Category Archives: Mental Health

NFL Needs a New Mental Health Perspective: Suicide of Junior Seau

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Junior Seau’s suicide has sparked an incredible amount of debate about the mental health ramifications of being a long term football player. Gary Plummer, Seau’s former teammate, had this to say on the matter:

They said a Grade 3 concussion meant you were knocked out, and a Grade 1 meant you were seeing stars after a hit, which made me burst out in laughter. As a middle linebacker in the NFL, if you don’t have five of these [Grade 1 effects] each game, you were inactive the next game. Junior played for 20 years. That’s five concussions a game, easily. How many in his career then? That’s over 1,500 concussions. I know that’s startling, but I know it’s true. I had over 1,000 in my 15 years. I felt the effects of it. I felt depression going on throughout my divorce. Junior went through it with his divorce.

As noted the other day, Seau’s family has agreed to allow his brain to be studiedto a find link between repetitive brain injuries and depression. Via 

[shortformblogr]

Laughter Yoga: Can Happiness Heal?

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When it comes to laughter yoga, faking it ‘til you make it is just fine.

At least, that’s what Vishwa Prakash said at the start of the session that HuffPost’s health news editor Amanda Chan and I wandered into recently.

It was one of a few guidelines Prakash offered, as well as keeping our eyes locked on our fellow attendees, some 20 men and women dressed in street clothes and standing in a circle in his textile design company’s midtown Manhattan offices.

Continue reading →

Gay Men and Aging: Finding Your Purpose

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I just finished reading about the suicide of a gay therapist Bob Bergeron.  No one knows why he committed suicide—the author of the article and many of his friends are left to wonder about the reasons. But the irony left in the wake of his death is hard to ignore. He was about to publish a book on successful gay male aging and his suicide note suggests that we was struggling with the very issue he was writing about—a potentially difficult issue for many gay men as we grow older..

 

A closer consideration of gay male aging suggests why growing older might be a particularly tricky. First of all, a large component of gay male culture is focused on beauty, youth, and sexual attractiveness. Like their heterosexual counterparts, gay men respond and react sexually to visual stimuli, namely the physical appeal of their sexual partners. As a result, beauty is privileged and so are the men who have it.

Joan Collins once said that physical beauty is a gift granted in youth that is slowly taken away little by little over time. Thus, gay men who are lucky to live long enough to age must face the decline of their attractiveness. However, growing up gay in a stigmatizing society might leave them particularly ill-suited to face the challenges of this time of life.

Bob Bergeron is a case in point. According to an article in the Sunday April 1st New York Times,  Mr. Bergeron grew up nervous and awkward, poor at sports and unable to interact with other boys. If he was like a lot of other growing up gay boys, he was probably scapegoated and physically harassed. Many of us, include me, were terribly bullied as children. We were called out for being gay before we even knew who we were.  At the same time, we learned being gay was something shameful and disgusting needing to be hidden from the world, including the people closest to us. Many of my clients and research respondents who have experienced this stigmatization grow up with deep wounds and a profound sense of personally inadequacy and low self-worth. So perhaps we were vulnerable to some of the dark sides of gay male life, namely, its overemphasis on looks, youth, and sexual attractiveness at the cost of healthier and life sustaining values that can assist us as we age. MORE

Which, btw, may have nothing to do with the gym.

Personality Can Change Over Time, Study Suggests

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Just because you are a big old grouch today, it doesn’t mean you always have to be that way. Lighten up on yourself and read on:

According to a new study, grouches don’t necessarily remain grouches for the rest of their lives.

Findings published in the journal Social Indicators Research suggest that people’s personalities can change over time just as much as external factors like change in jobs or income, or marriage or divorce.

The researchers, of the University of Manchester’s School of Psychological Sciences, said that the findings indicate we can increase our well-being not just through these actual external changes, but also through changes in our personalities. Continue reading →

Trauma and Adversity in Childhood: History Need Not Be Destiny

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“It is easier to build strong children than to repair broken men.” An emotional and powerful read that my push the buttons and heart strings of some of you that may have had trauma during your childhood. It is never too late to get a get a good grip of your past and leave it there and move forward to healthy living, both body and mind.

