Strollerderby : depression

Did This Woman Commit Suicide Because She Couldn't Breastfeed?

Brett Singer — Thu, 07 May 2009 17:37:00 GMT

MomLogic points us to a sad story from the Daily Mail. Katy Isden, a British woman who lived in New York City, committed suicide last year. The police report says that she depressed because she was having difficulty breastfeeding her child.

Before I say anything, this is a terribly sad story. It's awful that Ms. Isden felt so horrible that she ended her life.

The only thing wrong about that last statement is that I really don't know why she killed herself. I realize that the report says it was because she had trouble breastfeeding. By framing the issue this way, doesn't that help to create more pressure for women? Not only is there pressure from "nipple-nazis", but there's pressure to not feel pressured.

Why not call it post-partum depression? I interviewed Lisa Rinna recently about her upcoming book (an interview she was very happy with, by the way -- she even tweeted it) and one of the things she talked about openly was her own battle with PPD. She said that she felt uncomfortable telling anyone she was depressed, because "After having a baby, you're supposed to feel so blissful." By talking about her own experiences, she hopes that other women will be able to seek help if they need it.

MomLogic asks if "there is too much pressure put on moms to breastfeed." I have a different question. Do you think this mother committed suicide because she was having trouble breastfeeding?

Source: Daily Mail via MomLogic

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Depressed Dads More Likely to Have Depressed Kids

Hannah Tennant-Moore — Mon, 04 May 2009 23:20:00 GMT

Traditionally, research about the link between a caretaker’s and a child’s mental health has focused on mothers. But a team of researchers has officially shown that it ain’t just the womenfolk who screw up their kids.

University of Oxford researchers found that teenagers with depressed dads are more likely to be depressed themselves and to have suicidal thoughts. Kids whose fathers suffer from generalized anxiety disorder are twice as likely to have anxiety themselves. And paternal alcoholism is associated with a whole range of behavioral problems in children (particularly sons), including substance abuse, poor academic performance, and low self-esteem.

Having grown up with a father who struggles with depression, I find this study most important for its societal implications. Whether or not my own depression was imparted to me by my dad—either biologically or relationally—my father is the person who has helped me the most when I’m going through a depressive episode because he understands exactly what I’m experiencing and he’s committed to helping me through it.

But my father’s willingness to openly discuss personal problems is rare among men. As researchers point out, men are more reticent than women to seek help in managing mental health problems. I suspect that this reticence could have a greater effect on children than a father’s mental state, particularly for sons who are taught to adopt a “tough guy” mentality for dealing with emotional difficulties.

Photo: BBC

Why Hide Miscarriage?

editors — Thu, 30 Apr 2009 20:14:00 GMT

Today on Babble:

"Why Hide Miscarriage?"

by Christine Chitnis.

I told everyone about my pregnancy in the first trimester -- and when we lost the baby, I was glad everyone knew.

Read it here.

They Say: Because You're Crazy, Your Kids Eat Like Crap

Madeline Holler — Thu, 09 Apr 2009 21:53:00 GMT

Moms, it's all your fault. (Oh, but you knew that already!)

"What now?" you ask. Your personality. It's influencing the way your kids eat.

Results of a study in Norway suggest that mothers with more negative thoughts and feelings are more likely to give their kids unhealthy food. This is the first study to look at children's diets and mothers' psychological and socioeconomic variables.

Ugh. (Hey, kid, wanna Cheeto?)

From Science Daily:

These maternal personality traits fall under a collective name of high negative affectivity (negative emotions). These people often have a lower stress threshold, giving up quicker when faced with obstacles – e.g. in a disagreement – and often experience lack of control of the child.

Bad news, shiny happy people. Just because you're high on life, doesn't mean your kids are eating all their fruits and vegetables. Okay. So quit making the sad sacks feel worse. ('Nother Snickers bar, sweetie?)

Oh, and you with that control-freaky smugness? You're pretty bad, too.

"I think that mothers compensate for this either by trying to force healthy food into their child or hold the sweet-bag strings extra tightly," Ystrøm [one of the reasearchers] continues. "Paradoxically, they try to balance poor control by actually using more control. With force and restrictions they increase desire which quickly results in resistance in the form of tantrums which these mothers are also bad at resisting. Also, earlier studies have shown that controlling behaviour among parents is linked with a more sugar-rich diet among children."

Photo: usmagazine.com

Sylvia Plath's Son Takes His Own Life: Is Suicide Hereditary?

Kate Tuttle — Wed, 25 Mar 2009 14:01:00 GMT

News came this week (though it happened last week) of the suicide of Nicholas Hughes, son of famed poets Sylvia Plath and Ted Hughes. According to Frieda Hughes, the couple's surviving daughter, her brother, who was 47 and a professor at the University of Alaska, Fairbanks, had been battling depresion for some time. But although his suicide may not have come as a shock to those who knew him and his personal sadness, it reverberated with a sickening familiarity when heard by those familiar with his parents' lives -- and it raises questions pyschologists and researchers are still trying to answer, including the big one: is suicide a hereditary act?

