Made in America

(CNN) -- The slow death of American manufacturing and the trend toward outsourcing overseas has made it hard to find American-made goods, but not impossible. A host of small businesses are still dedicated to manufacturing goods in America, and, thanks to a few diligent bloggers, they're easier than ever to find.

"Buying Made in USA is not just a passing trend. It truly is something we as consumers, business owners and even government can do to support small to mid-size businesses," said Julie Reiser, president and co-founder of Made in USA Certified, which audits supply chains for businesses that want their products to bear their seal.

"Small businesses are responsible for two out of every three new jobs created in the U.S. We need these small to mid-size businesses to flourish and grow as they are our innovators, our makers and job creators. Making it in America, supporting U.S. manufacturing and buying American is one thing we can all do today to help keep the American dream alive and well."

Made in USA pop-ups bring together like-minded consumers

Here's a short list of websites and Facebook groups dedicated to helping consumers find products made in the United States, along with a few brands known to manufacture most or a substantial portion of their goods stateside. Read the list and help us grow it by adding your suggestions in the comments.

READ MORE HERE 


These are US Made!
Pendelton
K'Nex
Allen Edmonds

What is ECT (Electroconvulsive aka Shock Therapy) and is it Effective?

TED Talk - a first hand personal account - listen

Definition

By Mayo Clinic staff

Managing Depression

Electroconvulsive therapy (ECT) is a procedure in which electric currents are passed through the brain, intentionally triggering a brief seizure. ECT seems to cause changes in brain chemistry that can quickly reverse symptoms of certain mental illnesses. It often works when other treatments are unsuccessful.
Much of the stigma attached to ECT is based on early treatments in which high doses of electricity were administered without anesthesia, leading to memory loss, fractured bones and other serious side effects.
ECT is much safer today and is given to people while they're under general anesthesia. Although ECT still causes some side effects, it now uses electrical currents given in a controlled setting to achieve the most benefit with the fewest possible risks.

What is Normal & Healthy Sex?

“Remember, sex is never a thing you just had. Sex is the intercourse, the merging or convergence, of who the two of you are—your spirits merging. People ask, “How was it for you?” The reply is often, “It was great.” But is this really the right question and answer? Instead, personalize your question and ask, “How are you?” Respond with depth. Gaze into each other’s eyes and speak your truth: “I’m over the moon,” or “I love you,” or “I melted and I’m just coming back into myself.”

― Alexandra Katehakis, Erotic Intelligence: Igniting Hot, Healthy Sex While in Recovery from Sex Addiction

Skype, Therapy and Veterans

This is an Los Angeles Times, July 4th, 2013 article discussing a study that I participated in as a Research Study Therapist.

The VA, Steven Thorp, my co-workers, and the most fabulous Veterans, made this a deeply rewarding experience for me.

http://www.latimes.com/news/local/la-me-ptsd-skype-20130705,0,3029520.story

Low Sex Drive and Antidepressants

That antidepressants kill libido is no surprise. The same mechanism that lets SSRIs make us feel stable thwarts attempts to rile us up. "You can think of it as a seesaw," says Louann Brizendine, M.D., director of the Women's Mood and Hormone Clinic at the University of California, San Francisco. "One end is serotonin" - the compound that elevates mood and that SSRIs keep circulation at high levels in your brain. "The other is dopamine. If serotonin is high, dopamine is low."  Herein lies the problem: Dopamine is the thrill-me compound. (Wellbutrin increases dopamine, which is why it helps with libido in combination with SSRIs). "We like dopamine. It's exciting. If you take heroin or cocaine, you quickly increase your dopamine, and that's what's needed for an orgasm." 
Tough Love, by Elizabeth Weil, Vogue Magazine, July 2013