Once again, the American Academy of Pediatrics is demonstrating its clinical leadership. Two recent, groundbreaking reports – “The Lifelong Effects of Early Childhood Adversity and Toxic Stress” and “Early Childhood Adversity, Toxic Stress, and the Role of the Pediatrician: Translating Developmental Science Into Lifelong Health” – by the Academy boldly declare what has been known but too hidden from sight: Namely, that brain and emotional development is profoundly disrupted by childhood adversity and trauma.

The pediatric academy quotes Frederick Douglass who said “It is easier to build strong children than to repair broken men.” Continue reading →

Former Israeli Military Trainer and Gay Porn Star Found Dead of Apparent Suicide

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This is the exact reason why I chose to start this website, to help bring awareness to topics such depression and anxiety among gay men.  A beautiful man, perfect on the outside, assumed  to have it all, dead. Little did anyone know that Dror Barak, 38, now come to find out was struggling with some major depression issues. We need to push forward and get the conversation started on the topic of mental health. We need to diminish the stigma behind mental health issues and make it okay to talk about. Roman, whose real name was Dror Barak, should still be with us today.

UPDATE: We received a note from Dror’s boyfriend Sam who confirmed the sad news and asked that people be respectful with regards to Dror’s privacy in the comments.

Sam writes:

Details are mostly personal depression issues.

His business was doing amazingly well and was expanding rapidly and he was so busy he literally could not take any more clients on himself he had to hire more trainers. So it had nothing to do with that. I only say this because he was so proud of his business and I was so proud of him for being such a hard worker and building a business with dedicated top level personal training clients.

Despite what anyone thinks Dror was a loving kind person and anyone that would comment and say he wasn’t just probably misinterpreted his shyness as meanness. He was the most gentle, loving, kind, amazing man I have ever met.

Dror Barak, 38, was found dead Saturday night of an apparent suicide. A former Israeli military trainer who achieved stardom under the name Roman Ragazzi, Barak hadn’t been active in porn since 2008. He left the industry to concentrate on a fitness company he founded.

While working as an administrative aide for the Israeli Consulate scandal Barak Barak was outed as a porn star in 2007 by the New York Post’s Page Six gossips, resulting in a minor scandal. He resigned, then later started a fitness blog as well as what some say was a legendary career in porn. His boyfriend told a gay porn blog (NSFW) that though Barak’s business was going well, he suffered from depression.

It’s rumored that male porn stars have a very high rate of suicide, and according to this list posted on a NSFW blog, there appears to be some truth to the rumor. Susannah Breslin tried to explain the reasoning for this strange phenomenon over at Salon after the suicide of porn star Stephen Hill.

[article via Out Magazine]

Receiving Therapy Through a Smart Phone App? Psychological Help Accessible Anytime, Anywhere

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This is one area where humans could never be replaced. What about eye contact, the feeling of having a safe and sacred place and building trust with another individual is am integral part of therapy. These apps are another attempt at achieving a positive outcome, in this case mental health, with outputting in the time. Two thumbs down.

HELPING HANDS One commonly used program tries to treat those who tend to fixate subconsciously on hostile faces.

Not for long, if some scientists have their way. In the past few years researchers have been testing simple video-game-like programs aimed at relieving common problems like anxiety and depression. These recent results have been encouraging enough that investigators are now delivering the programs on smartphones — therapy apps, in effect, that may soon make psychological help accessible anytime, anywhere, whether in the grocery store line, on the bus or just before a work presentation.

