Psychopath or Sexual Abuse Victim?

The trial of Casey Anthony is a study in why it is often so difficult to properly diagnose mental illness.

Anyone who is at all familiar with the case of the "Tot Mom" who allegedly killed her two year old daughter Caylee and for 31 days carried on a life of a party girl, already believes her to be a pathological liar. Now that she has gone to trial (for her life), her defense is claiming that Caylee's death was an accident and because Casey had been sexually abused and therefore "taught" to lie, this explains her behavior.

Most experts are not buying the defense's claims. Although it is true that sexual abuse victims do not always talk about it and many do seek to numb their pain through substance abuse, there is enough reason to be confused when it comes to Casey Anthony.

A psychopathic personality can appear to be a victim but that is also the characteristic of a narcissistic personality. Not accepting blame for their own actions they can claim abuse as a reason for their actions.

Many people get annoyed by defendents who "use" sexual abuse as their excuse for bad behavior. Although the battered woman or sexual abuse victim defense is true in some cases, it often does not work because of the woman's actions.

Children are affected by how they are raised. A child who is taught to lie, for example, will grow up to be an effective liar.

When a sexual abuse victim lies, it is the kind of lie that is meant to protect their dirty little secret. A victim of sexual abuse can be made to feel guilty by their abuser or told that no one will believe them. It is not usual for a victim of sexual abuse to become sexually promiscuous. There is also a fear that a victim has and that causes them to lie.

In Casey Anthony's case, there is too much there to believe that she is a victim of sexual abuse. I do believe that life in the Anthony household was dysfunctional but is it really an excuse for her behavior?

Casey Anthony could simply be an overindulged young woman who perhaps was affected by her dysfunctional upbringing but not sexually abused.

A defense attorney's job is to defend his client. Using a defense that points fingers and accuses people of sexual abuse can damage someone's life and reputation forever.

With so many of the characteristics of an abuse victim mirroring other conditions, it takes a very thorough evaluation to determine the truth. This takes time. Like diagnosing many mental illnesses like bipolar or schizophrenia, emotional disorders can mimick other conditions.

Sexual abuse of a child is a horrendous crime. For a victim, healing can be life-long. To use sexual abuse as a defense for a child murderer hurts true victims of this crime. It can make it harder for them to come forward or to trust that they will get justice for the crime committed against them.

Living with Depression

Depression is the demon  and many people can relate to what it is like to be caught in the grips of it.

Depression is often misunderstood unless you happen to have suffered from it. Many people who are ignorant about the disorder believe that a depressed person can just "snap out of it" when the truth is that it is not that easy.

read more about how depression impacts your life here

The news is not all hopeless because depression is a treatable mental illness. Therapy does work.

 The latest research shows that there are genetic links to depression .

This is good news because major depression affects about 20% of people at any given time in their lives and for 4% of people, their depression is chronic and harder to treat. Exploring this genetic connection can help researchers to develop treatments that will help those whose depression is harder to treat.

These findings won't make new medications available immediately; it will take another decade at least but the good news is that progress is being made.

In the meantime the best treatment for depression is a combination of efforts. These include lifestyle changes which means switching to a healthier, all-natural diet, avoiding over-consumption of alcohol and regular exercise. Learning stress reducing techniques and practicing them is another key to successful depression treatment. Therapy, especially cognitive behavioral therapy in which a professional teaches you how to change your reaction to situations can help you to gain a more positive outlook. Lastly, an anti-depressant can be useful, especially in the beginning of treatment. This can help give you the "fight" to face your inner demons and work to pull yourself out of this often debilitating condition.

Depression that goes untreated will not go away on its own. 

If you have been experiencing symptoms of depression for several weeks and it is not lifting, seek out help for your depression!

Anxiety

Anxiety affects many adults and children. Everyone lives with a certain level of anxiety due to stress and other reasons but when anxiety becomes a problem that controls your life, you can either give in and allow it to swallow you whole or you can take back control.

