Into the Void

I have been thinking about about the environmental and medical effects of nano-pollution. Nanotechnology is a catch-all phrase that describes microscopic man-made objects. These come in many shapes and sizes - soccer-ball-shaped cages made of 60 carbon atoms, nanotubes the thickness of a hair, among others.

These objects persist in the environment after they’ve been used and disposed of. There has been little, if any, investigation into the effects of exposure to environmental nanotechnology.

Nanotechnological pollution is on the horizon. Fortunately, at least one group is looking into it. The Center for Responsible Nanotechnology (CRN) is trying to put together a multi-disciplinary collaborative network to establish guidelines for safely handling nano-materials.

We don’t have very long to get the guidelines and some procedures in place. An emerging illness called Morgellons Disease is quite possibly the earliest indication of what we can all expect from nano-pollution.

“Morgellons disease” is the name given to a cluster of symptoms that includes skin lesions, often with small fibers in the lesion. Fascinating stuff. Right now the medical profession is pooh-poohing it as a symptom of mental illness - Delusional Parasitosis. The folks at the Morgellons Research Foundation have posted as much information as is available on their web site.

The medical profession as a whole is particularly unscientific when it comes to identifying and treating new illnesses. Have you noticed? You can buy a lot of time if you pass the patient off to a psychiatrist.

It is possibile that some, if not all, cases of Morgellons are the result of exposure to tiny bits of nano-technology. These objects may lodge almost invisibly in the skin, causing unexplained lesions. Larger nanotubes or groups of smaller ones may appear to be fibers. According to a recent article in Popular Science, many of these objects are so small that when inhaled they can be carried directly into the brain using the same pathways as smells do.

Reading the Morgellons information reminded me of the few times I’ve come in direct contact with fiberglass insulation. You can’t see it, but it is painful and itchy. What if the fibers were microscopic? Would they still cause discomfort? I don’t know.

The dangers of asbestos were ignored for decades while thousands of workers died of the lung cancer it is now known to cause. I hope we don’t repeat the story with BuckyBalls.


Technorati: Morgellons+Disease nano-technology nano-tubes nano-pollution asbestos nanotube+modeler buckminsterfullerene buckyballs

Someone asked what is the difference between a psychiatrist and a psychologist. There are other helping professionals too. They have different levels of education and licensing, and in bipolar disorder it’s important to make sure you get the right one.

Psychiatrists are real medical doctors who specialize in diagnosing and treating mental disorders. After getting a real medical degree they went back and took more courses, then did their internship in psychiatry - well, some are only “board certified,” meaning that they took the exams after the fact. Look at the diplomas. Psychiatrists are the only mental health care professionals who can prescribe drugs *in most states.* They are - and there’s no question here - the only people who are qualified to distinguish between organic disease and mental disorders.
http://www.medterms.com/script/main/art.asp?articlekey=5107

A psychologist has a PhD, also called a doctorate, in the study of psychology. It is very important to remember that even though you call the psychologist “Doctor” he or she is NOT a medical doctor. He probably did an internship in which he did quick evaluations as to mental status. And he’s not qualified to dispense medications because he doesn’t have to have even basic medical training. He isn’t even qualified to put a bandaid on a boo-boo. He certainly isn’t qualified to diagnose physical illnesses - bipolar disorder is associated with brain chemicals, and that’s a medical issue. He is required to send you to a psychiatrist for that. NOT to a nurse practitioner or even a GP. A psychologist is versed in sociology and culture, and their job is to help you gain insight into the experiences that made you whow you are. This is called psychoanalysis or depth therapy. And of course to *adjust* to your circumstances in life.
http://www.apa.org/about/

A psychotherapist is a person who tries to do the same things that the psychologists do. Obviously psychologists and psychiatrists do short-term psychotherapy. Some psychotherapists, however, hold a Master’s Degree in something else. Social workers - MSWs - are trained to hook people up with the right resources, but they often get involved in helping people identify and solve their problems. EdD’s - doctors of Education - again, not medical doctors or even psychologists - often perform psychotherapy. Caveat Emptor: if someone is going to do psychotherapy on you, make sure they’ve gone through it themselves. And make sure they’ve gone through it successfully. Oh, and try to get one from your culture so that they don’t try to cure you of your race or religion. If a psychotherapist other than your own psychiatrist starts giving you a hard time about your meds, think about switching one or the other. Psychotherapists, I like to say, are the gatekeepers of Consensus Reality.

