My story is nothing special but I know that it will help someone out there to get through depression or help someone understand a little more on what its like to live with such an illness.

Thursday, June 27, 2013

From the worries of May 2011

From MAY 2011 I wrote in the purpley blue colour the week before we moved to QLD. Here I am 2yrs on and lets see how things have changed.

Oh what a month or so its been!! Our house has sold and we are pretty much all packed ot move to Toowoomba QLD this week. There are so many things Im going to miss but I dont think its going to hit me until a few weeks into being up there. Apart from family and Trina (who is like my bestest friend....she is my rock!!) there are things like:
  Country music radio channel - not out here, but in the city I can until I'm 15km from home, same with abc local radio  
Nick Reinberger on abc radio - my love of Tony delroy has increased - just a shame its so late at night for the quiz  
The girls at Gloria Jeans who know what I order and tell me when Im walking in if Im not going to be able to get a chai latte. - yeah, got nothing! Although Daryl and Anna know what pizza we like when they do them Saturday nights out here :)
Robyn, the check-out chick, from coles who knows my name and my kids names. - still got nothing like that!  
Getting Maja out of the shower on Fridays after the school drop off. Oh Maja, gee I miss knocking on your door and making you get out for a cuppa!  
Walking down to Trina's in my pj's and making myself a cuppa. - nothing can replace this, my beautiful Trina!  
The girls at IMB. - I don't go to a bank anymore, unless its vital like paperwork for a mortgage  
Our next door neighbours, Jim & Yvonne. - Our neighbours are cows, literally! Driving out to Cambie along the mad-mile and checking out whats going on at the sale yards, seeing if Mr Taylors plane is in the hanger. - we have the back road to Meringandan through the farms, I suppose its kind of a mad mile  
Driving over Good Dog Creek and seeing the tree that was uprooted in the 1988/9 flood that is still growing strong! Between here and town there are quite a few creeks and bridges to cross that quite often flood over when it rains enough. Nothing better than driving over Good Dog, I remember it felt like I was home then, now I drive over Cooby creek - 10km from home and that starts to feel like home  
Driving past Jaspers paddock (the horse I use to ride as a kid. Nath bought me a professional photo of his paddock a few yrs back...!) - we have our own paddock :)

Then theres the things like finding a solicitor (found one, but its not the same - we don't them personally and in fact I've never met her, just paid her)
accountant (nope!)
vets (love Dr Larry, he understands working dogs)
pet shop (45min away!)
doctors (Umesh!!) 
and dentists (well, not yet for me, but for Amy yes)
 ...the list goes on...and a bank...ok, a building society...I dont do the big banks...they would have to pay me to walk into their buildings lol. (Found a building society, but they were rude and very horrible, so now we are using Westpac - hiding my head in shame here!!)

All the things I missed at the beginning have faded and life has completely changed for the good. But I cannt wait to go back to Nowra for a visit - one day!

Arrested Development

     If you had to explain what arrested development (AD) is, could you do it? Do you even know what it is?
If you google AD, the first thing that comes up is a link to wikipedia telling you its a tv series - seemed to be a bit of a flop of a show, but nonetheless, this is not the AD I was looking for. In fact, the entire page 1 of the google search is dedicated to the show, and most of page 2. Obviously, I needed to be more specific. 
Arrested development is a term psychologists and the like use to describe someone who has gone through some sort of trauma, drug abuse, alcohol abuse or something similar and at that point in time in their life is where their development has been arrested. It has been stopped in its tracks. Their development, their brains neurochemicals, their mind, behaviour, speech, responses, motivation and emotions have ceased to continue. 

     Your teenager starts drinking at 14, or drug use starts at 17, or becomes bullemic at 11, anorexic at 19. At that point in time, they cease to develop mentally and emotionally. When teens start using drugs or drinking alcohol during the developmental years, their social and emotional development stops. So a person who started taking drugs at age 14 stays at the social and emotional age of 14. This can manifest by continued risky behavior, poor judgment and not being able to adequately understand the consequences of actions.
You might come across someone at work, at the pub, at the shops, they may be another parent at the school your child/ren attend and you look at them and think "WTF?!". They look grown up, but mentally they have AD.

     The teenage brain  is still developing (personally from a health and psychologist perspective, I believe the brain is still developing right up to the age of 25, and I have medical information to back this up, but that is for another day), and if teens consume drugs or alcohol, they risk causing permanent intellectual and emotional damage, according to the Science and Management of Addictions Foundation. Alcohol consumed during early adolescence can disrupt endocrine development, which regulates mood and reproductive processes. 