Working through anxiety is hard work. Treatment for anxiety is more than just taking anti-anxiety medication. If only there was a "magic" pill. Once you are adjusted to the anti-anxiety medication that your doctor prescribes you may have more confidence to tackle the source of your anxiety. Often it is not that easy.
 read the rest of the article here

I know this first-hand. Life circumstances that have been beyond my control have challenged my fight against anxiety lately. I have a fear of driving. Although in my teens I was able to drive anywhere, after the birth of my first child I suddenly found myself with a fear of being a passenger and with driving in certain circumstances.

I managed through the years and although I admit that I gave into this fear too many times, avoiding certain highways, not driving in inclement weather, etc., I got by.

Unemployment was the first catalyst in my fight against this anxiety. With no place that I had to be, it became easier to avoid driving. I suffered many health problems that caused me to rely on others for transportation. After having three surgeries, I was forced to have others drive me home from the hospital. This was a huge anxiety producer. Again, I managed to get through it and even did it in a relaxed state.

Is it a control issue? Maybe. Some psychologists feel that there is an underlying cause for fear. I have never been in a car accident so this fear really seems unrealistic. I do not fear death; I am truly confident that there is an afterlife. So what is my issue? I don't know. All I can do is continue to reason with my fear and work to overcome it.

In December of 2010, the worst possible situation happened. My car died. I got it briefly running in March for 4 days. During that time I didn't drive a lot but I did drive. Then the car died for good. Every day that goes by my fear of getting behind the wheel again grows. I cannot borrow a car; for me, being in an unfamiliar car is more than I can handle.

Occasionally I have no choice but to leave my house by way of car. My son will take me to where I have to go; he is one of 3 people that I can calmly ride with. The more I am a passenger, the better I can control my anxiety. Unfortunately, I do not ask him to take me out enough.

I am a smart woman. I hate the idea that this unrealistic and often uncontrollable fear has made me a prisoner. I am independently minded. I don't like to be controlled by anything yet anxiety has control over me.

I have fought through chronic depression and often feel like I am winning that battle. I am sure that I can win this battle against anxiety. I have to. I hate feeling weak and I hate that it has so much power over me.

Anxiety will someday be something in my past. The day is not here yet but it will be. Giving up is not an option.

May and Awareness of Mental Health Issues

May is a month where mental health organizations strive to bring awareness and educate people about mental health. "Let's Talk about Mental Illness" was started out of my own personal need to educate others. Along the way I have discovered many helpful sites that educate and provide resources.

Bring Change to Mind  an excellent organization started by the actress Glenn Close and her sister who has bipolar.


When celebrities like Catherine Zeta-Jones discuss their personal struggles with mental illness (Catherine has bipolar 2) I get excited. One more voice to put a face to something that is misunderstood and feared by too many people.

Mental illness is not the result of having a personal "weakness", if anything, seeking treatment shows your strength. Successful treatment involves digging deep inside of yourself and facing the demons within.

There is help for mental illness. Once you bravely come to terms with the idea that you need help- go for it! You won't be sorry.

It can be a scary journey to wellness but it is always scary when you are on a road that you are not familiar with. Know that this road has been traveled before and you are not alone on it.

What is YOUR Neighbor Hiding?

Mental illnesses are much more common than people think. Even though awareness is spreading, people still talk in whispers about mental illness.

The 5 most common mental illnesses  are ones that most of us have heard of but are misunderstood. With anxiety, for example, there are many different kinds of disorders that are consider to be anxiety related. The severity of each depends on many factors. Anxiety can be crippling for some people and an annoyance for others. It is treatable and many people overcome it.

It is important to understand mental illness because someday it may hit close to home. Mental illness is an equal opportunity disorder; it knows no racial, economical or intellectual boundaries. It can affect children through the elderly.

Be brave and talk about it if it affects you or someone you love. It is nothing to be ashamed of. Don't accept pity for your disorder or someone that you love. Hold onto the hope that treatment will be successful. It often is.

Mental illness may still be whispered about but it doesn't mean that you have to. Standing up and speaking openly will help to educate those with misconceptions about the mentally ill. We are all not so different and we all know someone who has been affected by mental illness.

