Negative Emotion Basics

Emotional states commonly viewed as “negative” include anger, frustration, sadness, anxiousness, guilt, disgust and shame. All of these emotions fall within the normal realm of human experience, and their presence doesn’t indicate a problem in and of itself. However, people who tend to call forth these emotions frequently while under stress can increase their long-term chances for developing a diagnosable mental health problem, according to the results of a study released in 2012 by a multi-university research team. Mental health professionals sometimes refer to this repeated involvement in negative states of mind as a personality trait called neuroticism/negative emotionality.

Importance of Identifying Negative Emotions

The ability to properly distinguish between different types of negative emotion can help depressed people limit those emotions’ effects and improve their overall state of mind, the authors of the study published in Psychological Science report. Conversely, people with major depression who can’t correctly identify their negative emotions may unintentionally extend or solidify depressed states of mind. During their research, the authors examined the ability of 53 people affected by depression to tell the difference between their negative emotions, then compared that ability to the ability of 53 people unaffected by depression. All study participants were adults with a minimum age of 18 and a maximum age of 40.

The researchers concluded that, compared to people who don’t have major depression, people affected by the disorder have a much greater tendency to report the simultaneous presence of two different negative emotional states. Depressed people also have a much harder time distinguishing between the negative emotions they report feeling. The study’s authors believe that this inability to tell the difference between negative emotions decreases depressed individuals’ knowledge about their own states of mind, and therefore limits the self-awareness necessary to effectively participate in depression recovery.

Self-Distancing Skills in Depressed People

One of the critical skills for maintaining emotional stability is the ability to step back from oneself and objectively examine stressful or “negative” experiences. People who have this self-distancing ability tend to diminish the long-term impact of negative experiences; conversely, people who lack this self-distancing skill tend to ruminate on unpleasant experiences and increase those experiences’ long-term influence on mental health. In a study published in 2012 in the Journal of Abnormal Psychology, a team of researchers from the University of Michigan compared the self-distancing abilities of 51 people diagnosed with major depression to the abilities of 45 people unaffected by depression. All of the study participants were asked to analyze their responses to a negative situation.

After reviewing their findings, the authors of the study concluded that depressed people have just as much inherent ability to self-distance themselves from negative experiences as people without depression. However, while people unaffected by depression tend to access their self-distancing skills when analyzing their situations, people with depression tend not to do so. When depressed people in the study did access their self-distancing skills, they typically lowered their participation in negative thinking and other aspects of neuroticism/negative emotionality. In addition, they increased their sense of self-awareness and gained a perspective that allowed them to minimalize the effects of stressful or negative situations.

Considerations

The authors of the study published in the Journal of Abnormal Psychology found that people unaffected by depression tend to improve their emotional states whenever they start questioning themselves in the aftermath of stressful or negative events. However, depressed people may improve or diminish their mental states when they start self-questioning. If this questioning process remains immersed in a depressed person’s everyday perspective, it will likely contribute to a continuing depressed state of mind. However, if this questioning is done from a distanced perspective, it can help reduce the effects of depression and contribute to a more balanced state of mind.

Along with your personal and internal battles, life after recovery also means dealing with the people around you and their perceptions of you, feelings toward you, and their trust or lack of trust in you. At work, people may now be looking at you differently. Your sober friends may tiptoe around you.  Most importantly, however, are the feelings and attitudes of your family.

Undoubtedly, you caused a great deal of trouble for the ones you love while you were an addict. Maybe you lied to them, hurt them, cheated on them, or neglected them. If you have kids, their experiences may have been especially painful. Now you have the difficult task of winning back their trust. If you have one child who just cannot seem to believe that you will not go back to drugs or alcohol, this job will be even more challenging. Work with your child to help her understand that you are healing and that you will never go back to being an addict.

Your Vigilant Shadow

It is not uncommon for a child of a recovering addict to watch her parent very closely. You put her through a huge ordeal. Even if you were never abusive during your addictive years, you still caused a lot of damage. You led your child to believe that you cannot control your actions, that you cannot be trusted, and that you are weak-willed. Now that you are sober, she wants to ensure that you never return to that version of yourself.

This manifests as a shadow that keeps watch over you constantly. She may follow you around the house, go through your things to search for contraband, or even follow you when you leave the house. She wants to know that you are not keeping secrets and that you are not sneaking off to use again. This behavior is not healthy for her and it is not helpful for you.

What to Do

Simply telling your child to get off your case is no help at all. She is hurting and she needs to know that you are not going to abandon her again for your drugs or alcohol. Getting angry with her will only cause her to retreat further. Do have an honest talk, though. Sit down with your child and speak to her about her behaviors. Ask her to share with you how she feels and to tell you what will make her more comfortable about your recovery. Simply showing her that you are listening and that you care is a great start.

Include in your talk with her a frank discussion about addiction. Help her to understand addiction in the framework of a medical condition. When she understands that her parent has a disease that requires treatment, she may start to feel better about it.

Talking is just the first step. You also need to show her with your actions that you are clean for good. She has lost her trust in you and you must earn it back. Do not let her down on even the smallest of things. If you tell her that you will play a board game with her later that day, do it. Do not make excuses and show her by your actions that she can trust you completely.

Also, consider getting your child professional help. Individual or family counseling may help to resolve some of her feelings about your addiction and the trauma that it left her with. If she hesitates to open up to a therapist or balks at the idea of counseling, try a support group for family members of addicts. Groups like Al Anon are great places for spouses, siblings, and children of addicts to share their experiences and support each other. Besides the support the group will give her, she will learn the very important lesson that she is not alone in her situation.

This introduction and the story that followed were obviously intended as a spoof, but humor is frequently used as a subtle way to reveal the truth and that was undoubtedly the intent in this case.

Fifteen years later, what was once a source for satire is now undisputable fact: drugs have indeed won the drug war, and the $1 trillion that has been spent over the last 40 plus years by eight presidential administrations to prosecute this military-style campaign has been almost entirely wasted. The world’s illegal drug trade has grown into a $320-billion a year business, and the United States—ground zero in the drug war—is by far the planet’s largest consumer of illegal intoxicating substances.

One would have thought after the spectacular failure of alcohol prohibition in the 1920s that policy makers in this country would have realized how futile a war on drugs would ultimately turn out to be. But as has often been said, those who fail to learn from the mistakes of history are doomed to repeat them, and unfortunately the truth about the unsuccessful experiments of the past was forgotten when the U.S. foolishly chose to follow the same ill-fated path that had empowered organized crime while making the law a laughing stock in the eyes of the American people so many decades ago.

But even as we acknowledge the “victory” of drugs in the drug war, we should not be content to let things stand as they are. As was the case when President Nixon first declared war against illegal substances back in the early 1970s, drug addiction is a serious medical problem that devastates the families it touches and drains precious resources from societies that must fight against it. Consequently, an intelligent plan to combat a scourge that has ruined millions of lives is still badly needed.

