Meant to Live

Many people seek help for depression...but the only problem is most people don't continue this for long periods of time. After all, seeing a psychiatrist and paying for prescriptions is, well, expensive.

But according to Clinical Psychiatry News, a new drug may be on its way to treating people who are depressed...or even suicidal. I have my fingers crossed that this medication will work. If it does, this could be a life saver for people across the world.

Considering there has been no new treatments for depression in decades, this gives much hope to community members suffering from depression.

Several recent studies support the anesthetic agent ketamine's immediate and long-lasting effects. According to the article in Clinical Psychiatry News, a study of 30 patients with treatment-resistant major depressive disorder found that ketamine infusions were associated with significant increases in serum brain-derived neurotrophic factors (BDNF), accompanied by changes in slow-wave activity on electroencephalograms.

Studies also showed that those considering suicide who took the drug said the thoughts decreased significantly within 40 minutes of taking the drug — and lasted for up to 10 days.

This gives me so much hope for the future. Wouldn't that be amazing to have a prescription which erases the desire for a person to kill him or herself in less than an hour? And, on top of that, the person only needs to take about three pills a month to be depression-free?

Sunny Aslam, MD, says, "Although the research is preliminary, and abuse concerns are real, ketamine appears to have a bright future."

In her WebMD blog, she wrote that ketamine blocks a chemical called glutamate in the brain, which is different from the action of many antidepressants. Most antidepressants work on the neurotransmitters, of which serotonin is the most well known.

Tests are still being done on this drug. So, I stress do not buy this drug on the street. This is not safe, and on the street, the drug is a rave drug and will have different effects that the doctor-approved version of the drug.

Read original story: Ketamine Boosts Hope for Depression Therapy.

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Mayo Foundation

I know it's been a while since I've last written a blog entry. I promise that will change. When you write all the time for your job, when you get home -- well, the last thing you want to do is write. But my title for The Oakland Press has officially changed this week to Community Engagement Editor. With that, I promise, I will blog more.

I received my first comment to my blog this week, which I was pretty excited about — Understanding Teen Depression Workshop.

I was told that there's no point in treating depression like sadness, like it will just pass like a head cold. Instead, this person compared depression to cancer instead.

I completely agree that depression is like cancer. But that doesn't mean there's no hope. That doesn't mean it won't pass.

Even with cancer, there is hope. Statistics show that 43 percent of men and 56 percent of women live for more than five years after a cancer diagnosis and may be cured. For children, the percentage is more than 50 percent.

So if you're a child or teen or adult experiencing depression, does that mean you will have to suffer from depression until the day you die, and you will ultimately die from the diagnosis? The answer is no.

According to an article by Psychology Today:
"Experts find that complete remission (of depression) requires treatment for a minimum of nine months—and that's for an acute first episode. Beyond the disappearance of symptoms patients should experience a minimum of two months of well-being before treatment is stopped.

Guidelines drawn up by psychiatrists themselves state that people who have chronic depression—an episode lasting two years or more— need to be treated for two years after full remission has occurred. And if you have recurrent depression, marked by multiple depressive episodes, treatment should last indefinitely. Just as with chronic disorders like hypertension and diabetes, maintenance treatment is necessary."

But it's imperative that those suffering depression do seek help. If you found an abnormal lump on your body, what would you do? Hopefully you would go to the hospital to get it checked out.

Why is it that people don't treat their brain with the same care?

I feel like the brain is as important, if not more important, than checking out the body. And just like cancer or disease of the body, depression is a disease of the mind — a disease that you can't control, a disease that you did not choose.

Depression is like cancer -- but that doesn't mean there's no hope

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Image source: Union Resource Center

Several people wear peace symbols on shirts and urge the government to “send home our troops” from deadly missions overseas. But the fact is – more soldiers die from suicide than at the hands of foreign enemies.

I heard about an extremely sad fact reported by the Associated Press this week – that nearly one U.S. solider a day has committed suicide this year. There have been 154 suicides in active duty troops in the first 155 days of the year – which outnumbers those killed in action in Afghanistan by nearly 50 percent. This is an 18 percent increase compared to last year at the same time.

It’s scary to think, even more than terrorists; sometimes our biggest enemy can be ourselves.

To me, I think soldiers are the greatest heroes – putting their own lives at stake on a daily basis for our country. But even the bravest of the brave are bound to be affected by this kind of life. This doesn’t make troops any less brave because this affects them. It only means they are human.

And I honestly would be more worried if none of this did affect them. How can you firsthand see the war, watch as people die, and not be affected and cry for those who lost their lives (unless you have no heart)?

I heard this saying once, “If you haven’t thought about suicide, then you haven’t lived.”

I think this is so true, and I think it could help others who feel this way know they are not alone or “weak.” In fact, this thought makes them normal.

