I Do NOT Have High Blood Pressure!

Yesterday I was working on a blog post in progress, tentatively entitle Diatribe Against Tea Partiers. I was about two or so hours into the project when the problems began:

1) I do not have high blood pressure; however, the research I was doing, the words tea partiers said, the actions that tea partiers took, enraged me to the point that my blood pressure skyrocketed up to 180/85.

2) My train of thought was broken about every 30 minutes because the damned diuretic I take each morning was working overtime.

3) I could not access a video on YouTube to which I was referred, so I changed browsers. In the second browser, a window popped up telling me that I needed a newer version of Flash. Like an idiot, I downloaded it without checking its source. It was NOT published by Adobe AND it added three unrequested (and unwanted) programs to my computer. Following this installation I could get none of my browsers to work properly. It took me three hours to get rid of this pseudo-flash and the other programs.

4) It took another hour to get my browsers and Internet connection working properly again. Therefore, today I spent about two hours on the blog post and approximately 6 hours on all this other stuff.

Exhausted, I retired for my afternoon nap. 

Hopefully I shall be able to complete the post by the time the Tea Partiers destroy the Federal Government. [YAWN]

Please

The damned error message is back!

The damned error message is back!

After Microsoft ran one of those automatic updates. I tried to view a video on Real Player that I had created for Alex’s blog and this is what I got:

The message refuses to allow me to run not only Real Player but also MGI Photo Suite and is affecting the video portion of my virus scan program. I do not know what else is screwed up!

I am pissed, primarily at Microsoft! Of course that does no good because I can find many reports of folks experiencing the same problem with the same error message generated by the same Microsoft installed program (CiceroUIWindFrame) but I can find no way to repair it. I have already disabled and then removed CiceroUIWindFrame, whatever that is, but the damned program has returned on its own.

So I am again frustrated, as I waste hours on trying to get rid of that damned error message!

Obviously, this is not what I intended to post to Nick’s Bytes today. However, I have yet to write what I intended to post because of the time I have spent attempting to find a fix for this damned error message!!!!!!!!!!

So, allow me to share with you a video of Pilobolus on the Conan O'Brien ’s TV program sent to me by an old college chum. (If you have never seen Pilobolus perform, this will be a real treat!)

Growing Up in Urban America

One of the things I like about Jonathan Kellerman’s novels is that inevitably they get me thinking. For example, the following is excerpted from his 2006 novel, Gone. The narrator is the central character, psychologist Alex Delaware.

Back when I treated children, I routinely took histories from parents and learned what family life could be like in L.A. People packing up and moving every year or two, the surrender to impulse, the death of domestic ritual.

Many of the parents I saw lived in sun-baked tracts with no other kids nearby and spent hours each day being bused to and from beige corrals that claimed to be schools. Long electronic nights were bleached by cathode and dump-thumped by the current angry music. Bedroom windows looked out to hazy miles of neighborhoods that couldn’t really be called that.

Lots of imaginary friends in L.A. That, I supposed, was inevitable. It’s a company town and the product is fantasy.

The city kills grass with red carpets, worships fame for its own sake, demolishes landmarks with glee because the high-stakes game is reinvention. Show up at your favorite restaurant and you’re likely to find a sign trumpeting failure and the windows covered with brown paper. Phone a friend and get a disconnected number.

No Forwarding. It could be the municipal motto.

You can be gone in L.A. for a long time before anyone considers it a problem.

~Jonathan Kellerman, Gone, 2006 pp. 5-6.

After I read those lines, I reread them. Then I started thinking.

Even though Kellerman’s protagonist, Alex Delaware, is focusing on life in Los Angeles, the situation isn’t much different in other U.S. cities. Lots of children live in neighborhoods where there are no other kids nearby. My street is one of those. Other than a couple of us old foggies, most of the residents here are relatively young and, if they have children, the children are also very young. That means that in the neighborhood there are perhaps a half-dozen kids who are school age—and that includes kindergarten. When school is not in session, I have no idea where these children go to find other kids.

Of course, maybe the kids don’t seek other kids. Perhaps they spend the days and nights watching TV or playing video games or surfing the net. Perhaps their friends are all somewhere in cyberspace, which is a down-side to our Internet technology for both children and many adults.

Go to favorite restaurant and find a sign trumpeting failure—or, as I did, just am empty lot? It happens all the time, even in mid-sized cities such as Louisville. But I have already written about that, at least about the disappearing fast food joints.

