In June I sat in the lobby of a mental health centre. What if I don’t have OCD? I wondered. I tried to push the thought away. Two years prior, a counsellor at my university suggested I see a psychiatrist to be diagnosed with obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD). Now that my name was at the top…
Sometimes the issues of the day have a clear scriptural directive. Scripture tells us, for example, to care for God’s world, and thus we should do all we can to address human-induced climate change and its adverse effects. At other times, scripture provides no obvious guidance – how, for example, should we assess the benefits…
How many people do you know who live with a hidden disability? And even if you’ve been told, how well do you understand the challenges that person deals with? Let me share some insights that I have garnered from living with a Traumatic Brain Injury (TBI) for over a decade. My disability has affected every…
Rachel, Janneke and I spent the first day of summer at the Holland-Bloorview Research Institute, learning about Brain Computer Interface (BCI). An unconventional approach to communication, BCI can help people with disabilities connect with others and take part more fully in everyday life. The story starts here Rachel furrowed her brow and looked intently at…
For many years, I taught large (300+) introductory first-year psychology classes. Classes were composed of diverse students. Some were there as future psychology majors, others were looking for an “easy” elective. Some were hardworking students seeking an A+, while others simply aimed to pass. Some students were athletes on a university team, while others were…
Imagine a university-aged youth who has just experienced his first episode of psychosis, a common symptom of psychotic illnesses such as schizophrenia. Let’s call this young man Ben. Research has shown that early intervention treatment programs in young people with a first episode of psychosis can have a huge positive effect on the trajectory of…
In 1998, I was teaching middle school students in Minnesota. I wasn’t aware that Australian sociologist Judy Singer and American journalist Harvey Blume were discussing the idea of individual differences in brain variation and neurodiversity. What I did know at that time was Parker Palmer’s book The Courage to Teach. His words, written then, echo…
Our God-given brains use chemicals and electricity to communicate among cells and neurons. Chemicals (neurotransmitters and hormones) primarily communicate between neurons, while electricity is often the means of communication along the sometimes-considerable length of neurons. We have long influenced the brain’s chemical communication with medicines and drugs but until recently, we have been unable to…
|
Uploaded
Failed
|
 |