Life is hard for all of us, and I think for military men and women, it is even more difficult.

While I do think urging for peace across our country is a great thing to stand for, this is something that also needs to be talked about – adding a yellow suicide awareness ribbon to our wardrobe along with the peace sign shirt.

According to the AP report, studies have pointed to combat exposure, post-traumatic stress, misuse of prescription medications and personal financial problems as explanations why this suicide rate has increased so dramatically this year. Army data suggests soldiers with multiple combat tours are at greater risk of committing suicide, although a substantial proportion of Army suicides are committed by soldiers who never deployed.

Many in the military believe that going for help is seen as a sign of weakness and thus a potential threat to advancement, according to AP. Making them feel even worse, it is reported that a senior Army officer told soldiers contemplating suicide to “act like an adult.”

Contemplating suicide does not make a person any less than an “adult.” Like I said before, and I will say it again, it makes them human.

I want to stress that seeking mental health help with not harm a soldier’s career. Col. Scott Marrs, PhD, chief of the Air Force's mental health division, said, “Seeking mental health care doesn't harm your career … It's not being able to do your job because of personal issues that can harm your career.”

If you are a military man or woman who is contemplating suicide, I urge you to get help. This does not mean your weak. If anything, I think it makes you even more brave to find the courage to talk about it and get the help you need.

Marines can call the anonymous 24/7 DStress line 877-476-7734 to talk to someone or visit dstressline.com to talk to a person online.

Veterans (of any military branch) can call the Lifeline number, 1-800-273- TALK (8255), and press “1” to be routed to the Veterans Suicide Prevention Hotline.

For deployed soldiers, call the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline at 800-273-8255. Calls originating in Iraq, Afghanistan and Kuwait should be preceded by the DSN access code “94.” For soldiers with mental health issues or contemplating suicide who are stationed in America, call the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline.

For soldiers/vets living in Michigan, call Common Ground’s 24/7 Crisis Line 800-231-1127 or visit comongroundhelps.org.

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Many people, sadly, don't understand depression. My boyfriend is taking a class at Oakland Community College. He told me that the students, in an off-topic debate, started talking about depression medication.

One uninformed student said he wouldn't trust anyone on depression medication because, as with any medication, it alters the brain. Thankfully, other students stood up to him — saying that wasn't right. If I were there, I know what I would have asked him — do you also don't trust people who are taking Advil, aspirin, NyQuil, diabetes medication, etc.? In the same way, doesn't depression medication help reduce pain and lower symptoms of a disorder? So how is it any different?

It's sad that many people don't understand mental disorders as much as physical disorders, and I think people could use a big dose of reality.

That's why I think it's great what the Beaumont Health System with Common Ground is doing. According to an article in The Oakland Press by reporter Jerry Wolffe, they have teamed up to sponsor Mental Health First Aid, an internationally recognized training program designed to equip lay-people — non-mental health professionals — with the tools to recognize and respond to people who may be in a mental health crisis, and connect them to the appropriate care.

I think this is great. After all, health care professionals are required to be trained in CPR. Isn't this just as important. In Mental Health First Aid, trainees will learn how to respond in a mental health crisis and symptoms of a mental health disorder. The training is open to educators, school administrators, human resource professionals, the faith communities, policy makers, primary health care providers, first responders, police and fire personnel, security personnel, family members or caring community residents.

The two-day training will be from 8:30 a.m. to 5 p.m. May 14 and May 21 at Beaumont Hospital, located at 44201 Dequindre Road in Troy. The $75 fee includes registration, a workbook, snacks and lunch. To register, call or email Joan Roberts at 248-451-3733 or jroberts@commongroundhelps.org.

Read original story Hospital, Common Ground join forces to aid mentally ill.

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Actor Ian Somerhalder, known for dying in "Lost" and then starring in "Vampire Diaries" as the living dead, has come up with a way to try and reduce bullying and combat bullies' behavioral problems.

Somerhalder is known for his philanthropic work in his nonprofit the Ian Somerhalder Foundation helping animals and the environment. Now he is using this work to also helps humans and the "underdog" (no pun intended).

According to E!, Somerhalder is currently building an eco-friendly, animal sanctuary in Louisiana. People within the legal system have to do a certain amount of community services hours while on probation. In the same way, Somerhalder has proposed opening the animal sanctuary as a place where bullies can volunteer (under supervised situations, of course, so little Johnny with an anger management problem doesn't strangle a dog).

In an interview with E!, Somerhalder said, “If you can empower someone who’s really young, who’s had a really tough go at it, to find compassion by using animals—because it’s so much easier than with people—then you have something.”

“Now you’ve started to engage these kids and they’ll learn not to fight. They really realize what a full life you can have if you just get rid of those demons that we all have.”

