It’s been years since I gave Survivor’s Blog Here a facelift and today started looking around at options. Does this theme work for how you like the post to pop out on the front page. What is missing? The COVID 19 virus has affected several of our contributors, I’m sure you’ve noticed less blogging […]
What Do you Think of Our New Theme? — Survivors Blog Here Mental Health Collaborative
It’s been 28 years since you killed yourself.
Too many Birthday, Christmas, and Thanksgivings.
Wishing I could say I missed you but that would not be true. I do have some great snippets, little memories from my early childhood. Other memories, more unstable memories from my teens when I lived with you.
Driving down the freeway, the speed limit was 70, you drove 90 while punching the radio dials looking for something worth listening to while smoking Swisher Sweet cigars with the window closed as we choked in the backseat.
You would pick me up from daycare and take me to the convenience store around the corner, buy two RC Cola’s, sodas required a 10 cent deposit back then, we would sit in the car singing to Charly Pride and Hank Williams Sr. to the to of our lungs until we finished our soda’s and go in for our deposit.
I ran away, you drove around with a 357 magnum pointing it at my friends, threatening them to tell you where I was. Cary won an Academy Award for his ” I have no idea where she is speech” as I lay crouched on the floorboard.
You bought me a bag of weed so I would stay home and smoke with you and your friends instead of going out with mine. What is wrong with this picture, I was 13 years old. You thought everything was fine. Like any parent would do the same.
I tried to kill myself, instead of taking me to the hospital five minutes away, you called Granny saying you are going to drive me to see her thirty minutes away. When she said no, you took me to “the club” and had them give me a glass of milk before taking me to the hospital. I almost died just from your lack of action. You had no grasp on reality.
It’s been 28 years since you killed yourself…….
Melinda
Recipe from Willow and Sage by Stampington
Making your own essential oil is easier than you think. Gather dried herbs and oil of your choice. Dried herbs are better than fresh ones to prevent mold.
Calendula Oil–Use for any skin remedies, like in lotion or facial oil.
Peppermint Oil–Wonderful for relieving aches and pains. It can be used as a massage oil or added to bathwater. If you have a headache, rub a bit on your wrist and breathe in the healing aroma.
Rosemary Oil–If you have hair troubles, such as poor growth, lice, or dandruff, rosemary is a great option. Add the infused oil to shampoo or use it as a hair mask.
Lemon Balm Oil–Lemon balm is a natural astringent and has antibacterial properties, which are amazing for healing cold sores and other skin irritations.
Place the dried herbs in a clean 1-quart mason jar. Cover the herbs with the oil of your choice with a 1-to-2 ratio. Add enough that the herbs are completely covered by at least an inch of oil. Seal the jar with an airtight lid, and add either place outside or in a sunny window. Let infuse for at least four weeks. When the oil is ready, strain it through cheesecloth, making sure to strain as much oil as possible. Store the oil in the same mason jar.
Melinda
Essential oils can be used to soothe and help heal many ailments, and they are a great resource for relieving pain. Specific oils treat certain types of pain naturally without causing uncomfortable side effects that sometimes come with medications. Here we’ve broken down which oils are best to use when targeting each type of pain. Make sure to properly dilute the essential oil with a carrier oil before applying to skin.
TMJ
When dealing with jaw point pain, combine wintergreen and lavender essential oils to utilize the analgesic effects, and help ease muscle tension.
NECK AND SHOULDER
This pain often stems from a strain or prolonged sitting. Try using chamomile, lavender, and frankincense essential oils for their anti-inflammatory benefits.
NERVE
To help ease nerve pain, it’s best to use essential oils with anti-inflammatory properties to reduce swelling, such as eucalyptus essential oil.
BACK
This type of pain can stem from various causes like inflammation or menstrual cramps and it’s ideal to use ginger, wintergreen, thyme, or lavender essential oils for relief.
HIP
To naturally reduce inflammation and increase blood flow, apply a combination of lavender, frankincense, and wintergreen essential oils.
LEG
Whether growing pains or extended use fatigue, try rosemary essential oil to reduce swelling and wintergreen essential oil to increase blood flow.
KNEE
Rosemary, wintergreen, ginger, and frankincense essential oils are best for treating swollen knee joints.
*DON’T FORGET TO USE A CARRIER OIL TO PROPERLY DILUTE
News | August 17, 2020
Health and well-being company Humana Inc. announced a pilot home-testing program that will enable at-home COVID-19 test collection for members, making Humana the first insurer to offer LabCorp’s at-home test-collection kits. Humana also announced an innovative new collaboration with Walmart and Quest Diagnostics to help members more easily get tested, becoming the first health care company to offer its members drive-thru testing at hundreds of Walmart Neighborhood Market drive-thru pharmacy locations across the country. Humana will continue to waive member costs related to COVID-19 diagnostic tests.
To create a seamless experience for members, Humana has developed a coronavirus risk-assessment tool. Members who have symptoms consistent with COVID-19 infection, or those without symptoms who may be been exposed to the virus qualify for testing and will be given the option to request an in-home test or drive-thru testing. This is part of Humana’s ongoing effort to meet members where they are and ensure that they have a wide range of options and choices for COVID-19 diagnostic testing. Humana members with Medicare Advantage, Medicare Supplement, Medicaid, or Employer Group plans through Humana are eligible for the tests, with Humana waiving member costs for the tests.
Humana Inc. is committed to helping their medical and specialty members achieve their best health. Humana’s efforts seek to lead to a better quality of life for people with Medicare, families, individuals, military service personnel, and communities at large.
For more information, please contact:
Disclaimer: The information provided through PsychU is intended for the educational benefit of mental health care professionals and others who support mental health care. It is not intended as, nor is it a substitute for, medical care, advice, or professional diagnosis. Health care professionals should use their independent medical judgement when reviewing PsychU’s educational resources. Users seeking medical advice should consult with a health care professional.The content displayed on this page was developed by OPEN MINDS, a national publishing, education, and consultation firm specializing in the mental health field. The expressed opinions, informational content, and links displayed do not necessarily reflect the position or policy of PsychU, PsychU Community members, or Lundbeck, LLC, and Otsuka Pharmaceutical Development & Commercialization, Inc.