A therapist is a person who helps you make changes in your life - but you have to want to change. They aren’t qualified to do depth psychotherapy and may rely on doubtful modalities - you know, pop psychology out of the latest book by the latest guru.
http://helpyourselftherapy.com/topics/th_job.html

A counselor helps clients solve problems in specific areas - marriage, career, that sort of thing. Most of the time they have Master’s degrees, in some states they don’t have to.
http://www.bls.gov/oco/ocos067.htm

I hope this motivates you to check the credentials of your mental health professionals. It is absolutely essential to do so if you want to heal rather than spend the rest of your life helpless and hopeless.

Technorati: difference+between+psychologist+and+psychiatrist psychiatrist psychologist therapist depth+psychotherapy social+worker incompetent+idiots counselor

Any day that starts with an email from someone named “Bad Alice” simply has to be a great day!

Bad Alice is the acoustic duo formed by Suzy Johnston (author of The Naked Bird Watcher - the positive account of developing and learning to manage a serious psychiatric disorder that included depression, psychosis and self-harm)

Leslie interjects: The other half of the duo is Lindsay Robertson. So far as I can tell, she is horribly normal except when she gets a hold of a box of crayons.

The CD by Bad Alice is now available.

Titled ‘Walk in my Shoes’ it is a further positive and reflective message on mental illness, self-harm and the issues that face the young of today.

The CD is available on the Bad Alice website where individual tracks can also be downloaded. http://www.badalicemusic.com

The hope is that the music will help people to feel less isolated and offer reassurance that they can get through this. It is also meant to raise further awareness, understanding and - hey - people might even like the songs!

Cheers,

Bad Alice
http://www.badalicemusic.com/
http://www.thecairn.com/

Excellent CD. It’s only number two in my 6-disc changer, but Bad Alice would have to play tuned chain saws to get ahead of Herbie Hancock’s Headhunters - classic Jazz Fusion c. 1972.

I hope to get to Scotland on my next trip to Liverpool. If luck is with me, Bad Alice will have a gig when I’m there.

Suzy’s mum Jean is a great mum, I’m told, and a very cool lady. She even wrote her own book, To Walk on Eggshells, about her experiences helping her daughter navigate the dire straits of the mental health system in the UK. Family involvement is a big positive in handling bipolar disorder effectively.

The CD costs £6.50 postpaid in the UK. Not sure about the rest of the world, but it’s also available as mp3s. Buy it with PayPal and download it on the spot.

Technorati: bad+alice suzy+johnston indie depression psychosis self+harm The+Naked+Bird+Watcher mp3

It’s here, The Bipolar Planet® - Mobile Edition.

Since I got a data plan with the new cell phone I’m doing a lot more web browsing. My last cell phone had wireless so I didn’t bother with the data plan. Hmmm, it had a touchscreen too, and Windows Pocket PC rather than Windows Mobile phone edition. And was the size of a brick instead of the size of a candy bar.

Think about it: there are **scads** of middle-aged women driving around with handhelds looking to steal your bandwidth. Some of them want your files, too. Lock that wireless router, folks, especially if you share the C: drive on your home network.

Anyway, I’ve been spending more time on the mobile web and, well, sometimes you just have to say WTF. I got a .mobi domain and am distilling the entire planet into it. Sort of.

I’ll be adding content over the next couple of weeks. I’m evaluating chat sites now. This one looks ok.

