Prescription for Disaster

I don't mean to be insensitive to people with depression, keep that in mind as you read.
Lately I've seen magazine and television ads for a new prescription drug called "Abilify." It is a drug to take in addition to an antidepressant such as Zoloft, Prozac, Paxcil CR, etc. Why? Because people who are taking these and other antidepressants are still having symptoms of depression!
(No kidding, really?)

Could it be because hormones primarily drive your sense of emotional well-being, and prescription drugs, and a diet of processed, artificial, non-nutritional "food" disrupt your body systems, including your hormones?

The second greatest factor in mood and emotion is brain chemistry-- again, if the chemistry you put into your body isn't good (poor food, drugs, chemicals) then it is to be expected that the internal chemistry will be messed up as well!

Depression is one of the most naturally treatable ailments. To begin to balance the hormones and adrenal system: eat natural, healthy foods; take Omega-3s; exercise-- everyday; get sunlight; look at your life stressors and possible solutions or resources; and do something to feel good about.

When I was sick as a teenager, I had my own bout with depression-- my body was out of whack, including my hormones. The M.D.s didn't know what to do to help me recover from feeling sick and exhausted all the time, but they offered antidepressants to help with the feeling like crap.
I'm happy to say (no pun intended) that I never took any. As I started doing healthy things for my body, the depression was alleviated and then gone. I think most people on antidepressants continue to have problems if they stop taking the drug. Obviously taking an antidepressant is not a cure, it's a symptom cover-up. Sometimes it doesn't even treat the symptoms! According to Abilify's own ad, 2 out of 3 people have unresolved symptoms of depression when taking an antidepressant.

I find it ironic that the side effects of antidepressants can include being more depressed, and suicidal. In violent crime cases such as the Columbine High School shootings, the perpetrators were on antidepressants. What most people don't realize is that studies are suggesting that the antidepressants can actually cause these incidents. (See Ann Blake Tracy's book, "Prozac: Panacea or Pandora.") You see, the anti-depressants aren't smart enough to distinguish "good" emotions from "bad" ones. They may block feelings of sadness, but they can also block feelings of joy, love, and empathy for others.

In a 2002 study (Penninx and others) depression patients were told to do aerobic walking exercise, and they were given a tricyclic antidepressant. Another group did aerobic walking exercise only. The study found that the treatment that included the antidepressant was no more effective than exercise alone. And there were no side effects!

As for the side effects of Abilify, it can effect behavior, create uncontrollable movements that may become permanent, cause seizures, and impair judgment and motor skills. It increases the risk of high blood pressure, high blood sugar, stroke, coma and death. More than 10% of Abilify users experienced nausea, vomiting, constipation, headache, dizziness, an inner sense of restlessness, anxiety, and insomnia. Hmm... I mean, this is all in the fine print right on the ad! Somehow we still think this is an ok thing to have on the market? Then again, I guess it's about the same as all other prescription drugs. As a society we've come to accept these effects-- I shouldn't call them side effects, they are effects.

I understand myself the discomfort and fear of being sick, and of having depression. There are times that a prescription drug may be necessary, even life-saving-- but I think that 95% percent of the time, we as a nation are popping pills rather than taking responsibility and doing something for our own health. ("Effort-- waaaahh!") We put our trust in medical doctors who may be well-meaning, but also get a kick-back for each Rx they write up, and seem to either not know or not care about what makes the body function at its best and heal itself.

Illness is not fun whether is is physical, mental, or emotional, but there are things we can do to truly be cured with nature, not just to be "treated" with bad science.

Wielding Influence

Earlier this week I went to the library to vote early. The line was longer than I've ever waited on election day, so I ended up just coming home. Too bad I couldn't get a sticker that said, "I Tried to Vote." ;) Anyway, whilst I was there contemplating whether or not to stand in a line longer than a wait for a Disneyland ride, a book on the display caught my eye. It was called "Save the World On Your Own Time." Since I'm all about world saving, I thought this might be a clever book about doing good in the world, even with a busy schedule, or something like that.

When I read the inside jacket however, I discovered that it was a full-length complaint about university professors who pontificate their politics or their morality or their pet causes to their students. I have mixed feelings on the subject. While I don't appreciate heavily biased slants in the classroom, I have also appreciated my professors bringing up issues or perspectives that I may not have been previously aware of. Sometimes I have agreed with my professors, and sometimes I have disagreed, but it has interesting to hear their own views. In fact, usually their philosophies would either validate my own, or remind me why I beg to differ. I subscribe to the idea that "those who do not know their opponent's argument do not completely understand their own."

I admit that if I ever become a secondary English teacher, I don't necessarily want to tell my students what to think, but I want to give them some things to think about. Here's a moment of honesty on my part: what is this blog really, if not my soapbox? (After all, I don't have any cute kids to post pictures of just yet.)

