The ongoing effort to assist New Jersey’s returning veterans as they readjust to civilian life continued on Saturday April 10, at UMDNJ-Robert Wood Johnson Medical School in Piscataway. Speaking in the days leading up to this gathering, Lolalyn Clarke of UMDNJ-University Behavioral HealthCare described her role as a volunteer mental health counselor for returning members of the New Jersey Army National Guard. The sessions on April 10 were organized by the New Jersey Veterans Helpline program, a joint effort by UMDNJs University Behavioral HealthCare unit and the New Jersey Department of Military and Veterans Affairs. Partners also included New Jersey Veterans Centers as well as the Governors Council on Mental Health Stigma, which will distribute materials from the Life Doesnt Have to be a Battlefield campaign that addresses the issue of mental health stigma in the military.
Visit www.YourMarriageCounselor.com or call 1-888-281-5850 to find out about the professional counseling services available at the many different offices surrounding New Jersey. Dr. Marty Tashman has over 34 years of experience counseling couples and individuals. He is a licensed Marriage and Family Therapist (LMFT) and a certified Social Worker, with a Master’s in Counseling and a doctorate in Clinical Psychology.
I am interested in losing weight and would like to try hypnosis. I’ve heard it works for a lot of people, and I know someone personally who tried it and found it to be a positive experience. I am looking for a reputable office (of course!) in northern NJ. Thanks!
A person who suffers from alcohol abuse / alcoholism, drug abuse / drug addiction and an emotional/psychiatric problem is said to have a dual diagnosis. To recover fully, the person will require addiction treatment and psychiatric treatment for both problems.
How Common Is Dual Diagnosis?
Dual diagnosis is a common diagnosis. According to a report published by the Journal of the American Medical Association: * Thirty-seven percent of people with alcohol abuse and fifty-three percent of people with drug abuse also have at least one serious mental illness. * Of all people diagnosed as mentally ill, 29 percent suffer from alcohol abuse or drug abuse.
What Type of Mental Health Problems are Seen in People with Dual Diagnosis?
The following psychiatric problems occur in Dual Diagnosis – i.e., in tandem with alcoholism or drug addiction. * disorders, such as depression and bipolar disorder. * Anxiety disorders, panic disorder, obsessive-compulsive disorder, and phobias. * Other psychiatric disorders, such as schizophrenia and personality disorders.
The following table based on a National Institute of Mental Health study, lists seven major psychiatric disorders and shows how much each one increases an individual`s risk for drug addiction. Psychiatric Disorder Increased Risk For Substance Abuse Antisocial personality disorder 15.5% Manic episode 14.5 Schizophrenia 10.1 Panic disorder 4.3 Major depressive episode 4.1 Obsessive-compulsive disorder 3.4 Phobias 2.4
Thus, someone suffering from schizophrenia is at a 10.1 percent higher-than-average risk of alcohol addiction or drug addiction. Someone who is having an episode of major depression is at a 4.1 percent higher-than-average risk of having alcoholism or drug addiction……………….
Drug Addiction, Alcohol Addiction or the Emotional Problem….Which Came First? Often the psychiatric problem develops first. In an attempt to feel calmer, more peppy, or more cheerful, a person with emotional symptoms may drink or use drugs; doctors call this “self-medication.” Frequent self-medication may eventually lead to physical or psychological dependency on alcohol or drugs, alcohol addiction or drug addiction. If it does, the person then suffers from not just one problem, but two. In adolescents, however, drug or alcohol abuse may merge and continue into adulthood, which may contribute to the development of emotional difficulties or psychiatric disorders. Dual diagnosis is a complex disorder to diagnose.
If a Person Suffers From Drug Addiction, Alcoholism and a Mental Health Disorder, Which Should Be Treated First? In a perfect world, both problems should be treated simultaneously. For any substance abuse problem, however, the first step in treatment must be detox – a period of time during which the body is allowed to cleanse itself of alcohol or drugs. Ideally, detox should take place under medical supervision. It can take a few days to a week or more, depending on what substances the person abused and for how long.
