From Secrets and Shame to an Authentic Self: How Caitlyn Jenner Could Reduce Stigma for Transgender People

When Caitlyn (formerly Bruce) Jenner revealed her new identity as a transgender woman this week, it sparked many news articles and conversations about what it means to be transgender.



“For many people, it is difficult to understand how you can feel like a different person in your own body,” said Marshall Forstein, M.D., chair of the American Psychiatric Association’s LGBT Caucus, Associate Professor of Psychiatry at Harvard Medical School and Director of Adult Psychiatry Residency Training at the Cambridge Health Alliance. 



As celebrities like Jenner and Laverne Cox share their personal stories, they help reduce the stigma around being transgender, Forstein said. “The more that people get to know people who are living their authentic lives, the easier it is to understand.”



“I think any time there’s a sudden revelation of secrets there are different ways people metabolize that information,” said Forstein said. “Some people will say: ‘Wow, how brave.’ Others will doubt that someone could know they are transgender from such an early age.” Although research on transgender is limited, evidence shows that changes in the brain may occur even before people are born—leading to a disconnect between their outward appearance and how they feel.



Despite the limited research on transgender individuals, Forstein said: “One of the things we know is that, by and large, people who do transition begin to feel happier about this consistency of the internal and external experience.”



While many people who are transgender experience anxiety and depression, Forstein said that this is usually a result of keeping their authentic identity hidden: “It’s the pressure of stigma and shame from being other than what society wants you to be.” As defined by the DSM-5, gender dysphoria ends once an individual has transitioned to their authentic gender. “Put yourself in a situation where you’re not allowed to be you—like when left-handed children were forced to write with their right hands—what would that do to your mental health?”



As Jenner shared with more than a million Twitter followers on Monday: “I'm so happy after such a long struggle to be living my true self. Welcome to the world Caitlyn. Can’t wait for you to get to know her/me.”



By Amanda Davis, Deputy Director of Corporate Communications and Public Affairs, APA

Mike White

Mike White died yesterday. 

Mike had cancer and talked very openly about his experiences and treatment over this last year, and until the last few weeks, had kept a blog which shared some of his reflections and the gritty realities of living with cancer. If you haven’t read it, it’s compelling stuff and can be found by clicking on the lantern procession below.

I first met Mike when I worked for the NHS in Public Mental Health and was looking for ways to strategically embed the arts in my work across North Lancashire and Cumbria. I’d heard about him on the grapevine and was thrilled when he agreed to be part of a steering group up that I sat on, that was planning an arts and health conference in Carlise in 2001. It seemed we were very different creatures, me all nervy and on the brink of histrionics and Mike - well - consistently calm, considered and so, so gentle. The conference was sold out and he was a great hit. Having been closely involved in the recent planning and completion of the Angel of the North in Gateshead, Mike had a certain mainstream arts cachet too!

Our second meeting was over in Dublin in 2004 shortly after I’d left the South West, where I’d been developing Arts for Health Cornwall, and was about to take up my position at MMU. This time, we met quietly and had time to discuss the growing international movement that we were part of and the characters that peppered it - some born of vision and committed to social change - and those shadowy figures, pursuing the market-driven dark-arts! He was candid and we enjoyed long conversations - his vast experience helping me navigate the fraught new arena that I was entering.

We met regularly and informally many times over the intervening years, but rather bizarrely, it was our time spent in Australia as the guest of Margret Meagher, that cemented our friendship. In 2009 her first International Arts and Health Conference, some 10,500 miles away from the northern climbs of England, brought Mike and I together in a way that we’d repeat almost annually up until last November. I have so many grand memories of his complete professionalism (what an ambassador for this field!) and his mischievousness - and his wonderful and always appropriate use of expletives! Walking back to hotels from conference venues in the heat of day and the dead of night, became a regular thing for us.

