America, the Addicted

     Next month will make it a full year since I quit smoking cigarettes. For me, this is one of my proudest moments because not only have I proven all of those people wrong who said I couldn't do it, but I have, more importantly, proven that the dark voice of irrational doubt that haunts my self-confidence is not more powerful than my will. Any addict knows how strong that voice can be, and as someone that has always struggled with self-confidence, this is a huge personal win. Now don't worry, this post is not another preachy advice column about "how to quit."  I understand that addiction is a personal thing, and because of that, every person's journey is going to look different. Moreover, the tactics that one uses to quit must be tailored to that person's unique motivations and I prefer to keep those intimate aspects of my personality to myself. My best advice for anyone struggling with addiction would be to see a trained therapist (preferably one who specializes in addiction, but any therapist will work), and they will be able to help you to identify the best plan for you and your lifestyle.  I have included a link at the bottom of this page to a website with a great database of mental health professionals.
       Instead, my goal is to address how poorly our culture handles addicts. In previous posts, I spoke at great lengths about the stigma of mental illness in our society. So as a launching point, keep in mind that mental illness includes addiction. Many people in society tend to treat it as a seperate diagnosis, but, as a personal witness of countless addicts in my life, I know that they often display the same symptoms as any other person with a mental illness, and while treatment is typically much different, the causes are often the same. Now when I talk about addiction, I am talking about my personal definition of addiction: use of a substance that manipulates the brain AND subsequently changes the functioning of the brain in such a way that it results in a physical or mental dependence on that substance to maintain normal brain functioning.  
       What I want you to notice about this definition is that it doesn't indicate any sort of idea that addiction can only happen to weak or evil people. The fact that our minds so easily slip to an image of a dirty criminal when we think of the word "addict" proves just how ubiquitous the criminalization of addiction is in the public consciousness. The fact is that in 2007, alone, an estimated 23.2 million people aged 12 or older needed treatment for a substance use disorder in the United States, and my guess is that the self hatred that most of those individuals suffer from as a result of this criminalization doesn't help their problem. Labeling oneself as a criminal only perpetuates the cycle because as Mahatma Gandhi once said:

"A man is but the product of his thoughts. What he thinks, he becomes.

       If we truly want less criminal activity among drug users then we should focus a little more on reducing prison sentences for these "crimes" and by, instead, offering cheaper rehabilitation options to non-offenders and offenders alike. According to the National Substance Abuse Treatment Services Survey, the average cost for inpatient programs was about $7,000 per month. Since more than 30 days produces a higher recovery rate, the cost of drug rehab can easily range between $7,500 and $75,000.  To me, this is ridiculous. I understand that it costs a lot of money to provide quality treatment to these individuals, but I feel like using our tax money to pay at least a portion of these costs would be cheaper in the long run than the cost of repetitively paying for prison stays of repeat drug offenders. No matter how its defined, though, drug and alcohol addictions are a huge problem. A problem that is highly specific to the American culture. I personally blame our inefficient system of negative reinforcement, but maybe you disagree. Feel free to share your thoughts about this topic in the comments below!

Resources for those struggling or those who know someone struggling with drug addiction: 
http://www.allaboutcounseling.com/