Until recently, alcoholics and drug addicts dreaded detox because it meant a painful and sometimes life-threatening “cold turkey” withdrawal. Now, doctors are able to provide those people with a drug addiction or alcohol addiction carefully chosen medications while in detox, which can substantially ease withdrawal symptoms. Detox done under medical supervision, is safer for the dually diagnosed.
Jonathan Huttner is a principal with Lakeview Health a drug rehab and alcohol rehab with a specialty in dual diagnsis treatment.
For additional information on a or you can call 1-800-511-9225 for the national dual diagnosis helpline. If you need a dual diagnosis treatment program go to
The various forms of cancer in this category consist of: breast, ovarian, uterine and cervical forms principally.
There is some controversy regarding the effects that psychiatric/psychological factors play in the incidence and course of these and other cancers. Large epidemiologic studies found that depression was associated with double the risk of death from cancer up to 17 years post diagnosis. However, other prospective large cohort studies found no depressive symptom effects on cancer risk. In breast cancer as a protypical example, 50% of the patients experienced serious degrees of anxiety, depression and other psychiatric symptoms/illnesses during the course of their illness. Depression which may be reactionary, biologically mitigated or the result of treatment, can affect the course of the illness, recurrence or mortality according to some but not all studies. Issues such as adequate pain relief, adherence of recommended treatments/interventions, diminished desire to sustain life and rageful despair have all been implicated and observed in gyn and other cancer patients with co-morbid psychiatric issues.
Studies have also shown that any given patients psychiatric/psychological response to a diagnosis and course of cancer is influenced by many factors. These may include: the specific aspects of the type and stage of cancer itself, an individuals ability to manage the diagnosis and treatment of cancer- especially pain issues, preeminent factors of medical, social and psychological stability, the type and effects of various treatment modalities and their complications, pre-existing traumatic experiences and coping styles/skills, personality strengths or limitations, overall mental health, social support, age and stage of life, stability financially, meaning of their lives, etc., cultural and religious beliefs.
Depression in gyn and other cancers is associated with a higher incidence than in the general population compared to other serious medical illnesses. Cancer may itself cause many symptoms associated with depression- for instance fatigue, weight loss, poor appetite, low energy, sleep disturbance and other vegetative signs of depression. Hence, there may be both an over and under diagnosis of depression as a result of overlapping symptoms.
The most serious psychiatric issue associated with gyn and other cancers is suicide. Passive suicidal thoughts are much more likely than active suicidal intent. There is still however an increased risk of suicide especially with advanced disease and poor prognosis, intense pain, delirium, substance abuse, selective solitude, social isolation, helpless – hopeless feelings, depression and previous suicidality. This serious risk must be adequately screened and professionally evaluated during the course of the disease.
Anxiety is a very common disorder associated with early diagnosis, treatment decisions, fears of recurrence or progression, post traumatic stress reactions and specific pre existing syndromes that may effect treatments – i.e., phobias (to needles, chemo, radiation and claustrophobics to spaces like MRI’s).
Psychosis and delirium are also possible co morbidities or can be exacerbated pre-existing issues.
In conclusion, gyn cancers present with a range of physical and psychological symptoms throughout the various stages of the disease, i.e., initial diagnosis, treatment, survival or recurrence. Multiple stressors of surgical menopause, various medications (chemotherapies, steroids, marcotic analgesics, etc.), pain and radiation potentials are some of the most physically demanding aspects. These all may lead to more severe psychiatric sequelae as well.
Screening for psychological distress may be useful to help identify women who would benefit from psychiatric or psychological care. They should be referred to a mental health professional with psycho oncology knowledge and experience. When possible, psychiatric treatment should be where they receive their oncology services. Pain, other physical discomforts, severe mood or anxiety symptoms should be treated pharmacologically. One to one and group therapies with support are helpful. Survivors experience chronic fear of recurrence, sexual dysfunction and identity disruption. Patients may also become despairing about their future. All these are best treated with individual psychiatric care with an experienced psychiatrist in oncological needs.
