Dear Readers,

Wishing You a Safe and Happy Easter!

Julie

xx

Posted on: Tuesday, 19 April 2011, 12:39 CDT

Associated with early seizure onset and cognitive impairment

A new study found that treatment-resistant epilepsy (TRE) is common in idiopathic autism. Early age at the onset of seizures and delayed global development were associated with a higher frequency of resistance to antiepileptic drugs (AEDs). Full findings appear online in Epilepsia, a journal published by Wiley-Blackwell on behalf of the International League Against Epilepsy (ILAE).

According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), autism spectrum disorders (ASDs) are a group of developmental disabilities that can significantly impact social interaction, communication and behavior. The CDC estimates that on average, 1 in 110 U.S. children has an ASD (which is four times more likely to develop in boys than in girls). Medical evidence suggests that the prevalence of epilepsy in autism ranges from 7% to 46%.

Read in Full:

http://www.redorbit.com/news/health/2032424/treatmentresistant_epilepsy_common_in_idiopathic_autism/index.html

Want a Happier Marriage? Unrealistically Idealize Your Partner

By John M Grohol PsyD
Founder & Editor-in-Chief

If ignorance is bliss, then delusion is even better — if you’re in a new marriage, anyways.

So says new research from investigators at the University at Buffalo, who examined 193 newly-married couples over three years to see what kinds of variables might predict greater marital satisfaction.

How could this be? Weren’t we always told the common wisdom — that we needed to be realistic in our relationships, and not look for that Knight in Shining Armor who comes to our rescue (or a Maiden trapped in a castle tower who needs rescuing)?

Apparently the common wisdom may need to be revisited, because continuing to idealize your partner long after the glow of the wedding fades away seems to help keep you happy.

Read on to learn more…

http://psychcentral.com/blog/archives/2011/04/19/want-a-happier-marriage-unrealistically-idealize-your-partner/

The Forbidden Fruit in Relationships

By John M Grohol PsyD
Founder & Editor-in-Chief

A long-term, stable romantic relationship with a committed, caring partner has many psychological benefits, which we know from the oodles of psychological research published about them. So it’s a good thing to try and protect one’s relationship from external influences. One of the most difficult to recover from and damaging influences is cheating.

If cheating will harm a relationship (and cheating appears to be one of the primary reasons cited in many, if not most, relationship breakups), what can be done to minimize it?

After all, isn’t it human nature — and the nature of temptation — to constantly look for desirable alternatives?

One of the ways people look to protect their long-term relationship is to simply remain inattentive to those alternatives. Research has demonstrated that being inattentive to attractive members of the opposite sex generally promotes relationship success.

But new research (DeWall et al., 2011) suggests it’s not so simple. If the circumstances or situation implicitly limit a person’s attention to an attractive alternative, that alternative suddenly becomes “forbidden fruit.”

And all that more attractive.

The researchers call this the “forbidden fruit hypothesis,” based upon previous research that has demonstrated that people find things more desirable when they off-limits or forbidden. There’s something in human nature that wants what it can’t have. (Or perhaps we can have it, but with serious consequences.)

This hypothesis is consistent with another psychological theory called the “ironic process model.” This model suggests that suppressing thoughts about something will lead that thing to become even more salient. The more we try and not to think about something, the more we think about it.

To test their forbidden fruit hypothesis, the researchers conducted a series of three experiments involving undergraduate students.

Read in Full: http://psychcentral.com/blog/archives/2011/04/08/the-forbidden-fruit-in-relationships/

A General Theory of Love, Part 2: The Science of Attraction

By Daniel Tomasulo, Ph.D.
Ask the Therapist

“When love is not madness, it is not love.”
~Pedro Calderon de la Barcaa

“Love must be as much a light, as it is a flame.”
~Henry David Thoreau

“Love makes your soul crawl out from its hiding place.”
~Zora Neale Hurston

To be loved means being free to be yourself in the presence of another person.  It is the mutuality of this experience that we each crave.  Somehow we know when it is near, and ache when it is lost. We have all had it: the look, the feeling, and the sense of awe in the presence of the person we are attracted to.  But is it more than just the infusion of the catecholamine neurotransmitter, dopamine, or the mammalian hormone oxytocin?

