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Time Magazine: Your Child’s Religion May Be ‘Mental Illness’

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Photo Credit: WND

According to an article published this week on Time magazine’s website, your child’s “fastidiousness to religious practices” may be a sign of mental illness.

“Religion can be a source of comfort that improves well-being,” begins the article by author Francine Russo. “But some kinds of religiosity could be a sign of deeper mental health issues.”

In the article titled “Can Your Child Be Too Religious?” Russo continues, “If your child is immersed in scripture after school and prays regularly throughout the day, you may breathe a sigh of relief. She’s such a good girl. … Or maybe not. Your child’s devotion may be a great thing, but there are some kids whose religious observances require a deeper look. For these children, an overzealous practice of their family faith – or even another faith – may be a sign of an underlying mental health issue.”

The article explains therapists report seeing children and teens who dive into excessive religiosity as an unhealthy coping mechanism, a form of obsessive-compulsive disorder, or OCD, that’s “no more spiritual than fanatical hand washing.”

The article describes a type of OCD called scrupulosity, where children “obsessively worry that they have committed blasphemy, been impure or otherwise sinned” and warns against religious delusions or hallucinations that parents may be less attuned to “when it occurs under the guise of faith.”

Read more from this story HERE.

Mental-Health Officials Clash on N.Y. Gun Law Reporting

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Photo Credit: Seth Wenig AP

Psychiatrists, county officials and law enforcement are questioning a portion of New York’s new gun-control law that requires them to take steps that could lead to guns being seized from potentially dangerous people.

Since mid-March, New York’s Secure Ammunition and Firearms Enforcement Act has required mental health professionals to report when a patient is a potential danger to himself or others. A county receives the information, decides whether to approve it, and if so sends it to the state for entry into a database. Local law enforcement officials then must suspend or revoke any gun licenses and remove a gun owner’s firearms.

Gov. Andrew Cuomo has touted the reporting requirements outlined in the law, saying they will keep guns out of the hands of the dangerously mentally ill and prevent mass shootings that have claimed more than 900 victims in the past seven years.

But parties who must participate in the process said the new law was hastily designed and broadly written.

“When someone drops a whole new set of rules out of the sky, … you trip up on a lot of stuff,” said Eric Caine, psychiatry department chairman at the University of Rochester Medical Center.

Read more from this story HERE.

Sellout: Karl Rove Commends Obama’s Commission on Gun Control, Calls for Comprehensive Bi-Partisan Solution

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If there was any doubt about what side Karl Rove was on in the gun control debate, it should now be abundantly clear. Rove stepped squarely into the President’s camp on Monday, lauding calls for a commission to take on the problem of gun violence in America.

The former Bush strategist made clear that mental health and assault weapons should be constituents of a comprehensive bi-partisan approach to dealing with the issue.

Once again, Washington stumbles over itself in an attempt to come up with a “reasoned approach” to insanity.

Perhaps one of the more troubling aspects of the whole discussion was the fact that no one seemed to be concerned with the Constitutional issues surrounding the Second Amendment. How nice that the Republican establishment has such an historically illiterate and morally vacuous spokesman on its side!

The Northern Lights improve our mental health, help us overcome stress

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A jaw-dropping moment really can make time appear to stand still – or at least slow down, new research suggests.

Regular “awesome” experiences may also improve our mental health and make us nicer people, claim psychologists.

The findings raise the prospect of “awe therapy” to overcome the stressful effects of fast-paced modern life.

Awe is the emotion felt when encountering something so vast and overwhelming it alters one’s mental perspective.

Examples might include experiencing a breathtaking view of the Grand Canyon, taking in the ethereal beauty of the Northern Lights, or becoming lost in a dazzling display of stars on a clear, dark night.

Read more from this story HERE.

Photo credit: Schwebbes