No reason. No theme. Just pictures; some move; click for full size especially if the picture appears to be unrecognizable or doesn’t animate, etc.
Tag Archives: pictures
Mid-week Silliness
Filed under animated gif, animation, cats, comedy relief, kittens, pictures, Uncategorized
Radio Night, Frog Spawn Days
Getting the announcement part out of the way, tonight is Mad Liberation by Moonlight at 1 a.m. PST on KBOO, 90.7 FM in Portland, Oregon. Streamed on the web at http://www.kboo.fm/. It’s a call in show, blah blah blah, call in at 503-231-8187 to be on the radio, read other posts about it here. Archived shows are found on the MLBM tab above.
Always remember- click pics for full size; most are really big.
West on the Springwater Corridor trail near my home- On the left (south side) is a marsh. On the right (north) are a series of ditches that collect water and keep it for a bit until mid June or so. This is one of several places I monitor for amphibian eggs and relative potential for supporting polliwogs through their transformations.
Marsh on south side of Springwater Corridor
Picture with hard-to-see newt tadpoles as of last week
The marshy area stays pretty moist and frogs that spawn there can expect their babies to grow up unless they’re eaten by birds or some such. The ditchy area is iffy. Eggs there will hatch- the ditch pools will fill with tadpoles- but the puddles will mostly dry up before the frogs can mature.
Lots of froggy love goin on- look at all that slimy frog spawn!
The marshy area also has a healthy population of newts- gilled newts that look like this as they are changing:
The frogs I’m talking about are basic pacific tree frogs. They are brown to green ion color and start out very small and stay just a bit bigger. The newly transformed froglings will be about the size of your thumbnail. Or smaller. Fully grown, 1 or 2 years old they may be the size of your thumb. This presupposes that they survive tadpole-hood.
Babies look like this when they mature:
Hey little fella/ gal/ whatever you are
More frog eggs
The ditch puddles are still quite moist. Too wet and muddy around the edges for me to get close enough for you to see the tadpoles. But they are there- here’s a picture I took last year of one I brought home to mature:
Newts also spawn in these ditches and most don’t survive. I’ll get some of them, too. With the newts, I have to take them back out to a place like the marsh when they’re ready.
Almost ready to leave the tank (last year)
The frogs just hop out into the world. Usually 90% of them will take off in one day from the tank on my back porch.
More spawn
My annual hobby/ mission involves finding places like this that serve as marginal habitat- attractive to frogs in love (blush) but generally not capable of sustaining their babies. I find several spots near home. Powell Butte is one of my favorites but the marginal ditch I find them is messed up this year due to construction of an underground water reservoir.
This is a picture from Powell Butte, pre-reservoir.
Powell Butte from SPACE!
Ani ani ani- found on the site which don’t exist
The winner:
Filed under animated gif, animation, cats, comedy relief, kittens, pictures
Monday May I (Short-Sweet)
This will be a mixture today- First, I want to call attention to some of my favorite mental health blogs.
Bi-polar Blast is now called Beyond Meds (and has been for a long time, I just didn’t get around to changing it in the blogroll). Today there is a video of Pema Chodron. Check it out here.
Ron Unger’s blog, Recovery from Schizophrenia, is a veritable fount of information, inspiration and sense. Today he’s talking about an article titled “A Fine Madness“. If you poke around, though, you’ll find many wonderful things on his blog. He writes with such clarity and insight- you’ll want to read all of his entries on everything from cognitive therapy for psychosis to reducing medications to redefining Recovery. To see what he’s up to today click here.
Furious Seasons has been quiet lately but you can still read back on some great topics. Also, they have an excellent sampling of links to mental health blogs. That’s where I go when I want to find gems like this or like this.
Off the wall but not out of his mind, my pal Rich is the host of Kill Ugly Radio. Stop by and have a listen. You won’t regret it, most likely. Rich also is the guy who records my radio show and sends it to me so I can archive it here. Thank, Rich.
On the blogroll where it says “Simply the best there is”, what you’ll really find is The Icarus Project. The reason is because they are, simply, the best. Mad forums, mad radio, mad art, mad guides to living. Everything you want. Just do it.
