Increased mental distress may be somehow influenced by where you live, suggests a new study. There is an uneven distribution among groups of people who experience frequent mental distress (FMD), based on geographic location.
Frequent mental distress is defined as experiencing depression or emotional upset for more than fourteen days in the previous month. The study, published in the American Journal of Preventive Medicine, showed that certain geographic locales are associated with greater frequencies of mental distress.
Data from surveys conducted 1993-2001 and 2003-2006, collected by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, was used to obtain the study results. Variances were found in the incidence of frequent mental distress, related to time and geographic location within individual states.
The two studies included more than 1.2 million people, conducted as part of the CDC’s Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance System. The study was broken up into counties, and takes into account results influenced by variations in less populated counties.
Average frequent mental distress was 9.4%. The survey showed a one percent increase in overall mental distress between the first and second study in 27 states. Surveys from people living in Mississippi, Oklahoma and West Virginia showed a four percent increase in frequent mental distress, comparing the first and second survey. Living in the Appalachian and the Mississippi Valley areas showed increasing and high rates of mental distress.
The least amount of mental distress was found among those living in the Midwest –the incidence of frequent mental distress actually declined from the first to second survey.
Dr. Matthew M. Zack, lead investigator for the study suggests living in an area that does not meet health and social service needs may explain why frequent mental distress varies with where people live. “The continued surveillance of mental distress may help these programs to identify unmet needs and disparities, to focus their policies and interventions and to evaluate their performance over time.”
The study article, titled Geographic Patterns of Frequent Mental Distress: U.S. Adults, 1993 and 2003 may help communities develop strategies to eliminate mental distress associated with where people live, through awareness of the causes.
(By: Kathleen Blanchard RN)
Friday, October 30, 2009
Mental Illness Awareness Week Reaching Out
About 60 million Americans experience mental health problems in a given year. Mental awareness week is from October 4th-10th and this year a focus will be on reaching out to more and more Americans.
The National Mental Health Awareness Campaign is a nationwide non-partisan public education campaign that was launched as part of the 1999 White House Conference on Mental Health. They are dedicated to battling the stigma, shame, and myths surrounding mental disorders that prevent so many people from getting the help they need.
Mental Health Awareness Month is designed to increase awareness about mental illness and attempt to erase some of the social stigma that prevents many people with mental illnesses from seeking help.
This year The National Alliance of Mental Illness (NAMI) hopes for change. They want to reach out to more people and having more free public screenings for mental health issues. "We know that with early detection, appropriate treatment and support from family and friends, people with mental illness can lead healthy, rewarding lives," said Michael Fitzpatrick, NAMI executive director. "NAMI members connect to educate each other and encourage their loved ones during their personal journeys to wellness. NAMI offers hope to people during difficult times."
Kim Arnold, executive director of NAMI (National Alliance on Mental Illness) Arkansas, said about 60 million Americans experience mental health problems in any given year. One in 17 lives with the most serious conditions. “Mental illnesses are medical illnesses,” Arnold said. “That is the starting point for understanding, as well as treatment and recovery. Mental Illness does not discriminate. No one is immune.”
She said a mental illness such as anxiety disorder can be life altering. “They can’t an ordinary life if they can’t finish their ritual,” Arnold said. “Think about when you are panicky. Imagine what it would be like to feel like that all the time.”
With the increasing economical troubles and unemployment, mental health agencies want to increase their awareness so they can help people better cope with the demands and everyday stresses. NAMI hopes to reachout to more and more Americans.
Every city in every state will be having events to help promote the changes to reach out to more people this year more so than ever. Specials workshops, conferences, walks, and other events will be focusing on treatment and recognition of mental illness in our nation. Be sure to check with you local listings of events and screenings this week.
In addition, visit the website Live your life well http://www.liveyourlifewell.org/ for information tht can help you and your family become more aware that there is help and hope.
