This week’s focus: Veterans’ Issues (cont’d) and Med News and Views
I am honored to have my Twitter feed included in this list of 50 Best Twitter Feeds for Psychology Majors! Go check out the other 49, broken out into these categories: News; Organizations; Patients; and Professionals.
Best Tweets for Trauma and PTSD Survivors is a weekly Friday feature. My selections are entirely subjective, and I know it will never be possible to include every great resource tweeted. But I can try! I’ve personally read all tweeted links, and believe them to be of great value.
Disclaimer: I am in no way responsible for content found on any other website. Stay safe, and don’t follow links if you believe you might be triggered by them. Also, I will not be re-checking links from older Best Tweets posts, and if the site’s archived URL is different from the one I’ve provided here, you may need to do a search on their site.
Please Share My Stuff! You can now “like” and “share” this post everywhere with the touch of a button or two at the end of the linked tweets! Feel free to do any or all of that! (And thanks.)
@healthyplace “The sky has never been the limit.
We are our own limits. Break your personal limits
and outgrow yourself to live your best life.”
Some Tweets to Ponder
@800273TALK “Life can deal you some crushing blows, and we all need a deep reserve of resilience to survive.” ~ Katie Couric
@Tamavista “Be an opener of doors for such as come after thee, and do not try to make the universe a blind alley.” ~ Ralph Waldo Emerson
@AncientProverbs “What it lies in our power to do, it lies in our power not to do.” ~ Aristotle
@Mindful_Living “Proust once said, ‘The only real voyage of discovery consists not in seeking new landscapes but in having new eyes.'”
@ashwinsanghi “The best way to make your dreams come true is to wake up.” ~ Paul Valery
Linked Tweets
Veterans’ Issues (follow-on to Memorial Day)
@DCoEPage Today [May 31, 2012] is the last day of mental health awareness month! Check out all the great resources!
[SEO: Aimed at helping veterans in all aspects of mental health, bookmark this page for future reference. Includes helplines, provider resources, resources for veterans, and for military families. Scroll to the bottom of the page for a list of mobile apps and sites dedicated to PTSD and TBI issues.]
@SuePeaseBanitt Harvard, Brigham Study: Yoga Eases Veterans PTSD Symptoms (Via @commonhealth)
[SEO: A lengthy, insightful article about the nature of PTSD, and how yoga can help to essentially rewire the brain. As always, these findings are true for anyone with PTSD, not just veterans.
“‘What we believe is happening, is that through the control of attention on a target — the breath, the postures, the body — that kind of awareness generates changes in the brain, in the limbic system, and these changes in thinking focus more in the moment, less in the past, and it quiets down the anxiety-provoking chatter going on in the head. People become less reactive and the hormone-related stress cycle starts to calm down.'”]
@FightingPTSD U.S. must pay its debt to war veterans
[SEO: This post takes a hard look at the statistics of caring for our wounded military personnel. It’s grim, and expected to go much higher — and was entirely predictable, which makes the government’s slow response times and lack of allocated resources all the more unacceptable. It’s an election year. Hold your candidates accountable on this issue.
“In 2011 alone, the VA received 1.3 million disability claims. About 230,000 of those claims were from Vietnam veterans or survivors because of a change in what conditions can be considered related to Agent Orange. Those complex, 50-year-old cases took a third of all the VA benefit staff’s time.”]
Med News and Views
@SarahEOlson2009 Fast-Acting Antidepressant May Spark Treatment Advances
[SEO: According to Wikipedia, “Ketamine is primarily used for the induction and maintenance of general anesthesia, usually in combination with a sedative. It has been shown to be effective in treating depression in patients with bipolar disorder who have not responded to other anti-depressants.[8] In persons with major depressive disorder, it produces a rapid antidepressant effect, acting within two hours as opposed to the several weeks taken by typical antidepressants to work.[9]”
My linked post cites a study wherein the rapid effect worked in 79% of people tested, and it lasted for up to three days. This could be effective for acutely suicidal people. As Ketamine is injected, and apparently has been misused recreationally, it’s not something I’d expect to be prescribed for home use.]
@natasha_tracy How to Stop Antidepressants While Minimizing Withdrawal
[SEO: “While antidepressants can absolutely be life-saving medications, sometimes antidepressants aren’t the right medication at the right time for you. Or sometimes, it’s just time to try to get off of antidepressants. (For simple depression, this is often done if you have been stable for 6-12 months.)”
As emphasized in this post, never stop taking antidepressants abruptly. Read this post to learn why and how to taper off these meds gradually.]
The Rest of the Best
@kccounselling How to Build Self Confidence: 6 Essential and Timeless Tips
[SEO: Each “tip” is actually a short essay with discussion points and practical actions to take. These goals are long term; you work into them. The six topic areas are:
- Take action. Get it done.
- Face your fear.
- Understand in what order things happen.
- Prepare.
- Realize that failure or being wrong won’t kill you.
- Get to know who you are and what you want out of life.]
@OneLifeTherapy How To Rest And Recharge: Bringing Balance To Your Life And Work
[SEO: In the western world, we tend to equate “rest” with doing nothing. This post argues that the “nothing” is really something, and explores what rest might look like for you. “Perhaps rest is a rescue from the hard stuff in life. The opposite of depletion. The opposite of overwhelm. An antidote for burnout.”]
