If we hide our mental health issues, we make it easier for society to ignore us | Clare Allan

People with mental health issues are being expected to “prove it” as never before. Whether, as individuals, being assessed for disability benefits or, collectively, campaigning for services and adequate welfare provision, the pressure to demonstrate genuine need, to prove that one is “really disabled”, to quote the Tory MP George Freeman, is greater than ever.

The invisible nature of mental health problems, the fact that they do not show up on an x-ray, that no blood test can diagnose depression, underlies much of the discrimination people with mental health issues face. Humans are strongly predisposed to believe in what they can see. For many people, it is hard to accept that severe anxiety, for example, might incapacitate someone from leaving their house as genuinely as if they were suffering from a physical paralysis. The fact that the problem cannot be seen makes it easier to dismiss. They could, if they really wanted to; they’re just not trying hard enough; everyone gets stressed sometimes, and so on. Of course, the help a person with anxiety needs to enable them to leave the house will be different from that of a person with a physical disability, but that doesn’t make the need any less real.

In the year since my dog, Meg, lost her leg I have often had cause to reflect on the different challenges presented by visible and invisible health problems. For it doesn’t get much more visible than a missing leg, you would think – though I have twice been stopped by people wishing to inform me, in somewhat accusatory tones, that my dog is “limping”. “Well yes,” I reply. “She’s only got three legs.”

The most obvious difference is that Meg has no option of going incognito. Her missing leg is a constant focus of comment and attention. As a dog, she enjoys the extra fuss but, as a human, I imagine it could rapidly become wearing. And there is the danger that one’s difference becomes the thing by which one is defined. Even with Meg, at the time of her amputation, I remember feeling – alongside concern as to how she would manage (remarkably well) – I didn’t want her to be the dog with three legs: I wanted Meg to be Meg.

Then there is the nature of the response, the feeling sorry for her (which I hate), the marginally better admiration (though what choice does she have other than to be “remarkably resilient”?), the need for an explanation: “What happened?”. In Meg’s case, the answer is far too long to fit comfortably into passing chat and, besides, it’s the fifth time I’ve been asked in a 30-minute walk. My favourite response, by far, is to ignore the missing leg altogether. There was a man I met on Hampstead Heath in London, coming in through the Kenwood gate, as Meg and I were leaving. “Wow!” he said, kneeling to embrace her. “What a beautiful, beautiful dog!” I could have hugged him.

It is these same concerns that lead many with mental health problems to choose not to disclose them. And to this I must myself plead guilty. For, though I’ve tried to be open about my own mental health, I confess I haven’t always been honest. I have occasionally cried off with a migraine, rather than admit I simply cannot face going out, or that I don’t trust myself to get through the evening without bursting into tears.

But while there are clearly advantages to having this option in some situations, it seems to me there are profound disadvantages, too. For the more we hide our difficulties, the more invisible they, and we, become. And the easier for those with an agenda – of cutting benefits, for example – to deny they exist at all.

If we hide our mental health issues, we make it easier for society to ignore us | Clare Allan

7 Common Essential Oil Myths You Should Ignore

7 Common Essential Oil Myths You Should Ignore

Theresa May cannot ignore NHS crisis or brush off critics

Most months, and most weeks during winter, the openness the NHS claims to practise yields an array of statistics showing how the service has performed against a range of targets. The figures usually tell a grim story.

Whether it’s ambulance response times to 999 calls, the number of patients waiting more than four hours in A&E or the number waiting longer than they should for urgent cancer care, NHS performance against such metrics is the worst it has ever been.

Jeremy Hunt prefers to trumpet the record numbers of patients being seen, a byproduct of our ageing and increasingly lifestyle-affected population. But few experts take that seriously as an indicator of the health of the health service.

Theresa May will make an important speech tomorrow on mental health, rightly drawing attention to an under-resourced area of enormous concern. But the headlines this weekend are all about a wider NHS crisis that seems to be spiralling dangerously out of control.

May will hope that the intense pressures that prompted the British Red Cross to declare on Friday that the state of hospitals and ambulance services was a “humanitarian crisis” were simply the result of a backlog from the festive period. But the evidence suggests that is not the case; the overload of the system appears to be real and risks to patients rising. Accepting the realities of the ongoing and increasingly visible deterioration of the nation’s most-loved institution would involve significant political risk for the prime minister.

