Jezebel: Mental Illness

Celexa Made Me "Smug": Elle Writer Calls Out Meds' Lesser-Known Side Effects

Anna N. — Tue, 14 Oct 2008 14:00:00 EDT

It's hard to find a really nuanced take on psychotropic drugs these days. TV ads try to convince you that meds will transform your life from horrible to awesome (cf. the current Abilify commercial, in which a woman describes her bipolar disorder while wandering a lonely beach, then returns home to bask in the embrace of the man Abilify apparently helped her catch). On the other side, an increasing number of naysayers (backed up by disturbing but conflicting evidence) warn that Prozac leads not only to suicide but to the decline of Western civilization. This month, a middle ground opens up in, of all places, Elle magazine, where author Cathi Hanauer details her complex experience with Celexa. Her piece hits some false notes, but it also points out what's potentially the worst side effect of SSRIs: complacency.

Lots of anti-antidepressant screeds quickly admit that, of course, really mentally ill people should take medicine, but that the rest of us should just suck it up and deal with our feelings. This stance is wrong-headed because it fails to understand mental illness as a spectrum and instead assumes that everyone who takes drugs is either 100% batshit or an overprivileged sissy. Hanauer takes a better approach, viewing SSRI treatment as a matter of costs and benefits.

For her, Celexa had both. It did in fact, make her feel awesome — she slept better, yelled less, and even finished a novel. But it also made her complacent — "I felt good and didn't want anything to change, to potentially alter my high" — and smug — "if you're so tortured, I'd think, stop whining and medicate!"

Hanauer acknowledges that the second cost may be a widespread one. She says she finds her Celexa-smugness "sobering, especially given the number of Americans now on these meds. Compassion is not something we want to lose on a large scale." But she considers only the personal side effects of her complacency, noting that most of the important and beneficial changes in her life came from dissatisfaction. She never makes the next logical step: most important changes in the world come from dissatisfaction too.

Medication can be an important tool in the treatment of mental illness, but the relief it brings can distract doctors, patients — and policymakers — from problems that still exist. Being poor makes you more likely to get mental illness; so does being a veteran. And so, I suspect, does living in a country that cares as little for its poor and sick as ours does. So while drugs can do wonders — especially for those who can afford them — we need to remember that depression and anxiety come from the world as well as the brain, and that the world needs fixing too.

Club Med [Elle]

"Thinking About It Again, And Again, And Again": How Rumination May Link Art And Mental Illness

Anna N. — Thu, 09 Oct 2008 18:20:00 EDT

Here's some news that may leave you emotionally conflicted and intellectually uncertain: several studies have found a link between creativity and bipolar disorder. According to CNN, a study by Stanford psychologist Terrence Ketter showed bipolar patients scoring up to 50 percent higher on "creativity tests" than a mentally healthy control group. Explanations for this link abound — some say creative people are hypersensitive to their surroundings, leading them to worry more, while others think the sheer stress of working in the arts causes mental problems. The most interesting explanation, however, has to do with reflection and rumination.

Psychologist and novelist Paul Verhaeghen describes himself as "somewhat mood disordered," and says, "one of the things I do is think about something over and over and over again, and that's when I start writing." However, "if you think about stuff in your life and you start thinking about it again, and again, and again, and you kind of spiral away in this continuous rumination about what's happening to you and to the world — people who do that are at risk for depression." Obsessive rumination and reflection can lead to insightful and surprising works of art; Verhaeghen mentions David Foster Wallace, whose "breathless" sentences "need to be annotated, and the annotations need to be annotated again." However, these same mental habits can get the brain stuck in painful patterns, as David Foster Wallace, who committed suicide on September 12, no doubt knew.

The idea that creativity and mental illness are connected is an old one, and one that has done a lot of damage. Miserable people have created some beautiful things, but the belief that misery is necessary for art, or the price one pays for the gift of artistic genius, may discourage artists from getting treatment. It also reinforces the notion some depressed people have that their worldview is the correct one, and that happy people just aren't paying enough attention. And it encourages people like Eric Wilson, author of Against Happiness, to wish for just a little bit of depression — enough to write good books, but not enough to commit suicide. Like people who misguidedly wish for a little anorexia to trim those extra 20 pounds, boosters of mild artistic depression forget that mental illness isn't like gas for your brain — you don't just get to pump in how much you want.