Yes.

You most likely know that the limbic system is the seat of emotions and it regulates the type, degree and intensity of our feelings.  But what you may not know is your limbic system may be trying to detect whom you will love, and who will love you back. Limbic resonance is a term used to describe the feeling of attraction to another.

From the book A General Theory of Love the authors define the term:

Read More …

http://psychcentral.com/blog/archives/2011/04/17/a-general-theory-of-love-part-2-the-science-of-attraction/

Bob Livingstone, LCSW Updated: Apr 18th 2011

We are brainwashed by television and movies at a very young age that there is a glorious, happy ending at the end of every story. This phenomenon instructs us that our lives should always include happy endings. We are taught that anything less than total fulfillment and smiles all around amounts to dismal failure. We are taught this concept called closure. It is a term used often in contemporary media and it means to heal a personal loss or trauma such as death of a loved one, being abused by a parent or being a child of an alcoholic parent. After this process, we are supposed to ride off into the sunset with this emotional pain never darkening our door step again.

Well, this is actually impossible to accomplish unless you get total amnesia. If you have the expectation that you will not have any sad or frightening memories about this trauma once you have believed you have fully healed, you will find yourself deeply disappointed and frustrated.

Memories and feelings about the trauma are likely to come up from time to time. Just because the memories continue to arise don’t mean that you haven’t worked through your issues. It only means that as humans; memories and feelings will continue to move in and out of our awareness unless you are deeply repressing them. Repression is not a useful or helpful tactic unless you are in a situation where pushing away memories and feelings is the only way to survive.

Read in Full:

http://www.mentalhelp.net/poc/view_doc.php?type=doc&id=42856&cn=58

Snow White Doesn’t Live Here Anymore

You want a “Nice” boyfriend or “Bad” boyfriend?

Published on April 17, 2011

From my bad boyfriends, I learned that life is not easy and that relationships were not always emotionally safe.

From my good boyfriends, I learned an even more daunting lesson: that the very promise of safety is an illusion. I learned that while some choices seem less dangerous than others, life is not ultimately a game of tag.

In this respect, boring boyfriends are indeed dangerous because they lead you to repeat mistakes with genuinely bad boyfriends.

You’re so thoroughly mind-numbingly dulled by your good boyfriend that the first time a bad boy with a sly grin rolls up his sleeves and looks your way, you throw your virtue, your conscience, and your sense of self-worth out the window along with your panties.

That’s the double meaning of getting caught: getting caught is great if you’re falling, but it’s terrible if you’re running away. And it isn’t as if it was easy to decide what choices to make, either. The right man at the wrong time is the wrong man. And the wrong man at the right time is still the wrong man.

These nice boyfriends were as compelling as yesterday’s news. They were clippings from a magazine that seemed interesting at the time, but to which I would never again refer. They were like wrapping paper that you remove neatly, fold, put away, and eventually throw out, crumpled up at a later date because you could never find a use for it.

Bad boys, in contrast, were literature.

Like literature, they had a long shelf life in your imagination. They were complicated.

They had great dialogue and interesting back-stories. They were memorable characters. They were always present. They were unavoidable. They took center stage, whether or not they were the leading man.

In fact, you can rarely distinguish the bad guy from the romantic lead.

Read in Full:

http://www.psychologytoday.com/blog/snow-white-doesnt-live-here-anymore/201104/what-i-learned-my-bad-boyfriends

What Is “Exotic” Beauty? Part I

Where is the line drawn between admiration and discrimination?

Published on April 15, 2011

If I say, exotic beauty, who is the first person you picture? I’ll be honest and say it’s the Brazilian Victoria’s Secret model, Adriana Lima. Dark flowing hair, full lips, tanned skin, and cool bluish-green eyes. A look that is exotic, otherworldly. Which is precisely the problem.

According to dictionary.com, exotic is defined as “strikingly unusual or strange in effect or appearance.” And this is where the issue arises according to racial microaggressions researchers. Sue and colleagues (2007a) describe racial microaggressions as:

“Simply stated, microaggressions are brief, everyday exchanges that send denigrating messages to people of color because they belong to a racial minority group. These exchanges are so pervasive and automatic in daily interactions that they are often dismissed and glossed over as being innocuous,” (p. 72).

