Mental Health and Virgina Tech

In trying to make sense of the Virginia Tech massacre we search for answers . .namely, how could one person do this ..

Speaking with a psychologists over the past few days, the common thought is the shooter was a paranoid schizophrenic.
What does that mean? This is what the Mayo Clinic site has to say:
'Schizophrenia is a chronic mental illness. People with schizophrenia don't perceive and respond to the world as most other people do.
People with paranoid schizophrenia hold untrue beliefs (delusions) or hear things others don't hear (auditory hallucinations).
The onset of schizophrenia in men is usually in the teens or 20s. The onset in women is usually in the 20s or early 30s. Paranoid schizophrenia tends to appear toward the later end of this range. '

This is a mental disease. There's no way to protect against it and truth be told, as the experts will explain, very few people with the diagnosis will be violent.

Perhaps the folks at the Clearview Center - a community health organization - have the right idea .. improve mental health services on college campuses as a number of mental health disorders show their face during the college years.

http://www.mayoclinic.com
http://www.schizophrenia.com/ami/

Pain Relief - Placebo Effect

Oh sugar .. or is that sugar pill.

Seems a sugar pill, aka placebo ,was just as effective at reducing pain from osteoarthritis as taking the popular supplement CHONDROITIN.
Chondroitin has been used for years to relieve the pain of arthritis, often paired with Glucosamine. Now, new research from Switzerland, published in the Annals of Internal Medicine says it doesn't work any better than a sugar pill. While the researchers say CHONDROITIN isn't harmful, it's not really useful either. But they do say, if you think it works, why not use it.

Interestingly, chondrotin and glucosamine have been used for years in animals. I didn't know the placebo effect was in play with our pets. Wonder what the veterinarians have to say about this.

Anyway .. if you'd like more info on the study check out: http://orthoinfo.aaos.org/fact/thr_report.cfm?Thread_ID=365&topcategory=Arthritis

Anger Management

A few weeks ago author Anna Quindlen wrote in NEWSWEEK about the end of the Anger Era, that she thought this ugly chapter was closing. Not quite, as evidenced by the job ending words uttered by Don Imus. But we're getting closer. We're talking about this age of hurtful languge, of anger and hopefully, thinking about ways of ending it.

The Anger Era's been around more than 5 years. We've seen parents bloody or kill other parents at their kid's athletic events, talk show hosts routinely use words to attack others who don't agree with them, road rage that can turn deadly, verbally abusive or just 'plain old mean' callers who disagree with something we air, road rage and the list goes on. Somewhere along the line, we began accepting this as normal.

When school kids act inappropriately ie: over the top angry, they're sent to a school counselor to help them learn how to manage their anger. We've even seen models, sports stars and actors sent to anger management programs for throwing phones or punches at employees, spectators or family members. Perhaps, as a nation, we need some anger management.

If you go from zero to 60 emotionally try to pause and feel the heat - feel your heart rate increase, your blood pressure soar. All this anger is not good for our health, individually and not good for our health, socially. Why are we so angry? That conversation's for another day. But today, let's all turn down the volume.

Please.
Okay?
Thanks.