The Global Commission on Drug Policy and the New Era

In the late ‘00s, a panel of political heavy-hitters was assigned the task of studying and assessing worldwide drug policy in order to make recommendations about how the overall strategy could be improved. In 2011 the Global Commission on Drug Policy issued a report that detailed their findings and conclusions, and given the solid mainstream credentials of the 19 commission members (former Secretary of State George Schultz and former chairman of the Federal Reserve Paul Volcker represented the United States) the report’s categorical rejection of the traditional approach to the problem of drug use and abuse caught many people by surprise.

“The global war on drugs has failed, with devastating consequences for individuals and societies around the world” – this was the unanimous conclusion of the GCPD panel members as announced in the first line of their report. These powerful individuals, all of whom at one time or another had headed or served in governments that had participated in the war on drugs, recommended a major shift in drug policy away from prohibition and toward a multi-leveled strategy that would include decriminalization, legalization and regulation, alternatives to imprisonment for drug-related crimes, and a much greater emphasis on the public health consequences of drug abuse and addiction.

As the GCPD came to recognize, from a public policy perspective the war on drugs has proven to be a bottomless money pit. It has soaked up massive amounts of resources that could conceivably have been used to provide expanded low-cost or subsidized treatment for those who need it, fund drug courts that send drug law violators to rehab instead of prison, sponsor educational campaigns and public-service announcements that would get the truth out about what addiction does to lives, and set up programs to help recovering addicts find jobs and places to live while they reintegrate into society. The United States presently has the largest prison population of any country in the world, up to 2.3 million and rising, and this statistic would not have been attainable without the passage of rigid laws prescribing mandatory prison sentences for those convicted of violating drug laws. In 1980, there were only 40,000 people serving time in U.S. prisons for drug crimes, but by 2013 that number had expanded to an astounding 500,000, with no accompanying reduction in the public’s overall consumption of illegal substances.

Dozens of peer-reviewed studies have shown the superior cost-effectiveness of anti-drug initiatives that focus on rehabilitation rather than incarceration. When drug addiction is treated as a disease and a legitimate health problem rather than a moral failing, it then becomes possible to treat addicts not as criminals but as human beings in desperate need of medical attention, and approaches to chemical dependency that actually work can be used as an alternative to harsh policies that make things worse for the victims of addiction without reducing the level of drug consumption and abuse by the public as a whole.

Will Reality Finally Triumph Over Rhetoric? Stay Tuned…

Because of the reputations and connections of the members of the Global Commission on Drug Policy, its recommendations are being taken seriously at the highest political levels here in the United States and around the world. The recent passage of ballot initiatives legalizing the sale and recreational use of marijuana in Colorado and Washington clearly demonstrate that the public has grown disaffected with the war on drugs and is ready to try something new, which could encourage policy makers across the country to begin thinking outside the box.

None of this guarantees that comprehensive change is just around the corner. But at least the ongoing dialogue about how to best combat drug abuse will be more open-minded and realistic than it has been in the past, when overheated rhetoric about the evils of all drugs has too often dominated the conversation. Drug use does not automatically lead to addiction—experts estimate that only about 10 percent of the world’s illegal drug users could be classified as addicts or abusers—and switching to an approach that puts the emphasis on treating addiction specifically instead of attempting to squelch all drug consumption would undoubtedly have a positive impact.

Public budgets are being squeezed tightly everywhere, so the search for a more cost-effective method for dealing with addiction and drug abuse has never been more urgent. And from the perspective of drug addicts themselves, the stakes are supremely high, as the difference between effective strategies to counteract chemical dependency and failed tactics that stigmatize without providing medically-appropriate intervention may literally be a matter of life and death.

For your teen, though, the diagnosis may well be a touchpoint for denial. Let’s take a closer look at the “whys” and “hows” of the denial process for teenagers with mental illness.

Developmental Issues and Illness

The creation of an identity is the primary developmental task faced by teenagers. Some therapists refer to this as the “tyranny of cool”: being cool is probably the single most important factor in most teenagers’ lives. But who defines cool, and how that definition shifts and changes, can be exhausting and intimidating for most teens. For a healthy teen, simply trying to navigate public school without getting beat up by upper classmen or teased by girls that weigh less or have smoother hair is a full-time effort. Creating an identity – a “persona,” if you will – helps teens deal with these challenges, and also leads them out of childhood and into adulthood. The creation of an identity is a critical step in personality development and helps pave the way for all adult decisions: life partner, career and values.

The extreme clothing, hairstyles, and fashion “accoutrements” such as tattoos and piercings are an outward expression of this – it is important for teens to distinguish themselves as separate and independent from the adult world. At the same time, the reliance upon their peers for helping to co-create and delineate their identity is key. Adults are “tainted” during this phase, and the creation of identity is often helped by countering or challenging adult norms, styles or values. Think of it as, “I figure out what I am by knowing with some certainty what I am not.” Figuring out what I am is critical to teens and no matter what they come to be, “cool” must be part of it.

For most teens, illness of any type is just not cool. For some, they are able to do a “badge of honor” spin on illness or any other form of “otherness” and flaunt it. However, more commonly, illness is felt to be terribly uncool. The diagnosis is a slap in the face to a teen’s fragile self esteem and budding identity, a confirmation by the adult world that “there is something wrong with me.” For most teens, stressed and struggling to simply deal with normal developmental pressures, “there is something wrong with me” rapidly escalates into a global plummeting of self esteem and a sense of “everything is wrong with me.”

Denial as a Part of Grief

Most teens harbor a fantasy that on some level they are alone in the world and at odds with their parents, despite actually living with a loving and supportive family. The process of reaching a diagnosis often underlines this sense of “at odds” with the world, and depending upon the illness, feeling alienated and isolated may also be a part of the disease itself. Unfortunately, in most medical settings, reaching a diagnosis has been a process of focusing on everything that the teen may feel is wrong with them – a collection of symptoms, “bad” behaviors, or “bad” feelings that they’d prefer to ignore or downplay.

Thus, denial may come to the fore as a part of the process of grief, and can be a normative part of moving through grief into acceptance. Denial can also exist on its own, as a primitive (meaning psychologically “young” or developmentally early, not meant in a pejorative sense) defense against the pain and stress of being imperfect. How can a parent know the difference? Look for the other aspects of grieving: anger, bargaining, and depression. The variety of behaviors and emotions is what differentiates this from denial without grieving: that would look more consistent.

What’s a Parent to Do?