Ask The Doctor…
Q. What can happen really?
A. The course of treatment for gyn cancer can be very demanding physically and mentally. Significant mood disorders can impede the care itself, cause illnesses to progress and even lead to suicide. Treatment(s) are available but should be with knowledgeable mental health professionals with oncology experience. Medication is often helpful and should be prescribed by a well trained psychiatrist also with oncology experience. It is strongly recommended that the patient and or family specifically inquire and request someone with that type of experience only be utilized for treatment.
The outcomes for gyn cancers is much improved when psychiatric issues are addressed simultaneously.
Q. Who’s at greatest risk for trouble?
A. Those with prior psychiatric issues – in particular, those with mood disorders and anxiety disorders are vulnerable to recurrences or significant exacerbations due to the development of gyn cancer. Treatment sooner than later can help to ameliorate these co morbid burdens.
No woman should struggle against these devastating diseases alone. Meaningful care is available.
Trauma by definition is an experience outside of the realm of experience(s) of your peer group. Clearly, this is a very broad interpretation. The more imminent or even explicit the bodily harm, the more overwhelmed the defenses may become. We have defenses from very early developmental stages of psychological growth. Some defenses are healthier and more efficient than others. When trauma or the serious threat thereof occurs, the mind shifts quickly into a defensive “ fight or flight” red alert. These choices are very primitive and haven’t evolved very much since their creation millennia before. These innate dichotomous reaction choices may be appropriate in certain circumstances, however not all.
The biggest challenge occurs when we really need choice number three and none seems available. More often than not, option three is more appropriate and effective, especially when created in advance. This requires self-confidence, independence and focus. All of these ego strengths are not always adequately present to perform such creative solutions. When serious trauma then occurs, the mind’s defenses often are overwhelmed which may lead to powerful and painful symptoms and dysfunction.
There are many aspects of dysfunction which may result from traumatic sources. There are also many variables to be considered when trying to understand where a person is when they present with this form of psychic pain. Sadly, physical and/or sexual abuse occurs in epidemic proportions. Violence and menacing aggression are woven into everyday life and some form of exposure to it is almost unavoidable.
There are basically three ways to be traumatized:
You are the victim of an assault or threat of one directly
You were the perpetrator of the assault or threat
You were the witness of someone else being assaulted or threatened. Witnessing includes not just visually, but also any sensory input (hearing, touch, etc.).
Variables that often times directly influence the severity of the resulting pathology are many. Some significant ones are: the relationship – if any – between perpetrator and victim (i.e. parent, relative, friend, stranger), age of onset of the assault or threat; duration of same (i.e. single episode or repetitive); type of assault – if sexual to what extent was the violation(s), was there physical harm or threat of it to the victim or even to the victim’s loved ones; physical harm or threat of it is equally as overwhelming. Similar modifiers of intensity, frequency and duration play pivotal roles in how we react to this form of trauma as well. The results can be devastating and permanent.
Being able to respond versus react to these tragic events is far better, but difficult to prepare for or predict. Being safe, secure and spontaneous are much better, but challenging to guarantee. Hypervigilance and phobic fears often occur pre and post trauma if left to their own devices. Healing requires specific forms of care and preferably well-timed whenever possible. Unfortunately, this care is generally too little too late and the residual scarring leads to more scarring. In addition, a biased belief system which is understandable, but not healthy or helpful may result also.
Women are more commonly the victims of violence and aggression, but this is shifting. We see quite a number of males who have been traumatized as well. Substance abuse, self mutilation, severe depressive and anxiety symptoms, low self worth, rage, intense guilt and suicidal/homicidal ideation are common residual results to a mind overwhelmed by something and someone it didn’t expect and never, ever deserves.
