Tuesday, June 30, 2020

People who smoke and vape at higher risk for Covid IX

Why is vaping so bad for teenagers? - mlive.com

Research at the University of Rochester Medical Center has found evidence of why COVID-19 is worse for people who smoke and vape than for the rest of the population.

Irfan Rahman, who runs a lab at URMC that studies the effects of tobacco products on the lungs, said people who smoke and vape often have elevated levels of receptors for an enzyme called ACE2.

Those receptors also allow the novel coronavirus to enter lung cells. More receptors means more viral load, which means more severe infections, Rahman said.

Thursday, June 25, 2020

How Can You Do This Work?

Disenfranchised Grief - Renaissance Life Therapies

How Can You Do This Work?

I get asked this question fregquently.

Here is my attempt to respond.

I had read Sue Mann’s article, “How Can You Do This Work?”, in Trauma, Narrative Responses To Traumatic Experience edited by David Denborough in which she describes her work as counselor in an agency serving adults who were sexually abused as children. Sue describes sharing with others, who ask, what she does for a living and them then saying, “How can you do that work?” Throughout my career of 49 years, I have continually reflected on this question myself. 

A career in clinical human services brings one continually into contact with stories of pain, suffering, injustice, and abuse. We are not only recruited, but required, to insert ourselves into situations where we witness and engage with the worst in human behavior and activity. Often these jobs pay very little, provide meager, if any, benefits, provide little, if any, social status and respect. A naive outsider sometimes asks why would a person go through the time and trouble to acquire a college education and training at significant expense to engage in such difficult and financially unrewarding work? Even further, people being aware of the vicarious trauma the counselor is subjected to in the course of her work, appropriately ask “How can you do this work?”

For more click here.

Tuesday, June 16, 2020

Fatal car crashes up 13% for 15 - 24 year old males in states with decriminalized marijuana laws

Drugged Driving Deaths, a Pervasive American Problem | Egerton Law

States with marijuana decriminalization laws experienced a 13% increase in fatal car crashes among 15 - 24 year old males. There was no increase in females, and no increase in drivers over 24.

There also were no increase in fatal car crashes in states with medical marijuana laws. It is hypothesized that the reason for the difference between deciminalized states and medicalized states is that medical marijuana laws require that the marijuana only be used at home.

From the American Journal Of Public Health, March, 2020.

For more click here.

Monday, June 15, 2020

The grieving process - Stage two: bargaining

Understanding the Five Stages of Grief | Funeralocity

Stage two - bargaining

The second stage of grief has to do with the undoing of the loss. We do a lot of second guessing. “Maybe if this, maybe if that then the loss would not have occurred.” There is often a lot of self blame and blaming of others and circumstances. “What if this had happened, or that had happened, then the death wouldn’t have happened at the time it did.”

Bargaining also involves a lot of “if onlys.” “If only I had done this or that,” or if others had only done this or that then this would not have happened.

We even, like Jesus in the garden at Gethsemane, plead with God to remove this cup. We promise to go to church every Sunday, give $10,000 to the church, put a bathtub Madonna in our yard, if only God would intervene to not let the death happen.

The bargaining stage is often the longest of the stages of grief and can last months and sometimes years. The bargaining stage prevents and forestalls acceptance that the loss has occurred and is permanent. As long as we bargain in our minds and hearts, we don’t have to accept the crushing sorrow and grief that acceptance entails.

Arguing with a person who is bargaining does not help. Reassurance does not help. Listening in a non anxious and a non judgmental way does help. As the grieving person expresses and articulates their alternative scenarios, the facts become clearer that circumstances did not allow the desired change to prevent the loss to occur and so their hopes and desires are merely a pipe dream. Having expressed their desire that things could have been otherwise, the grieving person comes to realize that the loss probably could not have been prevented or forestalled. “It is what it is” as the Buddhists say.

Bargaining can be exhausting and will eventually run its course because reality eventually begins to set in and life goes on. However as bargaining peters out, sadness and despair become more prominent. This increase in sadness and despair is the harbinger of acceptance which intensifies the emotional pain but also brings a release from which hope in a future meaningful life springs.

