Walkers in Darkness has been providing support and infomation to people with mood disorders since 1991.  For the past 17 years, we have stressed the importance of peer-to-peer support as an adjunct to professional help.

Walkers has been featured in many web sites and periodicals and is rated not only one of the top 10 Mental Health sites on the Net but also ranked in the top 1% of all sites.

This site features mailing lists, discussion forums and chat rooms, an extensive database of mental health and social service resources, member web pages and photo galleries, news and information on mood disorders and medication.

A few of our members have asked me about their donations and tax deductions.  I asked our attorney to clarify this and this is what he had to say.

"Walkers in Darkness will apply for tax-exempt status with the IRS in the near future. Assuming the application for tax exempt status is submitted to IRS before 2/01/2011, as currently planned, donations dating back to 10/22/2009, the date of incorporation of Walkers in Darkness, will be tax deductible if Walkers in Darkness is approved for tax-exempt status by the IRS."

I have always suggested that, because each individual may have factors unique to them as regards their taxes, you consult your accountant, tax preparer or tax attorney for their opinion as to how this affects your own individual return.  For most folks, however, you may go back to 10/22/09 and claim any donations made since that date.

It is costing us a great deal of money to prepare and file all the paperwork necesary to attain our tax exempt, charitable organization status.  We do not have special funds for this, so we have to pay out of our regular operating funds to do this.

It is very important then that we receive as much support for our members as possible, so that we can proceed.  Many things, including legal fees, are being donated but never the government's fees.  The all-important Form 1023 that we must file with IRS will alone cost us over $750.00 just to file.  Many states also require individual filings which can run $50+ each to file.

Happy New Year to all Walkers, past and present!

I wish for you all to have your dreams come true, but if that can't be the case, then at least let 2010 suck less than 2009, right?

Seriously, here's what I really wish for you.  I wish that you will each step back far enough to see yourself the way others see you, as a valuable, interesting and worthwhile individual who is able to accomplish much in life, despite having the affliction of mental illness.

All too often all *we* see is the illness, because we have to struggle with it every day, but we miss all the positive things about ourselves that others see.

Also, this January 1st, 2010 marks the 19th year of Walkers in Darkness, the mailing list.  It was founded on New Year's Day in 1991 by David Harmon, who ran it for several years before his own illness made it too difficult to keep up with and he decided to turn it over to me in the mid-90's.

David, if you are out there somewhere, what you did that cold day in 1991 was the beginning of a support method which has helped millions of people over the years.  None of this would exist if it weren't for you and the other original Walkers. 

I am happy, proud and privileged to have been given the opportunity to adopt Walkers, nurture it and see it grow into what it is today.  As many people have told me over the years, I would probably not be alive today if it weren't for Walkers and the understanding it gave me of my illness and the fact that I was not alone in it.

I still remember the first time I attempted S* and being in the hospital, wishing I had succeeded, when the nurse came to me and told me there was a guy named David from Walkers on the phone trying to reach me and would I take the call or prefer him to be told that they were unable to disclose any information about me.

I took the call and it was then and there that I realized I could get through this; that I would not have been better off succeeding in my S* attempt; and that I had friends who were really total strangers but would help me when and if I wanted it.

I thought this was an amazing thing, this Walkers.  I also made a promise to myself that I would do anything I could to help it, once I was strong enough to contribute something of myself.

Everything I am telling you is not only true and real, but it is what keeps me able to continue running Walkers today, despite my own illnesses and disabilities.

If you've been here a long time, you probably know most of this and if you are new, well, welcome!  I hope that you, old or new, get even a fraction of what I got and what our members and volunteer staff try to offer.

I hope that this year brings a lot of good and positive things to Walkers.

We incorporated a legal entity, Walkers in Darkness, Inc., last year and will apply for charitable tax-exempt status this year.

We will have more of a structure that can keep Walkers running in the event that something were to prevent me from continuing to do so.  We will also have a framework from which to raise outside funding and grow the Organization.

I also have a few interesting and creative ideas for our web site that will make it even better and more accessible to all.

I will announce the beta test of one of them right now (might as well give everyone a New Years treat).

I have been working on a project to provide a new kind of chat room which has never (to my knowledge) been offered before on any similar site.

This live chat will be able to be accessed by SMS TXT message and email *IN REAL TIME*.