As members of the National Alliance for Arts and Health we did meet on UK soil, but it was the intimacy of time in Australia and his regular Critical Mass events that really got us thinking and acting as a wider community of interest. Mike regularly brought people together and effortlessly facilitated conversations on small and large scales and his Critical Mass events brought people around the globe together to actively peruse inquiries and develop practice. From these extended conversations sprang global friendships and some serious collaborative work.

Only last year and in the middle of his cancer treatment, did Mike come over to MMU to give us a suitably mischievous - but completely serious presentation - which he called - Randomised Thoughts, Controlled Ramblings and a few Trialised Thoughts! Exhausted from his cross-Pennine foray to the Manchester School of Art, Mike blew us away and opened his presentation with a booming youtube film of Psycho Killer by the Talking Heads, conjoining his early work by way of Welfare State International to the possibilities of generating new traditions - and sharing a wonderful anecdote about meeting the woman he would marry - and her slightly tipsy rendition of Psycho Killer to a nightclub full of people. Mike couldn’t half tell a quirky story.

Imploring us to share something of the spiritus mundi, Mike framed much of his presentation in David Byrne’s ‘slow dawning insight about creation,’ that 'context is everything.' Urging us to consider Bevan’s collective commitment to social habits and offering the best we can give to society, he subverted the context of health and safety from authoritative and risk-averse control, to caring for each other. His own work illustrated perfectly how investing in children and young people reaps dividends in generational change, not least in creating young researchers who inform new ways of thinking, being and doing.

Author of the seminal work in arts and community health “...A Social Tonic’, Mike remained committed to the principles of the Welfare State and a believer that creativity, culture and the arts were central to flourishing communities. His generosity imbued all he did with warmth, typified in those celebratory and conversational events he so often hosted.

Outside our community of arts/health, I often describe the positive working relationships that emerge from shared beliefs and vision, and how once a full moon, these spill over into real and deeper friendships. I’m proud to have had Mike’s friendship and wonder who I will look up to now? Always following in his footsteps, I will remember him as a man of superb intelligence - a knowledge born of experience - hysterically funny, warm and with the deepest integrity. A record-collector extraordinaire, a family man and a free-thinker. We will carry forward your ideas, but will miss your presence Mike White.

Post Script

We all have a gnawing anxiety about the eternity that stretches in front of us, and to a lesser extent, that which preceded our conception. I suppose that’s where religion offers some people comfort. For me it’s comforting to know that a billion, billion lives have lived and loved and thought and breathed-in all that is before (this here and now), and infinite moments will happen for unquantifiable lives to come. I wonder if we can take comfort in the earth and the sky and this simple privilege of our temporary existence? 

Reducing the Stigma of Addiction

Nora Volkow, MD, Director, NIDA

Addiction is common – an estimated 1 in 11 people in the United States experiences a substance use disorder in a given year. Despite significant advances in understanding and treatment, stigma still prevents many people from seeking help.

Nora Volkow, M.D., director of the National Institute on Drug Abuse, speaking recently at the APA’s Annual Meeting in Toronto, talked about some of the recent advances in the understanding of addiction and called on psychiatrists to help reduce the stigma of addiction and “help to eliminate the shame and suffering that accompany the addict who experiences relapse after relapse after relapse.”

Volkow opened her speech with a moving and emotional story of how she learned of her grandfather’s alcoholism and suicide. He had died when she was a girl of 6 in Mexico, but Volkow’s mother did not reveal the truth of her grandfather’s addiction and death until many years later, when her mother was dying and after Volkow had already achieved distinction as an addiction expert.

It was a dramatic illustration of the despair experienced by people who have an addiction and continue to engage in a behavior that they may know is destroying them. She described how it was once believed that addiction was a disorder of hyperactive reward centers in the brain—that people with addiction s sought out drugs or alcohol because they were especially sensitive to the pleasure-inducing effects of dopamine.

