Dr. John Deri’s next Blog Talk Radio Show: Healthy Mind and Body will be on Wednesday, June 9, 2010 from 8-9:00 PM Pacific Time

The topic of the episode will be:  Depression: A Holistic Approach

During this episode, Dr. John Deri will discuss depression from multiple perspectives: biological, psychological, social and spiritual.  Within each of these contexts, Dr. Deri will describe causes and propose paths to healing of the depressive state.

To listen to the show you can:

1.    Dial the phone in telephone number at (347) 989-0560

OR

2.    Tune in to our online channel at http://www.blogtalkradio.com/Healthy-Mind-Body

I will share some thoughts with you regarding bipolar disorder from four vantage points:  biological, psychological, social and spiritual.

I. Biological

Heredity plays a major role in the transmission of bipolar disorder.  Although there is much speculation, the biological basis for this condition is not known.  Extensive genetic research is being pursued, in an attempt to identify the mechanisms that render an individual vulnerable to this disorder.

Lithium remains the first line medication for classic bipolar disorder, also known as Bipolar I.  This condition is characterized by full blown manic episodes, with or without alternating major depressive episodes.  Other forms of bipolar disorder, including Bipolar II (major depressive episodes, alternating with period of hypomania), and rapid cycling bipolar disorder are best treated with an anticonvulsant mood stabilizer, such as Lamictal (lamotrigine). Hypomania is a less severe form of mania.

Bipolar depression usually requires the addition of an antidepressant medication.  Extreme mood states can trigger psychotic symptoms, a break with reality.  In this case, an antipsychotic medication, e.g. Abilify (aripiprazole), may be necessary.

II.  Psychological

From a psychological point of view, bipolar disorder may be viewed as a decreased capacity to regulate emotional states.  Affective self regulation is impaired in people with certain personality structures.  Narcissism is characterized by unstable oscillations between grandiosity and insecurity.  Borderline personalities experience and manifest rapidly shifting, intense affective states.

These personality traits may often be traced back to early childhood experience.  Phyllis Greenacre, a child psychoanalyst, wrote that “the infant is seen in the beam of the maternal pathology.”  Some mothers are prone to have a split perception of their children.  Such mothers (often themselves borderline personalities) will alternately idealize and devalue their children.  These children, in turn, will tend to internalize a correspondingly split view of themselves. With the idealization, euphoria and grandiosity may ensue.  Devaluation of the self will likely manifest as depression.

In a depth psychologically oriented therapy, the therapist takes on the role of a symbolic parent, whose function is to serve as an accurate mirror of the patient’s personality. Tensions and contradictory aspects of the patient’s psyche can be accurately reflected and articulated, without splitting.  This process promotes the integration of the personality, and the stabilization of mood states.

A cognitive behavioral therapeutic approach would help the patient to monitor closely her own thoughts, or self-talk. The patient learns to catch and to correct those thoughts that are either excessively idealizing or devaluing of the self.  Since thoughts are triggers for feeling states, thought correction will tend to minimize excessive mood swings.

III.  Social

Unstable, labile mood states make it extremely difficult to function at work, or to maintain relationships.

Getting help with mood stabilization in a social context is vitally important.  Try seeking feedback from a significant person in your life regarding your behavior, as well as their perceptions of your mood states.  This kind of objective feedback from a trusted friend or family member can greatly help you to become more self aware.

Support groups, and group psychotherapy, can serve a similar function.  A good resource for finding such groups in your area is the Depression and Bipolar Alliance (http://dbsalliance.org).

IV.  Spiritual

There is a Buddhist image of viewing yourself as the host, and your emotions as your guests.  Achieving this perspective will powerfully help you to stay grounded, even in the face of intense oscillating mood states.

Drawing strength from all of these internal and external resources will help you to achieve a level of integration and self awareness that you may never have attained, in the absence of a mood disorder.

Dr. John Deri’s next Blog Talk Radio Show: Healthy Mind and Body will be on Wednesday, April 21, 2010 from 8-9:00 PM Pacific Time

The topic of the episode will be:  Depression: A Holistic Approach

During this episode, Dr. John Deri will discuss depression from multiple perspectives: biological, psychological, social and spiritual.  Within each of these contexts, Dr. Deri will describe causes and propose paths to healing of the depressive state.

To listen to the show you can:

1.    Dial the phone in telephone number at (347) 989-0560

OR

2.    Tune in to our online channel at http://www.blogtalkradio.com/Healthy-Mind-Body

Dr. John Deri’s next Blog Talk Radio Show: Healthy Mind and Body will be on Wednesday, April 14, 2010 from 8-9:00 PM Pacific Time

The topic of the episode will be:  How To Identify And To Deal With Emotional Trauma

Emotional trauma can impact and alter all aspects of your life. Trauma tends to constrict our patterns of behavior and ways of being in the world. How a person manifests the effects of emotional trauma varies widely. The same trauma can produce very different effects from person to person.

When you learn how to identify and to deal with emotional trauma, you will be able to form better relationships. Healing the wounds of trauma will help you to overcome addictions, panic attacks, depression and anxiety.

