Sunshine, Vitamin D, and Happy Days

For the past two or three weeks we've had cloudy skies, cooler temperatures, and lots of rain, drizzle, and thunderstorms here on my country mile.   Like many people, I find the living a little less joyful when it's cloudy and dreary for long; I feel more like I'm labouriously plodding through knee-high mud than striding confidently on firm ground.  And then on Thursday the sun was back and has been ever since.  Now it's easier to smile, to be patient when things don't go my way, and to find the energy for things I need to do.

I did some research recently, after learning that a family member had developed a Vitamin D deficiency (due to an  undiagnosed chronic illness, not diet), and discovered that the sun is our best source of Vitamin D, a substance which is crucial, not only to our physical well being (strong bones and teeth), but to our mental health as well.  Our brains need Vitamin D to facilitate the production of those neurotransmitters (like serotonin or dopamine) that help us to regulate our moods and emotions.  No wonder my mood improved and my energy returned when the sun finally appeared.

 So, we could make sure we get twenty minutes of sun exposure directly on our skin each day ... or we could drink twelve large glasses of milk each day.  Not a tough choice, in my book.  I like milk but too much is ... well, too much.  And in the winter, when the sun just isn't strong enough here in the Northern Hemisphere, we can take Vitamin D tablets; about 100 mg daily would be just right.  Actually, if we're being proactive, we want to start taking our Vitamin D in September when we notice the days getting shorter and continue our daily dose until at least late May, if we're having a fairly sunny spring and we know that our daily routine allows us to get those twenty minutes of sunshine directly on our skin. 

I take my Vitamin D every day I'm not likely to get outdoors much, like long days at work, no matter what the season.  They help me get through the winter without becoming too blue or too unmotivated but they're not as good as the real thing, the best source of Vitamin D, the sun.

Many years ago, when I told a girlfriend how much I enjoyed sitting in the backyard and just soaking up a little sunshine, she said, "It's almost like therapy, isn't it?"  She had a point; the sun can be as good for us as anything else we might use to safeguard our mental and emotional health.  And, like everything else that is good for us, moderation is the key.  We all know the facts about skin cancer; combined with these new facts about avoiding depression and SAD, we want to choose judiciously how much time we spend in the sun.

5 More Mental Health Misconceptions

Here are five more misconceptions about mental health to add to the top 10 of a recent post.  The list could go probably go on and on, so I may be adding more from time to time as I come across them.

11. Schizophrenia means split personality.  This is a common mistake, as the Greek root word "schizo" does mean split.  It's not the personality that splits with schizophrenia; it's the conception of reality that splits.  A person with schizophrenia, because of things they may see or hear that have no basis in reality, can't always be sure what's real and what's not.  (The mental disorder in which the personality can be described as "split" is multiple personality disorder.)

12. All people who have schizophrenia are violent and dangerous.  We can blame  Hollywood for messing us up on this one, often portraying the mentally ill  as dangerous and out-of-control murderers.  Media's sensationalizing of the rare case that involves violence doesn't help, either.  The truth is that the mentally ill are rarely violent.  People with a  mental illness are more often victims of violence than perpetrators.

13. ECT is barbaric and ineffective.  Electro-convulsive  therapy has been around since the 1930s but was not always used as well as it is today.  We've learned much more over the years about when it is recommended and when it's not likely to be helpful.  Its a painless therapy that is most effective for instances of depression so severe that they don't respond to anti-depressant medication.

14. Children don't get mental illnesses.  It would be great if that were true but the sad reality is that children can be clinically depressed, too.  And more and more children are being treated for anxiety disorders these day, too.  Many major mental illnesses begin in childhood.  Always see a doctor or a child mental health professional when trying to help a child you suspect has a mental illnesses.

15. Once you have a mental illness, you'll have it forever.  Fortunately, that's simply not true for many mental illnesses.  With appropriate and effective treatments that are now available, recovery is possible.  In some cases, recovery takes some time; in others complete recovery may be too high a goal.  Balanced management of symptoms and good self-care make it possible for people with mental illnesses to lead productive and meaningful lives while they're on the road to recovery.