Read original article on E! Vampire Diaries Star Ian Somerhalder's Wild Plan to End Bullying

I personally think this is a great idea, and I think all pet organizations (such as the Michigan Humane Society) could adopt their own program from Somerhalder's idea.

I think that several bullies may not have a good home environment where they are taught how to treat other human beings.

And I think this would be a good way for them to learn how to treat a living being, especially a living being that needs to be taken care of. I think if bullies learn to feed a pet and clean up its poop, maybe it will help them learn compassion and patience towards all living beings.

After all, think of how dogs react to pain. They react to being slapped, kicked, neglected and ignored like a human does. And maybe if a bully sees the pain in their "puppy dog eyes," they can see how it bad it is, even more so, to treat another human being this way.

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Yesterday was “Stand4Change” day, a pun on the May 4 – a day against bullying. People at work were joking if this will be a day every fourth of the month. In all honesty, I don’t think that would be a bad idea to make it a monthly event. To tell you the truth, I think it would be great to be a DAILY event.

Yesterday over 1.3 million students in over 2,100 schools participated in this event. You don't know how excited this makes me. To me, the best result of these pushes against bullying, the speakers that come to school, etc. is to make bullying the "uncool" option. I feel like that's one of the reason that kids bully -- to feel like they're cool or better than others. I feel like this push against bullying within the last few months that I have seen grow into a movement shows kids that it's the opposite of "cool" to bully.

I have personally seen the epidemic bullying has grown into, and I'm hoping that this will counteract the epidemic. And it makes me feel so hopeful. To tell you the truth, when I heard about the epidemic bullying has become, I seriously considered not having children ever. I would not want to bring someone into the world, someone who I love more than life itself, with the extreme possibility that he or she could be tortured everyday at school. With that possibility in mind, I just couldn't morally do that.

But maybe, just maybe, that will change.

I think this needs to be a pledge everyone takes, no matter their age, not to bully. No one deserves to be bullied. And sometimes, bullying doesn't end in high school. Many bullies carry this into adulthood, into colleges, into workplaces and into their relationships and marriages.

Afterall, why is there a staggering amount of women (one in four, to be exact) who has experienced domestic abuse in her lifetime? I can almost guarantee you that these "men" (more like boys) were once bullies in their school years.

I encourage everyone, no matter who you are, to sign this petition on Stand 4 Change's website.

This is the pledge:

I PLEDGE:

To SPEAK up when I see my friends or students being bullied. I will let my friends, my family and my teacher know bullying is wrong.
To STAND up for my friends and other students who are being bullied, and not be a bystander.
To DEFEAT THE LABEL by not calling names, spreading rumors or using mean or hurtful language in school or on the internet.

There is no age limit for bullies

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I’ve been to more funerals than I can count.

I’ve probably been to at least one a year for as long as I can remember.

And after a while, you try to numb the grief.

I remember at my aunt’s funeral, all of us cousins walked across the street to 7-11 to get slushies in the middle of the four-hour visitation. Anything to get our minds off of what was going on in that building, to make us forget for a moment and do something that felt like any other day.

Because inside that funeral home, it felt like I was suffocating, knowing I would never see the woman lying in that casket ever again. She would never again hug me or play card games with me like she had only a month prior.

It didn’t feel real. How could I see her face so clearly, see and touch her so recently, and have her just be gone.

As part of my job, I hear about death on a daily basis. And if I didn’t try to numb it, tried not to think about death, I wouldn’t get through every day. I wouldn’t be able to ask the parents of a girl who just died about their memories of her without bursting into tears.

But for some reason today, as I was in my apartment alone, I didn’t numb it. I thought about all the parents who I’ve talked to who suddenly and tragically lost their child. Sometimes I try to pretend it’s not real, like I’m reading a novel instead of real life. But it is real life. All those parents I talked to on the phone and tried to comfort as they cried – it was all real. I thought about the funerals I went to, the family members who faked a smile as they hugged the attendees. And for once, I didn’t even try to hold it together.

I thought about what happened behind closed doors, when the family goes home and changes out of their all-black clothing.

And then we try to forget, try to pretend like death doesn’t happen. We make jokes about death to try not to think about it. People at work make jokes about it all the time, when I know, in reality, they are just trying to cover up how they really feel about it.

It’s a scary thing to think about. We try to fill up our time with other things so we don’t think about it. But instead of all that, why don’t we spend our time telling others how much they mean to us. So many days are controlled by talking bad about people, judging, cutting people off in traffic and trying to get an extra buck, no matter who we step on on the way. It's spent numbing the pain by focusing all our energy on things that don't matter. But when it’s all said and done, does any of that really matter?

In the end, isn't what matters making sure we did everything we could to make someone's life worth living?

We judge people so easily – for what they did and what they didn’t do when we don't really know them at all.

But in the end, that stuff never really mattered at all.

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