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A Question of Ethics: An Expert Interview With Amy Brodkey, MD

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Respiratory Physiology Menu

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Tyler Durden’s Rules for Writing in the Zone, part 2 « Tribal Writer

move beyond fear, expect no perfection & accept imperfection, just move forward with criticism/praise embracing reality with the freedom to experiment/create

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Writes Greene:

As we get older we are naturally drawn outward, towards actions that will bring us power. This outer zone seems unfamiliar and unpredictable, but inviting.

At certain points of moving in this direction, however, we inevitably encounter a resistance or obstacle that triggers a fear–that of being alone, having to confront people and possibly displease them, making mistakes and being criticized, feeling bored and empty, dealing with change and possible adversity, losing what we have, facing death itself. At the instant we feel this fear we look backwards towards what is safe and comforting and move in that direction.

We do not explore or take risks. We react and retreat in a single line. We draw a circle around ourselves that cuts us off from power, one that becomes a kind of self-imposed prison.

Life naturally involves moments of pain and loneliness, battles and setbacks. To feel fear and retreat because of them is to struggle against life itself.

As conscious, rational adults, we are called to finally move past these childish illusions and fears, to embrace life and reality….Beyond the circle of fear, you have the freedom to experiment and be creative with your response.
If we’re to write in the zone, we have to put that anxiety aside. We have to accept that our work won’t be perfect, nor should we expect it to be. It just is what it is. And we are what we are.

We run with it. We roll with it.

We take the bad with the good, the criticism with the praise.

And we move forward.

Side effects of antidepressants: an overview. — Cleveland Clinic Journal of Medicine

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Ben Casnocha: The Blog: Merry Christmas

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Newspapers and technology: Network effects | The Economist

analogy between the past telegraph & present internet affecting print news.

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Elaborate ruses involving fast boats, carrier pigeons, express trains and even semaphore systems meant that papers, not businessmen, started getting the news first. Editors boasted about the timeliness of their news, and how they had beaten other papers to it. When the Journal of Commerce arrived in Boston by mail, merchants would fight to see it: one eyewitness reported seeing “crowds, in Topliff’s News-room in Boston, disagreeably elbowing each other around the file of the Journal of Commerce, on the arrival of the New York mail.” Newspapers were democratising information. Bennett once declared that “speculators should not have the advantage of earlier news than the public at large.”

The telegraph, it seemed, would put an end to this productive rivalry. Raw news and market information would now arrive first at the telegraph office; papers, along with merchants and everyone else, would have to queue for it. Telegraph firms would establish a new monopoly over news delivery, and would sell early access to the news to the highest bidder. Papers would be unable to compete. Circulation would decline and advertisers would flee. The democratisation of news would be undone.

There was hope, however. Bennett believed that a few papers which provided commentary and analysis (including the Herald) would survive. “The telegraph may not affect magazine literature, nor those newspapers that have some peculiar characteristic,” he predicted. But he warned that “mere newspapers”, which simply reported the news, were doomed. He was not alone in this view. The Alexandria Gazette opined that the telegraph would henceforth deliver the raw news, leaving newspapers to “examining causes, tracing effects, enlightening the judgments, and directing the reflections of men.” It seemed that the only way to survive was to offer analysis and opinion, or to focus on events in a narrow field, too obscure to merit coverage by telegraphic news services. A reshaping of the entire industry appeared to be imminent.
Predictions that newspapers would henceforth favour analysis and opinion over news also got things exactly backwards. Instead, the balance tipped towards the latest news.
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- But some felt the obsession with speed went too far; there were concerns that the freshness of news, often from far away, was taking precedence over relevance.
- America has in fact transformed journalism from what it once was, the periodical expression of the thought of the time, the opportune record of the questions and answers of contemporary life, into an agency for collecting, condensing and assimilating the trivialities of the entire human existence,” he moaned. “The frantic haste with which we bolt everything we take, seconded by the eager wish of the journalist not to be a day behind his competitor, abolishes deliberation from judgment and sound digestion from our mental constitutions. We have no time to go below surfaces, and as a general thing no disposition.”
- The high cost of sending telegrams, at least in the early days of the technology, led to starker, simpler prose. The main points of a story were summarised, followed by layers of additional detail, in declining order of importance, in an “inverted pyramid”. Whether wire reports were truly more neutral than the more partisan reporting of the pre-telegraphic era is still the subject of academic debate, but they did give the semblance of neutrality
- art of reporting had killed the art of oratory
- “Some of the comments, compared with the actual facts, were found not to be so sagacious as they were supposed to be.” This would, said the Public Ledger, make journalism “more cautious in its comments upon public events abroad”.
- Politicians also had to be watchful once their words were circulated by telegraph. Offhand comments could not be disclaimed and they could no longer alter speeches for local consumption.
- Today, papers are doing their best to co-opt the internet. They have launched online editions, set up blogs and encouraged dialogue with readers. Like the telegraph, the internet has changed the style of reporting and forced papers to be more timely and accurate, and politicians to be more consistent. Again there is talk of news being commoditised and of the need to focus on analysis and opinion, or on a narrow subject area.
- The internet may kill newspapers; but it is not clear if that matters. For society, what matters is that people should have access to news, not that it should be delivered through any particular medium; and, for the consumer, the faster it travels, the better.
- The trouble is that nobody knows how to make money in the new environment. That raises questions about how much news will be gathered. But there is no sign of falling demand for news, and technology has cut the cost of collecting and distributing it, so the supply is likely to increase.

