Mental Health: A continuing modern issue
Mental Health continues to be a massive issue in the United States as well as abroad and yet we continue to systematically ignore it as a society at best or dismiss it as weakness at worst. This must change if we call ourselves a moralistic, advanced society.
Arriving 'home' to my temporary housing for work last night, the first thing I do is turn on the international news and was struck by a horrific story out of Maryland, USA. A woman was found in the early morning hours pushing her dead 3-year old son in a swing, and possibly had been doing so all night. There were no signs of obvious trauma and there will be an autopsy to find further information, meanwhile the 24-year-old woman was taken to an area hospital for evaluation and treatment It is not known whether she killed the c***d or if she possibly suffered a mental breakdown after his death, what is clear is that something is terribly amiss in her personal situation. With either outcome her mental state needs to be evaluated and she must receive the help that she requires, even if that includes punishment to the fullest extent of the law.
While this is but one example of mental health issues it's a glaring one, an example that hopefully continues to bring much needed increased awareness of mental health to the general consciousness. While there is continued awareness of cancer, heart disease, respiratory disease, anti-smoking campaigns and many other areas of health needs (and this is a good thing, make no mistake) mental health continues to be placed on the proverbial 'back-burner'. Yet, mental health, or the lack of it, continues to be a major healthcare issue in the US. The Centers for Disease Control (CDC) states that depression is the most common type of mental illness, affecting more than 26 percent of the US adult population. (1) Take a moment to stop and think about that number fora moment: 26% of the population, nearly sixty-million individuals (60,000,000 for more impact) suffer from depression, and that is only type of prevalent mental illness. It has been estimated by the the US CDC and the ECDC (European CDC) that by 2020 depression will be the second leading cause of disability in the world. (2) Again take a moment to consider that, that in five short years depression will be a worldwide healthcare issue and yet only half, [/b]half[/b], of the people that need help will try to seek it.
The current statistical reasoning shows that approximately 20 percent of us will experience a mental health crisis or event that is severe enough to cause a serious disruption in our daily lives. Which means that you have a far greater chance of having a major mental health issue than getting involved in a severe vehicular accident and roughly a 2,000x greater chance than winning the lottery. This should serve as illustration that mental health awareness, treatment and therapy need to have major overhauls in the manner healthcare and insurance industries approach this delicate and vital topic. An overhaul is needed because of this startling and brutal statistic: Every 40 seconds, someone dies by suicide worldwide, in the United States it's every 12.8 minutes.(3) Which means that in the time it takes the average reader to reach this point worldwide there have been five suicides and one here in the US, is it someone you know someone you love? It's easy to dismiss these as dry statistics at a distance, but these are someone's brother, sister, boy/girlfriend, lover, c***d or parent. These are real people that have reach a place in their lives that says that they cannot take it anymore, that this world and the circumstances in it have pushed them to decide that they cannot be a part of it or have no place in it. This is 2015! We talk about advanced society and our modern world and yet we allow members of the human race perish because they fell that they cannot get the help they desperately need. Ridiculous.
Of those that reach out for help, most are adolescent girls and women. Men and adolescent boys are at the highest risk for suicide. Most current doctrine and research shows that this is because of "stigma vs societal norms".(4) Which is saying that men are socially conditioned to 'strength' and afraid to ask for help because of some idea of weakness, which is sad in it's own right. In this generation of the fight for gender equality (another personal crusade of Yours Truly) we cannot say as men that sometimes we need help, we need to reach out and have someone there to give us a hand up? I say NO, this cannot continue for the good of the human race. The referenced article in the American Psychological Association page asks; could you see the Marlboro Man in therapy? Would he recognize he even has a problem? It's this view that needs to change, the Marlboro Man is an antiquated image that was used for marketing of something perhaps every bit as dangerous as the current topic; tobacco use. We campaign (and rightly so) against smoking and other forms of tobacco use but still hold on to this John Wayne-ish, desperado, image of man. Well here is the truth, most desperadoes smelled terribly, had bad teeth and died young of senseless v******e. That doesn't need to be an image we need to be aligning masculine values by in the twenty-first century. Which means that men should never, ever, be afraid or concerned about their self-image to reach out and ask for help. Unfortunately this change is going to take a reasonable amount of time to change and effect population wide, but I have confidence that it can happen eventually.