However, acknowledging that bipolar disorder can be linked to creativity could have an upside. It's popular today to view mental problems as diseases, like diabetes, that afflict people with no connection to their personalities. But mental illness is more complicated than that. It's often difficult to separate one mental illness from another, and to separate the symptoms of mental illness from the traits of character. If we viewed people holistically, we might be better able to help them live happily and healthily, without giving up what makes them unique.

Experts ponder link between creativity, mood disorders [CNN]

Jeannette Eyerly, one of the first authors ...

Anna N. — Tue, 02 Sep 2008 13:40:00 EDT

Jeannette Eyerly, one of the first authors to bring serious issues like death, abortion, and drugs to the once-bubble-gum world of young adult fiction, has died at the age of 100. In addition to writing popular novels like Drop-Out, More Than a Summer Love, and A Girl Like Me, Eyerly was also a mental health advocate. She campaigned to reduce the stigma of mental illness, and to provide alternatives to hospital care — she even helped found a mental health center in Polk County, Iowa. RIP Jeannette Eyerly, and kudos for addressing people's hardships, both in fiction and in life. [NY Times]

The Most Disgusting Thing A Person Has Ever Done To Lose Weight

Tracie — Tue, 20 May 2008 19:00:00 EDT

Today I saw one of the most disturbing clips I've ever seen on television, courtesy of the Tyra show. It featured a 19-year-old anorexic named Cassie, who weighs 85 lbs and, as her disease would dictate, believes that she's fat. Cassie takes drastic measures to lose weight, like taking 35 laxatives at a time, chewing on paper, and eating cotton (the latter two, she admits, she learned to do by reading "pro ana" sites). When she does actually eat food, she only allows herself 150 calories a day. (She used to eat dirt, but then stopped because she was afraid of "dirt calories.") Because years of purging have ruined her gag reflex, she can no longer vomit, so instead, she sticks a feeding tube down her throat and suctions food out of her stomach. Even Tyra, who has undoubtedly seen a whole lot of disordered eating in her life working as a model, was beyond shocked. Clip above.

Are Men Less Likely To Be Depressed Because They Don't Even Know What It Is?

Dodai — Wed, 30 Apr 2008 12:00:00 EDT

The National Alliance on Mental Illness has announced that while 18 million Americans experience depression every year, one in eight women get depressed, which is twice the rate of depression in men. Twice the rate. In addition, depression hits minorities the most: Middle-aged Hispanic women have the highest rate, then middle-aged African-American women. Young Asian-American women have the second highest rate of suicide among those ages 15 to 24. There are many reasons that women are more likely to experience depression: In addition to genetic factors, brain chemistry issues, and psychosocial losses or changes, there are things that women have to deal with that men usually do not. "Some experiences are unique to women," Dr. Ken Duckworth of the NAMI says, "including post-partum changes, infertility and hormonal fluctuations throughout their lives." But one has to wonder: Do men even realize what depression is?

It's been reported time and time again that men are less likely to go to the doctor. Unless they're seriously injured and need stitches, lots of men never deal with health issues. Personally, I've known guys who were clearly depressed and did nothing about it. Friends and boyfriends who had all the symptoms but — as is often the case with men — didn't feel as though they "needed" to see a doctor. That somehow they would "snap out of it." Pair this up with the fact that some dudes love using the word "drama" anytime a woman exhibits emotion, and you've got a recipe for an aversion to dealing with feelings. This might be anecdotal, but surely the National Alliance on Mental Illness gets its statistics from people who actually see a mental health professional? If some dude is walking around depressed but undiagnosed, does he count?