But Volkow explained that in recent years research has revealed just the opposite: that those with addiction are actually less sensitive to the effects of dopamine. They seek out drugs because of the very potency with which they can increase dopamine in the brain, often at the expense of other pleasurable natural stimulants that do not increase dopamine so dramatically

Moreover, she emphasized that addiction to drugs disrupts multiple systems in the brain that govern the ability to plan, anticipate, and change behavior in response to changing circumstances. Volkow said it is this phenomenon that accounts for the “craving” experienced by addicts and alcoholics in response to environmental triggers—often leading to what she characterized in the account of her grandfather’s death as that “one last moment of self-hatred.”

Adapted from Psychiatric News

THAT WAS THE WEEK THAT WAS

Welcome to another week and all that it holds. Welcome too, to the month of June. Elizabeth Windsor paid a visit to my home town on Friday which saw the streets lined with the impoverished masses, all flag-waving and thrilled to catch a glimpse of their rather sour-faced monarch in the pouring rain. The £3mill+ visit saw the cleaner-than-I've-ever-seen streets, empty of traffic for the first time in years, the air full of helicopters and high-visibility coppers staked out on roundabouts and every street corner. This was the same week too, as the ermine and diamond-encrusted speech to parliament, in which we heard her government (and shadow parties) talking about inequalities. What we need now, are policies to back this talk up.

For those of you who don't know the ancient hamlet of Lancaster, here's a vile portrayal of my local chip-shop, by our latter-day fauvist and peddler of simplistic Utopian trash (well, the same image is available on the chip shop's very own plastic bag - so proud). How I hope the 'artist' in question, produces a rendition of HRH tucking into a bag of scraps and curry sauce. 

Now - here’s an important short Public Service Announcement from Peggy Shaw

A Dementia and Imagination free event in Manchester

Tickets are now available for the free Dementia & Imagination event that’s being held on the 25th June at MMU. There are very limited places and will be an active day that really needs input, commitment and expertise from artists, clinicians, researchers and planners. We want to share our practice and inform future research and direction. So, if you want to hear from our research team, from our intervention and research artists and share your own ideas and practice, we’d love to hear from you. Tickets are available now by clicking on either Bette or Joan below. 

Women Make Music Grant Scheme 
The next applications deadline for the Performing Right Society's (PRS) Women Make Music grant scheme is 6pm on the 28th September 2015. Through the grant scheme, financial support of up to £5000 is available to women musicians to create new music in any genre. This can range from classical, jazz and experimental, to urban, electronica and pop. Through the scheme, support is available to individuals and organisations @ 

http://www.prsformusicfoundation.com/Funding/Women-Make-Music__

Five Ways to Wellbeing Toolkit
Voluntary Arts explore the Five Ways to Wellbeing model in their Toolkit, as a method for setting up and developing voluntary arts groups, and for making the experience of being a member even more enjoyable and beneficial to health and wellbeing. It is mainly aimed at people who are in a position of setting up a new voluntary arts group, or who want to invigorate an existing group by increasing involvement and basing it on solid foundations for enhancing the experience of members. Find the toolkit @

http://theloveofit.org/publications/Five%20Ways%20to%20Wellbeing%20Toolkit.pdf

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Resilience: How Do We Get It?

So what is resilience? We all want it, and we want to teach
it to our children. But are there only a lucky few who inherit it?

Resilience is the ability to lead a healthy life, both
physically and mentally, despite living through horrific circumstances, says
Petros Levounis, M.D., M.A., chair of the Department of Psychiatry at
Rutgers New Jersey Medical School. While there’s a genetic component, he
said the thinking is changing around the idea that only some people are born
with the ability to stay mentally strong in the face of war, natural disaster,
rape, terrorism, chronic poverty and other traumas.

“Humans are far more resilient in general
than we think, than we have assumed in the past,” Levounis said. “People who
have been subjected to absolutely traumatic situations very frequently come out
on other side and do quite well.”

There are some who may suffer more
after a traumatic event -- people with depression or anxiety disorders are at a
higher risk of developing posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD). But PTSD is not
the opposite of resilience, Levounis explained. “PTSD doesn’t mean you are
weak. We now know that developing PTSD is associated with compassion and
imagination and creativity.”

