Therapy

Erika Myers, MS, MEd, LPC, NCC - Improving communication within your relationship calls for digging beyond surface-level issues?who's right and who's wrong, for example?to recognize and appreciate your partner's needs....

Lately when I sleep at night or randomly during the day, I seldom have dreams. When I do, they’re so fogged I can’t remember them. Most nights I see darkness that feels like it lasts only a few seconds, but when I glance at the clock, I have slept for hours. I did not have this problem when I was younger. It seems that the more I age the fewer dreams I have. Some dreams are nice, others are disturbing. I use to have daydreams all the time also; those are gradually disappearing too. Abnormally long periods of time pass before I drift to sleep. I am literally laying in bed for hours trying to sleep. I ask my mother what I should do but all she says is to turn on my side and go to sleep. What does this all mean? My friends say I’m fine and just need more sleep. I typically sleep about 4-8 hours during the week. I could really use some guidance on how to deal with this. A. It is relatively normal to have difficulty recalling our dreams. One could go months without having remembered even a part of a dream. Though you don’t remember having dreamt that does not mean that you haven’t. I’m not certain that your inability to remember your dreams is indicative of a dream problem. It may potentially be a sign of sleep disturbance. You stated at the end of your letter that you typically only sleep about 4-8 hours during the week. I’m not certain if you meant 4-8 hours in an entire week or per night. My assumption is that you meant the latter. If you’re sleeping fewer than 10 hours a week, this would explain your inability to remember your dreams. If this continues to be a problem, then you should be evaluated by a physician. Report your sleep problems and inquire about the possibility of having a sleep study. A sleep study is a set of tests that a doctor uses to determine how well you sleep. The tests will measure things such as how long it takes you to go to sleep, and how long you stay asleep, among other aspects of your sleeping patterns. Sometimes, when people have trouble sleeping, it can be a sign of psychological problems. While that may be a possibility in this case, you didn’t mention experiencing any psychological symptoms. In the meantime, keep a journal about your potential sleep problems. It would be helpful to document the following information in your sleep journal: how long you sleep each night, how long it takes you to fall asleep, your anxiety level (no anxiety, low, medium or high), significant happenings of the day, and so forth. Keeping track of your sleep patterns could help to uncover a potential problem. Also, if you do eventually see your doctor about your sleep problem, your sleep journal would be a valuable resource in determining what might be wrong. Please take care. Dr. Kristina Randle Mental Health & Criminal Justice Blog

How do I determine the difference between the mental illnesses my daughter lives with and character defects? It is difficult for me to know the difference. Can you offer some guidelines that will help discern the differences, to help me in knowing how to respond? My daughter struggles with bipolar, bulemia, and possibly BPD. Thank You! A: I’m so, so sorry that your daughter is struggling with so much. I’m equally sorry that you are having difficulty with her behavior. At close to 60, this isn’t what you imagined you’d be dealing with at this point in your life. The brief answer to your question is that you are having trouble sorting out illness from temper tantrums because it’s difficult to sort out — particularly with someone who has BPD. Unstable relationships are the key characteristic of that diagnosis. I imagine you have already done some reading about it. I very much hope that your daughter has a therapist, preferably one trained in Dialectical Behavior Therapy, to help her learn to manage her feelings. I also hope that she allows you to attend sessions now and then to learn ways you can support her and yet have an appropriately separate life. With or without a mental illness, your daughter is an adult and needs to be managing her own life as much as possible. You might find it helpful to find a chapter of NAMI, The National Alliance on Mental Illness. Many chapters have parent education and support groups to help people like yourself know how to best support family members who have mental illness. What you can do that no one else can do is love your daughter as only a mother can. That doesn’t mean that you need to be a victim of her mood shifts and any unreasonable demands. A support group can give you other people who understand, information about how to stay centered when your daughter is being difficult and people to call when you need to remind yourself how to do it. I wish you well. Dr. Marie