Study Hacks » Blog Archive » If You're Nervous About Quitting Your Boring Job, Don't Do It

those who have built up highly desirable skills rarely feel much nervousness about the prospect of switching jobs.

BUILD UP A VALUABLE SKILL UNTIL YOU'VE ELIMINATED THIS NERVOUSNESS.

once your stomach stops churning about your occupational day dreams, the time is right to make them a reality

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building up a valuable skill until you’ve eliminated this nervousness.

Once your stomach stops churning about your occupational day dreams, the time is right to make them a reality.

China’s 863 Program, a crash program for clean energy : The New Yorker

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China is so big—and is growing so fast—that in 2006 it passed the United States to become the world’s largest producer of greenhouse gases. If China’s emissions keep climbing as they have for the past thirty years, the country will emit more of those gases in the next thirty years than the United States has in its entire history. So the question is no longer whether China is equipped to play a role in combatting climate change but how that role will affect other countries. David Sandalow, the U.S. Assistant Secretary of Energy for Policy and International Affairs, has been to China five times in five months. He told me, “China’s investment in clean energy is extraordinary.” For America, he added, the implication is clear: “Unless the U.S. makes investments, we are not competitive in the clean-tech sector in the years and decades to come.”

www.outlookindia.com | New Year Diary

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Cognitive-Behavioral Therapy in Severe Mental Illness - Psychiatric Times

give info regarding misinterpretations & simulate to prove wrong delusional beliefs.
but when beliefs r very strong, agree to disagree & empower with coping strategies.
moving on to address more imp concerns of life may help change their beliefs.
establish hallucination -nature, uniqueness, origin beliefs & reasons; psychoedu as internal phenomenon & coping [relax, distract, med, assertive, mindfulness]

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Alternative explanations can be explored. For example, a patient who believes he is being electrocuted because his fingers tingle is given information about anxiety and a controlled experiment is undertaken to reproduce the symptoms. By modifying the misinterpretation of events that served to reinforce the delusional belief, the cognitive cycles that maintained the delusion are broken. Exercises that use Socratic questioning to examine beliefs and to foster discussion are very useful in assessment and relationship building. Gentle probing by the therapist can provide additional information and build trust on the part of the patient.
When beliefs are very strong and a “chink of insight” cannot be found to build on, such discussion eventually begins to become repetitive and it may be necessary to agree to disagree.
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- moving on to other, more important topics about underlying concerns and life goals. Once these are addressed, the beliefs may change. By focusing on why the beliefs are important to the individual and empowering him by teaching him what he can do if beliefs are causing distress (eg, through coping strategy
- establishing the nature of the perception (“like me speaking to you?”) and then the uniqueness of the experience (“just you, nobody else can hear them?”). Inquiry into beliefs about the origin of the perceptions follows (“why do you think no one else hears them?”); followed by discussing the reasons (“It’s God”; “But would you expect God to say such unpleasant things to you?”).
- explaining the role that the Broca area of the brain plays in inner speech and the similarity to “dreaming awake” can help patients reattribute voices to internal phenomena (“my mind is playing tricks on me”) rather than from external sources (“the neighbors are talking about me”). It then becomes more relevant to use personal ways of coping with them (eg, relaxation, distraction, and taking medication). Coping strategies that involve direct engagement with the voices have been used successfully in patients who have developed insight into the voices but in whom they persist and continue to cause distress. These include the development of an assertive dialogue or use of mindfulness techniques.
- Through inquiry, the patient’s belief that when he goes outside he is being talked about in the street is uncovered. Work on this belief involves reasoning, ie, reality testing. The emphasis is on ascertaining precisely who is talking about him, what they are saying, and why they may be saying it. Diaries or detailed recall of circumstances can help unblock resistance. Assessing expectations and pressures with families can also be useful. Remember, you cannot push patients out of negative symptoms. It is essential that they are allowed to reestablish control.
  Readily achievable and collaboratively developed short-term goals establish momentum.
- Consider suggesting that the person take time off when he has been trying but repeatedly failing to achieve a goal: he may feel less pressured.
  Improved concentration and cognitive ability enables work on positive symptoms that interfere with progress. When negative symptoms have emerged during periods of institutionalization, the identification of motivating factors—often long forgotten
- CBT techniques for behavioral activation that involve activity scheduling, mastery and pleasure rating (gauges how well the patient has mastered the task
- it is important for psychiatrists to be involved in the initial work with patients to develop agreement with them to be referred for psychological work.
- The major changes seen initially are usually behavioral (eg, increased social involvement rather than cognitive improvement and ability to cope with distressing symptoms).
- Patients with profoundly negative symptoms can be challenging to engage and often a “befriending” approach is helpful. Seeking out areas of interest with appropriate self-disclosure may be a necessary first step for the success of the work on formulation and symptoms

Items from 1 people Ambika K follows

A Question of Ethics: An Expert Interview With Amy Brodkey, MD

Respiratory Physiology Menu

Tyler Durden’s Rules for Writing in the Zone, part 2 « Tribal Writer

Side effects of antidepressants: an overview. — Cleveland Clinic Journal of Medicine

Ben Casnocha: The Blog: Merry Christmas

Newspapers and technology: Network effects | The Economist

Study Hacks » Blog Archive » If You're Nervous About Quitting Your Boring Job, Don't Do It

China’s 863 Program, a crash program for clean energy : The New Yorker

www.outlookindia.com | New Year Diary

Cognitive-Behavioral Therapy in Severe Mental Illness - Psychiatric Times

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