Mental Ilness Labels

"Many highly successful people, including the likes of Elon Musk, Mark Zuckerberg, and Bill Gates, have been included on lists of famous people with autism (though they were never diagnosed). What exactly is autism? How is it different than Asperger's syndrome? What is internalized ableism and what is neurodiversity? This is what we'll talk about today."

Click on the link below for another video from Sabine Hossenfelder clarifying the diagnostic criteria for mental illness:

Why is everyone suddenly neurodivergent?

Psychedelics Are Not Just Street Drugs

"John Oliver discusses psychedelic-assisted therapy: its history, its potential, and what it has to do with A$AP Rocky’s relationship to rainbows."

If society truly was science-based in its thinking, these drugs would have been standard medicine decades ago. Click on the link below for the details:

Psychedelic Assisted Therapy

Instagram And Mental Health

 Recently, Facebook and Instagram have been taking a lot of heat over the supposed dangers of Instagram on the young. What the science says may surprise you. (link)

Education: It Has Untruths

Among the many definitions of education is the process of gaining knowledge, which can be defined as justified, true belief. Unfortunately, many processes of education have not adjusted to the information gained through science. Click on the link below for a focus on 3 untruths found commonly in education:

3 great untruths to stop telling our kids - and ourselves

The Serious Problem Of Psychopathy

Presently there is much discussion over the role of mental illness in violent crime. Unfortunately, there is more heat than light on the subject. Yes, many perpetrators of such do have emotional and psychological issues. However, there are many varieties of such, as there is with physical medical dysfunction. This post is focusing on what is arguably the most harmful of mental dysfunctions: psychopathy. Click on the link below for a clear picture of when it usually begins in such a person's life and how hard it is to treat. If you are a believer in counter-causal free will, this will at least give you pause.

When Your Child Is a Psychopath

What Was Known About Trump BEFORE The Election

It is old news that a large group of mental health professionals signed a letter months ago stating that Trump is mentally unfit to be the POTUS. Unfortunately, essentially all that we know about him was fully known in the Summer of 2016, as can be seen in this detailed article in The Atlantic magazine (link).

If the USA was a science-based society, it would require all presidential candidates to be evaluated from known public sources by a respected team of mental health professionals*. But, we know how that goes in our magical/faith-based country. SMH

* (cough, cough) tax returns also?

One Reason Almost All Mass Shooters Are Male

Gun violence is not caused by one, or even a few, factors.  This article presents the case that how our society is raising its males should be getting greater scrutiny.

The Most Dangerous Man In The World

Anyone who didn't already know this is either terribly uninformed or deluded by Republican ideology.  Trump Is Violent, Immature and Insecure, Psych Experts Say

Accept What Science Says On Any Topic

It is easy to assume a cause for something through intuition when the truth can be known through accepting science:

Focus on mental health criticized

How About Administering The Most Appropriate Test To Trump?

One must be careful in accepting the results of Trump's cognitive screening test as reported by the White House physician. The test, the Montreal Cognitive Assessment, is quite valid and reliable for "Mild Cognitive Impairment (MCI) and Early Alzheimer's disease." However, Trump's issues appear to be more related to OTHER displays of possible mental dysfunction, such as personality disorder(s).

Narcissistic Personality Disorder seems to be high on the list of disorders that may be effecting Trump. 

Speaking of tests for mental dysfunction, this may be the most dangerous flaw in Trump.
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Vitamin D Deficiency And Depression

"While it is found in a few foods like oily fish, most people get vitamin D from a natural effect on the body caused by sunlight. Low levels are associated with bone conditions such as rickets and osteoporosis, but it can also affect muscle tissue and has been found to be associated with normal levels of dopamine, a chemical linked to mood, in the brain."

Vitamin D deficiency associated with heightened depression, study finds

Aerobic Exercise And Schizophrenia

"New research further supports the benefits of exercise for mental health, after finding aerobic physical activity could help treat the symptoms of schizophrenia."

Schizophrenia symptoms eased with aerobic exercise

Quackery In Veterans Medical Care

"Deep in the Act, almost at the end, is “Subtitle C – Complementary and Integrative Health,” which begins with “Expansion of research and education on and delivery of complementary and integrative health to veterans.” I am not sure who stuck this into the new law, but it is only tangentially related to addiction and recovery."

CARA: Integrating even more pseudoscience into veterans’ healthcare

A Quality Study Showing The Negative Effect Of Spanking

"The more children are spanked, the more likely they are to defy their parents and to experience increased anti-social behavior, aggression, mental health problems and cognitive difficulties, according to a new meta-analysis of 50 years of research on spanking by experts at The University of Texas at Austin and the University of Michigan."

Risks of Harm from Spanking Confirmed by Analysis of Five Decades of Research

Mental Health And Culture

Another article pointing to how the stigma of mental illness is hurting all of us.  Anyone remember the George McGovern US Presidential campaign of 1972 and Thomas Eagleton?

Doctors Look After Our Mental Health; Who Looks After Theirs?

Beware Of Another Bogus Mental Health Intervention

 "The latest piece of evidence that SAMHSA needs a major overhaul is its decision to support a highly questionable treatment called Thought Field Therapy (TFT), which it recently added to its National Registry of Evidence-based Programs and Practices (NREPP). The Registry is designed to provide the public with reliable scientific information on mental health and substance abuse interventions."

Thought Field Therapy (TFT)

Is Religion A Mental Illness?

Delusion falls on a continuum of cognitive dysfunction. Depending on how you define benign and illness will determine the level of harm. Religious belief is always a delusion.