Teachers/Professors can go overboard, that's for sure. When their agendas interfere with learning the subject, or threaten to prevent their classroom from being a safe place for different opinions, then there is a real problem. (English classrooms can be an especially interesting platform for indoctrination. I had some English professors who made their tenants especially clear.) I feel cheated as a student when a teacher either presents their ideas too adamantly and too often, or when they don't share them at all. It's a balance. The author of the book I mentioned may or may not have taken the "balance" view, I don't know.

The word "discrimination" has become as filthy as a brown banana peel at the bottom of a smelly dumpster, but it's not always a bad thing! It's also means "the power of making fine distinctions" -- distinctions that are necessary, and help define who we are (and aren't) and what is important to us.

It seems to me that we tend to appreciate educators who teach "values" when they are our values, and hate them when they aren't. (Was that grammatically correct? Oh well.)
While it is possible (and good) to teach with minimal bias, it would be impossible and even unfortunate to attempt to teach without any bias at all. The politically correct way of thinking is that because we don't all have the same values/ideas, we should avoid teaching or talking about them as much as possible. I disagree. Maybe we should be careful about teaching values, but we should not be so absurdly PC that we are afraid to talk about them. We don't want to teach religion in the classroom, for example; but we should certainly be able to talk about religion. The freedom to talk about moral issues, political issues, values, etc. is a right that is afforded to teachers in law, but many educators still shy away from those discussions out of fear. I think it's unfortunate. If teachers were trained a little to be able to mediate and facilitate meaningful class discussions, etc. with confidence, I think that would be more worthwhile than training teachers to drill their students in cold, unhuman facts and figures.

In some ways I agree with the author who urges "save the world on your own time," but in other ways, I see education as a good venue for "saving the world" if we can appropriately, and openly talk about the concerns and topics that affect us.

What the fruit?

Now that it's early voting season, I realize that I know next to nothing about the candidates who are running closer to home. Trying to figure out who I do and don't want to vote for is a little frustrating, and leads me to express (as my British high school teacher would say,) "What the fruit?!"
Happily, there is VoteSmart.org again. Enter your zip code and see who's running. On the right side of each candidate's profile are helpful links including the"Issue Positions" link. Some candidates have provided information about what they would support if elected. Other candidates, such as those running for re-election, have not provided information, but may have voting records for you to view. If a candidate has not provided issue information and doesn't have a voting record to see, there is usually at least a campaign web-site for you to peruse. It's still not as easy as it ought to be to find out about the candidates, but it's a start.
Other good sources of information are county web-sites, and Voter Information booklets, with overviews of the candidates and the proposals-- these can usually be viewed PDF, or are available at county libraries.
Go forth, informed citizens, and cast your ballot!

"Federal Arithmetic and Reading Test"

Alright, if you aren't interested enough about educational issues to read my ramblings, skip to the second part of this entry for a parody of standardized tests and "No Child Left Behind." Rated PG for mild potty humor. (No, I didn't write it.)

STANDARDIZED TESTS
They are hated by students and teachers alike, and with good reason. Standardized tests take up considerable time in classrooms, and the tests and their scores are largely inconsequential as far as good instruction or assessment of learning are concerned. I wanted to shout hallelujah when Alfie Kohn, an author/former educator/education critic/lecturer, choose to speak specifically about the problems of standardized tests and the mentality associated with them when he spoke at this year's UEA (Utah Education Association) convention. To read Alfie's position, click on "The Case Against Tougher Standards" when you reach the page linked here. It's worth reading.
I might post my own comments about these tests later, but for now I just want the word to get out that in many cases students do not have to take these tests. Parents can deny their permission for their student to participate in testing. (Teachers can facilitate this by not giving "points" for taking the test.) Politicians and federal government officials tend to listen to parents more than educators about educational practices. Frankly, neither Republicans or Democrats seem to have it right on the issue of improving education. If enough parents send out the message that they don't appreciate these tests, then policies and practices will have to be changed.
I hope that the following parody on standardized tests won't be considered too crass. I didn't write it, but I laughed so hard I cried when I first read it.