We provide therapeutic care that involves cognitive-behavioral, supportive and gradual desensitization modalities to help process these emotions and assist the healing to occur. Medications may also play a beneficial role in specific circumstances. Biofeedback and other alternative approaches can be of assistance and we have colleagues who offer these services locally.
We as humans are both preciously simple and perplexingly complex all at the same time. We struggle with emotional disruptions from life’s events and internal messages that may be challenging. Our intellects develop slowly over several years and eventually catch up. This emergence of new skills is often meant with confusion and angst. The interface between our emotional “old friends” and our newly developed “new friends” can be a source of some friction.
Our physical well-being is imperative to a rewarding life. As such, it plays a major role in all that we hope to accomplish. Our minds are sensitive to many influences and influence our bodies in kind. Traditional medical training makes a distinction on which part of us is emphasized. Traditional psychosocial training does the same. The spiritual aspects of our being are usually dismissed as nonessential. These capricious dissections do not do the overall care of the person justice. We are simply not designed to function as disparate parts of a whole.
Our services attempt to address all of the various domains of our human construction simultaneously.
The medical model is rich in its ability to be applied to our physical well-being. This model is steeped in centuries of science, precision, and ever-changing discoveries, especially of brain function.
The biopsychosocial model, which includes medical tenets, is invaluable as it guides to help methodically explore the emotional and psychological aspects of our make-up.
The spiritual and cultural components of our beings contribute and influence our interpretations and solutions developed as a result of what we think and feel.
Together, all these domains are the core by which we function through life day by day.
As a practitioner, my services are focused to explore, enhance, and fortify all these domains at once. We are happy to collaborate with many other regional experts to help with any discovered areas that may be assisted through very focused care.
We have, not just astute ways to listen and respectfully learn about our patients, but a focused and productive array of caring treatments to help heal and pre-empt whenever possible.
I can think of no greater gift than to be able to assist those in need with a devoted sense of caring with empathy and purpose.
We see the man on the street corner conversing with himself and dishelved. Most often turn away in fear. Why are we afraid? Because this man speaks of the human condition- of how a disordered society can break any of us.
What has been termed in the DSM IV as ‘mental disorder’ is entirely subjective and the product of the voting of psychiatric committees. The disorders are often a product of their imagination and designed for their ultimate profit. The diagnoses are categorized under the guise of help, but who benefits? Solely those making the diagnosis. In the 1970′s Rosenhan and his colleagues conducted an interesting study in which pseudo-patients were sent to mental hospitals across the country. They has no history of psychiatric concerns and were told to tell only one lie to the psychiatrist- that they heard the word ‘thud’ in their heads. Otherwise, they were to behave ‘normally’. All of these individuals were admitted to the hospital. The only means for their release was to submit to the idea they were insane but were getting better by the ‘treatments’ of the psychiatric staff. The psychiatric establishment was appalled and said this was merely a fluke and suggested Rosenhan send pseudo-patients again and they would be able to identify them. Rosenhan stated he would send 40 pseudo-patients. The psychiatrists stated they had found the ‘fakes’ but the fact was Rosenhan actually sent no one else.
In all of this, we see that experience is ignored. Instead, we have categorized behaviors, all in the eyes of the beholder, and medicalized it. It does not matter any longer what the experience of the person is, the objective of psychiatry is to suppress the behavior, and suppression then leads to oppression.
If we were to truly be pro-active and psychiatrists were motivated by a true desire to do no harm and to seek for person’s mental health, then we would not be merely suppressing, but rather seeking to understand. In addition, we would be targeting those issues which often create mental anguish for persons to begin with. We would be addressing issues of social justice. Instead, psychiatry exonerates institutions from taking responsibility and blames the brain of the person with no evidence provided that their brains are actually dysfunctional. Theory has become fact in psychiatry.
Psychiatry has its free advertising through the workings of the so called support groups and through its alliance with the pharmaceutical industry. Such groups as NAMI (National Alliance for the Mentally Ill) and CHADD (Children and Adults with Attention Deficit) have received large amounts of funding from the pharmaceutical industry who now have access to many new consumers of their products and who benefit from promoting the concept of ‘chemical imbalances’ to further the sale of their toxic drugs.