Agoraphobia

Agoraphobia. Many of us have heard the term but are unaware of how it happens.

Agoraphobia is actually a symptom of prolonged anxiety that is not being treated or a side effect of anxiety that is being treated but not effectively. What does it really mean to be agoraphobic?

Being agoraphobic means that you experiences symptoms of panic when you are put in a situation that is uncomfortable to you. To some people, this can mean leaving the safety of your home, having to travel to an unfamiliar area or in some, being in a crowd of people. Because of the anticipation of fear, people with agoraphobia will avoid doing things that make them uncomfortable. This can have a profound effect on your life. If it is allowed to go on, a person can literally become housebound.

The confusing part about agoraphobia is that until it gets to a severe level, panic attacks don't happen on a regular basis. You may be fine leaving your home and going to an unfamiliar place and then the next time you do it, you experience symptoms like excessive sweating, shortness of breath, stomach upset and a sense of sheer panic that you just cannot seem to "talk yourself out of".

It can make you feel "crazy" and get you so angry with yourself over the control that the panic has over what you do. It makes you feel embarrassed and often feelings of depression will happen. In severe cases, people can actually become suicidal over the frustrations of the symptoms.

The affects of agoraphobia can severely influence your choices in life. Someone who once was outgoing may avoid social situations. It may affect your work and sometimes can even cause you to lose your job because of frequent absences.

Patients can overcome agoraphobia with medications and therapy. The problem is that when someone is suffering from anxiety and does not treat it, agoraphobia can become the result of ignoring the anxiety.

How do you deal with agoraphobia? The first step is in recognizing it. The fear associated with anxiety disorders is what makes it so hard to treat. It takes courage to want to confront the issues that are causing the anxiety. It can be a painful process but if you are tired of having anxiety control your life, this can motivate you and give you the strength to overcome anxiety .

Depression is also common amongst people who suffer from agoraphobia. This is natural because you may feel pressure from others to be a part of life and you have allowed the panic to put you into a place where you are so used to getting by that you do not want to face the fear.

Well-meaning family and friends often do not understand the power that fear has over you. Agoraphobics don't need to be "babied" but they need to be supported. Cognitive behavior therapy can help you to overcome your fears but until you commit to it, you will be stuck in an endless pattern of having fear control your life.

As with any anxiety disorder, agoraphobia can be overcome. It may take a lot of tears and facing your fears but you can put agoraphobia behind yo

Mothering with Mental Illness

Can a woman with bipolar disorder be a good mother?

Bipolar disorder is a manageable mood disorder. Going through pregnancy requires that a woman works together with her doctor and afterwards, because of the hormonal changes, adjustments may be needed to her medication cocktail, but there is no reason why a woman with bipolar cannot be a good mother.

Coping with a mental illness and mothering is a challenge but it doesn't mean that you cannot be a good mother. When you are fighting against depression and have a young child, sure, you will be up against having to take care of your child while you are trying to take care of yourself. Any mother who has any kind of illness has the same challenges.

When are we going to stop assuming that a mental illness makes someone incapable of functioning? It can make you incapable if you are not receiving treatment or if a secondary problem such as substance abuse exists. Many women make it through dual diagnosis while they parent a child.

There is always hope. Some children are raised by a mother with a mental illness and have scars to show from it. For others, they learn a valuable lesson from their mother. The lesson of never giving up and overcoming the odds that may be stacked against them helps to build strength.

What kind of treatment and support a woman receives will make all the difference in what kind of mother she is to her children. Nothing is black and white when talking about mental illness and what kind of mother someone can be in spite of it. The situations are unique and everyone has their own level of strength.

Being a mother is the most important role you will ever have as a woman. If you are a mother who is challenged by your own mental illness, get support and find treatment that works for you. You can be a great mom in spite of the mental illness that challenges you.

Happy Mother's Day!

Vitamin Deficiency and Mental Illness

There is most definitely a link between your diet and your depression although many psychiatrists are not going to tell you that. Not all psychiatrists are legal drug pushers; some do believe in treating psychiatric disorders by seeing the symptoms as what they really are- a sign from your body that something is wrong.