Now for something completely different- it’s time to start scouting for frog spawning areas in my neck of the woods. They’ve been croaking up a storm around my house the last few weeks. It’s been a mostly dry spring but there’s still been plenty of rain to get things going.
Now is the time to find those puddles, ditches and wet spots that are marginal for tadpole survival. Typically there will be several spots near my home where frogs will spawn but that tend to dry up before most of the little guys can transform. 
I’m going to check around and get back to you. I’ll bring back some pictures of the places I’m talking about. Then, before the second week of June, I’ll go out and rescue as many of the little fellers as I can. They’ll finish growing legs in the tank on my back porch and hop out into the world when they’re ready.
Filed under CS/X movement, Free Music, Frogs, Mad Radio, mp3, pictures, wellness and systems change
Birthday of Rabindranath Tagore Today
May 7th, 1861, Rabindranath Tagore was born.
You can find most every available English translation of Tagore’s work somewhere on this blog. Here are some pictures, most of them are not ones I’ve used before. Click for full size.
Tagore was not only a poet genius, play-write, composer, he was also an accomplished painter. Much of his graphic art was impressionist or even abstract but some was vividly life-like. This painting is called “Unending Love”:
cream of lunapalooza soup
Audiopalooza:
poetry/ e. e. cummings/ from librivox.org
wheres_madge_then_cummings_cz_64kb
this_is_the_garden_cummings_cz_64kb
Cummings younger-
it_may_not_always_cummings_cz_64kb
Cummings older-
o_sweet_spontaneous_cummings_cz_64kb
sounds/ miscellaneous/ ringtones?
25cents ansMilitary ansRoy Apollo11Final2 baboons babyCry hard
accesscode yourdiscovery worry Womansneezing Traffic toolong
ansIcanthear better BeverlyHillbillies cancel carhorntwice
children_laugh cows error feelit FLY Gilligans info knocking
stars silly Revenge on Telemarketers beer removeMe MeowMix
puzzlin People talking officeParty NasaSaturn myCatIsUpset
moment morehuman Homer Simpson Whispering Im_a_good_girl
Psychosis NOS/ not otherwise specified/ {parental warning:
LISTENING TO SOME OF THESE MAY MAKE YOU STERILE}
Cookie Monster – ‘C’ is for Cookie (Larry Levan Disco Remix)
[acoustic] George Harrison – Art of Dying
[1928] Blind Willie McTell – Statesboro Blues
Firesign Theater-Pass the Indian, Please
1934_US_Fascist_Coup_BBC4_Radio
Bob Newhart – Driving Instructor
Mountain Goats – Dilaudid (demo from vinyl)
Penn Jillette – The Monkey and the Dwarf – April 12, 2006
People Are Strange (The Chipmunks)
Puff the Magic Dragon – Peter Paul and mary
Sesame Street – Martians yipyip
the raunchy young lepers – they ripped up my mind
No it’s not/ we’re just getting started
Goopypalooza!
(go to Goopymart.com)
(go to Goopy’s photostream on Flikr)
Anipalooza:
repost:
Lunapalooza NOS (not otherwise specified):
Being Kind to All- Nawang Khechog
072401 LMB – Kyabje Lama Zopa Rinpoche – Diamond Cutter Sutra pt1
072401 LMB – Kyabje Lama Zopa Rinpoche – Diamond Cutter Sutra pt2
072401 LMB – Kyabje Lama Zopa Rinpoche – Diamond Cutter Sutra pt3
Filed under animated gif, animation, Free Music, mp3, Music, pictures, poetry, silly, sound bite
Absolutely Beautiful, plus news clips
Cherry trees in bloom at Oregon State Hospital (click for full size, as usual)
Other news from OSH:
State Furloughs = Lack of Logic!
Increased Federal Oversight Needed!
Maybe there are really serious problems!
Why Dr. Robinson didn’t come to work!
