Magic And Nightmares

Magical thinking is a child’s belief that what he or she wishes or expects can affect what really happens. For example, if a child wants something to happen, and it does, then the child may believe that they actually caused it to happen. Magical thinking is often used by a child as a coping mechanism for dealing with fear. For dealing with the induction of fear, magical thinking is most commonly responsible for a transference of guilt or blame from one thing to another. For instance, the traumatic events that a child may be experiencing due to an abusive relationship with one’s parents, may be attributed to the boogie man or monster in the child’s closet. According to a study done at Tulsa University, traumatic events, experienced by a child or early adolescent often lead to sleep deprivation and the increased severity of nightmares as well as night terrors, which less is known about in the scientific field.

A new treatment for childhood nightmares, incorporating the use of magical thinking is Imagery Rehearsal treatment, commonly referred to as “IRT”. In a case study administered at Southwood Psychiatric Hopsital in Pennsylvania, a child with a diagnosed psychiatric illness, whom reported fears due to severe nightmares was administered this treatment. Results showed that the administration of IRT, with the instruction to imagine different environments, and ultimately “Change the ending” of the dream was successful in not only reducing the severity of the child’s nightmares but their frequency as well. Until more research progress is made pertaining to the overall effectiveness of IRT, it will still be seen as an unreliable treatment option for childhood nightmares, yet the strong link between magical thinking and the reduction of childhood fears and nightmares remains undeniable.

Men truly do have it on the brain

Why do rich and powerful men almost always seem to have younger, more attractive wives and girlfriends? Why is it also, that a larger percentage of rich and powerful women do not have a partner at all? Most of us think that it is merely because women are attracted to men with money. While this may be the reason in certain instances, recent studies have indicated that it may be due to the finding that men view their financial empowerment and sexual empowerment, as both one and the same. This would also explain why more successful and wealthier women, tend to do have far more trouble in garnering relationships with men, than wealthy and successful men do with women.
A recent study done at Stanford University conducted a study on the V-shaped nucleus accumbens, or rather a study on the part of the human brain that experiences pleasure. Results published in CNN headlines showed that when that part of the male brain was activated by erotic images, men were more likely to bet high on a random chance game that would earn them money. 50 gambles in terms of financial decisions were made by these fifteen men according to cat scans. No such gambles of financial greed were exhibited when these same men were shown neutral images such as landscapes or miscellaneous objects. In short the study found that a man’s brain was stimulated in the same manner by a beautiful woman as it was by greed and gold.
This link between lust and greed can help to explain how money becomes a sense of empowerment for the male ego. It would also explain why twenty two out of twenty five male surveyed participants in a study done by the New York Times, responded similarly to the question “How would you feel about going out with a woman who made more money than you?” . The twenty two participants succinctly replied “It would make me really uncomfortable if they made more money than me”.

Transitioning into Adulthood with ADHD

Parents often wonder if their child who has been diagnosed with an attention disorder will grow out of it by their adult years. New research by Dr. Russell Barkley focuses on the life course and outcome of adults who were diagnosed with attention disorders as children. Barkley has studied ADHD for over 30 years and is one of the few who have offered research data on what happens long-term to individuals with ADHD. Recovery in adulthood from ADHD symptoms was seen in 1/6 to 1/3 of the children diagnosed with ADHD. Predictors of recovery included education and severity of symptoms at age 21. Surprisingly ,what was NOT predictive of who recovered from ADHD symptoms was IQ, age of onset, childhood symptom severity and how long a child was treated with stimulant medication. The adults with ADHD had numerous impairments in major life activities. ADHD was more impairing than most outpatient psychiatric disorders. Barkley concludes that interventions should start early and be sustained longer during the day and across the individuals development. Treatment focus should include education as well as other major life activities. Information and treatment implications related to employment problems, motor vehicle driving risks, social/lifestyle difficulties and health concerns are discussed in Barkley's new book ADHD in Adults: What the Science Says.

Families members of adults with ADHD who are uncooperative are advised to stay involved.

Avoid using the loss of family relationships as motivation to change. Try to keep a disability perspective. ADHD is a neurobehavioral disorder that can impact all areas of life. It is okay to be a healthy safety net. Assist your family member in maintaining medical and dental care. Support them in constructive activities such as locating employment, therapy or continuing their education. Don't enable misconduct but assist in keeping your family member from homelessness or other catastrophic circumstances. Chadd.org and russellbarkley.org provide additional information about understanding ADHD and how to successfully manage ADHD through adulthood. (graphic from PSN)

E-Parent: Techin' It Easy

The following is the first in a series of posts designed to bridge the gap between parents and their digitally evolved kids. In these posts, we will be covering gaming, cell phones, television, movies, ipods and more. With increased concerns about kids and their use of the Internet, both real and imagined, the following are 5 tips to help parents keep their kids safe while surfing the net.

1. Communicate: Have open and honest dialogue about internet use and value your child's interests and questions. Be involved in their on-line lives. Do you know their screen names, passwords, favorite on-line games...?

2. Guide: Talk with your kids about specific rules including not posting any specific information on-line about themselves including their school name, grade, date of birth, address, phone number, etc. Also have rules about where computers should be (not in bedrooms, monitors facing common areas, usage only when a parent is home, etc). And state the obvious. Tell your kids not to respond at all to offensive or threatening emails or instant messages. Encourage them to tell you about any such contact which again requires spending time with your child, being a safe parent to talk to, and involving yourself in their Internet lives.