Materials from NAMI and Mental Health America are used in this report. ( By: Tyler Woods Ph.D.)
The National Mental Health Awareness Campaign is a nationwide non-partisan public education campaign that was launched as part of the 1999 White House Conference on Mental Health. They are dedicated to battling the stigma, shame, and myths surrounding mental disorders that prevent so many people from getting the help they need.
Mental Health Awareness Month is designed to increase awareness about mental illness and attempt to erase some of the social stigma that prevents many people with mental illnesses from seeking help.
This year The National Alliance of Mental Illness (NAMI) hopes for change. They want to reach out to more people and having more free public screenings for mental health issues. "We know that with early detection, appropriate treatment and support from family and friends, people with mental illness can lead healthy, rewarding lives," said Michael Fitzpatrick, NAMI executive director. "NAMI members connect to educate each other and encourage their loved ones during their personal journeys to wellness. NAMI offers hope to people during difficult times."
Kim Arnold, executive director of NAMI (National Alliance on Mental Illness) Arkansas, said about 60 million Americans experience mental health problems in any given year. One in 17 lives with the most serious conditions. “Mental illnesses are medical illnesses,” Arnold said. “That is the starting point for understanding, as well as treatment and recovery. Mental Illness does not discriminate. No one is immune.”
She said a mental illness such as anxiety disorder can be life altering. “They can’t an ordinary life if they can’t finish their ritual,” Arnold said. “Think about when you are panicky. Imagine what it would be like to feel like that all the time.”
With the increasing economical troubles and unemployment, mental health agencies want to increase their awareness so they can help people better cope with the demands and everyday stresses. NAMI hopes to reachout to more and more Americans.
Every city in every state will be having events to help promote the changes to reach out to more people this year more so than ever. Specials workshops, conferences, walks, and other events will be focusing on treatment and recognition of mental illness in our nation. Be sure to check with you local listings of events and screenings this week.
In addition, visit the website Live your life well http://www.liveyourlifewell.org/ for information tht can help you and your family become more aware that there is help and hope.
Materials from NAMI and Mental Health America are used in this report. ( By: Tyler Woods Ph.D.)
How To Decide What Is Normal in Mental Health
Approximately 26.2 percent of Americans age 18 and older suffer from a diagnosable mental disorder in a given year, but how do you decide what’s normal or not normal when it comes to mental health? How do you know if your feelings of sadness or anxiety or occasional panic are signs of mental illness or that your state of mental health is normal?
First of all, the 26.2 percent statistic provided by the National Institute of Mental Health, which translates into 57.7 million people, can be shaved down significantly when you consider that the proportion that suffer from a serious mental illness is only 6 percent—still a substantial number but significantly less than 26.2 percent.
Second, determining whether what you are feeling is considered normal mental health or an indication that you should seek advice from a mental health professional is not always easy. Unfortunately, some people still believe it is a sign of weakness or a stigma to have or admit having a mental illness. This belief prevents them from seeking and getting advice or treatment that could benefit them greatly. Many people also do not know where to turn to get the information they need to make a decision about whether they should seek further help.
People who try to diagnose themselves and determine if their feelings and behaviors are normal will likely only become more frustrated and confused. It is not easy to distinguish normal mental health from a diagnosable mental illness because there is no one easy test anyone, even mental health professionals, can use to make that determination. Mental health providers gather much of the information they need by talking with the individual who is experiencing some mental health issues.
To help them make a diagnose, mental health providers use the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM), which defines mental disorders as “behavioral or psychological syndromes or patterns that cause distress, disability in functioning, or a significantly increased risk of death, pain or disability. And that syndrome or pattern can’t just be an expected and culturally accepted response to a particular event, such as grieving the death of a loved one.” As you can see, this definition still does not provide a precise idea of what normal mental health is.