Instead of just diagnosing a disorder, they will look at factors such as your diet and what your blood shows. A thyroid disorder could be why you are experiencing symptoms of depression. If your doctor just writes you a prescription for an anti-depressant, the real problem is not being solved.

This is a problem that happens not just with psychiatry but with Western medicine. Especially in the United States, our health care system is run by pharmaceutical companies whose main purpose is to make money off of the general public using their drugs.

I could easily write several articles telling personal stories that I know of about people whose doctors put a band-aid on complaints that could be changed by the patient adapting a healthier lifestyle, evaluating their blood to check for deficiencies or learning stress reduction techniques that do not involve going to the local pharmacy. But this post is about looking for the “reasons” for symptoms that indicate mental illnesses.

Omega 3 is a supplement that researchers have been studying for some time now. It is beneficial in helping people to deal with symptoms of depression but how many doctors do you know suggest taking it instead of Zoloft?

I am not suggesting that you should ignore what your doctor says; I am only saying that there are other ways to treat mental illnesses. Many times a psychiatrist will prescribe first and diagnose later. “Let’s wait and see how the medication makes you feel before I give you a diagnosis” is something that I have heard before. Other times I have gotten quick diagnoses based upon one visit; that is frightening also.

For a person with bipolar, if the doctor is only seeing the depression, prescribes an anti-depressant and sends the patient on their way, they could be missing the mania that can follow. Many patients don’t complain about mania- why should they? Often it feels so good; who would complain? Many bipolar patients do not react well to taking an anti-depressant; it can bring on more severe manic episodes. A rush to diagnosis is harmful for just that reason.

There is also controversy about patients (children included) who are overly diagnosed with disorders such as ADHD. There are natural treatments for treating ADHD symptoms. Parents who try them often do not need to give their children any pharmaceutical medications at all. Although doctors and the pharmaceutical companies claim that these stimulant medications are safe and the FDA approves their use, how safe are they really?

Is it child-like thinking to feel that putting something man-made and artificial into your body is wrong and could potentially cause your body damage? I don’t care what a doctor says or a pharmaceutical company says…the truth is that it is their business to sell these drugs.

Long-term use of psychiatric medications could damage your liver. Patients are supposed to have their liver function tested by getting their blood checked at least once a year. And when your blood work shows that the long-term use of an anti-depressant has caused liver damage- then what?

Alternative medicine and treatments for true psychiatric conditions that cannot be explained by other medical conditions can be treated by methods other than pharmaceutical fixes. The problem is that access to orthomolecular psychiatrists is not common for the masses. Traditional psychiatry teaches that you use these medications that have side effects and can cause long-term damage to your body. It takes money to search for practitioners who use more natural methods.

Personally, I wish it was more commonplace to use alternative methods. Unfortunately, until the pharmaceutical companies stop running our health care system, a patient’s options will be limited.

Getting Your Teenager Evaluated by a Psychiatrist

After "losing" our last psychiatrist, read about a doctor's greed , we finally found a new psychiatrist to treat and re-evaluate my teenage daughter.

Child psychiatrists are not easy to come by in my area of the country. I don't know much about how others fare but I literally made many phone calls before I secured an appointment with the one we saw today. Finding someone who wasn't too far away, who took the insurance and who was accepting new patients is not an easy feat but after months of trying- SUCCESS!!!

So what actually happens during a mental health evaluation? Here is how it went. (this isn't the first one I have experienced and from what I know - this is "normal")

Since my daughter has been treated before, I came prepared. I had copies of her latest school report card, the IEP (individualized education program) and psychological evaluation and test results from the school's child study team, a typed record of her treatment history including all medications she has taken, who she has seen and a copy from the latest doctor of his diagnosis.

I wanted this doctor to have all the information she could possibly have in order to ensure that my daughter gets a correct diagnosis. I realize that one evaluation does not give parents a diagnosis; the doctor needs more time.

