Social networking site joins the battle to prevent suicide

by Dee Henderson, MSN, RN-BC September 18, 2012

These days “friend me” has become an action, indicating someone wanting to establish contact on Facebook. What started as a purely social networking site has expanded into a medium for change, but nothing so important as the Facebook service designed last year to help prevent suicide. When on Facebook, users can provide support and help to friends [...]

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Show me the money (if you want to learn something about suicide and stigma)

by Thomas Ellis, PsyD, ABPP September 10, 2012

Today, September 10, is World Suicide Prevention Day. This is potentially a time to reflect and celebrate how far we’ve come. Would that we could. Death rates from many of the top killers in this country – AIDS, cancer, heart disease, homicide – have dropped, dramatically in some cases, over the past couple of decades.  [...]

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On the Colorado shootings and fighting the stigma of mental illness

by John Oldham, MD, MS August 14, 2012

Fighting the stigma of mental illness is a difficult and never-ending process, despite the great progress we have made in the last few decades. Unfortunately, the recent shooting in Aurora, Colorado, will likely add to the difficulty. Misperceptions fuel stigma Tragic events like these often fuel the misperception that anyone with a mental illness could [...]

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Guest commentary on Virginia Tech shooter applies to accused Colorado theater gunman

by Anne W. Lupton August 3, 2012

Editor’s note: Five years ago, Stacey Freedenthal, PhD, LCSW, a professor at the University of Denver, wrote a guest commentary in response to the mass shooting at Virginia Tech, where Seung-Hui Cho killed 32 people. Its message rings just as true today in response to the Aurora, Colorado, movie theater shooting in which 12 people were [...]

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Can the Civil War help solve the riddle of military suicides?

by B. Christopher Frueh, PhD, and Jeffrey A. Smith, PhD July 25, 2012

The July 23 cover story in Time magazine reminded us that the suicide rate among active-duty U.S. military personnel has essentially doubled over the past decade, accounting for more deaths than actual combat in Afghanistan during that period. This sad fact is all the more tragic because we do not understand why the rate has [...]

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Is the Internet making my child crazy?

by Thomas Ellis, PsyD, ABPP July 13, 2012

What’s a parent to do? The recent Newsweek cover story on psychological hazards of Internet use and other “screen time” activities (such as texting and playing videogames) leaves one wondering whether to cut all electric power to one’s home or just wait till the next study comes out contradicting what we think we now know. [...]

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On Junior Seau, toughness and an anti-stigma hero you might have missed

by Thomas Ellis, PsyD, ABPP July 6, 2012

There’s a notable journal in the mental health arena that you might not have considered for your must-read list. It contains thorough, highly informative articles on mental health issues that are scientifically informed yet highly relevant to experiences of real human beings. It’s called Sports Illustrated. Of course, SI is not exactly a scientific journal or [...]

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Can a venti Pike mend a broken heart?

by Roger Verdon June 29, 2012

I knew something was wrong the moment I parked and saw old Red sitting at a table drinking coffee. It was evening, and Red always drank coffee in the mornings. A sixth sense started to itch. Red was a mainstay of my local Starbuck’s morning crowd, not the evening. In the morning he would greet [...]

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Balancing objectivity and subjectivity in psychiatric diagnosis

by Herman Adler, MA June 22, 2012

With each revision of the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM), now in its fourth iteration (DSM-IV), criteria for the diagnoses of psychiatric disorders are refined in a bootstrapping process: increasingly objective criteria facilitate research; in turn, research findings contribute to the knowledge base for developing better understanding of disorders and for refining [...]

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Can’t AND won’t

by Jon G. Allen, PhD June 15, 2012

In “Can’t or Won’t?” I wrote about the challenge of making judgments about whether persons struggling with psychiatric disorders are best regarded as being unable to do better (can’t) or unwilling to do better (won’t). Should we think of the alcoholic as being unable to stop drinking or unwilling to do so—can’t or won’t stop drinking? [...]

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