Power Outage Disorder, Moderate, Recurrent, With or Without Psychotic Features

Here in the Mid-Atlantic, we've been having issues.   In fact, we've gotten a whole new type of weather event, the wretched Derecho.  And, to think, I believed I'd heard of all types of weather.  Mostly cloudy.  Partly sunny.  Rain.  Wind.  Cyclone.  Typhoon. Toronado.  Tsunami.  Hurricane. Gale-force winds.  Snow.  Blizzard.  Hot & Humid (we do that well).  Fog. Hail.  Wintry mix.  Now we have derechos.

Known as a derecho, the string of storms combined intense lightning and rain with hurricane-force gusts as it swept from the Midwest into the mid-Atlantic Friday night. Meteorologists blamed the violent weather on the prolonged 100-plus temperatures that blanketed the eastern United States last week. 

Derechos typically form when an atmospheric disturbance lifts the warm air in regions experiencing intense heat, causing thunderstorms and hurricane-force winds to develop, AccuWeather meteorologist Brian Edwards said. Traveling at an average speed of 60 miles per hour, Friday's storm took 12 hours to cover more than 700 miles before reaching the Atlantic Ocean. 

Okay, so I admit, I was not here for the event.  I was in the tropics, enjoying sunshine and 85 degree weather (70's at night), far away from the heat of my hometown, only to return north to massive power outages, downed trees, and 102 degree heat without air conditioning.  I spent my first day back in a laundromat, chatting with another psychiatrist while my laundry twirled and my laptop and phone charged.  Funny, I imagined that laundromats would have upgraded since my younger days and have air conditioning and wi-fi, but that was not to be.  

By 10 o'clock last night, I was one of the lucky ones.  My power returned to both my home and office.  It returned before I had cancelled my patients--my office mates were less optimistic and it made for a quiet day in the suite.

The joy of social media, 3G, 4G, and constant connectivity is that one can make interesting observations about how power failures/ cable outages/ and technology failures-- as people post their angst on Facebook.  I will tell you that I've noticed that the symptoms one sees with power/cable outages and the resultant rise in body temperature and withdrawal from technology...well, it all looks a lot like what we see with psychiatric disorders.  Maybe a diagnosis for DSM-5-revised?

• agitation
• marked irritability
• sleeplessness
• restlessness
• pacing
• decreased socializing (especially as the food goes bad and the beer gets warm)
• decreased motivation
• repetitive pushing of power buttons on non-functioning devices
• Feelings of helplessness
• +/- guilt
• boredom
• indigestion &/or nausea
• fear and a sense of impending doom
• anxiety
• frizzy hair

What symptoms do you experience in a power outage?  

Let The Sun Shine!!!

We've had 80 (?) inches of snow here this year. Unheard of! Who moved that Mason-Dixon line? It was enchanting at first, and I felt like I was on vacation: fires, hot cocoa, no where to go, watch a movie, eat good food, for a day or two here and there I couldn't get to work and no one wanted to see me. Snow Day!

Ah, but the enchantment ended. The bushes are flattened. The gutter are draped across my house leaving rotted beams exposed. The snow is in ugly blackened mounds everywhere, and as it gradually melts, there are tracks of mud pretty much every where.

And today's forecast: snow. Yesterday they were saying 5 to 10 inches. Two patients have called to cancel (Shrink response: Call me in the morning after you look out the window). So far, so good. Hoping the gutter guys can come today.

Enough hot cocoa. Enough days off. Enough trying to reschedule everyone. Enough shoveling, Enough salt tracked onto the wooden floors. Enough. Enough. (I know, it could be much worse).

Here's to 75 and sunny, somewhere?

Academy for Film and Psychiatry

There's nothing quite like blogging in a blizzard. My house, by the way, is the one with the gutters torn off one side and draped across the front with the disconnected downspouts. You will notice that our flat roofs have been shoveled off-- makes for a fine family project in the snow-- after having the insight that another 20 inches could well cause their collapse.

So I thought I'd give a plug to Dr. Fred Miller and his Academy for Film and Psychiatry. His 'filmosophy' reads:

FILM IS NOTHING SHORT OF OUR STRUGGLE TO UNDERSTAND PEOPLE, CULTURE AND OURSELVES. FILM ENGAGES ALL OF OUR SENSES AND IN THAT WAY IS LIKE NO OTHER MEDIUM. THE PARALLELS BETWEEN THE FILMMAKER AND THE PSYCHOTHERAPIST ARE MANY. EACH IS ACUTELY AWARE (OR SHOULD BE) THAT HE OR SHE IS PRESENTING AN UNDERSTANDING OF THE HUMAN CONDITION AND ALSO THAT THE PROCESS OF UNDERSTANDING IN AND OF ITSELF IS HEALING AND FULFILLING. BOTH ARE SUBJECTS OF INTENSIVE STUDY AND ENDLESS DEBATE. ENJOY!

Film seems like as a good a thing as any to do today, so long as the power holds. Brrrr from Maryland, hon!

The Weather Outside is Frightful: Depression & Cloudy Days

Yesterday's issue of Environmental Health has an open access article by Shia T. Kent, et al, entitled "Effect of sunlight exposure on cognitive function among depressed and non-depressed participants: a REGARDS cross-sectional study."

They looked at sunlight exposure for nearly 17,000 subjects from another depression study to determine if cognitive function was affected by gloomy days.

People with major depression were 2-1/2 times more likely to have impaired cognitive function during periods of reduced sunlight than were people without depression, independent of other factors.

I saw this first on Health Day.