The three of us (mom,dad and teen) sat with the doctor while she asked questions about what brought us there. My daughter answered most questions; I was there to give family history.

In the past I often felt a bit under a microscope but I now know enough about mental illness that I no longer need to "place blame". We aren't perfect parents- show me someone who is. Genetics count but there are several other factors for why mental illnesses happen. We came to help her and placing blame doesn't help.

After going through the family history we left the doctor alone with my daughter so they could talk one on one. after about 25 minutes, she called us back in and we discussed a treatment plan. My daughter is scheduled to have some blood work done, routine when you take antidepressants in order to check liver function. The doctor is also concerned that her poor eating habits (she is EXTREMELY picky) could be to blame for her depression, something I have been trying to fix on my own by giving her B complex and Magnesium.

We need to return in 6 weeks and in that time, I hope to have seen a difference in how she feels. We were all satisfied with the new doctor and my secret wish is that it is all due to a vitamin deficiency. That is easily fixed.

With maturity I believe that her anxiety issues will lesson, especially as she becomes more open to learning hope to cope better with them. When she was only in grade school, she became so severely panicked that she was unable and unwilling to leave the house.

As she has matured, she has had to learn how to cope not just with hormonal changes, but with bullying, peer pressure and pressure to feel like she fits in. Some teenagers seem to take all these facts of middle school and high school in stride. Some hide it inside. Some verbalize it and some do not.

As a parent who is blessed to have an open dialog with my child, she has come to me with her fears, anxieties and feelings of sadness. She is feeling much better than she was in the past. Therapy has helped, medication has helped to ease some symptoms and maturity is helping also.

Children, adolescents and teens can be affected by stress in life. We need to remember that as adults, many of us have developed our own coping skills. With a child, these skills are not developed. We need to acknowledge that fears can be very real to a child. The monster under the bed seems real and if a parent ignores their child's fear, the child will lose trust in them. They won't go to the parent to talk about it and they will keep it inside.

There are normal fears of childhood that many experience. When these fears build and interfere with your child's functioning a parent needs to take action. I am not saying that your child must be medicated- medication isn't always the answer. You cannot just tell your child that there is no monster under the bed. You need to find out why they think that there is and then address it!

Just because a child may experience anxiety or depression doesn't mean that they will grow up to still have these same disorders. The sooner you address them, the sooner your child will be back to feeling like their normal self. 

Children's Mental Health Awareness Day

The American Academy of Pediatrics and the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA) is joining together to celebrate National Children's Mental Health Awareness Day tomorrow (May 3rd). 

One in five children and adolescents in the United States have diagnosable mental health condition that requires monitoring or intervention and interferes with their daily functioning. Often a parent first talks to their child's pediatrician about their concerns before a mental health evaluation or other treatment is sought out. Just as many adults go to their primary care physician when they have symptoms of depression or anxiety, a parent often doesn't know where to turn to about the mental health of their child.

The AAP is recognizing that pediatricians are treating more children for behavioral disorders and is trying to bring awareness to what we can all do to help children who have suffered a trauma in their lives. The misconception by many is that children are resilient and are not as affected as we think they are. Many children are exposed to traumas that do have an effect on their mental health and emotional well-being.

This year, the national theme will focus on building resilience in young children dealing with trauma. Trauma can include disasters, violence, and family separation, as well as many other experiences. Coping skills are needed so that children can learn how to deal with stress that affects them.  

May is Mental Health Awareness month and the focus is on not only recognizing symptoms of mental illnesses but also encouraging people to get treatment. We can all help to end the stigma of mental illness by educating ourselves and others. Mental illnesses are treatable and they do happen to children. If you would like more information about mental health topics that affect children, adolescents and teenagers, check out the following links. If you have concerns about the mental health of your child or someone that you know, talk to someone about it.

 Dealing with a sibling's drug addiction

Oppositional Defiant Disorder

Self-injury videos on YouTube

 Recognizing and coping with Conduct Disorder

Depression and teens

Cyberbullying and your child 

Bipolar rage in children 

Sleep and the bipolar child