tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-21605329.post5605997526705636415..comments2024-03-22T00:30:09.536-07:00Comments on The Neurocritic: Impaired Cognitive Empathy in Bipolar Disorder and in Patients with Ventromedial Prefrontal LesionsThe Neurocritichttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08010555869208208621noreply@blogger.comBlogger8125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-21605329.post-30809481133290759462016-03-20T07:46:13.300-07:002016-03-20T07:46:13.300-07:00I have been watching a woman for 9 years that was ...I have been watching a woman for 9 years that was diagnosed as bipolar as a teenager. We disagree on almost everything. She has 3 children and doesn't seem to have any real awareness of how she should be taking care of them. She has ignored them, locked herself in the bathroom and left them as infants and toddlers to take care of themselves, starved them to the point that the youngest at 1 1/2 years was very thin and her hair was so dry and brittle it would break off and took forever for it to grow. She lived in a low income trailer court and she allowed all 3 children to wander the trailer court and go into others homes that she barely knew. It's as though she has no concern for their well being, safety or health. Social Services have been called numerous times yet they refuse to do anything about these problems. <br />She has recently moved in with her mother because the only kind of work she will do is waitress and doesn't make enough money to support herself. Her mother has cancer and is taking chemo yet the woman is leaving her children with her mother to take care of them the majority of the time. <br />She lies about everything and makes up stories that I think she believes are actually true. <br />She wants everything her way and blows a gasket and gets very hateful when it doesn't go her way. <br />She has no friends because she uses people for everything she can get out of them and when they get tired of it she makes up nasty stories about them.<br />This is very hard to deal with and I believe the children are going to suffer long term for her sickness.<br />How do you deal with this? She went through a 6 month rehab to get off drugs and I think she is back on them. She can't cope with life, won't give up the children but expects everyone else to take care of them. They should be taken away from her and she should be locked up away from society where she can do no more harm to anyone.GAhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/04444055988122905942noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-21605329.post-56124389869722355202015-08-29T12:18:26.288-07:002015-08-29T12:18:26.288-07:00This is a very complicated way of saying a very si...This is a very complicated way of saying a very simple thing. A bipolar person is able to distinguish between having empathy for an individual as a person, and whether or not s/he agrees with the person's specific outlook, goals, motivations, and why they are distressed in relation to those. Be a bipolar person and go to a doctor and you will pretty quickly realize that all of these findings are reversed when it is the "healthy" (or more accurately, non-bipolar - nice ethnocentrism) person who is adjudging the empathetic abilities of the empathizer - a deficit in affective empathy is why bipolar people very often feel that their real concerns are being dismissed, or that others do not try to understand them.<br /><br />Note that in the studies, no bipolar people were actually asked what they thought, although the researchers quite happily used them as test subjects. The findings and the location of the empathy "deficit" would be reversed if this was the case.<br /><br />Even more simply, bipolar people tend to operate more from the (so-called) right-brain, intuitive areas of the mind, unlike the majority which operates more from the logical areas of the mind. So once again this study is little more than an exercise in ethnocentrism and attempting to smear people with mental illnesses as dangerous, lacking, or different. (Note that a lack of empathy is associated very strongly in pop psychology with psychopathy or sociopathy, so this assertion draws a very, very dangerous and incorrect parallel between the two. Most sociopaths are otherwise 'healthy' mentally and are often very high-functioning, persuasive, successful, charming and/or attractive, something that most bipolar people with their lack of self-confidence, and tendency towards general dysfunctionality in 'normal' society are absolutely not.)