So what can you do to help you decide what’s normal? You can begin by turning to various mental health individuals, agencies, organizations, and groups to get information and guidance to determine whether what you (or a loved one) are experiencing is something that requires or would benefit from treatment, be it support groups, counseling, some type of psychotherapy, alternative therapies (e.g., biofeedback, guided visualization, meditation), medication, or a combination of these and other approaches.
The best place to begin is by consulting your family physician or another physician you trust. If you know any counselors, therapists, or other mental health professionals, including religious or spiritual counselors, you can contact them for a consultation. You might also contact any one or more of the following organizations. This is only a representative list; there are other organizations that focus on mental health issues that can provide professional information and guidance.
Mental Faculties
Thought is a mental process which allows an individual to model the world, and so to deal with it effectively according to their goals, plans, ends and desires. Words referring to similar concepts and processes include cognition, idea, and imagination. Thinking involves the cerebral manipulation of information, as when we form concepts, engage in problem solving, reasoning and making decisions. Thinking is a higher cognitive function and the analysis of thinking processes is part of cognitive psychology.
Memory is an organism's ability to store, retain, and subsequently recall information. Although traditional studies of memory began in the realms of philosophy, the late nineteenth and early twentieth century put memory within the paradigms of cognitive psychology. In recent decades, it has become one of the principal pillars of a new branch of science called cognitive neuroscience, a marriage between cognitive psychology and neuroscience.
Imagination is accepted as the innate ability and process to invent partial or complete personal realms the mind derives from sense perceptions of the shared world. The term is technically used in psychology for the process of reviving in the mind percepts of objects formerly given in sense perception. Since this use of the term conflicts with that of ordinary language, some psychologists have preferred to describe this process as "imaging" or "imagery" or to speak of it as "reproductive" as opposed to "productive" or "constructive" imagination. Imagined images are seen with the "mind's eye". One hypothesis for the evolution of human imagination is that it allowed conscious beings to solve problems (and hence increase an individual's fitness) by use of mental simulation.
Consciousness in mammals (this includes humans) is an aspect of the mind generally thought to comprise qualities such as subjectivity, sentience, and the ability to perceive the relationship between oneself and one's environment. It is a subject of much research in philosophy of mind, psychology, neuroscience, and cognitive science. Some philosophers divide consciousness into phenomenal consciousness, which is subjective experience itself, and access consciousness, which refers to the global availability of information to processing systems in the brain. Phenomenal consciousness has many different experienced qualities, often referred to as qualia. Phenomenal consciousness is usually consciousness of something or about something, a property known as intentionality in philosophy of mind.
Sunday, October 25, 2009
Evolutionary history of the human mind
The nature and origins of hominid intelligence is of natural interest to humans as the most successful and intelligent hominid species. As nearly a century of archaeological research has shown, the hominids evolved from earlier primates in eastern Africa. Like some non-primate tree-dwelling mammals, such as opossums, they evolved an opposable thumb, which enabled them to grasp and manipulate objects, such as fruit. They also possessed front-facing binocular vision.
Around 10 million years ago, the earth's climate entered a cooler and drier phase, which led eventually to the ice ages. This forced tree-dwelling animals to adapt to their new environment or die out. Some primates adapted to this challenge by adopting bipedalism: walking on their hind legs. The advantages of this development are widely disputed. It was once thought that this gave their eyes greater elevation and the ability to see approaching danger further off but as we now know that hominids developed in a forest environment this theory has little real basis. At some point the bipedal primates developed the ability to pick up sticks, bones and stones and use them as weapons, or as tools for tasks such as killing smaller animals or cutting up carcases. In other words, these primates developed the use of technology, an adaptation other animals have not attained to the same capacity as these hominids. Bipedal tool-using primates evolved in the class of hominids, of which the earliest species, such as Sahelanthropus tchadensis, are dated to about 7 million years ago although hominid-made tools were not developed until about 2 million years ago. Thus bipedal hominids existed for 5 million years before they started making tools. The advantage of bipedalism would have been simply to be able to carry anything with survival value from an unfavorable environment to a more favorable one. Anything too big or heavy would have to be broken or cut. This would be an insight that led early minds to develop tools for the purpose.