This week will begin phase 1 of the beta test to see if it is a concept that can work for our members.  There will be a general chat room and a self-injury chat.

If you would like to participate, you can email me at This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it (ONLY) and provide me with your name, email address, cell phone # and carrier.  I have to set up all the accounts manually, but you will be included usually within 24 hours and be a member of the chat.

THIS IS IMPORTANT!  Please DO NOT apply unless you have either an unlimited txt plan or an enormous number of unused units every month.

If the test works well, there will be a **LOT** of txt messages each day and if it gets to be more than you have in your quota, it could take 24-48 hours from the time you ask to be dropped until that happens.  This could run up an enormous bill if you are not on an unlimited (or close to) plan, so please do not ask to be a part of this right now if you are not.

Once we get further on in testing this and have a better way for people to come and go at will, then we'll open it up to a more general crowd.

OK, so it is 3AM (Happy New Year, West-coast!!) here.

I hope you enjoyed reading this as much as I did writing it.  It's nice to think about the early days of Walkers and then of the future.  Puts a big smile on my face and I am going to now go to bed and sleep with that, so good night!

Mongo

Antidepressants linked to major personality changes

[Very interesting story for anyone taking meds for a mood disorder - Mongo]

A study finds steep drops in neuroticism and increases in extroversion among patients taking Paxil. Such traits had been believed to shift very little over a lifetime.

Los Angeles Times article: http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/nation/la-sci-antidepressants8-2009dec08,0,433635.story

A new neurosurgical procedure may prove helpful for patients with treatment-resistant depression. Bilateral epidural prefrontal cortical stimulation (EpCS) was found generally safe and provided significant improvement of depressive symptoms in a small group of patients, according to lead researcher Ziad Nahas, M.D. at the Medical University of South Carolina. The data are reported in the on-line issue of Biological Psychiatry.

Treatment-resistant depression is a recurrent psychiatric illness and a leading cause of premature mortality due to suicide and associated medical conditions. In the U.S., more than 3.2 million patients are diagnosed with treatment-resistant depression. Typically, patients have tried several medications and treatments without success or improvement.

EpCS targets electrical stimulation to the anterior frontal poles and the lateral prefrontal cortex. “We focused on these two regions because they are part of a larger brain networks critical in regulating mood. Both play complementary roles integrating emotional and cognitive experiences and offer a distinct opportunity for targeted antidepressant treatments” said Dr Nahas, an associate professor of Psychiatry, Physiology and Neuroscience and Director of the Mood Disorders Program at MUSC. “Cortical stimulation has several advantages provided that it shows efficacy in treating depression. It is reversible, non-destructive and potentially safer than other forms of invasive brain stimulation since the stimulating paddles don’t come in direct contact with the brain.” His team included MUSC neurosurgeon Istvan Takacs, MD and MUSC anesthesiologist Scott Reeves, MD.

Five patients were implanted with EpCS over the anterior frontal poles and the lateral prefrontal cortex bilaterally. Four separate paddle leads were then connected to two small generators surgically implanted in the upper chest area of the patient. The researchers individualized the treatment parameters for each patient to maximize the long-term antidepressant effects. They relied in part on input from the patients themselves who signaled positive mood changes when first stimulated. In general, their devices were set to periodically deliver electrical charges at intensities below the seizure threshold. The devices were never active at night. Only patients who failed to respond to several antidepressant treatments – including medications, psychotherapy, transcranial magnetic stimulation, vagus nerve stimulation or electroconvulsive therapy, were included in the study.

Patients were closely followed after the surgical implant and evaluated regularly using standard clinical ratings. After seven months, the average improvement was 54.9 percent based on the Hamilton Rating Scare for Depression and 60.1 percent on the Inventory of Depressive Symptoms Self Report. Three of the patients reached remission. One patient experienced a scalp infection that required removing the implants over the left hemisphere.

“These preliminary results are encouraging but not definitive,” said Dr. Nahas. “Now that we have a proof of concept, we should aim at studying bilateral EpCS in larger placebo-controlled studies.”

“The more sophisticated functions are on the surface of the brain” said Takacs. “We are trying to change the climate within the prefrontal cortex so it could exert more adaptive governance of deeper brain regions.” he said.

The study was funded by the National Alliance of Research in Schizophrenia and Affective Disorders (NARSAD), the brain and behavior research fund.

Kathleen Ellis @ Medical University of South Carolina