could this be a contributing cause to high instances of suicide on reserves?

http://www.thedaily.com/page/2011/05/22/052211-news-lithium-1-5/

very interesting

I wonder if any of the remote reserves would be up for a study?

hmmm...i thought there would just be an image of a bottle of alcohol

the alcohol/drug use is a symptom of the underlying problems.

Not saying that I am excusing many of the issues. I am just wondering if its a "tipping" point type thing for the amount of suicides. Perhaps even the lack of self worth overall that contributes to many of the other issues.

I'm certain it's a combination of issues but most of all a feeling of hopelessness. Time the chiefs got their act together and developed a positive environment on the reserves. Why can't the reserves work together as a collective to improve their very lot in life. Like the Hutterite colonies for instance...

right.. no doubt.. but if medically speaking you are starting at a disadvantage simply because the lack of lithium in the water..??? thats HUGE.

I am not saying it would be a magic pill.

But you know what.. it might be a magic pill. Heck just telling a group of people that HEY... there is a magic fix and we are giving it to you, helps bring people out of the sense of hopelessness and perhaps energizes.

agreed that the leaders need to lead.

I would like to see huge green houses set up on these remote reserves as job one.

Deank wrote:the alcohol/drug use is a symptom of the underlying problems.

Not saying that I am excusing many of the issues. I am just wondering if its a "tipping" point type thing for the amount of suicides. Perhaps even the lack of self worth overall that contributes to many of the other issues.

Deank wrote:right.. no doubt.. but if medically speaking you are starting at a disadvantage simply because the lack of lithium in the water..??? thats HUGE.

I am not saying it would be a magic pill.

But you know what.. it might be a magic pill. Heck just telling a group of people that HEY... there is a magic fix and we are giving it to you, helps bring people out of the sense of hopelessness and perhaps energizes.

agreed that the leaders need to lead.

I would like to see huge green houses set up on these remote reserves as job one.

BINGO! on your first block post. Similar to what I was expressing in that other post.

DeanK, do us all a favour... Stay out of any and all politics. You're a danger to us.

Adding lithium to drinking water on a mass scale can and will have a date with the law of unintended consequences...

For example:

"..they may also affect personality traits—and that possibility poses
ethical dilemmas for any broad-based effort to improve resilience in the
brain."

"When I first prescribed Prozac, I had heard certain of my patients say
that beyond offering relief from the problem that had led them to seek
help—depression, anxiety, obsession—the medication seemed to make them
assertive or confident. This testimony led me to wonder whether
antidepressants or similar medicines not yet invented might be used not
to treat illness but to move people from one normal state to another
normal state that is more desired or better rewarded socially. I called
this potentially worrisome practice “cosmetic psychopharmacology” and wrote about it first in an essay for psychiatrists and then, more extensively, in my book Listening to Prozac.
I believe it is fair to say that this writing energized a field in
philosophy that centers on the word “enhancement,” a term that
encompasses a set of medical interventions in which the goal is not to
cure illness but rather to alter normal traits and abilities. "

Source: Dr. Peter D. Kramer - http://www.doublex.com/section/health-science/listening-lithium

jimj_wpg wrote:

Deank wrote:the alcohol/drug use is a symptom of the underlying problems.

Not saying that I am excusing many of the issues. I am just wondering if its a "tipping" point type thing for the amount of suicides. Perhaps even the lack of self worth overall that contributes to many of the other issues.

Deank wrote:right.. no doubt.. but if medically speaking you are starting at a disadvantage simply because the lack of lithium in the water..??? thats HUGE.

I am not saying it would be a magic pill.

But you know what.. it might be a magic pill. Heck just telling a group of people that HEY... there is a magic fix and we are giving it to you, helps bring people out of the sense of hopelessness and perhaps energizes.

agreed that the leaders need to lead.

I would like to see huge green houses set up on these remote reserves as job one.

BINGO! on your first block post. Similar to what I was expressing in that other post.

DeanK, do us all a favour... Stay out of any and all politics. You're a danger to us.

Why? Because I force people to think outside the box and question reality as its been forced on them?

Or....

grumpy old man wrote:I'm certain it's a combination of issues but most of all a feeling of hopelessness. Time the chiefs got their act together and developed a positive environment on the reserves. Why can't the reserves work together as a collective to improve their very lot in life. Like the Hutterite colonies for instance...

Reserves promote learned helplessness. Hutterite colonies are communist in nature. I say abolish reserves altogether. Let 'em learn the feeling of dignity by being able to make it on their own. Employment is the best social program, by far.

All issues with reserves come from overpopulation, as they were negotiated and designed to hold about ONE percent of the population that is there now. Maybe suicide and other health problems are nature's attempt to correct that.

Deank wrote:
Why? Because I force people to think outside the box and question reality as its been forced on them?

My box is bigger than your box.