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The Cross and the Crescent

        Religious intolerance, as I noted in my last post, has been at the heart of society’s most destructive wars and its most enduring feuds. But why does our “intelligent” species allow such passive beliefs to motivate us towards such violent conflicts? Well, most social psychologists understand religion to be one way in which a group of individuals can assert civil order and convey moral codes to one another while providing answers to philosophical questions about the meaning of life. Questions that, until the development of scientific study, were highly open to interpretation and likely to invoke high levels of existential anxiety. I guess religion could be seen as ancient society’s equivalent of Xanax. And similar to the aggression that one would expect from someone addicted to Xanax who has had their access to the drug taken away, any threat to a group’s religious beliefs in ancient society would elicit a seemingly irrational amount of aggressive response. Most religious believers today are now much less hostile about new ideas (perhaps thanks to the existence of actual Xanax?), but certain followers within at least two major religions remain quite aggressive.  
      These two religions have a combined following of 3.7 BILLION people worldwide, and, as such, are the two largest of all of the world religions. Namely, they are Christianity (2 billion followers) and Islam (1.72 billion). Along with Judaism, they are known as the Abrahamic religions (due to their shared reverence of the patriarch Abraham) and they worship the same singular God. Unfortunately, 2000 years of separatism and political conflict has led to vast ideological and cultural differences among the modern versions of these belief systems to the point that they are now indistinguishable from one another. 
       In terms of similarities, Christianity and Islam both have a founding prophet on whom they base their divergent teachings; for Christians, this prophet is Jesus Christ. Islam actually agrees that Jesus Christ was a prophet of God and that he was the only human aside from Adam whom was created directly by God. However, Christians believe that Jesus was crucified and resurrected by God so that all believers in Christianity would thereafter be saved from condemnation in the afterlife. In contrast, the Islamic belief is that God would never have allowed his only begotten son to be crucified. Their belief, instead, is that Jesus was never crucified at all, and that there is only one manifestation of God. In other words, Muslims do not support the idea of the Holy Trinity (the three manifestations of God as believed by modern conservative Christians). Instead, they believe that another Prophet of God came after Jesus, and his name was Mohammad. As a political leader, Mohammad was passionate and determined. He believed that God’s word (the Qu’ran) was to be taken literally and any who resisted His word were to be forced into submission. Mohammad’s character traits stood in stark contrast to Jesus Christ’s self-sacrificing approach, and most of the conflicts between Islam and Christianity arise from these fundamental differences. 
        Nonetheless, even Mohammad’s first followers respected Christians as followers of a shared God. Early conquered Christians were even given more freedoms than their non-Christian counterparts. Moreover, early Christians didn’t believe Jesus was a manifestation of the Divine, itself, like most of today’s more conservative Christians. As a mere prophet of God (not God himself), he was originally seen as being wholly human. Over the centuries, the original concept was re-interpreted and transformed into what many Muslims feel is too polytheistic (worship of multiple gods) than their teachings allow. Early Christian ideals actually differed very little from the early Islamic ideals. So what went wrong? Well, one glance at a map can show you part of the problem: physical distance. This combined with population explosions and numerous inner conflicts within both religions have led to the development of entirely different cultures than the ones that founded them. 
        The current problem is now that these two vastly different cultural systems are being forced, more and more, to interact with one another as the world becomes increasingly interconnected. The only common thread to which they can both relate is their shared worship of the same God. Using this to their advantage, government organizations manipulate public opinion towards political ends by encouraging an image of the opposite side being “evil” wrongdoers from a strange foreign land. Today we see Islam and Christianity as two entirely separate and exclusive ideas, but its time for our governments to stop using this misinformed prejudice as a means to justify their aggressive foreign relations. Modern liberal believers within both Christianity and Islam have recently begun to understand that the two beliefs are not so incompatible. There is hope for the future if the more traditional sects can be convinced to accept this mutual tolerance. Thousands of years of violence and death must be forgiven on both sides of the conflict, but surely the security of future generations is worth making this effort. It's clearly time to grow out of the hatred that runs rampant in these two religions. As the new world culture strengthens, we all have to begin revering human life as passionately as we do our own personal beliefs or that life will surely suffer the consequences.

**The information above is not meant to be a full analysis of either religion. I have simplified the information so as to support my argument. If you would like a more exhaustive source of information, visit my information sources below: 
http://www.religioustolerance.org 
http://www.religionfacts.com

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The Life of Ty

             This is the first in a series of posts in which I will be discussing the role of religion in our lives. As the title suggests, I was inspired to write on this topic after reading the novel Life of Pi by Yann Martel. For me, Piscine’s (aka Pi) inner conflict with religion is a battle that really hits close to home. Much like Pi, I was raised amidst a culture of religious uniformity, but instead of the religion being Hinduism, mine was Protestant Christianity. As a gay male, I found myself at odds with my religion like many other LGBT individuals have experienced in their lives. I guess that was my main motivation for questioning the power of the Christian faith, and for questioning the validity of religion in general. My personal relationship with God had previously been a genuine one so this was a personal betrayal of ultimate proportions, and in my youth, the only reaction I could muster was complete denial of spirituality

            My academic studies did nothing but encourage my Atheism. Yet, I inevitably found little inner fulfillment within this lifestyle. Neurology has shown us that there is an observable mental state that religious experiences activate which is unlike any other state of being. The patterns of brain activations in these moments have been shown to have a therapeutic affect on the individual, as well. Perhaps this aspect of the human psyche provided us with an evolutionary advantage over other animals, but the believer in me argues that this could also just be the part of the brain that is directly linked to the divine, whatever that may be. 

So, again in parallel to Pi's journey, I began encouraging my curious disposition to explore the foreign world of religion. This time, I approached it much like an archaeologist would approach a new archaelogical dig. I was meticulous and critical of each new “artifact” that I encountered; studying it and extracting the parts that, to me, held value. What resulted was my own fusion of worldwide religious beliefs. It works well in my life, and it carried the additional perk of providing me with more cultural tolerance and for that, I am truly grateful.

