Category Archives: Science

Caffeine Intoxication Becoming More Common

After the habitual two cups of Starbucks coffee, Adam set to work. So far, so good. But as the academic pressure mounted, he had to work longer hours, and that meant more coffee — a lot more coffee than he had ever consumed in his life. In fact, for six weeks, he had been drinking up to 10 cups of Starbucks coffee daily.

That is a lot of caffeine, considering that each large cup contains on average about 375 milligrams, according to a 2003 study of caffeinated coffee published in The Journal of Analytical Toxicology. With 10 cups a day, Adam was turbocharged with nearly four grams of caffeine.

So Adam was not just nervous about his academic work; he was also suffering from caffeine intoxication.

How, you might wonder, could such a ubiquitous substance be toxic? With an average of one to three cups of coffee a day, most people get 100 to 300 milligrams of caffeine. With chronic exposure, though, people become accustomed to the stimulant effects of caffeine. In contrast, a sudden increase in caffeine consumption can easily produce caffeine intoxication.

[New York Times: Jittery? Peevish? Can’t Sleep? What Are You Drinking?]

I like my coffee strong, without cream or sugar. I favor high-quality tea. And I surely love imported dark chocolate. All of these contain caffeine. So does cola and over-the-counter migraine medicine. Exposure to this mild stimulant is greater than one might think. Caffeine intoxication can also be mistaken for a manic espisode or a panic attack.

Surfing around, I found some interesting tidbits. For example, is there a legal limit on caffeine content? According to this FAQ:

In the United States there is a limit of 6mg of caffeine per liquid ounce in beverages. There is also a limit of 200mg in pills such as Vivrin.

Australia has a limit of Australia 145mg of caffeine per liter.

In parts of Northern Thailand it is completely illegal. It was outlawed as a precursor to meth.

The site mentions, as well, the chemical structure of caffeine, its flavor, symptoms of intoxication, effects of caffeine on bone density and pregnant women, and more.

On the other hand, you might be curious to read about caffeine myths and facts to find answers to questions such as whether caffeine causes cancer or heart disease, or generates hyperactivity in children.

My aim with this post is neither to condemn nor promote the use of the substance. I’m sure there are defenders on both sides of the issue.

As with most things in life, moderation is key. Some people are more susceptible to the effects of what they ingest, so they need to reduce consumption. What I find interesting is that we live with cultural pressure to be more and more active and productive, especially at work, which encourages greater use of caffeine. In itself it is not “bad,” but I do think the overall effects of prolonged, high consumption aren’t healthy. We could all benefit from slowing our pace. We’re here for such a short time as it is.

Also, please know it is important to see a medical professional for guidance. This blog nor any other site should be your sole authority regarding your health.

Overcoming Vaginismus

Kat has written another post about the healing process she’s experiencing for her vaginismus. The fact that this is a rare dysfunction (less than 2% of the female population) is what makes Kat’s blog posts so important. More information is needed, and blogging is a remarkable way to disseminate it. I also found the quote at the beginning of this entry compelling:

St. Francis called the body “Brother Donkey” for the way it patiently carries the overload of our psychic baggage, our unprocessed pain, and our unfelt emotions. Incorruptibly truthful and innocent, the body is a great spiritual teacher and a powerful catalyst for transformation. As an agent of the soul it may insist that we heal our wounded psyche, even when the conscious mind resists with all its might.

–From Aphrodite’s Daughters

Learning To Wear Power

This most recent Alaya weekend reminded me of an excerpt from one of the beloved books I keep by my bed.

Power made me a coat. For a long time I kept it in the back of my closet. I didn’t like to wear it much, but I always took good care of it. When I first started wearing it again, it smelled like mothballs. As I wore it more, it started fitting better and stopped smelling like mothballs.

I was afraid if I wore the coat too much someone would want to take it or else I would accidentally leave it in the dojo dressing room. But it has my name on the label now, and it doesn’t really fit anyone else. When people ask me where I found such a becoming garment, I tell them about the tailor, Power, who knows how to make coats that you grow into. First, you must find the courage to approach him and ask him to make your coat. Then, you must find the patience inside yourself to wear the coat until it fits.