Nicholas was just a baby when his mother Sylvia, despairing at the collapse of her marriage to future poet laurete Hughes, took her own life by means of gas oven while he and his sister slept in another room. She put towels under the door to insulate them from the fumes, and pinned her suicide note to the children's pram. Six years later, his stepmother, the woman for whom Hughes had left Plath, killed herself and her four-year-old daughter, using the same method Plath had. Nicholas Hughes didn't copy those earlier suicides -- he hanged himself -- but it's impossible not to wonder how much his actions were influenced by theirs.

Ted Hughes weathered years of accusations and recriminations for his role in the deaths of his wives, and for how he treated their work after they died. But by all accounts he was a loving and protective father, and it can't have been easy to raise a son left motherless so young, and so violently. He writes of how, after his mother's death, the baby's eyes:

Became wet jewels

The hardest substance of the purest pain

As I fed him in his high white chair.

Was it that "purest pain" that led, 46 years later, to another suicide? Or was it something genetic, a predisposition afflicting both mother and son, lying in wait? The science isn't entirely clear, although for some gentic mental illnesses, such as bipolar disorder, the suicide rate is approaching 20%. Some families have a vein of suicide running through them, and it can be hard to tease out which part is genetic and which part comes down as an emotional and historical birthright. But this much is certain: if you couple an inborn vulnerability with a life of such stunningly large losses as Hughes faced, his death is, sadly, not a surprise.

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Congress Looks at Postpartum Depression Support

JeanneSager — Tue, 10 Mar 2009 21:37:00 GMT

Unless you're Tom Cruise, you probably have some sense that postpartum depression is very real and moms could use a heck of a lot more support.

A bill winding its way through both houses of Congress could finally make postpartum depression awareness a priority in the country, along with making it easier for mothers to apply for and access treatment.

The Melanie Blocker Stokes Act, named for a new mother who took her life eight years ago, was introduced in the House of Representatives last year but floundered. Now it's back, with bills reintroduced in the House AND the Senate in 2009. According to a group stumping for supporters who will write to their Congressman begging for passage, the act "would mandate research on the benefits of screening for PPD, and it would also create programs to deliver outpatient, inpatient and home-based health and support services, including services that would promote earlier diagnosis and treatment."

Estimates put the numbers of women who suffer from postpartum depression at one in ten, but as this post from the Perinatal Pro blog correctly points out, women are often hesitant to ask for help - as much because they don't understand the true symptoms as because of a fear of looking like a bad mother. Less than two tenths of a percent of women suffer from a postpartum psychosis (think Susan Smith or Andrea Yates), but because of the intense media attention, many women think their symptoms have to be that extreme to be diagnosed with PPD.

In reality, the symptoms can be as simple as an inability to sleep even when the baby is sleeping, uncontrollable crying, massive changes in appetite or feelings of guilt. They sound like the symptoms of a lot of new moms - the issue is the degree to which they appear. Women need to know there's a way out - and getting proper treatment and support services is a big part of that. Take it from a mom who knows.

Want to help get it passed? All it takes is your name, address and zip code, and the Depression and Bipolar Support Alliance will send an e-mail directly to your Congressman asking him or her to vote yes on this bill.

Image: National Institutes of Health (for more information on PPD)

Man Kills Family, Self, After Layoffs

Kate Tuttle — Wed, 28 Jan 2009 22:01:00 GMT

When Ervin Antonio Lupoe and his wife Ana both lost their jobs at the Kaiser Permanene Hospital in West L.A., fears of economic catastrophe seem to have touched off whatever other demons inhabited Lupoe's mind. After shooting his wife and their five children, Lupoe called 911 to report their deaths and faxed a letter to a Los Angeles TV station before killing himself. Police who entered the home later said it was one of the worst things they'd ever seen.

In the letter, Lupoe recounts the layoffs and says that an adminstrator told him, two days before Christmas, that he shouldn't have to come to work but instead, "you should have blown your brains out." He goes on to explain, "after a horrendous ordeal my wife felt it better to end our lives and why leave our children in someone else's hands ... we have no job and 5 children under 8 years with no place to go. So here we are."

There's no excuse, of course, for murder, and killing one's children because of their parents' financial terror isn't any better than killing them for any other reason. And yet I can't help feel sorrow mixed with anger at this story -- and fear that it will happen again, with different names and faces, as we continue to see such calamitous job losses. Until then, we'll see more of this kind of thing, and even great numbers of the smaller tragedies that bad times spawn: families divided, children let go, choices between medicine and food. When my middle-school teacher described growing up in the Depression, we teenagers almost laughed at him -- we couldn't imagine that anyone would really lose touch, forever, with a sister who the family could no longer afford and had "farmed out" to another family, who then moved with no forwarding address -- it was impossible in our 1980s suburbia to comprehend something like that. Now it seems all too believable.

In the wake of those horrible times, our government erected the notable safety nets -- unemployment insurance, social security, medicaid -- that are meant to protect our very lives when we lose our livelihoods. It's easy to forget how quickly a family can fall down, and how urgently they may need a lifeline. But what do we as a nation do when families like the Lupoes go away, disappearing in a hail of bullets after somebody decided the balance sheet looked better without those paychecks?