Bipolar Planet® Chat
Chat with bipolars from around the world right from your mobile phone. This site is public and unmoderated. For more privacy, sign up for the email list instead.

In the name of the Turtle…

It’s the Bipolar Planet® email list! Email other bipolars - share files, pictures, and your unique take on life.

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Powerful Sleep - Health & Energy Blog >> How to Overcome Procrastination with 4 S

As a lifelong procrastinator, I have to say Kacpar nailed it down pretty well. I think that where most of us fall short is this: when I make a commitment to myself, I have to treat it as seriously as if I’d made a commitment to someone else.

Powerful Sleep is great. If the only thing I got out of it was the concept of avoiding delta sleep during daytime naps, it would have been worth every penny.

Anosognosia for Hemiplegia: A Window into Self-Awareness

…Anosognosia brings questions of the origin of self-awareness to the forefront. How can someone lose the ability to know when she is or is not moving? Is this some type of elaborate Freudian defense mechanism, or is this person entirely unaware of her illness? How is self-awareness represented in the brain, and is this representation isolated from or attached to awareness of others? Though none of these questions are fully answerable at this time, research into anosognosia has provided scientists and philosophers with insight into some of these ancient questions of human consciousness.

Girl’s death stirs debate over psychiatric meds:
Parents of 4-year-old accused of intentionally overmedicating daughter

What is particularly heinous about this crime is that the parents were using psych meds as punishment instead of teaching their 4-year-old how to behave. The end came when the little girl was physically ill and the parents drugged her to shut her up.

I think they both deserve to get the needle themselves.

the needle psych meds

Thought for the Day:

“You are the average of the five people you spend the most time with.”
– Jim Rohn
Quoted by Gary Craig in the EFT Insights Newsletter (July 6, 2007)

EFT emo

Surfing the ‘net again. The Christians have created a new fear - that a gay baby may have taken up residence in your uterus. Horrors! We liked it much better when Mia Farrow was infested with the Spawn of Satan in the movie “Rosemary’s Baby.”

Is Your Baby Gay? Pretty soon, a DNA test could tell you

In a culture that encourages us to customize everything from our Nikes to our venti skinny lattes, perhaps it is only a matter of time before baby-making becomes just another consumer transaction. Already have a girl? Make this one a boy! Want to impress your boho friends? Make a real statement with lesbian twins!

Christians must be very careful not to claim that science can never prove a biological basis for sexual orientation. We can and must insist that no scientific finding can change the basic sinfulness of all homosexual behavior. The general trend of the research points to at least some biological factors behind sexual attraction, gender identity, and sexual orientation. This does not alter God’s moral verdict on homosexual sin (or heterosexual sin, for that matter), but it does hold some promise that a deeper knowledge of homosexuality and its cause will allow for more effective ministries to those who struggle with this particular pattern of temptation. If such knowledge should ever be discovered, we should embrace it and use it for the greater good of humanity and for the greater glory of God.

The Christian Century: Mohler would favor altering ‘gay’ fetus

A prominent Southern Baptist said he would support medical treatment, if it were available, to change the sexual orientation of a fetus inside its mother’s womb from homosexual to heterosexual.

The idea of a hormonal patch for pregnant women was discussed by R. Albert Mohler Jr., president of Southern Baptist Theological Seminary in Louisville, Kentucky, on his blog, www.almohler.com, on March 2.

“If a biological basis is found, and if a prenatal test is then developed, and if a successful treatment to reverse the sexual orientation to heterosexual is ever developed, we would support its use as we should unapologetically support the use of any appropriate means to avoid sexual temptation and the inevitable effects of sin,” Mohler wrote.

At some point you have to just STOP and think. An embryo isn’t gay. It *can’t* be gay. It doesn’t have gonads or sex hormones or even the basis of a central nervous system, much less the desire to use these things in potentially offensive ways. What an embryo is, say the anti-women groups, is the potential to be a full-grown god-fearing Crown of Creation.

