Thursday, March 19, 2009
Tuesday, March 17, 2009
German school murderer was on antidepressant medication
'It emerged that (Tim) Kretschmer had been suffering from depression, even attending a clinic and receiving medication for the condition.
The 17-year-old had far from excelled at Albertville. His parents – his father Joerg was a wealthy owner of a packaging firm employing 150 people – had removed him from the state secondary in 2007 and sent him to a private school. His grades were poor and teachers were unimpressed.
The Kretschmers hired a tutor. She felt the boy had problems. "He was a really strange boy – introverted and closed," she told German newspapers. "But he did love his cat."
Kretschmer tried sport – especially table tennis – but wasn't very good. Over the years he became more and more interested in just two passions: violent computer games and guns. The teenager was obsessed with Counter-Strike, a 'shoot 'em up' game in which special forces have to kill terrorists to win. He was good, his few friends said. He was also, they added, a fine shot.'
Story here
The 17-year-old had far from excelled at Albertville. His parents – his father Joerg was a wealthy owner of a packaging firm employing 150 people – had removed him from the state secondary in 2007 and sent him to a private school. His grades were poor and teachers were unimpressed.
The Kretschmers hired a tutor. She felt the boy had problems. "He was a really strange boy – introverted and closed," she told German newspapers. "But he did love his cat."
Kretschmer tried sport – especially table tennis – but wasn't very good. Over the years he became more and more interested in just two passions: violent computer games and guns. The teenager was obsessed with Counter-Strike, a 'shoot 'em up' game in which special forces have to kill terrorists to win. He was good, his few friends said. He was also, they added, a fine shot.'
Story here
Sunday, March 15, 2009
Mental health tied to income equality
"Evidence: Mental Health
Until recently it was hard to compare levels of mental illness between different countries because nobody had collected strictly comparable data, but recently the World Health Organisation has established world mental health surveys that are starting to provide data. They show that different societies have very different levels of mental illness. In some countries only 5 or 10% of the adult population has suffered from any mental illness in the past year, but in the USA more than 25% have.
We first showed a relationship between mental illness and income inequality in eight developed countries with WHO data - the USA, France, Netherlands, Belgium, Spain, Germany, Italy, and Japan. Since then we've been able to add data for New Zealand and for some other countries whose surveys of mental illness, although not strictly comparable, use very similar methods - Australia, the UK and Canada. As the graph below shows, mental illness is much more common in more unequal countries. Among these countries, mental illness is also more common in the richer ones."
Link
We think one factor in this may be nutrition....
Until recently it was hard to compare levels of mental illness between different countries because nobody had collected strictly comparable data, but recently the World Health Organisation has established world mental health surveys that are starting to provide data. They show that different societies have very different levels of mental illness. In some countries only 5 or 10% of the adult population has suffered from any mental illness in the past year, but in the USA more than 25% have.
We first showed a relationship between mental illness and income inequality in eight developed countries with WHO data - the USA, France, Netherlands, Belgium, Spain, Germany, Italy, and Japan. Since then we've been able to add data for New Zealand and for some other countries whose surveys of mental illness, although not strictly comparable, use very similar methods - Australia, the UK and Canada. As the graph below shows, mental illness is much more common in more unequal countries. Among these countries, mental illness is also more common in the richer ones."
Link
We think one factor in this may be nutrition....
Saturday, March 14, 2009
Do antidepressants destroy our ability to love?
"My main thought was: What a pain in the ass... I had not the slightest emotional reaction. I thought, this is a really strange art project... It was a most amazing sight in terms of sheer elegance. It fell like water. It just slid, like a turtleneck going over someone's head... It was just beautiful. You can't tell people this. ... I just felt like everyone was overreacting. People were going on about it. That part really annoyed me... I cried about all the animals left there in the neighborhood... I think I have some kind of emotional block. I think I should join some support group for people who were there... You know what was really funny? After the fact, like, all these different writers were writing these things about what it was like, and nobody bothered to call me."
- Elizabeth Wurzel, author of PROZAC NATION, and antidepressant user, on her reaction to the events of 9/11
Similarly, some persons on antidepressants lose their ability to feel love. For some, that feeling may never return - a part of the human soul is permanently destroyed.
Link
Malic Acid and Magnesium for Brain Zaps
Image inspired by R.CrumbIf you are withdrawing from meds - antidepressants - you may have brain zaps or other painful symptoms as part of what the pharmaceutical industry wishes us to benignly think of as "discontinuation syndrome".
As many who have been through SSRI withdrawal know, the experience can be a kind of Hell. You can read descriptions of brain zaps here.
To ease brain zaps, you may consider using supplements of Magnesium and Malic acid, described in the link below. Magnesium is the main ingredient in baby powder and Epsom salts, and Malic acid is also found under the name Apple Cider Vinegar. Link
Friday, March 13, 2009
Gator Bait, Bad Brains
There has been much sad news this week of multiple murders, and we may find that the gunmen were on psychotropic medications.
But apart from altered mental status from antidepressants, there are 29 possible reasons why people run amok: mostly, "schizophrenia" is caused by nutritional disorders. These are fairly easy to identify and correct, and they are listed and explained here.
This case may prove to be just too much TV, but makes us think of a deficiency of B6, zinc and essential fatty acids - pyroluria. - More here.
We get really involved in the quality of food for our pets - isn't it time we start thinking about nutrition for our families' minds?
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