I could write an entire article by itself on the depression and other mental health issues faced by veterans of the Armed forces. Another sadly and horribly neglected segment of our population, and one that we need to most definitely concern ourselves with as a nation. I'll say this and leave this issue for a later and independent blog entry that it deserves, to quote: if we fail those men and women we fail every fucking where we possibly can.
Depression is only one aspect of mental health, however. Schizophrenia, bipolar disorder, autism spectrum disorder, ADHD and many other psycho-neurological conditions makes up a large part of mental illness and mental health patients and they're even more ignored than depression. In the United States approximately 1.2% of the population (about 3.2 million) suffers from schizophrenia (5), approximately 2.6% of the population (about 5.7 million) suffers from bipolar disorder.(6) This is only examples from two types of mental illness and yet it comprises nearly 9 million members of the US population. This is just the US population here, these numbers matriculate appreciably in Europe and grow exponentially when taking the worldwide population into consideration.
Unfortunately these types of health disorders frequently carry an even higher stigma than depression, people often dismiss those suffering from schizophrenia, bipolar disorder, dissociative personality disorder, and many others as crazy. What a blank insult, how close minded and ignorant can be people be. These people have a congenital disorder that they cannot do anything about, any more than you can change skin color or ethnic heritage. Yet there is a plethora of treatments available to people suffering from these types of disorders, many of which allows them to live completely normal lives. It's the stigma that causes so much damage, there are people that generally don't like individuals who suffer from these types of maladies, which makes those suffering feel like societal outcasts. This is the generalized behavior that leads to violent or destructive tendencies in may (not all, but many) cases. Perhaps people that are dismissing those sufferers need to try a bit of research and conceptualization. Try to imagine for a moment the kind of terror or rage one must feel during a schizophrenic episode and being able to do nothing about it, without the proper medication. Maybe then those people will take a step back, evaluate their stance, and be more willing to accept fellow members of the human race. In fact CDC research shows that if people are made aware of the presence of mental disorders and have the situation explained they are far ore comfortable with it around them.(7)
This shows us that we need more discussion, more general awareness of the prevalence and effects of mental health in our communities and in our nations. Schizophrenia, bipolar disorder, et al are not going away any time soon, we need to do more to be more understanding of the trials and tribulations of other human beings. Someone very close to me was (and is) afflicted by schizophrenia, but she was (and is) a brilliant geneticist and a highly capable violinist that has contributed greatly to her field. The power of communicating with me and the medications she had access to allowed her to live a generally normal and productive life, how many people do you know that suffer from this kind of disorder? Statistics show that there is a reasonable probability that you know at least one.
Which brings us to that most dehumanizing and debilitating disease of mental health; Alzheimer's. Alzheimer's, put simply, is the slowly progressing neurodegenerative disease that is the primary cause of dementia in the elderly population. Memory loss, mood swings, loss of direction, an other varied conditions are all symptoms of Alzheimer's. I would have to say that Alzheimer's is a scourge, a blight, on our elders. Statistically many, if not most, readers have had personal contact or have been affected by Alzheimer's at some point in their lives. We have watched our loved ones unsure of their surroundings, lose their bearings and possibly even forget who we are. Finally in most cases, they are removed from us and must be placed in manged care facilities for around-the-clock supervision. There may not be the same stigma associated with Alzheimer's as there is with other forms of mental illness, but there is still plenty. Many individuals showing early signs of Alzheimer's ignore them because they are ashamed of their memory loss, or that they became lost returning home from the grocery store. They don't tell their loved ones and their condition worsens over time. Even though, if caught early, there are medications and treatments that allow one to live a much fuller and longer life with early-stage Alzheimer's. With more treatments being researched constantly this is a bright spot in the mental health arena. (8)
A brief note on research. There have been many strides in research of mental health issues and treatment in recent years. The power of biophysics and computational simulation allow the first baby steps in mapping the neural network of the human brain, and hopefully the simulation of disease and treatment. IBM's Watson and Google's Deepmind have research portions that are devoted to mental health and neurodegenerative disorders.(9) The point of his is that there is light at the end of the tunnel, that there is hope, but with that being said, there is not enough. Mental health continues to be one of the lowest funded areas of healthcare and medical research and is generally on the outs in the hard/medical science areas. This needs to change though, with the population numbers shown here and a large portion of the rest aging, we need, we must, have more research for the good of our race.