Women depressed at twice the rate of men [UPI]
Women and Depression [NAMI]
Earlier: Boys Who Use The Word Drama: An Investigation
In Defense of Depression
In Post-Industrial Society, Women Are Either "Princess Crazy" Or Her Handmaidens
Related: When booking a doctor's visit, gender plays a role [MSNBC]

In Post-Industrial Society, Women Are Either "Princess Crazy" Or Her Handmaidens

Jessica — Mon, 18 Feb 2008 13:30:00 EST

How many times has a dude accused you of being "crazy" when you think you're being perfectly rational? Well there's a new book out by Paris-born writer Lisa Appignanesi, Mad, Bad and Sad: A History of Women and the Mind Doctors from 1800, which argues that women's so-called madness has been gerrymandered by shifting definitions that often equate craziness and "feminine" behavior. In a review of Mad, Bad and Sad, Telegraph scribe Melanie McGrath says that, "Our current expectations to be made, as one advocate of Prozac puts it, 'better than well', along with ever-expanding definitions of what constitutes mental illness, have served to turn us all, if not into Princesses of Crazy then into her handmaidens."

Appignanesi discusses cultural expectations of "madness" by citing the biographies of suicidal, cultural icons such as Marilyn Monroe, Sylvia Plath, and Virginia Woolf. According to McGrath, "We are not simple creatures,' [Appignanesi] says, in something of an understatement. By accepting, even colluding with, the continual expansion of categories of mental illness, we deny life's natural ups and downs and by doing so, impoverish its quality."

Appignanesi isn't the only one lamenting the over-diagnosis of a captive public. There has been much ink spilled on the over-prescription of psychiatric medication, and stereotypically (as Appignanesi points out), women are more demonstratively emotional than men are — so are they being more aggressively over-prescribed? Should we be pulling up the proverbial yellow wallpaper of our feminine oppression instead of swilling Prozac? As we watch former icon of ultra-girliness, Britney Spears, mentally unravel before our eyes, these are all valid questions to be asking ourselves. As we ponder, I'm just going to call myself a handmaiden of princess crazy because, you know, it has a nice ring to it!

Femininity As Mental Illness [Telegraph]
Mad, Bad and Sad: A History of Women and the Mind Doctors from 1800 [Amazon]

Earlier: What's The Difference Between A "Real" Depressive And A "Lazy" Pill Freak?
In Defense Of Depression
Boys Who Use The Word "Drama": An Investigation

Drowning In Perfume? You Might Be Depressed

dodai — Thu, 03 Jan 2008 17:30:00 EST

Researchers from Tel Aviv University recently discovered a link between depression and the olfactory glands. "Our scientific findings suggest that women who are depressed are also losing their sense of smell, and may overcompensate by using more perfume," explains Professor Yehuda Shoenfeld. The good news? "People who are depressed seem to respond well to aromatherapy. Certain smells seem to help them overcome the effects of the biological factors, suggesting that depression may have a biological cause." Dr. Shoenfeld suggests that a standardized "smell test" cold be developed so that doctors could diagnose depression and other autoimmune diseases. Haven't you always suspected the aroma of fresh-baked brownies was a miracle cure?

Dr. Shoenfeld has studied lupus, arthritis and rheumatism, and found that depression accompanying lupus is not just an emotional reaction to being sick — it appears to have a biological cause. The fact that sense of smell and depression can be linked, however, should come as no surprise to anyone who's ever been depressed. Not only do you cease to feel, taste or smell, you might even stop seeing colors. Some of us know, because, once we were treated for depression, we were absolutely astonished at how the world was suddenly quite pretty and brightly-hued. What is surprising? That there might be a low-tech, ancient way to treat mood disorders. "I think that science is able to show that aromatherapy might not be just for quacks," Dr. Shoenfeld says. "After all, some of these remedies have been used since the time of the Egyptians to treat organic diseases." Bring on the grapefruit-scented candles!