Morning News: Beating the Odds, Beating it Back to Work, Beating the Clock

More by this author:

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Alternative Medicine Can Help Kids Too

Amy Kuras — Fri, 09 Jan 2009 17:02:00 GMT

Generally I am kind of wishy-washy on alternative medicine – I am not one of those people who believe everything they read on the internet and are washing down colloidal minerals with an acai-pomegranate cocktail. But I do take fish oil every day and have used both valerian and St John’s wort to good effect.

I thought this story on CNN discussing the best alternative medicine for
kids was interesting. It suggests thing that might help and won’t hurt, like probiotics for diarrhea, chamomile tea for colic, St John’s Wort for mild to moderate depression, and fish oil for asthma and eczema.

Let’s not discount the placebo effect with some of these things – but hey, if you can get he placebo effect with a relativley mild natural compound versus powerful pharmaceuticals, so much the better. And some things you might already be using without realizing it. Both baby gas remedies I have used with my little guy have chamomile extract in them – and both worked a lot better than simethicone drops like Mylicon, for what it’s worth. And some of this just bears out conventional wisdom, like to eat yogurt after you have had antibiotics to build back the beneficial bacteria in the gut.

Still, all of this should be taken with a healthy dose of skepticism and maybe even a chat with a real medical practitioner, versus the hairy fellow working the checkout at your local health food store.

They Say: Shunning Gay Kids Bad for Their Health

JeanneSager — Tue, 30 Dec 2008 16:36:00 GMT

Gee, who would have ever thought being told they're just not good enough could be bad for kids?

Apparently researchers at the César E. Chávez Institute at San Francisco State University. They actually took money and did a full-fledged study to figure out gay kids are at higher risk for a number of health problems if they're shunned by their families. Ya think?

What ever happened to funding studies that do things like - oh I don't know - find a cure for children's cancer?

The study published in the Journal of the American Academy of Pediatrics showed a link between the family rejection of lesbian, gay and bisexual kids and a higher risk of a serious health problems, such as depression, illegal drug use, risk for HIV infection, and suicide attempts. Compared to kids who came from families who were accepting of their sexuality, those who experienced rejection were more than eight times more likely to have attempted suicide, almost six times more likely to be depressed, three times more likely to use illegal drugs and three times more likely to have unprotected sex.

I'm not excusing the parents here - they need to get a grip. But let's say they struck sexuality from the criteria and looked simply at kids who were rejected by their families versus those we were accepted. I think you'd be hard-pressed to find a child who's mom or dad tells them they're worthless who hasn't contemplated suicide or wouldn't qualify for a dose of Prozac.

It's encouraging that researchers are willing to look at sexuality in children - lending further credence to the fact that people are born gay (or straight), and evidence of sexuality in kids is natural. But sometimes, they just go too far to categorize kids and families. Gay kids need love. So do straight kids. If parents can't provide it, their kids are in trouble, period.

Image/Source: RedOrbit

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Morning News: The President-Elect is a Secret Smoker

Madeline Holler — Mon, 08 Dec 2008 14:00:00 GMT

On Meet the Press yesterday, Tom Brokaw dragged it out of the president-elect: yes, Barack Obama still smokes.

So what's the big deal? He obviously keeps it out of the limelight.

Well, the White House is a smoke-free zone. He'll have to go to some lengths to light up and not break the rules. Obama assured Brokaw (very end of the transcript and video) that he wouldn't. He also said he hasn't given up on giving up and that, under the circumstances, he's done well with cutting back.

We think it's totally better to be a closet smoker than, say ...

... a total dimwit that takes long vacations every chance he gets, wrecks the country's economy, starts a war under false pretenses, gives away rights and money and human lives, and doesn't even really regret much about it. (Oh, wait, kind of got off course there. Our advice to Obama regarding ciggies: never quit quitting.)

Love the youth and vitality of Obama, his supporters and loads of the people that work for him. But we can't help but loathe this guy: 27-year-old Jon Favreau, Obama's incoming director of speechwriting. He may be gifted with words, but comedically he's very empty. Here's a picture of him at a party back in the primary campaign days, making advances at a cardboard cutout of Hillary Clinton.

Was a titty grope the best Favreau could come up with? And posed in front of a camera? Hanging out with a guy who still wears his ball cap backwards? We suppose there's one of those Hillary nutcrackers kicking around in the background too.

Reports say that Favreau apologized to Clinton, who responded with humor.

Ann Romney, wife of once presidential hopeful Mitt Romney, was diagnosed with early stage breast cancer. Following a lumpectomy, she's doing well. Her post-op cardboard cutout will soon be ready for a little attention from the hil-AR-ious Jon Favreau and the can't-be-contained Backwards Ball Cap.

Oh, in case this needs clarifying: Obama's totally an American, born on American soil and everything! Still, it's the whisper campaign that won't end and the Supreme Court will decide today whether to hear either of the two cases challenging the president-elect's "natural born citizen" status. Some claim he doesn't qualify because his father was a citizen of Kenya.