— J. Ruth Gendler, The Book of Qualities

You can expect to see more excerpts of her work now and again. I discovered (was led to?) this little book in 1990; it has been a source of creativity, soothing, and insight since then.

A Moment of Gratitude

Mary Beth of The Fat Diaries has undergone a major transformation in the past 18 months. She has documented the journey of losing 186 pounds in 16 months. I was struck by the zest of what she wrote last weekend:

I felt gloriously, ridiculously, unbelievably…..normal, average, human, and just like everybody else. I wanted to race down the aisles with my cart and kick up my heels yelling “yippee” although I realized that would probably change my normal status to wacko pretty fast. I stopped smiling at others quite so large and made my way to the organizers section, intent on getting my goods now. Because I was just another face in the crowd. Nobody special, just another latte clutching customer out to beat the crowds on a Saturday morning at Lowe’s.

So when I got home and unloaded my supplies, I sat down on the couch and just rested my elbows on my knees and put my face in my hands. My life. My little life. What a wonderous thing it’s turning out to be. Sure, it blows sometimes. So many things hurt in the past, hurt in the present, and I’m sure there are plenty of hurts waiting for me down the road. Disappointments, betrayals, downright meanness. Frustration. But for every one of those moments, I think I’m getting a multitude of blessings to make up for it. Cosmic reparations, let’s call them.

It’s a delight to know that feeling, to experience the sweet poignancy of gratitude. It’s also a joy to see others experience this gift.

Insight

I was discussing the concept of insight over coffee with a friend, and a metaphor came to mind. I was so tickled by it that I feel compelled to share my wisdom [*koff*] with you all.

Do you know what a stereogram is? It’s a two-dimensional image that, when viewed properly, reveals a three-dimensional image within it. The trick to experiencing that transformation is to have enough distance from the image and to relax your gaze. Then it seems to pop right out. It can be very soothing as well as fascinating to rest your gaze within the picture.

Well, that’s what insight is, for me. If you look too closely at a situation, poring over minutiae, and if you stare too hard, you won’t see it. Just relax. Step back from your thoughts. After awhile, insight emerges; it feels a bit magical. And you find yourself thinking, “Wow! I see it! Wonder why I didn’t before?”

Attitudinal Healing

I was introduced to the concept of attitudinal healing in graduate school. One of my professors brought a copy of To See Differently to class. I began to peruse it and became intrigued by the principles and exercises. Attitudinal healing positions itself as a way of being that heals the mind and facilitates this healing in the world through our relationships. The focus is on changing from within; in other words, the goal is to identify the attitudes which affect us negatively, understand the source (usually fear), and create an internal shift of perspective which then creates alternate behavior.

However, the approach is not the same as cognitive therapy. In fact, these concepts are not new and have been discussed and practiced in myriad ways over thousands of years. The principles espoused are essential tenets of numerous philosophical, ethical, psychological and religious traditions, notably Mahayana Buddhism, Christian Mysticism, and cognitive therapy. Moreover, centers for attitudinal healing do not provide therapy. Their mission is to provide people the opportunity to facilitate their own transformation.

The approach, while sharing some elements of cognitive theory, is more spiritually focused. Centers offer support programs and trainings for people who may be experiencing grief, illness, loss, or relationship issues. It is yet another path toward creating community that, in this fractured age of too much information and too many distractions, certainly can only help. The exercises focus on developing relationship within oneself and with others. There are centers throughout the U.S., and one of them is located here: Austin Center for Attitudinal Healing. The national site can be found here, and from this you can find where other centers are located. There is also a documentary in the works produced by Wakan Films and the Wakan Foundation for the Arts.

