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MentalHealthError: an exception occurred

kennethreitz.org

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Re: MentalHealthError: an exception occurred

#141

Post by nibs »

masklinn wrote: post #99
nibs wrote: post #94

I am saddened that after reading stories like this one, people remain skeptical of fortifying water with Lithium. A study from the 90s [1] found that rates of violent crime and suicide was much lower in Texas counties with naturally occuring Lithium in their water, as opposed to demographically identical ones with less. Lithium is an element that is implicated in Bipolar Disorder and appears to affect critical brain…

> I am saddened that after reading stories like this one, people remain skeptical of fortifying water with Lithium. You start with that, next thing you know you're crop-dusting Miranda with G-23 (and we all know how that went). More seriously, lithium has significant side-effects, lithium toxicity can occur both acutely and chronically, and lithium toxicity isn't always much higher than therapeutic doses (especially…

I spent 20 minutes trying to find this reference and could not find anything convincingly close enough. It is a sci-fi reference or something that happened in our world? The only thing I could find was FireFly related. My concern in this case would be chronic toxicity, which does as you say occur in some cases at lower than pharmaceutical dosage levels. I would only be campaigning for raising Lithium in towns <25% percentile to a level found in towns in the 75% percentile. This would be relatively simple to communicate to people, and you could point to a road down the street from which people's Grandparents grew up and demonstrate that you would simply be replicating amounts found in that town naturally. I think what is more disturbing is the concept that most people have no idea what is in their water, not that we could arbitrage minerals between different towns and try to come to some kind of optimal mineral content. In the study I reference, the spread between "highest" and "lowest" Lithium content is between ~2000x and ~1000x less than is currently used in the pharmaceutical. So if <10% of Lithium patients have any signs of toxicity (real number, around 10%) and 1% have life threatening toxicity, we could (perhaps not perfect math) assume that only 0.001% of people would experience a similar issue in dosages of 1000x less. My thought is that dosages at that level are akin to living in an area with high Lithium naturally, or eating lots of seafood, and that people would at least consider it, if you could reduce the rate of suicide by 50%. I could be wrong though, lots of opposition to this thesis, including here, including among people who no doubt know far more science than I do.

Re: MentalHealthError: an exception occurred

#142

Post by metasean »

watty wrote: post #7
protothomas wrote: post #2

A well written and brutally honest article - the author should be commended as this kind of honesty is what's needed in beginning to address mental health issues. I did feel the last throwaway point "don't date the crazy chick" let it down slightly - by his own hypothesis she too was suffering (bad) mental health issues and blithely shifting blame to her seems a little off.

I'm curious what kind of drugs were involved. Crazy chick, traveling the world, doing shamanistic rituals (which often use drugs), sleep depriving oneself until hallucinating, etc. He doesn't say it outright but had he not taken part in these damaging things, he may not have had the psychotic episode and wouldn't know he was bipolar. http://www.elle.com/beauty/health-fitness/advice/a14193/ayah... http://www.dailymail…

I've never done illegal drugs, but for years suffered with depression and occasional had "amazingly productive" periods.

After one particularly bad bout of depression, I decided to see a doctor. One of her questions was something to the effect, "Has anyone ever accused you of having been on drugs when you weren't?"

The funny thing is, during one of my previous "amazingly productive" periods, I had a coworker who -point blank- told me she was convinced that I was on drugs. I just felt high on life and told her as much.

The doctor ultimately diagnosed me as bi-polar, and we found a drug that would reduce the depression and not trigger hypermania or manic episodes (apparently a common problem with drugs that treat regular depression is that they can exacerbate bi-polar).

Fast forward a few years and I had to have knee surgery. Thankfully, my mother was taking care of me and knew I had been diagnosed bi-polar, but I'd never had a full blown manic, so she didn't know what that looked like. It took three days for her to realize what was wrong, but almost immediately after the surgery I had slipped into a full-blown manic. In the end, it turned out the pain medication and the bi-polar medication combined were triggering the manic episode.

I've since had to have several other surgeries and have learned that strong pain killers have a tendency to trigger manic episodes in me. In a way I'm lucky, because I've never gotten addicted to any pain killer, and I'm coherent enough to let my providers know whether I need manic-inducing pain killers (i.e. I rather be manic than in that much pain), whether I can take less effective pain killers that don't trigger manic episodes, and when I can just suck up the pain.

So, yes, drugs can trigger episodes, but it isn't necessarily illegal or 'bad' drugs that do so.

Re: MentalHealthError: an exception occurred

#143

Post by ascorbic »

kenneth_reitz wrote: post #90
ascorbic wrote: post #71

Earlier quoted context omitted.

No. Mania by definition includes psychosis (otherwise it's hypomania). Psychosis is roughly defined as "loss of contact with reality", and delusions and hallucinations are the main symptoms. Sleep deprivation can certainly trigger mania though.

Hypomania -> sleep deprivation -> mania -> psychosis

Sleep deprivation can trigger hypomania or mania. The one you get really depends on the person (type 1 or type 2 bipolar disorder).