From about 5 million years ago, the hominid brain began to develop rapidly, some say this was because an evolutionary loop had been established between the hominid hand and brain. This theory says that the use of tools conferred a crucial evolutionary advantage on those hominids which had this skill. The use of tools required a larger and more sophisticated brain to co-ordinate the fine hand movements required for this task. However this theory has not been confirmed and many other theories have been developed based on scientific evidence. It is likely that a tool-using hominid would have made a formidable enemy and that surviving this new threat would have been the loop that increased brain size and mind power. By 2 million years ago Homo habilis had appeared in east Africa: the first hominid to make tools rather than merely use them. Several more species in the genus 'homo' appeared before fully modern humans developed, known as homo sapiens. These homo sapiens, which are the archaic version of the modern human, showed the first evidence of language, and the range of activities we call culture, including art and religion.
About 200,000 years ago in Europe and the Near East hominids known to us as Neanderthal man or Homo neanderthalensis appeared. They too had art, such as decorated tools for aesthetic pleasure, and culture, such as burying their dead in ways which suggest spiritual beliefs. Hotly debated in the scientific community is whether or not Homo sapiens developed from neanderthals or a combination of hominids. Some scientists say that the Neanderthals were wiped out by homo sapiens when they entered the region about 40,000 years ago. What is known is that by 25,000 years ago the Neanderthal was extinct. Between 120,000 to 165,000 years ago Homo sapiens reached their fully modern form. The first evidence of this was found in Africa, although once again the origins are widely debated between three theories, the Single-origin theory, the Multiregional model and the Assimilation model.
Around 10 million years ago, the earth's climate entered a cooler and drier phase, which led eventually to the ice ages. This forced tree-dwelling animals to adapt to their new environment or die out. Some primates adapted to this challenge by adopting bipedalism: walking on their hind legs. The advantages of this development are widely disputed. It was once thought that this gave their eyes greater elevation and the ability to see approaching danger further off but as we now know that hominids developed in a forest environment this theory has little real basis. At some point the bipedal primates developed the ability to pick up sticks, bones and stones and use them as weapons, or as tools for tasks such as killing smaller animals or cutting up carcases. In other words, these primates developed the use of technology, an adaptation other animals have not attained to the same capacity as these hominids. Bipedal tool-using primates evolved in the class of hominids, of which the earliest species, such as Sahelanthropus tchadensis, are dated to about 7 million years ago although hominid-made tools were not developed until about 2 million years ago. Thus bipedal hominids existed for 5 million years before they started making tools. The advantage of bipedalism would have been simply to be able to carry anything with survival value from an unfavorable environment to a more favorable one. Anything too big or heavy would have to be broken or cut. This would be an insight that led early minds to develop tools for the purpose.
From about 5 million years ago, the hominid brain began to develop rapidly, some say this was because an evolutionary loop had been established between the hominid hand and brain. This theory says that the use of tools conferred a crucial evolutionary advantage on those hominids which had this skill. The use of tools required a larger and more sophisticated brain to co-ordinate the fine hand movements required for this task. However this theory has not been confirmed and many other theories have been developed based on scientific evidence. It is likely that a tool-using hominid would have made a formidable enemy and that surviving this new threat would have been the loop that increased brain size and mind power. By 2 million years ago Homo habilis had appeared in east Africa: the first hominid to make tools rather than merely use them. Several more species in the genus 'homo' appeared before fully modern humans developed, known as homo sapiens. These homo sapiens, which are the archaic version of the modern human, showed the first evidence of language, and the range of activities we call culture, including art and religion.
