Unplugging and ReconnectingTM Challenge

NEW YORK, NY, July 22 – For the last few weeks, Joseph Geliebter, PhD, CEO of Comprehensive Network® Inc., a leading healthcare and educational services company, has been encouraging his staff to take an hour to unplug and reconnect and experience the things in life that are most meaningful to them.

“In this digital age, we need to unplug from our technology-laden, multitasking selves, and reconnect with our inner selves and the people around us” said Dr. Geliebter, a clinical psychologist. “Our physical and mental health and social skills are negatively affected by this technological invasion that is bordering on a ‘social virus’.”
Following the exceedingly positive feedback from the staff, Comprehensive Network® is now inviting their thousands of affiliated professionals and the general public to partake in an exciting challenge.
The Challenge:
Unplug for a minimum of one hour from all of your technology devices, including your computers, cell phones, smart phones, TV, iPods, gaming consoles, GPSs etc.
Reconnect with friends and family in person, meditate, take a walk, focus on the natural beauty around you, tune into the sounds and sights you usually ignore such as birds singing and leaves rustling, read a book you haven’t found time for, take a candlelit bath, or practice yoga.
As an additional incentive to the benefits of the challenge itself, all who participate will be entered into a raffle for a SpaFinder gift certificate and other prizes! To find out more, visit www.comprehensivenet.com/25.php.

Autism Update - One More Piece of the Puzzle

The controversy regarding the apparent rise of autism is still being debated. (Experts now suspect that one person in 160 lives with some degree of autism. That’s three to four times the rate estimated in the 1970’s.)

The question persists - are the numbers of cases rising or are parents more aware and doctors more adept at diagnosing the disorder?

Previous studies had revealed that a large percentage of children diagnosed with autism have abnormally large brains for their age. A study, published in The Journal of the American Medical Association, found that children diagnosed with the autism disorder were born with smaller than average heads which grew from the 25th percentile to the 84th percentile in the first year. This disproportionately rapid growth appears to be an early predictor of the disorder that may not be manifest until the child is two or three. An autistic child may have an adult-size brain by the age of four or five years old. And although the growth rate slows significantly after the first year, an autistic child may have an adult-size brain by the age of four or five.

These findings still do not reveal much about the causes of the disorder, nor do they offer possible treatments. However, they do suggest that the disorder is developmental and can be traced back to infancy and not a sudden onset due to environmental stimuli or vaccines — as had been previously suspected.

To read “Putting The Pieces Together: Understanding Autism” and “Autism: A Mother’s Story,” log on to www.comprehensivenet.com/newsletter.html.

Our Growing Children

Despite a national obsession with exercise and losing weight, today one-third of Americans are not just overweight, but obese. Like weight, the problem has crept up slowly—unnoticed or disregarded—until it reached crisis proportions.

According to the federal government’s National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey, 16 percent of kids are overweight—roughly triple the figure from 1980. Preventative medicine has already conquered many childhood infectious diseases. Car seats and bicycle helmets have helped save untold numbers of young lives. Education and legal suits have illuminated the dangers of smoking. But experts fear that without a lifestyle makeover, today’s overweight kids will live shorter, more diseased lives than their parents.

A great contributor to this problem lies within the hallways of our school systems where students have access to vending machines that offer unlimited soda and snacks. Soft drink advertising accounts for more than three billion dollars worth of spending, much of it aimed at children.

In 2002, it was estimated that the soft drink industry paid two hundred and forty United States school districts for exclusive pouring rights in their schools. These schools are actively facilitating the nation’s growing childhood obesity epidemic.

Between 1970 and 1990, milk consumption dropped while soft drink consumption nearly tripled. In the past thirty years, adolescent soft drink consumption has increased tremendously, 65% for girls and 75% for boys. A study showed that for each serving of soda, the odds ratio to becoming obese increases 1.6.

In addition to soda, studies show that teens consume more calories now than they did two decades earlier. One study comparing calorie intake between teens in 1970 and 1990 found that boys consumed 243 more calories per day—and girls 123 more. The most probable culprits are sugary breakfast foods, prepackaged lunch snacks, loaded with sodium and fat, and “super-sized” dinners that are quick and cheap.

Also children aren’t moving. Riding a bicycle or walking to school is almost unheard of. Climbing trees and jumping in puddles has given way to sedentary entertainment, such as watching TV, surfing the internet or playing video games.

Morbidly obese individuals are at one extreme of the distribution and are at an increased risk for numerous conditions that shorten life, including diabetes, heart disease, hypertension and cancer, diseases collectively knows as the metabolic syndrome. In the aggregate, they are the principal causes of morbidity and mortality in the Western world, leading many to conclude that obesity is the disease of the twenty-first century and add it to the list of “at-risk” concerns regarding children and teens.

Today when almost everyone has essentially unlimited access to calories, when the remote control and internet have replaced even the most minor of every day physical activities, and single parent families or two working parents will often resort to fast food to alleviate the pressures and time needed to provide dinner to over-scheduled families, an overall weight gain should not be a surprise. The good news is that even modest weight loss (5 – 10 pounds) results in a significant health benefit and is achievable with small lifestyle changes.