Sue and colleagues (2007b) find several common themes regarding forms of racial microaggressions. One example is inscription of intelligence. A hypothetical offense would include asking an Asian person for help with math. Another theme is colorblindness, and would include the belief that America is a melting pot; the problem with this supposition is that an individual’s unique cultural experiences are denied, with the assumption that they will take on the dominant culture.

Read in Full:

http://www.psychologytoday.com/blog/millenial-media/201104/what-is-exotic-beauty-part-i

How Well Should You Know Your Online Lover?

Knowing you less is not always so bad.

Published on April 9, 2011

A Philosopher Looks at Our Deepest Emotions

by Aaron Ben-Zeév

“Your mind is what interests me the most.” Bumper sticker.

“One can find a woman who never had one love affair, but it is rare indeed to find anyone who had only one.” La Rochefoucauld

People who have online lovers naturally want to know more about them.  So should these lovers replace their online communication with regular offline communication?  The answer is usually no.  The paradox of the internet is that you have less information about each other and this ambiguity often makes love more intense.

Face-to-face communication relies on many sources of information: facial expressions, voice, posture, hands, gaze, focus, and so on. Such sources provide crucial signals for communicating our emotions and understanding the other person’s attitudes.  Online communication relies on fewer sources and is often based merely on written messages. The lack of visual content seems to be a particularly significant deficiency, especially because our eyes are of central importance in revealing our emotional attitudes. Sometimes, one look in the eyes conveys more profound information than many words. We say, “A picture is worth a thousand words.”

Nonverbal communication often involves information that the subject is not fully aware of and does not always want to convey to other people. The lack of nonverbal information in text-based online communication led some researchers to claim that such communication is leaner and hence online relationships are less involving, less rich, and less personal than offline relationships. It is true that not all types of information available in face-to-face communication are also available in online communication; in this sense, the latter is leaner. However, this does not mean that online relationships are necessarily less involving, less rich, or less personal than offline relationships.

Ironically, the opposite is often the case because fewer vehicles of communication can provide richer information than a greater number of vehicles. Quality and richness of personal relationship are not merely derived from the quantity of communicative vehicles, and most people experience this even in platonic relationships, such as the intensity of Twitter relationships in which the followers have never actually met.

Read in Full:

http://www.psychologytoday.com/blog/in-the-name-love/201104/how-well-should-you-know-your-online-lover

Men, Women, and the Software of Sexual Desire

The male sexual brain is an OR Gate; the female sexual brain is an AND Gate.

Published on April 12, 2011

To encounter erotica designed to appeal to the other is to gaze into the psychological abyss that separates the sexes.

Donald Symons

The vast majority of the differences between the software of male and female minds are all located down in that most intimate and controversial of locales, the sexual brain. But down here the differences are even greater than you think.

As we described previously, we all come wired with a set of sexual cues analogous to our tongue’s taste cues. However, men respond to radically different cues than women. Male cues are primarily visual. Female cues are primarily psychological. Men do have psychological cues, but (with a couple exceptions) these cues are quite different from female psychological cues. A man’s cues are all directed outwards, at his partner. Some of a woman’s cues are directed outwards at her partner, but some of her cues are also directed inwards at herself.

But not only are the male and female cues different, the mind software that processes these cues is different. The male sexual software is what a computer engineer would call an “OR gate.” It is instantly aroused by any single cue. The male brain is turned on by deep décolletage or sashaying hips or the whisper of a sultry voice or two Applebee’s waitresses kissing.

The female sexual brain is what a computer engineer would call an “AND gate.” It requires input from multiple cues simultaneously to surpass a combined threshold of activation before arousal occurs. The female brain may be turned on by a man who is handsome and a cardiologist and pets her beagle and is popular with her lady friends and plays the sensual melodies of Cat Power in the dappled candlelight.

Read in Full:

http://www.psychologytoday.com/blog/billion-wicked-thoughts/201104/men-women-and-the-software-sexual-desire

When Conflict Arises Within A Couple More Intense Emotions Are Experienced By Women

Article Date: 14 Apr 2011 – 2:00 PDT

Women feel their emotions more intensively than men when a conflict arises within the couple. Conversely, it is men – who mostly express “powerful emotions” as wrath or despise – who cause conflicts more frequently.

