variations influence drug response. Additionally, the project aims to develop new approaches that will allow shorter and more efficient clinical trials.

The consortium believes there are currently a number of major bottlenecks preventing the translation of knowledge and research findings relating to schizophrenia and depression to the clinic. These include a lack of accurate animal models for drug discovery, a scarcity of tools and tests in healthy volunteers to provide early efficacy data, and the reliance in clinical trials on symptom-based diagnostic and statistical manual categories.

“While the biology of psychiatry has made remarkable progress, we have been slow in converting that into innovative and new medications,” points out Shitij Kapur, M.D. (pictured), at King’s College London’s Institute of Psychiatry. “This is a joint challenge for academia and industry. NEWMEDS is a joint response. It is not only scientifically innovative, but it is also an innovation in creating a cluster of nearly 50 scientists from both sides to work together to achieve a common goal of better, safer, and more effective medicines more quickly.”

Tine Bryan Stensbl, M.D., divisional director for discovery pharmacology research at Lundbeck, adds, “NEWMEDS embodies a novel collaborative effort where companies join forces and together with academia answer scientific questions in a precompetitive environment that will form the basis of tomorrow’s medicines. This joint effort will provide novel insights that undoubtedly will be to the benefit of the patients suffering from schizophrenia and depression.”

The IMI, which will provide funding to NEWMEDS, is public-private partnership between the pharma industry’s European Federation of Pharmaceutical Industries and Associations and the EU. The initiative’s goal is to promote and support Europe’s position in drug discovery and development. The IMI’s overall funding scheme has a budget of €2 billion, half of which will be provided by the EU’s Seventh Framework Programme and half by EFPIA member companies.

I thank John Devlin for bringing this article to my attention.

Photo credit

NAMI Applauds New Report on Caregiving

A December 17th news release from the National Alliance on Mental Illness (NAMI):

Arlington, VA — The National Alliance on Mental Illness (NAMI) praises a new report, Caregiving in the U.S. 2009, which offers a revealing portrait of the nearly one-in-three American adults who serve as a family caregiver.

The study is based on interviews with 1,480 caregivers chosen at random and offers a national profile of people caring for adults, the elderly and children with special needs. It follows similar studies conducted in 2004 and 1997, but for the first time, caregivers for children, as well as those caring for adults over the age of 18, were surveyed.

The report echoes the findings of NAMI’s own depression survey and schizophrenia survey, which include the perspective of caregivers for people living with these serious mental illnesses. All these reports suggest that caregivers face daily stresses that can impact their own health and other relationships. For example, NAMI’s depression survey, released in November, found that while almost one-half (48 percent) of caregivers for people with depression have been diagnosed with depression themselves, only about 25 percent were engaged in treatment at the time of the survey.

“We know from our own studies that caregivers make significant sacrifices to care for their loved ones living with mental illness,” said Michael Fitzpatrick, NAMI executive director. “The findings of this new report will help us anticipate the needs of caregivers so that we can improve NAMI’s education and support programs.”

NAMI offers a variety of peer education and support programs, including those specifically for caregivers.

Family-to-Family is a free, twelve-week course for family caregivers of individuals with severe mental illnesses. The course is taught by trained family members and more than 115,000 family members have graduated from this national program. The course is also available in Spanish.

NAMI Basics is an education program for parents and other caregivers of children and adolescents living with mental illnesses. The course is taught by trained teachers who are the parent or other caregivers of individuals who developed the symptoms of mental illness prior to the age of 13 years.


About NAMI:

The National Alliance on Mental Illness is a non-partisan organization with 1100 state and local affiliates, dedicated to improving the lives of individuals and families affected by mental illness. Dedication, steadfast commitment and unceasing belief in NAMI's mission by grassroots advocates have produced profound changes.

http://www.nami.org/
http://twitter.com/namicommunicate
http://www.facebook.com/pages/NAMI/85273022315

Dual diagnosis: Why treat one and not the other?

An article published in today's edition of The Chronicle Herald:

By Christine Stapleton [pictured]

I HOPE we can put an end to the pesky debate about alcoholism.

Alcoholism is an illness — a real illness. The American Medical Association accepted alcoholism as an illness in 1957 and for about as long the American Psychiatric Association has included alcoholism in its Diagnostic and Statistical Manual — the Bible for diagnosing mental disorders.

Alcoholism and drug addiction are more than just a lack of self-restraint and discipline. Just ask anyone who knows me. I have run marathons and countless triathlons. I have held the same job for 23 years, and I contribute to my company pension plan. I have resisted doughnut-day-Friday and the lure of expensive high-heeled, pointy-toed shoes, which certainly would have improved my love life.

