Leslie Glass's Blog, page 304

Drug Company Payments To Docs Tied To Overdose Deaths

From Lenny Berstein @ The Washington Post: Drug company payments to doctors may influence not just how many opioid prescriptions they write but the overdose death toll in their communities, according to a new study released Friday.

Aggressive marketing of prescription narcotics over the past 20 years has been widely blamed for the staggering death toll of the opioid epidemic. But there’s been scant research supporting that contention.

The new study, published in JAMA Network Open, shows that counties receiving such payments later experience higher death rates — even when researchers controlled for many other possible influences. The study did not prove a cause and effect relationship; the link between the two is an association.

The study also suggests, surprisingly, that consistent, trust-building visits — such as periodic lunches sponsored by drug sales reps — do more to promote prescribing of a company’s drugs than high-dollar payments to physicians.

“What seems to matter most wasn’t the amount of money doctors were paid, it was the number of times they were paid,” said Magdalena Cerdá, an associate professor of population health and director of the Center for Opioid Epidemiology and Policy at the NYU School of Medicine.

Michael Barnett, an assistant professor of health policy and management at the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health, who has studied the role of physicians in the opioid epidemic, called the findings “deeply concerning for the raging [opioid] crisis that we’re all quite aware of.”

The annual number of prescriptions for painkillers such as oxycodone, hydrocodone and methadone has declined in recent years as physicians, states and public health authorities have responded to the opioid epidemic. Still, overdoses from those medications killed nearly 18,000 people in 2017, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, even as illicit fentanyl has become the main driver of the opioid crisis.

And prescription painkillers — rather than heroin or fentanyl — are often the first opioid that consumers are exposed to.

Previous research has linked drug company marketing to opioid prescribing, but the researchers said their study was the first to extend the comparison to overdose deaths.

The new study matched federal data on overdose deaths in every county from Aug. 1, 2014 to Dec. 31, 2016, with payments to doctors for meals, speaking, consulting and travel for the period of Aug. 1, 2013 to Dec. 31, 2015.

The one-year time lag was an attempt to ensure that the payments influenced prescribing, rather than high-prescribing physicians attracting bigger payments from drug companies. In March, Harvard researchers and CNN released an analysis that showed physicians who prescribed more opioids attracted more payments from drug companies.

Barnett said that regardless of how the payments work, they are influential. Known in the trade as “detailing,” these efforts do affect prescriber decision-making, he said.

“What it does is it creates an awareness . . . it’s going to be closer to the top of your mind. It’s just easier to reach for them,” Barnett said.

The new study found 434,754 payments totaling $39.7 million to 67,507 physicians — about one in every 12 doctors. Researchers discovered that one in every five family physicians had received this kind of marketing.

“Counties receiving such marketing subsequently experienced elevated mortality,” they wrote. “In addition, opioid prescribing rates were strongly associated with the burden of opioid marketing.”

In most of the country, this kind of marketing is legal and unlimited. Another author of the research, Scott Hadland, a pediatrician and researcher with Boston Medical Centers Grayken Center for Addiction, said drug sales representatives play a legitimate role in educating physicians about medications.

But he said that physicians have other ways to learn about drugs such as conferences and continuing education courses. To reduce overdose deaths, physicians, drug companies and government may have to regulate marketing, he said.

In 2017, New Jersey instituted a regulation that caps the amount of marketing money prescribers can receive from drug companies. And last year, Purdue Pharma, the maker of OxyContin, halted its marketing of opioids to physicians.

The post Drug Company Payments To Docs Tied To Overdose Deaths appeared first on Reach Out Recovery.

What Is the Daniel Fast Diet?

From Jamie Ducharme @ Time: The Daniel Fast has been around a long time — since the Old Testament, in fact. But actor Chris Pratt gave it new popularity recently by posting an Instagram story about adopting it as his latest diet.

Pratt described the plan as “21 days of prayer and fasting.” But what does the Daniel Fast actually entail — and is it healthy? Here’s what you need to know.

What Is The Daniel Fast?

The Daniel Fast is a religiously rooted, short-term eating plan drawn from the Book of Daniel, which appears in the Old Testament. In the story, Daniel decides to avoid the rich, indulgent foods that surround him and have “nothing but vegetables to eat and water to drink” for 10 days. (Some translations interpret vegetables as pulses, meaning foods grown from seeds.) A later reference says, “I, Daniel, mourned for three weeks. I ate no choice food; no meat or wine touched my lips; and I used no lotions at all until the three weeks were over.” At the end of the fast, he was healthy, to everyone’s surprise.

Despite its ancient roots, books and online guides to the Daniel Fast have been published since about 2007, when The Daniel Fast blog launched. Most contemporary guides direct followers to eat only food grown from seeds — such as fruits, vegetables, legumes and whole grains — for 21 days, and cut out alcohol, caffeine, meat, dairy, sugar, fats and processed foods.