Update on President George W. Bush's new house: exclusive community, home also to Mavericks owner Mark Cuban and, at one time, Ross Perot, only recently started letting non-whites to live there. Recently, as in 2000!!!!

From Raw Story:

Until 2000, the neighborhood association's covenant said only white people were allowed to live there, though an exception was made for servants. The document, enacted in 1956, reads: "Said property shall be used and occupied by white persons only except these covenants shall not prevent occupancy by domestic servants of different race or nationality in the employ of a tenant."

Laid-off workers at Republic Windows and Doors, a Chicago factory, have staged a sit-in to protest the short layoff notice, a lack of severance pay and paid-out vacation time. Obama says he supports the workers' demands.

Obama spelled out a few of the details of his WPA plan. Grab a hard-hat and get to work!

Former Clinton labor secretary Robert Reich thinks we should call this economy what it is: a depression! Is Prozac going to get us out of it?

So much for going green the easy way -- recycling. Everything's back to junk value so a lot of your good sorting efforts will wind up in the landfill. But we'll always have reduce and reuse.

Unsold cars are piling up too.

Good news for Iowans! Their state may be inching closer to lifting a ban on gay marriage. Their supreme court will start hearing arguments today challenging the legality of a recent ban on same-sex marriages.

Drinkable, Dressable Obamas

Photo: AP

Five Movies You Shouldn't Watch While Pregnant

JeanneSager — Tue, 28 Oct 2008 16:58:00 GMT

Some women will tell you pregnancy was the best time of their lives. I'm not one of them, but hey, good for those skin glowing, energy flowing, cankle-free ladies. I still have one very big thing in common with most of them - I wanted to know all I could about the next step.

So I did what any good '80s kid would. I went to today's version of the video store and started checking out movies. To save you the sobbing and more than you'll ever want to know about urinary incontinence during pregnancy, here are the movies you SHOULDN'T be renting in your condition:

1. Nine Months: Going on name alone, you'd think this Hugh Grant, Julianne Moore '90s flick was a perfect choice for at-home date night when baby's daddy and your cankles propped on the coffee table. After ~~Pugh~~ Hugh starts showing his pregnant girlfriend he's nothing more than a commitmentphobic prat, you'll start glancing first at your fat feet and then at him, second-guessing ever iota of every conversation since you jumped up and down and yelled "it's blue!" When he sees her turning into a praying mantis (because females are known to eat the male after sex), you'll just get indignant. As the same old story you've seen in every movie continues, you'll start yawning, and by the time Moore's screaming and pushing, you'll be asleep. Get it while you can.

2. Sophie's Choice: I've got to hand it Meryl Streep. If she's not wailing about the dingo eating her baby, she's rising above her own happiness to repent for making the most horrible of choices a mother has ever made. It's a movie everyone should see simply to understand yet another piece of the Holocaust, but not one I'd wish one anyone. It's the choice you must make yourself.

3. Problem Child: The be all and end all movie to make you wonder, can one little kid really make life that insane? Macauley Culkin at his home aloniest (oh come on, what would you call it?) could never wreak the kind of havoc Junior Healy enacts on the ever affable John Ritter (still miss that guy) and his brow-beating b***h of a wife Flo. You know it's fake, you know it's played up, but a little part of your brain starts to wonder, what if I give birth to one of those?

4. Steel Magnolias: Plucky Julia Roberts defies the odds (and Sally Field, and her doctors, and diabetes, and a whole bunch of wise-cracking Southern broads) and has a baby. Plucky Julia Roberts' body can't handle parenting. She collapses on Halloween with her little boy watching. Cue tears. Buckets and buckets of tears. And that's when you're not carrying a baby and a rolling mess of hormones. If you must attempt this one, find a friend who doesn't have anything nice to say about anyone and tell her to come sit by you.

5. Terms of Endearment: Didn't I already mention dead mother and buckets of tears? Then throw in a love-hate relationship between a mother and daughter (mirrored famously by the actresses who played the roles) that will make you cross your fingers there ISN'T a girl in there, a mother-daughter reunion, a mother finding love again . . . aaaack. I'm all ferklempt.

Image: Amazon

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They Say: Depression Can Lead to Premature Birth

JeanneSager — Fri, 24 Oct 2008 17:59:00 GMT

Depressed and pregnant? Here's something else to be depressed about. A study in the Journal of Human Reproduction shows you're more likely to deliver prematurely.

The study, sponsored by Kaiser Permanente, shows ""strong evidence that depression during pregnancy is bad for the fetus." The more severe the depression symptoms, the higher the likelihood that a baby will come early. But doctors say women can fight the risks by getting more exercise, eating well, using light therapy . . . and when all else fails, taking the medicine.

As one of the estimated 12 to 14 percent of women who experience depression during pregnancy, I can tell you - that's easier said than done. With a history of anxiety, I was on depression medicine when I got pregnant. I went off them almost immediately - afraid of the risks of ingesting pharmaceuticals while pregnant. Then I had a car accident - one of the triggers of my original anxiety disorder. As the weeks passed by, I became more and more anxious - and I finally forced myself to talk to the doctor. Her response? I can't put you on an anti-depressant unless you specifically ask me to be put on one because of the risk to the baby.