One of the things which helps people get through bargaining to acceptance is faith in the process of grieving. Once it is understood what is happening, it becomes less scary and more understandable. With understanding bargaining becomes easier to manage as both the person grieving and the witnesses who want to be supportive.

Sunday, June 14, 2020

Behavioral learning in the age of Covid-19 social distancing.

Wittgenstein and facial mimicry | Wittgenstein Light: Real Refreshment

"Behaviour is contagious because we catch it from other people. Much of what we do results from unconscious mimicry of others around us."

What are the consequences for this in the time of remote learning, working from home, and social distancing?

Why do people stockpile toilet paper during the Covid-19 crisis?

Coronavirus panic buying: the psychology behind toilet paper ...

While it only explains about 12% of the reasons that people stockpile toilet paper during the Covid-19 crisis, a recent study found that people who stockpile toilet paper tend to be more frightened of the threat of Covid-19 infection, and they tend to be more "conscientious."

For more click here.

Editor's note:

In my practice, I have observed that people who engage in this toilet paper stock piling tend to be more anxious, ruminate more, and tend to show signs of paranoia. The obtaining of large amounts of toilet paper seems to lower anxiety and enhance a sense of security and safety, but obtaining large amounts of toilet paper then leads to an obsession and compulsion to hoard other commodities.

Saturday, June 13, 2020

The grieving process - Stage one: Shock and disbelief

Why the Five Stages of Grief Are Wrong | Psychology Today

Stage one - Shock and disbelief

As we discuss the stages of grief it should be noted that the stages are just a general frame of reference and not prescriptive. People don’t have to go through the stages as described here. Further, people don’t experience the stages in a linear way but in an oscillating way going back and forth not one after the other. People often describe the grieving experience as a “roller coaster.”

The first stage is sometimes called “denial” but the word “denial” does not accurately describe the experience. People cognitively recognize death has occurred but often describe a sense of life being surreal. They describe being “numb” and disoriented. They say things like, “I just can’t believe this has happened and ____________ is gone.”

People describe themselves as being in a fog and going through the activities of daily life as if they were a robot on auto pilot. The feeling of disbelief is very powerful and there is a growing sense that the event of the death will be a milestone in their lives with the death marking the boundary of life before the death and after the death.

People often find it hard to eat, sleep, concentrate, and perform the normal tasks of their daily routines.

During this stage people need assistance with daily tasks and to be excused, if possible, from social obligations to others. They need to be left alone if the person wants to withdraw from social interactions or they need to be listened to if they want to share their thoughts, feelings, and anguish with a trusted other person. Providing a shoulder to cry on is a very important form of solace and consolation. The listener need not say anything to help the person feel better. Just allowing the grieving person to share their sadness, sorrow, anger, fears, regrets, and sense of loss is very helpful. Do not try to cheer the person up or reassure them things will be okay.

It is very common at this stage to observe an expression of anger and blame and guilt that someone is at fault for the person’s death. People even blame God for letting this death occur. A regression to a narcissistic state where people take the death personally is common. “How could this happen to me!”
People often feel a disorientation, confusion, and perplexity and say, “Oh my goodness, what will happen now?” There is an anxiety about how life can go on as it was lived before the death.

People often hear the dead person’s voice, see glimpses of them, or are reminded in a hundred ways of the person as living. It is like deja vu when the person is uplifted  momentarily believing that the person hasn’t died. Dreams of the dead person are very common.

This stage of shock and disbelief usually doesn’t last more than six weeks, if that. The grieving person needs to share their experience with an understanding other who can maintain a non anxious presence and non judgmentally listen to the person express their experience. Nothing need be said or done other than mere listening, and inquiring, when it seems helpful, about the person’s memories and experiences of their relationship with the person they have lost. Sometimes people want to talk about their memories of the relationship and sometimes they don’t. Either way is okay.

Thursday, June 11, 2020

Overview of grieving: general observations continued.

People may feel disenfranchised grief if... - Cruse Bereavement ...

Before we get to describing the stages of grief there are few more topics worth mentioning about grieving in general.

Disenfranchised grief is grief that people experience without any social recognition or acknowledgement. A lover of a married spouse who dies without there ever being any public recogition of the nature of the relationship. Deaths of ex spouses after divorce.

