Heart of the matter
Most docs, psychiatrists, PAs, nurse practitioners and even psychologists who practice under the umbrella of allopathic medicine are focused on alleviating the symptoms of mental illness as quickly as possible and getting to the next patient in their busy day. Finding out what is causing those symptoms and helping tweak the causal structure is simply not their job, hence their reliance on prescribing psycho-pharmaceuticals. Mental health counselors, who do not prescribe, seek the reasons for mental health disorders and help the patient alleviate those causes to achieve a lasting cure thereby mitigating the need for drugs. They are like the Native elders below who get to the heart of the matter and come up with a plan to address the real issue.—MR
‘We look deeper’: the Native court settling cases outside the justice system
by Stewart Huntington, The Guardian US, August 6, 2022
In South Dakota, the Oyate Court – made up of Lakota elders – uses traditional peacemaking principles to stress healing over punishment.
Beware of dinosaurs
Time to let go of a dinosaur-sized erroneous hypothesis, i.e. that depression is caused by an imbalance in brain chemicals that can be managed by psycho-pharmaceuticals. It was simply a hypothesis pushed by Big Pharma to make billions. As many practitioners have been saying for decades, it just ain’t true. Yes, anti-depressants sometimes work to allay symptoms—though science doesn’t know why—but have been clearly shown to be connected dementia later in life by huge statistical margins. Also, we don’t know why. To err on the side of caution, I’d check out alternatives before taking a weird chemical that no one knows what it does to my brain.—MR
The chemical imbalance theory of depression is dead, but that doesn’t mean antidepressants don’t work
by Christopher Davey, The Guardian US, August 2, 2022
The chemical imbalance theory of depression is well and truly dead. A paper by Joanna Moncrieff and colleagues, longtime critics of the effectiveness of antidepressants, has caused a splash. The paper provides a summary of other summaries that confirm there is no evidence to support the idea that depression is caused by disturbance of the brain’s serotonin system.
Not your grandma’s pot
Cannabis in not “primarily addictive,” so science refers to it as “dependency.” Actually its dependents are addicted, just not to the tetrahydrocannabinol (THC) that gets them high. They have become addicted to an opioid, i.e. the reward chemical, in their own brains that THC triggers at much higher than normal levels. Consequently, daily behaviors no longer trigger the reward chemical, so addicts feel unmotivated by events in life that would have been motivating, like getting an A on a math test or winning the attention of a young woman.—MR
Higher-Potency Cannabis Linked to Psychosis, Dependency
Food comes first
We’ve heard the phrase “you are what you eat,” but what does that mean to one’s mental health? It means that your body, of which your brain is a part, is constantly rebuilding itself with the what goes in your mouth. Whole or low processed foods create a healthy brain which is the first thing needed to be able to have healthy mind. So if you want good mental health, start with what you eat or drink. Replacing just ten percent of ultra-processed food weight with an equivalent proportion of unprocessed or minimally processed foods led to 19 percent less dementia in the below study!—MR
Dementia Risk Climbs With Intake of Ultra-Processed Foods
A diet higher in ultra-processed foods was linked with a higher risk of dementia, but substituting unprocessed or minimally processed foods for ultra-processed ones dropped dementia risk, a longitudinal study showed.
It’s not in your head
The below meta-analysis of dozens of studies has demonstrated that depression is NOT a low-serotonin brain-chemical imbalance. A pill can’t fix the many actual causes of depression, but a counselor can help you overcome them. Since 95% of serotonin is found in the small intestine, a good probiotic protocol (note: all probiotics are not created equal) may be the way to go. Sure chased away my blues! Frankly to me, the scariest part is that antidepressant use, as opposed to depression, presages dementia.—MR
The serotonin theory of depression
by J. Moncrieff, R.E. Cooper, T. Stockmann, S. Amendola, M. Hengartner & M. Horowitz, Molecular Psychiatry, 2022
The serotonin hypothesis of depression is still influential. We aimed to synthesize and evaluate evidence on whether depression is associated with lowered serotonin concentration or activity in a systematic umbrella review of the principal relevant areas of research.
Gut feeling
The below study finds a link between Alzheimer’s disease and gastrointestinal disorders. More and more this gut-brain axis is being proven to be at the root of much mental distress particularly depression and anxiety. Avoiding ingesting stuff that hurts the gut such as white flour, sugar and alcohol can go a long way toward improving your mental health.—MR
A large-scale genome-wide cross-trait analysis reveals shared genetic architecture between Alzheimer’s disease and gastrointestinal tract disorders
by Emmanuel Adewuyi, Eleanor O’Brien, Dale Nyholt, Tenielle Porter and Simon Laws, Communications Biology, July 20, 2022.