Re: MentalHealthError: an exception occurred

#144

Post by baus »

josscrowcroft wrote: post #115

This brings to mind something I read by Ken Wilbur, about "Waking Up" vs. "Growing Up". In a nutshell, as I understand it: Waking Up without Growing Up - like spiritual bypass - can lead to delusion, psychosis, inflicting unconscious wounds on ourselves and the world... Advancement in Waking Up, which I suppose we need for ultimate fulfilment, doesn't by itself cause progress in Growing Up, which we need to function…

> Mental health seems like it could be a prerequisite for facing the challenges of sincere growth, but not a reason to avoid spirituality.

Going through a severe bipolar episode, basically forced me to rethink my entire life. I'm not saying it has been fun or easy, but I think when it is said and done, I will be stronger for it.

Re: MentalHealthError: an exception occurred

#145

Post by baus »

kenneth_reitz wrote: post #122
jzwinck wrote: post #119

Earlier quoted context omitted.

How did that happen? And what if anything do you now think about the permissive attitude of some people toward tazing? E.g. did you find any lasting effects? By the way, hi. I enjoyed your talk at PyConSG a little before this all happened.

It was extremely traumatizing. I felt electric shocks and tingles in my body for a week afterwards (that may have been unrelated), and had massive anxiety around electric-sounding noises, like cicadas. It would probably be less traumatizing to a person in a normal state of mind, but I'm not certain. It was absolutely terrifying.

This is terrible. I'm sorry.

Re: MentalHealthError: an exception occurred

#147

Post by hollander »

md224 wrote: post #140
kruhft wrote: post #114

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This is an interesting read on the difference of views between the Western and African views of 'mental illness' from an African (Witch) Doctor after visiting some western mental hospitals: http://www.wakingtimes.com/2014/08/22/shaman-sees-mental-hospital/ tl;dr: Most of what we view as mental illness they view as the birth or awakening of a 'healer' and should be treated that way for proper acceptance of the person…

Interesting that a patient positively responded to the Shamanic approach. Anecdotal evidence, but it makes you wonder.

In Brasil (a group of) people believe in Candomblé. They accept others with mental illness as normal beings.

Many turn to the houses of Candomblé (terreiros) for healing from not only physical ailments but mental illnesses as well. Candomblé has been very effective in healing mental illnesses even when Western medicine has proved ineffective.

http://digitalcollections.sit.edu/isp_collection/176/

Re: MentalHealthError: an exception occurred

#148

Post by brbsix »

This story is so raw and real that you'd naturally expect it to be anonymous. Pretty incredible that it is not, and you've just got to respect that. I think this is something many people can relate to, if not in their own lives, at least in others around them. The whole torrid affair sounds like a bit like a never-ending ketamine and LSD fueled-bender. Yikes...

Re: MentalHealthError: an exception occurred

#149

Post by masklinn »

nibs wrote: post #141
masklinn wrote: post #99

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> I am saddened that after reading stories like this one, people remain skeptical of fortifying water with Lithium. You start with that, next thing you know you're crop-dusting Miranda with G-23 (and we all know how that went). More seriously, lithium has significant side-effects, lithium toxicity can occur both acutely and chronically, and lithium toxicity isn't always much higher than therapeutic doses (especially…

I spent 20 minutes trying to find this reference and could not find anything convincingly close enough. It is a sci-fi reference or something that happened in our world? The only thing I could find was FireFly related. My concern in this case would be chronic toxicity, which does as you say occur in some cases at lower than pharmaceutical dosage levels. I would only be campaigning for raising Lithium in towns <25% pe…

> I spent 20 minutes trying to find this reference and could not find anything convincingly close enough. It is a sci-fi reference or something that happened in our world? The only thing I could find was FireFly related.

It is a scifi/firefly reference. Spoilers ahead for the Serenity movie.

Miranda is a planet on a far far "edge" of the Verse (the "known universe" in Firefly) and considered fictional before the events of Serenity as the Alliance had basically struck it from records (and it was deep in "Reaver space" where people of the Verse don't go without a serious death wish). An Alliance research program was tried there: G-23 Paxilon Hydrochlorate ("Pax") had been found to reduce aggression, and on Miranda it was tried on a large scale, spread throughout the planet via the air processors system.

The compound pacified 99.9% of the population so much they basically stopped all drive. They stopped working, talking, feeding, moving and ultimately leaving.

The remaining 0.1% blew a gasket and went the exact opposite becoming ultra-violent self-mutilating merciless and fearless animalistic — but not stupid — monsters: the reavers, which have plagued the Verse since.

Re: MentalHealthError: an exception occurred

#150

Post by auvrw »

> Sleep is really important.

so true. remember it's cumulative, too, so you can't miss a bunch of sleep, sleep 8hrs one night and then be alright.

>This can happen to anyone, even you.

not as concerned a/b this, but i s'p so.

>Don't date the crazy [person]!

totally date the person you feel a connection with, and don't worry a/b labeling them, yourself, or anyone else w/ such a gross, pejorative label as "crazy". do remain true to yourself under any & all circumstances. travel, in particular, can be tricky, depending on the time of year, especially.

> That is unlikely to happen again

this is a catch-22: it's as unlikely to happen as one is convinced that it could happen and remains vigilant.

thanks for Requests and stay safe!

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