I know this entry was long and probably heavy and even a bit sad. But something has to be said, more people need to be made aware of the issues faced in mental health in our modern world. If this helps one person reading to seek help, or one person to reach out and help someone else than it has done it's job. What I hope is that it allows some people to modify their thought process and they way they feel about those suffering from mental illness of one kind or another. Because, statistically, nearly everyone knows someone who is suffering of has suffered. I know that if I had a friend, either online or offline that was needing help, I hope they wouldn't hesitate to message, call, text, email, or get in contact with me somehow. If I can help I will, and I"m sure this is a sentiment felt by a great many, but unfortunately not enough of us. Be kinder, be more mindful, be more sympathetic, and in time this will be a better place to live. As always, thank you for taking the time to read this. Have a wonderful day.
1. http://www.cdc.gov/nchs/fastats/depression.htm
2. http://www.times-herald.com/opinion/20150515-Guest-Gatewood-Mental-Health
3. https://www.afsp.org/understanding-suicide/facts-and-figures
4. http://www.apa.org/monitor/jun05/helping.aspx
5. https://www.mentalhelp.net/articles/schizophrenia-symptoms-patterns-and-statistics-and-patterns/
6. http://www.dbsalliance.org/site/PageServer?pagename=education_statistics_bipolar_disorder
7. http://www.cdc.gov/mentalhealth/basics/burden.htm
8. http://www.alz.org/research/science/alzheimers_research.asp
9. http://wintergreenresearch.com/blog/?tag=karen-parrish-and-ibm-cognitive-computing-watson-tackles-mental-health-issues
Arriving 'home' to my temporary housing for work last night, the first thing I do is turn on the international news and was struck by a horrific story out of Maryland, USA. A woman was found in the early morning hours pushing her dead 3-year old son in a swing, and possibly had been doing so all night. There were no signs of obvious trauma and there will be an autopsy to find further information, meanwhile the 24-year-old woman was taken to an area hospital for evaluation and treatment It is not known whether she killed the c***d or if she possibly suffered a mental breakdown after his death, what is clear is that something is terribly amiss in her personal situation. With either outcome her mental state needs to be evaluated and she must receive the help that she requires, even if that includes punishment to the fullest extent of the law.
While this is but one example of mental health issues it's a glaring one, an example that hopefully continues to bring much needed increased awareness of mental health to the general consciousness. While there is continued awareness of cancer, heart disease, respiratory disease, anti-smoking campaigns and many other areas of health needs (and this is a good thing, make no mistake) mental health continues to be placed on the proverbial 'back-burner'. Yet, mental health, or the lack of it, continues to be a major healthcare issue in the US. The Centers for Disease Control (CDC) states that depression is the most common type of mental illness, affecting more than 26 percent of the US adult population. (1) Take a moment to stop and think about that number fora moment: 26% of the population, nearly sixty-million individuals (60,000,000 for more impact) suffer from depression, and that is only type of prevalent mental illness. It has been estimated by the the US CDC and the ECDC (European CDC) that by 2020 depression will be the second leading cause of disability in the world. (2) Again take a moment to consider that, that in five short years depression will be a worldwide healthcare issue and yet only half, [/b]half[/b], of the people that need help will try to seek it.
The current statistical reasoning shows that approximately 20 percent of us will experience a mental health crisis or event that is severe enough to cause a serious disruption in our daily lives. Which means that you have a far greater chance of having a major mental health issue than getting involved in a severe vehicular accident and roughly a 2,000x greater chance than winning the lottery. This should serve as illustration that mental health awareness, treatment and therapy need to have major overhauls in the manner healthcare and insurance industries approach this delicate and vital topic. An overhaul is needed because of this startling and brutal statistic: Every 40 seconds, someone dies by suicide worldwide, in the United States it's every 12.8 minutes.(3) Which means that in the time it takes the average reader to reach this point worldwide there have been five suicides and one here in the US, is it someone you know someone you love? It's easy to dismiss these as dry statistics at a distance, but these are someone's brother, sister, boy/girlfriend, lover, c***d or parent. These are real people that have reach a place in their lives that says that they cannot take it anymore, that this world and the circumstances in it have pushed them to decide that they cannot be a part of it or have no place in it. This is 2015! We talk about advanced society and our modern world and yet we allow members of the human race perish because they fell that they cannot get the help they desperately need. Ridiculous.
