Who are we talking about?  You know. Those people. The ones who aren’t as (fill in the blank yourself, if you like): intelligent, open-minded, generous, kind, intellectual, deep-thinking, politically astute, as we are. Read more.

Want to learn what everyone thinks about the Economy’s Effect on Mental Health? God, Religion, and Therapy? Addiction Treatment? Want to weigh in yourself on Dreams, Dreaming, and Nightmares?Check out our polls: Dreams   God, Religion, and Therapy   Addiction Treatment  The Economy and Mental Health Hurry–the dreams poll closes Tuesday, August 3rd.

Being in debt, broke, and unemployed can lead to depression but the converse is also true: Depression can precipitate financial meltdown. Read more, here.

Recent research shows that marijuana may relieve some of the symptoms of attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD). The debate rages on, but many people, both kids and adults, are reporting the alleviation of their symptoms with marijuana usage. It helps slow down the progression of rapidly firing thoughts—something that plagues those with ADHD and makes it hard for them to focus.

Still, I take a firm stand against the use of marijuana for the treatment of ADHD and I’ll explain why. ADHD is believed to be caused by five different factors or combinations of these factors:

• genetics
• brain injuries
• environmental factors
• food additives
• sugar

Because we don’t yet really understand what causes ADHD and only have a partial understanding of its effects, we may be missing the boat in terms of treatment.

Currently the most popular treatments include Adderall XR, Concerta, Daytrana, Desoxyn, Dexedrine, Dextrostat, Focalin XR, Metadate ER, Metadate CD, Methylin, Ritalin, Ritalin SR, Ritalin LA, Strattera, and Vyvanse. Dexedrine and Ritalin, probably among the most name recognizable of these treatments, seem to have a paradoxical effect in those with attention deficit disorder. Rather than cause the brain processes to speed up and out of control, when given to those with ADHD these amphetamines may cause enhanced focus. But these and other medications come at a cost.

Some of the possible side effects include decreased appetite, sleep problems, nervous tics, and sometimes personality changes. Other treatments such as behavioral therapy have actually helped children change their behavior. Anger management, reflecting, and impulse control can be taught but therapy may not help alleviate many of the uncomfortable symptoms.

So if marijuana appears to be working, what’s the problem? Marijuana is known as a gateway drug among chemical dependency counselors. This old-fashioned term actually has quite a bit of merit. Statistics show that those who use marijuana, are far more likely to try harder drugs such as cocaine and heroin than those who don’t. Though this may be related to social rather than chemical reasons, is it a risk worth taking?

It is a myth that marijuana isn’t addictive. That has been categorically proven to be untrue. There are even withdrawal symptoms from giving it up.

Another prevailing myth is that marijuana is safe. It is considered in the popular imagination to be less harmful than cigarettes or alcohol. But that simply isn’t true. Whether it is inhaled, smoked or baked into brownies it is highly toxic. There are many poisonous chemicals in marijuana and they are dangerous to your health.

Another problem with marijuana is that it is proven to cause short-term memory loss and inattention — which are the same symptoms that many people with ADHD need to eliminate. Even if a paradoxical effect occurs and memory and attention are temporarily enhanced, the longer-term effects are proven. Marijuana “burns out the brain,” hence the term for regular marijuana users, “burnouts.”

Marijuana is classified as a hallucinogenic depressant. Depending on the individual, marijuana can cause visual and auditory hallucinations and possibly those of taste, touch and smell — that is, sensing things that simply aren’t there or sensing in a distorted fashion things that are indeed there.

The depressant piece also can be a big problem, especially for those with ADHD. Anxiety and depression often co-exist with attention deficit disorder, whether they are caused by chemical changes in the brain or by the pressure of coping with the disorder and others’ response to it. Marijuana is proven to cause both anxiety and depression over the long term as well as sleep disturbances. It also can cause kids to take dangerous risks, including risks while driving and with promiscuous sexual activity.

Another problem with taking marijuana for ADHD is that it can effectively mask other conditions that might co-exist with ADHD. Learning disabilities, conduct disorders, bipolar disorder, Tourette’s syndrome and oppositional defiant disorder are just a few. If they are masked, they cannot be differentially diagnosed or treated.