Outhhouse Nostalgia

When I recall my growing up days in the country, I occasionally end up thinking about outhouses, something commonly found at the end of many a country mile in a certain era.  Not that I have many firm memories of outhouses; I think I was too young when we lived in an older little house in the 1950s and had an outhouse in the yard.  Mom has told me that I used to wake up from dreams of falling down the hole; I’m so glad I don’t remember those dreams any more.

I do have one memory that involves a visiting boy throwing my younger sister’s favourite doll down the outhouse hole.  I clearly remember my sister’s horrified tears.  I also remember that Mom retrieved the doll; what I don’t recall is how she did it.   Certainly, I’d call that going above and beyond the call of parenting duty.  Of course, in those days it might have been a standard challenge faced by many parents.

I got curious about outhouses once and Googled the topic.  An outhouse was defined as a small, freestanding, enclosed structure having one or two holes cut into a seat over a pit and serving as an outdoor toilet.  It doesn’t flush and is not connected to a sewer.  The article went on to discuss the hardships experienced when people used the outdoor facility at night or in the cold of winter and the possibility, in more remote settings, of encountering wildlife on the path to the bathroom.

I found several explanations for why many outhouses had a crescent moon shape carved into the door.  One site said that the moon was the symbol for women and a sun or starburst was the symbol for men, necessary in times when not everyone could read.  The reason we see mostly moon symbols on old outhouses that have survived to the present is that men were apparently much harder on their bathrooms than women were, so very few men’s outhouses lasted as long.

But the explanation that made the best sense to me is that the crescent shape was carved into the door for two purposes; the first because some sort of opening was necessary to provide a little light, and the second, because the crescent shape was perfect in the days before fancy hardware options for slipping one’s curved fingers into when opening or closing the door.

I found out that there are people in this day and age who still use outhouses, mostly in remote areas such as parts of the Yukon, or at their cottages.  Many of these people use a chamber pot in the house at night to avoid frosty winter dashes outside.  I remember that we had a chamber pot in our house when I was very young, though I can’t recall ever using it.  I do have a memory of my youngest brother sitting on it when he was two or so, as part of his “potty” training.

Finally, I also found an Internet reference to outhouse diggers, people who dig at the sites of old, covered-over outhouses because so many interesting items went down those holes in the past, inadvertently or deliberately.  Eeeuww!  Although the article I read said that everything unpleasant had long been converted to soil, just the thought is enough to make me shy away.  I love a good treasure hunt but I’d say “no thanks” to this one.

Does any one have any outhouse memories to share?  Feel free to comment.

The Older I Get...

Recently a local business posted a humourous sign that read, “The older I get, the better I was.”  I chuckled the first time I read it and thought about how it did express a certain reality.  But after further reflection, I decided that it wasn’t true for me.  If I’m honest, I would have to say that the older I get as I travel my country mile, the better I get.

I can say this because I like the age I am now, the things I’ve learned, and the many dreams and ambitions I still have.  I wonder sometimes if that makes me different from others who might say that their best years are behind them and there is little left to look forward to.  Perhaps I just march to the beat of a different drum and I now hear that beat louder and more clearly than I ever did.  Perhaps it’s my hearing that’s improving as I age.

I find that the older I get, the more I want to learn.  I’d happily go back to school to learn another skill and, if things line up right, I may just do that again one of these years.  I can’t imagine ever fully retiring, although I may change my primary occupation and choose a different pace than I have now.

Perhaps I’m finally reaping a little of that self-confidence that we’re said to gain as we grow older and becoming less concerned about what others think.  Now I’m finally more interested in what I think and what God thinks of who I am.   I’m finding it easier to give others a little grace and I hope there are some in this world that can do the same for me.  But, if there aren’t, that’s okay, because I can do it for me now.

In my youth, which I define as a significant portion of my life thus far, I was too busy keeping up with the rest of the world, not thinking enough for myself, and not placing enough value on the thoughts and opinions that I did have.  All that seemed so complicated then, and so natural and easy now. 