Interestingly I’ve taken Ketamine for Pain Management but not for my Bipolar Disorder. When I spoke with my doctor about years ago he said that the percentage of people with my level of depression experiencing high results was low. The key to remember is everyone is different. The treatment is nothing like Electro Convulsive Therapy. It’s given in an IV and can take an hour to an hour and a half. During my treatments, I felt like I was on an LSD trip and stayed grounded by listening to calming music. If you let yourself fight the effect of the drug I can see where some would get anxious. Ask your doctor before the treatment of the ways to have the best experience.
Melinda
August 10, 2020
In adult patients with major depressive disorder (MDD) or bipolar disorder (BD), the use of intravenous (IV) ketamine is generally well tolerated and safe when administered mainly as an acute treatment, according to a study published in the journal Expert Opinion on Drug Safety.
In the current analysis, retrospective data derived from a post hoc analysis (ClinicalTrials.gov identifier:NCT04209296) from the Canadian Rapid Treatment of Excellence (CRTCE), conducted in Mississauga, Ontario, Canada, were examined. Individuals who had been referred to the CRTCE by primary care physicians, psychiatrists, or nurse practitioners for treatment-resistant depression (TRD)—that is, MDD or BP—were enrolled. Individuals with posttraumatic stress disorder or obsessive-compulsive disorder were also eligible for enrollment, provided the presence of a depressive episode was their main complaint. Patients with dementia, psychosis, and/or active substance or alcohol use disorder were excluded from this study.
Data were analyzed from a total of 203 patients with TRD who were treated with repeat-dose IV ketamine. The participants received 723 IV ketamine infusions at the CRCTE between July 2018 and December 2019. Safety was evaluated as hemodynamic changes. Tolerability was assessed via the reporting of adverse events and dissociation symptom severity, which were calculated with use of the Clinician-Administered Dissociative States Scale (CADSS).
IV ketamine was administered adjunctively with patients’ current, concomitant medications, in order to try to increase participants’ acceptability and feasibility of treatment. In an attempt to minimize the likelihood of hazardous drug-drug interactions, the participants were instructed not to take any medications for 6 hours prior to the infusion and for 4 hours after the infusion. The participants received a total of 4 infusions over a period of 1 to 2 weeks.Today’s Top Picks for You on Psychiatry AdvisorPsychosocial Factors Linked to the Development of MDD in Adults With Type 2 DiabetesCord Blood Does Not Improve Socialization Skills in AutismLow Dose Ketamine Accelerates Onset of Antidepressant Effect for Electroconvulsive Therapy
CONTINUE READING
Overall, approximately 40% (81 of 203) of participants did not have a dose optimization and received all 4 infusions at the index dose (ie, 0.5 mg/kg). In contrast, approximately 60% (123 of 203) of participants received 2 doses at the index dose and then received 2 optimized doses (ie, 0.75 mg/kg). In fact, a total of 203 infusions were received by the participants at the optimized dose.
Significant transient increases in patients’ mean blood pressure and heart rate were reported during the infusion. Overall, 44.3% of participants fulfilled criteria for treatment-emergent hypertension (ie, blood pressure ≥165/100 mm Hg), with 12% of the patients reporting hypertension that necessitated pharmacologic intervention. In particular, systolic blood pressure increased by 17.9 ± 13.4 mm Hg, diastolic blood pressure by 12.9 ± 10.3 mm Hg, and heart rate by 8.4 ± 10.1 beats per minute (P <.0001). Blood pressure and heart rate began to decrease, however, once the infusion had been completed. In fact, at 20 minutes postinfusion, most of the participants’ cardiovascular measures had returned to within 10% of their baseline values.
Results of the study demonstrated that ketamine was well tolerated, with <5% of participants withdrawing from the study because of tolerability issues. The adverse events most often reported included drowsiness in 56.4% of participants, dizziness in 45.2%, dissociation in 35.6%, and nausea in 13.3%. Additionally, the severity of dissociation was significantly diminished following the initial infusion but plateaued with subsequent infusions.
Limitations of the study include the nature of retrospective analysis of outpatients without a control group, and lack of data on long-term exposure. Furthermore, the CADSS was not developed primarily as a safety measure for ketamine treatment, and therefore may underestimate the extent of dissociation experience with ketamine.
The investigators concluded that the use of IV ketamine in this patient population was safe and well tolerated, with no participants exhibiting psychosis, mania, or new-onset suicidality. The researchers support the use of multidisciplinary treatments at the point of care, in order to guarantee the safe and skillful administration of IV ketamine.
Reference
Rodrigues NB, McIntyre RS, Lipsitz O, et al. Safety and tolerability of IV ketamine in adults with major depressive or bipolar disorder: results from the Canadian rapid treatment center of excellence [published online June 15, 2020]. Expert Opin Drug Saf. doi: 10.1080/14740338.2020.1776699
Jill Ettinger is an LA-based writer and editor focused on vegan and cruelty-free living.
AUG. 13, 2020
Mandatory or not, wearing a face mask in public is helping save lives (maybe even your own) by reducing the spread of the coronavirus. The more consistently we wear them, the sooner we won’t have to wear them at all—in theory, anyway.
But even once masks are no longer required, many of us may still find ourselves wanting to wear them. Why? Because in addition to keeping us safe from disease, they can also hide our maskne—those unsightly breakouts caused by wearing masks in the first place!
For now, anyway, don’t lose your masks. But you can lose that maskne. Here’s how.
This should go without saying, but it’s so easy to pop your mask into your purse or take it off in the car and then forget about it until the next time you need it. Reusing unwashed masks is better than wearing no mask at all, but it’s best to have several masks you can rotate through and clean regularly. A clean mask is going to reduce the bacteria, reducing your risk of breakouts. Be sure to use a fragrance-free, natural detergent, too. Synthetic detergents can be rough on the skin as well, and you don’t want to be inhaling those chemicals either.