Continue parenting, which is to say, continue to hold limits and boundaries with love. Accept the person but reject or respond to the behavior. In real life, how does this play out? It can get messy, and it is often difficult, but in real life terms, this means saying no to things you feel your teen isn’t ready for (like staying out past curfew), and enforcing consequences when rules are broken.

Take the long view, and remind yourself and your co-parent that this phase will end; your teen will become an adult and will learn to manage illness on his own. Your job will be temporary but the diagnosis is his life. Give him the best information, support, and “foundation” now, while you can, and be ready for him to stumble now, while you are present to catch him.

It could be that more of us are discovering that we have an autoimmune condition (celiac disease) which causes us to seek out these foods, but some worry that the trend offers many people a new way to hide their habit of severe food restriction. Celiac disease may often be a mask for an eating disorder.

Celiac disease is an allergic-type reaction to gluten which keeps nutrients from being properly absorbed in the small intestine. People with celiac disease often experience stomach pain and cramping along with diarrhea after eating foods containing gluten. Gluten is found in products made with wheat, rye or barley. That encompasses a significant portion of all items found in most shopping markets.

The person with celiac disease therefore has a limited number of products (even beyond foodstuffs) available that contain zero amounts of gluten. This makes claiming to have celiac disease an entirely plausible mask for hiding an eating disorder. When celiac disease is blamed on the basis of self-diagnosis, there can be reason to suspect that a desire to severely restrict food intake is more likely at work than any true physical condition.

When a person decides on their own that they have celiac disease and begins to eliminate an entire food group from their diet, they may initially find reinforcement from others. The resultant weight loss and plates absent of starches but instead occupied by nuts, plain-cooked meats and vegetables may garner the praise and admiration of others for healthy eating. In actuality, when a person eliminates wide swaths of food, this is normally a red flag signaling the potential presence of an eating disorder.

Experts suggest that 80 percent of Americans who claim to have celiac disease do not, in fact, have the illness. That astounding number suggests that many people with eating disorders are finding safe haven behind the label of celiac disease. Claiming to have an autoimmune disease can ward off criticism and closer examination. The tag of celiac can become a veritable suitcase into which a person stuffs their disordered eating and the mental health struggles which go along with that behavior.

Several tests are available to check for celiac disease. Gastroenterologists can identify genetic markers or take small intestine biopsies to establish celiac disease. There are several other screenings which can be performed as well. What warrants investigation is a person’s claim of self-diagnosed celiac disease. In many cases, the claim may simply be shielding a much more serious condition.

Loneliness is Dangerous

Studies released in 2012 linked loneliness to disabilities and early death. In one study, conducted at Harvard Medical School, the researchers followed thousands of people with heart disease or at risk for heart disease. Among the participants, those living alone were more likely to die from a heart attack or something else related to their heart disease. The connection was especially strong in the younger members of the study group. People between the ages of 45 and 65 who lived alone were nearly 25 percent more likely to die of heart disease.

Another study from the University of California, San Francisco took a different approach. Instead of using living alone as a sign of loneliness, researchers asked the elderly participants if they felt lonely, isolated, or left out. They then checked in with the participants over the course of several years. Those who described themselves as lonely were much more likely to have a hard time coping with everyday activities and to have died by the end of the study.

Loneliness and Dementia

The study from California showed that living alone does not necessarily make someone lonely. Another study, from the Netherlands, made the same connection. This study looked at elderly people and dementia. The researchers found that those who reported feeling lonely, whether or not they lived alone, were much more likely to develop dementia. Even some participants who lived surrounded by family and friends, but who felt lonely, were more likely to show signs of dementia. The researchers are not sure if the loneliness causes dementia, or if those who have it tend to become lonely as a result, but there is a definite connection.

Social Isolation

Feeling lonely is one thing, but being socially isolated is even more serious. A more recent study, conducted at University College London, found a difference between the negative effects of being lonely and of being isolated and removed from others. The researchers followed several thousand people over the age of 52 from 2004 to 2012. Those participants who were the most isolated were 26 percent more likely to die during the study. The researchers also found that feeling lonely often went hand-in-hand with being isolated, but that loneliness by itself did not necessarily increase the risk of death.

What the results of this study show is that feelings of loneliness are not what cause lonely people to have poor health and to die earlier. The cause is related to being isolated from people, living alone and having little contact with other people. One reason that this might be true is that people who are mostly alone have no one to notice when their health is slipping.

Another very important reason, according to the researchers, for isolation causing earlier death is that contact with people is good for your health. Holding hands with someone you love, for instance, automatically lowers your blood pressure and reduces pain. People who do not have much physical contact with others tend to have greater inflammation and higher levels of stress hormones in their bodies.

All of the above studies are important because they show how necessary it is to be around other people and to interact with friends and family. Feelings of loneliness are normal to experience from time to time, but if you feel lonely often, or if you do not have much contact with people, you may need to make some changes. Keeping in contact with old friends, spending time with family, and even just talking on the phone can help you feel more in touch with others. The more time you can devote to being sociable, the better your health—both mental and physical—will be.

Helping Problem Drinkers

Once a person has become an alcoholic, meaning he is fully dependent on alcohol, changing his behavior and his desire to drink is extremely difficult. When someone is dependent on alcohol, he experiences very uncomfortable withdrawal symptoms. The shakes, tremors, sweating, headaches, irritability, nausea, insomnia, and other unpleasant feelings lead an addict to drink again and again, just to feel better. Helping an alcoholic means detox and intensive rehabilitation as well as lifelong therapy and support.

Before a drinker gets to this point, though, he is simply an alcohol abuser. Someone who binges on the weekend may not be an alcoholic, but he is still engaging in dangerous and harmful behavior. Any new techniques that could be used to keep him from drinking this way could prevent health problems, legal problems, and future addiction.

Planting Memories

The idea of planting false memories of binges to prevent people from drinking comes from earlier research. Studies have found that memories can be planted and that people will believe that they really happened. It can be done by using personal information, by using family members to insist it happened, and other suggestive strategies. These techniques have been used in negative ways, such as when therapists try to get patients to remember repressed memories. Sometimes, the therapist inadvertently plants false memories.

Memories and Drinking

Instead of using the planting of memories for negative purposes, researchers at the University of California, Irvine, wondered about doing so to help people. To try it out, they selected 147 undergraduate students to volunteer. The students were told that they were being asked about food and drink choices related to personality. They filled out questionnaires that included several questions about bad experiences with rum and vodka as well as questions about food and non-alcoholic drinks.

A week after taking the questionnaire, the students were given a personality profile based on their answers. Some of the students received profiles that included false statements about how they got sick as teens when they drank rum or vodka. These students were interviewed and asked to talk in detail about their false experiences. If they did not remember them, they were told to imagine what it would have been like to get sick from drinking as a teen. After the interview, the students filled out another form and indicated whether they believed they had had the bad experiences.