Now, it’s easier to value my thoughts as gifts from the God who created me with the ability to think.  They may be very different thoughts from those of other people, but I am coming to understand that if God wanted me to think their way, He’d have seen to it that I did.  Since He didn’t, I can only assume that there is value to the thought process He gave me.

All of this to say that I like where my life has taken me thus far and I respect the process it took to get here.  Some parts of that were very hard and I wouldn’t care to repeat them, although I can see they were necessary.  Some parts are likely to be difficult in the future and I’m not looking forward to them.  Hopefully, the older I get, the wiser I’ll be and I’ll be able to let God see me through.  And part of that wisdom will be to focus on the present, live fully in the moment, and leave the future exactly where it is … not here yet.

How do you feel about getting older and the changes that may bring?  I'd love to chat with you about it.  I invite you to leave a comment.

Top 10 Misconceptions About Mental Health

After years of counselling people who are at a point in life where they need a little extra support or a listening ear, I’ve compiled a list of the top ten misconceptions people have about mental health.

1. Mental health problems are rare; it won’t happen to me.  Truth is nearly 1 of every 5 North Americans will have a diagnosable mental disorder within their lifetimes.

 2. Mental health problems are caused by the people who have them; it’s their own fault. It’s true we all need to take responsibility for our own thoughts, feelings, and behaviours even if we have a mental health disorder, but we are not to blame for them. We can’t confuse taking responsibility with accepting blame.

3. Mental health problems are purely biological or genetic in nature. Biological factors, genetic inheritance, environmental factors, and psychosocial factors all may contribute to the development of mental disorders.

4. Mental health disorders are life-long and complicated to treat. There are effective treatments available for most mental health disorders.  Various types of psychotherapy and medications make it possible for most people who have a mental health issue to live normal and fulfilling lives.

5. Psychotherapy takes forever and is all about childhood issues.  Modern psychotherapy is often short-term and solution oriented. Most short-term psychotherapy approaches use a cognitive-behavioral model, which identifies the irrational thoughts that lead to dysfunctional behaviours and feelings. This type of therapy how to change those unhelpful thought patterns. Most common mental health disorders are now treatable in months rather than of years. Insurance and managed care plans often cover significant portions of the treatments.

   

6. I should be able to handle my own mental health problems; if I can't, it means I'm weak.  Most people who have a mental health problem don’t seek treatment. Rather, they rely on their usual coping mechanisms (perhaps exercise, eating, time with friends, working longer and harder, etc.) to handle the problem. And often talking with friends, reading a self-help book, or learning from an online self-help support group may be enough to see them through it.

But when the problems become overwhelming that’s a sign these people need more help. It doesn’t mean they’re weak-minded or weak-willed. It means they realize and accept their natural human limitations, and are wise enough and strong enough to seek appropriate care when their own coping skills aren’t enough.

             
Most of us don’t accuse ourselves of weakness if we see the doctor for a physical injury. Mental health problems are no different. They, like physical issues, can also result in permanent disability or worse if left untreated.

7. If I admit I have problems, everyone will think I'm crazy; I'll be hospitalized for a very long time.  “Crazy” has become a meaningless term. Everybody is a little “crazy” occasionally. Having a mental disorder doesn't mean you're crazy. It means you have a problem, similar to a medical disease, which needs to be treated. Would a family member or friend think less of you if you had cancer or the flu? Then why should they think less of you for having depression or anxiety? If they do, they need some education so they can be more open-minded.

Most people with diagnosable mental disorders don’t need hospitalization. Hospitalization is for extreme cases, when the problem puts you in danger of dying or causing harm or death to another person. If you should need a brief hospitalization time, you will be assessed, treated, and released as soon as you are feeling better, just as you would in the Emergency Room.

8. Being suicidal means I'm crazy.  Suicidal feelings are usually symptoms of depression or a related mood disorder. Feeling suicidal doesn’t make you crazy; it means you are overwhelmed by a situation or the harmful thinking that characterizes your illness and you can’t see a way to go on living. Suicidal feelings go away once you receive adequate care for your depression or mood disorder.