Unless you’re an essential worker required to use a specific kind of mask, you may want to avoid heavier fabrics (like nylon) and stick with a breathable cotton. If you can find organic cotton, even better. Lighter masks, especially in the summertime, won’t trap as much heat, which reduces the risk of maskne and skin irritation. Cotton is also easier to clean.
No one can see much besides your eyes, anyway. So leave the foundation off (not ideal during summer, anyway), and focus on playing up your eye game, if you choose. Foundation and concealers can sometimes plug up your pores. That doesn’t work well in the humid environment your mask is creating. Not to mention, it’s also a waste of money to use all that makeup if your face is going to be covered with a mask!
If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it, right? If your skincare routine was already working, chances are it’s the mask, not your daily cleanser or moisturizer, that’s causing the breakouts. If your skincare routine was due for an overhaul, anyway, try a natural (and cruelty-free) cleanser for acne-prone skin, like Willing Beauty Do-Over Cleanser(featured in the March 2020 Kinder Beauty Box). It may help reduce breakouts and speed up healing if they’re already happening.
There are lots of store-bought face masks to help reduce breakouts. But you can also whip up a quick and easy DIY face mask for acne prone skin with ground up oats, apple cider vinegar, and a few (just a few!) drops of lavender and tea tree essential oils. Mix the ground up oats with enough vinegar to create a thick but smooth paste. Add in the oils and mix well. You can use this all over your face or spot treat trouble areas. Pro-tip: If you don’t want to make your own, we recommend the Sonage: Saffron Energizing Vitamin Mask, featured in Kinder Beauty’s July 2020 Jasmine Collection.
Yep, even under your mask. The last thing you want is weird mask tan (or burn) lines on your face, especially if your skin is already aggravated. And since masks can fog up sunglasses, you may be going without them more often than usual. Skip the burn, and stay safe.
While many businesses have reopened and many people are returning to “normal,” keep in mind we’re still in the middle of a global pandemic. We’re all safer at home, and that’s good news for maskne sufferers, too. Order in, take a staycation, and only go out when necessary. The less often you need to wear your mask, the safer you are and the healthier your skin will be, too.
Happy Friday! I am so glad you stopped by today. Have a great weekend and please wear a mask, the Covid19 virus is very serious and I want to see you healthy and happy.
Melinda
If you’re looking for ways to support your mental health but you don’t know where to begin then don’t worry, not alone. Although it can be overwhelming, you need to be sure you’re doing all that you can to look after yourself, including your mental health. Luckily, there are lots of ways in which you can do exactly that. From practising self-care to getting fresh air, there are lots of small changes you can make to your day-to-day life. With that in mind, here are 5 small ways to look after your mental health every day:
Make Sure You’re Drinking Plenty Of Water And Eating What Your Body Wants
Although you may not feel as though they’re intertwined, your mental health can often be improved by focusing on what your body needs. Whether that means ensuring you’re drinking enough water or listening to what your body wants to eat, you need to be sure you’re focussing on your physical health too. While it may not be your top priority each and every day, remembering to drink water and eat nutritious meals is important. For more information when it comes to the link between mental and physical health, you can visit this site here.
Practise Self-Care As Often As You Can
Another great way to help improve your mental health is to focus on practising self-care as often as you can. Whether you’re taking a long hot bath or you’re spending the evening watching your favourite TV, you may be surprised at how much comfort it can provide. As self-care is different for everyone, you may want to look at some self-care ideas here.
Consider Writing In A Journal
Although this doesn’t work for everyone, writing in a journal is a great way to get all of your thoughts down in one place. Whether you’re planning out your day or you’re writing down the events that have happened that day, writing things down is known to help many people when it comes to mental health. If you’re looking for inspiration when it comes to finding a mindfulness journal, you can visit this site here.
Do Things That Make You Happy
Another great way to focus on your mental health each and every day are to do things that make you happy. Whether that means seeing the people you love or cooking your favourite meal, the things that you love are guaranteed to make you smile. For a guide to finding things that make you happy, you can visit this site here.
Ensure You’re Getting Fresh Air
Finally, you may want to think about getting some fresh air. Although it doesn’t work for everyone, getting outside and going for a walk can help give you a moment of happiness.
With lots of helpful ways to look after your mental health, you can be sure you’re doing all that you can to put yourself first. What else could you do? Did we miss anything? Let us know your thoughts and ideas in the comments section below.
Collaborative Post
Melinda
Pain Week is a publication specifically for Pain Doctors, one I haven’t heard of before. This mini article and Podcast shine a light on a topic those who suffer from chronic pain already know. Pain medication is not being prescribed when needed and specialized pain care is dwelling.
This Podcast is very interesting, we now know why most doctors are running for the hills, as they say.
Melinda
A SINGLE POINT OF ACCESS FOR FRONTLINE PRACTITIONERS
Aug 10, 2020
At the 2018 Department of Justice (DOJ) Opioid Summit, then-Attorney General Jeff Sessions remarked that opioid prescribing had reached its lowest point in 18 years. Still, the DOJ is committed to reducing opioid analgesic prescriptions an additional 30% to 33% within the next 3 years. More than ever, prescribers of controlled prescription medications are under intense scrutiny from lawmakers, regulators, and payers. At the same time, some 50 million adults in the US have persistent pain, nearly 20 million of whom experience pain that interferes with daily life or work activities.
As noted by the Pain Management Best Practices Inter-Agency Task Force (PMTF) in its December 2018 draft report, the trend of healthcare professionals opting out of treating pain has exacerbated the shortage of pain management specialists, leaving some patients without access to individualized care. In this session, a partner in a Washington, DC based health law firm will discuss recent legislative and regulatory activity at the federal level and trends in criminal enforcement. He will also discuss noteworthy developments at the state level and analyze the anticipated benefits, drawbacks, and unintended consequences of such actions on people with pain and those who treat them.