This is the conclusion described in an article published in the journal Intervención Psicosocial prepared by professors from the Department of Social Psychology of the University of Granada, Inmaculada Valor Segura, Francisca Expósito y Miguel Moya. This study analyzed the type of interpersonal emotions than men and women feel when they face different conflicts within the couple, and the effect that emotions have on the recurrence of conflicts.

A sample of 142 male and female students from the University of Granada participated in the study. They were placed in five different conflictive situations. In general terms, the results showed that men and women have different emotions in conflictive situations.

Thus, when facing a situation where “my partner offends me or treats me disrespectfully”, women felt miserable, while the situation “if my partner is physically aggressive during an argument” women felt more disappointed than men. In the situation “my partner shouts at me with frequency”, women felt more sadness, while men felt guilt. In the situation “if my partner distorts an argument to be right” women feel sadness, while men feel embarrasment.

Read in Full: http://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/222344.php

Abusive Relationships: The Warning Signs

Mandy Kloppers Updated: Apr 11th 2011

The psychological signs of abuse. This video offers an informative summary on the warning signs to look out for which could suggest that you are in an abusive relationship.

Source/View Video:

http://www.mentalhelp.net/poc/view_doc.php?type=doc&id=42793&cn=2

Introducing Sex and Intimacy in the Digital Age

By John M Grohol PsyD
Founder & Editor-in-Chief

The Internet and smartphones have significantly changed how ordinary people interact not only with one another, but with their own sexuality. Intimacy takes on new definitions, as we use technology to not only keep in touch and connected with one another, but for sexting and other talk that has, in the past, been reserved for face-to-face time. You may not be doing it, but I bet dimes to donuts someone you know is.

Which is a very good reason to have a blog about sex, intimacy and technology here at Psych Central. I’m pleased to introduce Sex and Intimacy in the Digital Age, a blog about sexual addiction and problems, adultery and cheating in the digital age of the Internet, smartphones, and always being connected. A day doesn’t go by where we don’t hear how the Internet and other digital media are impacting our relationships in both positive and negative ways. Porn addiction is one of a relationship’s new problems, and with ready access to sexual materials online and on the go via our smartphones, Android devices, iPads and iPhones, it’s no wonder.

Read in Full:

http://psychcentral.com/blog/archives/2011/04/11/introducing-sex-and-intimacy-in-the-digital-age/

Lying As an Act of Love

By Therese J. Borchard
Associate Editor

Experiments have found that ordinary people tell about two lies every ten minutes. I don’t see how that’s possible, as I’ve been alone the last hour writing this piece (oh dear, am I making it up as I go along?). However, the half-hour before that, I averaged about fifteen per minute.

“What are you eating, Mom?” (I’m shoving chocolate-dipped macaroons into my mouth at an ugly pace…)

“Carrots! Want some?”

Robert Feldman, a social psychologist at the University of Massachusetts found that liars tend to be more popular than honest people (think politics). Because social skills involve telling people what they want to hear (things that aren’t, um, true). The more social grace a person possesses, experiments say, the more willingness and ability he has to deceive.

But some lies are meant as acts of love. Truly. Parents lie to protect their kids from distressing or harmful facts (your uncle crosses his eyes because of a vision impairment…not because he’s a sloppy drunk; daddy went on a business trip…not down the road to a hotel because we can’t figure out whether or not to divorce).

Ever since I got summoned to jury duty awhile ago, I’ve been paying attention to lies. More than a few people said to me, “Just say something racist. You’ll get out of it.”

Um. Yeah. I could do that. But I have something inside me called a Catholic conscience. My conscience makes a dinging sound every time I approach the danger zone: where my depression is hovering like a hawk to feast on all the guilt (and I’ve given up trying to feel less guilty).