Of those that reach out for help, most are adolescent girls and women. Men and adolescent boys are at the highest risk for suicide. Most current doctrine and research shows that this is because of "stigma vs societal norms".(4) Which is saying that men are socially conditioned to 'strength' and afraid to ask for help because of some idea of weakness, which is sad in it's own right. In this generation of the fight for gender equality (another personal crusade of Yours Truly) we cannot say as men that sometimes we need help, we need to reach out and have someone there to give us a hand up? I say NO, this cannot continue for the good of the human race. The referenced article in the American Psychological Association page asks; could you see the Marlboro Man in therapy? Would he recognize he even has a problem? It's this view that needs to change, the Marlboro Man is an antiquated image that was used for marketing of something perhaps every bit as dangerous as the current topic; tobacco use. We campaign (and rightly so) against smoking and other forms of tobacco use but still hold on to this John Wayne-ish, desperado, image of man. Well here is the truth, most desperadoes smelled terribly, had bad teeth and died young of senseless v******e. That doesn't need to be an image we need to be aligning masculine values by in the twenty-first century. Which means that men should never, ever, be afraid or concerned about their self-image to reach out and ask for help. Unfortunately this change is going to take a reasonable amount of time to change and effect population wide, but I have confidence that it can happen eventually.
I could write an entire article by itself on the depression and other mental health issues faced by veterans of the Armed forces. Another sadly and horribly neglected segment of our population, and one that we need to most definitely concern ourselves with as a nation. I'll say this and leave this issue for a later and independent blog entry that it deserves, to quote: if we fail those men and women we fail every fucking where we possibly can.
Depression is only one aspect of mental health, however. Schizophrenia, bipolar disorder, autism spectrum disorder, ADHD and many other psycho-neurological conditions makes up a large part of mental illness and mental health patients and they're even more ignored than depression. In the United States approximately 1.2% of the population (about 3.2 million) suffers from schizophrenia (5), approximately 2.6% of the population (about 5.7 million) suffers from bipolar disorder.(6) This is only examples from two types of mental illness and yet it comprises nearly 9 million members of the US population. This is just the US population here, these numbers matriculate appreciably in Europe and grow exponentially when taking the worldwide population into consideration.
Unfortunately these types of health disorders frequently carry an even higher stigma than depression, people often dismiss those suffering from schizophrenia, bipolar disorder, dissociative personality disorder, and many others as crazy. What a blank insult, how close minded and ignorant can be people be. These people have a congenital disorder that they cannot do anything about, any more than you can change skin color or ethnic heritage. Yet there is a plethora of treatments available to people suffering from these types of disorders, many of which allows them to live completely normal lives. It's the stigma that causes so much damage, there are people that generally don't like individuals who suffer from these types of maladies, which makes those suffering feel like societal outcasts. This is the generalized behavior that leads to violent or destructive tendencies in may (not all, but many) cases. Perhaps people that are dismissing those sufferers need to try a bit of research and conceptualization. Try to imagine for a moment the kind of terror or rage one must feel during a schizophrenic episode and being able to do nothing about it, without the proper medication. Maybe then those people will take a step back, evaluate their stance, and be more willing to accept fellow members of the human race. In fact CDC research shows that if people are made aware of the presence of mental disorders and have the situation explained they are far ore comfortable with it around them.(7)
This shows us that we need more discussion, more general awareness of the prevalence and effects of mental health in our communities and in our nations. Schizophrenia, bipolar disorder, et al are not going away any time soon, we need to do more to be more understanding of the trials and tribulations of other human beings. Someone very close to me was (and is) afflicted by schizophrenia, but she was (and is) a brilliant geneticist and a highly capable violinist that has contributed greatly to her field. The power of communicating with me and the medications she had access to allowed her to live a generally normal and productive life, how many people do you know that suffer from this kind of disorder? Statistics show that there is a reasonable probability that you know at least one.