9.  Mental health problems are best treated by my primary care physician or a general practitioner.   Mental health professionals agree that diagnosable mental disorders are best treated by trained mental health professionals. Mental disorders should be taken seriously. You'd see an oncologist for cancer, a dermatologist for skin problems; you shouldn’t expect or demand any less care when dealing with mental health problems. GPs are good but are often trained only to prescribe a psychopharmacological treatment approach.  research has shown that the most effective treatment is a combined approach: psychopharmacology (medication) with psychotherapy.

10. Mental health professionals (psychologists, psychiatrists, psychiatric nurses, marriage and family counselors, etc.) make lots of money off people who have these disorders.  I’d love it if I could make lots of money doing something I love: helping people.  But thanks to the expansion of managed care into the mental health field, mental health care has become one of the lowest paying, longest work-day health care professions.  Like nurses, doctors, or social workers, mental health professionals are caring individuals who chose their field because they wanted to earn their living in a meaningful way.

Some of these make me angry when I encounter them, like #2.  Others just make me sad, like # 6.  I think it's sad and lonely when people  feel they have to go it alone, either because they're misinformed or because of the huge stigma that are still out there about mental health. 

Are you aware of any other misconceptions that should be added to this list?  Comment and let me know what you think.

My Heroes! Smarter Than We Think

What ever would I do without my faithful doggie friends to protect me here at my country home?   Just this afternoon their frantic baying, barking, and howling “saved” me from an evil plastic bag tumbling over itself as a gentle breeze moved it erratically across the yard.

It makes you wonder how animals think.  People would feel foolish if the danger they got all worked up about turned out to be nothing more than an empty plastic bag but dogs’ brains obviously work differently.  No sooner did Baxter, our beagle, catch the dangerous bag, than it became a toy to shake and tear, to release until the breeze moved it almost out of reach, and then to pounce upon it again with all the ferocity he could muster.  Surely, no bag will ever dare venture into our yard again!

When she was a year or so old, our last German Shepherd, Lady, even took on the cut-out wooden Smokey the Bear figure at the ranger station in Sandilands Provincial Forest.  Whatever dastardly intentions Smokey might have had to harm us, he must have changed his mind pretty quickly when a nearly full-grown German Shepherd rushed him, snarling and barking her outrage!  Then, her brave task completed, she came trotting back to us with her tail held high and waving proudly.

 We smiled and told ourselves that Lady was acting out of instincts, that surely she didn’t “think” she was protecting us.  It’s a common perception that dogs don’t think, that they merely react to external stimuli out of their natural drives and instincts.  The truth is that dogs are much smarter than we give them credit for.  They can often think circles around their unsuspecting owners, because most owners haven’t learned how to think like a dog.

I’ve read that dogs may think in sensory impressions; visual, sound, and odour images.  I doubt that they experience videos inside their brains but I suspect they do share our ability to form and experience certain images, odours, and sounds in their minds.  This is why they get so excited when we return home at the end of the day; they have a visual or odour “memory picture” in their minds of who is arriving and so they are barking eagerly before we’re even in the door.

In Lady’s case, the Smokey figure didn’t fit any of her visual, sound, or odour images and so she wisely treated it as an unknown and possibly dangerous creature.  She “thought” the situation through, not verbally as we would, but in her sensory way, and “decided” on an appropriate response.  Our beagle did the same thing when he attacked the bag that didn’t fit any of his sensory impressions and therefore could well have been something dangerous.

And so I’m never alone on a day when no one human is with me here at our country home.  My faithful canine friends are brave enough and smart enough to protect me from danger of any sort.

Wind-in-the-Pines

Wind-in-the-Pines is my fanciful, poetic name for the forest home I love so much.  I love to hear the soft sighing whisper of the wind caressing the pine needles.  And we have lots of pines, as you can see in this misty-morning shot in September of our first year here:

More than once, though, the wind blowing through the pines has not been such a good thing.  On June 26, 2010 a very powerful wind storm tore through this little corner of south-eastern Manitoba and damaged several properties in its path.  Our property was directly in its path and, in about ten minutes of roaring wind and rain, we lost over one-third of the forest that sheltered our home.