Read in Full:

http://psychcentral.com/blog/archives/2011/02/05/lying-as-an-act-of-love/

Getting the Love You Want, Over and Over Again

By Therese J. Borchard
Associate Editor

In his New York Times bestseller, Getting the Love Your Want, psychologist Harville Hendrix explains why people who grew up in homes — well, a little like the one in the 2006 flick Little Miss Sunshine — without proper emotional nurturing seek dysfunctional relationships as adults. He explains the low brain — our more reptilian thought process that can’t handle anything different than what it already knows and reverts to fear as its primary gear — and the new brain, the cerebral cortex that is conscious, alert, able to reason and think logically. He writes:

What we are doing, I have discovered from years of theoretical research and clinical observation, is looking for someone who has the predominant character traits of the people who raised us. Our old brain, trapped in the eternal now and having only a dim awareness of the outside world, is trying to re-create the environment of childhood. And the reason the old brain is trying to resurrect the past is not a matter of habit or blind compulsion but of a compelling need to heal old childhood wounds.

Some of you undoubtedly are thinking: “Oh puh-leaze, move on from the naval-gazing-it’s-my-mommy’s-fault theory.”

I may have uttered similar opinions had I not fallen into this trap so many times in my adult life, even as a happily married woman. What I failed to recognize until recently is that a healthy marriage doesn’t protect you from attempts to fill in the deep hole left from the earlier years. If you don’t do it in your primary romantic relationship, you get the job done via friendships and family relationships. Try as you may to recover from your past and move on, but I agree with Hendrix that you will always subconsciously seek to heal those wounds by trying to recreate a similar situation and forcing it to be different.

The trick is disassociating the situation from the brain phenomenon.

It’s not about the person, place, or thing you are fixated on. It’s not about the friend who is emotionally unavailable. It’s not about the relative who will never remember your birthday. Or the co-worker who is smarter (or so he thinks) than you. It’s merely the low brain recognizing a possibility to have some fun, a potential sandbox to build the sandcastle of your youth so that this time it can stand forever.

Read in Full:

http://psychcentral.com/blog/archives/2011/04/10/getting-the-love-you-want-over-and-over-again/

Article Date: 19 Apr 2011 – 3:00 PDT

The future mood swings of people with bipolar disorder can be predicted by their current thoughts and behaviour, a study has found.

Psychologists from the Universities of Manchester and Lancaster say their findings are important because they mean talking therapies, like cognitive behavioural therapy (CBT), could prove effective treatments for the condition.

People with bipolar are prone to extreme mood swings that take them from great emotional highs to the pits of depression; the cause of these mood swings is often put down to the patients’ genes and biology rather than their own thoughts and actions.

For this latest study – published in the American Psychological Association journal Psychological Assessment – the researchers followed 50 people with bipolar disorder for a month. The team found that the patients’ thinking and behaviour predicted their future mood swings even when their medical history had been accounted for.

“Individuals who believed extreme things about their moods – for example that their moods were completely out of their own control or that they had to keep active all the time to prevent becoming a failure – developed more mood problems in a month’s time,” said study lead Dr Warren Mansell, in Manchester’s School of Psychological Sciences.

“In contrast, people with bipolar disorder who could let their moods pass as a normal reaction to stress or knew they could manage their mood, faired well a month later. These findings are encouraging for talking therapies – such as CBT – that aim to help patients to talk about their moods and change their thinking about them.”

A new form of CBT, known as TEAMS (Think Effectively About Mood Swings), is being developed by Dr Mansell and colleagues, at The University of Manchester. It aims to improve on previous therapies by focusing on current problems, like depression, anxiety and irritability, and helping patients to set goals for their life as a whole.

Read in Full:

http://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/222793.php

Catharine Zeta-Jones Treated For Bipolar Disorder In Clinic

Article Date: 14 Apr 2011 – 0:00 PDT

Catharine Zeta-Jones, 41, was hospitalized for five days at the Silver Hill Hospital, Connecticut, last week and treated for bipolar disorder II. With bipolar disorder II the individual experiences depression and one or more episodes of hypomania, but no severe mania, which occurs in bipolar disorder I.

Hypomania is less severe than mania, but similar. The patient has an elevated mood, raised activity, sleeps less, has feelings of grandiosity, and racing thoughts. However, symptoms are not severe enough to cause considerable distress or disabling enough to impair one’s work, social life or family life like manic episodes do.

Put simply, those with bipolar disorder I have extreme mood swings, while those with bipolar disorder II have mood swings, but less severe ones.

