Healthcanc

Elliott Rodger has puzzled us all. Among other proffered disorders, he is said to have had high functioning autism  (formerly  Aspergers ) and maybe he did, we'll discuss why in a moment. But we haven't seen a single direct quote about it from a mental health professional who treated him for the disorder, or from his parents. Sunday we suggested here that Elliott had Antisocial Personality Disorder .  He met the minimum number of features on the DSM 5. But a day later I didn't like hearing a host on  Entertainment Tonight    proclaim with absolute certainty, "He was a psychopath, obviously!" We don't use that label. There are those who are sociopaths , and there are those who are almost sociopaths , people with degrees of Antisocial Personality Disorder. But no one uses the word  psychopath  anymore. To make the antisocial personality diagnosis, by the way, I should have checked out whether or not Rodger showed antisocial behavior prior to age fif...

Elliot Rodger spoke at length on a YouTube video about his plan to enter a sorority house and execute a mass murder, retribution for peer rejection. Blonds would be special targets, but everyone would die. He killed seven people on Friday, including himself, wounding another twenty-two. Watching the video, it is clear he suffered from depression. He speaks of his loneliness and peer rejection, and at first we wonder if perhaps he had a high functioning autism, what used to be called Asperger's disorder. We wonder, like we did with Adam Lanza, who entered an elementary school and killed 20 children, 6 adults (Sandy Hook, Connecticut), if the social correlates of Aspergers depressed him beyond rational thought, drove him to violence. Children reject other children who don't have social skills, who can't follow social cues, as is the case with Aspergers. But a teacher interviewed speaks of a whiny complainer, an unlikable young man who thought he deserved more (mainly from bl...

Only sixteen, doing her best to beat childhood depression, this beautiful young woman lost her life last March running a marathon. She fell into the arms of her parents at the end of the race. Cardiac arrest, cause undetermined. Cameron Gallagher in a photo taken by her dad at the race. This is a kid who posted notes all over her house, uplifting quotes that lifted her spirits. Affirmations, we call them. She believed in getting better and intended to promote awareness, to destigmatize childhood depression , help other young people get help. Like she did. In her room, a few days following the tragedy, her parents found a marketing proposal. Cameron had been enlisting sponsors for SpeakUp 5K , a community footrace dedicated to raising that awareness about childhood depression. She had already invited her psychiatrist to speak at the event. She solicited local business sponsors, including the hospital that contributed to her wellness. She landed a national sponsor,  sweetFrog yogur...

The MIX featuring Mental Health Awareness Month I don't know if it is intentional, or a Freudian thing, but the choice of the month of May for Mental Health Awareness Month  is suspicious. May has always been for Mothers Day , and it always sneaks up on us. But it is chock full of emotion, for many, and can play with our mental health. So perhaps that had something to do with the choice. For what it's worth, other months host mental health awareness days and weeks for different disorders.  NAMI, the National Alliance on Mental Illness  lists February as National Eating Disorders Week  (Feb 23-March 1). March 30 is apparently  World Bipolar Day . April is reserved for  Alcohol Awareness . May not only hosts Mothers Day and Memorial Day, but the month is divided into consecutive weeks: Children's Mental Health Week ,  Anxiety and Depression Week ,  Older Americans Mental Health Week, and  Schizophrenia Week But Mothers Day gets all the attentio...

The title of the film is really  A League of Their Own . But watching it, many of us want to be a part of the sisterhood. It is my job to encourage aspiration and fantasy, feel-good processes. But before we begin, to the Anonymous reader who commented on the Viagra post   (that last one) about the reaction of a patient to a religious symbol, a cross he wore to work, sorry I missed that!  Just read it and replied in the comments section. The Story : Tom Hanks, Geena Davis in A League of Their Own I thought I knew men. After all, 60% of my practice is men, and I have a brother, once had two. One father.  I married a male. Every dog we sheltered and loved was a male, counting three plus a relatively new male granddog, so make that four. But what really had me assuming I understood men was my belief that as your everyday, nonthreatening, female therapist, males of all ages, not merely canine males, but humans, have shown me their soft side, the vulnerable side. It is e...