About 200,000 years ago in Europe and the Near East hominids known to us as Neanderthal man or Homo neanderthalensis appeared. They too had art, such as decorated tools for aesthetic pleasure, and culture, such as burying their dead in ways which suggest spiritual beliefs. Hotly debated in the scientific community is whether or not Homo sapiens developed from neanderthals or a combination of hominids. Some scientists say that the Neanderthals were wiped out by homo sapiens when they entered the region about 40,000 years ago. What is known is that by 25,000 years ago the Neanderthal was extinct. Between 120,000 to 165,000 years ago Homo sapiens reached their fully modern form. The first evidence of this was found in Africa, although once again the origins are widely debated between three theories, the Single-origin theory, the Multiregional model and the Assimilation model.
Philosophy of mind
Philosophy of mind is the branch of philosophy that studies the nature of the mind, mental events, mental functions, mental properties, consciousness and their relationship to the physical body. The mind-body problem, i.e. the relationship of the mind to the body, is commonly seen as the central issue in philosophy of mind, although there are other issues concerning the nature of the mind that do not involve its relation to the physical body.
Dualism and monism are the two major schools of thought that attempt to resolve the mind-body problem. Dualism is the position that mind and body are in some way separate from each other. It can be traced back to Plato, Aristotle and the Samkhya and Yoga schools of Hindu philosophy, but it was most precisely formulated by René Descartes in the 17th century. Substance dualists argue that the mind is an independently existing substance, whereas Property dualists maintain that the mind is a group of independent properties that emerge from and cannot be reduced to the brain, but that it is not a distinct substance.
Monism is the position that mind and body are not physiologically and ontologically distinct kinds of entities. This view was first advocated in Western Philosophy by Parmenides in the 5th Century BC and was later espoused by the 17th Century rationalist Baruch Spinoza. According to Spinoza's dual-aspect theory, mind and body are two aspects of an underlying reality which he variously described as "Nature" or "God". Physicalists argue that only the entities postulated by physical theory exist, and that the mind will eventually be explained in terms of these entities as physical theory continues to evolve. Idealists maintain that the mind is all that exists and that the external world is either mental itself, or an illusion created by the mind. Neutral monists adhere to the position that perceived things in the world can be regarded as either physical or mental depending on whether one is interested in their relationship to other things in the world or their relationship to the perceiver. For example, a red spot on a wall is physical in its dependence on the wall and the pigment of which it is made, but it is mental in so far as its perceived redness depends on the workings of the visual system. Unlike dual-aspect theory, neutral monism does not posit a more fundamental substance of which mind and body are aspects. The most common monisms in the 20th and 21st centuries have all been variations of physicalism; these positions include behaviorism, the type identity theory, anomalous monism and functionalism.Many modern philosophers of mind adopt either a reductive or non-reductive physicalist position, maintaining in their different ways that the mind is not something separate from the body. These approaches have been particularly influential in the sciences, particularly in the fields of sociobiology, computer science, evolutionary psychology and the various neurosciences. Other philosophers, however, adopt a non-physicalist position which challenges the notion that the mind is a purely physical construct. Reductive physicalists assert that all mental states and properties will eventually be explained by scientific accounts of physiological processes and states. Non-reductive physicalists argue that although the brain is all there is to the mind, the predicates and vocabulary used in mental descriptions and explanations are indispensable, and cannot be reduced to the language and lower-level explanations of physical science. Continued neuroscientific progress has helped to clarify some of these issues. However, they are far from having been resolved, and modern philosophers of mind continue to ask how the subjective qualities and the intentionality (aboutness) of mental states and properties can be explained in naturalistic terms.
Dualism and monism are the two major schools of thought that attempt to resolve the mind-body problem. Dualism is the position that mind and body are in some way separate from each other. It can be traced back to Plato, Aristotle and the Samkhya and Yoga schools of Hindu philosophy, but it was most precisely formulated by René Descartes in the 17th century. Substance dualists argue that the mind is an independently existing substance, whereas Property dualists maintain that the mind is a group of independent properties that emerge from and cannot be reduced to the brain, but that it is not a distinct substance.