Filed under Mental health recovery, Nature, pictures
Mozart sandwich with Birthday Cake
I just had a birthday last week. I was born in 1955, 55 years ago.That makes me 5,555 years old! Below is a twenty dollar bill in circulation at the time of my birth.
(click for full size, as usual; you know I never skimp on picture size-always the biggest pictures here at moonsoup!)
I have a variety of things to share today. Music, pictures, animated gifs, personal history, stories from where I work, other things.
Enjoy! or not.
Okay, some of the Mozart promised in the title:
mozart-sinfonia_concertante-presto
So, this is an odd time of year for me. My birthday last weekend, April 11th will be my older son’s 25th birthday (he’s coming to visit from SF this weekend- riding the dog, ought to arrive by tomorrow morning), and smack in the middle of these things is the anniversary of my oldest/ youngest child’s death- April 6th. I often dread this time of year- if I’m going to be symptomatic mental health wise, this is the time I would do it. These days, however, I’m not expecting badness. She has mellowed in my heart. I experience her as a kind, gentle angel of death; reminding me of the preciousness in each moment. Thank you Erin.
Here’s a doodle by Andrew, the oldest living child,
and one of the most coolest people I know.
One of our cats- Blizzard, has been suffering from glaucoma for years, gradually going blind. Last month she had surgery to remove her eyes- it’s called “enucleation“. Anyway, these are some shots of her recuperation. By the way, she’s doing great. She’s way more comfortable and happy and since she’s been blind for a while she has no trouble finding her way around. My younger son paid for the surgery- over $1000- because he is also a really great guy. Blizz gets the cone off her head later today.
Here’s Blizzard today, sans cone head,
in the arms of my youngest son.
The Jupiter Symphony is one of my favorite Mozart compositions-
I wrote a while back, I think, about the death of a patient at Oregon State Hospital where I work. The Oregonian newspaper just did it’s first major story about it (better late than never).
From the article linked above:
The body of Moises Perez, 42, was discovered in this bed located just to the left of the door of a room he shared with four other men. The Oregon State Hospital patient had been dead several hours before he was discovered during evening medication checks.
Below- some great pictures of/ from the ESO Paranal Observatory in Chile, high in the Andes. The top picture is a full-sky, 360 degree panorama. The other pictures are of the observatory itself in summer and winter.
Richard Harris is the state Director of Addictions and Mental Health. He wrote this to the Oregon Consumer Survivor Coalition, our primary collective voice as survivors of the Mental Hell treatment system. I don’t know if it’s serious or comic relief. Time will tell. Anyone can yak yak yak.
From: “Richard HARRIS” <richard.harris@state.or.us>
Date: 18 March 2010 12:14:23 PM PDT
Subject: Re: Consumer Voice—-REVISED MEMO
Revised
DATE: March 18, 2010
TO: All AMH Staff
FROM: Richard L. Harris
Assistant Director
RE: Consumer voice
Over the past several months I have had the opportunity to meet with
many people representing many mental health consumer groups. From
these meetings it has become clear to me that there is a need for
increased consumer voice within local and state government. Len and I
recently met with the Oregon Consumer Survivor Coalition (OCSC) and
together we have identified four ways by which consumer voice can be
amplified:
1. Increased public education on addiction and mental health issues;
2. Increased training for those providing addiction and mental
health treatment;
3. Continued and increased peer support services and;
4. Supporting and promoting an independent voice in the addictions
and mental health consumer community.
My initial commitment to increase consumer voice and to support and
promote peer delivered services will be for AMH to provide phone and
video support to the upcoming strategic planning summit sponsored by
OCSC. The summit will identify a clear pathway to establishing a
formal mechanism to support consumer voice statewide. In addition
Oregon’s Olmstead Plan calls for increased consumer participation in
all aspects of transition from residential facilities to independent
living with people having a key to their own home with access to
addiction and mental health services when needed.
To further consumer voice and increase consumer visibility in the
community, OCSC will reach out to the addictions community and attend
and participate in the OHA/DHS statewide budget forums scheduled
around the state later this spring.
