Shrink-wrap Sunday 5.22.22
State of the Soul Part 1: Mental Health, Healing and Treatment of Illness
Weekend newShrink greetings, and welcome!
This Shrink-wrap is a Part 1 update from the clinical and mental-health end of the psychology spectrum in news as part of May Mental-Health Awareness month. Next week’s Part 2 will add the depth-psychology dimensions and dynamics of the unconscious mind and body that nourish, energize and animate our universally shared human felt-experience.
As newShrink nears its first-year birthday, we continue a revisit and reflection on its core purpose: To track the often-mentioned idea of the soul of America through its news from an increasingly conscious state of mind — as Shakespeare put it in The Tempest, more fully awake! (exclamation point included.) As news consumers this means our learning to operate:
🔷 more like journalists;
🔷 more like the scholars and experts of various fields such as history, law, government, medicine; and
🔷 more like psychologists in both the clinical and depth dimensions of the field.
First, a note on why today’s edition features mainly headlines, quotes and photos or illustrations from the selected relevant stories — with most thoughts or commentary from me to come with next week’s Part 2 and future editions.
tech update
The good news: Rather than replacement, my workhorse Mac was well worth a repair, scrubbing and serious increase in capacity without the higher cost and long drives to the Apple store for a new one. (Actually one of my few favorite shopping browse-spots after hardware, garden and bookstores, if it weren’t for the drives and the $.)
Even better news: newShrink now has a Mac-guy Vinnie, working in the nearby local shop of my wonderful iPhone-and-iPad guy Anthony. Vinnie’s magic fix was nearly finished by writing time, but not quite. So…
The tedious-unwieldy part: This week’s entire edition had to be done via awkward combo of iPad, Apple keyboard and iPhone camera. With the basic mechanics incredibly time- and labor-intensive — and this being 94th birthday time for more than one important elder in my life — I’ll revisit these stories once I’m back on the Mac and fresher.
The usual navigating details for accessing all links and references on the newShrink websiteare at the bottom of this post after closing comments.
connecting themes…
Meanwhile, as suggested in the visual above, today’s stories about issues and trends in mental health have organized themselves around concepts and themes to read, watch and listen for:
🔷 mental health disorders such as depression and anxiety and crises, trauma and violence such as suicide and death by firearm;
🔷 new takes on conventional treatment approaches, especially involving prescription of psychotropic drugs;
🔷 intensified focus and examples of embodied solutions for mental — especially including cognitive — health; and perhaps most significantly,
🔷 a pronounced emphasis, among many kinds of stories with mental-health elements, on the healing power of what I am terming mainstreaming — in contrast to pathologizing. This is integrating various psychological challenges and emotionally difficult life experiences in perspective with the whole of one’s life-narrative — with the deep parts. For example, this pattern shows up here in the stories of Karine Jean-Pierre’s past severe depression, Caroline Mazel-Carlton’s self-weaning from anti-psychotic Rx drugs, recovering addict Robbie Shaw’s enormously popular sobriety podcast-community, and schoolteacher Justin Ashley’s mix of candor and a boxing practice for healthy management of anxiety and depression.
… with stories
From top-right, photos today begin with a follow to last week’s news of Jean-Pierre’s appointment as White House Press secretary with the departure of Jen Psaki.
#1. Karine Jean-Pierre’s Unlikely Rise to the White House Lectern
(The New York Times, staff photos by Doug Mills)
The first Black and first openly gay press secretary was raised in an immigrant family with “so many secrets.” Now she occupies one of the most scrutinized jobs in American politics…
…Karine Jean-Pierre began her debut briefing as President Biden’s press secretary on Monday by acknowledging the unusual nature of her presence behind the White House lectern. “I am a Black, gay, immigrant woman, the first of all three of those to hold this position,” she said.
Left unsaid were the other ways in which her path to becoming the president’s chief spokeswoman sharply diverged from that of her predecessors.
Ms. Jean-Pierre was born in the Caribbean to Haitian parents, who lived paycheck to paycheck after immigrating to New York City. Her conservative Catholic family, she has written, carried “so many secrets, so much unexpressed pain.” As a child, Ms. Jean-Pierre was sexually abused by a cousin. Her mother went decades without acknowledging that her daughter was a lesbian. And in her early 20s, despondent at a career setback, Ms. Jean-Pierre attempted suicide.
She grounded herself in political advocacy work, rising from meeting with constituents in Far Rockaway, Queens, to a job in the Obama White House…
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News stories depicted in the next series of photos put very public faces of immense talent, achievement and celebrity on an American tragedy reaching crisis levels even beyond our long-highest suicide rate among the world’s wealthiest nations. Since 2019 American suicides have surged across ages and populations from teens and young adults to active and veteran military service-people and from professionals such as healthcare, teaching and law enforcement.
Along with the many effects of the COVID pandemic, which other industrialized countries also have endured, the rates have tracked with all kinds of American violence, including overall increases in gun ownership and use and deaths by firearm. More of the increased suicides are by firearm — including those by women, who generally are more likely to chose other methods to end their lives.
