Psychiatric Madmen? New manual makes everyone mentally sick.

Perhaps an alternate title for this would be “We’re in it for the money.”

See also another related entry entitled “Mental Health Profession has Mental Health problems.”
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“We’re all mad here”

Medication misuse is out of control in the US and more psychiatric labelling in DSM-5 will not help.

by Allen Frances | Tuesday, 21 May 2013

That’s the message of the new edition of the bible for American psychiatrists, DSM-5. Diagnostic inflation is about to become hyperinflation.

“We are all mad here” explains the Cat to Alice when she wonders about the strangeness of Wonderland. Well, life is starting to follow art. If people make the mistake of following DSM-5, the new diagnostic manual in psychiatry that was published on Saturday, pretty soon all of us may be labelled mad.

When I worked on the taskforce for DSM-4, we were very concerned about taming diagnostic inflation – but we only partly succeeded. Then four years ago, I became aware of the excessive enthusiasm around all the new diagnoses being proposed for DSM-5, including many that were untested. I hate to rain on anyone’s parade, but I knew this would be disastrous for the millions of people who were likely to be mislabelled, stigmatised and given excessive treatment.

In the US, the “sick” are distinguished from the “well” by the diagnostic and statistical manuals developed by the American Psychiatric Association.

The problem is that definitions of mental disorders are already written too loosely and are applied much too carelessly by clinicians, especially by the GPs who do most of the prescribing of psychiatric drugs.

And things are about to get much worse. Under DSM-5 diagnostic inflation looks set to become hyperinflation and will lead to an even greater glut of unnecessary medication. I would qualify for a bunch of the new labels myself – and you might too.

The grief I felt when my wife died would now be called “major depressive disorder”; forgetfulness in older age “mild neurocognitive disorder”; my gluttony now “binge eating disorder”; and my hyperactivity “attention deficit disorder”. As for my twin grandsons’ temper tantrums, this could be misunderstood as “disruptive mood dysregulation disorder”. And if you have cancer and your doctor thinks you are too worried about it, there’s “somatic symptom disorder.” It goes on, but you get the idea.

About half of Americans already qualify for a mental disorder at some point in their lives and the rates keep skyrocketing, especially among kids. In the past 20 years, the prevalence of autism has increased, childhood bipolar has multiplied 40-fold and attention deficit disorder has tripled.

One consolation: the kids are not suddenly getting much sicker – human nature is pretty stable. But the way we label symptoms follows fickle fashions, changing quickly and arbitrarily. And freely giving out inaccurate diagnoses can

Alabama Legislature OK’d tax money for private schools. Now Governor Bentley backpedals.

The Texas State Legislature doesn’t think public tax dollar$ should go to private schools.

But Alabama’s State Legislature just OK’d & Governor Bentley signed the Alabama Accountability Act of 2013 (HB 84), aka the School Flexibility Bill, aka the Private School Voucher Act.

http://educationblog.dallasnews.com/2013/04/house-votes-to-bar-state-funding-for-private-school-vouchers.html/

Help Wanted: Wal-Mart Door Greeter

One of my fine friends had recently commented about the speed of thought. I was reminded of a recent story, apropos to his remark.

It seems one of the local Wal-Marts had an opening for a Door Greeter job. The store manager published the help wanted notice & after receiving numerous applications, culled the job seekers to four.

Having thoroughly examined the applications, reviewed their resumes, and wanting to be as efficient as possible, he decided to conduct a group interview of the four sharpest candidates.

Because he wanted to see how they could think of their feet, he decided to ask them each a question and judge their response.

Turning to the first candidate, he said, “Young lady, what’s the fastest thing you can think of?”

She quickly replied saying, “A blink.”

“That’s good,” said the manager in response. “A blink is much less than a second, and the Scripture says Christ will come in the twinkling of an eye. That’s good.”

Turning to the second candidate, he asked

Research: Lowering BAC to .05 will NOT reduce traffic deaths

We’re now hearing the drumbeat to lower the BAC (Blood Alcohol Content) for DUI (Driving Under the Influence) from 0.08 to 0.05.

However, research by the NHTSA (National Highway Traffic Safety Administration) shows in 2008, the MAJORITY of drivers involved in fatal crashes in ALL 50 states had 0% BAC.

Put another way, in the MAJORITY of ALL traffic fatalities in ALL 50 states, the drivers were TOTALLY SOBER.

Yes, you read that correctly.

Alabama Republican Introduces Bill to Eliminate Overtime Pay

I wouldn’t have believed it had I not read it for myself from the official Congressional website.

U.S. Representative Martha Roby, a Republican from Alabama’s 2d Congressional District has introduced H.R. 1406, officially named the “Working Families Flexibility Act of 2013″ which would END the requirement of the Fair Labor Standards Act for employers to pay Time-and-a-Half to employees for every hour worked over 40 in one week.

http://beta.congress.gov/bill/113th-congress/house-bill/1406

The Congressional Budget Office has reported on the bill, and in part wrote that:

Boston Marathon Bombing Attracts Internet Crazies

Examine the photo below, and the question posed in it.

And then, ponder my composed response below it.