           Now, one thing to know about Protestants is that they emphasize the importance of a personal relationship with God, and that belief is one that has remained in me to this day. I hesitated, at first, when I thought about writing on this topic because, for me, religion is a personal thing. But, I have also seen the painful and destructive power of religious intolerance. So in the next couple of weeks, I will be presenting the main world religions in hopes of drawing the numerous parallels among them.  I think we all have something we can learn from other cultures, and my challenge to each of you is to approach each religion I present with an open mind.  At their cores, every religion is about love and forgiveness so my ultimate goal is to encourage all of us to practice those aspects of spirituality a little more in our daily lives.  

            I will present them in pairs with no particular order so up first for next week: Christianity and Islam.  So stay tuned!!!

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Imagination is Power

"Live out of your imagination, not your history."
-Stephen Covey-

Any frequent "daydreamer" knows that it's not unlikely to sometimes miss entire conversations going on around you due to the mental energy being used inside your own mind to create your artificial environment. It's this ability to shut down entire sensory modalities in order to utilize our brains' ability to create entirely original ideas that sets us apart from other, less-inteligent animals. This ability to create new information using recombined bits of our memories is also known as imagination, and it has led mankind into making some of its greatest achievements. In cognitive psychology, one form of human imagination is the combination of several simple parts into more complex new objects, and it is this kind of imagination that is frequently the origin of scientific innovations. The "recombinations" are also what inspires those "ah-ha" moments in our lives. Yet, beyond the realm of invention, our imagination can also be used as a tool with which we can create new experiences in our lives. This is the kind of imagination that inspires those times when you're sitting in your cubicle around 2 PM while your conscious mind is busy sitting on the beach in the Bahamas.

On a more serious note, though, I want to encourage those who are stuck in a bad situation or who are unhappy in their lives to use their imagination to their advantage. When I was a child, I read books and wrote my own stories about magical worlds and impossible feats of adventure. Now I understand that this was a way for me to explore the world of possibilities and have limitless "playgrounds" while still being physically situated in rural Tennessee. I know It may not seem very useful in the moment, but, as Einstein once said: "Imagination is everything. It's the preview of life's coming attractions." In other words, our imagination is a method by which we can peer into the future and determine the means by which to attain the goals we envision. So let's take an astronaut, for example. This astronaut often imagines himself as being the first human to walk on Titan, one of Saturn's moons. This astronaut is very passionate about reaching Titan so he starts thinking of all of the conceivable ways in which he could get himself there. Eventually he may combine his knowledge of space travel with other, unrelated bits of information in his memory to create a new method of long-distance space travel that no one else would have been able to conceive. If he had not been able to imagine himself reaching that planet then he may not have attempted to find a way to get there. What's more is that none of society would have been able to benefit from the technology that would result. Had he, at any point, told himself that it was impossible for humans to get to Titan then his uncertainty would have prevented the possiblity from becoming the reality it could have once been. So:

The moment that you lose hope in the possibility of the future you imagine for yourself is, ironically, the same moment that it becomes impossible to attain.

I guess the point I'm trying to make is that you can never lose confidence in the things that you imagine for yourself. Even if the result is, in fact, impossible to achieve. I can guarantee to you that the effect of having hope in itself is worthy of the effort. All I know is that despite the amount of human suffering in the world, there is still a constant forward motion. Things must, by their nature, change and the smartest of us are the ones who know how to direct the motion in their lives. I don't think that people need ultimate control over their lives to be happy, but I do know that hope always gives us strength and I've never seen a situation wherein strength wasn't a powerful ally. So imagine the life you want and don't allow yourself to question the possibility that it can come true. Maybe you will surprise yourself.

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What happened to our futures?!

I’m a recent college graduate from a private university which consistently ranks among the top 20 universities in the US. I have to confess, though, that I am less than impressed with the return on the 24 years of dedication and focus that I invested into my education. In the five months since receiving my degree, I have been teaching myself some new skills to gain a competitive edge in the job market; this includes a firm grasp of computer/web-programming (HTML, CSS, JavaScript, & JQuery so far), digital media editing (Adobe CS6) and better approaches to marketing via social media. Nonetheless, I have yet to find a job. So my question is:

What happened to the future we were promised?

It’s a valid question in today’s society. We have somehow shifted the emphasis on knowledge in the workplace to an emphasis on immediacy and efficiency. And it comes at no surprise given the rapid-fire bits of commercialism that we are assaulted with in our day-to-day lives. In journalism, writers are even told that they have less than 150 characters to grab the reader’s attention and give them the major points of your article before the reader loses their focus & moves on to the next big headline. REALLY?! I mean they even developed an entire website based on this idea (yes, I’m looking at you Twitter).