<br /><br />Again, if you want to find out about bipolar, or other mental conditions, why not start by asking someone who has them? Is that really any more difficult than trying to map the complex inner workings of the human mind, without a clue as to what is going on in these people's lives, and coming up with predictably distorted conclusions?Reubenhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/04187193482962166509noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-21605329.post-58272566950066801672012-07-05T08:48:48.845-07:002012-07-05T08:48:48.845-07:00Yes, this article is illuminating. My husband is b...Yes, this article is illuminating. My husband is bipolar and the hyper emotional empathy and low cognitive empathy puts in words what I have been noticing for years. It is in some ways more difficult to live with the more overt bipolar symptoms.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-21605329.post-24145953924250290372010-02-28T21:25:15.296-08:002010-02-28T21:25:15.296-08:00For many years my wife appeared "off" em...For many years my wife appeared "off" emotionally. Being married young, it was my foolish belief that someday it would be "outgrown". Eventually it became obvious that it was mental illness. She still has not properly addressed her condition, and we are unfortunatley divorced because of her lack of insight impaired cognitive abilities.<br /><br />This study is one of the most enlightening pieces I have read! It has hlped me gain insight into what was happening "emotionally" with her. Mental illness(even of the same diagnosis) is very particular to the individual, but this is what I observed for years, and suspected was happening, although I did not know she was ill at the time and had no knowledge of the effects BPD can have on interpersonal relationships. Her "interjection" of what my emotional state was generally always distorted as incorrectly percieved my emotions - constantly misjudging them. <br /><br />Unfortunately for us it is to late, if you can help just one person... you know the rest.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-21605329.post-86106850483102028542010-01-17T10:08:28.632-08:002010-01-17T10:08:28.632-08:00In this study, there were 19 bipolar I patients. M...In this study, there were 19 bipolar I patients. Medications were lithium (n=14), carbamazepine (n=2), sodium valproate (n=2), combination of lithium and sodium valproate (n=1). All were tested in the remitted phase.<br /><br />I haven't seen any papers comparing bipolar I vs. II, or comparing cognitive empathy during different mood states.The Neurocritichttps://www.blogger.com/profile/08010555869208208621noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-21605329.post-10919913321319821052010-01-16T23:32:07.225-08:002010-01-16T23:32:07.225-08:00Bipolar Disorder is a spectrum disorder. There are...Bipolar Disorder is a spectrum disorder. There are, for instance, significant differences between Bipolar Type I and Type II disorders. Are there differences in cognitive empathy between types? If the study subject is depressed, in remission, hypomanic, or manic does s/he demonstrate more or less cognitive empathy? What effects, if any, do medications have? It would be nice to see this study replicated with much larger numbers of test subjects. Has this been studied in unipolar depression?Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-21605329.post-86936971767695384432009-12-11T03:10:57.352-08:002009-12-11T03:10:57.352-08:00Thanks for reading. But Shamay-Tsoory et al. sugge...Thanks for reading. But Shamay-Tsoory et al. suggest that the result of having "hyper emotional empathy" is that they misinterpret other people's states:<br /><br /><i>...[Their] exaggerated emotional response to others may be expressed in a dysfunctional empathic emotional overreaction (or “hyper empathy”).</i><br /><br />...<br /><br /><i>Thus, it may be hypothesized that bipolar disorder patients tend to engage in the “oversimulation” of others’ emotions, as reflected in high affective empathy, and as a result, they tend to misinterpret others’ mental states, which is reflected in impaired cognitive empathy and theory of mind.</i><br /><br />It leads to misunderstandings. And "knowing Christ" will not heal bipolar disorder, so I disagree strongly with Richard Jarzynka.The Neurocritichttps://www.blogger.com/profile/08010555869208208621noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-21605329.post-25397987727050500382009-12-10T22:48:31.499-08:002009-12-10T22:48:31.499-08:00I recently read a great book titled, "Blessed...I recently read a great book titled,<a href="http://www.bipolarman.org/" rel="nofollow"> "Blessed with Bipolar: </a> 36 God-Given Gifts of Manic-Depression," by Richard Jarzynka which compliments this post. He too points out how people with bipolar disorder feel emotions more intensely than most people and therefore can empathize better with people than most people. Very interesting stuff!Beckyhttp://www.twittter.com/beckybooksnoreply@blogger.com