Psychological News You Can Use - September 2007

Welcome...As the Pennsylvania Psychological Association nears its75th Anniversary, we have chosen to honor a Pennsylvania psychologist who has made significant contributions to our field in each issue. Dr. Martin Seligman is our first honoree.

Mark your calendars for October 11th, Depression Screening Day, when free screenings will be available throughout the country.

We hope you final these articles timely and helpful. Feel free to forward them to friends and family who may also be interested in them.

In this issue the Pennsylvania Psychological Association would like to honor Dr. Martin Seligman, a Pennsylvania psychologist who has expanded psychology’s focus from treating mental illness to promoting mental wellness. Dr. Seligman has brought our profession to this new awareness of happiness through his research, publications, books and lectures on instilling and enhancing positive emotions, positive character traits, and positive institutions.

Early on, Dr. Seligman proposed an essential theory of depression, based on “Learned Helplessness,” which states that people who feel powerless to make important changes in their lives, over time, become depressed and that a depressed mood can become a learned behavior.

Over the last 20 years, Dr. Seligman has advocated that it is time psychologists focus on how people become successful, how they overcome problems and conflicts, and what kinds of positive resources they have – resiliency factors – that allow them to conquer their difficulties.

Dr. Seligman’s seminal work, “Learned Optimism” (1991) became a national bestseller and taught a generation of psychologists to identify and work with their clients’ strengths.

His research and writings have shown that an elevated level self-esteem, ironically, makes people more, not less, vulnerable to depression. Dr. Seligman’s work has shown that people can learn to achieve authentic happiness, and those who do learn it are more successful, whether in sports, politics, academics, or other areas of life.

Dr. Seligman was elected President of the American Psychological Association in 1996 by the largest margin ever, vaulting the positive psychology movement into the mainstream of American psychology. He has written more than twenty books and 200 articles on motivation and personality, and his speaking engagements have spread throughout the globe.
Currently, as the Fox Leadership Professor at the University of Pennsylvania, Dr. Seligman is the director of the Positive Psychology Center. The center promotes research, training, education, and the dissemination of Positive Psychology, the scientific study of the strengths and virtues that enable individuals and communities to thrive.

Additional information on Dr. Seligman as well as questionnaires that will help readers assess levels of depression, optimism, satisfaction and strengths can be found on his Web site.

October 11th is National Depression Screening Day. On that day adults, adolescents and teenagers can anonymously receive a free depression screening at locations throughout the state and the nation. Free handouts will also be available to help educate the public as to what depression looks like in themselves or their friends and family members. Those who screen positive for depression can be referred to local professionals for diagnosis and treatment.

Signs of depressive disorder:

• Ongoing feelings of sadness
• Difficulties with sleep and appetite
• Trouble concentrating and thinking
• Deriving little pleasure from life
• Having a reduced sex drive
• Feeling worthless and hopeless
• For children and adolescents, mood problems may be expressed as irritability together with, or in place of, sadness

A recent study in the American Journal of Psychiatry showed that workers suffering from mood disorders miss between 27 days and 66 days of work each year because they feel too depressed to come to work and that “Depression is associated with a higher rate of short-term work disability than virtually any other chronic condition.” The total estimated financial costs of depression - in lower work productivity, medical expenses, and death – are estimated at 43 billion dollars annually.

Imagine being in such pain that the hours go by like days. Imagine an agony so intense and so seemingly unending that you would choose to end your life. This is how depression can feel.

According to the Center for Disease Control 17% of high school students thought seriously about committing suicide in 2005, with 8% of them making an attempt. Indeed, suicide is the third leading cause of death among people between the ages of 15 and 25. However, studies suggest that depressed youth are no more likely to be referred for mental health care than those who are not suffering from depression. The amount of needless suffering that goes on is staggering.

There are other mood disorders besides depressive disorder. In bipolar disorder, the periods of depression alternate, or are mixed with, periods of severe elation or intense rage. A person in the throes of a manic episode may find it hard to sleep and may start many grand projects, usually with poor planning and implementation. The person can incur major expenses or make life-altering choices that haunt him or her long after the manic episode is over.

Sometimes sadness is a natural event and does not indicate the presence of depression. Sadness can be an adaptive and natural part of healing, as when we grieve the loss of a loved one. However, it can be tricky to distinguish between adaptive periods of sadness and more serious depressive episodes. Moreover, normal grief or adjustment reactions can worsen and turn into a mood disorder if the person is vulnerable, has few supports or demonstrates poor coping strategies (e.g., uses alcohol to numb pain).

Fortunately, there are effective treatments for mood disorders; these treatments incur some degree of positive benefit in the majority of instances and can be quite dramatic in the healing they promote. Antidepressant medications and talking treatments such as cognitive-behavioral therapy or interpersonal therapy have been demonstrated to provide relief for those suffering from mood disorders. It is relatively easy to help most persons with a mood disorder. The bigger problem is getting people who are suffering from a mood disorder linked with those clinicians who are in a position to offer state-of-the-art care.

