Postcards from the Funny Farm

When we go to the doctor or hire a lawyer or take a college course, we expect the people we encounter to be professionals.  As such, we assume they don’t have any mental illnesses … that is, many people assume that.  The truth is that many people in the professional world are doing their jobs while living with mental illnesses.  Bipolar is one of them.  In Kay Redfield Jamison’s book “An Unquiet Mind” she gives an anecdote where she reveals her bipolar illness to her boss at Johns Hopkins University.  He sort of blows it off and then tells her that if they got rid of every person with bipolar in the department it would leave them high and dry.  In other words, he assured her it was okay. He let her know he trusted her.

Ultimately, that should be the goal of any person at work, with family, wherever with people: to earn trust.

Many people do not know that famous song and screenwriters are bipolar.  They never hear about it because they live responsibly with their disorder.  Beyond that, we might assume they create such amazing art because of their disorder, not in spite of it.  I guess it’s a circular question.  People in society need more awareness of mentall illness in the professionals among us and less fear of what’s going on “over there.”

For bipolars, Lithium is a lifetime medication to be used daily just like toothpaste or acne cream. The difference is, you can’t miss this one. If you ask a psychiatrist how it works to quell mania, she/he will not be able to tell you exactly. They will, however, tell you that it works. We have gotten far enough along in science to know it isn’t the fault of a full moon.

There are assumptions about kindling in the brain and somehow the salt called Lithium in blood concentrations of .8 to .12 equalize that, but nothing truly measurable exists to explain what Lithium does. The bummer is that if a patient gets more than the .12 concentration it becomes toxic to the liver and kidneys. For this reason, bipolars have to get their blood taken regularly to measure the level. At the same time, if the lithium level is below .8, it is not even therapeutic.

There is a very interesting account on the history of Lithium here.

Some bipolars have to take as many as 16 capsules a day to achieve the right level. Others have to take less depending on their metabolism. Bipolars must be responsible. How many people in their 30’s to 50’s go regularly to a psychiatrist on a monthly basis? Bipolars do and I think that shows a lot of responsibility. Of course, some are in denial and try to avoid therapy. Bipolar has been called “the disease that sleeps.” Those people will have a manic episode eventually and it can destroy jobs, marriages, relationships, everhything. Bipolars that are silent about it and professionals know this risk and work hard to see that they make it to 80 years with luck managing this ferocious sleeping giant.

Bipolar is a serious illness as I have laid out in this series.  But just because it is serious doesn’t mean it can’t be managed.  Let me make something very clear though: it cannot and will not manage itself.  It is an aggressive disorder thate gets worse through a lifetime.  With medication and psychotherapy though, it can be managed.  Bipolars have made enormous contributions to art and science.  It is correct to fear the disorder but incorrect to judge those who have it.  In many cases they are more equipped to handle the world than non-bipolars because they have to watch and learn about their brains every day.  That might be a good endeavor for us all.

My hope in this series is to produce a paradigm shift in people’s attitude toward bipolar.  Remember when you were a kid and your parents said you were going somewhere really special?  Depending on your age, it could have been grandmother’s house or a flight to a 3 day stay at Disneyland.  Remember feeling your mood rise instantly beyond what is normal?  Well … that is normal.  Unfortunately for bipolars, their brain can experience this transition for no apparent reason at any random time.  You might think that it’s a good thing, how can it be bad to shoot up to a high mood right?  Well, when there are no logical reasons to be in such an elevated mood a bipolar person can succumb to all sorts of crazy activity … some of it potentially damaging, even deadly.  The brain is a fragile and delicate instrument and for those afflicted with bipolar, life is filled with all sorts of heavy duty work.

In a highly elevated mood, bipolars can experience what is called “grandiosity.”  This is one of the most malicious of all symptoms.  It has been described as a flight of ideas, the feeling one can conquer the world.  You don’t see yourself as Napoleon as a schizophrenic might, but you see yourself as like Napoleon out to conquer the world and you never feel as if you can lose.  This is one possible symptom of a manic episode.  The manic episode can last several days and I have even read of famous bipolars who experienced these for months or more.  This has an effect on blood pressure, spending, sleep habits, etc.  The manic episode has a profoundly devastating effect on relationships, jobs, family, and finances.  I read of one man who went to 20 stores over a 2 days period without sleeping to buy every Buzz Lightyear action figure.  When the episode passed, he realized he had maxed many credit cards in this manic acting out.  Bipolars in a manic state can be very offended and angry if you confront them.  Often this can lead to a straight jacket and a paddy wagon to a hospital.