Snap! Ouch! That’s from my head doing a double take. All these years, I thought the calcium vs heart disease thing was a conspiracy arranged by one researcher and publication. However, 3 months ago, I stumbled upon some corroborating studies by other researchers in other journals. Even the US Preventive Services Task Force recently came out against low dose calcium (less than 1,000mg/d) in post-menopausal women because they could not find conclusive evidence of benefit in the face of a small risk of harm from kidney stone... Bolland, M., Grey, A., Avenell, A., Gamble, G., & Reid, I. (2011) Calcium supplements with or without vitamin D and risk of cardiovascular events: reanalysis of the Women's Health Initiative limited access dataset and meta-analysis. BMJ, 342(apr19 1). DOI: 10.1136/bmj.d2040 Calcium supplements with or without vitamin D and risk of cardiovascular events: reanalysis of the Women's Health Initiative limited access dataset and meta-analysis Langsetmo, L., Berger, C., Kreiger, N., Kovacs, C., Hanley, D., Jamal, S., Whiting, S., Genest, J., Morin, S., Hodsman, A.... (2013) Calcium and Vitamin D Intake and Mortality: Results from the Canadian Multicentre Osteoporosis Study (CaMos). Journal of Clinical Endocrinology . DOI: 10.1210/jc.2013-1516 Calcium and Vitamin D Intake and Mortality: Results from the Canadian Multicentre Osteoporosis Study (CaMos)

... Iliev, I., Funari, V., Taylor, K., Nguyen, Q., Reyes, C., Strom, S., Brown, J., Becker, C., Fleshner, P., Dubinsky, M.... (2012) Interactions Between Commensal Fungi and the C-Type Lectin Receptor Dectin-1 Influence Colitis. Science, 336(6086), 1314-1317. DOI: 10.1126/science.1221789 Interactions Between Commensal Fungi and the C-Type Lectin Receptor Dectin-1 Influence Colitis Findley, K., Oh, J., Yang, J., Conlan, S., Deming, C., Meyer, J., Schoenfeld, D., Nomicos, E., Park, M., Becker, J.... (2013) Topographic diversity of fungal and bacterial communities in human skin. Nature. DOI: 10.1038/nature12171 Topographic diversity of fungal and bacterial communities in human skin Huffnagle, G., & Noverr, M. (2013) The emerging world of the fungal microbiome. Trends in Microbiology. DOI: 10.1016/j.tim.2013.04.002 The emerging world of the fungal microbiome

Take Home Message: Evidence of increased alpha angles has been shown in ice hockey players as compared to non-hockey playing matched controls. Even at young ages, signs of bony abnormality linked to femoroacetabular impingement are present. Femoroacetabular impingement (FAI) is a common radiographic finding among athletes participating in sports requiring hip flexion, hip internal rotation, and repetitive cyclic motions. Cam-deformity FAI is marked by the aspherical shape of the femoral head, and is radiographically defined by an alpha angle 55?. Hockey players employ a skating pattern that is suspected to cause cam-deformity but it remains unclear how common cam-deformities are among asymptomatic young ice hockey players. Therefore, Philippon and colleagues conducted a cohort study to determine how common a large alpha angle was among 61 youth hockey players and 27 youth skiers.... Philippon, M., Ho, C., Briggs, K., Stull, J., & LaPrade, R. (2013) Prevalence of Increased Alpha Angles as a Measure of Cam-Type Femoroacetabular Impingement in Youth Ice Hockey Players. The American Journal of Sports Medicine. DOI: 10.1177/0363546513483448 Prevalence of Increased Alpha Angles as a Measure of Cam-Type Femoroacetabular Impingement in Youth Ice Hockey Players

A recent study shows that cognitive behavioral therapy and an Internet-based cognitive bias method both work to reduce social anxiety in adolescents....

#PTSD Can Make You Jump Off a Mountain @time

Michele Rosenthal for GoodTherapy.org's "Share Your Story": Medical issues during adolescence gave way to posttraumatic stress that followed me for decades, but I never gave up on wanting to connect with the world....

Heavy marijuana use may cause withdrawal symptoms for some who try to quit, which manifests as negative reinforcement. Those users are more likely to relapse and continue marijuana use....