This focus on efficiency and "doing what works" leaves little room for new ideas, much less new employees. So what about the hordes of new college grads, like myself, that have incurred untold amounts of debt from our student loans? Why aren’t we getting the “dream jobs” that we were promised? It only takes one look at a list of job openings to answer that question: employers are only targeting “experienced and expert talent”. THIS IS WHY OUR ECONOMY IS FAILING, PEOPLE!!! Maybe the older generations can’t see it because they are too busy trying to keep up with the digital revolution that has transformed the entire structure of corporate America in the past ten years, but take it from a generation that grew up online: you have to start focusing on fresh and malleable ideas if you want to get ahead of the competition. "Doing what works" isn't going to work anymore, sorry! But where do these ideas come from, you ask?

Ah, yes! From the younger generations, of course!!

Yes, thats the very same population that the corporate world is currently neglecting. Well, I can’t help but find a little bit of comic relief from the irony of it all. College grads need the jobs to pay for off our student loans and survive, and the employers need us to help them improve their revenues (whether they know that or not). But as they remain paralyzed with fear of inexperienced workers, we are further developing our web-based culture and pretty soon, without us, they will all become as obsolete as we are to them now.

So my suggestion to struggling companies out there: I have no pity for your revenue decreases so stop complaining. If you want to prosper in the market these days you should open your doors to younger, more tech-savvy employees. What we lack in experience, we more than make-up for with our quick learning, resilience, and adaptability. We drove the web trends of the past decade so I think we have more experience than you give us credit for. We are quickly learning that we have what you need and, as a fair warning, if you don’t start making us fit into your job market soon then soon we will make our own job market. Just don’t say we didn’t warn you!

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When the Mind Gets Sick...

Would you be surprised to hear that "the leading cause of disability in the US and Canada [is mental illness]" or that 1 in 4 Americans suffer from mental illness each YEAR? Yes,1 IN 4 AMERICANS THIS YEAR . In other words, one person in every average-sized (2 parent/caregiver+2 child) home will suffer from a mental illness this year. Who do you think it will be in your family this year? You? Your child? Your parent? Regardless, it doesn't take much more calculating to understand why ALL OF US will experience a disorder in thought, mood or personality at some point(s) during our lives.

Ok. Ok. OK. Let me back track a bit and explain why I am posting about this topic today. Of the quarter of Americans that suffer from mental illness this year, only half of those will seek therapeutic treatment for it. The recent "discussions" about the state of mental healthcare in this country have been quite heated. I believe that, without a doubt, the greatest delay in progress comes from the stigma of mental illness that permeates our culture. The media and the legal system encourage the implicit association between mental disorders and criminality and we all, to some degree, subconsciously absorb this belief. Hopefully, you understand why this association is dangerous for all of us, but I will assume that you need it explained:

1. When illnesses are stigmatized, people don't seek treatment out of embarrassment and shame.
2. When mental illnesses go untreated, they can escalate into more severe and more enduring conditions that can SOMETIMES pose a threat to the individual or others
3. These rare cases get picked up by the media thus strengthening the stigma and perpetuating the cycle.
4. Eventually, the stability of our public health & safety can become threatened if the availability of mental health treatments diminish. This occurs when therapists, researchers, and doctors choose more profitable fields.

So, how do we stop the process before it gets any worse? Well, we can start with developing an understanding that the family member that sleeps too much, or the boy whose face turns red when someone talks to him, or the woman who is mean to everyone for no reason, or the loud girl in your class, or that socially awkward co-worker may all be suffering from untreated mental illnesses. Does that mean they are crazy? ABSOLUTELY NOT!! It means that they have the mind's equivalence of a cold and they need to go to the doctor before it turns into the flu. I'm not ashamed to say that I, too, have suffered from mental illness in my life, but I can personaly attest to the fact that therapy works! Whenever I have a panic attack, I immediately see my therapist to determine the root cause of my anxieties because I understand that my personality type promotes this kind of negative reaction to stress. I, also, used to be a cigarette smoker due to my untreated anxieties, but now that I manage my stress in healthier ways, I have been smoke-free for a year. You'll be surprised with what all will improve in your life when you get your mind straightened out.

Anyway, so what can you do to help? The best thing you can do is to focus on yourself with this one. It never hurts to talk about your life to someone who will listen without judgement or bias even if you don't think you have a disorder at the moment. So go see a licensed therapist or psychiatrist and spread the word that you are tending to your mental health as part of a well-rounded health plan. Join this movement of self-respect and help end a harmful social stigma at the same time!!!

For More Information on Mental Health (source: www.NIMH.NIH.gov):
Educational Resources about Mental Health and Illness
Source of the statistics used in this post

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