The Principles of Attitudinal Healing

  1. The essence of our being is LOVE.
  2. Health is inner peace. Healing is letting go of fear.
  3. Giving and receiving are the same.
  4. We can let go of the past and of the future.
  5. Now is the only time there is and each instant is for giving.
  6. We can learn to love others and ourselves by forgiving rather than judging.
  7. We can become love finders rather than fault finders.
  8. We can choose and direct ourselves to be peaceful inside regardless of what is happening outside.
  9. We are students and teachers to each other.
  10. We can focus on the whole of life rather than the fragments.
  11. Since love is eternal, death need not be viewed as fearful.
  12. We can always perceive others and ourselves as either extending love or giving a call for help.

Facets of Depression

Nell Casey, Unholy Ghost: Writers on Depression (New York: Perennial Harper Collins, 2002. Pp. ix, 299.)

If you are seeking a “Chicken Soup for the Depressed Soul” brimming with uplifting stories, this book is not the source.

Unholy Ghost reflects the ordeal of depression via the perspectives of those coping with it. The DSM-IV provides a skeletal structure for understanding the diagnosis. These essays add flesh to the framework. The reader is given an opportunity to intimately connect with each writer’s experience of anguish. Some might criticize these essays as self-absorbed and declare the writers to be imperfect. Well, that’s the point. This book is about personal involvement, revealing humans who try to genuinely articulate their journeys. Among many viewpoints, the reader will grapple with the issue of taking medication while pregnant, what it is like to be an African American woman who is depressed, how one person’s “failed” suicide led to a reckoning with life, trying to understand the heritability of depression, and the general strange reality of living with this heavy companion.

This book does not contain answers. It is ponderous and sometimes disconsolate reading. What it does is invite the reader to walk alongside each writer and learn vicariously what depression can be. As a person who lives with major depression and dysthymia, I was fascinated by these voices and heartened by their company. As a psychotherapist, these essays will be a valuable tool for me in educating people about the dimensions of depression.

Mind and Understanding

False beliefs are among the familiar and awkward facts of life. You fail to show up on a Friday night because you thought the party was on Saturday. A friend overdraws her checking account because she thought there was more money in it. Sometimes the intrigue caused by false beliefs becomes limitlessly complex, as when a secretly married girl takes a sleeping potion to avoid being forced to marry another man, only to wake to find her true husband has killed himself because he thought she was dead.

But false beliefs are not only a source of mundane embarrassments and Shakespearean plots. Our ability to recognize when other people have false beliefs, and to consider these beliefs in explaining their behavior, provides a window on basic features of the human mind.

–Rebecca Saxe

Read the rest of Reading Your Mind.

[via Arts & Letters Daily]

Rape Trauma Syndrome

Not surprisingly, but unfortunately, a hearing on Capitol Hill yesterday revealed that, in the last 18 months, there have been 112 rapes reported by servicewomen in the Persian Gulf, and more reported elsewhere. Lack of medical care, incomplete investigations, and retaliation by peers for reporting were some of the complaints. Officials suggest that the number of incidents may be higher, since women may not report every event. So, it seems timely to post a brief paper I wrote on Rape Trauma Syndrome.
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The Body Remembers

We often think life is “mind over matter,” that what one thinks can impact physical reality, or at least one’s perception of it. This is perhaps how people who experience constant, debilitating physical pain learn to cope. However, life is not so clear-cut. It seems that the body has a memory of its own, and its memories influence psychological well-being. Traumatic experiences may be tucked out of the mind’s eye in various parts of the body. When memories are evoked, the body responds; for example, one might feel nauseous, or a tightening of muscles in the chest, and so on.

Additionally, any part of the body that has experienced trauma also carries a memory of it. Take, for example, the condition of vaginismus, a painful and prolonged contraction or spasm of the vagina. Generally, it is a spasm of the muscles of the floor of the pelvis. It causes pain with penetration, often making intercourse impossible. One blogger I know well struggles with this. Kat’s frustration was eloquently described in a post titled All the King’s Horses:

I keep thinking about the tests I had each year at Children’s Hospital where I was held down and a catheter was inserted into my urethra. My mom says that now they have different size tubes for different ages (what a novel idea!), but when I was three they only had a one-size-fits-all tube. I liken the experience to rape. Sanctioned rape by white-robed doctors you’re supposed to trust. It makes me very angry to think what they put me and so many other young girls through. I’ve gotta think there’s a better way. My mom says the tubes caused scarring in me, but the scarring was more than physical. She thinks it’s a combination of the constant urinary tract infections I had that were mis-diagnosed and the regular catheter tests that engrained this physical pattern into my body. My mom says it can be un-learned. A new script has to be written. I think this physical therapist will be able to help me. But what I expressed to my mom tonight, is what my biggest fear really is…which is that I’m just broken, plain and simple, and there’s no fixing me.

Trauma stored in the body is treatable, though it may take a combination of various therapies. A quick surf via Google led me to a number of sites focused on physcial trauma in childhood and its psychological effects. A few that caught my eye:

These links provide a wealth of articles and resources.

Mental Illness & New York State Law

The state’s highest court on Tuesday upheld the constitutionality of a law that gives judges authority to force mentally ill people to comply with treatment. …Under the law, a family member or caseworker could seek a court order requiring treatment. A court hearing must meet a set of criteria established under the law before what is known as an assisted outpatient treatment order can be issued. The appeals court found that the “statute’s procedure for obtaining an A.O.T. order provides all the process that is constitutionally due.”

—New York Times

Environmental Depression

There’s a new mental health-oriented memoir coming out. Here’s an excerpt from the New York Times article, The Prisoner of West 21st Street:

All my life I struggled to understand the connection between my mother’s moods and the place where she lived. If depression is an organic condition best treated by drugs, did it make sense to claim that her depression was caused by the deterioration of New York? Even if it’s now acceptable to attribute depression to a cataclysmic event like Sept. 11, no single watershed moment could be blamed for my mother’s blues. It’s not as if Son of Sam or the city’s near bankruptcy had put her over the edge.

Then about two years ago, as I was doing research for a book about my mother’s life, an aunt in Maine and a family friend down South sent me a cache of letters that my mother had written over the years. In her own words, these letters explained more clearly than I ever could how strongly she linked her personal burdens with conditions in her adopted city.

–Beth J. Harpaz

The book, Finding Annie Farrell, will be published this month by Thomas Dunne Books/St. Martin’s Press.

Speak

A friend enthusiastically recommended a young adult book, Speak, describing how the novel was a catalyst in her decision to enter therapy and try the “talking cure.” She urged me to read it, in part probably to help me get to know her better; readers love to share the transformative experience with others. So I did as she requested. I began it just before bed and was up until 4 a.m. to finish it.

It’s a story about trauma, being outcast by peers, withdrawal into self, and then resurgence and expression. Fourteen year-old Melinda is starting high school. A few weeks before school begins, she sneaks behind her parents’ back to attend a party hosted by seniors — rare behavior for her. Something terrible happens to her. She calls 911; the cops come and bust everyone. The other kids turn on her for calling the police, thinking she did it to just turn them in, and she is ostracized. However, Melinda didn’t even get help for the reason she called the police. The crowd’s hostility and her shock drive her off the scene.

Melinda then begins her high school career — bereft of all friends, the focus of hostile expressions. She tells no one about the situation because she doesn’t think she’ll be believed. Her family life is very disconnected, with unhappily married parents and no siblings. Over the school year she copes as best she can, but she slowly chokes on unexpressed pain and rage; she must find a way to express her need for help. One means of coping is through art — sculpting, drawing, and painting — until she summons the courage to speak and fights on her own behalf.

The author has a good grasp on high school culture and the chaos of adolescence. The story is engaging and the topic relevant. I would definitely recommend it for a young adult’s library.

A Penny For Your Thoughts

I recently happened across a blog called Blaugustine, written by the “altar-ego”of a woman named Natalie. She doesn’t have permalinks yet, and she’s permitted me to post several images of a list she created. It’s a neat list that graphically depicts the kinds of thoughts we have.

It reminds me a bit of the feelings chart that therapists use to help children and adults identify and express feelings.
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