Nearly 20 percent of the volunteers developed false memories about getting sick on vodka and rum. The rest believed they had gotten sick as teens, but did not necessarily have the memory of an experience. Those with the strongest false memories reported a reduced preference for vodka and rum. In other words, because of the false memory, they no longer wanted to drink rum or vodka.

Is It Ethical?

While the research is promising, not everyone thinks that manipulating memories is right. The researchers imagine that the technique could be used in many positive ways. For instance, parents could train their children to dislike fatty and unhealthy foods to combat childhood obesity. Critics of such ideas believe that any deception used in medicine or psychology is wrong.

Those who conducted this research admit that their work is controversial. They do see the study as having potential, though. While manipulating memories and planting false memories may be too complicated and unethical to be used for any real treatment, it could lead to similar, but more acceptable ways of curbing impulses. Simple tricks to resist the urge to drink may be developed from such controversial research. Although it may not be right to manipulate a person’s memory, any research that leads to better ways to combat addiction are welcome.

Infertility Basics

Infertility comes in two basic forms, known as primary infertility and secondary infertility. Doctors typically issue a primary infertility diagnosis when a couple unsuccessfully attempts to conceive a child during a minimum of one full year of unprotected intercourse. They issue a secondary infertility diagnosis when a couple conceives a child once but is unsuccessful during further attempts at conception.

The US National Library of Medicine lists known reasons for female infertility that include a fertilized egg’s inability to survive inside the uterus, inability of an unfertilized egg to reach the uterus, lack of normal egg production in the ovaries, and the effects of health problems such as diabetes, excessive substance use, advancing age, ovarian cysts, pelvic inflammation, after effects of sexually transmitted infection, thyroid disease, and cancer or cancer treatment. Known reasons for male infertility include a low sperm count, lack of proper sperm release from the testes, improperly functioning sperm, and health problems such as impotence, excessive substance use, hormonal imbalances, advancing age, pollutant exposure, prolonged heat exposure, smoking, cancer or cancer treatment, and an ejaculation disorder called retrograde ejaculation.

Psychological Impact

Generally speaking, women develop stronger negative psychological reactions to infertility than men, the Massachusetts General Hospital Center for Women’s Mental Health reports. However, when men perceive themselves as the source of infertility, their emotional reactions commonly reach the same intensity as the reactions found in women. Specific psychological states associated with infertility include anxiety, depression, anger, loss of self-identity, lowered self-esteem, and feelings of incompetence or inadequacy. When compared to couples without fertility problems, infertile couples exhibit symptoms associated with major depression significantly more frequently. Infertile couples also exhibit symptoms of medically serious anxiety significantly more frequently than their fertile counterparts. In many cases, infertility issues lead to additional concerns such as a breakdown in sexual communication within a relationship, larger-scale marital difficulties or isolation from the larger community.

As indicated previously, some researchers believe that preexisting psychological problems can reduce levels of male or female fertility. For example, the presence of clinical depression and stress may trigger such things as lowered output of a hormone required for normal ovulation or immune system changes that alter normal function in the male or female reproductive system. However, the overall evidence for psychological problems as a cause of infertility is fairly limited and/or inconclusive.

Risks for Diagnosable Mental Illness

In a 2012 presentation before the European Society of Human Reproduction and Embryology, a team of Danish researchers released the results of a long-term study that examined the ongoing mental status of more than 98,000 women who sought help or guidance from their doctors after receiving an infertility diagnosis. A study of this size was made possible by nationwide efforts in Denmark to track the data of people hospitalized for various reasons. Nearly 5,000 women who initially reported infertility problems remained childless throughout the course of the study, while roughly 50,000 eventually gave birth.

Compared to the women who conceived a child, the women with ongoing fertility problems were hospitalized with some form of mental illness roughly 20 percent more frequently. The specific diagnoses most commonly found among infertile women were obsessive-compulsive disorder, various anxiety disorders, a group of conditions known collectively as adjustment disorders, and some form of depressive disorder. Women with ongoing fertility problems also had significantly increased chances of developing schizophrenia or getting involved in some form of alcohol or drug abuse. Diagnosable eating disorders appeared with more or less equal frequency in childless women and women who conceived during the study. The authors of the study concluded that infertility can act as an important factor in the onset of mental illness when it continues after consultation with a doctor. They also concluded that doctors working with infertile women should stay alert for any potential signs of the onset of serious mental illness.

Rehab Romance is Tempting

As you go through a treatment program for your addiction, you will be facing a challenge like no other. Those who are not addicts can find it tough to understand what you are going through. You may feel as if there is no hope for you. You probably feel shame for your situation and for the things you have done to others. You may be experiencing physical symptoms that resulted from your addiction. While going through this in rehab, you will be around people who do understand you, who empathize with your position and who are feeling the same things you are.

It is only natural to form bonds and connections with these people, your fellow recovering addicts. Doing so is normal and healthy and can even help you get through the process. It can be very tempting to let these connections go beyond the bonds of friendship, to seek out romantic connections. In addition to the emotional support, newly recovering addicts may experience a surge of sexual feelings that were more dormant during the drug or alcohol abuse. These feelings can enhance the desire to make a romantic connection.

The Dangers of Romance in Rehab

The appeal of a romantic relationship in rehab is understandable, but could this type of connection be harmful? Positive relationships are very important to your recovery. You need the support of people who care about you as well as healthy relationships with your caretakers, therapist, and health care workers in order to be successful in becoming and staying sober. However, as you recover, these relationships may be more about helping you than striking a balance between give and take. You need more at this stage in your life and those who care about you will be willing to give until you are healthy again. That sort of imbalance does not work so well in a romantic relationship.

You may be creating a relationship that is destined for failure and failing is not helpful to the recovering addict. Furthermore, a romantic or sexual relationship may take your attention away from your recovery. Staying in rehab is meant to be a reflective time and a period of personal growth and betterment. A relationship may distract you from that purpose and hinder your recovery. Another concern is the possibility of contracting a sexually transmitted disease, or STD. These diseases are more prevalent in recovering populations and present a real hazard if you are not careful.

The Possibilities

Not all experts are so against the idea of romantic attachments in recovery. Some believe they can be positive experiences and also that they may even stand the test of time and turn into true love and lasting relationships. One aspect of rehab romance that makes a long term relationship possible is the honesty. When you are in recovery, you have no pretenses about yourself. The people around you are seeing you at your worst and they are hearing you explore your deepest feelings and thoughts. You have nothing to hide here and that can make for a good start to a relationship between two people.

Another potential positive aspect of a rehab relationship is the common purpose. When you leave the facility and face the rest of your life as a sober person, the temptations to relapse will be all around, and at times overwhelming. Having someone on your side, who not only supports your efforts, but is in the same boat, can be very powerful. Certainly, the last thing you want is to start dating someone who likes to party, drink, and use drugs.