…

The following actors are known to have had bipolar disorder:

• Maurice Benard
• Russell Brand
• Jeremy Brett
• Richard Dreyfuss
• Patty Duke
• Carrie Fisher
• Stephen Fry
• Mel Gibson
• Linda Hamilton
• Mariette Hartley
• Vivien Leigh
• Jenifer Lewis
• Kristy McNichol
• Burgess Meredith
• Eric Millegan
• Spike Milligan
• Cheri Oteri
• David Strickland
• Charlie Sheen
• Jean-Claude Van Damme

Read in Full:

http://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/222313.php

Related Articles

By Rick Nauert PhD Senior News Editor
Reviewed by John M. Grohol, Psy.D. on April 15, 2011

A Spanish study finds that 1 in 5 people engage in self-medication — using an over-the-counter drug, alcohol, street drugs, or drugs prescribed for a different purpose, to alleviate an illness or condition, without professional supervision.

The study found that women were more likely than men to self-medicate.

Experts from the Rey Juan Carlos University in Madrid believe self-medication is associated with nationality, income level and alcohol and tobacco consumption amongst the population.

“In spite of the negative connotations generally associated with the idea of self-medication, it is actually the most significant method of self-care for the population,” said Dr. Pilar Carrasco, main author of the study.

According to the research, published in Pharmacoepidemiology and Drug Safety, 20.17 percent of Spaniards use medication without a medical prescription.

Women were found to self-medicate more than men (with a prevalence of 16.93 percent  compared to 14.46 percent).

According to Carrasco, women self-medicate more because they “are more likely to suffer from emotional disorders and are more vulnerable in our society.

“This may be due to a greater disposition among women to acknowledge and voice their symptoms.”

Researchers used data gathered between 2006 and 2007 from 20,738 people through the National Health System. Age, sex, nationality, marital status, level of education and occupational status were studied.

Those surveyed were asked if, in the last two weeks, they had consumed any of the drugs on a list drawn up by the researchers, without medical prescription.

Both men and women had consumed painkillers, antipyretics (to reduce fevers) and drugs to relieve the common cold or sore throat, without a medical prescription.

Read in Full:

http://psychcentral.com/news/2011/04/15/spanish-study-self-medication-on-the-rise/25352.html

Washington, Apr 17 (PTI) Scientists claim to have created the world”s first digital brain map that they say will help doctors better understand a range on conditions such as Alzheimer”s disease, autism and mental health disorders.

A team at the Allen Institute for Brain Science has created the computerised map after spending four years piecing together minute details from brain tissue including millions of genes, the ”Wall Street Journal” reported.

The brains were chopped up into sections to extract the RNA and find the 25,000 genes present in the human genome. Each detail was loaded into a computer to provide the exact directions from oner point of the brain to another.

In fact, the scientists hope the map will help doctors understand how the brain works and aid new discoveries in disease and treatments.

“Until now, a definitive map of the human brain at this level of detail simply hasn”t existed. For the first time, we have generated a comprehensive map of the brain that includes the underlying biochemistry,” Allan Jones from the Institute was quoted as saying.

The institute is making the atlas freely available at www.brain-map.org as a resource for scientists studying brain diseases, along with a set of computational tools to help them analyse the data for clues to conditions such as Alzheimer”s disease, autism and mental health disorders like depression.
(MORE) PTI MOT

Source:

http://news.in.msn.com/international/article.aspx?cp-documentid=5124138

April 18, 2011|By Karen Weintraub, Globe Correspondent

Q. How is your latest book about having Asperger’s syndrome different from your first, “Look Me in the Eye’’?

A. I resolved to write a book that answered the people who asked for more insight. I felt that by elucidating how [my autistic traits] affect me, it would allow people insight into other people in their lives, and might thereby offer them an opportunity to find their own path out of disability.

Q. You emphasize that Asperger’s slows down development, but that people with it can catch up eventually.

A. Life stank for me when I was little and I see how much better it’s gotten with understanding and wisdom and practice and age. I want to show young people today that life does get better. I want them to be able to see examples of people like me.

Q. But not everyone will be as successful as you’ve been in turning what some see as a disability into a career as a best-selling author, public speaker, and car restorer.

