Hyacinths in Winter

Friends of our family generously gifted our family Hyacinths a couple of weeks ago. We are dead set in the middle of winter in Michigan, although the Hyacinths were a clear reminder of hope, beauty and persistance. They are a deep reminder that under the snow, under the dirt, under the hurt, sadness, anger, smiles is a core of concentrated energy that if nutured can bloom into the intense smell and beauty of Hyacinths. The core is there, feed it, nuture it and give it the support it deserves, be persistent because things will pull us off track, no need to get mad or angry, notice the diversion and remember life and give it a little water and love. Who know what can awesome beauty is possible!

National Association for Mental Health

We wanted to give you the link for the National Association for Mental Health. There website has gathered some very useful information with links to Patient Assistance Programs for drug companies, general information regarding medications and other mental health treatments, advocacy, state grades for mental health systems and more....

Take a look...there is likely some information that can be useful to you.

Judgement and Experiential Learning

There are many ways of learning. We have found experiential learning to be very valuable in self-growth and counseling. It involves the individual needs and motivations for learning. We learn from our experiences and we intragrate these feelings, thoughts and behaviors into our next experience. Experiential learning does require that an individual take the time to self-evaluate their experiences and sometimes doing this with a teacher or counselor can help with intergrating the experience and learning.

Carl Rogers, one of the founders of the humanistic psychology movement coined the term Experiential Learning.

Twitter, YouTube, MySpace: Effects on Self-Esteem and Personality a Commentary

October 2, 2009 PsychiatricTimes.com.
COMMENTARY
Twitter and YouTube: Unexpected Consequences of the Self-Esteem Movement?
Lauren D. LaPorta, MD
Dr LaPorta is chairman of the department of psychiatry at St Joseph’s Regional Medical Center in Paterson, New Jersey.

To Americans over 30, YouTube, Facebook, MySpace and Twitter are buzzwords that lack much meaning. But to those born between 1982 and 2001—often referred to as “millennials” or “Generation Y”—they are a part of everyday life. For the uninitiated, these Web sites are used for social networking and communication. They are also places where individuals can post pictures and news about themselves and express their opinions on everything from music to movies to politics. Some sites, such as YouTube, allow individuals to post videos of themselves, often creating enough “buzz” to drive hundreds and even thousands of viewers; in some instances, these videos create instant media stars—such as the Obama imitator, Iman Crosson.
The amount of content on these Web sites is overwhelming and the time Americans spend on them is on the rise. More than one-third of Internet use is devoted to social networking sites.1 We are now collectively spending 13.9 billion minutes on Facebook, and 5 billion minutes on MySpace. Twitter grew at a rate of more than 3700% in the past year, taking up 300 million minutes of our time.2

Although baby boomers and members of “Generation X” are signing up for these sites, it is the youth market that drives their appeal. While on the surface, they are touted as venues for networking and communication, they may, ultimately, be eroding real relationships and social contacts much as e-mail, instant messaging and “texting” have replaced cards, letters, and phone calls.

This technology may be interfering with the normal development of a generation, prolonging the “normal” narcissism of adolescence and preventing the establishment of mature relationships. Rather than learning critical lessons about emotional sensitivity to others and reciprocity in relationships, our youth are creating alternate, solipsistic realities where they are the focus of attention. Those who do not agree are simply excluded from their inner circle.3 Thus, these technological advances may be fostering a sense of isolation, alienation, and (at worst) promoting a tendency toward narcissism that may ultimately lead to an increase in violence and aggression.
A series of studies by Twenge and Campbell4 demonstrated that narcissists experienced more anger and aggression following perceived social rejection. The narcissists’ anger was not only manifested as direct aggression toward the person who slighted him or her but also as displaced aggression toward innocent third parties.4 It is indeed a disturbing finding, then, that more than half of teen profiles on MySpace mention risky and violent behaviors.

Read more at PsychiatricTimes.com....