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August 28, 2008

Ah. Another Hideously Misleading Statement From the Mainstream Media on the Subject of Mental Health

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Check this out, my friends. It's from The New York Times. The writer is Sarah Kershaw:

Psychosis in the 21st century looks something like this: You think your every move is being filmed for a reality television show starring you, and that everyone in your life is an actor.

Or you think you are under intense surveillance by an army of spies, whom you refer to as the “www people,” as in the World Wide Web, and they wiretap your furniture and appliances.

Or else you refuse to drink water because you fear that another cup drawn from your faucet will, once and for all, deplete the world’s water supply.

Those thoughts are from three case studies of what psychiatrists interested in the intersection of mental illness, culture and society are calling, respectively, Truman Show delusion, Internet delusion and climate change delusion; all of them a window, through madness, into the modern world.

Three studies. Hey, Sarah, are you ever psychotic? My guess is no. But I'll bet you like a nice provocative lede. It's like putting a photo of a babe in a bikini on your article. Why not just do that instead of making a blanket statement that'll be considered credible by millions?

Look Closely, Doctor: See the Camera?

August 27, 2008

Tina Fey Apologizes for Looking Like Me

I linked to this once before, but I wasn't able to embed it. Now I'm embedding it, mostly so that I can relive this joyous occurance, and so that I'll always know just where to go to watch it. You can skip right over it if you like.

Eli Lilly Cracks Me Up

So first they come out with a drug that causes diabetes, then covered it up, and they're in a hell of a lot of trouble because of it. And now, guess what? A drug that Lily makes to treat diabetes appears to cause death! That's the ultimate bad side effect.

Oh, the irony.

Diabetes Drug Tied to New Deaths

August 26, 2008

My New Crush

My friend Laura thought my column about pregnancy was too hetero. This is probably because Laura is often more than "my friend Laura" and therefore has a larger stake in how I present myself to the world. I don't agree with her, though. Just because someone at 40 frets about biology and baby-having doesn't make them straight. I've always been open about my queerness. But having a rather flexible sexual orientation doesn't negate the serious issues that arise when contemplating having your ovaries dry up.

Anyway.

My new girl crush is a wife and mother both. Granted, she's (very conspicuously) married, but still. Even if you don't watch all of this, just know that she specifically places an emphasis on mental healthcare. Not the issue overall, but the words, which in the world of political grandstanding, is good enough for me. Kisses, Michelle.

The Most Assholish Thing You Could Possibly Do Right Now

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It is this: Out of spite and frustration and petty, intellectually dishonest inclinations, be a Democrat yet vote for a Bush-style candidate who endorses the Republican Party's platform. Either you believe what you said you believed while Hillary Clinton was running, or you were full of shit the whole time. If you were full of shit the whole time, Sen. Clinton wasn't worthy of your vote, and I feel sorry for her that she had supporters like you.

There is an enormous difference between parties. What happened to all the vitriol against the GOP, and the rhetoric of taking back our country? I guess now, because you're sore losers, you like the Patriot Act and the way the Supreme Court has been shaping up. This is the legacy of my mother's women's movement? Dear god, I hope not. I wasn't brought up this way.

Granted, there are very few of these people, but the media is making major hay out of them. From Rebecca Traister via Salon:

"This is where you see the civil war!" burbled Chris Matthews, experiencing near-asphyxiatory pleasure on an outdoor stage in the sweltering Denver heat, while behind him two competing groups, Obama supporters and the PUMA (Party Unity My Ass) backers of Hillary Clinton, chanted "Obama! Obama!" and "Hillary! Hillary!" at each other. Matthews looked as though he might wet himself as a camera panned the crowd, and he declared, "We're at ground zero!"

Actually, he was about six blocks away from the Pepsi Center, the crowd behind him was probably no more than a hundred strong, and at least one of them was dressed as a toilet, (a gesture that seemed to have nothing to do with Clinton or Obama). But this is how media fantasy gets made, a miniature tableau of political discord, played out in front of a couple of well-placed television cameras and a television host who finds fetishistic, hyperbolic meaning in everything having to do with the defeated Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton and her still-sore supporters.