Then there is the depression.  Just like on a globe there is a South pole and a North pole that are diametrically opposed, so the moods of a bipolar are polarized.  If you remember having a dog or pet die, you remember sinking moods.  Some drops in mood are inevitable in normal brains.  In biopolars they attack viciously with no regard for reason.  For bipolars, ones mood will drop from being manic to being in the utter depths of despair.  I know many people reading this understand depression.  We call this “unipolar.”  The psyche and mood of a person stays down too long and that produces debilitating issues for the depressed person.  For the bipolar person it can be multiple times worse due to all the damage one has done while manic.  Depending on how severe the episode, the bipolar may not even remember the insane theings she/he did while manic.  In a depressed state she/he is ill-equipped to pick up the pieces and get their mood back to normal.

It is like the mood thermostat is broken.  You might set it on “calm” but it fluctuates out of control without any mercy whatsoever.  The brain of a bipolar lacks the natural ability to adjust moods.  Thank goodness for bipolars, there is a wonder drug called Lithium that we will discuss in a future post.  Lithium acts as a repairman who can make the thermostat work a heck of a lot better than without.  As I discuss how Lithium works, I think you will be shocked and amazed to hear about the stigma that keeps many individuals and families from taking this drug.  The same way a Cat5e patch cable connects a computer to a network, si Lithium enables the bipolar to function in society. I’ll explain how it was discovered as a drug for bipolars and why anyone diagnosed with bipolar should talk to their psychiatrist about getting it if they haven’t already.  Lithium is the thermostat fixer for bipolar.  There is hope, thanks to Lithium.

Last time I wrote to you about the Power of Mantra. Before starting this as part two, Listen for Half a Day, I went back and read it again. I also took a nice long walk around my neighborhood admiring lawns and pink flamingoes, trying to make sure the next post was helpful and relevant to the series. The subject I realized today is another key tip in practicing an open mind.

As creative, enlightened people, we should actively practice an open mind by listening as much as possible.

I hope that will make perfect sense to you after I have given you many ways to do it through the course of this series. Please feel encouraged to subscribe to this series via -or- . I’m excited about how valuable this is in opening ones mind.

To make a quick example, listen to this “open mind” tip on traveling:

Usually cheap flights have no issues in the flight performance but are a part of an economical deal, and hence cheap. The deals usually promote hotels. But if one does want to travel cheap, the best way is to stay at a travel lodge instead.

Here, you see having an open mind can save you money, and peace of mind.  I learned this deal because I took the time to listen.  In doing so, that which I thought was impossible is possible.

We’ve all heard the statistics about how women have larger brains and how they are better listeners and better at many other things than men. I am not here to argue that at all. My wife knows full well how much I believe she is playing with a larger emotional deck that I am. What I want to stress is that I believe women and men, based on my experience of family, work, and life, are all generally poor at listening. In fact, it might be a cultural thing that we as Americans do not like to listen. Many are like me, we like to talk, fast, hard, and loud, no matter who gets hurt or shut out.

What if you could be more enlightened about what the people around you think?

The other day I caught myself lecturing my son on how his things were in every room in the houses where they didn’t belong (including a shoe at the bottom of the pool). As I rambled on and watched his bulbous brown eyes begin to well up tears, I listened to myself and it was not the ideal I have for myself. Ever done that?

It is phenomenal how much our mind is opened when we listen fully to someone else. Active listening is when you say back what the other is saying periodically and that is a good idea. But can you listen to people for half a day and not have a response? I’ve tried it and friends it aint easy. Just let what they are saying penetrate your mind, don’t respond except for the normal, OK etc. This is crucial to the experiment.

I could give you many statistics on how listening makes you a better person and such, but let’s just try the experiment what do you say? Starting right now at 11:26am until 6 or 7 tonight when I am doing my evening laps and jacuzzi time, I am going to listen. We haven’t been to church in a while and we decided to go to Saturday night services tonight … I might have picked the perfect day ;)

At any rate, whatever you do and whoever you interact with, this is a good exercise. I think you will be blown away at the paradigm shifts you experience and the broader, more open mind that you enjoy as a result. If you are a blogger you might try interviewing someone you respect. Heck, we may all decide to never speak again! …probably not, but it sounded like a good close. Whether you do this experiment or not, I’d love to get your comments on the concept of listening.

Remember: The goal of each of these posts is to give you a more open mind.

Did you know that science has looked into anger and rage as they relate to the brain? The findings have been quite interesting. A Harvard study found that when subjects revisited tapes they recorded about events that made them angry or enraged they had measurable chemical reactions in the brain. The beginning of what I refer to here as possibility thinking is having an open mind. Many people in the media and in the everyday world struggle with anger and rage and so I’m tackling this issue in hopes it might offer understanding and direction to open minded people who are concerned with their anger and rage.

Here is a somewhat long quote (for me anyway) that explains what happened in the Harvard study better than I could. It is fascinating:

A look into the brains of normal subjects revealed that anger increases blood flow to a reasoning part of their brains, an area over the left eye just behind the forehead, technically called the orbitofrontal cortex. This flow inhibits thoughts of rage. At the same time, blood flow increased activity in the amygdala, an almond-shaped knot of tissue deep in the brain that deals with emotion and vigilance.