The topics of depression and suicide with news story examples have been the focus of newShrink editions including 11.12.21: “Darkness Visible, Owl Season… and Little Boys With Big Guns” and 1.9.22: “The Sacred, The Profane… and the Candles in Our Windows.”
Please note that some stories below contain useful resources, emergency hotlines and other contact information on prompt responses to prevent suicide.
#2. Trying to make sense of so many suicides
(From The Charlotte Observer, column by Raleigh lawyer and author Wesley Jones)
Why couldn’t Stanford senior’s suicide be prevented?
(From The Washington Post, in The Charlotte Observer)
Gina and Steven Meyer saw “no red flags.” Their daughter Katie was a senior at Stanford University, where she seemed to be thriving. She became captain of the women’s soccer team after leading the Cardinal to the 2019 national championship. She was studying international relations, she had made the dean’s list, and in recent weeks she had written a series of upbeat social media posts. Among them was this tweet about a recent surgery on her knee: “Health is wealth, and I’m in great spirits and excited to be caring for my body.”
Last week, just hours after talking via FaceTime with her parents, the 22-year-old was found dead in her on-campus residence, and authorities determined she died by suicide. The death has left her family as well as the university community reeling and in search of answers. “We are struggling to know what happened and why it happened,” her mother said during an emotional interview on NBC’s “Today” show.
Many communities and individuals are still reeling from two very recent high-profile suicides by extremely high-achieving, talented and by all accounts greatly loved women.
Naomi Judd Died of a Self-Inflicted Gunshot Wound, Her Daughter Says
(NYT, Photo by Isaac Brekken/Getty Images)
The actress Ashley Judd said in a television interview on Thursday that her mother was suffering from mental illness when she died last month and that she used a firearm…
Naomi Judd and her other daughter, Wynonna Judd, dominated the country music charts in the 1980s as the mother-daughter duo the Judds. Naomi Judd, 76, died on April 30, a day before the duo was inducted into the Country Music Hall of Fame…
… Suicides have historically accounted for a majority of gun deaths in the United States.
In 2020, 53 percent of suicides involved firearms, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Gun deaths reached the highest number ever recorded in the United States in 2020, when more than 24,000 people died by gun-related suicide and more than 19,350 people died by gun-related homicide.
Ms. Judd said that she had suffered “grief and trauma” since her mother’s death, and that it was important to distinguish her mother from her mental illness…
“Mom was a brilliant conversationalist, she was a star, she was an underrated songwriter,” Ms. Judd said. “And she was someone who suffered from mental illness, you know, and had a lot of trouble getting off the sofa, except to go into town every day to the Cheesecake Factory, where all the staff knew and loved her…”
If you or those you care for are having thoughts of suicide, in the United States call the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline at 800-273-8255 (TALK) or go to SpeakingOfSuicide.com/resources for a list of additional resources. Go here for resources outside the United States.
From The Charlotte Observer, here is coverage of this month’s memorial service for another accomplished woman who died by suicide back in January. (Photos by Melissa Melvin-Rodriguez of The Charlotte Observer and Tracy Kimball of heraldonline.com.)
Family, friends gather to memorialize former Miss USA and NC lawyer Cheslie Kryst
Former Miss USA, NC lawyer Cheslie Kryst suffered from depression, her mother says
Here are some more statistics from the. CDC on gun deaths, both overall and those that were suicides.
Next, the center column of photos above depicts stories and trends in psycho-pharmaceutical and other drugs that target brain chemistry and its structures for treatment and management of difficult symptoms of psychopathology.
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#3. The Limits of Biological Psychiatry
(From The New York Times, illustration by Miguel Portland)
In “The Mind and the Moon,” Daniel Bergner explores how much we know — and how much we don’t — about mental health.
Describing the book as a “profound and powerful work of essential reporting,” the article goes on to say:
Inspired in part by his brother’s lifelong struggle with mental health, Bergner follows three individuals, who variously experience overwhelming depression, anxiety and other kinds of distress, including symptoms of psychosis. He explores the history of drug development, modes of treatment and the marketing of psycho-pharmaceuticals. He poses questions about the ethical challenges, complex social issues and other problems of modern biological psychiatry, and he makes a strong case that radical examination and change are urgently required.
And here’s the story of an amazing young woman, Caroline Mazel-Carlton, another from cases in the book.
Doctors gave her antipsychotics. She decided to live with her voices.
A new movement wants to shift mainstream thinking away from medication and toward greater acceptance.
(From The New York Times Magazine)
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#4. Promises and perils of psychedelic drugs in mental health therapy
Many recreational drugs known for mind-altering trips are being studied to treat depression, substance use and other disorders…
…Oregon is legalizing mushrooms. Ketamine can be delivered to your home. People are microdosing LSD to treat pandemic-related anxietyand Wall Street is pouring billions into companies that sell mind-altering drugs. It seems like psychedelics — though mostly still illegal — are everywhere.