Herman Cain, ever the GOP’s insane pizza presidential candidate, has yet again demonstrated his lunacy.

Naw… give ‘em pizza!

But, on a slightly more serious note… that question is patently ludicrous and absurd upon it’s face. It’s akin to a Straw Man Fallacy.

Why?

Amidst a crowd of people,

Alabama Governor Bentley demonstrates fiscal incompetence

Part of the Great Hypocrisy of Alabama‘s über GOP-dominated state government is that on September 18, 2012, voters approved the Governor’s request to take money from the Alabama Trust Fund using the specific language in the Special Election to Amend the state’s Constitution “to provide adequate funding for the State General Fund budget”… “by transferring funds from the Alabama Trust Fund to the State General Fund beginning with the state’s 2012-2013 fiscal year and concluding with the state’s 2014-2015 fiscal year.”

It’s equally important to understand and know, that the time of the election, however, there was no repayment plan, and only recently has the legislature acted, and has the governor signed, to repay any monies taken.

And now, the Governor wants to TAKE $6 Million earmarked for the State Parks and put it into the General Fund.

It’s prima facie evidence of utter incompetency, pure & simple.

More to the point, however, specifically regarding any contract with private entities to operate any private enterprise on public property, it seems to me that such an operation is also prima facie evidence of incompetency because to do so says in essence that ‘we’re not capable, nor do we have the ability to operate any operation profitably.’ And that, my friends, is a most damning indictment.

It’s bad not only for that reason, but because since private enterprise holds the key to the operations, they can call the shots, and raise the prices (cost of operations) at will, by merely citing an increase in cost of operations (without justification or evidence). And then, the state is left holding the contractual bag, while the private entity claims squatter’s rights on public property.

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Gov. Robert Bentley says Gulf convention center a key to help parks survive funding cuts

By Mike Cason | mcason@al.com
March 27, 2013 at 10:39 PM, updated March 28, 2013 at 7:02 AM

MONTGOMERY, Alabama — Gov. Robert Bentley said Wednesday he hopes to help minimize the effect of funding cutbacks on the state parks system.

Bentley’s budget plan for fiscal 2014 called for taking $6 million earmarked for state parks and placing that money in the General Fund.

This week, State Parks Director Gregory Lein wrote a letter to elected officials and others saying some parks could close and

How out of touch with reality is the GOP?

The GOP recently acknowledged that, among other aspects of their party’s alienation from the American mainstream, they need to modify and change not merely their image, but their appeal to Hispanics, which have largely voted for Democratic candidates.

The irony of their acknowledgment is that they want to do the very thing they’ve demonstrated why and how they’ve alienated themselves from the American mainstream… hire a Mexican to do their work.

As reported in VOXXI, by Grace Flores-Hughes on March 19, 2013, “The Republican National Committee plans to hire political directors from the Hispanic, Asian, African American communities as well as from women’s groups.”
Read her story: “The ambitious coming out of the Republican Party”

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The numbers prove it: The GOP is estranged from America

By Andrew Kohut, Published: March 22

Andrew Kohut is the founding director and former president of the Pew Research Center. He served as president of the Gallup Organization from 1979 to 1989.

In my decades of polling, I recall only one moment when a party had been driven as far from the center as the Republican Party has been today.

The outsize influence of hard-line elements in the party base is doing to the GOP what supporters of

Meteorite Strikes Remote Russian City, Injures Over 1100, Damages Buildings – Video, Pictures

Attached below is 1.) a composite video of the meteorite that struck in Russia today, and; 2.) a Google Earth picture of the location of the city where it struck.

Where in Russia was it?

Chelyabinsk, Russia

Where’s that?

Latitude:  55° 9’48.21″N
Longitude:  61°24’8.78″E

Okay… where’s that?

Look for the Caspian Sea, then go NORTH, and slightly EAST.
(See the Google Earth picture attached below, and look for the YELLOW push pin which marks the city.)

Russian meteorite site GoogleEarth_Image

And just as a point of clarification…

METEOR: a small body of matter from outer space that enters the earth’s atmosphere, becoming incandescent as a result of friction and appearing as a streak of light.

METEORITE: a meteor that survives its passage through the earth’s atmosphere such that part of it strikes the ground.

Here’s a

Reason #4763 why the GOP ~still~ doesn’t “get it”: Meeting at a former slave plantation to talk about racism.

Meeting at a former slave plantation to talk about racism?

Gee, Wally… perhaps we should talk about torture at Abu Ghraib or the “Hanoi Hilton“?

GOP talks about racism at former slave plantation

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House Republicans Meet at a Former Slave Plantation to Practice Talking to Black People

by Cord Jefferson

The House Republicans are holding their annual winter retreat in quaint tourist village Williamsburg, Virginia, this weekend in order to recuperate and prepare for upcoming legislative battles. Besides partaking in discussions about the debt ceiling and gun restrictions, GOP congressmen and women will also be getting schooled in the fine art of how to have “successful communication with minorities and women.”

One might presume that people elected to high office in America have at least a general understanding of how to talk to and about minorities and women without saying unimaginably offensive things, but one would be wrong. Far too many Republicans have