Topics will include the implications of recently passed comprehensive opioid legislation—the SUPPORT for Patients and Communities Act; a draft report on pain management best practices by PMTF and the pushback against it; and efforts to reform the federal approach to investigating controlled-medication prescribers.
Written by Dr. Eric Perry Image Credit: Pixabay “A friend is a gift you give yourself.” ~Robert Louis Stevenson What kind of friend are you? Are you attentive, kind and compassionate or, are you neglectful, uncaring and critical? Scrolling through quotes on the internet, I was reminded of the immense value we place on friendship. […]
Are You a Good Friend to Yourself? — Dr. Eric Perry
Thank you to all those who give of themselves tirelessly to help others in need around the world.
Melinda
I hope you enjoy the different renditions of Half Dome at Yosemite National Park, California in America. If you have not been, please consider going, or put on a bucket list. The park is a World Wonder! Thank you for stopping by today, I truly appreciate you and so glad to see you.
Which photo is your favorite? The first one reminds my of The Wild West, the old movies I watched with gramps growing up. I went for a slightly different effect with each one, not that any are masterpieces, remember I’m an amatuer photographer. I look forward to hearing your replies.
Melinda
Self-care may seem like a luxury but in fact, it’s important for everyone to take time out for self-care. Self-care or taking a few minutes for ourselves is critical to our mental health. Our mind and body need a break, a chance to unwind, to refocus and there are many ways to unwind.
I do many things for self-care depending on how much time I have. If I have 30 minutes I may take a hot aromatherapy bath, give myself a manicure, if I’m crunched for time a hot foot soak is very relaxing. Simple ways are enjoying a candle for a few minutes, meditating, watching the birds, or just taking a walk around my backyard to clear my head.
Men need self-care just as much as women, the manner in which you find a moment of joy may look different. A good foot soak is always a great way to relax, meditation, taking a 15-minute power nap, hot shave, scalp massage, hot bath, or even stretching exercises and aromatherapy is can be relaxing.
3 simple strategies to help you focus and de-stress
Does it seem like you can’t complete even the simplest task without being distracted? Texts, emails, social media alerts, noisy colleagues, ringing phones… Friends, you are not alone.
Distracted thinking — aka daydreaming or mind-wandering — affects everyone. In fact, researchers have found that people think about something other than what they’re actually doing — or supposed to be doing — almost half of the time. Turns out that a wandering, easily distracted mind is actually the default mode for the human brain.
Succumbing to distraction over and over, though, can build stress, foster unhappiness, and even lead to depression. So if you’re one of the many looking to figure out how to handle distractions and improve your ability to focus, take comfort in the fact that research has shown a way forward.
One word: mindfulness.
Mindfulness means maintaining moment-to-moment awareness of where you are and what you’re doing. At work, for instance, it means you’re focused on the project in front of you; walking with a friend, it gives you the ability to really focus on your surroundings and your conversation. Scientists have shown that you can actually train your brain to become more mindful. Like anything else, it just takes practice.
Ready to get started? These three practices have all proven useful in building mindfulness.
MBSR training has become a recognized way to help people learn to avoid distractions and increase their attention to the task in front of them. It can also help improve memory, motivation, and autonomy — all things likely to make you (and your boss) happier. MBSR programs typically include breathing, stretching, and awareness exercises.
Meditation aims to increase your awareness of the present moment and help you develop a gentle, accepting attitude toward yourself. Regular meditation practice has been shown to actually alter the brain — in a good way. One study showed that the area of the brain dedicated to regulating your emotions was significantly larger in meditators. In other words, in a world determined to trip you up with distractions and unpleasant surprises, meditation can help you stay more positive and more focused.
The hallmarks of mindful movement, or yoga — structured breathing, controlled movement, mental focus — make it sound like the perfect antidote to stress and distracted thinking, but does science back that up? Yes, over and over again. Many studies have found that, after beginning a yoga program, people feel less stressed, more focused, even more optimistic. In fact, yoga’s been found to be even more beneficial to people who’re highly stressed.
In today’s so-called attention economy, the world is actually being designed to distract you. Everybody wants your attention, and they want it right now. But you can take back control of your focus, shed that stress, and wake up happier to meet your day.
Ready to commit to becoming more mindful? Great, go for it!
Melinda
Learn best practices to create an education website that’s accessible to diverse audiences.
Expert Advice: How to Build an Accessible Education Website on WordPress.com — The WordPress.com Blog
Life can be stressful and times like these are not making it any easier. That is why spending time outside is encouraged for your mental health. Research has shown that time outdoors gardening can lift your spirits. Playing in the dirt can reconnect you with nature, allowing you to see the bigger picture and giving you a different perspective. Here are some surprising ways gardening can do wonders for your mental health.
Sometimes things are just the way they are and there may not be much you can do about it. In times like these, practicing acceptance comes in handy to keep your mental health in check. Life is unpredictable. Gardening will help you realize that life will blossom in the way it wants. Of course, you can provide an ideal environment for your plants to be strong, healthy and nutritious, but after a while, you have to let it do its own thing.
Life is not perfect. Nothing is perfect. Desperately trying to make things perfect will run you ragged and leave you frustrated. Wanting perfection can cause you to miss opportunities, damage your relationships, and can even paralyze you from trying something new. Nothing will teach you that more than planting your favorite vegetable or fruit. No matter how carefully you try to map out how your garden will look, how it will grow, or how many Ryobi trimmer reviews you read, there are many factors that cause imperfections in your garden. These are things like insects, diseases of your plants, bad weather, and pests. Gardening will force you to relinquish the need for perfection.
One of the ways to maintain your mental health is to change your mindset from a fixed mindset to a growth mindset. When you have a growth mindset you believe that you are constantly learning even when things do not go as planned. You look at those situations as an opportunity to learn and grow instead of failure. It can change your perception of making mistakes. Gardening can help you work on building up that mindset. You cannot fail at gardening, even if all your plants die. All that you did is learn how to better take care of your plants for the next time.