One recently retired NHS trust chief executive believes the deaths at Worcestershire Royal hospital in early January of two patients who had been waiting on trolleys for a bed could become a new “Jennifer’s ear”. Jennifer was a five-year-old who featured in a Labour Party broadcast during the 1992 general election campaign, who had been waiting 11 months for an ear operation. Her plight came to symbolise the Tories’ alleged running down of the NHS.

Media coverage of corridors full of patients on trolleys, waiting to get a bed on a ward, also played a key part in the 1997 election, which Labour won by a landslide. David Cameron’s drive to detoxify the Conservative brand on health, ensuring the NHS was seen as safe in their hands, was conceived in the aftermath of those dark days for his party.

So the parallels being made between then and now by Dr Mark Holland, president of the Society for Acute Medicine, must be worrying for May and Hunt.

True, every winter brings examples of trolleys stacking up in corridors. Two years ago Stoke made headlines; now it’s Worcester’s turn. But the large number of hospitals declaring a red or black alert – their way of saying that they can’t cope, at least temporarily – is not normal. And the huge amount of ambulance crews’ time being wasted looking after patients because A&E staff are too busy to accept them is becoming an urgent problem.

Other serious issues include hospitals having to rush to create extra bed space in order to cope with unprecedented numbers of patients needing to be admitted. Above all, the increasingly long waits for treatment being experienced by more and more people indicate that quite a few hospitals are, as Holland puts it, back to the “chaos” of the 1990s.

The impression is of a service that is wilting, even cracking, under the strain. Dr Taj Hassan, president of the Royal College of Emergency Medicine, which represents A&E doctors, talks of conditions creating “untold patient misery”.

Health experts fear that both quality of care and patient safety are at risk amid a chaos made worse by chronic understaffing.

What is the government’s response? May and Hunt’s stock answers are the disputed “£10bn extra”, combined with “more staff than ever” and the assertion that “demand is no heavier than usual for the time of year”.

But if there are more Worcesters, because doctors, paramedics and hospital staff are too busy to give patients the time they need, or to respond to them quickly enough because they’re tending to others, those pat lines may quickly appear dangerously glib and inadequate.

Theresa May cannot ignore NHS crisis or brush off critics

6 Common Signs Of Ovarian Cancer Most Women Ignore

6 Common Signs Of Ovarian Cancer Most Women Ignore

20 Signs of Cancer That Most Women Ignore

20 Signs of Cancer That Most Women Ignore

9 Common Symptoms of Diabetes Most People Ignore

9 Common Symptoms of Diabetes Most People Ignore

9 Warning Signs of Thyroid Disease You Don’t Want to Ignore

Thyroid disease is an unavoidable statistic for 12% of the U.S. population at some point in their lifetime. Additionally, women are up to eight times more likely to develop the disease than men. Further, there are over 20 million Americans who have the disease and over 50% of these don’t even know they have it.

Much of the reason for missing the signals of thyroid malfunction is the fact that the warning signs are subtle and increase over time. Aches, pains, fatigue and other symptoms are often merely attributed to common ailments or aging. The root of the growing symptoms is often not discovered until damage has already been done.

Since the thyroid is a powerful a gland that has a major impact on well being and overall health, it’s important for you to recognize the warning signs early.

Important Signs of Thyroid Disease

1. Weight gain – If you’ve experienced unexplained weight gain or can’t lose weight no matter what you do, this may indicate that the thyroid hormone isn’t regulating your metabolism properly.

2. Heart palpitations and jitters – An imbalance in thyroid hormones can cause a person’s heart to race and cause unexplained jitters, like the hands shaking.

3. Increased perspiration and anxiety – This goes along with a racing heart and shakiness mentioned above. A break out in perspiration and increased feelings of anxiety are common signs of health issues associated with a thyroid condition.

4. Digestion problems – Irritable bowel syndrome and diarrhea-like bowel issues can result from hyperthyroidism.

5. Decreased energy levels – A very common symptom of insufficient thyroid hormones is the inability to have adequate energy to accomplish common tasks. No matter how much sleep you try to get, or how well you try to eat, you may always
feel exhausted.