Schools have now become not about education at all, but rather mental institutions for children. Children are stifled and are not given the opportunities for critical thinking, but rather to be proper test takers and to become cogs in the industrial machine. When they fall out of line with the desired result, they are labeled and drugged. Social Security payments for ‘ADHD’ or other behavioral disorders become a temptation for poor, struggling families to encourage their compliance with the status quo.
Psychiatry has also taken over the cause of child welfare. In California, it was seen that over 90% of foster children were on psychiatric drugs, often multiple drugs, with no apparent reason to support the use, not to mention that potential for serious adverse events. These drugs are being implicated more and more in causing violence, mania, and suicidal ideation in children. The only reason for these foster children to be treated in such manner is solely greed and to perpetuate a corrupt system geared at control of the vulnerable. The abused are being further abused by the psychiatric system. The elderly are subjected to ECT at 3 times the rate at age 65 than age 64. Why? Because at age 65 Medicare will pick up the tab. Once again, abuse of the vulnerable. We must awake to this fraud. When we can begin to understand the human condition, work for social justice, and take responsibility for a disordered society, then it will be that ‘disorders’ will fade away and true mental health will arise.
By: DR. DAN L. EDMUNDS
About the Author:
Dr. Dan L. Edmunds is a noted therapist and leading critic of the psychiatric establishment. His website can be found at
A study of psychiatry’s diagnostic manual will confirm this for anyone who cares to look.
Examples of nuances of human behavior and the ups and downs of living re-categorized as an “illness” requiring treatment include:
- Seasonal Anxiety Disorder (feeling “blue” at Christmas).
- Dyspraxia (the tendency of children to be clumsy)
- Sexual Addiction (the tendency of some people to be sexually overactive or unethical)
- Depression (feeling down after a loss, redundancy and so on.)
You are mentally ill if a psychiatrist says you are mentally ill. All that is required for you to be labeled mentally ill is for a psychiatrist to give that opinion. He does not have to produce, and cannot produce, any scientifically proven yardstick or clear consistent definition of each so-called mental disorder. He cannot produce and is not required to produce any diagnostic criteria for adjudging that you have a disorder.
Psychiatrists are busy adding new “disorders” to their list as fast as they can dream them up.
Psychiatrists long ago discovered that they could dream up disorders at will without the need for any true science behind them and get away with it because there was in fact no independent body monitoring and scrutinizing their methods and ensuring they measured up to rigorous scientific standards. Psychiatry had been operating thus with impunity and was consequently thoroughly entrenched, for a hundred years before anyone had the wisdom to subject it to scrutiny and found its scientific credentials to be bogus. (I refer you to the history of the Citizens Commission on Human Rights).
Based on his “diagnosis” of your condition, the psychiatrist can then begin “treatment.” Such treatment nowadays usually involves the administering of powerful brain-altering drugs that do irreparable damage to the brain and nervous system and produce a slew of unpleasant side effects. Such treatment earns revenue for the psychiatrist. He cannot make money unless he diagnoses you as having an illness that must be treated.
If you refuse treatment? Well, that’s a disorder too, requiring treatment.
The psychiatrist can always force you to undergo treatment. He has the legal power to commit anyone for as long as he see fit, simply based upon his unsubstantiated diagnosis (opinion) that it is “for our own good.”
Once you have been labeled mentally ill, you surrender your liberties and human rights to the hands of psychiatry. Essentially you’ve had it.
What happens to a psychiatric patient?
When you become a psychiatric patient you are administered one or more of the following:
Drugs to produce a malleable, zombie-like condition
ECT: Electro Convulsive Therapy, to produce a malleable zombie-like condition
Lobotomy: to produce a malleable, zombie-like condition.
The disturbingly bizarre behavior we commonly see in psychiatric patients is almost always caused by the brain-damaging TREATMENT they have received in psychiatric hands and NOT an alleged mental illness.