Gardening allows you to connect with people and the world. For one, gardening is a hobby enjoyed by many people around the world. If you garden, you will likely find a friend who enjoys gardening too. It also allows you to connect with the earth. Think about it; you are playing in its dirt all day and you are adding to it. You are creating an impact. Gardening almost feels like being a parent because you develop a bond with the plot of land you are tending as well as the plants that sprout out of it.
Collaborative Post
Melinda
This post is from 2016 and on a topic I feel is important to discuss. When you take addictive medication, it’s essential to take the prescribed dosage. I was also suffering terribly from Lyme Disease at the time. You can see how out of control my life became by self-medicating and not taking the prescribed dosage.
Xanax is an anchor drug in my medication combo for treating Anxiety/Bipolar Disorder. I’ve taken Xanax for 15 years, it works miracles in keeping me grounded. Working quickly is an advantage with little to no side effects, EXCEPT ADDICTION. The downside side is addiction happens quickly after starting. For me withdrawal starts on the second day, my fourth day I look like a street addict who would sell my soul for a pill.
The emotional and physical breakdown took me to hell. My deep secrets/scars laughed and taunted me.
Here are some of the delusions I experienced.
Learned a new language
Surviving in the desert-like Jesus
Discovered potential link for Postpartum Depression
In touch with my families Indian blood
Could feel natural body rhythm
Felt small earthquake
Saw Bobcat tracks on the front tree
Started writing Country songs
Tweeting Gwen Stefani, Blake Shelton, and Pharrell, talked to Gwen and Blake several times, Pharrell retweeted twice. I was flooded with people wanting to follow me after seeing tweets from Gwen. I was overwhelmed.
Locked all computers down, trying to keep me from writing.
The physical pain is unbearable
Anger, pain, begging God to stop kicking me in the stomach, wailing, screaming, throwing up, four days without food.
Having to transition back one medication a day at a time
Delayed Lyme protocol by a week, reschedule the trip to DC by a month
More damage to areas already injured
Strain on marriage
Xanax is a standard drug and withdrawal doesn’t cross my mind. I kept some pills in my purse, pills in my office, and the remaining pills went into master pill caddy. The trouble is not keeping up with how many total pills you’ve taken. I take several addictive medications for my mental illness and 4-5 addictive medications for Lyme treatment.
I am in pain 24/7 and resist taking pain medication instead I try to cover the pain with Xanax. I take two Xanax and I’m asleep a good 4-6 hours without pain. The Lyme Protocol calls for 4-5 addictive medications but they rarely put me to sleep. It worked the opposite and I would stay awake 2-3 days at a time which made my pain even worse.
Now all medications stay in the bottle or main pill cases.
I wrote most of this during or right after my withdrawal, you can see how my mind was not in control. Not only was my mental illness not under control but my physical health was badly damaged. Please keep all of your medication is one place and make sure you’re taking the prescribed dosage.
I am reblogging this post because I’m having to go thru withdrawal from Percocet & Belbuca since my Pain Management doctor fired me. I was scared to go to the office because of Covid and he didn’t offer Telehealth. The front desk kept insisting I had to come in, that he would not make any exceptions. So he fired me. He only wrote two weeks’ worth of medication and offered no referral. I can’t find and get into seeing another Pain Management doctor within two weeks. I asked for a month and was told NO. Belbuca is so expensive my pharmacy would not fill for just two weeks, they couldn’t have two weeks worth of an expensive drug setting on their shelves. I’ve since found out that Texas State Law required doctors who managed patients with chronic health conditions to offer Telehealth appointments thru September 1, 2020. I have filed a complaint with the Texas Medical Review Board.
Please remember to have a backup doctor should this happen to you. I did get a referral from my knee surgeon but I’m in no hurry to go in with Covid still on the rise in my area. I’ll deal with the withdrawal, just suck it up and wait. Covid is much worse!
Melinda
As many fo you know I am not able to participate in awards at this time due to my health however I do want to bring attention to the gut-wrenching blog A Prisoner By No Crime of My Own.
Jodie shares her journey of death and abuse with a no hold bars approach and draws parallels to the Bible along the way.
Please check out her blog, you will not be sorry and I’m sure you will follow her.
Melinda
I found his cell phone in the ashtray along with ten pairs of fingernail clippers, a knife, a small pair of scissors, a Corona Light bottle top, and three nickles and nine pennies.
On top is my favorite knife, the camping type with a fork and spoon, he gave to me when I was little, and a paper-towel covers them all, it’s been there for over eight years untouched.
The ashtray sat by my grandparent’s telephone for as long as I can remember. They didn’t believe in buying something new unless it was broken or you could no longer use it. The ashtray was very useful.
When I removed the paper towel today, the memories of my gramps came flooding back like a wave.
“If you’re going to be late to work, don’t go in.”
“If you can get out of bed, you can go to work”
“If you borrow something, give it back in better shape than when you borrowed it.”
He taught me responsibility and accountability.
He also taught me to drive. I was fourteen, we went to the river bottoms, two metal trashcans in the back of the 1969 Ambassador. He set them apart the right distance and had me practice until nightfall. I was still knocking down cans when we left. I did pass my driver’s test though.
One of the hardest memories was weeks before his death, telling him to call friends and family to let them know he was dying. Sitting in front of him, I dialed the numbers, handing him the phone and listened as he cried telling people he was no longer going to be here. It was one of the most difficult days of my life.
My gramps was the greatest man I’ve ever known, a true gentleman, a stand-up guy, God broke the mold when he made my gramps.
I found his cell phone in the ashtray……
Melinda
Today we celebrate the end of the conflict with Japan which brought to an end the Second World War.
Let’s not forgot those who made the ultimate sacrifice and who stayed behind to support the war effort. My gramps was on the front lines in Germany and my granny was a Rosie the Riveter, I’m so proud to know my grandparents fought for my freedom and the freedom of others. Their efforts help shape the world as we know it.