When Alex Delaware reflects that L.A. is a “company town,” I must admit that I never thought about that. Lots of cities are “company towns.” Sometimes the power is shared between two or more companies, but often the nature of the city and its residents is set by the largest employer in town.

And what about calling a friend and finding that they no longer exist? I have done that more than once and in more than one city. I’ll admit that moving around a lot has added to that losing contact with friends. But, then, our increasing mobility is one of our society’s strongpoints, too. Right?

Back to kids growing up in urban American society. I am most happy my sons are grown. I am less happy that my grandchildren are experiencing life in this rat-race of a society. I am most concerned about future generations as we seem to become less and less stable and more and more strangers to each other.

If You Meet the Buddha on the Road...

For centuries people with mental illness were kept away from the rest of society, sometimes locked up, often in poor conditions, with little or no say in running their lives. Today, negative attitudes lock them out of society more subtly but just as effectively. ~ The Royal College of Psychiatrists (UK)

Back in April, prior to Bellsouth (now the New AT&T) temporarily terminating my Internet connection, I mentioned that May is Mental Health Month. I also said I would write a blog in honor of it. Since today is the last day of May, Alex reminded me that if I don’t post this now, I’ll not have kept word.

Through the past thirty or so years I have learned quite a bit about mental health in the United States. That came not only from being a practicing social worker, pastor and therapist, but also from my own bouts with melancholia. While researching this post, I came upon several sites dealing with the stigma placed on folks with mental illness (see links below).

And that reminded me of a book I read when I was a novice social worker: If You Meet the Buddha on the Road, Kill Him by psychiatrist Sheldon Kopp. (NOTE: You may want to glance at Killing the Buddha for an explanation of the book’s title).

Subtitled The Pilgrimage of Psychotherapy Patients, Kopp’s book taught me quite a bit about how society views those who are mentally ill, especially about the labels both professional and lay folk seem to place on people—usually with antagonistic results.

As an example, I want to share one of the stories Kopp told in If You Meet the Buddha on the Road, Kill Him. Since I no longer have the book, I shall tell the story from memory, which means, of course, that it may vary a bit from the original.

One day the police brought a man to a mental health ward and told the staff that the man had been found standing on a city street corner wearing a long robe, sandals, and muttering gibberish. The mental health staff agreed with the police that the man must be crazy and began legal action to have him involuntarily admitted to the ward.

A few hours later that petition for involuntary admission was canceled when thirty people, all wearing long robes and sandals and muttering gibberish arrived at the hospital seeking their comrade.

As Kopp pointed out, one person wearing a long robe and sandals and muttering gibberish can be considered to be crazy; however, thirty-one such folks can be considered to be a religious community. It usually depends upon our perspective.

On this last day of Mental Health Month 2007, I invite you to explore one or two of the links below, each of which deals with the stigma placed on people who have been designated by someone as being mentally ill:

BBC Radio: Mental Health Prejudice

Prejudice the greatest obstacle to mental health

Mental Help Net

Internet Mental Health (includes self-diagnosis)

BBC: Mental Health

National Mental Health Awareness Campaign

Stigma & Mental Health Issues

Blog: Psych Central: Mental Health Stigma Alive and Well in Virginia

CNN: Mental illness and stigma: Coping with the ridicule

Mind: Mental Illness is Like Any Other Sickness

Mind: Myths about Mental Illness still Prevail

Mind: Tear Down the Stigma of Mental Illness

National Alliance on Mental Illness: What is Mental Illness: Mental Illness Facts

Scapegoating And Mental Illness Stigma

Mayo Clinic: Mental health and stigma: Overcoming the ridicule

Mental Health: A Report of the Surgeon General

Addressing mental-illness stigma bluntly

National Mental Health Information Center

The guru, if he is gifted, reads the story as any bilingual person might. He does not translate—he understands. ~ Sheldon Kopp

Gleanings of a Returning Exile

Too Long in Exile

Too long in exile
Too long not singing my song
Too long in exile
Too long like a rolling stone
Too long in exile

Too long in exile
Baby those people just ain't, just ain't your friends
Too long in exile my friend
You can never go home again

Well that isolated feeling
Drives you so close up against the wall
Till you feel like you can't go on
You've been in the same place for too long

Too long in exile
Baby you can never go back home
Too long in exile
Anyway you want

Oh that isolated feeling
Drives you up against, up against the wall
'Cos you've been on the mainland baby
Been on the mainland, comin'on strong