... Next to them, a man in an Obama hat shouted, "You're all irrelevant! Jesus!"

But irrelevant is not how the protesters will be portrayed by a media that has been salivating over the possible disruption of the Democratic convention -- by angry, broom-riding succubi! -- for weeks. Never mind that there were probably no more than 50 shouting PUMAs. Never mind that every national political convention in modern history becomes a locus for vocal agitators. Never mind that over the weekend, antiwar protests had been larger. Never mind that in three days in Denver I had not spotted a single PUMA or Hillary protester until I found where Chris Matthews was broadcasting. Never mind the guy in the toilet outfit. To hear Matthews, and the talking heads at CNN tell it, these demonstrators were "ground zero" in a rift that could potentially destroy the Democratic Party and ruin its national convention.

But at the same time, there are very real decisions being made right now as a result of the concern over Clinton's sore losers, like whether to have the roll call publicly, as Traister goes on to discuss. It's ridiculous because the majority of Clinton supporters are not fringy assholes like the PUMA folks. They're reasonably proud of their candidate for getting this far and want to honor her. Now they might not be able to because the DNC is pussy-whipped by fear. And yes, I did use that term on purpose.

Ah. I feel better now. A good rant is always cleansing.

For more on these outer-limits people, click here.

Please Hire Our Heroes Even If They're a Little Muddled

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A new government website has been launched to educate the public about hiring veterans who have PTSD or Traumatic Brain Injury (TBI). America's Heroes at Work is a Dept. of Labor project that has two prominent links of its home page: "Learn How to Help Employees with TBI/PTSD Succeed," and "Learn How to Hire a Veteran." I like the FAQs page, and the fact sheet that tries to separate myth from fact regarding PTSD, including the notion that people with PTSD are always violent and that PTSD is a character weakness.

I don't claim to have enough expertise to understand whether this website hits all the right marks or is sufficiently thorough. But I have to think it's a good start.

August 25, 2008

Wow. That Was Fast.

I was just gearing up to write an angry column about this. Ah, well. I'll have to get angry about something else.

Former Ancora CEO out

Men Speak About Depression

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A reader told me about some audio files of men (like firefighter Jimmy Brown, pictured) describing their experience with depression. They're very short but powerful.

Go here to listen.

Cute Fix: The Ultimate Eagles Fan

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This one's for you, Shawn Andrews.

There Was a Roach in My Sandwich at La Lupe!

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This photo is from Saturday. You can see by my face that I'm a little disturbed. That's because I opened my Milaneza con Pollo sandwich (after eating most of it) and discovered a roach. Oh my god.

Like any good neurotic, I have a few phobias. Claustrophobia and emetophobia are the most serious of them. But I also have an issue with roaches because my hallucinations and vivid dreams are frequently roach-filled. Having a roach in my sandwich prompted much anxiety, I can tell you. Plus, how did I know it was the only one? I'd already eaten most of the sandwich.

The restaurant decided not to charge me for the sandwich. Wise decision. But they still charged us for the tacos and our beverages. Really? And no one apologized other than our waitress. Shouldn't an owner or a cook have come to chat?

I was wondering just how egregious this was, so I asked Brian McManus, who was a chef for many years before making that inevitable leap to music writer. Now he's PW's music editor (you can see his handiwork here). He said it's just about the most egregious thing that can happen to a patron at a restaurant. "What could be worse?" he asked. "A shmear of feces? A dead mouse in your sandwich?" I guess he's right. A dead roach is way up there in grossness.

This photo is of the banners proclaiming the restaurant's delicious food. I notice they don't mention roaches.

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About

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Liz Spikol is executive editor of Philadelphia Weekly. She writes the award-winning column The Trouble With Spikol, which began as a chronicle of her struggle with mental illness, and has since expanded into humorous musings on everything from graphic novels to how to use a mop. She also writes the paper's book review column, Lit Gloss. This blog -- named one of the Top 10 Bipolar Blogs of 2007 by PsychCentral -- is about mental illness policy, news, personal journeys and more.