Whether you are tempted to find romance in recovery or you just do not meet that special someone, never lose focus of your real goals. You are in rehab to heal yourself and to treat your disease. Like other chronic illnesses, this takes time, effort, and dedication. Regardless of any relationships you have or form, put yourself and your recovery first and you will succeed.

Alcohol and the Brain

Alcohol has an immediate effect on the brain when consumed. It causes an increase or decrease in certain brain chemicals, called neurotransmitters. Some of these changes are responsible for the sluggishness and clumsiness that people experience when drinking. Another neurotransmitter, dopamine, is increased when you drink. Dopamine is what gives you a sensation of pleasure and is why drinking feels good.

When you drink, different regions of the brain are affected. In the cerebral cortex, alcohol acts to make you feel less inhibited. In the cerebellum, it impairs your balance and coordination. In the medulla, alcohol lowers your body’s temperature, slows your breathing, and makes you feel sleepy.

The immediate effects of alcohol on the brain are relieved when your body has metabolized and eliminated it. However, there are cumulative effects of drinking. Over time, drinking causes memory loss. This is especially true in younger drinkers. Other long-term effects of drinking too much include impairments in visual learning, shrinking of the size of the brain, and damage to white matter. This is the part of the brain that is a part of learning, functioning, and signaling between its different parts.

Exercise Repairs Damage

Recent research conducted by professors and students at the University of Colorado at Boulder looked into using exercise to slow and reverse damage caused by excessive drinking. Research has long shown that people who get regular exercise as they age have better functioning brains than those who do not. One important reason is that exercise helps to keep blood vessels healthy. Without exercise, blood vessels can become damaged by high blood pressure and too much cholesterol in the bloodstream.

Exercise might also help slow and reverse brain damage and the risk of age-related brain disorders, like Alzheimer’s, because it protects white matter. The nerves that make up white matter and that are so important to signaling in the brain decline in health and get damaged during the aging process, and also as a result of heavy drinking. The recent research looked at the latter cause and tried to determine if exercise could help long-time drinkers recover some brain function.

The researchers used 60 volunteer participants for the study, between the ages of 21 and 55. They were selected from a database that was tracking nicotine and alcohol use. The volunteers were scanned to create a brain image that showed the volume of white matter each had. They also answered a series of questions about how they use alcohol, cigarettes, and other drugs and how often they exercised.

To find any possible connections between white matter, exercise, and drinking, the researchers created a model linking all of the data collected from the participants. The results were encouraging. It showed that among the volunteers who were heavy drinkers, those who got regular exercise had more intact white matter. Those who did not get much exercise had less white matter and more damage.

“What our data suggest is that beyond just giving people a different outlet for cravings or urges for alcohol, exercise might also help to repair the damage that may have been done to the brain,” said study co-author and CU-Boulder psychology and neuroscience professors Angela Bryan. “It might even be a more promising treatment approach for alcohol problems because it is both a behavioral treatment and a treatment that has the potential to make the brain more healthy. The healthier the brain is, the more likely a person with alcohol issues is to recover.”

The Promise of Exercise

While the results of the study are exciting and encouraging, it is still early research. It does not prove that exercise can correct existing damage. It does, however, seem to show that it might be a real possibility. The researchers are also quick to point out that getting regular exercise is not an excuse to be a heavy drinker. Although drinkers who get exercise may be better off than those who do not, drinking heavily is still bad for all aspects of a person’s health.

Further research could help doctors learn more about how to help problem drinkers. More detailed investigations might be able to prove that exercise really does reverse damage. These findings could lead to exercise becoming a regular part of treatment for alcoholism and other addictions. In addition to the effect on brain damage, exercise has many other positive health benefits and could help people who are in recovery.

Known Depression Risks

Depression is a generalized term that includes the potentially debilitating condition called major depression, as well as several other conditions such as minor depression and dysthymic disorder. Over the years, doctors and researchers have identified a range of factors that increase an individual’s chances of developing a depressive illness. Known factors in the onset of major depression include being between the ages of 45 and 64, not graduating from high school, having an African American or Hispanic ethnic or cultural background, having a multiracial or multiethnic background, having a history of unemployment or an inability to work, and being female or divorced. Known risk factors for the other forms of depression largely resemble the factors for major depression; however these conditions tend to appear in early adulthood and also affect a disproportionate amount of Hispanics.

Cognitive Vulnerability Basics

Cognitive vulnerability is a term that scientists use to describe certain emotional states and ways of thinking that contribute to a decline in some aspect of mental health. Examples of these thoughts and mental states include a repeatedly “down” or negative general point of view, a tendency to view specific events as negative or threatening, a tendency to view the past in a negative light, and a tendency to assume that things will go poorly in the future. Taken together, these tendencies essentially distort a person’s perspective on the self and others, and make him or her much more likely to think and act in ways that impair full participation in personal, social, work-related or school-related aspects of everyday life.

The level of cognitive vulnerability varies significantly from person to person. Although no one knows for sure, many mental health researchers believe that any given person’s level of susceptibility to mental and emotional negativity comes from a mixture of genetic, biological, and social or environmental influences. Generally speaking, an individual’s baseline degree of cognitive vulnerability starts to emerge during his or her early teenage years. Most researchers believe that this baseline vulnerability level remains more or less the same over the following decades.

Impact on Depression Risks

A number of previous studies have strongly linked high cognitive vulnerability to the onset of depression, according to a literature review conducted by the authors of the study in Clinical Psychological Science. In their own work, the authors wanted to determine whether cognitive vulnerability is “contagious” in certain conditions. In order to answer this question, they used a series of questionnaires to examine the mental states of 103 pairs of freshman college roommates at Notre Dame University. These questionnaires were specifically designed to gather information about the students’ levels of cognitive vulnerability, as well as detect the presence of any depression symptoms. The students filled out an initial questionnaire one month after beginning school, then filled out additional questionnaires three months and six months later.

After reviewing their data, the authors of the study found that students with average levels of cognitive vulnerability experienced a significant increase in their vulnerability levels when they lived with roommates who had higher-than-normal levels of cognitive vulnerability. At the same time, students with average levels of cognitive vulnerability experienced a significant drop in their vulnerability levels when they lived with roommates who had lower-than-normal levels of cognitive vulnerability. Critically, the students with increased vulnerability levels also experienced a near doubling of their risks for developing symptoms of depression.

Significance

The authors of the study in Clinical Psychological Science believe that their work proves that a person’s level of cognitive vulnerability can change considerably after early adolescence. In addition, they believe that their work proves that depression can act as a contagious disease, at least in certain circumstances. Critically, the study’s authors also believe that mental health professionals can take advantage of these facts and create new, “contagious” intervention techniques to reduce the chances for the spread of depression in various population groups.