A. It’s certainly true that not everyone will emerge in the way that I have, but it’s generally true that the vast majority of people with any kind of autistic disorder improve with age. Autism is a condition where we’ll always be autistic, we will not always be disabled.

Q. You seem to bristle at the talk of finding a cure to autism.

A. When you talk about a cure for something that is really the way you are and the way you were born, it’s sort of like telling your kid what a piece of trash your ex-husband is. The kid knows the ex-husband is half him, therefore anything bad about the ex-husband is him. If you say how evil or ugly the autism is, well that’s you. And so, I suggest that talk about autism as disease and talk about autism as cure has a powerfully corrosive effect on people who are touched by it.

Q. You offer a lot of tips in your book on how to fit in socially.

A. I think we need to learn how to behave in society such that society will accept us, and that will tremendously improve our quality of life.

It’s very important that we learn to behave in ways that society will accept while still remaining true to ourselves.

Read in Full: http://articles.boston.com/2011-04-18/lifestyle/29444348_1_autistic-traits-autism-car-restorer

Fri, Apr 15, 2011

Teenager Jessie overcomes disabilities to run business

By emma matthews

IT’S impressive enough that a 20-year-old has their own successful business.

But when you consider that Jessie Carter-Kay, from West Bridgford, also has a range of learning disabilities, including autism and dyspraxia, it’s even more remarkable.

“Jessie has demonstrated that having a learning disability is not a barrier to success,” said her father, Peter Kay, who has nominated Jessie for an Outstanding Achievement Award for 4Uth.

“Even though she has a lot of support because of her difficulties, Jessie has achieved a lot for her age.”

Jessie and her mother, Jill, set up the Pulp Friction Smoothie Bar project in 2008.

They travel to community events on a bike with a pedal-powered blender on the back and create smoothies.

They started with one bike, but the business has now expanded to seven bikes and has seen them travel around the country.

Mr Kay said it is also an opportunity to offer other people with learning disabilities vital work experience.

“It has really taken off – people like the idea and like what we do – and it’s now at the stage where Jessie will be director of her own successful community interest company,” he said.

Jessie, who attended Foxwood School in Bramcote, said: “I like that the smoothie bar gives me more independence. I like cleaning and making everything tidy.”

The family is now setting up an allotment in Stapleford, where young people with learning disabilities can gain work experience growing fruit to use on the smoothie bikes.

Jessie has also been involved in a number of community projects and has worked with Broxtowe Borough council and the UK Youth Council, including helping to create a DVD about personal safety for young disabled people. She also spoke at a conference at Nottingham Trent University on education and disability.

As a nominee for the first ever Notts 4Uth Awards, run by the Nottingham Post and Notts County Council, Jessie is now in with a chance of winning £250 of vouchers of her choice.

The awards, which will culminate in a ceremony at County Hall on September 30, celebrate teenagers and young people in the county who have made outstanding achievements.

Jessie said: “I am really happy. It is nice to be nominated and I am very excited.”

Source:

http://www.thisisnottingham.co.uk/news/Teenager-Jessie-overcomes-disabilities-run-business/article-3439282-detail/article.html

Mad, Bad and Sad: A Historical Romance

Lisa Appignanesi’s book Mad, Bad and Sad: A History of Women and the Mind Doctors from 1800 to the Present is a romantic tour through the last 200 years of psychiatry and the feminine, although probably not in the sense you’re thinking of.

The romantic movement was a literary and artistic phenomena that emerged in the 1800s as a backlash to the rationalism of the enlightenment. They railed against science as a dehumanising force, although this view was not its most lasting legacy.

Perhaps the biggest impact of the romantic movement was to seed the idea that the scientific and the humane were contradictory and incompatible, suggesting that it is not possible to be both scientific and compassionate, rational and poetic, or objective and understanding at the same time.

These are the two cultures, of which C. P. Snow famously spoke, and applied to the mind the romantic view suggests that an interpretative psychology touches the very core of our humanity, whereas the empirical barely scratches the surface.

It’s a false dichotomy because we are neither the facts of biology nor the feelings of the mind. We are at all times, both. Each is just a shadow of the whole that, paradoxically, has no single identity.

Read in Full: http://mindhacks.com/2009/04/17/mad-bad-and-sad-a-historical-romance/