Way to add more stress there doc. Now reading these results, I'm glad I bit the bullet. As one doctor interviewed by U.S. News and World Report about the study says, a depressed mom's brain "generates some pretty noxious chemicals." In other words, trying to be a hero isn't good for the baby.

Image: Nebraska Health and Human Services

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Teenager Arrested For Kiddie Porn - The Pictures Were of Herself

JeanneSager — Thu, 09 Oct 2008 18:59:00 GMT

I'm not up on all the legalities behind child pornography arrests, I'll admit it. I've never had to know. But last time I checked, a child has to have been somehow objectified, right?

So how does a 15-year-old teen girl taking nudie pics of herself and sending them to her classmates qualify? I'd be calling in counselors for the teenager. Instead, Central Ohio school officials called in the police. Now the teen has been charged with illegal use of a minor in nudity-oriented material (a felony) and possession of criminal tools. That's right, she used herself. And then she possessed the evidence of it! Not only that, the high schoolers who received the pictures may face charges too! Because, well, they possess child porn too!

In Ohio, adults convicted of possession of child porn have to register as sex offenders - I'm all for that. But the judge in this case will have flexibility according to a spokesperson with the district attorney's office. OK, so she may have to register as a sex offender for, um, having pictures of herself naked? Please call the authorities. My daughter climbed out of the bathtub this evening and ran past the mirror. She stopped and made raspberries at it. Naked. She looked at herself naked. What are we going to do?

The worst part of all this is that this girl is a foster child. Which would point to a childhood that's already been disrupted in some way. Teen girls sharing their naked bodies with other kids usually suffer from low self esteem, and there are possiblities of everything from depression to an eating disorder. This, people, is what we call a child in crisis. Not a sex offender!

Child pornograpy is serious and seriously scary for me as a parent. But the fact that a child is naked and a picture is taken does not make it child porn - anymore than a picture of a woman breastfeeding is adult porn. Maybe money would be better spent keeping kids out of trouble than chasing down every picture of a naked kid.

Source: Az Central

Image: AdaptiveMobile

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A Tragic Secret Revealed About 'Anne' Author

Amy Kuras — Tue, 30 Sep 2008 01:59:00 GMT

Well this is just plain sad: The granddaughter of L.M. Montgomery, beloved author of the Anne Of Green Gables books revealed recently to the Toronto Globe and Mail that her grandmother’s death at the age of 67 was in fact suicide via a drug overdose.

Montgomery had apparently suffered from deep feelings of anxiety and dread and felt isolated and sad for much of her life. None of this was a secret to her descendents, or to scholars who have written biographies of Montgomery or studied her work.

Kate MacDonald Butler told the Globe and Mail that she and her family decided to come forward because of a series on the Canadian mental health system the paper did this year, and also the renewed attention to Montgomery on the 100th anniversary of Anne of Green Gables’ publication.

They wanted to bring attention to the idea that mental illness can and does strike anyone, Butler said. It’s likely her sense of isolation was exacerbated by the times in which she lived, when depression and other mental illnesses were seen more as weaknesses of character than imbalances of chemistry.

I loved Anne of Green Gables when I was a girl (really, between this and Little Women, I didn’t grow up in the 1930s or anything, I just loved classic books) and still envy redheads and harbor dreams of seeing Prince Edward Island because of reading them.

While it’s not surprising that someone who wrote so prolifically struggled with sadness – perhaps she was so prolific exactly because the idyllic worlds of Avonlea and Ingleside provided an escape from the sadness that engulfed her daily life – it’s still sad to think that she took her own life. As much joy and pleasure as she brought to others through the characters she created, I wish for her sake and that of her family’s that she could have enjoyed some joy of her own as well.

Bipolar Disorder: A Family Secret

Hannah Tennant-Moore — Sat, 13 Sep 2008 20:55:00 GMT

What would you do if your 10-year-old daughter said to you, “I can’t take it anymore. I don’t want to be me. I don’t want to feel anymore. Why aren’t you doing anything about this?” Or if your normally loving son threatened to slit you open with a knife? Naturally, you would want to do anything in your power to make your children better, but what if that meant giving your six-year-old lithium? Or sending your 10-year-old away to a therapeutic residential school?

In deference to the many parents who face these challenges day after day, I highly recommend Jennifer Egan’s piece on bipolar disorder in children. She traces several families’ struggles to cope with children who rage against the world from the time that they can talk, and offers a comprehensive portrait of the uncertainties surrounding bipolar diagnoses in kids.

Until relatively recently, it was believed that bipolar disorder only affected adults. Now nearly all leading child psychiatry experts agree that children can suffer from the disease—but they mostly all disagree about how to diagnose childhood bipolar disorder. Most experts believe that it is over-diagnosed, in part because managed care usually only pays for one brief psychiatric evaluation a year and because of the highly questionable yet widely popular book The Bipolar Child.

Diagnosing mental health problems in children is further complicated by the fact that many of the symptoms of bipolar disorder overlap with the symptoms of ADHD (Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder). And mania is not as clear-cut in children as in it adults--it's often normal for children to act grandiose or have terrible temper tantrums.