Each eating disorder sufferer will experience this voice, these noises, differently. But a common trait is the angry, forceful, relentless, unstoppable nature of the sound. It comes at any time of day – breaking in on sleep, work, or any attempt at relaxation. It is a constant angry shouting that cannot be turned off.

Some addicts have referred to the voice as “the monkey mind,” comparing the endless chatter to a roomful of monkeys. For some it is like that – a never-ending cacophony of distracting din. But for others, especially those suffering from anorexia, the voice is louder, angrier, more imposing, even demonic.

For one anorexic, the evil sound came at any moment of quiet. Sleep became nearly impossible. As soon as she would lie down, the voices came, crowding out rest. Sleeplessness and exhaustion gave way to further anxiety and fueled her anorexic patterns. There was no relief. An attempted nap left her in tears as she fought to stay sane in the midst of silence. The less she ate, the more anorexia ate her mind, driving her toward her own destruction.

Many anorexics are reluctant to speak of the voice for fear of being perceived as crazy or “schizo.” The inner anorexic voice is not the same as schizophrenia – an entirely separate mental condition. The anorexic voice is associated specifically with the disease, goading the sufferer away from sanity, and deeper into the compulsion to restrict and starve. Others have lost touch with reality to the point of being unable to distinguish the voice as an intruder. It feels that it is one’s own inner voice directing and guiding, but it is an evil imposter. The advanced anorexic cannot see that she has been ambushed. She bends to the will of what she believes to be her own best interest.

The voice speaks to her every weakness, confirming every fear. She has no choice but to listen to it and obey its relentless demands. People commonly mistake anorexics as intentionally self-destructive, vain, masochistic, and selfish. But they are following the orders of a harsh taskmaster. To the sufferer there seems to be no other option

For this reason, anorexia is frighteningly difficult to recover from. The sufferer at times appears (and likely feels) almost possessed by some other force commanding her to hate herself and her body. Embracing a program of rehabilitation and recovery will quiet the voices, but not immediately. Anorexia fights hard to keep its prisoners in check – it does not let go so easily. For many, the voices continue into recovery, coming out to play at the gaining of every pound, and seeking to entice the victim back into the trap.

One recovered anorexic remembered the day when she realized quiet. The voices had stopped but she didn’t know when they stopped. She had a feeling there had been peace and quiet for some time, but she didn’t know how long. This was about six months into her recovery. For her the key had been daily study of the Bible, prayer, and a rigorous program of Twelve Step recovery.

For the anorexic who is new in recovery or struggling to get into recovery, know that you are not alone. This voice is common to your condition and it is very real, very frightening, and very compelling. But as powerful as it sounds, you are free to opt out of its command. Don’t be afraid to talk about it and expose it. If you desire healing you must have help and accountability.

And remember that there is another voice in your head – one that can be hard to hear over the constant din. It’s your voice. It’s the voice that knows right from wrong and survival from death. It’s in there too and you can hear it if you listen to it. Recovery then becomes a decision to hear the small voice – the one telling you it’s time to get well. Feed that voice. Listen to it. Follow it.

This caution isn’t meant to scare anyone away from the detoxification process. Far from it, in fact, but it is meant to warn against going cold turkey at home. To safety detox, there is only one way to go and that is with medically-supervised detoxification in a licensed detox center.

But first, what are the real dangers in trying to detox by yourself? Here is a list of some of the dangers of detox by substance that may be quite eye-opening.

Alcohol Self-Detox: Potentially the Most Dangerous

Maybe you think you are just someone who’s been partying too much and only need to cut down on how much and how often you drink. But when this doesn’t prove successful and partying becomes a non-stop affair or escalates into a case where you feel compelled to drink, you may believe it’s time for more drastic measures. Detoxing is, in fact, the first step in seeking to overcome the problem caused by drinking to excess.

Here’s where the difficulty and risk come in. When a person stops drinking alcohol suddenly, just up and quits because he or she thinks it’s time to do so and it’s easy to do, the consequences can be deadly. Sudden alcohol cessation can cause hallucinations, convulsions, and even heart seizure that may ultimately result in death.

Anyone with a serious dependency on alcohol should never even consider going “cold turkey” at home. Detoxification from alcohol detox is a two-phase process. The first phase occurs over a period of a few days. This initial period is the most dangerous and can prove fatal.

The second and longer phase of alcohol detox occurs over months, as the brain slowly begins to regulate and resume normal functioning. There may be lingering symptoms during the second phase of alcohol detox, but they are not usually life-threatening.

What are some of the first symptoms that may occur during detoxification from alcohol? Initial alcohol detox symptoms may include the following:

• Anxiety
• Convulsions
• Delirium tremens, also called the DT’s
• Hallucinations
• Heart failure
• Insomnia
• Nausea
• Seizures
• Shakiness

The extent of the severity and occurrence of symptoms will vary depending on the individual’s history of abuse and individual physical condition, including any exacerbating co-existing medical and/or psychological disorder. However, the risks of detox for all serious abusers of alcohol are potentially severe enough that alcohol detox should never be attempted alone.

During professional alcohol detox, medications may be prescribed that can make the detox more comfortable and safer for the individual. Such medications help reduce or eliminate cravings, ease anxiety and help the individual transition more gently from an abrupt cessation from drinking. It is important to note that a person cannot just take a prescription pill and detox on his or her own, though, as these medications require constant monitoring by medical staff.

Over the course of several months of abstinence, long-term withdrawal symptoms such as insomnia, cravings and anxiety will gradually reduce in intensity. They may be eased somewhat by medications such as acamprosate and naltrexone, but only continued sobriety and the passage of time will end the long-term detox.

Most important, detox is only the first step in overcoming alcohol dependence. You need a clear head, not one that’s foggy from alcohol, in order to begin the process of learning how to live a life of sobriety. After professionally-monitored alcohol detox, the individual is ready to embark on long-term recovery. Such therapy often takes place in residential treatment centers and includes one-on-one counseling, group therapy, educational lectures, and other treatment specifically tailored to the individual’s needs.

Methamphetamine Detox

Although there are few physical symptoms present with withdrawal from methamphetamine, the psychological symptoms can be extremely uncomfortable and present a major threat to recovery. What happens is that the intense cravings for meth coupled with deep psychological lows often lead the individual right back into using again.

Symptoms of meth withdrawal include:

• Aggression
• Anxiety
• Fatigue, and sleeping for days on end
• Increased hunger
• Intense cravings
• Irritability
• Lethargy
• Paranoia
• Severe depression
• Suicidal thoughts

Just one look at these possible meth withdrawal symptoms should be enough to discourage any sane individual from contemplating meth detox alone. Beyond that, getting clean from meth is a difficult process, one that very few individuals can successfully undertake alone. The best way to proceed to detox from meth is to do so at a licensed detox facility under constant medical supervision. It’s also important to be sequestered and away from access to meth and any other intoxicating substances.

