Moms Network

 Improved Prevention is a Group Effort, Says Former Doc & Personality Disorder Sufferer

Office Building

Shocking acts of public violence continue to dominate the news: Shootings at Fort Hood and the Washington Navy Yard – considered workplace incidents, a stabbing at a Pennsylvania high school.

About 2 million employees are affected by workplace violence every year, according to the Occupational Safety and Health Administration.

“This is not simply a case of the 24-hour news cycle maintaining a captive audience with fear mongering,” says retired physician Mohinder Goomar. “In addition to the reported cases of workplace violence, who knows how many go unreported? A prevalent common denominator is untreated mental illness,” says Goomar, author of “It’s Just My Opinion,”, which discusses his experience with dissociative identity disorder (DID), formerly known as multiple personality disorder.

“Because diagnosis and treatment of mental illness hasn’t progressed much in recent decades, we need to encourage lay people to be vigilant toward those expressing tendencies that indicate the potential for violence due to mental illness.”

Goomar, who has personally suffered the destabilizing affects of dissociative identity disorder (DID), reviews indicators of mental illness, which may lead to violence.

•  Marginalized or bullied students/coworkers. Students interviewed at the Murrysville, Pa., high school, where 16-year-old Alex Hribal is accused of stabbing 21 people, have said Hribal is a shy person without violent tendencies. The FBI, however, has found evidence that he was bullied online. Human beings are social creatures which almost always require companionship for mental well-being, especially for the development of a juvenile. Be sensitive to those who are socially challenged; pressure from bullying can have catastrophic consequences.

•  A consistent and emphatic victimization position. After pulling out a pistol and yelling what can be translated in English as “God is great!” Army Maj. Nidal Malik Hasan pulled out a pistol and killed 13 unarmed people in Fort Hood. Later in court, when Hasan was representing himself, he justified his actions by saying he was defending a group of Taliban leaders in Afghanistan, including a man named Mullah Omar. Those who perpetrate terrible violence often do so citing justice from a victimized position.

•  Readily apparent indicators of paranoia and a history of violent reactions. Aaron Alexis, the former Navy man who was discharged from the service for a violent altercation, was nonetheless allowed to work in the Washington Navy Yard as a contractor. He eventually shot and killed 12 people, and critically injured three. The FBI later said that he was under “the delusional belief that he was being controlled or influenced by extremely low frequency electromagnetic waves,” or ELF. These are clear red flags of mental illness that were ignored.

•  An aggressively litigious nature. The Guinness Book of World Records named Jonathan Lee Richards the most litigious man, having had court filings against Martha Stewart and New England Patriots football coach Bill Belichick, among many others. Having heard of his new title, he filed a suit against the record-holding institution. Richards also is a former federal prisoner. Outrageous legal action is another form of confrontation from those who constantly perceive grievances.

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About Mohinder Goomar

Mohinder Goomar is a former medical doctor who, after emigrating from India, became board certified by the American Academy of Ophthalmology and Otolaryngology and became an American citizen. He was chairman of the surgery department at Saratoga Hospital, in New York, had a private practice for head and neck surgery. After experiencing mood swings and a distortion of judgment, Goomar was diagnosed with dissociative identity disorder (DID). He was rehabilitated at a facility and lost his medical license for two years – to be followed by reinstatement of the license. Due to his DID experience, he did not have his license reinstated. His book, “It’s Just My Opinion,”  details his experience.

Stress Free Holidays

• Schedule some alone time–The holidays can be a chaotic time with friends and family and it’s ok to schedule some alone time.  Ask your spouse to watch the kids for an hour and go to the spa, or go hit a bucket of golf balls.  Seeking some solitude is both healthy and necessary to reduce stress.

• Don’t procrastinate – There’s so much to do: buying presents, cooking, decorating and more.  Saving it all for the last minute will raise your stress.  Start a few weeks ahead of time and do a little at a time. Making a list from most important to least important will also help you manage your activities better.

• Eliminate financial stressors – Every parent wants to buy that perfect holiday gift for their child, but big ticket items can take a toll on your wallet and your stress level.  Make a budget when it comes to holiday shopping and stick to it.

• Expect things to go wrong – The Thanksgiving turkey may get overcooked; your son may hate his Christmas gift; your daughter might get sick; the point is things will go wrong.  Appreciate the season for the time spent with loved ones and create new memories, and don’t sweat the small stuff.

• Holidays are not the time to resolve family conflicts – Many individuals use the family holidays to try to resolve long standing conflicts with family members often with disastrous consequences, particularly when alcohol is involved. Leave addressing those issues to a later time in a one-to-one conversation.

• Let others help–Don’t feel like you have to be the hero of the holiday season.  Ask each person to bring a dish to dinner, make decorating a family activity where the kids help out, and consider a grab bag gift exchange where each person buys only one gift to alleviate the stress of having to get something for everyone.

• Don’t forget about you–People get so caught up in the holidays that they forget to take care of themselves.  Don’t skip meals, get plenty of sleep, drink lots of water and stick to your exercise routine.

• Stay on your medication and keep scheduled doctor’s appointments – If you’re under the care of a psychiatrist or other mental health professional for anxiety or depression, make sure and keep your doctor’s appointments this time of year and don’t taper medication until after the New Year if your doctor recommends it.

Dr. Prakash Masand MD is president of Global Medical Education, and a former Consulting professor of psychiatry and behavioral sciences at Duke University Medical Center.

Temperatures are soaring and so are our water bills! We all know the importance of conserving water, but now that we are finally enduring the year’s hottest months, it’s time to get motivated to save water. All you have to do is take one glance at your water bill to know that something has to change. According to the EPA, an estimated amount of 7.8 billion gallons of water – or anywhere from 30 to 70 percent depending on the region – are used outdoors in the U.S. each year and as much as half of that is wasted due to inefficient watering methods. If this month’s water bill left you in shock or wondering how to lower your bill, without jeopardizing the beautiful green hue of your lawn, you’re in luck!

Certified Landscape Professional and Master Gardener Joe Lamp’l of PBS’ “Growing a Greener World” has teamed up with Pennington Seed to provide all of us homeowners with money saving gardening tips. In this video, Joe Lamp’l shares gardening techniques, such as:

– Easy methods to properly water our yards, minimize outdoor water consumption, and maintaining sustainability.

– Simple tips on how to keep yard and garden weed free

– Which plants help achieve optimal water efficiency

Here’s more about Joe Lamp’l:

As a Certified Landscape Professional and Master Gardener, Joe Lamp’l combines his television experience and expertise of landscaping, environmental stewardship and passion for living a more eco-friendly life, as creator, host and executive producer of the award-winning national public television series Growing a Greener World®. The show, which is entering its fourth season, focuses on the stories of people, places and organizations that are doing good things for the planet, with an emphasis on landscaping topics. He also serves as a landscaping and sustainability guest expert on national morning shows like NBC’s TODAY Show, ABC’s Good Morning America and The Weather Channel, among others.