Melinda
Happy Friday! I am so glad you stopped by today. Have a great weekend and please wear a mask, I want to see you healthy! I really like this quote, we can do many little things to give to people and no amount of stuff will ever feel as good. :)
Melinda
Stress plays a very important role in our mental health, good stress, and bad stress. Good stress motivates us to move forward, reach new limits, and push us to the next level. Bad stress on the other hand is detrimental to our overall well being and can cause hair loss among other ailments.
Three types of hair loss that can be associated with high-stress levels are:
Stress and hair loss don’t have to be permanent. If you get your stress under control, your hair might grow back.
If you notice sudden or patchy hair loss or more than usual hair loss when combing or washing your hair, talk to your doctor. Sudden hair loss can signal an underlying medical condition that requires treatment. If needed, your doctor might also suggest treatment options for your hair loss.
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Happy Wednesday Friends! So glad you stopped by today I appreciate you. It’s August in Texas, the hottest month of the year and thermometer is over 100 degrees. I’m thrilled to have flowers alive in August, it’s taken lots of hot nights watering them to keep them alive.
This is supposed to be Wordless Wednesday and I said a lot. Have an awesome day!
It’s over 100 degrees
Daisy in March
Still going strong in August
Melinda
As many of you know I can’t participate in awards any longer due to my health however, I do want to call attention to the person and the great blog who nominated me.
Meet Caz from mentalhealth360.uk.
She’s an ex mental health nurse who has experienced mental illness first hand. Caz is dedicated and passionate about raising awareness and fighting the stigma around mental health.
I love this quote on her site, it’s the simple things we can all do each day that makes a big difference.
“None of us, including me, ever do great things. But we can all do small things, with great love, and together we can do something wonderful.” – Mother Teresa
Please check out her blog and follow her, she has an extensive archive on a wide range of mental health topics and is a great resource for all topics on mental illness.
Thank you again Caz for recognizing Looking for the Light, I am honored.
Melinda
This article is great news for those who are leary of using DEET to prevent tick bites. Hopefully, it will be on the market soon. I’m all for using natural products when I can.
Melinda
By DONALD G. MCNEIL JR.
AUG 10, 2020 AT 2:26 PM
An undated photo provided by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention shows an Asian longhorned tick. The Environmental Protection Agency has approved nootkatone, which repels ticks, mosquitoes and other dangerous bugs for hours, but is safe enough to eat. (James Gathany/Centers for Disease Control and Prevention via The New York Times)
Adding a new weapon to the fight against insect-borne illnesses including Lyme disease and malaria, the Environmental Protection Agency on Monday approved a new chemical that both repels and kills ticks and mosquitoes.
The chemical, nootkatone, an oil found in cedar trees and grapefruits, is so safe that it is used by the food and perfume industries.
Nootkatone is considered nontoxic to humans and other mammals, birds, fish and bees, the EPA said in a statement.
Diseases caused by the bites of ticks, mosquitoes and fleas have tripled in the United States in the last 15 years, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said in a 2018 report. They include Lyme disease, anaplasmosis and Rocky Mountain spotted fever from ticks; West Nile, dengue, Zika and chikungunya from mosquitoes; and plague from fleas.
In tropical countries, malaria and yellow fever are major killers, and elephantiasis is also spread by mosquitoes. Lethal Crimean-Congo hemorrhagic fever is spread by ticks, and kala azar is spread by sandflies.
Manuel F. Lluberas, a public health entomologist who has worked on mosquito-control campaigns around the world, said that he hoped that nootkatone would be accepted by people who fear synthetic repellents and that it could be made cheaply enough to be bought by foreign aid programs like the President’s Malaria Initiative.
The EPA registration applies only to nootkatone as an active ingredient, the statement said. Any formulations using it in the future will have to be tested and registered separately.
The chemical repels mosquitoes, ticks, bedbugs and fleas — and, in high concentrations, kills them, according to the CDC. It may also be effective against lice, sandflies, midges and other pests, some of which can carry lethal diseases.
It is not oily, lasts for hours and has a pleasant, grapefruitlike scent, said Ben Beard, deputy director of the division of vector-borne diseases at the CDC, naming two grapefruit-flavored sodas.
“If you drink Fresca or Squirt, you’ve drunk nootkatone,” Beard said.
Nootkatone works differently from previous classes of insecticides and can kill bugs that are resistant to DDT, pyrethroids and other common insecticides.
Experts in insect-borne diseases greeted the news with cautious enthusiasm.
“Its use as an insecticidal soap has great potential,” said Duane J. Gubler, a former CDC chief of vector-borne diseases.
One proposed use is in soaps that people in tick-infested areas could shower with, repelling and possibly killing ticks that try to attach to them.
Joel R. Coats, a specialist in insect toxicology at Iowa State University, said his lab had tested nootkatone and found it to be “an impressive repellent but a weak insecticide.”
It repels ticks even better than synthetics like DEET, picaridin or IR3535 do, Coats said, and it is their equal at repelling mosquitoes.
Unlike citronella, peppermint oil, lemon grass oil and other repellents based on plant oils, he added, nootkatone does not lose its potency after about an hour but lasts as long as the synthetics.
Although it can also kill insects, he said, doing that takes so much of the chemical that it may not be practical.
“Most plant terpenes will kill bugs if you go to a high enough dose, but I haven’t seen any data that supports using it as an insecticide,” Coats said, using a term for aromatic oils exuded by many plants to repel invasive insects. “I’ve seen lots of data on it as a repellent.”
Mikkel Vestergaard-Frandsen, owner of the Vestergaard company, which makes insecticide-impregnated nets to fight malaria, said he was interested in the compound but wanted to know more about it.
Because babies sleep under the nets, any insecticide in them must be safe.
In many areas, mosquitoes have developed resistance to the pyrethin-based insecticides now used in nets, which are synthetic versions of a chemical found in chrysanthemum flowers.
A version of nootkatone that can linger in netting fabric for years would have to be developed, but good repellents usually dissolve too quickly for that, he said.
The CDC discovered nootkatone’s repellent properties almost 25 years ago as part of a search for new tick-control compounds to fight Lyme disease, Beard said.