James, one of the kids Egan writes about, was diagnosed with ADHD, OHD (Oppositional Defiant Disorder), and bipolar disorder by the time he was eight. With so much uncertainty about the disease, even parents whose children have seemingly clear-cut episodes of mania—stealing strangers’ cell phones or wearing outlandish clothing—followed by clear episodes of depression remain uncertain about their children’s treatment.

Once a child is diagnosed with bipolar disorder, he and she is prescribed strong medication with harsh side effects. Making the decision to give such drugs to kids is a huge weight of responsibility on a parent’s shoulder—and this decision requires trusting a doctor whose personal biases will inevitably influence her diagnosis and prescribed treatment.

At the very least, I hope that Egan's article will bring greater awareness to this issue. As one of the mothers interviewed said of her son's horrible temper tantrums, "It's like a dirty little secret. It's like having a husband who beats you, only it's a kid. It's your own."

Image: New York Times

Girl Talk May Fuel Anxiety

Hannah Tennant-Moore — Fri, 12 Sep 2008 20:30:00 GMT

Naturally you want your children to have strong friendships, people they can trust to help them navigate social and emotional concerns. But there may be such a thing as too much talking.

Psychologists call it “co-rumination:” the tendency to dwell on a personal problem with a friend, seeking empathy and validation of your feelings. Anyone who’s responsible for paying a teenage girl's phone bill is probably more than a little familiar with this type of conversation: do you think he likes me? Is so-and-so mad at me? Should I break up with him?

As this tendency has started to figure more heavily into female friendships with the advent of MySpace, Facebook, cell phones, and email—which mean that the majority of friendships can be based on chatting or gossip, rather than activities—researchers have started to wonder if it’s such a healthy way for friends to relate with one another.

Indeed, several studies of third, fifth, seventh, and ninth graders have shown that co-rumination can lead to increased anxiety and depression in girls, at least in the short term. Obsessing about a problem with a friend can make that problem seem bigger than it is—and worries can be contagious: if my best friend is so concerned about how many times a week her boyfriend calls her, maybe I should be, too.

Researchers found that emotional conversations did not affect boys negatively, perhaps because they occur less often or because the tone is different. Boys may be more likely to focus on solutions to problems instead of just venting them, which psychologists say is the most effective way to converse.

One way parents can help their daughters avoid this self-perpetuating cycle of anxiety, obsession and validation, and hence more anxiety is to encourage your children to come to you for advice, so they get the perspective of age at least some of the time. Any other tips for parents to help their daughters most effectively deal with emotional upsets?

Photo: New York Times

Depressed Mother. Nothing To See. Move Along.

Adrienne Martini — Tue, 05 Aug 2008 13:00:00 GMT

So here's the happy ending: Eventually, this depressed mom of a nine-month old was found on Baltimore's Skid Row and returned to safety in Rhode Island.

Unfortunately, the rest of the story will make you want to bite someone.

Katie Corcoran had been missing for nine weeks after she walked out of Providence, R.I., hospital where she was getting treatment for post-partum depression. Through some stroke of providence, a shopkeeper in Baltimore found a website about Katie set up by her husband Rob and this mom-of-two made it home.

I'm still surprised at how little coverage this story has gotten, however. Corcoran's disappearance and discovery all happened at the end of last year and few major news outlets covered it.

You'd think this would have been a cause the Nancy Grace's of the media would have been hyping the heck out of. Pretty, fairly young, white woman goes missing. Oh, but she's a mom who is depressed. Right. Not nearly as sexy as a sorority girl on a tropical island. Or am I too cynical?

At least it ends well.

Photo credit: ABC news

They Say: Depression Is Merely a Failure to Count Your Blessings

Adrienne Martini — Fri, 25 Jul 2008 18:00:00 GMT

James Gordon, the author of Unstuck: Your Guide for the Seven Stage Journey Out of Depression, can bite me. Oprah Magazine's Cathryn Jakobson Ramin can also bite me.

This may be a sign that I have amorphous unresolved anger issues. I don't. My anger is very specific and resolved. Currently, it is directed at the folks who insist that severe depression is simply a failure of will and that all that it needed to combat it is a cheerful attitude. Each and every one of you can bite me. Line forms to the left.

Blogger Terese J. Borchard sums up both Gordon and Ramin's arguments. Borchard is a much kinder woman than I -- but we (and the NYT's Judith Warner) agree that taking meds is not the "lazy way out." Nor is it a failure of character. Depression is a biochemical disorder, not a sickness of willpower.

Something finally became very clear when I read Borchard's post: women with depression are such easy marks for people like Gordon and Ramin because they are disinclined to trust their own brains and bodies and will easily hand authority over to Oprah Magazine.

Stop it.

They can bite you, too. Say it out loud a few times, if you need to, just to get the hang of it.

Bite. Me.

(If you are looking for a way to move anger into action, click over here. But only if you want to...)

Is Mental Retardation Reversible?

Amy S.F. Lutz — Wed, 09 Jul 2008 12:36:00 GMT

Revolutionary new studies have shown that learning delays caused by four common conditions can be totally reversed - but at this point, only in mice. Still, if you know someone suffering from tubeous sclerosis complex (TSC), neurofibromatosis, fragile X or Down Syndrome, then the news looks very promising.

