Hobo Jungle to Health Care

Mental Health is not Criminal

A renewed interest in strengthening camping laws by municipalities around the US is a thinly disguised criminal assault on homelessness.

To be fair, some cursory progress has been made to deal with a growing homelessness and the subsequent displacement of a segment of the US population. Unfortunately, it's largely palliative. The measures undertaken haven' gone after the root cause or any systemic-institutionalize problems.

However, rather than focus on a widely debated and contentious argument of wealth inequality, we could turn to different metrics. This is not to say that the idea of a widening wealth gap is bankrupt. Compelling statistics point to a 1% or less subset population controlling nearly 50% of new and established wealth in the US. This certainly is a facet of homelessness but not the main tenet of this article.

An often overlooked or undefined aspect of homelessness is the misdiagnosis of a public health crisis. Worse, it is a blatant gesture to crony capitalism which lurches a policy of disinvestment in public utilities in favor of privatization.

A public utility which has been on a slow march towards privatization is the prison system. Huge multinational corporations have been lobbying all levels of government to build and maintain private prisons in the US for decades. And they have succeeded.

What is particularly disturbing about this trend is that it has seemingly gone hand in hand with another disinvestment of public utilities: mental health facilities. Most states have fledgling mental health facilities or none at all. No corporations have stepped in to fill this gap.

In order to fill more beds (cells), homelessness, much like vagrancy, has been vilified and earmarked as criminal. Instead of meeting some much need mental and public health problems head on, governments have decided to treat abject poverty and homelessness and mental health as criminal.

The politicians and we citizens as their bosses (we voted them in office), apparently have opted to pay for the costs on the back end instead of prevention. Rest assured, there is a toll and pay we must.

A Short History of Vomit: Part 2

Part 2

Modern medicine has determined that the physiological action of vomiting (emesis) is a force which can and often should be harnessed. There are over the counter drugs like Benadryl which can stop vomiting or drugs like Syrup of ipecac which can induce vomiting. The prescription drug Navoban halts vomiting while the prescription drug apomorphine hydrochloride triggers a bout of vomiting. Still other people opt to avoid pharmaceuticals all together and self medicate with marijuana to stave off the urge to vomit or opium to coax a vomit response.

Airsickness, which a form of motion sickness, is the bane of any traveler and a logistical nightmare for the onboard service personnel. The end result for those people suffering from airsickness is the urge to vomit. In order to minimize the mess created, facilitate hassle-free desposal and eleviate the gangway congestion the infamous airsickness bag was created. The bag is occasionally and affectionately referred to as a “barf bag”. In 1949 Gilmore Schjeldahl redesigned the airsickness bag for Northwest Orient Airlines. His bag departed from the earlier versions, which were constructed of wax or cardboard paper, by lining the inside of the bag with plastic.

Most psychiatrists and psychologists today, in their peer reviewed journals, refer to a vomiting mental illness as one in which a person induces vomiting. These are deemed either bulimia nervosa or anorexia nervosa. On the other end of the psychological spectrum is Emetophobia; the irrational fear of vomiting.

Vomiting as a method of treatment has long been associated with the lability. Ancient European civilizations held the belief that illnesses were cured when the correct type and amount of fluid could be purged from the body. This callow yet fundamental causality held sway over diagnosis and treatment all the way through to the late middle ages. Vomiting was the mortar which held this principle together. 
The Greek philosopher, physician and founder of western medicine, Hippocrates 460-370 BCE, expounded in his humor theory that a person can be "...rebalanced by bloodletting, blistering, purging by vomiting or anal purgatives, or other potions that would cleanse the body." 

The Roman physician, Galen 131–200 AD, refined the 4 temperaments theory of Hippocrates. Galen envisioned vomit as a diagnostic tool for curing mental illnesses which were seen as fluid imbalances. These four temperaments were classified as choleric, melancholic, sanguine, and phlegmatic and corresponded to the bodily fluids bile, black bile, blood and phlegm respectively. Different ratio combinations of these fluids produced as many unique personalities and personality traits. If a physician, following the four temperaments dictum, judged a aberration in a patients fluid balance, he would then recommend a cure which entailed vomiting. In other words, by the act of vomiting the physician was capable of tweaking the ratios of body fluids and thusly, stave off or cure mental illnesses.

The the Middle Ages saw a continuum in the (re)balancing act of the 4 temperaments as a diagnostic treatment of mental illness. A noteworthy departure in thought was that the physicians of the Middle Ages sought to bring the body into equilibrium as opposed to willfully altering intrinsic personality traits in order to create new ones. A medieval pharmacopoeia was more elaborate than its classical predecessor. It included laxatives, cupping and leeches for bleeding. However, the tool d'force was the emetic. Vomit inducing preparations were as copious as the ingredients in them.

It might be argued that the Classical Civilizations acquired their conceptual knowledge from the older civilizations surrounding them through cultural and technological diffusion. It is held that Ancient Egyptians anthropomorphized the body as a series of waterways and canals. Logic dictates that canals and waterways are prone to become occluded and it wasn't a quantum leap of thought to attribute that to the human body. Egyptian physicians reasoned that inducing vomiting might unblock the canal and cure the illness.

