Pete Earley

Moments before the show

For those of you who missed it, Jessie Close, Glenn Close and I were on the Diane Rehm Show this morning (2-5-2015) talking about mental illness and our new book, RESILIENCE: Two Sisters and a Story of Mental Illness.  Here is a link to the program.

Highlights for me were hearing Glenn read one of the vignettes that she wrote for our book and also listening to Jessie read the first two pages of the book’s Prologue where she describes a screaming voice inside her head urging her to end her life. Their readings truly captured the emotion and power of their written words.

A listener asked for our reaction to Fox News Radio Host Tom Sullivan’s recent claim  that Bipolar Disorder is “made up” and a “fad.” Click to continue…

DIANE REHM

Jessie Close, Glenn Close and I will be interviewed on The Diane Rehm Show on Thursday, February 5th, at 11 a.m. (EST.)

I’ve been on Diane’s National Public Radio show four times and she is simply top-notch. She understands the importance of discussing mental illnesses, how they impact the lives of millions and the tremendous need in our nation to improve our mental health care system.

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Jamie Justice, NAMI-Utah Director; Jackie Rendo, activist; Pete; Francisca Blanc, NAMI Development Director; Zara Juillerat, past NAMI Utah President.

2-2-15 Members of the Utah House appropriations committee were studying their computer screens and not making eye contact with me until I mentioned that I had encountered three persons the day before outside the gates of the Mormon Temple grounds in Salt Lake City who were panhandling.

“Do you know how much NOT  helping those three is costing you?” I asked during my hurried seven minutes of testimony.

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FROM MY FILES FRIDAY: Is there such a thing as a “chemical imbalance?” The term has fallen out of favor of late, but you still hear it. In this slightly edited blog that was first published in March 2011, I offered my opinion about this often controversial term.

CHEMICAL IMBALANCES: REAL OR IMAGINED?  

One of the first phrases parents hear when a loved one shows symptoms of bipolar disorder, schizophrenia or persistent and major depression is “chemical imbalance.” I remember being shocked when I wrote this term in a Washington Post Op Ed piece and was confronted by someone who told me there is absolutely no scientific evidence that mental illnesses are caused by chemical imbalances in the brain.

So I was happy when I received an advance copy of the book: SHRINK RAP: Three Psychiatrist Explain Their Work   written by psychiatrists: Dinah Miller, Annette Hanson, and Steven Roy Daviss, who write a popular mental health blog. I found their comments about “chemical imbalances” helpful.

“Chemical imbalance is a term with imprecise meaning…Saying that a psychiatric disorder is caused by a chemical imbalance, although an imperfect explanation, sometimes makes psychiatric disorders more palatable to patients and less stigmatizing. The term gives some credence to the practice of treating these disorders with medication. But there is no psychiatric disorder for which we know for certain which chemicals are  “imbalanced” if any.

“We have reasons for believing that psychiatric disorders must certainly be mediated by biological factors. For one thing, psychiatric illnesses run in families, even when family members are separated at birth. Research has shown that genetic links, and even specific genes, may be associated with different disorders. Many studies have shown that the biological features of groups of people with illnesses are different from those same features in groups of people without those illnesses. What we don’t have, yet, is a specific reliable test for a certain genotype or enzyme level, or a brain scan finding that indicates that a specific person has a specific disease.”

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“Everybody Matters”

By Ray and Connie Maternick

We were watching the President’s State of the Union Address on Tuesday night. As the speech droned on we were getting tired and almost ready to call it a night.  We looked at each other and simultaneously said, almost sighing, he missed a very important opportunity. At that point we were just half listening, and about ready to hit the off button on the TV, when out of the blue, four words caught our attention.

“….Americans with Mental Illness….”

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