3. Surf: Go Online with your kids and "tour." While you're spending time with them, you can show them interesting and valuable places to go. You can also instruct them about specific places not to go and why such places are dangerous.

4. Educate: Don't let lack of knowledge be your escape hatch. Learn about how to protect your kids and use every safeguard you know. If you bring the Internet into your home, know how to keep your kids safe by using screen passwords and user profiles to track who uses the computer. If you don't know, find someone who dose and educate yourself. Not knowing is not an excuse!

5. Supervise: Regularly scan the files on your family computer to see what kind of material your children have downloaded/viewed. Better yet, download software that will allow you to monitor computer activity. Webwatcherkids.com a great place to start. Let your kids know if you plan to use this software (don't spy on them - see #2)

Discuss these tips with your spouse, friends, and kids. See if your own digitally evolved children have additional ideas, and begin the important dialogue about safe internet use in your home and in the process you raise your E-Parent IQ!

Night Terrors and Scary Movies

As master of horror H.P. Lovecraft once wrote, “The night brings the inexplicable, the unimaginable, the terrifying.” Unlike nightmares, night terrors are consciousness manifested in shapes and forms of horror, haunting the child, who seemingly awake, yet remains unresponsive to the concerned parent. Night terrors are far more intense than nightmares, which are nothing more than bad dreams experienced during REM (rapid eye movement) sleep, whereas night terrors occur during slow wave non-rem sleep. Symptoms often include uncontrollable screaming, or crying, flailing of the arms or legs, rapid breathing and sweating, inability to comfort or waken and no memory of the incident the morning after.  

Although the exact cause of night terrors is unknown, night terrors are commonly associated with stress. To determine some of the main stressors associated with night terrors, numerous research studies have been conducted. Research done by experienced physicians at the Virtua/Dupont children’s health clinic in Western New Jersey tried to identify the more common stressors that may be associated with night terrors. Children ranging in age from 3 to 8 years old, who all had frequent experiences with night terrors, were studied over the course of two weeks by their parents, who later reported the results to the physicians. Mothers of the children would frequently describe the episodes as chilling.  “I went to touch him, when he suddenly threw his body back and screamed, flailing his limbs about as if he was being attacked by something horrible,” one mother described. “I awoke to a blood curdling scream,” several mothers reported, as the beginning of the night terror episodes would last anywhere between 10 minutes to almost an hour.

The children were allowed to go about their usual daily routines, which in most cases included video games and movies they watched prior to bed. After the first week the parents were instructed not to allow the children to play any video games or watch any scary or violent movies prior to bed. The results were quite significant. Eighteen of the twenty children who were allowed to go about their daily routines as usual, including video games and movie watching experienced at least one night terror episode in the first week, as reported by their parents. However, during the second week, when the children were not allowed to play video games or watch any scary or violent movies, only one child experienced a night terror episode. Although the study does not prove in any way that scary movies or video games cause night terrors, it does however, imply that scary movies and video games may be a contributing factor in…….bringing terror to the child.

Father Figure

A review of several studies published from 1987 to 2007 found that the benefits of having an active father in a child's life cannot be overestimated.  Among the conclusions of the review were these important findings:

* An active father reduces the risk of behavior problems in boys.

* An active father reduces the risk of emotional problems in girls.

* An active father increases a child's intellectual development on tasks like language development and logic.

* An active father reduced a child's risk for smoking later in life.

* An active father increases a child's chance of greater educational achievement and having higher levels of education.

* An active father increases the development of healthy peer relationships among children.

* An active father decreases the chance that a child will have run-ins with the law later in life.

Now we all know that it is possible for a child to have a very active and involved dad and still have trouble.  The point here, though, is that dads are important and they can make a big difference in the lives of kids.

"Don't Go Into The Light!" Unless......

Almost every movie watcher recalls the movie Poltergeist where the little girl Carol Anne was repeatedly told “Don’t go into the light!”. Well, maybe we should, as Dylan Thomas once wrote, “Rage against the dying of the light”, for light therapy it seems can help people cope with a number of different disorders and illnesses.  

Phototherapy, also known as light therapy is simply, the use of a light or a light box to treat disorders. Traditionally, phototherapy has been used to treat skin disorders such as psoriasis, but recently has been applied in treatment towards a number of mental illnesses such as depression, bi-polar disorder, and seasonal affective disorder, otherwise known as winter depression. The phototherapy procedure involves a panoramic bright light exposure, where the patient is completely engulfed in blinding light, which is then projected directly into the eyes. To protect against cornea or retinal damage, the patient is given a visor, which doesn’t dampen the brightness, only reduces the amount of ray exposure for the patient.  

Dr. Dorothy Sit, of the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center, conducted a study in which nine women in the depression phase of bipolar disorder who were unresponsive to conventional treatments and medications were given phototherapy treatment. Patients in the midday group had a more stable response, and after the time of light exposure was changed to midday, six of the nine female patients showed significant signs of improvement in their depression. Dr. Sits team concluded that people diagnosed with bi-polar disorder, especially women, should be given a trial session of light therapy if they are unresponsive to more conventional treatment methods. So maybe Carol Anne would have been better off after all, had she, in fact, “Gone into the light!”.