While the federal government does not recognize a medical use for most of these drugs and says they have potential for abuse, some of the most prominent universities in the world are studying four substances in particular: psilocybin, ketamine, MDMA and LSD. The bulk of available research suggests that these substances hold promise as part of larger treatment plans…
These drugs are not all the same and do come with risks. One quality they share is the ability to create an altered state of consciousness, commonly referred to as a trip. That effect can either provide a sense of perspective — or be downright terrifying…
Here is where this story didn’t go. But it would be useful to recall the late Harvard psychologist and early 1960s LSD experimenter Dr. Timothy Leary, who emphasized the critical importance of “set, setting and dosage” for clinical effectiveness using LSD. That means: an intentional program-process guided and monitored by someone with expertise and who is not tripping; done within a controlled environment; and with a controlled and reliably measured amount of the substance.
A great resource about this entire topic is How to Change Your Mind: What the New Science of Psychedelics Teaches Us About Consciousness, Dying, Addiction, Depression, and Transcendence, by journalist Michael Pollan (whose body of work includes The Omnivore’s Dilemma and In Praise of Food, renowned among foodies.)
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Next at top far-right we have over-stressed teacher Justin Ashley exemplifying the normalizing or mainstreaming of issues like chronic anxiety and depression and also successful practice of embodied healing approaches — in this case boxing.
#5. CMS teacher says he’s ‘fighting my way back to health’ amid new classroom challenges
(The Charlotte Observer, photos by Alex Slitz)
Justin Ashley is a regular at 9Round Fitness in Ballantyne. He goes for several three-minute rounds at least six days a week, and his opponents are anxiety, depression and teacher burnout. “Boxing is rehab,” said the 37-year-old Charlotte-Mecklenburg Schools educator. “I’m still fighting my way back to health. Literally…
The story goes on to describe a partnership with Presby Psych counseling services providing free or reduction in insurance copays for teachers and other staff of Charlotte Mecklenburg Schools to get psychotherapy they need to deal with high-stress jobs.
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Here is another example that combines mainstreaming and an embodied approach, in this case for long-term sobriety. (In the ice-swimming photo above, podcaster Robbie Shaw does his annual total-immersion ritual toward another healthy and clean year.)
#6. “Champagne Problems”… the podcast
‘You’re not alone.’ Charlotte man in recovery co-hosts top-rated podcast — about alcohol
(From The Charlotte Observer. Audio link to the podcast is embedded at top of the story.)
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Next in the above photos, with aquatic phenom Joan Wayne we have more testament to the health powers of moving our bodies in water… and to intense cardio exercise as an increasingly documented benefit, not only for heart, lung, joint and muscle health but as the best known benefit for cognitive health and prevention of dementia.
#7. At 97, this NC woman is swimming at the Senior Games. Is that inspirational? She says ‘no.’
(From The Charlotte Observer. The story has embedded audio and video.)
Here are some ideas for embodied approaches to brain health:
AARP: Exercise for Brain Health and Wellness (AARP Magazine)
Previous newShrink editions have explored issues around memory, cognitive health and key strategies such as regular cardio and weight-lifting exercise. One example is 10.15.21: “A Neuroscientist, The Brain and Our Soul-Speaking Memory.”
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Before winding up, here’s some follow up to last week’s edition to which several of you shared active interest and intrigue/puzzlement. The focus was coverage and content of the HBO Max “true” crime series The Staircase, the highly regarded documentary that had preceded it, and the actual murder case and eventual release of Durham novelist Michael Peterson.
Here from this week’s Newsweek magazine is a first-person piece by Peterson defense lawyer David Rudolph of Charlotte. It’s more interesting, contextualized and substantial than the episode-by-episode viewing chats Rudolph was having with the Observer feature writer.
In similar ways this piece in The Observer is significantly better than previous breathless-toned coverage.
Why is documentary director so upset about HBO Max?
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I’ll leave you on a lighter note with NC native cartoonist-illustrator Nick Galifianakis of The Washington Post, whose work is depicted in the final photo at bottom right above. It’s the illustration accompanying a Post advice-column on a topic you may recognize as important to me. (The Post’s advice columnist is Carolyn Hax, Galifianakis’ ex-wife. Despite divorce and remarriages the two have been a solid creative team for decades — also interesting to me from a psychotherapy point of view.)
#8. Carolyn Hax: When kids ask for books they’re ‘too young’ to read’
(There’s an embedded audio version of the WAPO column)
Here’s an interesting interview with Galifianakis about their working relationship and his work. This one includes some fun animations along with examples of his drawings that make it seem you’re watching the drawing appear in real time. Many of you may recognize his name by that of his cousin, comic actor and writer Zach Galifianakis. North Carolinians like me recall his namesake uncle, a former US Congressman, and their prominent family in the Durham-Chapel Hill area of our college years.
Nick Galifianakis reflects on 25 years of advice as art
After thousands of drawings for Carolyn Hax’s advice column,
Galifianakis looks back on illustrating the human experience.
And, that is all I have! Talk to you next week.
🦋💙 tish
•🌀🔵🔷🦋💙
… it is important that awake people be awake,
or a breaking line may discourage them back to sleep;
the signals we give — yes or no, or maybe —
should be clear: the darkness around us is deep.
— William Stafford, “A Ritual to Read to Each Other”
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