Brain Blogging, Thirty-Third Edition

Welcome to the thirty-third edition of Brain Blogging. In this round, we cover a range of topics from personality disorders, crying men, mastering self-control, total body detoxification, and working out your brain to Martian invasions.

If you were left out, just leave a comment with your blog entry. Don’t worry, we’ll format it to match the blog carnival (or even include it in the main post).

Remember, we review the latest blogs related to the brain and mind that go beyond the basic sciences into a more human and multidimensional perspective. You can check our Brain Blogging archive for all editions.

For future editions, please remember to submit your blog entries using the online submission form. We will do our best to review and include your entry! Enjoy your readings…

Psychology

Phil for Humanity asks Why People Interrupt?:

Some conversations are very boring, and some people feel an immediate need to make the conversation more interesting. For example, they may try being humorous.

Improved Lives asks Is Happiness Contagious?:

Happiness spreads in networks. If your friend’s friend becomes happy, it ripples through the network and can make you happy.

Providentia reports on When the Martians Invaded:

Grover’s Mill was largely deserted when the broadcast began but this changed rapidly as people rushed to the area. Police needed to be called in to control the crowds and reinforced the impression that something catastrophic was happening. In the town of Concrete, Washington, there was a power failure that occurred during the broadcast plunging almost all of the town’s 1,000 residents into darkness.

Nutrition & Food

eDetoxify reports on Body Detoxification – Simple Ways To Detoxify Your Body:

The first thing you should do is to reduce and eliminate the intake of alcohol, coffee, and how the harmful toxins you usually take in. You should also reduce the use of chemical products like toothpaste and shampoo. You should use substitute natural alternatives.

Mind, Soul, and Body reports Grapes of Wrath:

I remember often as a pediatric resident warning parents about unsafe foods. It did cross my mind, “are hot dogs and grapes really that off limits for toddlers? How many really have the food lodged immobile in their windpipe? Is it enough to justify a major health campaign?” Every well child visit was just one of a long list of continuous warnings we provided the parents.

Personal Development

Conservatives and Normals asks How Personal Development Effects Us All?:

Think about something that you would like to start or stop doing or change in your life. One of my biggest crutches in the past was smoking cigarettes. I’m told that quitting smoking is one of the most difficult things in the world to give up. I challenge those people and say that giving up eating is FAR more difficult than giving up smoking.

BlogMotivation reports How To Do Anything Properly:

Be proud of what you are doing. Every action has a reason for existing, no matter how uninteresting or insignificant it might seem. When you do something with pride, you bring it to a whole new level of importance.

Memory & Cognition

Diary From England reports Modern Brits Out of Memory:

According to recent research, it seems that more and more Britons have come to rely on Blackberrys, Ipods and mobile phones to store information. Many people have come to rely on them as a “memory substitute”.

Sharp Brains reports Exercise your brain in the Cognitive Age:

The brain fitness market is growing fast and this trend will continue. This is not just a Nintendo-fueled fad. The article reflects this point best. Part of the market confusion lies in the disconnect between what computerized brain fitness programs can do (the ones with more science behind them than Nintendo Brain Age) and what people seem to want them to do.

Stigmatization

Dr. Deb reports on Crying Men:

In my work, being vulnerable, being sad, and crying are hard things to do. Even harder for men. When this exhibition was turned into a book, I had to buy it. It now rests on the bookcase in my office for anyone to view.

Mental Health Disorders

SystemsThinker reports on Borderline Personality Disorder Awareness Month: Discussing, Understanding & Publicizing an Under-Recognized Epidemic:

I have gone so far as to say that Borderline, along with perhaps Narcissistic Personality Disorder (NPD), is the core disorder of our culture. In this assessment I seem to be in agreement with the eminent pioneer in the treatment of Personality Disorders, James F. Masterson, M.D., whose book, Search For The Real Self, focuses almost exclusively on these two disorders and, in its subtitle, identifies them as “The Personality Disorders Of Our Age.”

Dr Shock reports Genes Predict Response to Lithium Addition for Treatment Resistant Depression:

I am convinced that especially lithium addition is a very effective treatment strategy if an antidepressant fails and should be preferred above more experimental addition strategies such as atypical antipsychotics.

Parenting Teens Blog reports on Teens and sexual addiction:

Sexual addiction is not limited to “having sex” with the opposite gender, it can also involve pornography, masturbation and obsession about the act and the participants.

State of Mind

Learn This reports Beliefs: They’re Entirely Yours to Control:

Some people feel that you can develop beliefs by choosing them (I certainly agree with that) and others feel that beliefs come about only through experiences that train you to think about things a certain way, which eventually becomes a belief. Looking at both of these options, there are obvious arguments for both side as to which happens most often, but I look from the perspective of which I want to happen more often and that is certainly creating or choosing my own belief.

Learn This also reports A Guide to Mastering Your State of Mind:

The best thing to do with the ability to follow these visualization steps to get into a state of mind is to next, associate that state of mind with something instant. This allows you to activate that state and learn to call upon it whenever you want.

Highlight Health reports Remembering Lunch Can Help Reduce the Desire to Snack:

Mind over matter may really work when it comes to managing appetite. Researchers at the University of Birmingham, U.K. have found that recalling foods eaten at lunch has an inhibitory effect on subsequent snacking later the same day.