Small changes can yield great results. It can begin with education and action - more exercise and less empty calories.

No Longer Silent: Speaking Out Against School Bullying

May 8, 2003: A group of female high school seniors in Northbrook, Illinois were caught on tape hazing junior girls. The young students were forced to eat dirt, fish guts, and pet food and beaten up so badly that….

October 17, 2006: A 13 year old girl from Missouri committed suicide after being repeatedly bullied on online social networking site MySpace.com. The mother of a former friend set up a fake account and sent the teen cruel messages which lead the young teen to suicide.

April 16, 2007: A senior at Virginia Tech opened fire at fellow students killing 32 and wounding many others before killing himself. It is the deadliest school shooting incident by a single gunman in US history.

May 18, 2009: A 15 year old Louisiana middle school student fired a gunshot over a teachers head during class and afterwards, shot himself in the school bathroom. A note was later found describing the boy’s plans to go on a shooting rampage.

Jan. 14, 2010: A Massachusetts HS Freshman committed suicide after enduring months of bullying by classmates in person and online. Nine students were charged.

By the time school hall bullying and internet harassment become headline grabbing tragedies—we all find it quite easy to differentiate them from what we regard as typical “kids will be kids” behavior.

Amidst the horror and disbelief that our children are capable of these vicious, cold, seemingly planned acts of violence, and usually against one of their own, we wonder “Where…how did this happen?” “Did anyone (parent, teacher) realize…see this coming?” “Were there signs?” “Could this have been averted?”

Bullying differs from other types of negative behaviors in that it is

• aggressive and intentionally harmful,
• carried out repeatedly over a period of time,
• usually between two specific individuals or groups and
• characterized by an imbalance of power - one more powerful and the other more junior or vulnerable.

Adults often see but dismiss the manipulative power and influence of cliques. They may see the isolated child, a schoolyard fight, even tears, but shrug these off as typical childhood experiences—an all too accepted rite of passage that supposedly all children must undergo.

However, studies have found that children who are bullied are five times more likely to be depressed than other children and are more prone to suicide. It is also not surprising to learn that 71 percent of the attackers had themselves experienced severe and long-standing forms of bullying—persecution, threats, harassment, verbal abuse and physical attacks.

A bully can spot a victim a mile away. Children who are targeted most frequently seem to be those with low self-esteem, few friends and who cry easily. Most victims are different in some way—and a bully easily spots and uses this. Some victims may have a disability, or are poor at sports. They may be short or overweight, dress or speak differently—or just new to the school. Usually bullies have no empathy for their victims, so his tears, pain or depression motivates the bully to continue rather than desist.

A bully may victimize someone because he thinks it will make him more popular with the “in” crowd or it may make him appear tough, someone not to be messed with In addition, it may gain him the attention he craves., Sometimes bullies are jealous of the victim, or they themselves had been bullied to the point where they lash back—an act of desperation.

Since bullying often takes place when adults are not present — or on the internet or via IM or social network such as Facebook — and the victims are fearful to tell anyone that they are being bullied, it is difficult to identify the victims. However, there are some non-verbal signs for parents and teachers to look out for. For instance, a child might resist going to school and feign headaches or stomach aches. Parents and teachers may notice a child becoming withdrawn, cling, experience changes in sleep or appetite. Some children will have difficulty concentrating or become non-communicative. Some blatant signs such as clothing that is repeatedly damaged or “lost” or unexplained bruises and cuts are also often missed signs.

The bullying tactics employed by boys may leave physical scars, but girl-on-girl bullying often causes much deeper wounds. While boys usually express power over others through physical aggression, girls use inclusive relationships to wield power over their victims. Though the victims of girl-on-girl bullying are deeply affected, they are difficult to identify because girls bullying tactics are usually secretive and non-physical and the victims often do not report the bullying.

Girl bullies will exert their power over their victims by excluding them, spreading rumors about them, or teasing them in front of their peer group—engaging in this type of psychological warfare can be extremely detrimental to the victims’ confidence and self esteem. Recent technology has only provided new ways for bullies to intimidate and harass their victims. E-mails, instant and text messaging, and the internet are used to spread rumors and photos to an ever widening group, damaging the victim socially and emotionally even more. Some of the symptoms of girl-on-girl bullying are anxiety, depression, frequent absences from school, and even suicide. Bystanders often keep silent, terrified that they will be targeted as the group’s next victim.

Because no one deserves to be bullied, schools need to have strategies in place to provide the safest school environment possible. Classroom discussions are essential as they sensitize children to feel the pain and isolation of the victim, raise their awareness and give them “permission” to report bullying type activities when they occur. Creating a specific anti-bullying school culture usually demonstrates a commitment to the prevention of bullying and makes a potential victim feel less alone in his predicament. Empowering a child to deal with difficult situations may prevent a minor incident from escalating into full scale harassment. By Marla Atkins & Leah Schlager