“Staying healthy both physically and
mentally is paramount. Not only exercise and nutrition, which pretty much
everybody knows, but also sleep hygiene. Sleep is the neglected stepchild of
physical health. Keeping your mental health intact, your social life, your
sexual life, your intellectual life, and for some your spiritual life—these
build resilience,” Levounis said.

He added that parents who impart
those healthy lifestyle habits to their kids will be helping their children be
resilient, too.

By Mary Brophy Marcus, health
writer, APA

Helping Your Stressed-out Teen

School
demands, sports commitments, body changes, confusing media messages. How can
you help your kids manage life’s pressures as they hit the teen years –
especially now at the end of the school year when exams and events pile up?
Start by making sure the health basics are in place: good nutrition, solid
sleep habits, and regular exercise. And don’t underestimate your teenager's
need for downtime.By
Mary Brophy Marcus, health writer, APA

These
resources can help:

Nutrition:
The USDA
has a site for teens all about healthy eating
with snack ideas, info on vitamins, weight and nutrition trackers, and more.
There's nutrition advice for vegetarian teens and athletes, too.

Sleep:
Teenagers need 8 - 10 hours a night, according to the National Sleep
Foundation (NSF). However, almost 70% of high
school students aren't logging that much, says the Centers for Disease Control
and Prevention. Inadequate sleep can put them at risk for accidents, mood and
behavior issues, and poor school performance. NSF shares tips like cutting out
caffeinated sodas and setting a regular sleep routine.

Exercise
and Relaxation: Physical activity helps increase
"feel-good" endorphins in the brain, according to the Mayo
Clinic. To relax, The
American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry
suggests practicing relaxation breathing and building a supportive circle of
friends and family to cut stress, too.

If
your tween or teen is still stressed and struggling, reach out to your child's
doctor or a mental health professional who specializes in adolescents because a
more serious health issue may be going on, such as depression or an anxiety
disorder.

By
Mary Brophy Marcus, health writer, APA

❊ the living sea of waking dreams ❊

YES:62%/NO:38% = 

humane citizenship & societal empathy

WHAT IS IT?
Thanks so much for all the email about the future direction of our network, its fluid title, content and direction. For those of you who mentioned how much you love our get-togethers here in Manchester, I am planning a free evening networking event for June/July which I’ll confirm on the blog over the next couple of weeks. It’s working title is WHAT IS IT? Look out for more details next week.

I know, I know…but it's catchy

IT'S NOT ABOUT THE MONEY
Please don’t worry if it looks like the arts will be savaged by the government in the latest round of cuts, as the dear old Bank of England is asking you, the cash-strapped public, to have ‘a say’ in whose mug-shot next appears on a £20 note. They want suggestions of artists of import, so long as they are dead and aren’t fictional! Their Hollywood matinee inspired leader, Mark Carney will make the final decision and the cash goes into circulation in 2020. So who springs to mind? If Grayson Perry had popped of the mortal coil, he/she would have been a good one - can you imagine Claire staring out at you?

Those Chapman Brothers have given us food for thought with their disgracefully ‘doctored’ bank notes and more. I’d love to see a fascist-inspired Mickey Mouse on a £20 note - although he’s universal, I guess he’s just not British enough. The there’s all those poignant postage stamps designed by Steve McQueen for Queen & Country featuring the faces of UK service personnel killed in the Iraq, but deemed inappropriate to have on our letters. I wonder if any of those soldiers were amateur artists? (note - I love the word amateur - always seen as something lesser somehow than the ‘professional’, but derived from love).

