The Florida legislature has recently taken votes on bills that address transgender high school students and their ability to participate in sports. House Bill 1475 and Senate Bill 2012 were both put forward specifying that students could participate in sports based upon their biological gender assigned at birth. As to be expected, there was significant debate from both side. Proponents claimed the bills afforded protection to athletes from physical /athletic advantages that some transgender athletes would have. Opponents claimed the bills are discriminatory and perpetuate exclusion from mainstream social activities for the transgender community.

Regardless, the points may be moot as both bills have died in their respective chambers with both the House and Senate Bill stalling in Rules on 4/30/21. While there were sufficient votes amongst members, the stalling is something that can be revisited at a later time.

For more details, please go here:
www.myfloridahouse.gov/Sections/Bills/billsdetail.aspx?BillId=72710
www.flsenate.gov/Session/Bill/2021/2012

Here are some resources:

Mental Health America
www.mhanational.org/

NAMI
www.nami.org/Get-Involved/Awareness-Events/Mental-Health-Awareness-Month

ADAA
adaa.org/mental-health-awareness-month

AACAP
www.aacap.org/Mental_Health_Awareness_Month

Let's take this time to be our best selves!

    The World Health Organization (WHO) has designated "Gaming Disorder" as an official diagnosis to be included in the next revision of the International Classification of Diseases (ICD). Currently, ICD-10 is in use and Gaming Disorder, as part of the ICD-11, was approved in June, 2018 and will be formally implemented on January 1, 2022.


The description for Gaming Disorder is:

     Citing an accumulation of research and knowledge, The American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) has updated their policy statement "to recommend parents not to use  spanking, hitting, slapping, threatening, insulting, humiliating or shaming"  as forms of child discipline. The AAP outlines the strong association of spanking and adverse outcomes as: ​

    New research by neurologist Michael Gandal and others, conducted at the UCLA, shows that there are shared patterns of gene expression between: alcoholism, autism, bipolar disorder, depression and schizophrenia. The researchers say they are measuring similarities in the "disruption" of how brain cells communicate with one another. While the study advances our understanding of where in the genetic code the faulty DNA is, the researchers are clear to point out there are environmental factors that contribute.

For the full article, please visit:
http://science.sciencemag.org

    The Pinellas County Adult Pre-Arrest Diversion (APAD) program was implemented earlier this year as a way to reduce costs of incarceration and prosecution of certain types of misdemeanors. These are:

    For Sexual Addiction, I was recently told this article explains it better then anything they've come across: https://psychcentral.com/lib/what-causes-sexual-addiction/

​    Schizoid Personality Disorder (SPD) is described as a chronic pattern of the following characteristics as listed in The World Health Organization's (WHO) International Classification of Diseases (ICD-10):