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Sunday 27 January 2013

Once again, I need to reiterate

Hilde is dead, Michelle Lewis

http://www.lewismentalhealth.com/2013/01/24/surefire-ways-to-give-your-kid-an-eating-disorder/

Do feel free to comment on Linked In, if you are a member:

The Fairy Blogmother asked that we be polite and respectful.

I really really really tried to be but ended up with this particular gem on Facebook.

Charlotte Bevan I am only wasting my time commenting on this thread because people should know that the world is round, America has a black president and parents don't cause eating disorders. Ask any expert in the eating disorders world.

But I do have to say that I love Tom Insell

Dr. Thomas Insel responds 
From: Insel, Thomas (NIH/NIMH) [E] 
Sent: Sunday, November 07, 2010 4:51 PM 
To: M.B. Krohel 
Cc: Laura Collins 
Subject: Re: Current status on the field of Eating Disorders

Dear Ms. Krohel,


It is indeed frustrating that so many professionals continue to promote a “blame and shame” approach to people with mental disorders. This is especially unfortunate in the treatment of eating disorders, in which the “experts” have long blamed parents, while recent evidence demonstrates the effectiveness of parent-centered treatment (see attached from Locke et al), suggesting that parents may be the solution not the problem. Families and people challenged with mental disorders increasingly find reassurance in the emerging research that addresses these as brain circuit disorders (see attached from Scientific American) but many professionals, who have no training in neuroscience, still find a neurobiological approach to mental disorders as misguided and frankly alien to all of their experience. You may want to watch Good Morning America tomorrow. Congressman Patrick Kennedy is scheduled to be interviewed about his campaign to reduce stigma of mental disorders by framing these illnesses as brain disorders. Perhaps, as you quote in your e-mail, this effort will fail, but in an earlier decade, focusing on the medical basis of cancer and AIDS helped us out of the blame and shame phases of these disorders.

Sincerely, 
Tom Insel

Thomas R. Insel, MD 
Director, NIMH/NIH/DHHS 
1. Executive Blvd. Rm 8235

Bethesda, MD 20892 

2 comments:

  1. Interestingly, my long rant, although diplomatic and full of evidence, on above mentioned LinkedIn blog, has not been published. it is still difficult to have any appreciation for these old perceptions and hang on to them so profoundly. I was aghast when I first came across the article, so much so, I simply found it difficult to respond in a gentlemanly way.

    Initially I fretted that perhaps we would appear to be too harsh? Then, within a milli second, that thought promptly disappeared into the ether as I realised WE ALL MUST SPEAK UP LOUDLY AND CLEARLY and keep backing up what we say with evidence….interestingly, the blogger and those who support this view, have not offered a single shred of evidence. I rest my bloody case! Thanks Charlotte for giving us a sounding board - no can we post this on LinkedIn or will I end up being booted off there as well?

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  2. Bravo to Dr. Insel!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

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