6. Constant brain fog – Homeopath, Dr. Ami Sha states that, “Clinically brain fog is defined as a subjective feeling of confusion and lack of mental clarity.”

7. Depression – While depression can be attributed to many other issues, those who also experience a constant feeling of brain fog, also notice they increasingly become depressed. Associated symptoms of thyroid disease such as nervousness and anxiety that are related to hyperthyroidism increase the severity of feelings of depression.

8. Cold hands, feet & low body temperature – Do you usually feel cold and everyone around you doesn’t? This could be a sign of a poor performing thyroid. Dr. Amy Myers of the Austin UltraHealth Clinic says that having a body temperature consistently below 98.5 is definitely a sign of thyroid problems.

9. Dry Skin – A poorly functioning thyroid can cause skin to dry out, plus fingernails may become brittle with ridges appearing.

What to do?

If you’re experiencing any of these symptoms, it is wise to consult your doctor about your concerns. However, since signs of thyroid imbalance can be rather vague, many physicians merely order the standard lab panel which only includes the TSH and T4. This is generally not sufficient to determine the real problem with thyroid malfunctions, suggests Dr. Myers. As a world renowned expert in Functional Medicine, she suggests this additional panel that you can request from your doctor to determine the real issues:

• Free T4


• Free T3


• Reverse T3


• Thyroid Peroxidase Antibodies (TPOAb)


• Thyroglobulin Antibodies (TgAb)


• TSH

Dealing with a thyroid imbalance can significantly improve health and overall body function. It usually requires a multi-faceted approach that includes diet changes, a supplement regimen, healing your digestive tract, lessening the impact of stress and working with a knowledgeable healthcare professional who specializes in
thyroid and autoimmune disorders.

For more info about living toxic free, natural and green, visit us at WiselyGreen.com. Follow us on Facebook.

References:

MindBodyGreen

Hypothyroid Mom

Common Sense Home

9 Warning Signs of Thyroid Disease You Don’t Want to Ignore

The pill is linked to depression – and doctors can no longer ignore it | Holly Grigg-Spall

A newly published study from the University of Copenhagen has confirmed a link between hormonal contraceptives and depression. The largest of its kind, with one million Danish women between the ages of 15 and 34 tracked for a total of 13 years, it’s the kind of study that women such as me, who have experienced the side-effects of birth control-induced depression first hand, have been waiting for.

Researchers found that women taking the combined oral contraceptive were 23% more likely to be diagnosed with depression and those using progestin-only pills (also known as “the mini-pill”) were 34% more likely. Teens were at the greatest risk of depression, with an 80% increase when taking the combined pill, and that risk is two-fold with the progestin-only pill. In addition, other hormone-based methods commonly offered to women seeking an alternative to the pill – such as the hormonal IUS/coil, the patch and the ring – were shown to increase depression at a rate much higher than either kind of oral contraceptives.

In recent years we’ve seen efforts from the NHS and family planning organisations to encourage teens to use these so-called LARCs (long-acting reversible contraceptives), primarily because they eliminate the need to remember to take a pill every day, but also due to the fact they’re commonly believed to have less severe potential side-effects than the pill. The new research suggests this practice is misguided. We already know that those with pre-existing depression may find the pill worsens their symptoms, and if teens were at greater risk of depression, then continuing this practice would be negligent.

The researchers note that, because GPs are less likely to prescribe the pill to women who already have depression and because women who do experience depression on the pill are more likely to stop taking it, this study probably underestimates the potential negative affect that hormonal contraceptives can have on mental health. They speculate, in view of the rate at which hormonal contraceptives are prescribed (there are 3.5 million users in the UK alone), that these medications might be responsible for a fifth of all cases of depression.

Having spent the past eight years researching and writing on the emotional and psychological side-effects of hormonal birth control, I initially felt elated to read this study. Not just for myself, but for the hundreds of women I’ve interviewed over the years. Mood changes are one of the top reasons many women discontinue using the pill within the first year. Finally, here was the kind of large-scale, long-term study I’d been told was necessary before we could seriously talk about this issue or make a change in how we prescribe hormonal contraceptives.