These are important first steps in creating a solid foundation to
promote consumer voice and visibility within local communities and
local and state government. I look forward to continuing dialogue with
the OCSC and others to develop a highly visible and robust consumer
voice as part of AMH and the developing OHA.
Richard L. Harris
Assistant Director
Addictions and Mental Health Division
500 Summer St NE E-86
Salem, OR 97301-1118
richard.harris@state.or.us
Blackberry: 503-569-3183
FAX: 503-373-7327
Heads up: may contain graphic violence–
By the way, you can’t outrun a Samurai!
My personal favorite by Mozart, his unfinished “requiem”. This is the whole shebang, huge file, high quality-
A couple weekends back my wife and I went hiking at Catherine Creek to look at the first wildflowers of spring. You get there by going to Hood River, Oregon, crossing the troll bridge (don’t look! you’ll turn to stone!) into Washington, driving east through the town of Bingen, Washington and at the second roadside lake take the old state road that climbs the hill. You’ll know you’re there when you get to it. There are a few waves of wildflowers that bloom and pass relatively quickly in the stony volcanic earth. By now there’s a whole new batch. By the middle of April they’ll almost all be gone. I hope we get back up there before the end of the season.
Mozart plays the bassoon!
mozart-bassoon_concerto-allegro
mozart-bassoon_concerto-andante
Bye for now, have a great day.
-Rick
Filed under animated gif, animation, cats, Family pictures, Free Music, Mental Hell Treatment, mp3, Music, Nature, personal story, pictures
Quote Parade
I would not be surprised if some of this is repetitive- shared in previous posts. So, it gets the official seal:
Quote Parade (or did I say that already):
“The being of separate beings is non-separate being.” Chuang-tse (c.369-c.286 BCE).
“We, the originally vast, serene, and marvellous mind are all pure and illuminatingly all-inclusive. Nothing can hinder us: we are as free as the firmament.” Tsung Kao (1089-1163)
“From the beginning, not a thing is.” Hui Neng (638-713)
“Be still. And know I am God” Psalm 46
“This consciousness exists as each being, and nothing else exists.” The Vigyan Bkairava and Sochanda Tantra.
“The eye through which I see God is the same eye through which God sees me: my eye and God’s eye are one eye, one seeing, one knowing, one love.” Meister Eckhart
“Seeing that one cannot see the absence-of-things (subjectivity) is true seeing, permanent seeing.” Shen Hui
“You must have a clear understanding that all things are only a manifestation of the mind itself. Everything, everything in this world is nothing but a complex manifestation of one’s mental activities.” Lankavatara Sutra
“Remember that from the first to the last not even the smallest grain of anything perceptible has ever existed or ever will exist.’ Huang Po
“I am Not, but the Universe is my Self.” Shih T’ou (700-790)
“Body, heaven and hell, bondage and freedom, as also fear, all these are mere concepts. What have I to do with all these, I who am pure Consciousness?” Ashtavakra Gita
“Let me remind you that the perceived cannot perceive.” Huang Po
“Prajna (Subjectivity) is our true nature.” Hui Neng
“Our original Buddha-nature is, in highest truth, devoid of any atom of objectivity.” Huang Po
“I’ve told you all that constitutes the very core of Truth; there is no you, no me, no Superior Being, no disciple, no guru.” Dattatreya
“Moreover, in thus contemplating the totality of phenomena, you are contemplating the totality of Mind. All these phenomena are intrinsically void and yet this Mind with which they are identical is no mere nothingness.” Huang Po
“Phenomena only exist in the mind that perceives them.” Tibetan Book of the Dead
“What you are looking for is what is looking.” St. Francis of Assisi (attrib.)