More about these in my next articles, starting with “What Are Psychiatric Drugs?”
About The Author
To find CCHR and for more of my free articles, go to the HowDo Hub (see below)
I write these articles because I care and because I believe there are things you should know and have a right to know. I have also made available a number of free books, with more in the pipeline. Please visit my main blog at for all my free articles and free books.. On a broader and more general note there is also the HowDo Information Hub. Please check it out at
Psychiatry is a nineteenth century school of the mind, which believed that:
Man is an animal.
All Man’s thought, emotion, inspiration, hopes and dreams result from chemical and electrical activity in the brain.
Man has no soul.
The causes of Man’s woes cannot be rectified but they can be suppressed and their symptoms anesthetized by a direct attack on the body, brain and nervous system, through electric shocks and other methods of altering structure, such as removing or disabling sections of the brain or chemical poisons known as drugs.
When the lack of results achieved by such brutal interventions became a liabilty, psychiatry later added genetics, which asserted that nothing could be done about the mind because human difficulties were inherited: that is, pre-programmed into the person’s genes.
Psychiatry was able to establish itself as an authority on the mind because in the nineteenth century very little was known about the mind. The physical sciences were ascendant and psychiatry was able to make itself sound scientific.
Close examination of psychiatry reveals that its claims to science are bogus. I invite you to verify this for yourself by examining its methodology against the criteria for a true science. However, dressed up in pseudo-scientific trappings, and funded through the decades by governments and corporate/banking interests who have failed to make any such examination, psychiatry clung to its status as an authority on the mind until recent times. This was despite the fact that it was never able to produce workable methods with desirable results, a betterment of Man’s conditions or the resolution of his problems.
Through generous funding by governments and their money masters, the banking elite, and through a huge outpouring of literature and friendly media, psychiatry became woven into the fabric of society. It insinuated itself in various guises and with false claims of expertise into many areas, such as criminal reform, education, the justice system and mental health.
As it did so insanity, violence and crime increased. After nearly two centuries of psychiatric intervention, Man is more troubled and uncertain about himself than he has ever been and violence, crime, insanity and drug addiction are at epidemic levels. The world has become, in other words, catastrophically worse.
If psychiatry had truly provided answers, the opposite would have happened.
Yet despite all this, despite the swathe of carnage it has engineered, it continues to survive thanks to the continued willingness of governments to waste tax payers’ money on it.
About The Author
For more information about psychiatry, contact the Citizens Commission on Human Rights (CCHR). To find CCHR and more of my free articles, go to my home page below.
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Greetings from the Shore! I saw this card and felt it to be an appropriate one to send you as a “Thank you,” for it resembles my mental place of peace and solitude. It is a beautiful visual of the blessed gifts from God that have now become present in my life. This scene is now literally within my reach. This image that was once a dream is now my reality.
So, I thank you,for your constant source of support and encouragement. I have always been a dreamer, and in my life I have always thought that no goal was completely unattainable. But, your support has become paramount in reminding me of hat fact. My work with you is far from over, but I thought it would be nice to hank you now, as I embark on this new hapter of my journey. All of the work that you have done with me until this point has created the stepping stones to my future, and the possibilities are endless. Thank you for all that you have done and all that you continue to do to help me obtain the once unattainable!
Sincerely,
Jane D.
CALL CHARLES E MEUSBURGER NOW FOR AN APPOINTMENT AT 609-484-0770
Being able to respond versus react to these tragic events is far better, but difficult to prepare for or predict. Being safe, secure and spontaneous are much better, but challenging to guarantee. Hypervigilance and phobic fears often occur pre and post trauma if left to their own devices. Healing requires specific forms of care and preferably well-timed whenever possible. Unfortunately, this care is generally too little too late and the residual scarring leads to more scarring. In addition, a biased belief system which is understandable, but not healthy or helpful may result also.
Our services attempt to address all of the various domains of our human construction simultaneously.