Around the World in 9 Mental Illnesses

Travel Log

Ultimately we all enjoy a change of pace once and a while. Some of us suffer from dromomania which makes us compulsively need to travel even under tremendous physical and mental duress. Others are afflicted by a romantically motivated wanderlust which compels us to experience new surroundings and vistas. While still others passively contemplate the “grass is always greener” principle from the safety of their living room. Whatever category you most associate yourself with the reality is that we all share a fascination about geographical places which are dissimilar and or in contrast to our own. However, if this delightful mental exercise is left unchecked and unabated it might spawn a whole host of mental illnesses. Afford yourself some time to do some background investigation before embarking on vacation or tucking into a cheeky bit of travel literature or nestling down in the sofa to watch a travel documentary. Your mental health depends on it. The list compiled here has 6 clinically legitimate syndromes all bearing the name of a geographical location. The temptation was too insurmountable not to concoct a few fictitious ones in the process.

Stockholm syndrome: is the psychological phenomenon whereby a hostage develops sympathy and perhaps empathy for those who are the captors. Occasionally the hostage will become virulent in defense of those who are holding him captive. Of course this syndrome has been unnamed for millenia; only in the last century has it emerged as a catch-all category for capture-bonding. Various forms of capture-bonding include, fraternal hazing, military basic training and battered-wife syndrome (verbal/physical). It might be a psychological underpinning of sexual bondage role playing.

Jerusalem syndrome: is a form of temporary psychosis which befalls religious visitors to Jerusalem. Prior to visiting these people were assumed to be psychologically stable. Although the name denotes a holy city of 3 major monotheistic religions (Islam, Judaism, Christianity) it can also be applied to various religions whereby a pilgrimage has taken place. The syndrome is noted by those who are afflicted with it as having delusions, hysteria and or psychotic episodes steeped in religious motifs. Once the person who has being affected by the syndrome is removed from the stimuli he/she is expected to make a speedy and full recovery.

Florence syndrome: dizziness, tachycardia, hallucinations, fainting, disassociation. It is a syndrome also know under a variety of names; Stendhal syndrome, Stendhal's syndrome, or hyperkulturemia. Although currently regarded as a psychosomatic illness it is depicted as a debilitating sensory overload of someone who has been exposed to overwhelming beauty; most notably visual art. The Florentine art museum, from which one of the nomenclatures is derived, provides the prerequisites for the illness: many culturally defined beautiful works of art in a single common locale.

Paris syndrome: delusions, hallucinations, dizziness, tachycardia, fugue, depression, anxiety, feeling of persecution and many more symptoms associated with psychosomatic attributes of the illness. The syndrome is generally associated with Japanese tourists visiting the French capital city. Due to the fact that the Japanese suffers are on vacation the mental illness is seen to be transient in nature. Although the basis of the syndrome is psychotic the psychosomatic impetus is much clearer. The language obstacle between French and Japanese in conjunction with the discrepancies in societal norms would indicate that those afflicted with Paris syndrome are experiencing a classic form of culture shock.

Lima syndrome: is considered to be the antithesis of Stockholm syndrome. Lima syndrome is, thusly, a situation whereby the captors garner sympathy for the people they are holding hostage. It received its name from Lima Peru where the Japanese Embassy was stormed and held captive by a militant organization for a couple of hours before releasing the hostages.

Arctic Hysteria: wild screaming, histrionics, depression, coprophagia and echolalia.

The syndrome is also known as piblokto or pibloktoq in the Arctic circle which is the primary locale of the illness. The mental illness occurs almost exclusively within the Inughuit communities of the arctic circle and is most prevalent with Inughuit women. By the fact that the disease is culturally isolated it necessarily lends itself to identifying an external variable for the cause of the syndrome. A hypothesized culprit might be Vitamin A toxicity. The syndrome has been documented most often in the winter when the Inughuit peoples are consuming large amounts of animal entrails and offal which contain high levels of Vitamin A. The syndrome has not fully been investigated scientifically which lead some scientists to conclude that the syndrome is a catch-all for a variety of illnesses.

Amsterdam syndrome: hysteria, apraxia, hallucinations and characterized by a fugue state. Usually occurring within groups of Northern European stag and or hen parties visiting Amsterdam for a weekend. The illness has also been diagnosed in Southern Europeans but it much rarer. It can be triggered by but is not limited to massive doses of cannabis and alcohol while in the presence of perceived culturally repugnant sexual acts. Fortunately the symptoms are reversible and tend to dissipate after 48 hours of disassociation with the stimuli.

New York syndrome: echolalia, dizziness, fatigue and tachycardia. A mental illness which is almost exclusive to American tourists visiting NYC from the plains states. Although it has been diagnosed in visitors from Illinois, Arkansas and Utah, the primary states from which the sufferers originate are Iowa, Kansas, Minnesota, Missouri, Nebraska, North Dakota and South Dakota. The highest percentage, nearly 48%, of those visitors who succumb to New York syndrome are from Nebraska. The illness is brought on by a sudden acute agoraphobia due to the dense population of the city coupled with the unfamiliar nature of a vertical city instead of the horizontal cities to which they are accustomed. The illness is often exacerbated by an innate fear of being mugged and robbed by force.

Tokyo Syndrome: fatigue, mild epileptic seizures, dizziness, and hallucinations. The syndrome is used to describe Western tourists visiting one of Japan's large metropolitan cities; Tokyo, Yokohama, Osaka, Nagoya or Sapporo. The western visitor is initially overwhelmed by the ubiquity of neon lighted advertizing signs which encompass the urban landscape. This is coupled with a feeling of anxiety of being heterogenous in a densely populated homogenous society. This anxiety can precipitate epileptic seizures. Despite being a rare phenomenon, these epileptic seizures have been documented to induce severe hallucinations.