“Simply see the world as yourself. Embrace things as they are.” Lao Tzu
“If this principle is understood, that will amount to real deliverance, for the attainment of which there can be no other method.” Hui Hai (trans. John Blofeld 1948)
“Why this talk of seeing into your own nature?……That Nature and your perception of it are one.” Huang Po
“Seeing that one cannot see the absence-of-things (subjectivity) is true seeing, permanent seeing.” Shen Hui
“There is absolutely nothing which can be attained.” Huang Po, Wan Ling Record
“Form is emptiness and emptiness is form. Emptiness is nothing but form, and form is nothing but emptiness. Apart from nothing there is no anything, and apart from anything there is no nothing. Apart from our phenomenal world there is no Void, and apart from the Void, there is no phenomenal world.” Heart Sutra
“Since there is no room in the Infinite even for nothingness, I cannot be nothing; and since the Infinite has no parts, I am therefore the Whole.” Shaikh Ahmad al Alawi (1870-1932).
“The essential Understanding is that in reality nothing is. This is so obvious that it is not perceived.” Wei Wu Wei
“There is neither creation nor destruction, neither destiny nor free will, neither path nor achievement. This is the final truth.” Ramana Maharshi (1879-1950)
“The very idea of going beyond the dream is illusory. Why go anywhere? Just realise that you are dreaming a dream you call the world, and stop looking for ways out. The dream is not your problem. Your problem is that you like one part of the dream and not another. When you have seen the dream as a dream, you have done all that needs to be done.” Nisargadatta Maharaj
(1897?-1981)
“There is no such thing as an entity. Now you know you are awake because you are here and you have that knowledge. There is nothing else other than this knowledge, no entity.” Nisargadatta Maharaj
“Greater than the greatest good in life is to know who we are.” Nisargadatta Maharaj
“With the belief in the individual entity/doer, problems never cease. When the illusory nature of the individual is seen, problems never arise.” Ramesh Balsekar
“There is a Presence that is unnameable that thought cannot touch. It is not your possession; it is what you are.” Adyashanti
“From the perspective of the infinite it is obvious that the individual self absolutely does not exist. The idea that we have a self that controls, arbitrates, or is the doer behind our actions, is absurd. The individual self is nothing but an idea of who we are.” Suzanne Segal
“All said and done: everything is I and I am no thing. All phenomena are objective manifestations. What I am objectively is the totality of phenomenal manifestation. What I am subjectively is all that all phenomena are. Nothing personal about it anywhere or at any stage. The personal notion is not inherent and is the whole trouble.” Wei Wu Wei
“I am Presence; not I am present or you are present or he is present. When one sees the situation as it really is, that no individual is involved, that what is present is Presence as a whole, then the moment this is perceived there is liberation.” Nisargadatta Maharaj
“The Vastness is perceiving itself out of itself at every moment, within every particle of itself everywhere simultaneously.” Suzanne Segal
“ So-called self-realization is the discovery for yourself that there is no self to discover.” U.G.Krishnamurti
“You will come in due course to realise that your true glory lies where you cease to exist.” Ramana Maharshi
“What is real does not die. What is unreal never lived.” Nisargadatta Maharaj
“A person is not a thing or a process but an opening through which the absolute manifests.” Martin Heidegger
“Pure Apperceiving is the subjective Functioning of Potential, sense perception is the temporal reflex in objectivity, phenomena are a conceptual interpretation of that. Therefore that which they are is the mind that is perceiving them. True Apperceiving is perceiving that, as mind, you are bringing into apparent existence whatever you perceive. Consequently the fundamental nature of all phenomena is the Apperceiving of it.” Wei Wu Wei
“An eye cannot see itself, and Truth cannot express itself,because, being non-duality, it cannot be conveyed dualistically as the object of a subject.” Wei Wu Wei
“There is no such thing as an entity. Now you know you are awake because you are here and you have that knowledge. There is nothing else other than this knowledge, no entity.” Nisargadatta Maharaj
“The Void is nothing, absolutely nothing – and Nothing is absolutely everything. For both exist in mind.” Wei Wu Wei
“The essential Understanding is that in reality nothing is. This is so obvious that it is not perceived.” Wei Wu Wei
“You see, the search takes you away from yourself; it is in the opposite direction. It has absolutely no relation. The search is always in the wrong direction, so that all you consider very profound, all that you consider sacred is a contamination in that consciousness. You may not like the word ‘contamination’ but all that you consider sacred, holy and profound is a contamination.” U.G. Krishnamurti