Time Health & Family, Sexual & Emotional Abuse Scars the Brain in Specifi Ways

Sexual and Emotional Abuse Scar the Brain in Specific Ways

By Maia Szalavitz @maiasz June 05, 2013

Getty Images

Childhood emotional and sexual abuse mark women’s brains in distinct patterns — with emotional abuse affecting regions involved in self-awareness and sexual abuse affecting areas involved in genital sensation, according to new research. The study links specific types of abuse with symptoms experienced by many survivors later in life.
The research, which was published in the American Journal of Psychiatry, imaged the brains of 51 women in Atlanta who were taking part in a larger project on the effects of early trauma. Twenty-eight of the participants had been seriously maltreated as children, suffering from various combinations of neglect and emotional, physical and sexual abuse. The other 23 experienced either no maltreatment or next to nothing. The women ranged in age from 18 to 45, but the average age was 27.
A standard questionnaire on childhood trauma was used to assess the women’s early-childhood experiences, and their brains were scanned to measure the thickness of various regions of the cortex. Cortical thickness is linked to brain development, with thicker regions generally suggesting healthier growth. Brains, like muscles, develop through use — so regions that have been “exercised” more tend to be bigger.
But abuse can interfere with development. To cope with overwhelming experiences of distress, the brain can alter patterns of signaling from the pathways involved, which can ultimately leave those regions underdeveloped from reduced input. The brain of a child who is raped, for example, may react by reducing the connectivity of the regions that were hurt.
“If abuse was of a sexual type, we saw changes in the somatosensory cortex, the area that processes input from the body to create sensations and perceptions,” says Jens Pruessner, associate professor of psychiatry at McGill University in Montreal. Somatosensory areas create a map of the body on the brain, with each region processing sensation from specific body parts. As compared with nonabused women, “women who were sexually abused had thinning in the area where the genitalia were located,” he says.
Although the prevalence varies depending on the severity and the amount of abuse, many sexual-abuse survivors report sexual problems in adulthood, including reductions in desire and sensation; sometimes they suffer from chronic genital pain. “There are some studies suggesting that thinning of the cortex [in these regions] would be associated with a lowered pain threshold, so you would more easily perceive pain instead of touch from that area,” says Pruessner. Some of the women showed cortical thinning in regions associated with the face and mouth, which could result from abuse to those areas.
(MORE: Psychological Abuse: More Common, as Harmful as Other Child Maltreatment)
Emotional abuse left a different type of scar. Here, the changes were seen in regions associated with understanding and controlling emotions and recognizing and responding to the feelings of others. “We [saw thinning] in areas that have to do with self-awareness and emotional regulation, areas in the prefrontal cortex and medial temporal lobe, which typically show activation when people are asked to think about themselves or reflect on their emotions,” Pruessner says.
Emotional abuse can leave its victims prone to depression, moodiness and extreme or dulled emotional responsiveness, depending on the person and the particular circumstances. “As adults, [they have difficulty] reflecting on themselves and finding the right way to deal with emotions,” says Pruessner.
“If replicated, these data provide compelling evidence about the enduring structural effects on the brain as a function of early life experience,” Dr. Maria Oquendo, a professor of clinical psychiatry at Columbia University, and her colleagues wrote in an editorial accompanying the study.
This study didn’t follow the women from childhood, so it can’t prove that the abuse caused the changes in these regions. It’s possible, for example, that thinning in these brain regions results from later avoidance of healthy experience — abstaining from sex even in a good relationship, for example — rather than from the initial abuse.
In both emotional and sexual abuse, a decrease in connectivity of regions that are overwhelmed by maltreatment may be interpreted as a self-protective response. But it can ultimately prove harmful because it interferes with subsequent healthy sensation and experience.
The changes seen were not small: Pruessner says if a region typically was 5 mm. thick on average, in abuse survivors it was just 3 mm. to 4 mm. “The effect size was quite significant,” he adds.
But that doesn’t mean that recovery is impossible. Most abuse survivors do not develop symptoms, in fact, and research shows increasingly that the brain can change dramatically when provided with the right type of support and emotional nourishment. Understanding what goes wrong during and after abuse, the researchers believe, will help them figure out how to make it right. “That is our long-term hope,” Pruessner says.

Read more: http://healthland.time.com/2013/06/05/sexual-and-emotional-abuse-scar-the-brain-in-specific-ways/#ixzz2Y02zeTUG

Military Mindset - Warrior Mind

Marijuana and Schizophrenia, Barbie is Not Normal

Marijuana and it's Possible Precipitation of Severe Mental Illness
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424127887324637504578566094217815994.html?mod=wsj_valetbottom_email


Barbie is Not Normal
Moms, Aunties, and Grandmere's - consider the doll (and her message) before you buy.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/07/01/normal-barbie-nickolay-lamm_n_3529460.html?ncid=fcbklnkushpmg00000010#slide=2642663