Consistent with the concept of the gut-brain phenomenon, observational studies suggest a relationship between Alzheimer’s disease (AD) and gastrointestinal tract (GIT) disorders…
It’s your choice
Finally, science is showing how much alcohol hurts the brain. The lovely thing about scientific research is that facts as opposed to product marketing can inform people who read. Then, they can make an informed choice about their behavior. Personally, I drink about four drinks a year because I would like my brain to function at its optimum well into old age. How about you? It’s your choice.—MR
Just 4 Drinks a Week Tied to Brain Changes
by Judy George, MedPage Today, July 14, 2022
Moderate alcohol consumption was linked to higher brain iron and worse cognitive function, an observational study showed.
Poisons are poisonous
Poisons poison the mind too. We cannot separate our body from the mechanism that controls its flow of energy and information which is the simplest definition of what mind is. I can only encourage you to at least try to limit your ingestion of poisons like pesticides, herbicides, pollution, alcohol and drugs. You’ll feel much better for it.—MR
‘Disturbing’: weedkiller ingredient tied to cancer found in 80% of US urine samples
by Carey Gillam, The Guardian US, July 9, 2022
More than 80% of urine samples drawn from children and adults in a US health study contained a weedkilling chemical linked to cancer, a finding scientists have called “disturbing” and “concerning”.
Move if you want to groove!
The mental health improvements from movement of any kind, but particularly exercise, are well proven. If you do not wish to feel depressed, move your body for about five minutes or more and you will feel better.—MR
Move yourself happy! How to exercise to boost your mood – whatever your fitness level
by Elle Hunt, The Guardian US, June 29, 2022
Everyone knows the benefits of exercise: stronger muscles, more energy, weight management, better sleep. A mood boost is often tacked on as a bonus. But there is stronger evidence than ever before that movement not only improves your mental health, but also protects it.
Run while you still can
It’s not just teens who are losing it. Cannabis may be more dangerous to mental health than any other drug. Please don’t believe the Big Lie. Follow the money.—MR
Psychosis, Addiction, Chronic Vomiting: As Weed Becomes More Potent, Teens Are Getting Sick
By Christina Caron, New York Times, June 24, 2020
With THC levels close to 100 percent, today’s cannabis products are making some teenagers highly dependent and dangerously ill.
Green away the blues
Simply put, feeling better mentally and physically is all about eliminating things that make you feel bad and piling on things that make you feel good. There’s a tipping point toward one side or the other like a teeter totter. One thing you can add to your life for positive effect is houseplants. Even fake plants or photos of plants can help, but real ones help more. More than five sitting within ten feet of you increases the effect significantly and ones with flowers really give the mind a boost! There’s a therapeutic reason my counseling office has nine green friends growing there to greet you.—MR
What science tells us about the mood-boosting effects of indoor plants
When Hannan Braun felt stressed at work, he would treat himself to a houseplant. “At one point, I think I had well over a hundred plants,” says Braun, who was living in a studio apartment and working on the front line of the pandemic in Boston. “But it never looked cluttered or felt like I had too many.”
Risky business
Cannabis, thank goodness, is finally becoming legal. Because it is legal in many states, science is now able to collect statistics and do the research that proves how dangerous it can be to mental health. While some practitioners look at the psychosis it often causes as schizophrenia, I don’t. I call it “cannabis psychosis.” The distinction is important because schizophrenia is a genetic/family systems disorder that is often incurable. Cannabis psychosis, on the other hand, is totally curable and should not be treated with antipsychotics or it can become incurable. It’s the wild west out there, folks! By that I mean, we are in radically new territory. My recommendation is just say “no” to cannabis in any form unless, shrug, you like the idea of being a lab rat.—MR
California may require labels on pot products to warn of mental health risks
by April Dembosky, NPR Morning Edition, June 17, 2022
Liz Kirkaldie’s grandson was in the top of his class in high school and a talented jazz bassist when he started smoking pot. The more serious he got about music, the more serious he got about pot.
Just breathe!
The most effective intervention and the least expensive thing you can do to help your mental health and your overall health is to learn to breathe correctly. That is not an overstatement. The below article has some excellent guidelines, but in one sentence here’s the most important point: ALWAYS breathe through your nose.—MR
How to breathe
by Martin Petrus, Psyche newsletter, June 22, 2022
Whether your aim is improved health, mental calm or achieving transcendence, breathing techniques can help you get there.
The small stuff adds up
Mental health boils down to how we manage anxiety. Anxiety is the feelings we get from experiencing stressors in our environments. It’s impossible to get rid of the constant flow of stressors, but it is possible to learn self-regulation skills. The more a person limits stressors on one side of their mental health teeter totter, e.g. turning off the evening news, and adds even little behaviors, e.g. a daily 20-minute walk, that reduce anxiety on the other, the more quickly she can come back to a balance and ease. Note: pharmaceutical anti-anxiety meds are being proved to cause Alzheimer’s and other forms of dementia. Don’t go there.—MR
When stressed, we ‘catastrophize’ – but we can learn to calm our irrational fears
by Sophie Brickman, The Guardian US, June 20, 2022
Our primitive brains summon up worst-case scenarios to protect us from danger. In today’s world, that can be debilitating.
Who are you?