“What is real does not die. What is unreal never lived. Once you know that death happens to the body and not to you, you just watch your body falling off like a discarded garment. The real you is timeless and beyond life and death. The body will survive as long as it is needed. It is not important that it should live long.” Nisargadatta Maharaj
Neem Keroli Baba
| Devyaparadhaksamapana Stotram |
| na mantram no yantram tadapi ca na jane stutimaho na cahvanam dhyanam tadapi ca na jane stutikathah na jane mudraste tadapi ca na jane vilapanam param jane matastva danusaranam klesaharanam Neither do I know chants nor do I know methods, nor do I know how to make prayer. I don’t know how to invoke you nor how to meditate, I have no knowledge of any songs. I don’t know any signs (mudras) and I don’t know the method of imploring deep pleading. But I know one thing for sure, if I follow you (within the folds of your love) I will be released from all my troubles. vidher-ajnanena dravina-virahenalasataya O, Kind Mother (the Liberator of all without discrimination), I don’t know the method of doing puja and I am also lazy by nature. I also do not have the capacity to do the right kind of prayer, With all these shortcomings, if there have been any mistakes, please overlook them. Because a son can be bad, however, it is not in the Mother’s nature to be bad. prthivyam putraste janani bahavah santi saralah O, Mother, on this earth you have many good sons and daughters but out of all these I am the most bad child of yours 0, Goddess, you have forsaken me because I have not concentrated on you, this is not reasonable, Because a son can be bad, however, it is not in the Mother’s nature to be bad. jaganmatarmatastava caranaseva na racita O, Mother of the Universe, I have never rubbed your feet or done any sort of service, I have not given you wealth, but even strangely enough, you are bestowing your grace on undeserving me Because a son can be bad, however, it is not in the Mother’s nature to be bad. parityakta deva vividha-vidha-seva kulataya O, Paravati Ma, Mother who has given birth to Ganesh, while I do prayers to other gods, I remain busy with different kinds of works, all gods have left me because I ‘m eighty-five years, and I can not give them all the prayers. I am despaired and I can not expect any help from them. If you also leave me at this time where shall I go for support except to you? svapako jalpako bhavati madhu-pakopama-gira O, Mother! If anybody hears even a word of your chant, the result is–even the meanest man can utter the sweet pronunciation of this chant like honey and he becomes a very proficient speaker, The poorest man, you will find suitable work for him (The poorest man enjoys millions of pieces gold ) When even a word of your chant has such a result, the ones who are doing it regularly and methodically, we can not fathom what the result will be, and who is that mortal who can know it? cita-bhasmalepo garalam-asanam dik-pata-dharo O, Goddess, Bhavani, the Adi-Goddess, the one who rubs his body with ashes and whose fool is poison, and the one whose body is nude, and has matted hair and a necklace of cobras and a hung skull in his hands as an alms bowl, gets that name of Jagadeesh (the Lord of the World) what is the reason for this? How did he get such an immanent position? It is only because of the union with you, and by this his importance has increased na mokshas-yakanksa bhava-vibhava-vanchapi ca na me O, the Mother whose countenance is like the moon! I do not have any desire for deliverance (moksha), I do not have any desire for worldly wealth. I do not have any craving for knowledge. I also do not want happiness. . . so I have this prayer that the rest of my life may pass in uttering all the names of the Goddess. naradhitasi vidhina vividhopacaraih O, Mother! Shayam, (the blue-bodied one), I could not do methodically your puja or prayer with various religious articles (demeaning oneself before the Godgess). Always my meditation was not crystal clear because it had the hurdness. What fault did I have with all these shortcomings? You bestow on me the greatest grace which is only deserving of you. such a merciful mother can give shelter to such an undeserving son. Doha: O, Mother! Durga! The ocean of mercy! I am remembering you because I have got all around me the difficulties. I did not pray before this. Kindly don’t consider this prayer of mine as my wickedness, because the child who is suffering from hunger and thirst, only remembers the Mother. jagadamba vicitram atra kim, paripurna karunasti cenmayi O, Mother of the universe. I am not surprised, because of your complete grace. A son may do fault after fault, but the mother never ignores him. matsamah pataki nasti papaghni tvatsama na hi O, Mahadevi, Great Goddess, there is no sinner like me on the earth and there is no other person condoning the sins except you. Knowing all this, you do whatever you think is reasonable. |
Filed under buddhism, Mystic Poetry, Spirituality
DSM 5 drafted, Kill Ugly Radio and Friends
In what has to be considered a bold move, the APA has posted the draft of the DSM 5 on the web and made it available for reading and comment here. A variety of changes and non-changes are already attracting attention. One of my favorite blog authors, at Furious Seasons, has inspected enough of it to raise some concerns.