While most plans do not offer specific advice on lotions, they emphasize the importance of sacrificing physical and material comforts for the sake of spiritual growth; many followers also combine the eating style with regular prayer or spiritual practice. It’s popular among Evangelical Christians, and in 2011 a California pastor used the diet to help his evangelical congregation lose a collective 260,000 pounds.

Is The Daniel Fast Healthy?

Richard Bloomer, dean of the University of Memphis’ School of Health Studies, has conducted multiple small studies on the Daniel Fast. His research has found that, after just three weeks, the diet can begin to lower risk factors for metabolic and cardiovascular disease, such as high blood pressure and cholesterol, and reduce oxidative stress, a physical imbalance that may contribute to chronic disease formation. In general, plant-based diets are associated with health benefits including lower rates of chronic disease and longer lives.

“It just shows, I think, the power of food,” Bloomer says. “There’s a lot of potential health benefits from adopting this approach.”

Bloomer says the Daniel Fast is essentially a vegan diet, but potentially even healthier, since it eliminates processed foods that can come with sugar, fat, salt and preservatives. “We’re not thinking [the health benefits come from] the restriction in animal protein, per se, but more the restriction in all the other stuff that you would find in packaged foods,” as well as the addition of more nutrient-rich foods, he says.

While the Daniel Fast does not explicitly restrict the number of calories followers consume, Bloomer says most people who follow it end up eating fewer by filling up on nutrient- and fiber-dense whole foods instead of meat, dairy and processed products. He says most followers lose five to six pounds over the three weeks and report other benefits like clearer skin, more energy and better focus.

Dr. Wayne Jonas, a family physician and executive director of Samueli Integrative Health Programs at the University of California, Irvine, says this kind of calorie restriction — which is similar to the type in intermittent fasting — is not dangerous, as long as people are still eating enough to feel satiated. “It’s a religious framework around a process that we’ve known about biologically for a long time,” he says.

Jonas explains that periodic calorie restriction can not only spur weight loss but also kickstart cellular and metabolic processes that enhance good health.

“We are over-indulged in calories most of the time in this country, so by doing less of that, you’re going to get health benefits,” Jonas says. “Your body is going to kick in some of the reparative and metabolic processes that we know are associated with a longer life.”

Should You Try The Daniel Fast?

Jonas says most fairly healthy people should be able to complete the Daniel Fast with no problems. People with chronic health conditions — especially those that require dietary monitoring, such as diabetes, congestive heart failure and kidney disease — should consult a doctor first.

Anybody who chooses to take on the Daniel Fast should make sure they’re adequately prepared, Bloomer says. While plenty of meals can be created from plant foods, Bloomer says people who typically rely on restaurants, takeout and packaged foods can find it difficult to adjust.

“If people hear about it and read about it, I wouldn’t suggest that they go out and start it the next day,” Bloomer says. “Go shopping, and spend time looking at labels. It’s forced nutrition education.”

The post What Is the Daniel Fast Diet? appeared first on Reach Out Recovery.

14 Toxic Thoughts & How To Let Them Go

From Nicole Pajer @ Huffington Post: So you’ve vowed to be healthier this year. That typically means less fast food, and more exercise. But what are you doing for your mental health?

Experts say a great place to start is by tackling your toxic thoughts. We experience thousands of thoughts per day. Some of these thoughts can be negative and thus detrimental to your well-being. In fact, some research has even suggested negative thinking could be linked to physical ailments such as heart disease.

Tipping the scale to have more positive thoughts in your day can work wonders for your mind and overall health. Here are 14 toxic thoughts that experts say you need to banish if you want to be happier:

1. I’ll Do It Later

Catching up on your favorite Netflix show might sound like your most appealing option when you have some free time, but putting off something you need to get done is likely to lead to more stress.

Creating motivation and adding structure to your routines can help you ward off the urge to stall, said Lucas D. Saiter, a psychotherapist in New York City.

“Checklists are very effective at motivating individuals and there is research that shows this,” he said. “Make attainable goals, write them down and go get them.”

2. Any Type Of Catastrophic Thinking

One bad thing does not always lead to another. But when something doesn’t go your way, it’s easy to let your mind delve deep into the dark side.

“When we think things are worse than they are, or assume that because one bad thing happened that more bad things will happen, it can cause a lot of emotional turmoil,” said Robyn Gold, a psychotherapist in private practice in New York City.

Gold cited the following as a catastrophic thought process that can quickly get out of control: “I failed a pop quiz in class. This means I’m going to fail the whole class, and then that means I’ll never graduate. Then I won’t ever get a job and I’ll be living in my parents’ home for the rest of my life.”

To combat this type of thinking, Gold suggested asking yourself what all the possible outcomes are ― including the positive ones. “For example, in this situation you could take more control by telling yourself that you have the power to do better next time and use that thought process instead to motivate you to succeed,” she said.

