Education, inspiration, mental health, Motivation

A Healthcare Woman Shares Her Battle With Depression Part 2

Severe depression

Nora Super is a healthcare practitioner who has decided to share her longtime battle with depression. I applaud her for being open about this mental health problem affecting millions of people worldwide. This is how it began:

“I had my first episode of major depressive disorder in 2005 at the age of forty-one. I had been under a tremendous amount of stress, having just gone through a divorce. I was also going to grad school while simultaneously working full-time and raising two young daughters. I wasn’t sleeping well and had been feeling increasingly anxious and sad. Then Hurricane Katrina hit. Although I had lived in the Washington, D.C., area for more than twenty years, New Orleans is my hometown—I still have relatives who live there and great affection for the city and its unique culture.”

“I was devastated to see people suffering in squalid conditions in the Louisiana Superdome. I could not fathom why we could not get water and food to people in an American city when we could airdrop necessities in war-torn countries across the globe. I felt as if my city had been abandoned. I couldn’t think straight. My thoughts went round and round in a spiral. I had less and less energy and was unable to concentrate on my work. Eventually, I couldn’t get out of bed in the morning, and it took a tremendous amount of energy just to take a shower. My distorted mind convinced me that my family would be better off if I were dead, and I came up with detailed plans for how I would end my life. Over the course of six months, I was hospitalized five times”.

“I tried a variety of antidepressants, gradually increasing the potency of the drugs. I saw a therapist and psychiatrist regularly. I participated in cognitive behavioral group therapy. Still, I sank further into depression. Finally, a physician friend recommended electroconvulsive therapy or ECT. This therapy had gotten a bad rap over the years, especially in One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest, which portrayed it as a punitive, painful treatment. Mental health professionals told me stories about how, in the past, ECT often had been given to patients in psychiatric wards without their consent, without anesthesia, and with severe adverse effects. But others told me that it was now safe and extremely effective.”

“I was reluctant. However, as I had been unable to work for more than six months and knew that my family was deeply worried about me, I decided to give it a try. It ended up saving my life.”

“My ECT was performed as an outpatient procedure, as is generally the case. The actual procedure took about five minutes. I received general anesthesia and muscle relaxers, and electrodes were placed on my scalp. Low-intensity electrical impulses were then emitted to create a brief, controlled seizure that affected the neurons and chemicals in my brain. Treatments are generally given three times a week until the symptoms are in remission, and they may be spaced out over months as maintenance therapy.”

“It was as if my brain was jump-started. It made me feel better almost immediately, and I felt nearly recovered by the fourth treatment.”

“ECT is one of the most effective treatments for severe depression. Yet this is the first time I’ve publicly admitted that I’ve received the treatment because of the stigma associated with it. Mental illness is stigmatized in general, and ECT is so stigmatized that many people are afraid to even mention the treatment that helped them get better. Why are those of us who’ve received it so reluctant to talk about it? No one is ashamed of receiving chemotherapy or immunotherapy. Yet in addition to the negative media impressions about ECT, mental health professionals still portray it as a “last resort” for those with “treatment-resistant” depression. I am left feeling as if it’s my fault that I need it—and ashamed for being suicidal—when I should be shouting to the world about the benefits, for me, of this treatment.”

Education, inspiration, mental health

A Healthcare Woman Shares Her Battle With Depression Part 1

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Nora Super is a healthcare practitioner who has decided to share her longtime battle with depression. I applaud her for being open about this mental health problem affecting millions of people worldwide. This is her story:

“In February 2021 I checked into a psychiatric ward. After I answered yes to the following questions, the emergency department doctor admitted me: Do you have little interest or pleasure in doing things? Do you feel bad about yourself or that you are a failure or have let yourself or your family down? Do you have trouble concentrating on things such as reading the newspaper or watching television? Do you have thoughts that you would be better off dead or hurting yourself? Yes, yes, yes, and yes.

After several weeks of crippling anxiety and depression, I was back in a place I dread more than any other, but I know it’s the safest place for me to be when I feel that low. This wasn’t the first time I’d been there, and unfortunately, it probably wouldn’t be the last. That’s the bad news. The good news is that I recovered and expect to recover again.”

Education, mental health, Motivation

Understanding Anxiety One Step At A Time

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“Think of anxiety as a normal reaction to a situation where people feel pressured and, to some degree, fearful because there’s an unknown factor or a perceived danger,” says Michelle Alejandra Silva, PsyD, assistant professor of psychiatry at Yale School of Medicine and director of the Connecticut Latino Behavioral Health System.

“But it becomes clinically concerning when the feeling persists even when the threat is not there, and when it begins to interfere with day-to-day functioning and relationships.” 