You can see for yourself (please), but here are the things I noticed browsing through the current draft in order of appearance:
Disorders usually first diagnosed in infancy, childhood, adolescence
I am especially concerned with the labeling of children with psychiatric disorders. For the most part, kids don’t “misbehave” because they are crazy. More likely explanations are that their behavior is a natural and even positive coping mechanism for dealing with seriously wrong family environment issues. Other common reasons for “odd” behavior in children are food or environmental allergies and medical or metabolic problems. Regardless of what the behaviorists might say, the reason why people act the way they do is sometimes very important and is often their best response they can have to biological, social and traumatic factors in their lives.
Temper dysregulation with dysphoria is proposed with the parameters available here. The positive side of this potentially stigmatizing new diagnosis for kids is that it is not the Child Bi-Polar Disorder that has been promoted by both the FDA and the friendly shrinks at Harvard. Of course any diagnosis invites the possibility of medicating the behavior but at least it won’t be an automatic road to a jumbo list of potentially dangerous mind altering chemical restraints. So, no doubt, they will have to develop a new list for this new diagnosis.
Another new diagnosis for kids, a conduct disorder, is labeled Callous and Unemotional Specifier for Conduct Disorder. This was not in the previous DSM. The jury is out how this might be suppressed with drugs.
Non Suicidal Self Injury has been added as a diagnosis for kids. I can hardly wait for the good folks at GSK or Lilly to bring out a new pill for this one. Since self-injurious behavior is often a normal response to severe trauma, it might be good if someone looked behind the curtain before attaching the label.
Some old/DSM 4 disorders for kids are being removed or subsumed under the heading of other existing disorder categories including Childhood Disintegrative Disorder, Asperger’s Disorder and Pervasive Developmental Disorder NOS, all of which will be under the general heading of Autism Spectrum Disorder. (That Child Disintegrative thing sounds very dangerous.)
For grownups
We now have Psychotic Risk Disorder. There are plenty of subjective, unscientific criteria for this one. Like this phrase- “but of sufficient severity and/or frequency so as to be beyond normal“- I suppose you have to go to school to know what normal is. Just sop you won’t confuse it with other disorders they say “characteristic attenuated psychotic symptoms are not better explained by another DSM-V diagnosis“. That’s a relief.
Several types of Schizophrenia are being removed- paranoid type, catatonic type, disorganized type etc. I suppose they are all going to be under the general heading of Schizophrenia. Another to be removed is something called “Shared Psychotic Disorder”. I need to look that up- sounds like a friendly sort of illness. Misery loves company but psychosis no longer does in the new DSM.
Mindfreedom News/ lazy blogger
Off the subject (really) but related, there is a good collection of news from Mindfreedom here about the impact of the mental health consumer movement in Lane County, Oregon. Two news items of interest to Oregonians and others originated from Lane County today:
** Eugene Weekly newspaper covers alternatives to psychiatric drugs.
MindFreedom activists are quoted several times.
** Now you can compare Lane County’s ‘guidelines’ for empowerment of
mental health clients, with a stronger version recommended by Lane
County Mental Health Consumer/Survivor Council.
So check it out at the link above.
Check out the archived show celebrating famous people who died in 2009. There is not much more to say.
Everything else
The Project Gutenberg EBook of Rootabaga Stories
moon soup 