The prospect of a therapy icon next to Angry Birds and Fruit Ninja is stirring as much dread as hope in some quarters. “We are built as human beings to figure out our place in the world, to construct a narrative in the context of a relationship that gives meaning to our lives,” said Dr. Andrew J. Gerber, a psychiatrist at Columbia University. “I would be wary of treatments that don’t allow for that.” Continue reading →

Good Form: The Benefits of Backbends

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Bending backward is not just about the spine — you must use your arms and legs to support it. As you practice this pose, remember to point your tailbone down toward your heels to keep your lower back safe. A common mistake is to squeeze your buttocks forward, which pinches your lower back.

Kneel on a padded level surface with a yoga block positioned near the outside of each foot. Place your hands on your waist. Draw your tailbone down, and lift your chest and rib cage up.

Inhale as you arch up and back, placing your hands on the yoga blocks. Be sure to maintain the lift of your chest as you draw your tailbone down and deepen your back arch. Stay in this pose for six breaths. Your breathing should remain normal and comfortable. By Karen Voight

Voight is the creator of a line of fitness DVDs, including “Full Body Stretch” and “Ballet BodySculpt.”


Author of “The Complete Guide to Happiness for Gay Men…” Dead from Suicide

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 WAKE UP CALL

This hits the nail on the head and drives home the very reason why this site spawned, mental health issues hiding behind the mask of a beautiful body. Dying young and beautiful because of a hidden mental illness is unacceptable. The stigma and shame that is attached to mental illnesses overrides the education and knowledge of those knee deep in the illness themselves. “Bob Bergeron, a handsome, successful, intelligent, well-liked, physically fit gay New Yorker committed suicide recently. Ironically, and sadly, the psychotherapist was about to publish The Right Side of Forty: The Complete Guide to Happiness for Gay Men at Midlife and Beyond.”

“Colleague and associate Christopher Murray eulogizes Bob in a provocative article that touches on the complexity of why people commit suicide and why (in particular) gay men who might appear to be doing well may not be, not really. Check it out here.” (boyculture)

A Relational Perspective on The Psychological Treatment of Gay Men: Treating Symptoms or Treating People?

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In Continuing on our health journey, our brother site, Inside First :Men’s Health Resource, we are aiming for better health, current and quality  information on issues of mental health, fitness and nutrition. We are expanding and strengthening our team everday. Below our teams newest contributor, Dr. Todd Troutman. ”Dr. Troutman holds a Bachelor of Arts in Psychology, and a Masters and Doctorate in Clinical Psychology. He has delivered psychological services to children, adolescents, adults, couples, and families in multiple settings, including: the Marin City School District, Berkley Mental Health Community Clinic, Access Institute For Psychological Services, and Ann Martin Center. In 2009, Dr. Troutman was awarded the Mental Health Services Act (MHSA) stipend, which is a grant program that provides practitioners funding to deliver psychological services to underserved communities in California. His work through the MHSA program was focused on the assessment, diagnosis, and treatment planning of individuals struggling with complex cognitive, emotional, and behavioral challenges.

Dr. Troutman currently works delivering individual psychotherapy to adults and adolescents, and provides clinical consultation services in his private practice in San Francisco. When he is not working in his private practice, Dr. Troutman teaches several classes in the Community Mental Health program at the California Institute Of Integral Studies (CIIS) and the Masters in Counseling Psychology program at San Francisco State University.”  drtoddtroutman.com

Treating Symptoms or Treating People?
Why Some Therapies Succeed and Others Fail:

A Relational Perspective on The Psychological Treatment of Gay Men

Public health research conducted over the last decade indicates that gay men experience higher rates of depression, panic attacks, and psychological distress than their heterosexual counterparts (Cochran et al., 2003). For their distress, many gay men seek short-term psychological treatment that is primarily focused on reducing symptoms. However, despite the use of symptom-focused therapies such as cognitive-behavioral forms of treatment (CBT), a significant portion of gay men experience chronic or recurring bouts of depression and/or anxiety. While many factors contribute to the mental health of an individual (e.g., economic status, discrimination, trauma, etc.), one reason gay men experience chronic psychological distress may be the type of mental health treatment they are receiving. Continue reading →