They investigated cedar bark and chips “because there are all these folk tales that cedar repels insects — and people keep their clothes in cedar chests,” he said.
Cedar wood itself had very little effect on ticks, he said, but Oregon State University scientists working with the agency found the terpene oil of the Alaskan yellow cedar to be powerfully repellent. The Latin name of the tree is Cupressus nootkatensis, which comes from the Nuu-Chah-Nulth people of Canada.
It is “not known in great detail” how nootkatone works, Beard said, but it appears to activate octopamine receptors, which in insects send electrical impulses from one nerve cell to the next. Unable to turn off the signal, the bugs twitch to death.
In mammals, adrenaline — which is chemically related to octopamine — performs the same function. But the compound does not trigger adrenaline receptors.
Later the agency realized that the same chemical, originally derived from grapefruit rinds, was used as a flavoring and in perfumes.
The CDC licensed its patent to a Swiss company, Evolva, which isolates the chemical from fermenting yeast.
But doing the safety studies required for EPA registration was too expensive until the 2015-16 Zika epidemic came along, Beard said.
That epidemic prodded Congress to appropriate money for mosquito control, and the CDC transferred some of it to BARDA, the Biomedical Advanced Research and Development Authority, which contracted with Evolva to finish the research.
Zika funding “was the key to moving the boulder up the hill,” Beard said. But because nootkatone works well on both mosquitoes and ticks, he added, “it wasn’t a bait-and-switch.”
c.2020 The New York Times Company
Yoga students may present with a variety of physical health concerns, such as chronic pain or injury. As a yoga instructor, it is important to become familiar with student histories so that the teacher can ensure the yoga studio remains a safe space for students. Overall, engagement in yoga practice has been consistently increasing in […]
Can Yoga Help Depression? — The Wellness Warrior
Have a great day! Be sure to hug your children today regardless of their age! Don’t forget our four-legged friends kids either.
Melinda
JACOB SULLUM | 4.24.2019 5:00 PM
The CDC decries abrupt, involuntary dose reductions and patient abandonment without acknowledging its responsibility for those unintended but foreseeable consequences.
Deborah Dowell (CDC)
In a New England Journal of Medicine commentary published today, the authors of the opioid prescribing guidelines that the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention issued in 2016 reiterate the agency’s recent warning that it does not recommend abrupt or nonconsensual tapering for patients who are already taking high doses of narcotic analgesics for chronic pain. “Unfortunately, some policies and practices purportedly derived from the guideline have in fact been inconsistent with, and often go beyond, its recommendations,” write Deborah Dowell, Tamara Haegerich, and Roger Chou. Those policies and practices, they say, include “inflexible application of recommended dosage and duration thresholds and policies that encourage hard limits and abrupt tapering of drug dosages, resulting in sudden opioid discontinuation or dismissal of patients from a physician’s practice.”
Dowell, Haegerich, and Chou warn that patients forced to reduce their doses “could face risks related to withdrawal symptoms, increased pain, or unrecognized opioid use disorder” and “if their dosages are abruptly tapered may seek other sources of opioids or have adverse psychological and physical outcomes.” They also worry that doctors are responding to the CDC’s advice about the potential risks of opioids by “dismiss[ing] patients from care” or declining to prescribe opioids at all, “even in situations in which the benefits might outweigh the risks.” Dowell et al. say “such actions disregard messages emphasized in the guideline that clinicians should not dismiss patients from care, which can adversely affect patient safety, could represent patient abandonment, and can result in missed opportunities to provide potentially lifesaving information and treatment.” And they note that the guidelines have been improperly applied to “patients with pain associated with cancer, surgical procedures, or acute sickle cell crises.”
The CDC’s recognition that misinterpretation of its guidelines has resulted in needless suffering, patient abandonment, and “adverse psychological and physical outcomes” (including suicide) is welcome, if overdue. “This article should allay anxiety among physicians who prescribe responsibly for patients with chronic pain,” says Sally Satel, a Washington, D.C., psychiatrist who helped organize a March 6 letter to the CDC in which hundreds of health professionals and addiction specialists, including three former drug czars, expressed concern about the unintended consequences of the CDC’s advice. “No longer can any clinician, insurer, health care system, or pharmacist claim ‘the CDC Guideline says’ when it comes to tapering or discontinuation.”
Stefan Kertesz, a University of Alabama at Birmingham pain and addiction specialist who worked with Satel on the letter to the CDC, was also heartened by the NEJM article. “We needed CDC and its guideline’s authors to do precisely what they have done, which was to speak with vigor and clarity to the pressing ethical concern we laid out in our letter,” he says. “In affirming that the guideline did not call for hard dose cutoffs and forced tapers, the guideline’s authors have effectively called for recalibration of policies by insurers, by Medicaid authorities, and by agencies that have set ‘the number of patients above a given dose’ as the primary indicator of bad care.”
The letter to the CDC included testimony from hundreds of patients who have suffered the consequences of that ham-handed approach. “The trauma to patients who have been living in terror these past three years nearly broke my heart many times,” Kertesz says. “The only possible step has been for people familiar with the nexus of science and health policy to speak openly about the problems we have seen, and to trust that most people ultimately want to do what’s right.”
Yet Dowell et al. conspicuously fail to take any responsibility for the unintended but foreseeable harm caused by their advice. When a document is as widely misconstrued as the CDC’s guidelines have been—by insurers, regulators, legislators, pharmacists, and law enforcement agencies as well as clinicians—it is fair to ask how the authors left themselves open to misinterpretation.
According to the guidelines, “Clinicians should use caution when prescribing opioids at any dosage, should carefully reassess evidence of individual benefits and risks when considering increasing dosage to ≥50 morphine milligram equivalents (MME)/day, and should avoid increasing dosage to ≥90 MME/day or carefully justify a decision to titrate dosage to ≥90 MME/day.” The implication is that doses of 90 MME or more per day are rarely, if ever, medically justified.