3. I’m Inadequate

This type of thinking can quickly impair your ability to succeed in the workplace and within your personal relationships. Lynn Whitbeck, the founder of online women’s career mentoring site petite2queen.com, has developed the acronym “YASS” to help her clients overcome a case of feeling not good enough:

Y = Why you. Remember, you add value.

A = Allowed to fail. Give yourself permission to fail. When you fall, you always get back up.

S = See success. Breathe and reframe your mindset.

S = Surge forward. Take a leap of faith, because if you don’t ask, you don’t get.

4. Self-care Is Selfish

A flight attendant will always tell you to put on your own oxygen mask before assisting someone else. This should be a metaphor for life, according to Shainna Ali, a licensed mental health counselor in Orlando, Florida.

But we often feel guilty if we place our own needs ahead of things we feel obligated to do. That can end up backfiring: Not only do you get burned out, you also won’t have energy to spend on people you care about.

“Taking care of yourself is an investment that you benefit from, but your loved ones, colleagues, neighbors and community do as well,” Ali said. “So it’s OK to say ‘no’ to baking homemade treats for the neighborhood bake sale if you feel that you’d benefit by soaking in a bubble bath instead.”

5. Their Life Is So Much Better Than Mine

It’s easy to scroll through Instagram and assume everyone else is leading a life far superior to your own. But this is often far from the truth, according to Ree Langham, a psychologist and writer at ParentingPod.com.

“What you see is only the outer shell of what may be happening within. In other words, people put out what they want others to see,” Langham said.

“You may think your life sucks because someone else has a fancy car, a couple of kids, a nice job, a good-looking spouse, a cute dog, an expensive house and white-picketed fence, but you don’t know what happens behind closed doors,” Langham added. “That person you think has the best life may be miserable when people aren’t looking.”

6. I’ll Be Happy When…

Tying your happiness to an achievement in the future ― such as losing 15 pounds, falling in love or getting a promotion ― is a dangerous game. Nicole Issa, a psychologist who serves clients in New York and Massachusetts, recommended changing your thinking pattern so you are not always willing your circumstances to change.

“Instead, think about what you imagine will be different when you move, lose weight, find love, etc., and how you will then be happy and try to cultivate some of those things right now,” she said.

Issa suggested reminding yourself that you can be happy right now if you try to work on these things through small changes, and that you will have a greater probability of getting where you want to be if you are happy. Take the first step by eating a healthy meal or signing yourself up for a dating app. Revel in those tiny steps, which can add up quickly.

7. I Shouldn’t Feel This Way

“Judging yourself for your emotions is like judging yourself for your body temperature. It’s not in your control,” said Tina Gilbertson, a Denver-based psychotherapist and the author of Constructive Wallowing: How to Beat Bad Feelings by Letting Yourself Have Them. “It’s common to believe we can choose our emotions, but if you think about it, that’s nonsense. If we could choose our feelings, why wouldn’t everyone be happy all the time?”

Abby Thompson, a licensed marriage and family therapist in California, agreed, adding that feelings can act as a barometer for what’s going on inside of us.

“We’d all feel a lot better if we let them happen,” she said.

8. This Kind Of Thing Always Happens To Me

“Too often when a car cuts someone off, they end up in a line that isn’t moving, their luggage gets lost, their flight is delayed, or they end up receiving an item that comes broken or destroyed, their first negative impulse is to say that this always happens to them. Really? Always?” said Toni Coleman, a psychotherapist, relationship coach and divorce mediator in McLean, Virginia.

Coleman said this type of thinking should be banished because it paints an individual as a victim of unfair circumstances, which just reinforces a negative attitude about how the world treats them.

When these types of thoughts arise, Coleman suggested stopping yourself mid-thought and substituting something like, “Bummer, I will be a little late today but it’s a fluke and no big deal in the grand scheme of things.”

“Just substitute any positive ― humorous is better ― thought and move on,” Coleman said.

9. I wish I Looked More Like Him Or Her

It’s easy to flip through a page of a magazine and covet the body of your favorite celebrity. But nothing about this practice is healthy or beneficial to your happiness, Thompson said.

“While exercise and eating nutritious foods is always a good idea, wishing our bodies looked dramatically different is often a way to procrastinate living our best lives,” she said. “If we decide to live fully now, no matter how much we weigh, how amazing would things be?”

It’s human nature to be hard on your physical appearance, but self-compassion can help.

“Our minds like to throw lots of thoughts at us all the time and many of them are pretty unhelpful,” Thompson said. “One way to respond is to acknowledge it and say to that thought ‘Thanks, but I’m choosing to think about this differently this year.’”