One other point is important in any discussion of meth detox. The longer a person abuses meth, the greater the difficulty he or she will face in treatment and the greater the depths of meth depression that will need to be overcome.

Heroin Detox

Heroin is one of the world’s most addictive and dangerous drugs. It is also one of the most difficult addictions to overcome. As such, anyone addicted to heroin would be foolhardy to attempt to self-detox from the drug. Stopping without professional medical supervision is not only unsafe, it is destined for failure.

First, the nervous system of the heroin abuser’s body has become so accustomed to the chronic exposure of the opioid narcotic that abrupt withdrawal from the drug can cause excruciating and extremely dangerous withdrawal symptoms.

Second, without professional counseling to change behavior and learn how to live life without being strung out on heroin, the individual will simply revert back to using. The craving is too great and the person lacks coping skills and a support system.

Trying to self-detox from heroin will also produce withdrawal symptoms that cover a wide range of severity and discomfort. Heroin withdrawal symptoms usually commence within 12 hours of cessation of the drug and tend to peak between two and four days. Such withdrawal symptoms include:

• Abdominal pain
• Anxiety
• Body pain
• Chills
• Diarrhea
• Insomnia
• Irritability
• Nausea
• Sneezing
• Sniffing
• Sweating
• Vomiting
• Weakness

Continued use of heroin exacerbates the risks to users for liver and kidney disease, pulmonary complications, and diseases spread through shared needles, such as HIV/AIDS, and hepatitis B and C. It is estimated that 70 to 80 percent of new hepatitis C infections each year are due to injection drug use.

Medically supervised heroin detox is the only way to ensure the safety and well-being of the individual who has made the life-affirming decision to stop using heroin.

Combination Alcohol and Drug Detox

For persons suffering from multiple-substance abuse, or a combination of alcohol and drug abuse or addiction, detox is indeed a complex and dangerous process. This is another situation where the individual is well advised to seek professional medical help to safely detox. Never, ever attempt to go cold turkey if you’re an alcoholic and a drug user. You’ll be endangering your life and making the entire detox process much more painful and uncomfortable than it needs to be.

Consider the following withdrawal symptoms from cocaine and opiates.

Cocaine Withdrawal Symptoms: Cocaine withdrawal doesn’t usually include the dizziness, nausea, or shaking that is commonly associated with alcohol withdrawal. But prolonged use or intense bingeing on cocaine can result in “crashing” characterized by anxiety, depression, fatigue, and irritability. Other common cocaine withdrawal symptoms include restlessness, nightmares, and general malaise. There will also be extremely strong cravings for cocaine.

Months after stopping the use of cocaine, the general sense of malaise and agitation may still linger, along with recurring cravings and urges to use. These withdrawal symptoms can also be accompanied by thoughts of suicide. Research studies have found that as many as half of all cocaine addicts also suffer from mental disorders such as post-traumatic-stress-disorder (PTSD), attention-deficit-hyperactivity-disorder (ADHD), or depression. That makes the mental health aspects of cocaine withdrawal particularly acute.

Withdrawal Symptoms for Tranquilizers – Benzodiazepines such as Ativan, Valium, and Xanax work just the opposite of stimulants such as cocaine. When tranquilizers are suddenly stopped, the person becomes jittery, has problems sleeping, and shakiness. Nerves are extremely sensitive to any type of stimulus.

Opiate Withdrawal Symptoms: Although heroin is the most commonly abused of the opiate drugs, there are others in this classification, including morphine, codeine, opium, and oxycodone (the primary active ingredient in OxyContin). Withdrawal symptoms related to discontinuance of opiates can begin within six hours of cessation of use and include agitation, abdominal pain, nausea, vomiting, and diarrhea.

Take any one of the risks and lists of withdrawal symptoms from various drugs and add them all together and the result is a downright scary detox situation. Who in their right mind would even consider doing such a risky procedure? At the first sign of unpleasant withdrawal symptoms, or intense cravings, and, with no medically-supervised assistance to ease the symptoms with prescription medications, the individual is likely headed right back into using. Too tough, too uncomfortable, too painful – and that’s only the beginning.

The user rationalizes that they’ll detox later, next month or in six months’ time, but not right now. All that’s important is to get rid of the pain, to feel that sense of euphoria or numbness again. In other words, the desire to use takes precedence over the inclination to get clean and sober. No wonder such self-detox efforts fail – if the individual somehow manages to live through them.

How to Find a Professional Detox Facility

Hospitals provide facilities for inpatient treatment for medical detox. In addition, there are also licensed outpatient and residential treatment facilities that also provide medically-supervised detox. Inpatient and residential treatment facilities with detox programs are especially beneficial for individuals with chronic addiction. Outpatient facilities may be better suited for those with less severe addiction problems.

It is important to do a thorough research of potential detoxification facilities, especially since not all detox facilities or treatment facilities for substance abuse are the same. The number and variety of different facilities available, as well as their core specialties, price range and level of services provided can be confusing and fairly intimidating.

The key point to remember is that it’s never safe to attempt to detox from alcohol or drugs or a combination of alcohol and drugs at home and on your own. Even if you think you have some assistance from friends or family, none of them is trained or equipped to deal with the potentially life-threatening consequences of a do-it-yourself detox.

How to Make it Through Detox (the right way)

After getting admitted to a professional detox facility, there are a few things that you can do to make the process less of an ordeal. First, try to keep a sense of humor, as difficult as that might sound. Second, even though some detox can be pretty scary (heroin, for example), it is important to keep the end goal in mind. In order to begin treatment, you need to be free of drugs in. And treatment is the first step to successful recovery.

As for how to help yourself during the detoxification process, here are some tips gleaned from the experts:

• Take it one day at a time. For some drugs, detox may be a matter of 1 to 2 days, while more damaging or long-term drug abuse may take 3 to 5 days or longer.
• If you are offered medication to help make detox easier and less painful – or to reduce drug cravings – take it. There are new medications approved for treating withdrawal symptoms that are not addictive. The sooner you get through detox, the sooner you can begin treatment to overcome your addiction or dependence.
• Focus on long-term goals. It’s not too soon to begin crafting your vision for the way you’d like your life to be in recovery. You’ll be doing lots of planning when you’re in treatment, but for now, it’s helpful to have something constructive and positive to think about.
• Stick to it. If you give up and leave detox, not only will you be right back where you started, you may even start using more. Think of it this way: less than a week to get drugs out of your system is a short price to pay if you’re really serious about getting clean. If you’re not, then detox isn’t right for you at this time.
• Ask for help. Don’t feel that you have to go it alone. While detox is a uniquely singular experience, since only you know what you’re feeling at any given time, make sure you communicate any physical or psychological symptoms to the professionals attending to you. Again, their goal is to help you through this so that you can begin treatment.
• Get enough sleep. One of the withdrawal symptoms that’s tough to overcome is the inability to sleep. Frankly, insomnia may plague you for a while even into treatment. Take advantage of medically-prescribed, safe medications to enable you to sleep. Later on, in treatment, you’ll be able to participate in yoga, meditation and other means of helping you to relax so you can sleep without interruption.
• Drink lots of fluids. Your body needs to flush out the toxins, especially from the liver. The best hydration is water, followed by fresh juices.