Sometimes patients’ depression, anger or substance abuse has deep roots in historical oppression and internal conflict about personal identities. A patient may be a woman, indigenous or have indigenous ancestor’s used as fodder for paternalism and/or imperialism. Until these often unconscious conflicts are looked at closely and, at least, accepted to exist, denial can wreak havoc on emotional health. Sometimes you just gotta look.–MR
Only love can stop war: a Northern Cheyenne chief’s call to the world
by Heive ye ‘keso,/Chief Phillip Whiteman, Jr., The Guardian US, June 17, 2022
Our people’s teachings, connecting us to the land and the universe, have enabled us to survive genocide and can point the way to peace – 146 years after the Battle of the Little Bighorn
It’s not black and white
One standard of assessing emotional health is to look at the propensity of an individual for black and white thinking. A person who cannot see that reality comes in multiple shades of grey, not black and white, is going to have a hard time. Stuck in their own heads, too many folks chase their tails and wonder why they are angry and unhappy. One way to escape the pain of black and white thinking is to consume lots of black and white. That’s right, start reading! TV, especially news shows, encourages black and white thinking to trigger negative emotional reactivity so you will keep watching. They are intentionally making you unhappy for monetary gain. By turning the TV off, you can learn other ways of looking at the world, about people, places and things near and far. The sky’s the limit to what you can learn to change your life for the better. Right now book sales are surging. Folks all over the world are learning to be happier and healthier turning off their TVs and getting out of their heads by getting into books!—MR
Independent booksellers grew in number, diversity in 2021
Laura Romani, a Chicago-area resident with a background in education and library science, had been thinking of a new career.
Danger Will Rogers!
Benzodiazepines are a class of anti-anxiety meds that millions of folks are prescribed by docs. What most forget to tell you is that they increase the likelihood of your succumbing to Alzheimer’s by as much as 84 percent! There are dozens of ways to reduce anxiety that are nowhere near as dangerous as these legal pharmaceuticals such as going for a half hour walk everyday or reducing sugar consumption. If you are experiencing anxiety, you may wish to try talking to a counselor about safe alternatives before putting your beautiful brain at risk.—MR
Two types of drugs you may want to avoid for the sake of your brain
by Harvard Medical School/Harvard Health Publishing, March 2, 2021
If you’re worried about developing dementia, you’ve probably memorized the list of things you should do to minimize your risk—eating a healthy diet, exercising regularly, getting adequate sleep, and keeping your mind and soul engaged. In addition, some of the drugs you may be taking to help you accomplish those things could increase your risk of dementia. In two separate large population studies, both benzodiazepines (a category that includes medications for anxiety and sleeping pills) and anticholinergics (a group that encompasses medications for allergies and colds, depression, high blood pressure, and incontinence) were associated with an increased risk of dementia in people who used them for longer than a few months. In both cases, the effect increased with the dose of the drug and the duration of use.
Drink your way to unhappy
Nothing could be more true than the scientific fact that certain things we eat or drink cause depression and others alleviate it. Alcohol, particularly, causes depression. Any amount. If you wish to live your life in a relative state of depression, drink alcohol. If you don’t, don’t. It really can be as simple as that. The problem is quitting a lifelong habit of drinking will likely prove difficult. If you’d like some assistance, I’d be happy to oblige.—MR
How to use food to help your mood
by Kimberley Wilson, Psyche newsletter, June 1, 2022
Depression and low mood are not separate from the rest of your bodily health: the right diet can help reduce your risk.
Up, up and away!
Hope this doesn’t sound too odd to you, but I find the study of quantum physics comforting. In this world, there are thousands of really bright, highly-educated scientists studying the nature of the universe attempting to answer the question of why do (every)things behave as they do? If string theory is correct, it explains how the universe is constructed. From the way beyond macro to the way beyond micro. It engages my brain bootstrapping me up from lower order personal problems and frees my mind to more objectively solve these problems from a point of view of, well, non emotional reactivity. It gives me insight into the mind of god, whatever that might be… Try it sometime. Prepare to be astounded by physical reality!-–MR
In a Numerical Coincidence, Some See Evidence for String Theory
In a quest to map out a quantum theory of gravity, researchers have used logical rules to calculate how much Einstein’s theory must change. The result matches string theory perfectly.
Um, what?
You do not have to worry about dementia primarily for the reason that if you do succumb, you probably won’t realize you have. If you wish to get out in front of this common condition, reduce your risk factors such as obesity or diabetes. The biggest risk factor for dementia is high blood pressure, the same biggest risk factor for dying of Covid. People who get 45 minutes of moderate intensity aerobic exercise daily most likely do not have to worry about any of it.—MR
Subjective Cognitive Decline in Adults Tied to Modifiable Risks
by Judy George, MedPage Today, May 20, 2022
Adults with subjective cognitive decline — an early indicator of possible Alzheimer’s disease or dementia — were likely to have a large number of modifiable risk factors for dementia, CDC survey data showed.
Mental Health Counseling and
Health Coaching
Welcoming new clients in downtown
Mount Vernon
Send an Email!
Copyright 2022 Morgan Randall, MA, LMHC. All rights reserved.