Dr. Deri will share with us:

➢    The definition and causes of emotional trauma
➢    The emotional effects of trauma
➢    The physical impact of trauma
➢    How to heal from trauma

To listen to the show you can:

1.    Dial the phone in telephone number at (347) 989-0560

OR

2.    Tune in to our online channel at http://www.blogtalkradio.com/Healthy-Mind-Body

Dr. John Deri’s next Blog Talk Radio Show: Healthy Mind and Body will be on Wednesday, December 9, 2009 from 8-8:30 PM PDT.

The topic of the episode will be:  Seasonal Affective Disorder

Seasonal affective disorder (also called S.A.D or Winter Depression) is a type of depression that occurs at the same time every year.  Some people experience a serious mood change when the seasons change.  If you are like most people with seasonal affective disorder, your symptoms start in the fall and may continue into the winter months. It affects many of us during the short winter days and long winter nights.

Nearly everyone gets the winter blues at some time or another, but for some, they are actually a serious medical disorder.  Seasonal affective disorder can lead to sadness, lack of interest, withdrawal from friends, family, and social activities, lack of energy and overall depression. With the right treatment options you can combat these symptoms.

During the  Blog Talk Radio Show: Healthy Mind and Body, Dr. John Deri will discuss:

➢    The definition of seasonal affective disorder

➢    The symptoms of seasonal affective disorder

➢    The causes of seasonal affective disorder

➢    Seasonal affective disorder treatment options

To listen to the show you can:

Dial the phone in telephone number at (347) 989-0560

OR

Tune in to our online channel at http://www.blogtalkradio.com/Healthy-Mind-Body

Dr. John Deri’s next Blog Talk Radio Show: Healthy Mind and Body will be on Wednesday, November 11, 2009 from 8-8:30 PM PST.

The topic of the episode will be:  How To Identify And To Deal With Emotional Trauma

Emotional trauma can impact and alter all aspects of your life. Trauma tends to constrict our patterns of behavior and ways of being in the world. How a person manifests the effects of emotional trauma varies widely. The same trauma can produce very different effects from person to person.

When you learn how to identify and to deal with emotional trauma, you will be able to form better relationships. Healing the wounds of trauma will help you to overcome addictions, panic attacks, depression and anxiety.

Dr. Deri will share with us:

➢    The definition and causes of emotional trauma
➢    The emotional effects of trauma
➢    The physical impact of trauma
➢    How to heal from trauma

To listen to the show you can:

1.    Dial the phone in telephone number at (347) 989-0560

OR

2.    Tune in to our online channel at http://www.blogtalkradio.com/Healthy-Mind-Body

The topic of the initial episode will be: How to Stay Calm in an Age of Anxiety.

Join me on Wednesday, October 21, 2009 at 8 PM PST and learn:

➢    Why “healthy anxiety” can help you to move forward in your life

➢    How to identify when anxiety overwhelms and paralyzes us

➢    The long term mental and physical consequences of anxiety and stress

➢    Six steps to implement that will help you to reduce anxiety

➢    Spiritual dimensions of overcoming anxiety will be highlighted

For more information, including a phone in telephone number, please visit http://www.blogtalkradio.com/Healthy-Mind-Body

No matter how much we might love our work, a periodic change of pace, and change of scene, are crucial for maintaining our psychic equilibrium. The human nervous system habituates to sameness. Both behaviorally and neurophysiologically, we get stuck in a rut. We cease to remain fully awake and alert. We begin to “go through the motions” of living. In the extreme, life can begin to feel “stale, flat and unprofitable,” in Hamlet’s words.

Christopher Bollas, an American psychoanalyst with a PhD in English literature, writes that a particular experience “sponsors” a specific state of mind, or “self state.” Thus, if we perpetually repeat the same routine day after day, for months at a time, we drastically circumscribe the experience of who we are. There is a tendency for us to think the same thoughts, and to feel the same feelings. This circumscription can lead not only to boredom with our lives, but as well with whom we are.

Vacations are the portal for new experiences, of the world and of ourselves. Among the many wonderful benefits that we can experience when we are on vacation

• Leaving the world of work for a time allows us to relax.
• Our body and mind uncoil themselves.
• We breathe more deeply.
• Mental focus expands.
• We think new thoughts, we perceive new possibilities.
• Vacations often provide the opportunity for inspirations that transform our lives in myriad ways.

Vacations are strongly associated with childhood memories. Most of us had more regular, more frequent and longer vacations as children than we do as adults. Vacations can allow us to contact our “inner child.” We become so used to suppressing this dimension of ourselves in the service of functioning as “mature adults.” How sad, what a huge loss, if maturity comes to preclude the qualities of playfulness and fun that make life an adventure. Cultivate a relationship with your inner child. Ask him or her what s/he would most enjoy doing. When your child and your adult selves are living life in dialogue with one another, you will feel continually refreshed and fully alive. On vacation, past and present can commingle, giving rise to new visions for the future.

For those of us who live in urban areas, vacations can offer a time to return to nature. The infinite sensory experiences of nature, e.g. the scent of pine trees after rain, are the best tonic for depression and anxiety. Opening up to nature promotes an expansive self state, in which we somehow feel closer, or indeed one with, the realm of spirit.

In this era of economic uncertainty and anxiety, it is all too easy to cut out all vacation spending as one means of saving money. Remember the words of Wordsworth:

The world is too much with us…

Getting and spending we lay waste our powers…

Penny wise, and pound foolish. If we are not mindful, we can end up killing the golden goose: namely, ourselves.