National Depression Screening Day offers the opportunity – FREE OF CHARGE - to provide significant assistance to reduce the needless suffering caused by mood disorders. People of all ages are free to attend. Typically, participants remain anonymous and have little wait time. Participants fill out a brief questionnaire and then can meet one-on-one with a therapist to review their results. Educational and referral information are typically made available.

If you suspect that you are suffering from an untreated mood disorder what do you have to lose by attending? Likewise, if you know someone who is hurting in this way, why not offer a potentially life-altering gift and suggest that the two of you go together? The costs are too high for us to sit by and allow this needless suffering to go on unchallenged.

D. J. Palmiter, Jr., Ph.D., ABPP is PPA's Communications Board Chair and a Psychology Professor and Director of the Psychological Services Center at Marywood University in Scranton, PA.

October is Domestic Violence Awareness month. During this month many activities take place with themes of “mourning those who have died because of domestic violence, celebrating those who have survived, and connecting those who work to end violence.”

There are many opportunities in October to educate yourself and others about domestic violence and participate in local community events. There will be many lectures, displays, fundraisers, purple ribbon-wearing, and other gestures of support to eliminate domestic violence. Please find it in your heart to get involved and attempt to eliminate this social problem.

What is domestic violence?

Domestic violence refers to a range of abusive behaviors that occurs within the context of an intimate relationship. These behaviors generally fall under four main categories:

• Physical abuse (e.g., hitting, kicking, choking)
• Sexual abuse (forced sexual activity)
• Psychological/emotional abuse (e.g., criticism, belittlement, threats, stalking, and other controlling behaviors meant to disempower a person and decrease one’s self-esteem)
• Economic abuse (e.g., attempting to control another by depriving them of money or stealing their money)

Domestic violence has negative effects on one’s health, on families, and on society as a whole. It is important to realize that domestic violence affects all social categories and is not restricted by age, race, religion, socioeconomic class, marital status, sexual orientation, or gender. While women are most often the victims and men are most often the perpetrators, the opposite situation can occur as well.

Partner abuse has received increasing attention over the years. For example, the media has shed light on the issue by portraying domestic violence in movies such as “The Burning Bed” (1984) and “Sleeping with the Enemy” (1991).

Contributing factors to the problem of domestic violence include gender role socialization (females tend to be raised to be more passive than males), power imbalance within relationships and society, learned behaviors (e.g., violence), and poor coping strategies.

How prevalent is domestic violence?

According to the United States Department of Justice , a 1995-96 study—the National Violence Against Women Survey—which was jointly sponsored by the National Institute of Justice and the Centers for Disease Control, found:

• “Twenty-five percent of surveyed women, compared with 8% of surveyed men, said they were raped and/or physically assaulted by a current or former spouse, cohabitating partner, or date at some time in their life” (Tjaden & Thoennes, 1998);
• “approximately 1.5 million women and 834,700 men…are raped and/or physically assaulted by an intimate partner annually in the United States” (Tjaden & Thoennes, 1998).

Other shocking statistics from the U.S. Dept. of Justice, show that between 1998 and 2002;

• “Of the almost 3.5 million violent crimes committed against family members, 49% of these were crimes against spouses.” (Durose et al., 2005);
• “84% of spouse abuse victims were females, and 86% of victims of dating partner abuse were female.” (Durose et al., 2005); and
• Males were 83% of spouse murderers and 75% of dating partner murderers.” (Durose et al., 2005).

Dr. Lenore Walker, a psychologist, describes in her book The Battered Woman (1979), a cycle of violence with three phases: (1) tension building, (2) the acute battering incident, and (3) loving contrition. The abuse escalates over time and the cycle repeats itself. It is difficult, though not impossible, to break the cycle. People often blame the victim for her situation even though the abuse is not her fault.

The following warning signs of domestic abuse are provided by Women’s Rural Advocacy Programs, which states that any single characteristic is not a sign of trouble, but a combination of several characteristics would be grounds for further investigation.

The abused woman:

• shows guilt, ambivalence, and fear over living conditions.
• feels isolated and untrusting of others, even though she may be involved in the community.
• is emotionally and economically dependent.
• has a poor self-concept (this may not have been true BEFORE the relationship).
• has observed other women in her family being abused or may have been abused as a child.
• feels angry, embarrassed, and ashamed.
• is fearful of being insane.
• has learned to feel helpless and feels powerless.
• has unexplained injuries that may go untreated.

