Shaping Families

Bipolar Research Helping Families

Everyone wants better diagnosis and treatment for those who deal with diseases like bipolar illness, and it was exciting to talk to our guest on Shaping Families this week who is working to that end. “Our mission is to identify the genes that contribute to the risk for mood and anxiety disorders so that better methods of diagnosis and treatment can be developed,” says Dr. Francis McMahon of the National Institute of Mental Health.

Listen - Transcript - Study Guide

Centerpiece

Harvey Yoder

In her book Touched with Fire: Manic-Depressive Illness and the Artistic Temperament, psychologist Kay Redfield Jamison examines the relationship between bipolar disorder and creativity. She and others believe many notable people who have contributed to the richness of our lives and our culture could have been diagnosed with this disorder, people like Beethoven, Van Gogh, and Mark Twain, for example.

The National Institute of Mental Health is actively seeking individuals and families, especially large families with more limited gene pools, such as is sometimes found in larger Old Order, Amish, or Mennonite families. Here is more information including a toll-free phone number on the study regarding bipolar disorder.

More information on Dr. McMahon

Shadow Voices: Finding Hope in Mental Illness DVD. A Third Way Media documentary about persons living with bipolar disorder, along with many others struggling through mental illness. See website, www.shadowvoices.com, for stories and links.

Mental Health Ministries. Susan Gregg Schroeder’s organization for reducing the stigma of mental illness.

Harvey Yoder blog – My Turn speaker, pastor, and counselor Harvey Yoder has a regular blog in which he deals with mental illness and other issues.

BOOKS
An Unquiet Mind (Memoir). Kay Redfield Jamison is“perhaps this country’s most famous writer about manic-depressive illness.” Vintage Press, 1997.

Criminalization of Mental Illness by Risdon N. Slate and W. Wesley Johnson, Carolina Academic Press, 2008.

Souls in the Hands of a Tender God: Stories of the Search for Home and Healing on the Streets, Craig Rennebohm, with David Paul, Beacon Press, 2008.

When Someone You Love Has a Mental Illness, Rebecca Woolis

AUDIO
Other archived Shaping Families interviews with persons dealing with bipolar disorder (plan a month’s study for small group, support group, religious education class):

“Living with Bipolar Illness” – Risdon Slate, a professor of criminology and consultant to correctional officers and police talks about his own experience with bipolar illness and incarceration.

“Understanding Mental Illness” – A woman whose husband had bipolar illness talks about their experience.

“I Crawled Out of a Garbage Can” – A farther dealing with bipolar illness shares his experience with homelessness and how all this affected his family.

“Families and Faith” – Well known theologian/scholar/author Stanley Hauerwas shares the intimate story of living many years with a wife with bipolar illness.

SUPPORT
Find a Counselor – National Board of Certified Counselors
Find a Psychologist – American Psychological Association

Shadow Voices: Finding Hope in Mental Illness DVD. A Third Way Media documentary about persons living with bipolar disorder, along with many others struggling through mental illness. See website, www.shadowvoices.com, for stories and links. 

Research Needed

Burton Buller

Learning about bipolar disorder and some of the other common mental diseases that are quite common, I’ve come to be more circumspect about my perceptions of people’s rationality. I once believed that most anyone could be talked down from the precipice, whether that be someone threatening to jump to end their life or someone with a weapon seemingly out of control.

Our program dealing with “Sexual Misconduct,” an interview with Dr. David Brubaker, was in the works before the Penn State and other sexual misconduct stories broke late last year—which only means that the issues don’t go away. Families and churches also need to be aware of these difficult issues. Brubaker, professor of organizational studies at the Center for Justice & Peacebuilding at Eastern Mennonite University, has also helped many congregations deal with conflict including the conflict that arises after a situation of sexual misconduct has surfaced. Consider telling your friends about this topic on Shaping Families next week.

Easy Macaroni and Cheese

Carmen Wyse & Jodi Nisly Hertzler, contributors to the book, Whatever Happened to Dinner? comment, "One of the first foods either of us thought of when working on the “comfort foods chapter” is macaroni and cheese. And to our surprise, we discovered that we both use the same recipe, which is a quick stove-top version that Alton Brown from the Food Network developed. It comes as close to box mixes as we’ve found; it’s nearly as easy and kids like it just as well.

• Shaping Families Update - May 12
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• Shaping Families Update - April 28
• Shaping Families Update - April 21

The Shaping Families free offer from this week’s program is no longer available. Visit our online store at www.MennoMedia.org/store if you would like to purchase the item offered. Some items are not offered on the store.