10. I Should Have

“I would like to send these little words to the moon in a spaceship and remove them from every person’s vocabulary,” said Jennifer Hunt, chair of pathology at the University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences and founder of a leadership development program for women called Unlocking the Authentic Self.

“Should have” creates more toxicity than almost any other phrase, she said.

“Almost anything that follows ‘should have’ reflects a disappointment, a missed opportunity, an unhealthy comparison between an ideal and reality, and constant glancing in the rearview mirror,” Hunt said.

Hunt said these “ought statements” can become toxic and eat away at self-confidence.

11. I’m Such An Idiot

Self-deprecating thoughts can batter your self-esteem, self-worth and self-confidence, said Karen Donzaldson, a communication and body language expert and certified confidence coach in Toronto.

“Over time, you become your biggest critic, stop taking action, start making excuses when people speak to you the same way you speak to yourself, you stop sharing and you start to live like you’re not enough,” she said.

Try replacing a self-deprecating thought with something more supportive. Donaldson suggested making a list of three things you do really well and three things you love about yourself.

“Every time a self-deprecating thought shows up, replace it with one of [these] six things,” she said.

12. I’ll Try

Using the word “try” gives us a safety net to fail and does not communicate full commitment to ourselves or others, said Melissa Wolak, a holistic mindset and transformative coach and speaker in Boulder, Colorado.

“Thoughts and words are powerful and affect our actions and our energy when completing tasks or addressing challenges,” Wolak said. Instead of using “try,” she suggested saying: “I will do it,” “I will do my best,” “I can do this.”

13. If It’s Not Perfect, It’s Not Worth Doing

If you only do things you think you can do perfectly, you’ll never get anything done, said Jude Treder-Wolff, a licensed clinical social worker and certified group psychotherapist in Smithtown, New York.

Treder-Wolff said this type of thinking is harmful because it eliminates that essential learning phase of a new role or skill “when we must be free to flail and flounder as we figure it out.” Recognizing this thought as toxic is an important step, as is replacing it with new, healthy thoughts ― try: “Everything worth doing requires the freedom to flail and flounder,” “Everything I put a good effort into will result in learning to do something better and better” or “Everything I put a good effort into changes my brain.”

14. I Don’t Know How

The secret to getting starting on a seemingly impossible task is to focus on what you do know how to do at the moment, take things one step at a time and learn as you go.

“When you’re focused on trying to know steps 1 through 50, you get way ahead of yourself and this keeps you from making any progress at all,” said Sumayya Essack, a mindset and life coach in Boston. “Big goals like changing careers and starting businesses don’t have paint-by-numbers formulas, so you can’t actually know all the steps.”

If you feel stuck, Essack suggested telling yourself: “I’ll figure out the next step and take it.”

“Think only of what’s the next possible and feasible step you could take,” she said. “Take that one, and go from there. You’ll figure it out as you go.”

The post 14 Toxic Thoughts & How To Let Them Go appeared first on Reach Out Recovery.

Simple Treatments To Banish Winter Blues

From HealthDay.com:

The gray days of winter bring many people down, but a few simple steps can pep you up, an expert says.

A condition known as seasonal affective disorder (SAD) can cause feelings of sadness or depression, lack of energy, problems sleeping, moodiness, changes in appetite and loss of interest in usual activities.

“It is most common among people who live far north or south of the equator and usually occurs in fall and winter, although some people experience SAD in the spring,” said Dr. Madhavi Singh, a family medicine doctor with Penn State Health.

“More women than men are diagnosed with this disorder, which most commonly appears between ages 20 and 30,” Singh said in a health system news release.

Although the causes of SAD aren’t known, it’s thought that three factors are involved. Shorter days may disrupt your body clock and affect sleep, while a drop in serotonin levels linked to reduced sunlight can affect mood. Also, lower melatonin levels that occur in cold months with less sunlight can disrupt sleep.

To help chase the winter blues, Singh recommended the following:

Get more light into your home by turning lights on, opening blinds, and cutting back bushes that block windows.Take a 60-minute walk outdoors every day, even if it’s cloudy.Exercise three or four hours before going to bed.Fight the temptation to stay indoors. Keep socially active.Don’t drink caffeine in the afternoon or evening.Don’t go to bed hungry — have a light snack.Don’t take your smartphone or tablet to bed — keep the room dark.Keep a regular sleep schedule.Sleep only as much as needed to feel rested.

If you suffer from SAD, see your doctor, Singh said.

One of the most effective treatments is light therapy, she said. The treatment uses a special light box that emits full-spectrum light, similar to sunlight.

Therapy often involves sitting for 30 to 60 minutes a few feet from the light box first thing each morning. Daily light therapy often shows results in a few days or weeks, but should be continued until spring when sunlight increases.

In addition to light therapy, a doctor might prescribe an antidepressant. Psychotherapy can also help people learn ways of coping, Singh said.

The post Simple Treatments To Banish Winter Blues appeared first on Reach Out Recovery.