Federal Arithmetic and Reading Test

In response to President Bush's Federal "No Child Left Behind Act" (NCLB), it is proposed that students will have to pass a test to be promoted to the next grade level.
In the hope that this proposal will be uniformly adopted by all of the states, the new test will be called the Federal Arithmetic and Reading Test (FART).
All students who cannot pass a FART in the second grade will be retested in Grades 3, 4 and 5 until they are capable of passing a FART score of 80%. If a student does not successfully FART by grade 5, that student shall be placed in a separate English program known as the Special Mastery Elective for Learning Language, or SMELL.
If, with this increased SMELL program, the student cannot pass the required FART test, he or she can still graduate to middle school by taking another one-semester course in Comprehensive Reading and Arithmetic Preparation, or CRAP.
If by age fourteen the student cannot FART, SMELL, or CRAP, he or she can earn promotion in an intensive one-week seminar known as the Preparatory Reading for Unprepared Nationally Exempted Students, or PRUNES.
It is the opinion of the Department of Instruction for Public Schools (DIPS) that an intensive week of PRUNES will enable any student to FART, SMELL, or CRAP.
This revised provision of the student component of the House Bill 101 should help "clear the air" as part of "No School Left Standing."

Quirky, moi?

It took me a while to notice I had been tagged by Tawni (see "blogs I read" for Tawni's link) for the personal weirdness confession blog. I had a hard time thinking of quirks at first (that may come as a shock, I know.) But after a while I discovered I'm more strange than I realized. ;)
Not many of my posse are fellow-bloggers, and those who are have probably already done this, so I'm going to break the rules and not tag anyone. Except for Erica; I don't think I've read about her quirks yet. :)

Here are the rules I am breaking/loosely following:
- Link the Person who Tagged you.
- Mention rules on your blog.
- Tell about 6 quirks of yours.
- Tag 6 fellow bloggers to do the same.
- Leave a comment to let them know.

Quirky Sheryl:
1- I save my fortune cookie fortunes if I like them. I save a lot of silly/sentimental things, actually. While I’m not a total pack-rat, I do like to save memorabilia– anything that is “history”– ticket stubs, programs, stuff that reminds me of a fun event, etc. Oh, and I make a photo copy of my correspondence to someone (ie: a letter, or a card) so that I remember what I said when I hear back from them. This was really helpful when I wrote to friends on missions– by the time I got something back it would sometimes say, “In answer to your first question, yes I am.” Uh...what was my first question, again? Since I had a copy of my letter, I could find out.

2- I have to eat right away when I get up in the morning or I will be sick and nauseated. On trips, I always pack a granola bar or something in my bag, because I can't wait until people are ready to go get breakfast. Along the same line, I have to drink something with all my meals or I can't eat very much at all. If there's no milk, I'll have water with breakfast; I've gotta have something. Apparently my grandma is the same way.

3- I remember my dreams everyday when I wake up. I guess some people don't? I hate waking up to an alarm clock, and I'm slightly less likely to recall what I was dreaming if I'm awakened in this rude manner. ;)

4- I have a mental visualization of the calendar year, and of time. This is always really hard to explain. Since I was five years old or earlier, I've pictured the year as a sort of elongated oval stretched out horizontally. Here's my rough illustration:

Anyway, it works sort of like a game board in space. In my mind I spatially move around the circle during the year. (Like I said, it's really difficult to explain.) August is at the top in my mental picture, probably for two reasons: I was born at the beginning of August, and August is about where a new school year starts, which is an easier reckoning of time for a child than the actual new year.
So the circle is lying down, August is physically at the north, and December is in the south, if you will. It's also interesting to note that the months are not equal in length. (?) Don't ask me! When I hear about a future event, I put it in its place on my visual calendar. When I remember something from the past, I remember where I was on my oval. People sometimes wonder how I can remember things so amazingly well; I credit it to my brain's calendar.

When I think of several years, it is a long horizontal line in space that "begins" (kind of) in the west, and goes out forever toward the east. Now you're all going to really think I'm nuts, but it works well for me!

5- Because I was sick for four years as a teenager and the medical profession did absolutely nothing to help, I am into natural medicine and health. I think it's great, but some people might think it's quirky if they haven't studied, or been sick for an extended period of time. Some of my "wierdisms" include: not owning a microwave (I truly don't even miss it); giving up fingernail polish (the 80's are over, I don't miss it either); using natural products-- from shampoo without sodium laurel sulfate, to makeup without propylene glycol; not eating foods with nitrates or aspartame; rarely if ever drinking a soda; not using any nonstick cookware; NOT using sunblock; etc., etc. Besides the list of things I don't do, there are plenty of things I do do that may seem a little odd, but like I said, I think it's great, and I feel soo much better.

6- I am a habitual list maker and thought-writer. I can't remember a time that I haven't done this, but I've done it more especially since junior high school days. I write all the time. I have notebooks and files, and binders... hopefully I'll have a chance to put some of my ideas to good use in my lifetime.

7- Bonus quirk: I love name dictionaries. I bought my first baby name book when I was thirteen. I was checking them out of the library long before that. I think now I have four different name books.

There you go! Feel free to let me in on your own quirks, or fill me in if I have some I've failed to mention. :)