Sweetening the pill: could some birth-control methods kill you?

However, I was naive, because it seems that no study will ever be good enough for the medical community to take women’s experiences seriously. As soon as this research dropped, the experts lined up to deliver their usual mix of gaslighting and paternalistic platitudes. We’re told not to be alarmed, concerned, or deterred from continuing to use our hormonal contraceptives, mostly by men who have never and will never take them themselves (partly because the long-term, large-scale study undertaken by WHO on the “acceptability” of the male pill revealed it would negatively impact their emotional wellbeing).

This “pillsplaining” is specific to discussions of research into the side-effects of hormonal birth control. Usually, when the research is on the pill alone, we’re quickly informed there are many other hormone-based methods to choose from, but unfortunately this new study says those alternatives are even worse. One expert even tried to dismiss the link with depression in pill-taking teens as more likely the result of “teen heartbreak”.

So, why is it that we’re not supposed to take this study seriously? Considering that women are fertile just six days per menstrual cycle and men are fertile every single day, that the burden of avoiding unwanted pregnancy falls to us, regardless of the burden that might have on our health and wellbeing, is nothing short of sexism. After all, there are certainly effective alternatives to hormonal contraceptives –the copper coil, diaphragm, condoms and new technology that’s making it simple for women to practice the fertility awareness method, not to mention, of course, vasectomy and the promise of Vasalgel, a contraceptive injection for men.

Yet, we’re reminded with one medical professional’s response to this new research that “an unwanted pregnancy far outweighs all the other side effects that could occur from a contraceptive.” If that’s true, why bother researching the side-effects at all?

It is important to remember that women are twice as likely to experience depression as men

It is important to remember that women are twice as likely to experience depression as men, reportedly due to “the fluctuation of progesterone and oestrogen levels”, in other words our biological femaleness. It’s apparently acceptable to blame women’s depression on the fact that they’re women, but it’s not OK to claim a powerful medication formulated from synthetic hormones could be at fault.

To me, and many other women, these Danish researchers are heroes and criticism of their methods (such as, they should have tracked those women using condoms or the copper IUD as well – even though these options were not available to them; or that women were likely depressed because of menstrual cramps – which the pill is supposed to prevent), only highlights the incredible knots the medical establishment will twist itself into in order to deny there’s a problem with the pill.

One of the study’s authors, Øjvind Lidegaard, professor of obstetrics and gynaecology, also brought attention in 2011 to the increased risk of blood clots associated with newer, and supposedly “improved”, hormonal contraceptives such as the ring, the patch and drospirenone-containing pills. Lidegaard plans to focus next on researching the possible “association between taking hormonal birth control and attempting or committing suicide”. Researchers originally flagged up this potential link back in 1970 at the Nelson Pill Hearings, but the topic has not been touched since.

Depression and anxiety from hormonal contraceptives may not be the experience of every woman, but that doesn’t mean it’s not the experience of your friend, your daughter or your partner, and of many women out there, who, in reading about this could have their lives changed for the better.

The pill is linked to depression – and doctors can no longer ignore it | Holly Grigg-Spall

Do You Know The Signs of Thyroid Disorder? 12 Million Women Ignore These Symptoms

Do You Know The Signs of Thyroid Disorder? 12 Million Women Ignore These Symptoms

five Reasons Typical Physicians Ignore Alternative Medication

By now, you almost certainly have come to realize that anything is not quite proper with the current wellness care method that dominates nowadays. It has become a dictating, ailment managing, and challenging mess that has typically left far more men and women sick than wholesome. Positive, it’s excellent for emergency and acute care, but when it comes to eradicating ailment, it hasn’t even sniffed the coffee nevertheless.

So when other choices exist, this kind of as option medication, that have verified track information for helping men and women actually uproot the result in of their suffering, why has conventional medication normally deemed it as quackery?

Turns out, there are 5 principal motives.

Closed Thinkers

The variety process of medicals college students is mainly dependent on school grades, which basically signifies regurgitating what has been taught to them by presumed authorities. If they query this knowledge or authority, their grades generally endure which will negatively have an effect on their potential to land a task in their occupation later on.

