Rx for Joy - Joanne Shortell

Joanne Shortell took me up on my call for guest bloggers.  I am glad she did, as I learned of a blogger and mental health advocate I'd like to introduce to you.  Joanne has three websites.  Strongly Bipolar is a blog similar to Prozac Monologues.  Maevetour.blogspot.com/ is the source of the following piece.  And Servicepoodle.com gives more information about the issue it discusses.  

Rx for Joy Can Be Written by any Therapist in the U.S.


My current therapist is a nurse practitioner who can prescribe psychiatric drugs.  My previous therapist was an MSW who could not.  Both, however, could write a prescription for an emotional support animal (ESA).  A short, simple letter (see sample below) from a doctor (any medical doctor, not just a psychiatrist) or any therapist will allow a person with a psychiatric disability or a chronic pain condition to have pets in no-pets housing, to avoid any pet deposit or pet fee, and to avoid size limitations or species restrictions.  The person with the disability gives this to their landlord or co-op/condo board as a request for a reasonable accommodation.  (See link: How to Get an Emotional Support Animal.

Why should I prescribe ESAs?

Thomas Insel - Toward a New Understanding of Mental Illness




Cutting this guy's budget is like telling Orville and Wilbur Wright to take the month off.

Jill Bolte Taylor's Stroke of Insight



Dr. Bolte Taylor's story is told in greater detail, both her stroke and her recovery in her book.  You can link to it in the column to the left under Fabulous Books.

Calling All Guest Bloggers

That little box of words is empty. Day after day, replacements do not arrive.  It is time for Prozac Monologues to go on sabbatical. I'm thinking -- two months might do it.

But I hate it!  I can't do it!  Help!

Calling all bloggers -- this space is vacant and available.

So here's the deal.  I am open to publishing your poem, blog piece, article, ruminations, if:

  • It is on topic (reflections and/or research on the mind, the brain, mental illness and/or society);
  • It is educational and/or entertaining;
  • It is not hateful nor wildly inaccurate;
  • It strikes my fancy.

Oh, My Aching Neurons!

Having a hard year?

Fiscal Cliff, Sandy Hook, Sequester, you can take your Swiss Army knife on the plane with you, no you can't, North Korea, ricin -- not to mention your own life...

And then there was Boston.

If you are exhausted, you don't need to blame your meds.  Your mind has been stretched to the limit.

How's your brain doing?

Minding My Mitochondria

I don't know if this is related, but it sure seems timely.  One of my posts has gone viral - well, within the context of Prozac Monologues viral.  I have been working up to over 100 hits a day.  Nice progress -- thank you to all who have helped spread the word.  Suddenly one day this week, my hits jumped to 530.  Almost all of them were one post, a review of Terry Wahl's book, Minding My Mitochondria.

This post was already one of my most read, a cross-over hit with people who have multiple sclerosis.  Last month it got mentioned in an MS chat group, which drove a spike in hits out of Poland.  [The blogger.com software enables bloggers to track aggregate statistics.  I can't tell who is reading, but I can tell how many, what country, and to a limited extent, how readers found my blog.  This week's traffic seems to come from Facebook.]

Wahls' book is about brain cell health, and how what we eat sustains or starves our brain cells -- in particular, mitochondria, the little power plants inside our nuclei that turn what we eat into energy.

Hence, the relevance to your current state of exhaustion.

Why the Poor Give More

The article that inspired this post is titled Why the Rich Don't Give to Charity.  But I figure, language has power, and why reinforce behavior that I would rather see changed?

Before you go off in a huff, let me tip my hand -- I acknowledge and will discuss both the exceptions and free will.

The short answer to any of these questions, why the poor give more, why the rich don't give, and why some rich do is -- mirror neurons.  Three weeks ago I reported on these in Mirror Neurons - They Change Everything, along with a youtube featuring V.S. Ramachandran.  Here is the promised expansion on the theme.

Statistics on Giving

Ken Stern reports in The Atlantic Magazine that the top 20% of Americans donate 1.3% of their income.  The bottom 20% donate 3.2%.  He asks, What's up with that?

Paul Piff - Higher Social Class Predicts Increased Unethical Behavior

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