It is hardly a stretch for physicians with patients who exceed this arbitrary threshold, including patients who have been functioning well on high doses for years, to worry that they will be perceived as practicing outside the bounds of proper medical care. Given the scrutiny that regulators and law enforcement agencies such as the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) have been applying to doctors in response to the “opioid epidemic,” prescribing practices portrayed as extreme and dubious by the CDC are apt to attract unwelcome attention that could jeopardize a physician’s livelihood and liberty.
“We still, unfortunately, have physicians who worry about capriciousness on the part of the DEA,” Satel notes. “That is the next step in efforts to ensure that doctors can continue to serve pain patients who have been benefiting from opioids.” While “the DEA does indeed have a job to do,” she says, “doctors are confused about what could make them a target.”
How doctors respond to anti-opioid pressure will depend on how they weigh their duty to patients against their personal risk. In this context, forced tapering and abandonment were predictable outcomes, even though the CDC guidelines say doctors should reduce doses only when the risks outweigh the benefits and describe the process as collaborative and consensual.
“Clinicians should empathically [sic] review benefits and risks of continued high-dosage opioid therapy and should offer to work with the patient to taper opioids to safer dosages,” the guidelines say. “For patients who agree to taper opioids to lower dosages, clinicians should collaborate with the patient on a tapering plan.”
Dowell et al. complain that “the guideline has been misimplemented,” saying “policies invoking the opioid-prescribing guideline that do not actually reflect its content and nuances can be used to justify actions contrary to the guideline’s intent.” But those nuances were bound to be lost amid the fear and anxiety caused by the government’s crackdown on prescription pain relievers.
Notwithstanding Dowell et al.’s disavowal of “hard limits and abrupt tapering,” that is what happenedacross the country after the CDC guidelines came out, as reflected in this sign at a doctor’s office in Washington state. “Beginning February 2017,” it says, “Morphine Equivalency Dosing WILL decrease until CDC guidelines are met by June 2017. Target is 90mg of Morphine equivalency per day, or less. All medication adjustments will be based on this new clinic policy.”
While decrying involuntary and precipitous tapering, Dowell et al. present the general decline in opioid prescribing as a sign of progress. “Although outpatient opioid prescribing had been declining since 2012,” they write, “accelerated decreases—including in high-risk prescribing—followed the guideline’s release.” Yet the continuing drive to reduce the volume of opioids prescribed in the United States has encouraged doctors, insurers, and policy makers to target patients on high doses, who consume a disproportionate share of the total. Kertesz emphasized that point at a recent conference in Charleston.
Dowell et al. do not acknowledge the downside to the decline in opioid prescribing, which has been accompanied by a surge in opioid-related deaths as both patients and nonmedical users turn to the black market, where the drugs are much more dangerous because potency is highly variable and unpredictable. Nor do they question their emphasis on the 90-MME threshold, which is scientifically problematic for several reasons. It assumes that analgesic effect corresponds to overdose risk and that different opioids can be reliably compared to each other based on fixed ratios. It ignores numerous factors that affect how a patient responds to a given dose of a particular opioid, including obvious considerations such as the patient’s weight, treatment history, and pain intensity as well as subtler ones such as interactions with other drugs (which can suppress or amplify an opioid’s effects) and genetically determined differences in enzyme production and opioid receptors.
“Policies should allow clinicians to account for each patient’s unique circumstances in making clinical decisions,” Dowell et al. write. The CDC’s 90-MME threshold, however it was intended, has in practice encouraged a much less discriminating approach, one that sacrifices patients’ welfare for the sake of conforming with the perceived demands of the federal government.
“The CDC bears full responsibility for how these arbitrary dose levels are being implemented throughout the country and the consequences for the people in pain,” Lynn Webster, a former president of the American Academy of Pain Medicine who signed the March 6 letter to the CDC, told me last year. “I said at the time when they were proposed that if something comes from the CDC as a guideline, it is more than a guideline. It will be interpreted basically as a level of dosing that if you exceed [it], then you are at legal jeopardy.”
JACOB SULLUM is a senior editor at Reason.
07 AUG 2020
Dorothée Lorang, a filmmaker who lives in Nantes, France, has two children. One of them, Axel, is the central character in a remarkable video called “Axel and the True Story of an Imaginary Illness.”
Can you guess what the “imaginary illness” is?
Though under an hour long, the story of Axel and his family packs quite an emotional wallop–along with a lot of critically important information. It is both poignant and illuminating.
We learn about the difficulties of getting properly diagnosed and treated for Lyme disease in France, the pain and frustration of a suffering family, and the indomitable spirit of a little boy who’d rather pretend he’s Batman than undergo pushing and prodding from medical doctors who ultimately don’t believe he’s really sick anyway. (Who can blame him?)
Other issues that play a part: a mother and father’s dogged search for answers when they keep running into brick walls; the question of gestational Lyme disease; the effectiveness of antibiotic vs. alternative therapies; and the importance of Lyme patient activism.
This extraordinary film shares its story in a disarmingly simple way. (When in fact, we all know that Lyme disease can devastate a family in the non-simple manner of a runaway train plunging into a ravine, yes?)
“Axel and the True Story of an Imaginary Illness” doesn’t dispute the complexities involved. Yet, it offers a calm clarity as the parents discover new treatment approaches and weigh the decisions they must make to help their son.
The film is in French, with English subtitles. It’s available on Vimeo, where you can watch a snippet of it for free. Watching the whole thing will cost you $2.83. I found it well worth the price of admission.
Axel au pays des malades imaginaires / Axel and the true story of an imaginary illness from Vivement Lundi !on Vimeo.
(If you decide to rent the film, make sure to click the “CC” button in the lower right-hand corner of the frame. That turns on the English subtitles. I confess, it took me a while to figure that out.)
TOUCHED BY LYME is written by Dorothy Kupcha Leland, LymeDisease.org’s Vice-president and Director of Communications. She is co-author of When Your Child Has Lyme Disease: A Parent’s Survival Guide. Contact her at dleland@lymedisease.org.
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