Thanks to God's grace we sustained very little damage to our house (although the shingles took a real beating and needed to be replaced) and no cars or sheds were hit.  Our daughter was not home, a very good thing as it turned out, as two huge poplars fell right where her little car would have been parked.  We had no power for 28 hours; falling trees had taken out the power along our road and it took Manitoba Hydro some time to get to us and remove trees and debris to repair the line, which had snapped in several places.

I called our our kids for help and, bless their hearts, they responded bright and early the next morning.  Our sons worked to cut up and move three huge trees that blocked the driveway and the turn-around while Garry and I continued surveying the damage.  We soon realized that we would  need professional help; even  our sons' and daughter-in-law's hours of hard at work made barely a dent in the clean-up that was needed.  So, for the rest of that summer, and for much of the fall and following spring, this is what we saw and heard in our yard:

I've been meaning to blog this event but somehow could never bring myself to revisit the feelings that came with it.  Then, just last weekend, while we were in Saskatoon, guess what happened ... again?  Fortunately, it wasn't nearly as bad this time but it was just enough to bring all those feelings and thoughts of two years ago back to me.  Here's what we saw when we got up on our first morning home:

We lost seven trees to the wind this time; it's starting to feel like soon there won't be many pines to define our forest home anymore.  We've planted a few hundred seedlings by now, over the last couple of years since the first storm, and they all seem to be doing well ... but seedlings don't turn into full-grown pines overnight.  The power of Nature is changing our landscape and redefining our home.

 

Soul Care

The full title of the conference I attended this weekend was "Caring for Your Soul While Giving Your Heart Away."  Stephen and Gwen Smith of Potter's Inn Ministries of Colorado presented the workshop parts of the conference, which took place in Saskatoon, Saskatchewan.  The timing was perfect; I was fatigued, feeling almost brain-dead from four days of work squeezed into three, and experiencing more pain in my joints and tendons than usual, thanks to an approaching storm system that met us in Saskatoon and accompanied us all the way home on Sunday afternoon and evening.

The workshop sessions were designed to lead participants, mostly psychotherapists, pastors, and social workers, from the starting point of exploring the Jesus life to finding out what's wrong with our lives and within our souls. Then it urged establishing a life of rhythm (as opposed to balance), moved to embracing the Sabbath as a key way to sustain abundant life, and concluded with five ways to care for our souls while giving our hearts away to our clients and people we love.

I did a little soul care in our break period, walking along the river with Garry.

Travel is one way I care for my soul, so a 10 hour drive to Saskatoon (closer to 11 hours with stretch breaks) with the promise of a repeat performance on Sunday, didn't feel like a hardship, although we were pretty tired when we arrived on Friday, just in time for registration at 5:00 pm.  The first session was underway by 6:30 and we listened, pondered, discussed, and shared until almost 10:00 pm.  Did I ever sleep well when I finally got to bed and the motion sickness eventually abated!

On Saturday morning the sessions began bright and early, right after morning worship and continued until late afternoon when we were given a couple of hours rest time to get out of our windowless basement conference room and prepare for the celebratory banquet planned for the evening.  The Professional Association of Canadian Christian Counsellors, the organization which sponsored the event and to which I belong, was celebrating its 10th anniversary as a national organization with a formal banquet and program.  Sunday morning began with worship time again and moved right into two more soul care sessions before releasing us to head for home around 12:30.

My soul definitely feels cared for, refreshed, and renewed.  How could it not when almost every element I need to feel that way was present during the weekend?  There was learning from wise people and from Scripture;  beautiful music and worship; an abundance of excellent food (even cheesecake for dessert at the banquet;  lots of coffee; and a glorious hour of walking along the river (right across from our hotel) on the city's river park walkways.  Give my soul sunshine, trees, worship, music, and learning ... and fulfillment and refreshment are inevitable.