I am not an aberration. In fact, many, many alcoholics are like me. We are high-functioning alcoholics who managed to hang on to our careers, cars and homes. We did not live under bridges and we did not panhandle.

Why is this important? Because I believe that dual-diagnosis is the biggest mental health problem today, yet most people do not even know what it is. Dual diagnosis is the coupling of substance abuse with another mental illness. I am talking about people like me who have alcoholism and depression or are addicted to crack and have bipolar disorder.

As I see it, the problem is that we — including the medical community and criminal justice system — do not accept and treat alcoholism as a real illness. Nor do they understand and appreciate how futile it is to treat one illness but not the other. Everyday addicts and alcoholics seek treatment for substance abuse but no one bothers to screen them for a companion mental illness. Likewise, doctors prescribe antidepressants to their patients without screening them for substance abuse.

The addict/alcoholic whose depression is not treated will continue to self-medicate with drugs and alcohol or fail at the attempt to get clean and sober. Those with depression whose substance abuse is not detected will get sicker because alcohol is a depressant and with every sip they are throwing gasoline on their simmering depression or bipolar.

No one knows how many dual-diagnosed alcoholics/addicts are out there but experts believe at least one of every three alcoholics/addicts has another mental illness. They are the most tragic and costliest of the mentally ill. Very often they commit crimes or suicide. They abuse their wives/husbands and children. Police answer their 911 calls and foster parents take in their kids. The dual diagnosed often become homeless and clog our emergency rooms.

So if you want to go on believing that addicts and alcoholics are weak-willed and you have no compassion for them, please have mercy on your wallet. Your ignorance is costing all of us.

Christine Stapleton writes for The Palm Beach Post, West Palm Beach, Fla.

I have changed the headline of this story to the one that appeared in the The Palm Beach Post.

Also see:

Schizophrenia and Substance Use

Concurrent Disorder

Admit you have an illness

An article published in today's edition of The Chronicle Herald:

By Christine Stapleton {pictured]

IN 1957, the American Medical Association accepted alcoholism as an illness. At about the same time, alcoholism found a place in the American Psychiatric Association’s Diagnostic and Statistical Manual — the hallowed handbook that doctors use to diagnose mental illness (and that insurance companies use to deny your claim).

In other words, alcoholism is an illness. It is a mental illness. People who have alcoholism, like me, are not weak or lacking discipline. In fact, most of the alcoholics I know — in recovery and still drinking — are very strong and very disciplined. That’s how we convince ourselves that we are in control and what makes us so annoying.

Learning that alcoholism is a legitimate illness helped me immensely. It gave me some self-esteem, hope and the final word in conversations with know-it-alls who believe we could quit drinking if we really, really tried: "Well I guess you know more than the American Medical Association because the AMA decided that alcoholism is an illness 50 years ago."

Depression is different. There are a lot of people who admit that depression is a real illness. They feign sympathy and tell you about someone else’s struggle with depression.

But you can tell by their zealous enthusiasm that they don’t really believe it. I hate to admit this: I was among them.

I knew that Hippocrates declared depression a real illness several thousand years before the American Psychiatric Association.

Folks that I admired — Michelangelo, Eric Clapton and the guy who played Beaver’s brother, Wally — all suffered from depression. But when dealing with someone with depression, I privately thought: "Get a grip already, will ya?"

When I was diagnosed with a depression — a major clinical depression — what helped me more than the manuals and medical endorsements were the aw-shucks comments from friends: "I’ve been on antidepressants for years." Or, "Actually, I am on two antidepressants." Or, "I have to be on either antidepressants or hormones or I’m a mess."

Really? Who would have guessed?

The moral is simple: Do whatever it takes to accept and forgive yourself for being mentally ill.

Also see:

Accepting problems hard, but worth it

Laing House is all about healing

From the November 13th edition of the Community Herald Halifax:

Unique facility helps teens, young adults deal with mental health issues

By Pat Lee, Staff Reporter

Early November is a sad time of year for Hans [pictured] and Dani Himmelman. It’s the time of year when their 23-year-old daughter Genna took her own life.

But the couple have found a way to channel some of their grief by becoming avid supporters of Laing House, the only centre of its kind in Canada offering critical support to teens and young adults dealing with serious mental health issues.

"It’s very rewarding for us to be involved with Laing House," Hans said recently.

"It’s a way for us to deal with our own grief and to help other kids."