Angry feelings arising in the amygdala are normally cooled by activity in the frontal cortex, part of the thinking region of the brain. However, in some severely depressed people a lack of both recognition and control of anger, can lead to violent rage.

“All of us get angry from time to time,” comments Darin Dougherty, an assistant professor who led the research. “At such times, feelings of wrath in the primitive parts of our brains seem to be balanced by inhibitions of our will to act on those feelings.” Source

This process is like a miracle. Of course, the brain itself is a composite of so many apparent miracles it boggles any brain that seeks to understand it. Still we try. While one part of the brain is fed blood and reacts in anger, in unison other blood is fed to an area that controls inhibition that sort of keeps the angry thought under a lid. Of course, brain damage and mental illness can upset the balance of this process. This is why we see movies of people in mental hospitals screaming in rage without stopping. Somehow the delicate balance their brain was meant to have has been disturbed.

So what does this mean to me and you? Once again, it points us to the truths of Phineas Gage: our mind is a delicate instrument that needs care to stay in balance. When we are getting angry often we should ask ourselves: “Is this chemical?” Is there something disrupting the balance between those two parts of the brain? If so, there are likely drugs that can help … see a psychiatrist or a psychologist that has a practice in concert with a psychiatrist. There are so many triggers that make us angry and even despondent. It could be as big as someone ripping you off or maybe just suffering the empty results of top diet pills.

If you feel the issue has more to do with behavioral issues such as a recurring annoyance in the form of a memory or if you are suffering from some of the cognitive distortions, get thee to a therapist and discuss those issues. Or, you can go to a book store or library and do your own study on these issues. Personally, I would recommend going to a professional instead but just make sure you tend to the problem in some way.

Your brain is your lens to the rich pageant called life. Don’t let anger steal anything from you, there is no reason for that.

Whether you are learning or teaching, it’s important to not over stuff your brain. Studies have shown that the mind cannot absorb more than three things at a time. So, if you are writing, don’t make more than 3 main points or they will be wasted on over-fed minds. If you are looking to read and understand something, break it down into three or less main categories. Yellow pads are great for this. You’d do well to “space out” the time you have to study as well. The theory of time spaced learning got me through College Algebra at the junior college. I have always struggled with math and a teacher shared with the class about it. My life has been improved ever since!

The theory goes like this: instead of studying to absorb new material over the course of an hour, break up your time into 15 minute increments. The data shows that memory is strongest when you start and stop a study time. Therefore, instead of having strong memories only twice in an hour, you will have them at the start and stop of each mini session. This equals more knowledge retained! Now this was great news to me, because I loved taking breaks from math!

When it comes to our brains, less is more and quality is better than quantity. Slow down and take more breaks, you’ll be amazed how much more you retain for life!

I ran across this inspiring photo today at Neurophilosophy, a recent addition to my blogroll. Mo, the author, describes the photo in a post there, but here is an excerpt:

Purkinje cells are the largest cells in the mammalian brain. They have a planar structure with a highly elaborate dendritic tree.

I’ve become inescapably fascinated with the brain in the past decade. I’ve begun to see our thoughts in a new way: organic. Just like fertilizer helps a tomato to grow ripe and delicious, so our brains are in a cyclical process of bloom and wilt all the time. Today I am interested in sharing a theory of creativity with you. Imagine that your creativity is like a tree such as the photo you see above. Now imagine something you’ve been told or imagined you “COULDN’T” do for one reason or another. The best way to conquer such a lie is through the stimulation of creativity, and hence: solutions.

Here’s an example of just one crazy thing you can do:

Is there water by your house you can jump in? Do it. I don’t care if it’s cold and I don’t care if it’s even permissible to swim there. Breaking conventions awakens creativity and stimulates the dendrites. No imagine the tree above thriving and pulsating as you swim through the water. Voila! You are out of your rut. The only limitations on what you can do are in your mind, in an organic way. people have said “mind over matter” for years but really the mind itself is matter. It, and only it, holds the key to true human freedom and possibilities.

I wrote yesterday about how the brain is a fragile instrument that must be cared for. I discussed Phineas Gage and the brain injury he suffered at the hands of an exploding metal rod. One capacity that he lost in the 15 years after the accident was his inhibition. Inhibition is simply a region of our brain. It isn’t the ten commandments or even the voice of your parents you hear saying: “Don’t lie!” Instead, it’s like a fleshy computer hard drive that organizes facts and feelings into a paradigm that controls our every move.

Step out of it to escape your rut, or funk, or whatever malady afflicts you … allow creativity to go crazy. Whether it’s an impromptu swim or grocery go-kart races … the results will amaze you like the glowing photo above. Don’t let anyone tell you you can’t do something you want to do.

What other crazy things could you do to get your creative juices flowing?