Jeffrey M. Brandler, EdS CAS SAP

Inconvenient Complainers

jeff — Fri, 11 May 2012 02:19:45 +0000

Inconvenient Complainers.

Coming Soon on Tales From the Office

jeff — Mon, 30 Apr 2012 16:53:40 +0000

new construction

New Logo

jeff — Fri, 13 Apr 2012 02:30:24 +0000

Thanks to http://lizbeckdesigns.com/ for all your help

change is possible!!!!

Stopping SSRI Medications

jeff — Tue, 06 Mar 2012 16:47:22 +0000

Here is something that always comes up– a person is taking one of the SSRI medications and wants to stop them. Here is expert advice from Dr Ivan Goldberg, MD

Leigh Steinberg, the rise and fall

jeff — Sun, 04 Mar 2012 15:32:51 +0000

Leigh Steinberg, the super agent, and inspiration for Jerry McGuire’s story of success,”show me the money” his alcoholism, his bankruptcy and recovery:

Leigh Steinberg

to watch the entire episode: find it on this month’s edition of Real Sports

Is a dream a lie if it don’t come true or is it something worse?

jeff — Mon, 13 Feb 2012 15:09:04 +0000

An amazing line from an amazing song that now 22 years later is still dead on about how people and relationships change over time

Please post your thoughts

The River

Best Reasons to Avoid Couples Counseling

jeff — Wed, 08 Feb 2012 00:25:29 +0000

Here is a list of the Best Reasons to Avoid Couples Counseling

We’re not married yet, if we go to Couples Therapy we are doomed.
The therapist is not going to tell me anything I don’t already know.
It’s not going to work.
People who go to Couple Therapy get divorced -Why go?.
It’s too expensive.
I need to work this out on my own.
We don’t have the time.
How would we explain this to the family?
We don’t have anyone to watch the kids.
We’re going to argue way more after we do this.

Please add your reasons for not going to Couples Therapy to this list.

The Compassionate Therapist

jeff — Wed, 01 Feb 2012 11:12:16 +0000

We are trained to be compassionate, and caring about the client? No we really are!!!!!

Happy New Year

jeff — Mon, 02 Jan 2012 23:11:20 +0000

Hope everyone had a safe, healthy, and sober new year. In 2011, many great things happened to changeispossible.org. :

The website was redone and looks great.

The Tales from the Office podcast started.

The Tales from the Office sound greatly improved.

and the best part–more great things are on the way–

Podcasts you can expect to hear in 2012 include:

Who Are You- a show about self esteem

Lyin Eyes- a show about infidelity

Prepositions of Communication–there are 3, and boy are they different

the 25 letter alphabet-(-guess what letter is missing?).

and others yet to be named

In addition, I will making a presentation at the Depression, Bipolar, Support Alliance(DBSA) in Morristown NJ on January 25, 2012. The topic is : Resentment and Depression. You can read more about this here.

If you can’t make it to the presentation, (with any luck), highlights will be up on the site in the DBSA section of the site:

http://www.changeispossible.org/dbsa/

In this section, you will also find 3 of my past DBSA presentations. Please enjoy them as well.

Again Happy New Year, enjoy 2012.

Feel free to follow me on facebook:https://www.facebook.com/changepossible

Please comment on any of the information of this site, it adds to the social aspect of this blog.

Thanks for reading.

Faq on Men’s Mental Health

jeff — Wed, 14 Dec 2011 20:57:09 +0000

Frequently Asked Questions on Men’s Mental Health

(from bbrfoundation.org)

Is there a connection between sports injuries and mental illness?

Research has shown us that mental illness is often a combination of environment and genetic predisposition. Some Boston University studies on retired athletes found that those who had had three or more concussions had a three-fold higher incidence of depression compared to players with fewer brain injuries.1 While these studies find so much in the physical, there is an important aspect that few are willing to expose: the devastating social stigma that comes with mental illness. This can be even crueler for men than for women, as our society idolizes professional athletes, as well as men in general some argue, for being tough, resilient and infallible.

Why are men less likely to seek treatment for mental illness than women?

Men may not recognize the primary symptoms of depression and may be reluctant to discuss these symptoms due to stigma, concerns for job security and the societal views associated with emotional self-control in men. There is a growing body of research in the United States that suggests that men are less likely than women to seek help from health professionals for problems as diverse as depression, substance abuse, physical disabilities and stressful life events.

Is there a connection between depression and testosterone levels in men?

Research has indicated that low testosterone levels have been linked with higher risk for depression in men.2 Approximately 2.5 million men in the U.S. have low testosterone levels, with about half a million new cases each year. Some of the symptoms of low testosterone, such as fatigue, irritability, decreased concentration and decreased libido, overlap with symptoms of major depression.

Do men experience depression differently than women?

Men can experience depression differently than women and have different ways of coping. Men may be more willing to report fatigue, irritability, loss of interest in work or hobbies, and sleep disturbances rather than feelings of sadness, worthlessness, and excessive guilt, which are commonly associated with depression in women.

Do Men Experience Postpartum Depression?

In the past year, research has shown that men are also prone to depression after the birth of a child. The analysis of more than 28,000 fathers determined that up to 14% of dads in the U.S. experience depression after the birth of their child, and that figure escalates to 25% in the period 3 to 6 months after birth.3 Approximately10 percent of new fathers experience post- partum depression, called paternal postnatal depression, or PPND. The strong correlation of paternal postpartum depression with maternal postpartum depression has important implications for family health and well-being. Consideration of postpartum depression in fathers as well as mothers, and consideration of co-occurrence of depression in couples, is an important next step in research and practice involving childbearing families.4

Is there a substantial difference in the occurrence of suicide for men and women?

Women with depression are more likely to attempt suicide but men are more likely to die by suicide. Four times as many men as women die by suicide, even though women make more suicide attempts during their lives. Those at highest risk for suicide in the U.S. are the elderly, and particularly elderly white men who commit suicide at a rate of approximately 31.1 suicides per 100,000 each year. Among white males 65 and older, risk goes up with age. White men 85 and older have a suicide rate that is six times that of the overall national rate.5

How do body image issues and eating disorders play out in men?

Some men feel a lot of pressure to have a strong, muscular physique and may focus excessively on exercise and dieting. These preoccupations can turn to an obsessive nature, causing harm physically, profession- ally, and personally. People with body image issues may feel unhappy with how they look and feel self-conscious about their bodies.Men and women are affected equally, but may focus on different parts of the body. Men tend to worry more about their skin, hair, nose, muscles and genitals.6 An estimated 10-15% of people with anorexia or bulimia are male. Men are less likely to seek treatment for eating disorders because of the perception that they are “women’s diseases.”7

Citations

1 American Association of Neuropathologists, Inc., Volume 68, Number 7

2 NARSAD Young Investigator Grantee Josee Savard, PhD: The Role of Hormone Therapy and Testoster- one Deficiency in the Development of Depression

in Men with Prostate Cancer

3 Journal of the American Medical Association, 2010

4 Medline.(PMID:14675298 [PubMed - indexed for

MEDLINE]

5 National Center for Injury Prevention and Control

6 Carlat, D.J., Camargo. Review of Bulimia Nervosa in Males. American Journal of Psychiatry

7 National Association of Anorexia Nervosa and Associated Disorders, Eating Disorder Statistics, (American Psyc