Grief Healing After The Storm

Grief healing for people is much like the way trees respond after deadly storms. This year in the weeks that followed the heavy, wet snows of late winter there would be sunny days. The sun melted away the snow and ice layers from tree limbs burdened by the massive weight. These limbs had bowed – sometimes to the ground- under the pressure. Others had snapped high above, and remained entangled in the jumble of the canopy. These dangled, threatening to fall, but not yet quite free. Still others had broken leaving gaping wounds of light-colored wood where the branches had once been attached to the trunk. Some of these broken limbs, themselves massive, had gotten stuck in the understory. They, too dangled mere feet from where they had been attached. A few will need help to completely detach. A chainsaw will likely do the trick. There are no chainsaws for people to deal with personal losses of great magnitude. But trees can teach us about the mysterious ways of healing.

The Circle Of Life in The Forest

The snarl of damage at the base of trees provides a gift for other forrest creatures. Near the trunks is often the chaos of broken limbs. A sacrifice, of sorts, free from the snarl of what had happened. This jumble of tree parts were ready to provide shelter and food for animals in need. Such is the circle of life.

Grief Healing For families Is Like Trees Healing From Storms

The aftermath of a stressful event for families often mimics what happens to the flora and fauna in nature. Members of a family are like the limbs of a tree – under stress, they too can collapse. Some will bow to the pressure, only to spring back with the same resiliency as the limb whose snow burden has been warmed by the sun. Others will snap – yet stay in place – unable to detach themselves from the swirl of emotions that come with change. Still others will manage to free themselves and will move forward quickly without giving their emotions time to take hold. And there are those who will require the guidance of others to move on. We heal at our own pace and in our own ways – no one way is better than another. It’s just our way.

The post Grief Healing After The Storm appeared first on Reach Out Recovery.

What Is Unresolved Grief

I grieved for my mother for 30 years, but I couldn’t help it. I looked for her on the street, sobbed when I saw other mothers and daughters having fun. Even shopping for clothes made me sad because it was something we used to do together. This was beyond typical sadness, I had unresolved grief.

My First Experience In Grieving

My mom died of cancer a few years after I married, and three weeks before my son was born. A few months later my husband quit his job and didn’t find another for nine months. All three events, marriage, death of a loved one, and loss of a job are high stress. My coping skills always kick in when times get tough, but I didn’t stop active suffering about my mom. People do get stuck in their losses and it isn’t always a death. It can be a change of circumstance, or even marriage itself. It’s important to recognize what you’re feeling so you can take steps to lift the burden.

For me and the loss of my mom one problem was I did not have the opportunity of a proper “goodbye.” Even though I had sat with my mom throughout her illness and was pregnant for nine months of it, she never gave me her blessing or wished me well with my baby. She was not able to say goodbye. Doubly painful was the fact that my children grew up without a grandmother. This was cause for my grieving on their behalf, too. Grief is often about much more than just the passing because of the many extra feelings associated with it. This is also true for job loss, change of circumstances, moving, etc. There are some 40 life experiences that can cause grief.

Although sorrow is a normal reaction, unresolved grief has a more traumatic impact. As a result it can have a negative effect on one’s life. You may be asking yourself, “How do I know if I have unresolved grief?”

Signs of Unresolved Grief

Although many of sufferers try to pretend that they are “over it” for various reasons, the following are some of the tell-tale signs that someone is grieving:

Preoccupation with sad or painful memories
Refusal to talk about the loss at all
Increase in alcohol, food, drug, or cigarette usage.Antisocial behavior
Overindulge in hobbies, work, or exercise activities
Lack of energy
Difficulty concentrating
Isolation from friends and family

How Children Express Unresolved Grief

Develop behavior problems
Have Fear of being alone
Become more aggressive
Perform worse at school

How Teens Express Unresolved Grief

Using drugs
Drinking Alcohol
Stealing
Have unprotected sex
Become accident prone
Withdraw from friends
Have difficulty completing schoolwork

Young children may show unresolved grief by developing behavior problems or expressing fears about being alone, especially at night.

If left untreated, the long term effects can be devastating to future relationships and every day activities, such as work and what used to be enjoyable hobbies. Here are some things that can be done to help resolve the unsettled feelings.

Validate Feelings

Everyone has a right to sad feelings. Even though others may not understand your feelings or fail to empathize with you, it is important for you to empathize with yourself. It is also important for you to empathize with children and teens who are suffering. Give everyone permission to process, naturally, the loss they have experienced.

Reach Out

No matter how small it may be, build a support network. Whether it is that one special friend who can listen without judgement, or an online group on social media. It’s important to have someone to turn to if you need a shoulder to cry on or a new outlook in order to get you through a rough moment.