The abusive man:

• shows extreme jealousy and wants to keep the woman isolated.
• has an inability to cope with stress and shows a lack of impulse control. (This may not necessarily appear outside the home)
• has a poor self-image and blames others for problems.
• shows severe mood swings.
• may have a history of abuse in his own family and may have been abusive in courtship.
• presents a history of personal and/or family discord; unemployment, cruelty to animals, abuse of alcohol or other substances, and other unexplained behavior.

A variety of resources are available for assisting with domestic violence issues. These include national organizations such as the National Coalition Against Domestic Violence as well as statewide organizations like the Pennsylvania Coalition Against Domestic Violence and the Pennsylvania Coalition Against Rape. You can call the National Domestic Violence Hotline for help at 1-800-799-SAFE (7233).

Within local communities there are shelters for battered women that provide safety, housing, counseling, education, legal advocacy, support, and options. Medical doctors and police officers also deal with this issue on a regular basis. Counseling is recommended for both victims and abusers.

References:

Durose, M. R., Harlow, C. W., Langan, P. A., Motivans, M., Rantala, R. R., & Smith, E. L. (2005, June). Bureau of Justice Statistics, Family Violence Statistics: Including Statistics on Strangers and Acquaintances, NCJ 207846, http://www.ojp.usdoj.gov/bjs/pub/pdf/fvs.pdf.

Tjaden, P., & Thoennes, N. (1998, November). Prevalence, Incidence, and Consequences of Violence Against Women: Findings From the National Violence Against Women Survey (Research in Brief). Washington, D.C.: U.S. Dept. of Justice, http://www.ncjrs.gov/pdffiles/172837.pdf.

Walker, L. E. (1979). The battered woman. New York: Harper & Row.

 

Dr. Sybil L. Holloway is a Psychological Counselor/Assistant Professor at Bloomsburg University and a freelance writer. She writes a monthly "Stressbusters" column for The Morning Call of Allentown, PA.

Physical pain can be both the clue that someone is in emotional distress as well as the guide that leads them towards healing.

Psychologists who use a body-focused approach will ask about physical problems such as neck aches, stomach distress or other physical pain because they are very often an indication of psychological pain. They will look carefully at the relationship of specific locations of pain and current or past problems.

• What in your life is a "pain in your neck"?
• What in your life can you not “stomach or digest”?
• What burdens have you been “shouldering”?

These questions often quickly and efficiently allow the body-focused psychologist to open deep areas of turmoil and distress within their clients. Clients may be asked to breathe into those areas and have their bodies’ dialogue with them to reveal more about the nature of their suffering. The heightened awareness of this connection between body and emotion can be the beginning of relief for the client.

Freud and other psychologists have written that the body is often the holder of repressed emotion that is too painful to bring into awareness. In the next step of this approach, the client thanks his or her body for holding that pain for them until they were able to bring that information to the surface in the safety of a professional’s office.

The client can then engage in one or more methods to transform the pain or to release it. Psychologists may ask the patient to use special breathing techniques to breathe into the pain or special visualization techniques to visualize a pain-free body. Alternatively, persons may recall the time/circumstance which created the pain and choose a new way to deal with the circumstance.

Ironically, when helping patients with pain, it is essential to learn how bodily pain has actually protected the client. One client recalled that during childhood, holding tension in his throat prevented him from yelling at his mother. He was afraid that yelling at her would seriously hurt her. During therapy he realized that maintaining this pain in his throat as an adult was not only physically painful, but also prevented him from being honest in his current relationship and blocked deeper levels of intimacy.

Using healing techniques that involved deep breathing and visualizations, he found a way to speak the truth without being injurious to others and reported immediate relief from the knot in his throat during the therapy session. Subsequently, the man reported that his levels of intimacy with those close to him also improved.

This client is only one of many who have reported tremendous freedom and relief from a body-focused approach. Psychologists are increasingly learning to treat emotional and psychic pain by considering the clients’ bodies as roadmaps leading to the origins of psychological pain. Integrating the mind, body and spirit into the healing process has provided many clients with rapid relief of their pain and the opportunity to live life more fully.

Dr. Jonathan Cohen is a psychologist who has studied native healing practices on four continents as well as leading mens' growth workshops internationally. He has an office on the mainline and works with children, adolescents and adults.

PPA was influential in the 1930s in promoting the establishment of school psychology as a profession in Pennsylvania and the legislature’s requiring that school psychologists be part of special educational placement decisions.

PPA was influential in banning corporal punishment of children in the public schools in Pennsylvania.

PPA was instrumental in creating a prominent role for psychologists in the public sector. The Mental Health/Mental Retardation Act (1966) was the first recognition under Pennsylvania law that Psychology is a health profession. It allowed psychologists to continue to treat their hospitalized patients (under certain conditions) and named psychologists as professionals to be considered for membership on county MH/MR Boards. The Mental Health Procedures Act (1976) recognized psychologists as members and directors of treatment teams in public sector settings.

(Look for more of PPA’s accomplishments in our next issue)