Deaths experienced by professionals of patients or clients who were part of confidential relationships. This happens freguently to health care providers in all kinds of settings.

There are many other examples where loss is experienced alone without any social recognition, acknowledgement, or support. Miscarriages may fall into this category. People who die in institutions like prisons or nursing homes or by stigmatized circumstances like suicide, drug overdose, alcoholism.

Liberating losses - Sometimes death is experienced as a relief or as if a burden has been lifted. This often occurs after a long illness where the death is anticipated, but also can happen in a sudden death when the deceased is a part of a conflicted relationship.

Moral injuries - These are deaths witnessed or inflicted in war, capital punishment, or other acts of revenge or intentional or unintentional "accidents." Abortion is sometimes thought of as falling into this category.

Wednesday, June 10, 2020

Overview of the grieving process.

A Guide For Grieving Parents | Harbor Light Hospice

What are the stages of grief?

What is about to be described here is a frame of reference. Nobody goes through the stages exactly as described in a linear way. Most people oscillate back and forth through the stages but the person can probably identify where their emotions and thoughts are predominately at a given period of time when they are going through the stages.

What is presented here is boiled down from a clinical perspective. There are other descriptions but the one presented here is what seems most helpful when talking with people about their grieving process in my practice.

Here the stages:

  1. Shock and disbelief
  2. Bargaining
  3. Acceptance
  4. Hope
  5. Meaning
This is the first in a series of articles on the grieving process.

Before a description of the stages, here are some general observations about grieving in our society.

The grieving process is not something to be fixed but a normal part of life.
Grief is not depression and should not be medicated except when extreme symptoms appear which are usually a sign of an underlying psychiatric problem and not the grief itself.

Our society is very intolerant of grief and does not have appropriate expectations about the grieving process.

The two biggest ways of managing grief are simply to sit with it and be mindful about its existence and workings, and two, having a shoulder to cry on, an understanding witness who can accept the expression of grief without getting upset oneself.

There are differences in the grieving process the major difference being an anticipated death and a sudden death.

Death is nothing to be afraid of but a normal part of the life cycle.

Social reactions to death are varied and often difficult to deal with for the person who is mourning.

Grief is best exprienced with one's natural support system. Professional grief counsling services initially following the death are not recommended even though they often are. 

While the deceased person's physical body is dead, their spirit lives on in the stories that are told about them.

To be continued

Tuesday, June 9, 2020

PHQ - 9 overestimates prevalence of depression

Patient Health Questionnaire-9 (PHQ-9) Pfizer - e-Referral

More and more primary care medical practices are using the PHQ-9 depression screening tool and sometimes the abbreviated version. I've had it administered to me on my primary care medical visits along with my weight, blood pressure, and pulse.

A new study finds that these depression screenings over estimate the prevalence of depression. A symptom check list screening is not the same as a structured clinical interview for depression (SCID).

The most common misdiagnosis I find in my clinical practice is the depression for grief. Often I find that people who screened positive for depression in their doctor's office are actually experienced what is sometimes called "disenfranchised grief." Disenfranchised grief is sorrow and mourning triggered by a signficant loss that is not socially recognized, acknowledged, and therefore not supported with consolation and solace. Often I find that these patients have been started on an antidepressant medication which not treatment of choice for grief.

There is no substitute for good mental health care by a trained clinician.

For more click here.

Monday, June 8, 2020

During school closure teens getting more sleep but it needs to be on a regular schedule

Teenagers and Sleep in the Digital Age - Spark & Stitch Institute

During the pandemic with school closure teens are getting more sleep which is a good thing because it makes them more communicative, family friendly, less moody while at home. It is important though to stick to regular sleep schedule. Staying up all night playing video games and messaging with friends is not conducive to a regular sleep schedule which is necessary to reduce inflamation and enhance physical and mental health.

I hear in my psychotherapy sessions about teen's symptoms of anxiety, depression, and irritability. I ask about their sleep. Almost always the answer is that it is disturbed and irregular in some way. This leads to an interesting observation. Is it the anxiety and the depression interfering with the sleep or the lack of sleep contributing to the symptoms? Which comes first the chicken or the egg? However you answer the question, improving the sleep cycle goes a long way in enhancing the feeling of well being.


For more click here.