A fetus gradually develops gonads and a nervous system, but sex hormones don’t kick in for years. There’s no cause to start “altering” gay fetuses. You know, if you don’t spend a lot of time agonizing over exactly what kind of fun other people are having in their bedrooms, homosexuality becomes a complete non-issue.

You know, I hear they have therapy for phobias these days. Can we put homophobia in the DSM-V?

homosexual DNA test gender identity Albert Mohler gay biological basis sexual orientation homosexual gay babies sterilization abortion Spawn of Satan Mia Farrow religion

I worked late Thursday night because I’ve been having trouble getting there on time. Typically I leave at around 8, and it’s a 45 minute drive home.

I’ve been in that place where… well, it’s as if I need to stop and let my mind catch its breath, if that makes sense. Instead, I just keep putting one foot in front of the other and trudging onward in this death march we call life.

Of course, my mind is taking this opportunity to slap me around. Self-defeating thoughts like:
I’m a fraud, I’m only pretending to be an engineer.
Everything I’ve ever done was stupid
or hurtful
or self-destructive.
My husband only stays with me because he made a promise to my mother to take care of me when she was on her deathbed. (Nice dramatic touch.)
Creationists don’t want their children to be more successful than they are, because that would support the theory of evolution.
Pro-lifers love rapists almost as much as they hate women.
Millenialists are working on bringing about a utopian, agrarian 1000-year peace through war in the Middle East, and are too unsophisticated to understand that a 1000-year global interregnum doesn’t equal peace, it equals The Dark Ages.
Evangelicals want to kill non-believers just as desperately as the Wahabbist Islamics want to.

I mean, rationally I know it’s all BS, but that’s how I FEEL. As long as I don’t let it suck me in intellectually too I’ll be fine.

But let me clarify, That’s what my neurotransmitters are trying to do to me. *I’m* ok. It’s the bipolar talking, it’s pessimism.

Just keep putting one foot in front of the other.

Well, that’s the point of going to support groups, right? To learn how to move forward even when we don’t care about any of it. We don’t have to get sucked in. It’s about having a rational, objective observer. Yes, so I have a shitload of training in how to be logical and objective.

I wish everybody took four years of science and five years of math in high school. It’s a good start. It teaches you how to think and how to form conclusions. If you let it, it also teaches you how to be objective.

Eh, well, I can still feel it and the thoughts are there when I’m not thinking about anything else.

On Thursday I told the boss I’d be taking a mental health day Friday. Cranked out the first version of Friday’s work and tested it on the hardware. Updated a test document. RARed the whole mess, dropped it into my shared docs for review. Sent the boss an email with a 9:30PM timestamp so he knows when I left. Heaved a sigh of relief and headed home.

I was in an accident on the way home. I was on the turnpike about a mile from my exit. There’s construction near the exit and some fellow came flying down and rear-ended me.

I’m ok, got the wind knocked out of me by the impact and breathed in some Hybrid nastiness. Contusions on my chest and abdomen from the seat belt, nausea, vertigo, and a neck sprain, but nothing life-threatening.

I suspect that my car is a total loss. It’s a classic Prius. The rear was crushed in so deep it cut through the tire and jammed the wheels. The auxiliary battery was crushed and exuding a visible a cloud of acid. Fortunately most of that got sucked into his car, not mine. The Prius avenges its own death. I don’t know how the hybrid battery fared. It may have taken out a cell or so on the left side.

Standing in a construction zone on the turnpike at 10:15PM with all the sirens and flashing lights and cars flying by just a few feet away was the most frightening thing I’ve ever experienced in my life. I had to hang onto the concrete barrier to keep myself from running away.

I was looking for an excuse to buy a new car. Maybe a Toyota Matrix. I playing around online this morning comparing prices.

Mishaps are like knives. They can cut you or they can serve you depending upon whether you grab them by the blade or by the handle.