Any single cause or the combined weight of numerous factors can lead to an anxiety disorder. Anxiety triggers can be obvious, like losing a job or house, or more difficult to pin down, such as traumatic events from one’s past.

“Understanding context is key,” Silva says. “I try to do a thorough assessment of patients’ current environment and circumstances to understand their feelings and experiences within their reality. For instance, many of my clients are dealing with poverty or immigration-related stressors.” 

Education, Health, medicine

Face Masks In The 1918 Flu Pandemic

The use of masks in the1918 Flu Pandemic, Spanish Flu H1N1 virus

The horrific scale of the 1918 influenza pandemic—known as the “Spanish flu”—is hard to fathom. The virus infected 500 million people worldwide and killed an estimated 20 million to 50 million victims—that’s more than all of the soldiers and civilians killed during World War I combined.

Lack of Quarantines Allowed Flu to Spread and Grow

Take care of your body: Remember that the best medicine is education and prevention—DraMacn

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Education, Finances, Information, Music, News

Anything Goes On Sunday: Cheer up! Smile! Nertz!

Song by Eddie Cantor

Sure, business is bunk,
And Wall Street is sunk,
We’re all of us broke, and ready to croak.
We’ve nothing to dunk,
Can’t even get drunk,
And all the while, they tell us to smile:

Cheer up, gentle citizens, though you have no shirts,
Happy days are here again. Cheer up, smile, nertz!
All aboard prosperity, giggle ’till it hurts!
No more bread-line charity. Cheer up, smile, nertz!

Cheer up, cheer up, cheer up, cheer up, cheer,
Up, cheer up, cheer up, cheer, better times are here.
Sunny smilers we must be, the optimist asserts,
Let’s hang the fat head to a tree! Cheer up, smile, nertz!

The world’s in the red,
We’re better off dead,
Depression, they say in session to stay.
Our judges are queer,
Our banks disappear,
And all the while, they tell us to smile:

Cheer up, gentle citizens, though you have no shirts,
Happy days are here again. Cheer up, smile, nertz!
All aboard prosperity, giggle ’till it hurts,
No more bread-line charity. Cheer up, smile, nertz!

Cheer up, cheer up, cheer up, cheer up, cheer,
Up, cheer up, cheer up, cheer, better times are here.
Sunny smilers we must be, the optimist asserts,
Let’s hang the fat head to a tree! Cheer up, smile, nertz!

Nertz.

Education, Health, Motivation

Learning Friday: Human Body Effects of Air Pollution

Air pollution is considered the major environmental risk factor in the incidence and/or progression of some diseases such as asthma, lung, vision problems, hearing complications, skin damage, cancer, ventricular hypertrophy, Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s diseases, psychological complications (like stress, anxiety, mental confusion) autism, retinopathy, fetal growth, and low birth weight.

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Learn about Human Body Effects of Air Pollution. Remember that the best medicine is education and preventionDraMacn

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Education, Health, medicine

Learning Wednesday: Be Careful Of Stem Cell Fraud

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From a “prominent” Facebook PRP group…Patients are being sold PRP as a global magical anti-inflammatory that is injected into the IV monthly. In this post, the patient/victim was told that the platelets were even activated outside the body prior to being reinjected IV (Intravenously) to travel back to the heart.

Dr. Tricia Derges, with a patient in 2018 in Springfield, Mo., faces numerous charges in connection with a fraud scheme, prosecutors said.

stem cells medical fraud warning advised read dr martha castro noriega mexico

We need to stop these scams before someone has a MI (Myocardial Infarction) or dies. We need regulatory and legal and medical/chiropractic/naturopathic board help on these. Count the red flags in what was done to this patient.

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One company, Lung Health Institute, was charging patients over $5000 for this IV PRP treatment and calling it a stem cell treatment. They are being sued.

The stem cell clinic customers allege their $14,900 treatments were ineffective in treating lupus, diabetes, multiple sclerosis, and other conditions, according to the San Diego Tribune.

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SUMMARY OF SCIENTIFIC FACTS

“Dr. E. Michael Molnar goes into more details concerning the scientific facts of cell therapy or cell transplantation in the section Summary of Scientific Facts which is also included in the document you will download above. As far as Stem Cell Therapy PTE is concerned everything in the document is important but nothing is more important than the statement below.”

Education, Free Thinking, inspiration, Science

Saturday Night For The Freethinker: Albert Einstein

Einstein would probably not have classified himself as a freethinker in the sense in which it is used in this movement. He probably would not have supported all the positions taken in the Freethinker. However, he puts an absolute priority on the need for all of us to think independently of established ideas. This is how he overthrew Newtonian physics.

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