     Teens who smoke marijuana performed worse on learning tests and their memory was affected, according to a January 2009 study published in Clinical EEG and Neuroscience. Stanton Glantz, director of the University of California at San Francisco’s Center for Tobacco Control Research and Education, told ABC News that psychoactive substances are “messing with the brain as it’s developing.” But we know this already, its not new news, its old, but one that still needs attention because there are just far too many parents out there who think its funny to offer their 13yr old daughter alcohol shots because "she needs to make her own choices in life, and if she is going to do it, I want to know".

     One out of four people who starts using drugs or alcohol as a teenager becomes addicted, according to the National Center on Addiction and Substance Abuse, reported ABC News. Teens don’t have positive life prospects if they become addicted. Because the brain is still developing during adolescence, it is more sensitive to substances, which increases the risk of addiction, and there we have it - arrested development.

Now, here comes the part where I start getting a little more technical. Remember, neuroscience is my love, amazingly facinating and something everyone should have some idea on how it all works. I've tried to make it interesting, less sciencey and boring, I hope you can understand it: 
 
Although most of the brain material and size is in place at the start of adolescence, several important developmental processes continue .

If all goes well, the brain will be a much more efficient organ at the end of a healthy adolescence.
 
One process is myelination.  The axons connecting brain cells across which electrical impulses travel continue to become ensheathed in a fatty substance called myelin.  This compound  insulates axons and speeds the relay of electric impulses within the brain, helping thinking, decision-making, impulse control, and emotional regulation mature.
 
Another process is synaptic refinement. At the start of adolescence, we have billions of brain cells, each with tens of thousands of connections to other brain cells.  Not all these connections are actually needed, and the unnecessary ones become  eliminated.  This elimination process is shaped by the young person’s activities and experiences, and, as with myelination, it helps the brain work more efficiently.
 
MRI studies reveal ongoing brain maturation during late childhood and early adulthood. Early MRI studies suggest regionally varying volume decreases in gray matter of the cortex and subcortical nuclei). More recent studies provide more anatomical detail, emphasize the effects of ongoing myelination and employ mapping methods for visualizing the pattern of age-related change. 
 
Exposure to alcohol and other drugs during adolescence may alter the function of frontal-striatal and limbic circuits to interact with this pattern of ongoing brain maturation during late adolescence and early adulthood.

So to avoid AD, remember this:
P = Promote activities that capitalise on the strengths of the developing brain.
A = Assist children with challenges that require planning.
R = Reinforce their seeking advice from adults; teach decision making.
E =  Encourage a lifestyle that promotes good brain development.
N = Never underestimate the effects of alcohol on the developing brain.
T = Tolerate the “oops” behaviors due to an immature brain.  

He escaped

Update (the same day, just 4hrs later): As I wrote this blog post this morning, Josh was being captured in Worrigee - not far from the prison. Good work LAC!!


Its not too often that the average person out there knows someone personally who has escaped from jail and is a fugitive on the run. But I'm that person. Joshua Leigh Duke escaped from the South Coast Correctional Facility on Saturday 8th June at around 2pm. Reports say that he has jumped over a wall, got in a car and driven off. So much for being an unescapable prison. 
When they first built the prison and the month prior to sending inmates, they opened it up to the public. Bus loads of people went through all the areas of prison, from maximum to minimum, males to female sections, seclusion, security areas - you name it, we got to see it. The majority of Nowra residents went through - publicity push or not, it was well worth the couple of hours. Seeing the walls I really wonder how it was possible for him to scale a fence and get over. Another report said that Josh was doing work in the minimum security area (why on earth he was in minimum security in the first place is beyond my comprehension and yet to be answered) and has escaped from there. He was found to be missing at 2pm and was reported  missing the the Shoalhaven LAC at 2.20pm. 
He is yet to be found.
The following information has come from various Shoalhaven newspapers:
In January he was finally arrested for holding up service stations at Albion Park, Tomerong and Batemans Bay between 2am on January 15 and 12.30am on January 16.
He faced a total of 54 charges and is considered to be highly dangerous.
Police warn he should not be approached.
With the assistance of Polair and the Dog Unit areas of Nowra were searched to no avail.
Police describe Duke as having a Caucasian appearance, 175cm tall with a medium build and a shaved head. At the time of his escape he was wearing green shorts, green T-shirt and green shoes. 
A possible sighting in Mittagong turned out to be someone else and at the time of going to press, Duke was still a wanted man.
Anyone who sees him or knows of his current whereabouts is urged to contact triple-0 immediately.


 

A part of me says he's not dangerous, but he is. A part of me feels sorry for him but he does not deserve sympathy. A part of me knows why and how he has come to this but he is an adult and MUST take full responsibility. Throw the book at him, throw the key away and keep him in seclusion for the rest of his rotten life!