Recovery Michigan

There is a lot of talk about transforming our mental health system into a consumer-driven recovery-based system, but little talk about transforming staff to work successfully in this new system. Recovery programs, to this point, tend to rely on creating small countercultures with dynamic leadership, staff that are different or want to change, and new nonprofessional and consumer staff. Successfully transforming existing programs with existing staff requires a proactively guided process of staff transformation. The following describes the 12 aspects of staff transformation.

Though instincts like salt appetite are basically genetic neural programs, they may be substantially changed by learning and cognition," said co-lead author Professor Derek Denton, of the University of Melbourne and the Florey Neuroscience Institute, who is renowned for his pioneering work in the field of instinctive behavior. "Once the genetic program is operating, experiences that are part of the execution of the program become embodied in the overall patterns of an individual's behavior, and some scientists have theorized that drug addiction may use nerve pathways of instinct. In this study, we have demonstrated that one classic instinct, the hunger for salt, is providing neural organization that subserves addiction to opiates and cocaine.

Oh Oh! I love salt.

Researchers at the University of Wisconsin-Stout designed an experiment to test how quickly meditation could change people's brain patterns. 11 participants "were offered two half-hour sessions a week, and encouraged to practice as much as they could between sessions, but there wasn’t any particular requirement for how much they should practice." After five weeks, during which each person meditated for an average of seven hours, distinct changes in brain patterns emerged. More activity was measured in the left frontal lobe of the brain, an area often associated with positive emotion. 

Coming to terms with addiction and mental illness is a highly personal, and important, adventure for me and for everyone who has an addict in his/her life, and for those who suffer with the disease themselves. To aid in the journey of understanding, I’ll write on old and new brain chemistry research (or the lack thereof) including addiction and related disorders, mental illness, drug treatments and legislation to explore an issue that has plagued us for centuries. My goal is to broaden the breadth of knowledge on addiction in the public scope and shed light on the deficiencies in research, but also, to keep forefront in mind the human element, the people we’re trying to help.

Long-term exposure to air pollution can lead to physical changes in the brain, as well as learning and memory problems and even depression, new research in mice suggests.

While other studies have shown the damaging effects of polluted air on the heart and lungs, this is one of the first long-term studies to show the negative impact on the brain, said Laura Fonken, lead author of the study and a doctoral student in neuroscience at Ohio State University.

You know, I grew up in Midland, home of Dow Chemical, and I remember the mice being pretty down.

Take a hot bath, you’ll fee better. Not only does warm water soothe us, it can combat loneliness. According to research published in the journal Emotion.

Scientists analyzed the bathing habits of 51 people. And had them record how they felt before and after bathing. The researchers found that higher scores on a measure of chronic loneliness were associated with an increase in warmer baths or showers. In a separate study, to test the link between physical temperature and emotional state, scientists had subjects hold cold and hot packs and recorded levels of perceived loneliness. They confirmed the correlation between cold packs and high loneliness scores.