Which brings us to that most dehumanizing and debilitating disease of mental health; Alzheimer's. Alzheimer's, put simply, is the slowly progressing neurodegenerative disease that is the primary cause of dementia in the elderly population. Memory loss, mood swings, loss of direction, an other varied conditions are all symptoms of Alzheimer's. I would have to say that Alzheimer's is a scourge, a blight, on our elders. Statistically many, if not most, readers have had personal contact or have been affected by Alzheimer's at some point in their lives. We have watched our loved ones unsure of their surroundings, lose their bearings and possibly even forget who we are. Finally in most cases, they are removed from us and must be placed in manged care facilities for around-the-clock supervision. There may not be the same stigma associated with Alzheimer's as there is with other forms of mental illness, but there is still plenty. Many individuals showing early signs of Alzheimer's ignore them because they are ashamed of their memory loss, or that they became lost returning home from the grocery store. They don't tell their loved ones and their condition worsens over time. Even though, if caught early, there are medications and treatments that allow one to live a much fuller and longer life with early-stage Alzheimer's. With more treatments being researched constantly this is a bright spot in the mental health arena. (8)
A brief note on research. There have been many strides in research of mental health issues and treatment in recent years. The power of biophysics and computational simulation allow the first baby steps in mapping the neural network of the human brain, and hopefully the simulation of disease and treatment. IBM's Watson and Google's Deepmind have research portions that are devoted to mental health and neurodegenerative disorders.(9) The point of his is that there is light at the end of the tunnel, that there is hope, but with that being said, there is not enough. Mental health continues to be one of the lowest funded areas of healthcare and medical research and is generally on the outs in the hard/medical science areas. This needs to change though, with the population numbers shown here and a large portion of the rest aging, we need, we must, have more research for the good of our race.
I know this entry was long and probably heavy and even a bit sad. But something has to be said, more people need to be made aware of the issues faced in mental health in our modern world. If this helps one person reading to seek help, or one person to reach out and help someone else than it has done it's job. What I hope is that it allows some people to modify their thought process and they way they feel about those suffering from mental illness of one kind or another. Because, statistically, nearly everyone knows someone who is suffering of has suffered. I know that if I had a friend, either online or offline that was needing help, I hope they wouldn't hesitate to message, call, text, email, or get in contact with me somehow. If I can help I will, and I"m sure this is a sentiment felt by a great many, but unfortunately not enough of us. Be kinder, be more mindful, be more sympathetic, and in time this will be a better place to live. As always, thank you for taking the time to read this. Have a wonderful day.
1. http://www.cdc.gov/nchs/fastats/depression.htm
2. http://www.times-herald.com/opinion/20150515-Guest-Gatewood-Mental-Health
3. https://www.afsp.org/understanding-suicide/facts-and-figures
4. http://www.apa.org/monitor/jun05/helping.aspx
5. https://www.mentalhelp.net/articles/schizophrenia-symptoms-patterns-and-statistics-and-patterns/
6. http://www.dbsalliance.org/site/PageServer?pagename=education_statistics_bipolar_disorder
7. http://www.cdc.gov/mentalhealth/basics/burden.htm
8. http://www.alz.org/research/science/alzheimers_research.asp
9. http://wintergreenresearch.com/blog/?tag=karen-parrish-and-ibm-cognitive-computing-watson-tackles-mental-health-issues
9 years ago
I think a major problem is over-consumerism, a very materialistic culture based on the need to compete for some idea of 'social success'. Although I am not a hypocrite, I make good money and enjoy my toys, as they are, but there should be a far more level playing field for the masses. There are (at least in the US) massive statistical prevalence that affluence breeds more affluence, the base reason for this is lack of education, or the value of an education in less-privileged households. As the web continues to evolve I think that more digital currencies will become commonplace, perhaps a much more mature and structured bitcoin. Without the power or backing of the central banks, it will be based on global economic trade and actual hard currency (gold, silver, copper, etc). Although I fear this is a far in the future, it will take a lot of time for systematic shifts to occur. Hopefully in that time we, as a race, can learn to stop killing each other over ideals and differences in beliefs.
Although you have an interesting idea of the foundations of this site and it's overall purpose. One that I will have to consider in more depth. Once again, thank you for replying.
Since a long time factories are in over production, it happens for everything, cause this reason
governments decide to block some kind of resources so the sellers have to react cheating the people.
Erase "mental health" and use "economy health".
The system is wrong, if it was right a single dollar was able to buy a car (say euro, yen etc.) but it's the opposite, this time we need a world wide Roosevelt, a brave man to block the banks (bank holiday),
otherwise a coin has a lot of value until is "wrote" but it's not able to buy a glass of water.
I'm trying to say you have to stay focused on the main problem to solve the others, so the conclusion is :
the web is unuseful until it involves money, especially 24/7, so this site had not to be here.