So, knowing the potential problems of marijuana use in those with ADHD, what is the illicit (not prescribed) drug of choice of those with ADHD? Marijuana! An extremely high percentage of teens who smoke marijuana have ADHD. This does support the belief of those who say that marijuana medicates ADHD symptoms. But as someone who has worked in the field of mental health and addictions for over two decades I say it isn’t worth the risk. I have seen kids and families accrue far more losses than gains due to the use of pot.

Bald Eagle photo by Mike Lockart 

As we reflect on this sunny Independence Day morning, we realize this country is amazing. Nowhere else on our planet do people enjoy the freedoms (and lifestyle), we do. We have the freedom to participate in the creation of our reality.

 Our system was conceived by deeply spiritual men, who though like all of us had flaws, devoted their lives to creating a nation where the dignity of humankind would be preeminent. People like George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, John Adams, James Madison, Benjamin Franklin and others thought deeply about morality and virtue and the responsibility and privileges of freedom and how these must be cultivated and understood in order to lead a meaningful life.

 We have revolutionary (at the time and still today), founding documents that state: “Congress shall make no law respecting the establishment of religion”, ( preventing the government from forcing one religion on us), and also state “or prevents the free exercise thereof”  (preventing government from restricting our right to religious expression).

 We have elected officials who are public servants—they are explicitly elected not to rule us but to serve us!

 We have a system of checks and balances built to prevent monarchs, or those who would like to rule us as monarchs, from taking away our individual freedoms.

 We are the most charitable nation on earth—billions of our tax dollars have been spent by our elected officials to help people hit by famine, flood, earthquakes, and war in nations around the world and right here at home. But even more amazing is that as individuals, Americans give more charity both proportionately and in actual dollar amounts per capita than any other citizenry on earth.

 We are, most important, a nation of individuals and this is the preeminent idea one comes away with from reading the founding documents such as the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution. This country’s model is dedicated to protecting the rights, freedoms and privileges of the individual and that is what makes the founders vision so compassionate and farsighted. The individual has precedence, not the politicians, not the government, and not the country.

 Perhaps it isn’t fashionable to study the writings of the founders but if you do, you’ll probably be struck by how sincere, thoughtful, ethical, and frankly, incredibly brilliant their words are. They also seem surprisingly modern in content, if not in style.

 Though doers and intellectuals, the founders were not prophets and could not have foretold where we’d be today, poised on the cusp of seismic shifts as our country grows, shrinks, falls, rises, rolls, rocks, leans, heaves, and occasionally soars towards the future. We are a nation, yes. But perhaps nation is also a verb. We continue to nation.

But recently, with the grassroots efforts at de-stigmatization of mental illness, documentary films about mental illness have been gaining ground. A couple months ago we interviewed Katie Cadigan, producer of When Medicine Got It Wrong which explored the founding of NAMI, the National Alliance of Mental Illness. (We recommend it if you haven’t seen it—it offers a glimpse into the American cultural history of mental illness and activism).

Prior to that, Katie and her brother John (and Academy award winner Ira Wohl), made the incredible award-winning film People Say I’m Crazy, which offers a very intimate look into the story of John’s schizophrenia, his art, and his life.

The Released is a 2009 documentary that explored the difficulties faced by prisoners with mental illness as they cycled in and out of prison. And the NKM2 (No Kidding Me Too) documentary is a hopeful look at mental illness with a mission—de-stigmatization. The past few years have been fertile years for respectful, new looks at the topic.

Recently we were talking with filmmaker Paula Eiselt about her upcoming documentary called “Following Boruch,” made with executive producer, internationally acclaimed filmmaker Marco Williams. Paula has been filming her uncle (and a dear friend of ours), who has bipolar disorder as he goes about living his truly amazing life. Boruch shares insights into spirituality, creativity and living with bipolar disorder.

We can hardly wait until it’s finished and we’ll let you all know when it will be airing. Go Boruch and Paula!