Some Causes Of Unresolved Grief

Unresolved grief can be caused by pretty much anything big or small. If something, someone, or an event was important to you. You may not even think something that happened long ago may continue to nag at you now. There are some 40 life events that can cause unresolved grief. Here are some:

Death of a spouse
Divorce
Marital separation
Imprisonment
Death of a close family member
Personal injury or illness
Marriage
Dismissal from work
Marital reconciliation
Retirement
Change in health of family member
Pregnancy
Sexual difficulties
Gain a new family member
Business readjustment
Change in financial state
Death of a close friend
Change to different line of work
Change in frequency of arguments
Major mortgage
Foreclosure of mortgage or loan
Change in responsibilities at work
Child leaving home
Trouble with in-laws
Outstanding personal achievement
Spouse starts or stops work
Begin or end school
Change in living conditions
Revision of personal habits
Trouble with boss
New working hours or conditions
Change in residence
New schools
Change in recreation
Beginning or ending church activities
Change in social activities
Minor mortgage or loan
Change in sleeping habits
Change in number of family reunions
Starting a new eating habit
Vacation>
Christmas
Minor violation of law
Loss of Trust, Approval, Safety and Control of one’s body

There is no definite point in time or a list of symptoms that define unresolved grief. Unresolved grief lasts longer than usual for a person’s social circle or cultural background. It may also be used to describe grief that does not go away or interferes with the person’s ability to take care of daily responsibilities. People with unresolved grief who do not seek treatment are more likely to develop other mental health and physical problems.

The post What Is Unresolved Grief appeared first on Reach Out Recovery.

Why Significant Childhood Trauma Is So Tough To Process

From Dr. Tian Dayton, Forgiving Parents: Breaking the Chain of Anger, Resentment and Pain –  Triggered pain is so confusing to decode and deal with. Primarily, emotional responses to childhood trauma are recorded by the parts of the brain that were developed early in our evolution. This area of brain memory is often referred to as the “reptilian” or “old” brain.

The Brain Freezes Painful Childhood Trauma

The cortex is where we do much of our critical thinking. It’s where we think about what we’re feeling and make sense of it. When we were deeply hurt, say as children, we may have been too scared or frozen to process what was happening around us. The cortex didn’t modulate the memory. Our child-aged brain wasn’t mature enough to:

Reflect upon
Think about
Quantify or
Categorize particular painful events

Thus, they could not be worked through, nor could we rationally read the situation. Many of us were left to make sense of the trauma, only using the powers of reason and the emotional maturity available to us at the time.

The adults in the situation were often too preoccupied with their own problems. The didn’t help us understand what was happening around us. As a result, when these fragments of unprocessed memory get triggered in the present, they have no context.  They’re all out of order and can get mindlessly blasted onto the surface of our current lives.

We feel like we felt when the original events happened: defenseless and vulnerable, with whoever hurt us having all the power.

These intense feelings seems to relate only to the current situation but, in truth, our past is co-mingling with present. Even though they originated in the past, they get interpreted as if it belongs exclusively to the present. We end up trying to make sense of an adult situation through our child mind.

All Of Us Have These Little People Inside

It helps if we’re on speaking terms with that part of us.  When the child self gets scared and wants to hide or hit or cry or yell, our adult self can help. Our adult self can recognize what’s going on and extends a secure hand to their small fingers. This is how we grow.  This is also how we can keep the innocence, talent, spontaneity and creativity that is also part of this side of us, and still function as reasonably healthy adults.

You notice I say reasonably. I think psychology has unwittingly put forward some unattainable idea of the “model” person that is about as far flung from the actual norm as a size four is for the average American woman. It just isn’t what’s out there, and if we hold ourselves to that standard we’ll only feel bad. We’re all only human, why should we kill ourselves trying to be perfect?

Women’s Bodies Handle Trauma Differently

Think of trauma in evolutionary terms. Early woman had a lot to worry about. So nature, in its infinite wisdom, built a protective apparatus into her. When she sensed that she was in danger, she went into the protective modes that nature encoded into her. Extreme states of fear cause the body to spurt chemicals like epinephrine and norepinephrine, both of which are associated with standing and fighting or fleeing for safety, commonly known as the fight-or-flight response.

In women, however, more recent research reveals that oxitocin is also released. According to a recent UCLA study by Drs. Klein and Taylor, women even “respond to stress with a cascade of brain chemicals that cause us to make and maintain friendships with other women.” In other words, our survival mode is connect and nurture, not only fight or flight. This “touch” chemical encourages women to bond with other women, and to take care of children and get them to safety.

The post Why Significant Childhood Trauma Is So Tough To Process appeared first on Reach Out Recovery.

5 Tips For When Conflict Becomes Combat

From Diane Dreher, Ph.D. @ Psychology Today: In all our years of schooling, most of us never learn one vital lesson: conflict resolution. Too often, when we face a conflict, we fall into a polarizing false dilemma, seeing the situation as either/or—my demands or yours, all or nothing, win or lose. Conflict becomes combat. Digging in our heels and arguing back and forth, we can end up with one of three options: absolute victory, defeat, or compromise.