No, I’d be interested in how we can get someone less obvious than Turner or Bronte and a socially engaged artist on this money. - perhaps someone who because or despite of health issues became something great. A nice ironic twist. Let’s give it some thought eh? Terry Pratchett = writing and dementia, Iris Murdoch too. Sylvia Plath (I know she wasn’t born here) and Spike Milligan = poetry and mental health. I have a soft spot for Virgina Woolf and William Blake who between them were poetic and visionary and who had a fare share of mental distress, but it would be good to think of someone from a less privileged background. John Clare perhaps? Ah no, I’ve got my early front runner - Sarah Kane - for poetically reimagining and confronting the fragile and volatile human psyche through drama.

DYING WITHOUT DIGNITY

I wonder if you caught sight of the report from the Parliamentary and Health Service Ombudsman  this week - Dying without Dignity - it filled me with some small horror. It’s a short and upsetting report based around the complaints of people’s end of life experience in the UK. I do recommend it, as well as thinking about preparing an Advanced Directive with the people you care about. If anyone from any of the Palliative Care, Hospice or Dying with Dignity organisations would like to hold a more creative event here at MMU, I would be happy to host and co-facilitate it - get in touch. On another note, but not entirely disconnected, I’m writing a book chapter that in part, takes in these themes, and if you have been involved in performance-based practice/research with older people, maybe people facing their mortality, but where your work/research has provoked/revealed very unexpected moments - please get in touch.

A Dementia and Imagination Event at MMU
On the 25th June I’ll be holding a mid-point, day-long event at MMU to explore the ongoing Dementia & Imagination research project. It’s a free event and you get lunch thrown in too! BUT - and here’s the catch - there are very limited places, and because it’s about sharing the obstacles and opportunities of research within a clinical dementia setting, it will be an active day that really needs input, commitment and expertise from artists, clinicians, researchers and planners. We want to share our practice and inform future research and direction. So, if you want to hear from our research team, from our intervention and research artists and you work in a dementia context, we’d love to hear from you. Send a 200 word (maximum) expression of interest to artsforhealth@mmu.ac.uk before Wednesday 3rd June at 10:00am. Just explain who you are and why you’d like to come. Clearly, we are looking for a good mix of people to take part, so sorry in advance that we can’t invite everyone who applies. We will open it up to the wider network and limited places on Monday 8th June. Please note - only email the address above with expressions of interest and not my personal email - thanks.

Funding for the Rehabilitation of Offenders and Ex-Offenders 
The Triangle Trust has announced that the next closing date for applications to its grants programme is noon on the 5th November 2015. During this funding round, the Trust will provides grants to not for profit organisations and charities working for the rehabilitation of offenders and ex-offenders. The Trust would like to see applicants use these grants to develop sustainable income sources, so that when the grant comes to end the applicant organisation's income will not be reduced. Grants are available for up to £40,000 or 50% of the organisation's current annual income, whichever is lowest, per year for 3 years.

The Trust also holds a separate funding round for organisations working with carers. This is due to open for applications in spring 2016. http://www.triangletrust.org.uk/apply-funding

Comic Relief UK Grants Programme 
Through its new UK Main Fund, Comic Relief will provide funding for activities that create positive social change across the UK. To be eligible for funding projects must address at least of five themes. These are:

• Supporting young people that face challenges and have limited opportunities
• Support people who face violence, abuse and exploitation
• Supports those in severe financial hardship
• Supports disadvantaged communities
• Aims to empower and give a voice to marginalised groups of people, so that they can challenge injustice and bring about positive changes for those who face discrimination and stigma.

The funding will be available to registered charities and other not for profit organisations that operate England, Scotland, Wales, Northern Ireland, the Channel Islands and the Isle of Man. For further information on the funding themes and how to apply please click on the link below. Although there is no upper limit to the level of funding available, Comic Relief expect most grants to fall between £10,000 and £40,000 (per year for up to three years). Applications can be submitted at any time. Read more at:http://www.comicrelief.com/our-grants/uk

…and finally, as post-Soviet states continue their 'conservative turn', feminist artists stand up to address gender injustice in Belarus, Russia and Ukraine.Click on the Smart Mary poster above for more details. 

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