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I love dogs.

My family has two — a pug/Boston terrier mix named Rosie and a fluffy mutt named Pixie.

They can get annoying sometimes, like when they follow you all around the house or constantly bark to be let outside. But they’re also great faithful friends, showing appreciation just for scratching or petting them.

Various studies have showed that owning a dog (or cat) can lower stress and depression, as well as provide an outlet for exercise and social interaction (namely with other pet owners).

However, some dogs are turning their natural tendencies into a job. They’re serving as service dogs for people with mental illnesses, similar to seeing-eye and hearing-ear dogs, as my classmate Erin G. Edwards reports.

“Psychiatric service dogs” get the same access to businesses and public places as similar animals do under the Americans with Disabilities Act. And they’re also being used with veterans who have post-traumatic stress disorder:

“One of the main things is helping the veteran to be comfortable … away from home,” [Pat Schwartz of Golden Kimba Service Dogs] said. She said they train the dogs to meet the veterans’ needs and that the dogs provide a “constant, non-judgmental presence.”

That lack of judgment makes dogs a great companion — whether you have mental illness or not.

If you haven’t heard of Larry Norman, who died Sunday at age 60, don’t worry.

In fact, I’d be surprised if you HAD heard of him and were a) born after 1980 or b) not raised in the evangelical Christian subculture, like I was (although my parents were way more relaxed and cool than a lot of parents I’ve heard of).

For the uninitiated, Larry was one of the seminal figures of the Jesus Movement of the 1960s and 1970s and one of the first artists in what would become known as Contemporary Christian Music.

But his stuff is way more raw — and aesthetically pleasing — than some of what you hear on K-LOVE and similar stations today. (Yeah, I said it. I listened almost exclusively to CCM when I was in middle and high school, but thankfully, four years at Calvin cured me of that!) It’s full of passionate appeals not only for unbelievers to accept Christ, but for Christians to get their act together. Larry’s Jesus is a revolutionary taking on the establishment who wants his followers to join in.

I mention Larry on this blog because apparently he struggled with depression (he suffered a head injury in a 1978 accident). And he had a lot of ups and downs in his relationships with other musicians, too.

Still, he found hope in “the rock that doesn’t roll” and gave a definitive answer to “Why should the devil have all the good music?”

For that, Larry, thanks.

Depression can be a tough nut to crack when it comes to treatment.

Many people don’t respond well to the first antidepressant they try, or they can’t handle the side effects. So they give up.

But a new government study says that for depressed teenagers who aren’t getting better, trying a different medicine along with cognitive behavioral therapy can provide relief when the first medicine doesn’t work.

The study looked at two types of antidepressants: selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors, such as Prozac and Paxil, and the serotonin and norepinephrine reuptake inhibitor Effexor.

Therapy appears to boost the effectiveness of the medication:

About 55 percent of those who switched to either type of medication and added CBT responded, while 41 percent of those who switched to another medication alone responded. There were no differences in response between those who switched to an SSRI and those who switched to an SNRI, nor were there differences in response among the three SSRIs tested.

Although this study was done in people ages 12 to 18, it could provide some insights for adults as well.

Class was back in session at Northern Illinois University on Monday, 11 days after a former graduate student opened fire on a lecture hall, killing five students and then himself.

Grief counselors attended class along with students and faculty, speaking for five minutes and offering help to anyone who wanted it.

But Micky Sharma, director of NIU’s counseling services, told the Chicago Tribune the assistance was designed to be short-term.

“This is not group therapy; this is still an academic setting,” he said. “This is psychological first aid.”

Help also came on four legs, as volunteers from Extra Mile Ministries, affiliated with the Lutheran Church - Missouri Synod, brought dogs to the campus to provide comfort.

As NIU moves forward, alumnus Mark Brown of the Chicago Sun-Times has asked readers for suggestions on ways to deal with the tragedy and prevent future ones. One mentioned the Peer Corps, which I blogged about earlier.

Sadly, NIU will probably always be linked with the shootings, much like Virginia Tech. But let’s hope the incident can be remembered for inspiring positive changes as well.

In recognition of National Eating Disorders Awareness Week (Feb. 24-March 1), here’s some off-the-beaten-path looks at these serious (sometimes fatal) mental illnesses.

At World of Psychology, Sandra Kiume points out that disorders such as anorexia and bulimia occur in middle-aged and elderly women, as well as men of all ages. Girls and boys who fought a disorder when they were teens often continue to struggle as adults and may relapse.
And there’s another category, called “ED-NOS (Eating Disorder Not Otherwise Specified),” that includes people with problematic behaviors who may still look healthy.

Meanwhile, my classmate Andrea Bartz reports that social-networking sites such as MySpace and Facebook are being asked to remove groups that offer people “advice” on how to keep up their eating disorder. These groups are the younger siblings of Web sites that have existed for awhile but are no less disturbing.

