Surviving PTSD After Traumatic Birth

Taffy Brodesser-Akner shared her story on Salon.com about how her traumatic birth experience brought on PTSD. Her story serves as a rallying cry for a woman's right to make informed decisions for herself about her care during childbirth. I loved what she had to say about surviving this unfortunate (and sadly, physician-induced) disorder:

"But what my diagnosis has given me is a sense of relief: relief from wondering what was wrong with me, relief from a pricey conveyor belt of specialists who dismissed me as a hormonal, overwhelmed woman. Relief that I don't have to be a person who can handle everything. Relief that other people have gone through this, and survived."

Thank you, Taffy, for speaking out!

We're Neither All Orchid nor All Dandelions, so says Dobbs

In an attempt to clarify the seemingly binary categories of "orchid" and "dandelion" temperments, David Dobbs in a conversation with David Shenk (also of The Atlantic) says, "(I)t would be a rare person that was all orchid, so to speak, or all dandelion."

I agree. While the orchid-dandelion metaphor is useful in expressing different levels of sensitivity among children and adults, it fails to capture the wide range of in-between where dandelion-ness makes way for orchid-ness, and vice versa.

I recommend reading Dobbs' and Shenk's lively conversation here.

The Reproductive Gap

A while back I wrote about a column Lisa Belkin wrote for the New York Times about how caregivers of young children need to articulate to prospective employers on their resumes the skills they've attained while being stay-at-home parents and how they can bring those to bear successfully in the paid work world. Now, here comes an interesting article in The Chronicle of Higher Education where the author, Amy Kittlestrom, makes a persuasive argument for placing a "reproductive allowance" on one's vita, explaining what one might have achieved (a book, a research project, etc.) during time spent giving birth to and raising young children.

I'm curious how others who've returned to paid work have dealt with this "baby gap" issue on their resumes. Bring your comments!

New Interactive Blog Explores the Connection Between Eating Problems and Relationships

I've just come across a new interactive blog from Beverly Price that provides a forum for discussing how eating problems and personal relationships are interconnected. Please share with the people you know who struggle with eating problems.

Anxiety Can Be Catching, Especially if the Equation is 1 Anxious Teacher + 1 Susceptible Female Student + Math = "Yikes, Fractions!"

This article about math anxiety in young girls lines up with my "genetics loads the gun; environment pulls the trigger" hypothesis about disorders such as anxiety. I would be interested in finding out if the corollary holds true that teachers with low levels of math anxiety produce math-confident female students.

Nature + Nurture = Healthy Relationships

I like what Bruce had to say on his blog about parenting orchids and dandelions:

The key to understanding orchids, dandelions and parents might be in conceptualizing the relationships between us all as the central point of focus, moving away from the notion of stand-alone gifted or troubled children toward an emphasis on trusting and nourishing vs. troubled and destructive relationships.

Amen, Bruce. We're all in this together.

MLK was Likely an Orchid

He did not accept the status quo. He was aware of the risks of speaking out for civil rights and against racism, and yet, he persisted. He had a charismatic personality that drew people in. And while public speaking isn't usually considered an art form, his vocal style was more of a cross between singing and speaking, arguably raising it to the level of art.

When orchids bloom, they bloom magnificently. And while Martin Luther King's life was cut short, his legacy proves long and profound.