Different scientists studying different neurological impairments are discovering that many are caused by chemical imbalances in the brain that can be rectified through the use of drugs, some of which have already have FDA approval. For example, Alcino Silva, a neurobiologist at UCLA, found that the organ-rejection drug rapamycin reversed learning disabilities in mice with TSC, a condition that affects about 1 in 6000 people and causes learning delays, autism and epilepsy.

As the parent of a child with autism, you can imagine how excited I was to hear about a possible cure for autism, even if the autism in these mice was caused by a very specific genetic abnormality. And I believe that any parents who have anxiously awaited the results of prenatal testing on their unborn children have to be thrilled by the prospect of a drug like the one Craig Garner is studying at Stanford that has reversed learning disabilities in mice with Down Syndrome.

And even if you happen to live in a bubble and know no one who cares about any of these disorders, Cambridge University neuroscientist Petrus de Vries believes that research on specific genetic conditions like these may eventually lead to advancements in the understanding of extremely common diseases such as ADHD, schizophrenia and depression. So this is good news for everyone.

MySpace Hoax Mom Indicted

Kelly Mills — Fri, 16 May 2008 17:27:00 GMT

Remember Lori Drew? How about Megan Meier? Megan, a thirteen-year-old, hung herself after her MySpace boyfriend, Josh, cruelly dumped her. This itself would be bad enough, but the real ugly part is that Josh didn't exist. He was the creation of Lori Drew, who was Megan's neighbor and the mother of a girl Megan was once friends with. Drew, with the aid of a nineteen-year-old employee of hers, created Josh, maintained a relationship with Megan, laughed abut it and let her daughter and daughter's friend in on the joke, and then had "Josh" tell Megan the world would be better off without her.

Since being a phenomenally evil creep isn't a crime, investigators didn't charge Drew in the case. But now a federal grand jury has indicted her on one count of conspiracy and three counts of using protected computers without authorization to get information used to harass and torment a teenage girl. Each charge carries a maximum sentence of five years in prison. The indictment includes the fact that MySpace users agree to terms forbidding users from promoting information they know to be false, soliciting personal information from anyone under eighteen, and using the site to harass others. Drew of course did all of the above. Too bad there isn't really a punishment that can make up for what she did.

Photo: Tom Gannam / AP

Teen Misery and Marijuana Use

Hannah Tennant-Moore — Thu, 15 May 2008 01:20:00 GMT

It turns out toking does NOT make depressed teenagers feel better. This is according to a recent White House report, which found that teens who report being depressed are twice as likely to smoke marijuana as those who do not report symptoms of depression, and those who smoke pot at least once a month over a yearlong period are three times more likely to report suicidal thoughts as those who abstain.

The report aims to raise awareness about the long-term effects of marijuana smoking, such as the statistic that marijuana users are 40 percent more likely to develop mental health disorders.

It’s important to note that the report does not establish a clear cause and effect: Does smoking pot make kids unhappier, or are unhappier kids more likely to smoke pot? Which brings us to the real question this study should raise for concerned parents and educators: Why are young people so miserable? 13 percent of girls and 5 percent of boys aged 12 to 17 report suffering a serious bout of depression in the last year. We all know high school sucks, but does it have to cause crippling depression? And why does it disproportionately affect females?

Here I must note that some methods of treating depression in order to prevent marijuana use could backfire. In high school, I knew a kid whose parents bought him a special lamp to treat his SAD (Seasonal Affective Disorder). He used it to grow pot under his bed. For many teens, it's gonna take more than a special lamp to help them navigate high school--perhaps, oh, I don't know, a complete shift in societal pressures would help.

Photo: themedguru.com

Depressed Dads More Likely to Have Troubled Children

Hannah Tennant-Moore — Thu, 24 Apr 2008 11:46:00 GMT

A new study from the University of Bristol’s Children of the 90s project indicates that postnatal depression in fathers is clearly linked to behavioral problems in their children. The downside is, worrying that your unhappiness is going to turn your kid into a criminal is not likely to ease your unhappiness. The upside is, the study aims to raise awareness about the need to recognize and treat paternal postnatal depression.

The study of 14,000 families found that the children of depressed fathers are twice as likely as those without depressed fathers to be diagnosed with a psychiatric disorder—such as hyperactivity or antisocial behavior—by the age of eight. Although postnatal depression in mothers has previously been linked to a wider range of childhood problems, this study indicates that behavioral and social issues are specifically tied to paternal depression, underscoring the important role that fathers play in socializing their children. (The study did not address the possibility of genetic causality.) The study also found that 3.6 percent of fathers exhibit signs of depression eight weeks after the birth of their child—apparently, Gwyneth Paltrow is not the only one suffering from the baby blues.

What do you all think of this study: another example of the craze over mental health diagnoses, or an important step toward raising awareness about a common problem? How have fathers out there coped with postnatal depression?