Too long in exile
Too long people keep hanging on
Too long in exile
Too long like a rolling stone

And the wheeling and the dealing
All takes up too much time
Check your better self baby
You'd better satisfy, satisfy your mind

Too long in exile
Too long you've been grinding at the mill
Too long in exile
Man, I've really just had my fill

Too long in exile
You can never go back home again
Too long in exile
You're about to drive me just insane

Too long in exile, been too long in exile
Just like James Joyce, baby
Too long in exile
Just like Samuel Beckett baby
Too long in exile
Just like Oscar Wilde
Too long in exile
Just like George Best, baby
Too long in exile
Just like Alex Higgins, baby
Too long in exile

During the months I was exiled from my home, I had little connection with the outside world. On the average, I was able to bum one ride a week to appointments and pick up a few groceries. I had no access to newspapers or the radio. I did have a limited Internet connection until Bellsouth (the New AT&T) discontinued it and TV via Mom’s DISH. I learned from the TV exactly why I have spent so many years not watching it: the news programs seemed presumptive and obtuse. Only PBS and the BBC America provided me with any food for thought.

Quite a bit has happened since I began my exile last February. This evening I have spent a bit of time reflecting on the changes I’ve observed since my return to the world. Below are a few of my gleanings:

Alex: Alex has several self-inflicted cuts in his fir. I’m sure they’re self inflicted because he was not an outside cat while away. I’ve made an appointment for tomorrow afternoon for Alex to see his vet. I’ve not told him of the appointment; I hope I can get him back into his carrying case!

Gasoline: After I was able to afford to license my car and purchase insurance, I had a major shock: it cost me more than $40.00 to purchase about twelve gallons of petrol! What pissed me off the most was hearing on radio that the oil companies are (again) projecting record profits.

Mom: My mother remains in the rehab center south of Louisville and will not be returning home. She is purchasing a one-floor home in a duplex near my sister. She hopes to be able to move into it is early June.

A day or two after she decided to sell her house, three of four houses next to Mom put For Sale signs up in their yards. That’s not good for Mom and her sale of her home. Of course, with an estimated 2 million homes (including my own) facing foreclosure in the U.S. at the moment, the housing market just ain’t good.

Veterans’ Administration: The VA medical folks are treating me extremely well. Considering that I was without health insurance for almost four years and only saw a physician in the direst of circumstances, I have many needs. These include:

• Hearing loss in my left ear (I was a tanker in the army & all tankers seem to have hearing loss)
• Eyesight (my glasses are no longer adequate to read)
• Breathing (you know all about that)
• A multitude of allergies

The VA folks have also discovered that I have two potentially serious conditions for which I have more tests scheduled. I’ll not elaborate unless the tests come up with something.

May Is Mental Health Month

Cho Seung-Hui was referred to a mental health facility in 2005 after officers responded to accusations he was suicidal and having inappropriate contact with female students, police said Wednesday. (CNN.com)

With media coverage now centering on the life of Virginia Tech killer Cho Seung-Hui and especially his mental health, I have heard TV talking heads, read blog posts, and received emails warning that we must beware of people whole are possibly mentally ill--people who could be described as being loners, quiet, friendless; people who may express anti-societal, "dark" or politically incorrect notions. It rather reminds me of the same frenzy that occurred following the September 11th attacks when Muslims and folks of presumed Middle Eastern ethnicity were targeted by frightened Americans.

I believe that it is important that people do not over react in a Salem-like witch hunt for folks who suffer from one of the numerous forms of mental illness. The best way to do this seems to be to provide accurate information.

May is Mental Health Month and May is close enough that the few links below can begin the education process that the month is designed to provide. Please gather the facts and spread them far and wide that, for example, people who suffer from some form of depression are not homicidal.

This is personal for me. As you know if you've read Nick's Bytes for very long, I'm one of those who suffers from clinical depression and I am not a killer. And I do not relish the idea of someone bashing me in the head with a baseball bat (as was done to one of my Sufi friends immediately after 9-11 because he wore a turban) because I am melancholy!

As always, I appreciate your comments and feedback.

Links

Virginia Tech Tragedy: Tips for Educators, Students and Parents from Mental Health America

The Bare Facts on Mental Illness from the World Health Organization

Policy Issues A-Z from Mental Health America.net

Mental Health Care in the Developing World from Psychiatric Times

Depression Screening Test from PlanetPsych.com

May is Mental Health Month