A Healthcare Woman Shares Her Battle With Depression Part 1

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.”

My 8 Favorite Scary Medical Doctors Ever!

First of all: Happy Halloween to all of you who enjoy celebrating holidays as much as I do. I celebrate everything, if I can and my time allows it, I do celebrate holidays of all cultures and countries since we have a cultural diversity at home: White-Anglo-Saxon, American, Mexican, Spanish, Italian, and German. Soon to be added to this beautiful family of mine, Asian!

So, we get to celebrate Halloween and “El Día de Los Muertos” (The Day of the Dead) these coming days. The first one is mainly of Celtic origin in Ireland, the United Kingdom, and Northern France. The second one is, guess from where? Yes, you guessed right: Mexican.

This year we decided to get together, have dinner, talk, enjoy each other’s company, and watch scary movies. This year movies will have a topic: The Scariest Medical Doctors of all Time!

1. Dr. Giggles (Dr. Giggles, 1992)
2. Dr. Henry Jekyll (Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde) 
3. Dr. Frankenstein (Frankenstein, first appearance 1931)
4. Dr. Jack Griffin (The Invisible Man, 133)
5. Dr. Caligari (The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari, 1920 and 2005)
6. Dr. Abraham Van Helsing (Dracula, first appearance 1931)
7. Dr. Loomis (Halloween, first appearance 1978)
8. Dr. Hannibal Lecter (The Silence of the Lambs, 1991)

Dr. Martha Castro Noriega, MD

Trying to Be Positive in These Difficult Times? Fight Against Panic, Do Not Give Up!

Life is changing dramatically in front of us all, and around the world. Life always changes, it’s true, but right now the changes are daily, and aggressive, some are so painful for many, like the loss of life due to Covid-19 and horrible wars going on like the one in Ukraine.

How to cope with this terrible suffering that hundreds of thousands, if not millions of people are going through right now worldwide? Sometimes it can get terrifying for many when thinking about the future. and usually, these patients develop several mental issues, like panic attacks, severe anxiety, anger, depression, suicidal thoughts, that can make them manifest physical symptoms or aggravate the ones they already have.

But don’t forget that your life is precious and that you are never alone. There is always someone who cares but try to reach out before things get out of control in your mind.

Try to read positive quotes and hopeful good reads. Listen to calm music or any uplifting music of your preference. Surround yourself with really good people who love you for who you are.

Practice some fun exercises. It doesn’t have to be exhausting, just a good walk or playing with any ball. Observe nature, and do something that makes you really happy: cooking, reading, spending lots of time with your pets.

Do not despair if it seems that nobody cares about humanity. Sometimes it can feel that way, but there are always true good people who care for you if you just reach out. It could be a neighbor, a friend, a relative, or these phone numbers where ever you are on this beautiful earth we live:

HELPLINES, CRISIS LINES, MENTAL HEALTH CRISES, SUICIDE HOTLINES FROM AROUND THE WORLD

LIST OF SUICIDE CRISIS LINES BY COUNTRY

Pursue Happiness: Recognize Your Painful Emotions And Get Rid Of Them

Instead of ‘turning away’ from pain in avoidance we can learn to gently ‘turn towards’ what we’re experiencing. We can bring a caring open attention towards the wounded parts of ourselves and make wise choices about how to respond to ourselves and to life.

It’s a paradox that we all must understand: It is by turning towards negative emotions that we find relief from them – not by turning away.

Painful emotions can change you, but that doesn’t mean it has to be a bad change. Take that pain and turn it into wisdom.

The pain, just…

Being strong and resilient incorporates the ability to be emotionally flexible, accepting whatever one feels without judgement.

Motivation Monday: Hate Is Not The Opposite Of Love – Part 2

The opposite of LOVE is FEAR, according to Mahatma Gandhi (1869-1948) and Paulo Freire (1921-1997), both said it in different ways.

Paulo Freire, a Brazilian expert on education, philosophy and psychology of language, who was a leading advocate of critical pedagogy said: “The opposite of love is not, as we many times or almost always think, hatred, but the fear to love, and fear to love is the fear of being free.”

MY OPINION:

And I have found that the opposite of love is, indeed, fear. Fear results in retraction to the individual self, to accuse the other, to choose to label, to attack, in some blind idea that psychological projection is protective. It results in judgment, anger, and separation, all opposite of the goal or the affects of love…inclusion, sharing, compassion, trust, extension, joy.

Many philosophers have explained what love is for them, and what the opposing emotion of it is: indifference, according to Elie Wiesel. I guess it depends what the situation is. But I would argue, kindly, that the indifference is provoked by fear itself.

Religion God Science Fear or Hope?

First Do Not Harm

When we are born our parents or caretakers try to teach us what they were taught by their parents.

Most of us were told that there is a God in heaven and that if we are good girls or boys we will go there one day. Later (if our parents were kind enough not to scare us with the existence of hell at a very young age), when we grow up a little they tell us that there is a place with flames and very hot where people who misbehave go when they die.

Do They Exist?

I think this idea of heaven and hell is taught in one way or another pretty much by all religions. Fear and hope.

I grew up believing in God, Jesus and the Holy Spirit. Yes, Catholic, in Mexico. I even went 12 years to a Catholic school, full of beautiful, funny and sometimes angry nuns if anyone of us dared to upset them! But, seriously, I had a great time there. I remember my life being very happy at primary and secondary school with the nuns.

Remembering The Nuns with Love

Then, when I went to medical school my brain started to ask many questions to science. I learned, My curiosity grew. I studied more and my questions expanded in number and complexity. Decades have gone by and I still have thousands of questions. I have found the logical answer for many of them, and yet, many still without an answer.

But it’s okay. Curiosity has made me learned so much about the brain and many other areas of science, that the more I learn the more doubts I have. It’s a beautiful curiosity vicious cycle!

…And I Am The Goddess? …. j/k 😇

Yes, I do not believe anymore in what my wonderful nuns from my childhood and my parents taught me about their religious God. I am one hundred percent irreligious. But I don’t pretend to know the whole truth. Even science makes mistakes.

Dr. Martha Castro, MD

Deceptive ” Health Advisers” in Social Media and Websites Promoting Fear – Part 1

HEALTH ADVISERS

 

Just like when you want to see a medical doctor, you want to make sure that you are consulting a true qualified graduate medical doctor, don’t you? You want to see his medical license and maybe you check him/her out on the Internet or even call the medical board of your state/country to corroborate that s/he is in fact a physician.

 

 

And that is how you should behave when you navigate in the internet, exactly the same way. You should always make sure that the person giving advice has the proper qualifications and professional training in the field you want advise or guideline.

 

 

There are thousands of people in social media and all over the Internet that want to make a quick buck, and they use their expertise in advertising to start a digital business promoting health products, physical therapy treatments, “health magazines” that have damaged a lot of people who are desperate for a “cure” and they haven’t found it in traditional medicine for different reasons:

 

 

1. Graduate medical doctors who are not well trained.

2. Lack of interest by the healthcare provider in the benefit of the patient.

3. Medical doctors who just care about billing the medical insurance for pure profit.

4. Physicians who never had an excellent qualified expertise attending patients as a whole.

5. Physicians who do not keep on studying the newest medical advances and do not keep up to date on medica scientific advances.

 

 

Even the most credible information found online is useless in the absence of expert physician evaluation and diagnosis. Tell your doctor you fully trust what you have read online. Email them the article that’s captured your interest, or print it out and bring it to your next appointment. A good doctor will walk you through it.

 

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