(bank holyday means NO 24/7).
Over medication or being quick to medicate is a huge problem in the mental health industry. While in many cases, especially those with base chemical issues (i.e. schizophrenia, bipolar disorder, etc) people where the neurotransmitters are not working correctly, pharmaceuticals are a good answer for treatment. Simply because they bring balance to the neurochemistry. Although there are other areas of research into this, neuroengineering, nanomedicine, genetic modification, there are others but that could be a blog entry in it's own right. But what you're talking about here, is collusion between teachers and the pharmaceutical industry to sell sedatives and mood altering drugs instead of parenting or teaching the children. While I will never claim to be an expert in child psychology or psychiatry, one of my best friends is, and she has said on many occasions that the 'talking cure' actual therapy is the answer for acting-out hyperactive children, at least in most cases.
Unfortunately people see a child that is 'not in the norm' and instead of actually trying to treat the child's problems, they prescribe to their symptoms. You are very right, that in some cases the medications are useless, and in some cases even dangerous. Unfortunately there is big money in treating the symptoms of mental instability, it's also easier from a scientific standpoint than treating the problem itself. Symptoms can be modified chemically, where the disorder itself must be modified physically, which is still at the cutting edge of research medicine. It's when these kids have no problems at all, or problems are manufactured by lazy teachers, that it is a total miscarriage of medicine. It would be far more beneficial to the child (especially adolescents) to actually speak to a qualified and caring psychologist, just to get to the root of the matter. Some statistics point to the fact that if this happened more frequently that there would be a reduction of 40% plus of new mental health cases.
Then there are those children with legitimate neurodegenerative diseases like ALS, MS, Guillain Barre, (these are thankfully very rare). These kids actually need the medication that is provided to them, but that is a completely different discussion.
Is this site useful? Now that is a good question, and one I have less of an answer for than one would think. Especially after coming here yesterday after being gone for a week and seeing negative comments on this post, my 'Noble fight for gender equality' post and in PM's. Could we be doing something more productive, the answer is yes. But this site also allows a group of like minded individuals to come together, who otherwise wouldn't be able to, and have discussion and debate. So in that case it is useful, at least somewhat. Thank you for taking the time to read my entry and comment, it's very appreciated.
(or I have to say "different orders"?).
Just an example :
In Italy a psychiatrist discover a "deal" of some teachers and pharmaceutical industries, to sell
some kind of pills to the students, very young students.
Usually the teachers were calling the parents sayng them the kids were too lively and they need the help
of the school medic, DONE!
Imagine the families with a similar problems and high costs to buy unuseful pills.
Remember, it's a too young discipline, nobody knows what's the core of the matter and too often pills are unuseful or dangerous, but...we have to sell, ask to yourself :
Is this site useful or it's just a waste of good minds?
You are very right, our government did cut assistance in the 80's and has continued to do so since then. In fact, more money is devoted to awareness and research into dry eyes than urban mental health in the last ten years. These people require these medication to stay on track, to be the productive members of society that many can be. But all too frequently they are denied that because of 'cost-cutting' initiatives, initiatives that tend to line the pockets of wealthy campaign contributors. While depot medications and scripted treatments have a lot of benefits, there needs to be an increase in research to find actual treatments to the conditions instead of their symptoms. Whether these treatments come in the form of neuroengineering, genetic modification, or cortical implants, it this future research that will be the key in mental illness and other neurodegenerative disorders.
I know what you're saying, while the prevalence of mental health may be similar to urban population it is more readily treatable due to economic status. People in more affluent areas can plain afford more and better coverage, it's as simple as that. Once again we arrive at the doorstep of public assistance for mental health, and it's a door that is continuously shut in sufferers faces. Although there is some hope in that there is more awareness today for Alzheimer's, ALS, Parkinson's, etc than there was ten years ago. With that awareness will come more 'generalized awareness' about mental health, hopefully followed by a change. It will have to change, eventually, as it becomes a national healthcare concern. Why not attempt to tackle it now, when it's almost manageable instead of waiting until it become endemic.
I want to thank you for taking the time to read this entry Leaf, and hopefully this reply. I know that both were somewhat long, but this is an issue that more people need to be made aware of. Because it does, even if they don't realize it, effect them. I don't know how to express my gratitude to you for the work you do and the impact you have on people's lives. They, and the rest of us, are indebted to people like you. Thank you.