But conflict needn’t become combat. There is a better way. International conflict resolution facilitator Dudley Weeks has found that conflict can lead to creative partnerships, revealing new possibilities where both parties benefit.

“In the United States,” says Weeks, conditioned by “the profit motive,” we all too often “use an adversarial, competitive pattern.” We reduce a relationship to that one conflict when we could see the dispute as only a small part of a much larger relationship. (Dudley Weeks, personal communication; Dreher, 1996, pp. 187-188).

Weeks describes his approach in his book, The Eight Essential Steps to Conflict Resolution (1992). Here are five important principles:

1. Cultivate A Partnership

Treat the other person(s) with respect. Say you’d like to work together to resolve this conflict, then find a mutually acceptable time and place to meet.

Choose a neutral place where you will both feel comfortable and a time when neither of you feels rushed. Don’t schedule your meeting an hour before you have to catch a train or meet in your office which might intimidate the other person.

2. Identify Your Needs

Before your meeting, take what psychologist Ryan Niemiec calls a “mindful pause” (Niemiec, 2018). Spend some quiet time by yourself, focusing on your breathing, decompressing, getting centered (Goleman, 2005). Then ask yourself what you need in this situation—not what you want, not your ego demands, but what you really need.

3. Discover What The Other Person Needs

When you meet with that person, take time to really listen in the respectful way modeled by Carl Rogers (1961). Ask the person what he or she needs. Listen respectfully to the response.

4. Look For Shared Needs

This is where you build bridges to start working together. Respecting one another’s needs, begin looking for common ground. Do any of your needs overlap? Can you look at the situation more deeply, asking what underlying needs you share?

While working in South Africa in 1986, Dudley asked Afrikaners and black South Africans what kind of South Africa they wanted their children to grow up in. Both groups said they wanted peace and a viable economy. When the two groups recognized their shared needs, they saw they could begin working together.

In this country, while working in a troubled inner-city community marred by crime and hostile factions, Dudley held a meeting with representatives of the business leaders, families, and even leaders of teenaged gangs. He asked everyone to write down what they thought their community needed. At first these people felt that they had no needs in common but when they found they had quite a few—including a community center and a health clinic—they began seeing each other with fresh eyes.

5. Find Stepping Stones

The next step in the process is discovering stepping stones, small actions that you can take together to begin working toward the solution. In the inner-city neighborhood, Dudley asked the people about one small step they could take. They agreed on streetlights—the families and business leaders thought they would make the streets safer, and so did the gang leaders whose members had been getting hurt in fights on dark streets. So together they signed a petition, presented it to the city council, and celebrated when the streetlights were installed. Three years later, they had built a health clinic, a community center, and a more harmonious community.

These principles apply not only to groups but to personal relationships. When my friend Genevieve went back to school to get her ministerial degree, with all-day Saturday classes, she and her husband, Lyle, needed a new plan to respect her needs as well as their shared needs for Saturday dinner. At first, Lyle took her out to dinner. But then the conflict brought out Lyle’s latent creativity. He decided to surprise Gen by cooking dinner on Saturday. Semi-retired from his real estate business, he had time to leaf through her cookbooks, going from grilled steaks to experimenting with French cooking and even baking bread. Their conflict partnership uncovered new possibilities as Gen enjoyed her classes and Lyle found a new passion, becoming a gourmet cook.

What about you? The next time you find yourself in a conflict, try building a bridge, using respect, listening, then finding common ground, and stepping stones to explore all the creative possibilities you and your partner can discover together.

The post 5 Tips For When Conflict Becomes Combat appeared first on Reach Out Recovery.

Overdose Deaths Among US Women Have More Than Tripled

From Melissa Healy @ LA Times: For many decades, drugs of abuse were a menace that mostly threatened the lives of men. In 1999, fewer than 1 in 25,000 adult women in the United States died of a drug overdose, and childbirth was twice as deadly.

No more. Drug overdoses have become a prodigious thief of female lives in the U.S. And they are increasingly claiming women’s lives deep into middle age, according to a new report from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

Of the 70,237 fatal drug overdoses in the United States during 2017, 18,110 of the victims were women between the ages of 30 and 64, records from the National Vital Statistics System show. That’s up from 4,314 in 1999.

Some of the steepest increases in fatality rates have been seen in women who may not fit the public’s expectations of drug abusers. For instance, the rate of drug overdose deaths among women ages 55 to 64 multiplied by a factor of five between 1999 and 2017, driven by a tenfold increase in the rate of prescription opioid deaths.

