September 27, 2007 10:18 PM | Posted by Curtis: | Reply

that was great

September 28, 2007 6:40 AM | Posted by Herb: | Reply

If “a picture is worth a thousand words,” wow…what’s a video worth?

Hey doc, why not suggest they include the link if not the video in the forthcoming DSM V?

Warmly,
Herb
VNSdepression.com

Alone's response: That's a good idea. But, taken at his word, is Stanhope an "undiagnosed bipolar" or just a wildly creative person who can't turn off the "circus?" Some may say they're the same thing, but one implies "treatment" and the other implies "figure out what to do productive with it."

September 28, 2007 7:07 AM | Posted by Jon S.: | Reply

What's the psychiatric diagnosis for Billy Joel in the head?

Alone's response: neurosyphilis.

September 29, 2007 7:49 AM | Posted by acute mania: | Reply

This describes me for my entire life. They tell you it's abnormal, but it can't be unusual. Nobody in the audience would be laughing, if they couldn't relate to it. The pharm industry seems to be trying to broaden the bipolar dx so much than anyone can relate to the symptoms presented in the ads. I attended a bipolar support group the other day with 20 or so people and not one had previously had an episode of full blown, straitjacket-mandating psychotic mania. Why else would you need to diagnose someone as bipolar and comprimise their physical health with meds? OK some of these people have considered suicide. Big deal. Who hasn't? Everyone is always on a cocktail of meds, usually with seroquel at some insanely (or is that inanely?) low dose. Trying to find the perfect balance of psychiatric meds to make them oblivious to the fact that that $500,000 house they just bought is a cardboard box, their job sucks, they live in a cultural wasteland, and their kids are underachievers is a lost cause.

September 29, 2007 5:55 PM | Posted by Velvet Elvis: | Reply

I've always attributed that to ADD and OCD feeding off each other. Free association eventually leads to a subject that causes an obsession. The resulting anxiety spike causes an adrenaline boost which guarantees I'll be up for another hour. The resulting twitching and ticing thing keeps my gf up. Seroquel nipped it in the bud but I gained the better part of 100 pounds on it and still didn't want to come off it but the whole pre-diabetes thing was scary.

September 30, 2007 2:41 AM | Posted by bryon: | Reply

ah, censorship
"Access Denied (policy_denied)

Your request was denied because of its content categorization: "Personal Pages;Streaming Media"

For assistance, contact your network support team"

September 30, 2007 10:58 PM | Posted by Lucent: | Reply

This is why I exhaust myself before getting in bed. And even worse than lying awake slightly tired is waking up in the middle of the night. That is when the carnival really kicks into high gear.

Alone's response: as a 4-5 hr/night-- not by choice-- guy myself, I'm with you. FYI: trouble falling asleep due to thoughts (caffeine, mania, frustration; and the feeling that one has not actually accomplished anything) is different than waking up due to thoughts (sadness, anxiety.)

October 7, 2007 2:36 PM | Posted by Patrick Hayes: | Reply

I don't know if this will help anyone else besides me, but I do sometimes find it helpful to use binaural beat frequencies to go to sleep or to go back to sleep. This is where you listen to very special sounds with stereo headphones. It takes advantage of your brain's evolved system to locate the directional source of lower frequency sounds. It actually drives this system, through the olivary nucleus if I remember right, to induce brainwaves of frequencies matching the beat frequency (difference in frequencies between the two ears). The induced frequency of neural network firings seems to spread to other parts of the brain, if one doesn't fight against it. (Though the guy in the video may be a natural fighter?) By starting with an alpha frequency and lowering into theta or delta over say 20 to 30 minutes, it can gently guide me back to sleep. The main problem is that I still have headphones on, so when I roll on my side, I might wake up from the discomfort of the pressure on my ear. I wonder if some special product might be made to effectively deal with this issue somehow, if it helped enough people.

What do you think Dr. Last Psych?