Due to this technique, a health-related dogma is designed that is exceptionally challenging to break and the quite considered of thinking “outside the box” brings a level of cognitive dissonance and ridicule from peers that can make it practically impossible for medical college students and physicians to contemplate other choices like option medication.

Taught To Departmentalize

Health care colleges have a tendency to be organized into organ-certain departments. The notion that there could be an underlying hyperlink to disease originating in various regions of the body is not acknowledged in this kind of framework. The body is handled as components that are totally independent of every other with tiny bearing on each and every others perform.

This can make diagnosis considerably easier when you do not require to contemplate other regions that could complicate a diagnosis. It also makes it less complicated to slap a label on a patient, prescribe a medicine, and send them on their way in seven minutes or much less.

So when different medicine considers more holistic elements that challenge departmentalization, it is a full culture shock to departmentalized trained college students, who can not even fathom this “subordinate” method.

Economics

With abundant monetary rewards in “rescue” medication (interventions that treat symptoms), and a lot significantly less financial value in making an attempt to prevent sickness or correct it at the root (thereby losing a “customer”), it gets to be very difficult for a health-related pupil weighed down by academic debts to select the latter.

Taking into consideration that the best 11 drug firms globally made nearly 85 billion in profit in 2012, the considered of doing work for any other system would seem implausible from an economics standpoint. Early indoctrination, massive debts, and a considerably a lot more appealing financial reward technique, makes option medication an selection that is rarely considered.

Nutrition Schooling Is Non-Existent

With healthcare schools so focussed on finding out the intimate information of diagnosing and prescribing due to the profitability of this kind of a technique, the key issue for true overall health will get almost fully ignored. That part is nutrition.

Medical doctors review nutrition for a handful of hours to a handful of days in what is a lengthy and arduous degree. It is a mere fraction of what they learn, so if they do want this kind of knowledge, they are on their personal to get it. Nonetheless, with such a worthwhile program in area that fairly ignores it, most do not go out of their way to learn this cornerstone of the substitute field.

However, some medical doctors are getting “forced” to learn far more about nutrition, as patients grow to be more knowledgeable with verified details that is currently being freely shared on websites such as Normal Information and Healing the Physique.

Also Active To Gain A lot more Knowledge

Becoming a conventional medical doctor is a long and intense process of studying, testing, and working about the clock. This extreme routine typically does not abate, and could get worse, depending on the doctors success and their location. As a end result of escalating demands place on them by an ever developing sick population, continuing their schooling is usually constrained and usually limited to events place on or sponsored by pharmaceutical companies.

This limits professional growth and keeps the doctor firmly inside the standard technique, not permitting them to expand their expertise considerably into realms of different medication, this kind of as nutrition. As a consequence, they proceed to learn more of the very same and by no means are permitted to totally enjoy and comprehend the positive aspects of alternative and holistic practices.

I am happy to hear that there are some physicians at the moment in the program who realize the limits of typical medication, and as a outcome are incorporating types of different medicine into their practice, in buy to actually serve the demands of the individuals.

Nevertheless, your absolute ideal remedy to turn out to be nicely is to place the majority of the energy in your hands, considering that you make 99.99% of your wellness choices on a day-to-day basis. All you want is a robust functioning information and some support, and you can grow to be a lot much more successful on producing your own wellness care method in your property.

To be a element of that type of method, go here.

Sources for this write-up include:

http://www.healingthebody.ca/why-traditional-medical doctors-ignore-substitute-medicine/
Trivieri, Larry. Alternative Medicine: The De nitive Guidebook. Ed. John W. Anderson. 2nd ed. Berkeley, CA: Celestial Arts, 2002.

About the Writer:

Derek Henry took a deadly wellness challenge that traditional medicine couldn’t solve and self-directed a 1-in-a-million health journey that located him happier and more healthy than he had been in his whole existence. As a result of this rewarding journey, he produced Healing the Body and grew to become a nicely revered holistic overall health coach who now spends his time creating, coaching, and educating thousands of people each and every month who want to take pleasure in related outcomes.

His Wellness Transformation E-Manual and THRIVE On-line Health Program are two crucial resources for any individual who wishes to have the intelligence and solutions to turn out to be truly properly.

five Reasons Typical Physicians Ignore Alternative Medication