The finding that women well beyond middle age are misusing prescription drugs, abusing illicit drugs and probably taking dangerous drug combinations is more than just a curiosity. Added to an 80% rise in suicide rates among 45-to-64-year-old women since around the turn of the century, it suggests that daughters, wives, mothers and grandmothers are bearing greater strains than they have in the past.

Along with rising death rates of alcohol-related diseases among women, fatal overdoses are sometimes referred to as “deaths of despair.” In the last three years, they have begun to reverse decades of gains made in the nation’s life expectancy.

The study in Friday’s edition of the Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report also suggests that U.S. women are responding to stress in ways that are closing the longstanding gaps between men and women when it comes to self-harm, substance abuse and risk-taking behavior.

For instance, the team from the CDC’s National Center for Injury Prevention and Control found that, just as for men, the rate of fatal overdoses involving synthetic opioids spiked sharply in 2015. Women’s deaths attributed to these drugs — including fentanyl and tramadol — grew 16-fold in the 18 years leading up to 2017.

Deaths linked to heroin and benzodiazepines, a class of prescription anti-anxiety drugs, also rose sharply, increasing 915% and 830%, respectively, between 1999 and 2017. Fatal overdoses of cocaine and antidepressants also grew, albeit more slowly.

In 1999, the U.S. women at greatest risk of a fatal drug overdose were between the ages of 40 and 44. But back then, the risk of dying from an overdose dropped off sharply after a woman’s 50th birthday.

Over the next 18 years, the rate of fatal overdoses rose for American women in all the age brackets between 30 and 64. But by 2017, they were highest among women in their early- to mid-50s. As a result, the average age of death due to a drug overdose rose from 43.5 to 46.5.

Overdoses among American women “continue to be unacceptably high,” the authors of the new report wrote.

The study also makes clear that as medical and public health professionals struggle to stem a national epidemic of drug overdoses, they must pay particular attention to women — and to a wider range of women than they have in the past.

The health establishment has expended great effort in the past to warn women of childbearing age about the potential risks of certain drugs, including narcotic painkillers and anti-anxiety medications that could harm a developing fetus, the CDC team noted. But it’s clear that equally necessary messages are not reaching the older women who are dying of drug overdoses, the authors suggested.

Healthcare providers who treat women for pain, depression or anxiety may need to pay special attention to those around midlife, they wrote. And insurance programs that serve older women, including Medicare, may need to sharpen their focus on older women’s needs for more careful prescribing, more focused counseling, and better access to treatment for substance dependence than they have done in the past.

The post Overdose Deaths Among US Women Have More Than Tripled appeared first on Reach Out Recovery.

Incredible Hope: Overdose Deaths Down 50%

From CBS News: Rader said her community – in a state that has one of the highest drug overdose mortality rates in the country – has been engaged in the fight “day after day after day” for the past four years.

Jan Rader, the first female fire chief in West Virginia, is making a big impact on Huntington’s fight against the opioid epidemic. In her Ted Talk released Wednesday, Rader said Huntington’s overdose deaths are down 50 percent.

“This epidemic is far from over, but each and every one of us has a part to play in this epidemic. Just by listening and being kind to somebody, you have the ability to make a dent, [a] difference in their lives,” Rader said in the TED Talk.

Rader’s work fighting the opioid epidemic is featured in the Emmy-winning Netflix documentary, “Heroin(e),” and her efforts earned her a place on this year’s Time 100 list of the most influential people. She not only helped establish quick-response teams to visit and speak with patients within 72 hours of their overdose, but she also helped start ProAct, a one-stop clinic for those suffering from substance use disorder.

“Somebody suffering from substance use disorder or addiction is actually a fragile person,” Rader said. “They are hopeless and the way we treat them can make their situation better or worse. … So we need to treat them with kindness and compassion and show them that they are a good person and that they do deserve to get better, because they can.”

“Naloxone in the first responders’ hands and friends and family. We have over 2,000 saves from friends and family having naloxone at home to be able to administer it to their loved ones,” Rader said Wednesday on “CBS This Morning.”

In order to do that, Rader said laws had to be changed and the city received grants.

Asked what role the drug industry played in West Virginia with painkillers like opioids, Rader said, “Oh, they flooded it and, you know, we can’t even – there’s a lot of blame to go around, but the fact of the matter is this is where we are and we have to move forward. And we don’t want to dwell on that. We want to move forward.”

Another important component Rader is focused on is self-care initiatives for first responders who help patients.

“First responders, we are the cavalry. We want to help somebody. And an instance where you have somebody suffering from substance use disorder, you might Narcan them over and over and over again and then find them dead. And we feel like we can’t make a difference and that takes a toll on us. So we need to provide our first responders with ways to deal with the stress that they see and give them tools that they can use to help those suffering, like being able to take them to ProAct or the quick response team can help them.”

The post Incredible Hope: Overdose Deaths Down 50% appeared first on Reach Out Recovery.