Getting Off the Roller-Coaster and Into Recovery

You may think that the way out of alcohol or drug abuse or addiction is impossible or that you’re not capable of getting through it. The longer you’ve been abusing substances, the tougher getting sober may seem to you. Just the idea that you can come out of the serpentine labyrinth of addiction may seem elusive and not applicable to you.

But you’d be wrong in such an assumption.

The truth is that you can learn to overcome your past dependence or addiction to alcohol or drugs but you do need professional help to get there. Granted, it will most likely be one of the most difficult challenges you’ve ever faced, but with the support and encouragement of loved ones and friends and self-help groups following detox and substance abuse treatment, you can once again be clean and sober and well on your way to a successful life in recovery.

Bottom line: Self-detox is a bad and very dangerous idea. In fact, it could prove deadly. Seek professional help for a safe and medically-supervised detox and follow it up with a treatment program to help overcome addiction.

The American Psychological Association (APA) also suggests that this young group has not developed proper learning strategies for managing stress, partly due to a limited amount of intervention from their primary health care provider. The APA survey, Stress in America: Missing the Health Care Connection, states that the average stress level for America is 4.9 on a 10 point scale. A healthy level is 3.6. Millennials reported a 5.4 level of stress.

 College and Then the Job Search

Some students are trying to juggle 12 to 15 hours of classes while working another 20 or more hours a week to pay for their education or living expenses. Add to the pressures of school work and holding down a job the fact that the economy has not been kind to recent graduates. While still in college, students are fearful of being able to later find a job in their field of study.

The stress has increased in the last year for 39 percent of young Americans. Fifty percent say that the stress was so oppressive that they have had sleepless nights in the last month.

Trying to Cope

In their busy schedules, the Millennials would benefit by fitting in coping strategies for stress. In the survey, 49 percent of the young adults said they did not think they were doing enough to manage their stress. The survey also revealed that the depression rate and anxiety rate are also both increasing in this generation.

Overall, for Americans of all age groups, the news about stress rates was good. There was a four percent decline in extreme stress since 2010. Also, less people are using alcohol and overeating as unhealthy attempts to cope with their stress.

Getting Help From Healthcare Providers

The APA believes that these good overall trends could be even better with direction and assistance from health care providers. CEO, Norman B. Anderson, PhD., stated that our country needs to address stress and its treatment in order for all Americans to become healthier and to help lower health costs.

A very small percentage of the Millennial group surveyed said that they received stress or behavior management help from their primary doctor. All age groups were surveyed about the stress management care they received from their primary physicians. Millennials had the lowest percentage of satisfaction of all groups. A small 23 percent said they did get a lot of support from their doctors on mental health, but only 17 percent said that they had ever talked to their doctor about stress management.

Researchers believe the key to better mental and physical health is for patients to relay their stressful symptoms to doctors and for those doctors to help them find the proper support to manage their stress.

Fish Oil Basics

In addition to the species listed above, common sources of fish oil include herring, anchovies, sardines, a herring relative called menhaden, seal blubber, whale blubber, and the livers of a species called cod. Some fish oil supplements contain pure oil, while others also contain vitamin E as an anti-spoilage measure. In addition, specific products may contain additional beneficial substances such as B vitamins, vitamin A, vitamins C or D, or the minerals iron or calcium. Fish oil is generally prized for its omega-3 fatty acid content. Each 3.5-ounce portion of a fish oil-producing species contains roughly 1 gram of these acids, the US National Library of Medicine reports.

Omega-3 Fatty Acid Basics

Scientists also refer to omega-3 fatty acids as essential fatty acids or polyunsaturated fatty acids. The human brain requires a steady supply of these acids in order to maintain aspects of its normal function that include general information processing and the accurate use of memory. Other vital roles for omega-3s include control of a potentially damaging process called inflammation and promotion of normal growth and development in children and teenagers. The two omega-3 fatty acids found in fish oil are docosahexaenoic acid (DHA) and eicosapentaenoic acid (EPA). A third omega-3, called alpha-linolenic acid or ALA, comes from plant sources, not fish.

Evidence for Effectiveness

In a study published in 2010 in the American Medical Association’s Archives of General Psychiatry, an international research team gave fish oil supplements to a group of 41 individuals. All of these individuals were classified as “very high-risk” for the onset of diagnosable schizophrenia, which means they had elevated chances of developing schizophrenia within a year’s time. Another 40 people with the same risks received fish oil placebos instead of real fish oil. After 12 weeks of treatment, the study participants who received fish oil reduced their chances of developing schizophrenia by roughly 22 percent.

In another study, published in 2011 in the journal Translational Psychiatry, a team of researchers from the Indiana University School of Medicine used mice to examine the potential benefits of giving the fatty acid DHA to people with bipolar disorder. These researchers concluded that DHA helps prevent the “lows” associated with bipolar depression, as well as the “highs” associated with bipolar mania. They also concluded that DHA achieves its beneficial effects by accessing the same areas of the brain that respond to the effects of antipsychotic medications.

Findings from several different modern studies indicate that fish oil or separately packaged omega-3 fatty acids can potentially help reduce the effects of major depression, Johns Hopkins Medicine reports. However, there are two important qualifications to these findings. First, fish oil and/or omega-3s appear to help relieve depression symptoms when used in combination with antidepressant medications, but not when used as a main form of treatment. In addition, fish oil and omega-3 products that contain both DHA and EPA, or EPA alone, produce treatment benefits; however, supplements that only contain DHA apparently don’t produce any benefit.

Considerations

When people hear about new or “alternative” treatments for mental or physical health problems, they sometimes abandon their current treatments and switch over to the newly proposed remedies on the basis of little or no hard evidence. In this context, it’s important to note that not all studies support the effectiveness of fish oil or omega-3 fatty acids as a preventive or active treatment for mental illness. It’s also important to note that researchers need to collect further evidence before they can fully determine whether or how to use fish oil or omega-3s for any specific type of mental illness. No one with a current mental illness diagnosis, or with high risks for mental illness, should take fish oil or omega-3 fatty acids without consulting a doctor for information and advice.