Monism is the position that mind and body are not physiologically and ontologically distinct kinds of entities. This view was first advocated in Western Philosophy by Parmenides in the 5th Century BC and was later espoused by the 17th Century rationalist Baruch Spinoza. According to Spinoza's dual-aspect theory, mind and body are two aspects of an underlying reality which he variously described as "Nature" or "God". Physicalists argue that only the entities postulated by physical theory exist, and that the mind will eventually be explained in terms of these entities as physical theory continues to evolve. Idealists maintain that the mind is all that exists and that the external world is either mental itself, or an illusion created by the mind. Neutral monists adhere to the position that perceived things in the world can be regarded as either physical or mental depending on whether one is interested in their relationship to other things in the world or their relationship to the perceiver. For example, a red spot on a wall is physical in its dependence on the wall and the pigment of which it is made, but it is mental in so far as its perceived redness depends on the workings of the visual system. Unlike dual-aspect theory, neutral monism does not posit a more fundamental substance of which mind and body are aspects. The most common monisms in the 20th and 21st centuries have all been variations of physicalism; these positions include behaviorism, the type identity theory, anomalous monism and functionalism.Many modern philosophers of mind adopt either a reductive or non-reductive physicalist position, maintaining in their different ways that the mind is not something separate from the body. These approaches have been particularly influential in the sciences, particularly in the fields of sociobiology, computer science, evolutionary psychology and the various neurosciences. Other philosophers, however, adopt a non-physicalist position which challenges the notion that the mind is a purely physical construct. Reductive physicalists assert that all mental states and properties will eventually be explained by scientific accounts of physiological processes and states. Non-reductive physicalists argue that although the brain is all there is to the mind, the predicates and vocabulary used in mental descriptions and explanations are indispensable, and cannot be reduced to the language and lower-level explanations of physical science. Continued neuroscientific progress has helped to clarify some of these issues. However, they are far from having been resolved, and modern philosophers of mind continue to ask how the subjective qualities and the intentionality (aboutness) of mental states and properties can be explained in naturalistic terms.
Purification on the Mental Level
by Julie Redstone
It is not uncommon as the intensity of light increases, for people to be troubled by repetitive thoughts that they would rather not have. Even where worry and obsessive patterns of thinking have not been pronounced before, increased light begins to purify the body by sending energies from both the physical organism and the subconscious mind into the conscious mind. As a result, 'flooding' is often felt or unwanted mental activity.What is important about this is to know that a purification process is underway. Also that such heightened mental activity often comes in waves that reach peak intensity then subside. While these waves are active and intense, it is useful to know how to bring energy to the heart. Bringing energy to the heart and disconnecting from mental activity allows the releasing from the body to continue unabated, while the conscious self becomes more able to dis-identify with the mind. Thus, a separation is created between one's awareness or point of focus and one's thought process.To bring energy into the heart, the easiest and most effective route is through sacred breathing which brings light and love into the heart center. Sacred breathing is a means of aligning with God's light and love and in the presence of overactive mental acitivity, it focuses attention on a different energy than the one which the mind carries. To re-direct energy to the heart, the Practice of Alignment is useful, as is any other spiritual or meditative practice which brings light into the heart center. During times of intense purification, it is important to not force things - to not get into a struggle with one's thoughts, but rather to have a different direction to turn to so that peace and stability can be created, even in the midst of a mental storm.
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Hope must depend on feeling God with you as you go through a time of difficulty with uncertain relief on the physical/emotional/mental level. This can happen through yoga, through prayer and alignment, and also through knowing and feeling your own higher purpose which can stabilize you through this time. A sense of purpose gives meaning to one's experience, and so it is important to consult your heart and to ask for guidance to show you what the outcome of this time of purification will be. Have faith that your heart knows. Have faith that it shall be so. This will take you through the time of waiting.
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