Wearing Too Much Perfume May Indicate Depression [Science Daily]
Why Some Depressed Girls Can't Smell The Roses [EurekAlert]

Susanna Sonnenberg Adds Another Chapter To The Unhinged Mother Canon

Jessica — Fri, 21 Dec 2007 15:00:00 EST

In today's New York Times, famously-scurrilous book critic Michiko Kakutani gives a rave review to Her Last Death, Susanna Sonnenberg's debut memoir about her totally batshit mother, "Daphne." While Sonnenberg's mom "possessed a magical charm and a contagious, manic enthusiasm, especially in...her 'Let's-Take-Over-Central Park' moods," Kakutani explains, Demerol addict Daphne was also prone to "falling-down, passing-out drug binges and [she had a] relentless obsession with sex, which she shockingly shared with her young daughter." Daphne made Susanna read aloud from Penthouse Letters at age ten and told her about orgasms when she was eight. Though Daphne's mother-of-the-year antics are terrible, she joins a robust literary pantheon of bad mommies: Christina Crawford's juicy Joan Crawford takedown Mommie Dearest, and probably the best book about living with a mentally ill parent, Mary Karr's unparalleled The Liar's Club.

For those who haven't read it (and you should!) Karr's Liars Club paints a beautifully-grueling picture of her childhood in East Texas, growing up with a pair of mostly well-meaning alcoholic parents. During the course of the book, Mary's creative and charming (though not exactly warm and fuzzy) mother Charlie suffers two nervous breakdowns, and ends up leaving Mary and her sister Lecia alone in Colorado for weeks at a time while she runs off to Mexico, gets addicted to diet pills, and drinks thousands of Mason jars full of rot gut vodka.

Perhaps the most moving part of The Liar's Club is when Mary and Lecia watch their mother set fire to most of their worldly possessions in a makeshift driveway pyre. Included in the detritus is Mary's rocking horse.

That's my horse getting doused by the upended gas can. I knot my arms in front of my chest and think how I wanted to keep that horse for bouncing. It's supposed to be a baby toy, but some days when Lecia's out, I ride it with springs screeching and close my eyes and picture myself galloping across a wide prairie. Now that horse looks at me blank-eyed and tired. I scan around for a rock or a two-by-four to conk mother on the head with. But Lecia's hands won't let go my shoulders. She could be watching the weather on TV for all the feeling her face shows. I tell her that's my horse Mother's messing with. But she's bored with this complaint. So I let it go. Bye-bye, old Paint, I think to myself, I'm a-leaving Cheyenne

The best thing about the The Liar's Club is Karr's exquisite ability to mix comedy with pathos. Hopefully, Sonnenberg's book can do the same, since nearly 300 pages about a miserable childhood will be a pretty tough slog if there's no gallows humor. If you have some downtime over the holidays and you're looking to comfort yourself with the knowledge that at least someone's childhood was more miserable than yours was, The Liar's Club is the perfect book to curl up with. That, or, you know, Island of the Blue Dolphins.

'M' Is For The Mania, Manipulation And Magic [New York Times]
Her Last Death [Amazon]
A Scrappy Little Beast [Salon]

Earlier: Island Of The Blue Dolphins: I'm A Cormorant And I Don't Care

Related:
The Liar's Club: A Memoir [Amazon]

Do Bitty Babies End Up More Depressed Than Their Brawnier Brethren?

Jessica — Tue, 04 Dec 2007 18:00:00 EST

So it's not even 5 pm yet and it's almost completely dark outside and apparently ass-chappingly cold (so I hear! Not that I've been outside today), and it makes me want to crawl under the covers and hibernate until conditions are less soul sucking. Oh, can you tell I have a history of depression? Smart girl! But according to a new study I should be a reasonably happy adult because I was such a sizable baby. "We found that even people who had just mild or moderate symptoms of depression or anxiety over their life course were smaller babies than those who had better mental health," says Ian Colman of the University of Alberta. A completely unscientific poll of three people (myself included) with a history of depression shows that we were ALL big infants, each of us weighing in at over 8lbs. After the jump, an even less scientific poll, just 'cause I'm curious.

Smaller babies more prone to depression, anxiety later on [EurekAlert!]