Mental Health Notes

Teeth: Predictors Of Your Mental Health?

by Alicia Sparks, Mental Health Notes on October 13th, 2007

I can’t believe it’s Saturday again already! Where does the time go? Considering I’ve been glued to the computer for the entire past week trying to meet a crunch-time deadline for work, I guess that’s where it went, haha.

I’m pleased to announce that being completely bipolar and depression medication-free for the first time in three years had no negative impact on the way I handled the stress. I don’t know if that’s indicative of my future with (or without) medicine, but yay nonetheless!

So, let’s get some sanity going, what do you say?

• Elyn Saks is one of the most remarkable women I’ve ever “met” - quotations because, I haven’t actually met her, but after being offered a copy of her memoir, The Center Cannot Hold: My Journey Through Madness, for review, I feel as if I have met her. After a few starts and stops, I finally finished the book this week, and plan to post of review of it soon. In the meantime, I encourage you to watch Saks’ presentation of her life story and memoir. And, get the book. Seriously.
• Several articles presenting research about dementia have piqued my interest this week. Most with dementia not treated has me asking, “Why is it that family members can sense even pre-dementia symptoms better than doctors can, according to this article and my own experiences?” Tooth loss, dementia may be linked alerts me to the fact that nearly every woman on my mother’s side of the family has/had problems with their teeth and are either currently living with dementia or spent the last years of their lives with it. And, Education levels predict dementia makes me wonder, “My grandmother had Alzheimer’s and didn’t graduate high school; my mother, who could very well develop it, went no further than high school graduation; does this mean I, with a college degree, could put off developing Alzheimer’s or avoid it altogether? Interesting stuff there.
• Many Jail Inmates Not Getting Needed Mental Health Services gets my award for “‘Um, duh?’ Article of the Week.”
• Letter to the editor of Tribune & Georgian, Kingsland taking Christmas donations for mental health centers, gets my “‘YOU ROCK!’ Award of the Week.”
• ““He’s been confined for the last 13 years, so it’s kind of hard to tell,” he said.” This is the smartest statement I found in Jury decides sex offender needs indefinite mental health care. I can get off on a serious tangent when it comes to how inept America’s legal system is in dealing with people with mental illnesses, so I’ll leave this one at a link.

There you have it, my compadres - what I found to be the most interesting mental health news and reports of the week. Please, chime in with your thoughts and if you found something interesting that I haven’t included, share it with us!

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POSTED IN: Alzheimer's, Cognitive Disorders, Criminal Psych, Current Affairs & News, Dementia, Doctors & Scientists, Inspiring News, Men, Psychotic Disorders, Saturday Sanity, Schizophrenia, Sites of Interest, Women