Knowing the facts about what causes eating disorders, as well as what obstacles are out there for people in recovery, is essential for successful treatment and prevention.
So become aware. You could save someone’s life!

This past week, I’ve caught myself saying “crazy” and “insane” a lot, mostly in reference to my schedule for the rest of this quarter. (Note to future Medillians: Taking two techniques classes at the same time, plus an RPA and seminar, is not advisable!)

But I began to wonder if I was being offensive — unintentionally, of course. I’m a dedicated wordsmith who cares about being kind and tactful, so I refuse to call things “retarded” or “gay” when they’re not. (When I worked at a summer camp, I even chastised my campers for saying “retarded,” and I know a teacher who does the same thing when her students call something “gay.”)

However, I do use plenty of words — such as “lame” and “dumb”– that once referred to medical conditions but have lost most of their original meaning. And I don’t usually feel bad about that.

“Crazy” isn’t a proper medical term, anyway, and “insane” also has a legal connotation. I definitely would not use “bipolar” or “schizophrenic” to carelessly describe something chaotic (not even the life of Britney Spears).

Some people with mental illness have taken disparaging words and turned them into a badge of honor. Jerod Poore — a “bipolar, epileptic, autistic, agoraphobic uberspazz” — runs the Crazy Meds Web site, “by crazy people for crazy people,” to serve as a clearinghouse on treatments for just about any condition you can think of.

What do you think? Am I too sensitive, or should “crazy” go the way of the dodo bird?

(Photo credit: ArtWerk via Flickr)

Could acupuncture or yoga replace antidepressants someday?

Maybe not, but people are turning to alternative medicine and practices to treat depression, either as a complement to mainstream psychology and psychiatry or as something that stands alone.

World of Psychology passes on a New York Times story about a type of acupuncture that uses “ear seeds” to help smokers quit.
Apparently, people don’t mind walking around with the seeds attached to their ears if it gives them relief from addiction, anxiety and depression.

Meanwhile, an instructor at Northwestern and Columbia College Chicago is using yoga in his creative nonfiction class to help students cope with the trauma they write about. And he says it improves their writing, too.

One Columbia College student values the mind-body connection that yoga provides.

“We’re completely taught to ignore the body,” said [Tracey] Ostrand, a junior majoring in fiction writing. “You’re tired? Drink coffee. Don’t take a nap. The problem is we’re taught to ignore who we are.”

Stigma (noun) 1) a: archaic : a scar left by a hot iron : brand b: a mark of shame or discredit : stain c: an identifying mark or characteristic; specifically : a specific diagnostic sign of a disease

That definition from Merriam-Webster probably sums up how a lot of people view mental illness, whether in themselves or someone else.

But it shouldn’t be that way, says one activist in Tennessee.

Colleen Coffey, who’s had anxiety, depression and eating disorders, tells students that they can live a normal life, as long as they get help.
And she’s living proof.

The stigma associated with mental illness doesn’t seem to bother Coffey much, but it does hurt others.
Elizabeth, a graduate student at the University of Chicago, tells the Associated Press that stigma was part of why she went on and off antidepressants for years, until she realized she needed to stay on them.
(As this blog pointed out yesterday, going off medication carelessly is never a good idea.)

Over at Relevant Magazine (where I used to write book reviews), Karen Bowlby gives a bracing account of her encounter with a church that tried to “heal” her of bipolar disorder through prayer alone, implying that if she wanted to be cured, she could be, without medication.
Thankfully, she didn’t listen and has found relief from both science and faith.
But the stigma is even more harmful when it comes wrapped up in spiritual language:

Stigma is an ugly thing. It is shame attached to something considered socially unacceptable. It is isolation, and guilt. However, as ugly as stigma can be, there is nothing uglier than stigma in the Church. It is the opposite of grace in that it judges, condemns and carries out the sentence in the blink of an eye.

These three women should challenge us to rethink how we view mental illness and how we can end the stigma.

Remember the “Zoloft defense“?

Now some people are making what I call the “Prozac excuse,” blaming the Northern Illinois University shooting on the fact that the gunman recently stopped taking that antidepressant (an SSRI).

But experts tell the Chicago Tribune that that idea is flawed.

They emphasize that going off antidepressants can be difficult and should be done only under a doctor’s supervision. However, if done properly, medication can usually be stopped safely, with little risk to others. (It’s not known whether the gunman stopped taking Prozac on his own.)

Dr. Emil Coccaro of the University of Chicago Medical Center points out that the gunman’s actions were well-planned and not impulsive, unlike the irrational behavior that can happen in people predisposed to it who abruptly end their medication.

As the death of actor Heath Ledger showed, prescription drugs are not things to be used lightly. Better communication between patients and doctors about what medicines people are taking — and the best way to stop taking them — is crucial to prevent more tragedies.

But instead of condemning those with mental illness, as so many message-board posters are doing, let’s show the same compassion that we would show to someone taking medicine for a physical illness.