Weekly Check-Up: Your Stress Makes Your Kid Sick

Kelly Mills — Thu, 20 Mar 2008 18:32:00 GMT

Feeling anxious and depressed? Well, now you have one more thing to angst about, because a new study suggests parental emotional stress can make kids more vulnerable to illness. Like it is enough that stress makes you more likely to get sick, now your children have to be felled by the latest bug as well. I totally knew that stomach flu my kid got was my fault, I just hadn't figured out how I caused it yet.

Researchers based the finding on both reports from parents on instances of their children's sniffles and fevers and so on, and on measurements of immune cells in kids. The scientists admit that parental reports might be slightly skewed, but say the study still suggests a link. However, one stress and health researcher says parents shouldn't get too upset just yet, and that more longterm studies are needed because it's possible there aren't lasting effects. "I believe that children are highly resilient, and their systems are sufficiently robust to cope with this. Although it is a good study, parents should not let it worry them unduly." Especially because if you get anxious about it, your kid might get sick. Heh heh, catch 22.

When the Baby Doesn't Have You at Hello

Jen Chaney — Wed, 12 Mar 2008 18:32:00 GMT

Writer Helen Walsh bravely shares her experiences as a first-time mum in this essay (warning: it's on the longish side) in the UK's Guardian newspaper. Among other things, Walsh says she sometimes felt suicidal in the difficult weeks after giving birth to her son, and that the support of doctors and other women didn't fully ease the pain.

"There seems to be a collective code of silence governing those first few months of motherhood," she writes. "Maybe it is born of a time-cherished will to preserve the magical aura of new birth for all expectant mothers. Or maybe it's simply too horrid to acknowledge - the idea that we might not fall head over heels in love with our newborn is plain unthinkable. As a mother, I now know why those women abandon their babies in church yards and hospital toilets."

A few points about this provocative piece:

1. I think it's the culture that perpetuates the notion of a "magical aura" surrounding pregnancy and birth moreso than other women. Before I had my son, my ideas about delivering a child and caring for him were based largely on what I had observed on sitcoms. I envisioned a labor during which my husband would run around like a dithering idiot, yelling at doctors and, at some point, fainting. I figured I would scream at everyone like a deranged dragon, grunt a few times, then push out a kid and burst into tears of joy that would continue for, approximately, 18 years. And, naturally, I thought all of this would occur during May Sweeps.

Once I actually got pregnant and began having serious conversations with my veteran mom friends, though, reality sunk in pretty quickly. The first thing nearly all of them said to me was: "The first few months are really hard." If anything was beaten into my head before I became a mom, it was that. "Prepapre yourself," I was told. "Life's about to suck royally." Of course, it's impossible to fully prepare yourself regardless of any advance warnings you may receive. So Walsh's shock at how her emotions went wibbly-wobbly is more than understandable. But I don't think the strain, self-sacrifice and, let's face it, sometimes torturous parts of being a mom are completely a secret.

2. Similarly, I also am not so sure that the "code of silence" Walsh mentions is as much of an issue as it once was. Granted, many women are very reluctant to discuss their feelings of failure at being a mother. And perhaps in British culture, that's even more true than it is in America. But with so many mommy groups, messageboards, blogs and Web sites like Babble out there, that silence strikes me as less deafening than ever before. But, as Walsh suggests, could we be more empathetic toward women who struggle with motherhood? Absolutely.

3. I have to admit, there was one portion of this essay that made me laugh. In the penultimate paragraph, Walsh talks about the day she finally started to come out of her funk and fall in love with her son. She writes: "I remember waking the next morning refreshed, mentally replenished. The Smiths were on the radio, birds were bickering outside." The Smiths were on the radio? And that made her feel less suicidal? No wonder Walsh knew she was on the road to recovery. The depressing lyrics of Mr. Steven Patrick Morrissey have been known to crush the spirits of people who didn't even have infants to breastfeed.

File Photo

17th Teen Kills Self In Town With Multiple Suicides

Kelly Mills — Wed, 20 Feb 2008 19:33:00 GMT

A town in Wales is reeling from a wave of teen suicides, and when a 16-year-old girl was found hanging in the woods this week, the total deaths reached 17 in a little over one year. Some media reports have speculated on a possible internet suicide pact among teens in the area, but the police say there is no evidence of this or of any possible criminal causes of the deaths. While many of the victims did use a social networking site, the authorities say this played no part in the deaths, and argue against the more sensational media coverage. The parents of a 15-year-old boy in the same area who killed himself last week ask for more media restraint, and say "their son may have been influenced by media reports they believe glamorized earlier suicides."

Is there an internet connection between the teens who took their own lives? Sadly, "suicide clusters" where several teens in an area kill themselves over a span of a few to many years, are not unheard of, and certainly pre-date social networking sites. There's been many observed suicide clusters around the world and sociologists have even used them as evidence of the profound influence of society on even our own instinct towards self-preservation. Teens and young adults are the most suceptible to clusters, and in many ways we still don't understand mass suicide, let alone have tons of effective means of prevention. And they are profoundly tragic for the parents of the teens who kill themselves, and terrifying to the parents of adolescents in the area.

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17th Teen Kills Self In Town With Multiple Suicides