Along with being active volunteers at the house — Dani works with parents, and Hans is the incoming chairman of the board — they were involved with the home’s annual fundraiser UnMasked Mental Health Masquerade, held just a few weeks ago.

Last year, the event raised $150,000 for Laing House.

Hans, a 30-year employee at CIBC Wood Gundy, got people in his workplace involved and secured $16,000 for the cause, half from the investment firm and the other half from seven colleagues.

"Our Halifax office has been a major supporter," he said.

Hans said that although his daughter lost her struggle with mental illness four years ago, it’s been healing to see the success stories that happen at Laing House every day.

"She was one of the few who didn’t make it through," he said of his daughter’s struggle with schizophrenia and depression from about the age of 12.

"But Laing House was instrumental in getting her back on her feet."

Located in a Victorian house on Barrington Street, the centre was established in 2001 by his friends Keith and Rosemary Hamilton in honour of Rosemary’s mentally ill mother and a child of their own with mental illness. The centre offers a wide range of programs and supports for teens, young adults and their families.

Hans said that through Laing House, Genna was able to find jobs and activities she enjoyed.

"There’s a real void in our mental health system that doesn’t provide for peer support or the support that Laing House provides," he said.

"When kids are recovering from, or living with, a mental illness, they need to know that they’re not in isolation."

Next fall, the Himmelmans and four other couples will climb Mount Kilimanjaro to raise money for the house.

Photograph by Christian Laforce of the Community Herald Halifax.

Running for mental health

From today's The Chronicle Herald:

Wayne Cho remembers clearly the day he figured out why his guts were always in a knot.

Now 34, he arrived in Canada from China 20 years ago. Cho went back to school as an adult, to York University, and recognized himself in the pages of his Abnormal Psychology textbook.

"It wasn’t ‘Aha!’ "Cho said in Halifax on Wednesday. "It was more like, ‘Damn, I got anxiety!’

"I felt a little bit uncomfortable about the stigma, like, ‘Oh, I’ve got mental illness,’ but I was also relieved by the fact that I know what it is. I’d been worrying about the strange feeling in my stomach, for as long as I can remember. At that point, I knew I had to do something."

That something, he decided, would be to run across Canada to raise awareness about anxiety and depression, which affects about half a million Canadians, according to Statistics Canada.

To read the entire story, click here.

Wayne Cho pounds the pavement on Joseph Howe Drive [in Halifax], Wednesday. Cho, who just ran across Newfoundland and is now into Nova Scotia, is attempting to run across Canada to raise awareness about anxiety and depression. (Photograph by Tim Krochak / The Chronicle Herald)

The working wounded

From today's edition of The Globe and Mail:

Mental illness is costing the Canadian economy a staggering $51-billion a year, and each day 500,000 people miss work because of psychiatric problems. What are employers doing about it? Not much.

To read the entire story, click here.

Sylvie Giasson, a Health Canada worker in Ottawa, [lives with] severe depression/anxiety disorder. (Brigitte Bouvier for the Globe and Mail)

By the numbers:

1 Rank of depression among the leading causes of disability in the world.

8% Percentage of workers taking medication in Canada to treat depression and other mental-health conditions.

20.6% Percentage of workers who suffer a bout of mental illness, most in the prime of their working lives

40% Percentage of short- and long-term disability claims that involve a mental-health problem.

60% Percentage drop in family income when a breadwinner is diagnosed with mental illness.

500,000 Number of workers off sick each day in Canada with mental-health problems.

$8.5-billion Amount that employers and insurers spend each year on long-term disability claims related to Mental illness.

$9.3-billion Annual cost of short-term leave for mental-health problems.

$51-billion Amount that mental illness costs the Canadian economy each year.

Sources: World Health Organization, Centre for Addiction and Mental Health, Canadian Public Health Agency, Great-West Life Centre for Mental Health in the Workplace, Statistics Canada

Jane Pauley to accept award

From the National Alliance on Mental Illness (NAMI):

TV Journalist Jane Pauley (pictured) will be honored at NAMI's National Convention in Orlando for her significant national contributions in the fight against stigma and discrimination. She is the author of Skywriting: A Life out of the Blue, in which she shared her personal experience with bipolar disorder. This month she will moderate a PBS panel discussion in conjunction with the premiere of the documentary, Depression: Out of the Shadows (May 21 at 9:00 p.m.).

Scientists probe meditation secrets

Scientists are beginning to uncover evidence that meditation has a tangible effect on the brain.

For the complete article from BBC News, click here.

Photograph courtesy of BBC News.

Thanks go to John Devlin for bringing this article to my attention.