Category: Treatments

Your Depression, OCD, Panic Attacks And Bipolar Disorder Can Be Managed

Like everything in life, managing your fears, anxieties, and other phobias takes some work but they can be managed. The more you do it, the better you will become. Here are a few reminders on how you can become better at dealing with your fears, depression, and anxieties.In every anxiety-related situation you experience, begin to learn what works, what doesn’t work, and what you need to improve on in managing your fears and anxieties. For instance, you have a lot of anxiety and you decide to take a walk to help you feel better. The next time you feel anxious you can remind yourself that you got through it the last time by taking a walk. This will give you the confidence to manage your anxiety the next time around.

Challenge your negative thinking with positive statements and realistic thinking. When encountering thoughts that make your fearful or anxious, challenge those thoughts by asking yourself questions that will maintain objectivity and common sense. For example, you are afraid that if you do not get that job promotion then you will be stuck at your job forever. This depresses you, however your thinking in this situation is unrealistic. The fact of the matter is that there all are kinds of jobs available and just because you don’t get this job promotion doesn’t mean that you will never get one. In addition, people change jobs all the time, and you always have that option of going elsewhere if you are unhappy at your present location. Changing your thinking can help you manage your fears.

Sometimes, we may be nervous doing a certain task that may be scary. When this happens, visualize yourself doing the task in your mind. For instance, you and your team have to play in the championship hockey game in front of a large group of people in the next few days. Before the big day comes, imagine yourself playing the game in your mind. Imagine that your playing in front of a large audience. By playing the game in your mind, you will be better prepared to perform for real when the time comes. Self-Visualization is a great way to reduce the fear and stress of a coming situation.

When facing a current or upcoming task that overwhelms you with a lot of anxiety, divide the task into a series of smaller steps and then complete each of the smaller tasks one at a time. Completing these smaller tasks will make the stress more manageable and increases your chances of success.Take advantage of the help that is available around you. If possible, talk to a professional who can help you manage your fears and anxieties. They will be able to provide you with additional advice and insights on how to deal with your current problem.

By talking to a professional, a person will be helping themselves in the long run because they will become better able to deal with their problems in the future. Managing your fears and anxieties takes practice.

The more you practice, the better you will become.

Remember that sometimes our worrying and fears can make the problem even worse. Take things in stride and try not focus too much on the problem.

Patience, persistence, education, and being committed in trying to solve your problem will go along way in fixing your problems. In time, you will find the ways to overcome your phobias.

7 Strengths for 7 Stressors of Today

The modern world today has been the worst all across human history for the stress effects on our daily life. There are many people who are feeling the psychological burden. Lot of us are feeling very tired and withdrawn from everyday routine and daily activities. The constant exposure to media is aggravating the situation towards the downward spiral because of the environmental and social events happening all around us and in the world we live.

Here are some of the top stressors in the current times and how we can overcome them to live a simple yet fulfilling life. Following the tips will mobilize your strengths towards achieving greater resilience and buoyancy in daily life.

1. The world is going through tough times and going to a shallow bottom – there are many horrific events like fires, earthquakes, hurricanes, and flooding. The political environment all around is also not giving any sense of stability either.

To cope up, remember that in all the times of despair and calamity, we see many resources being mobilized by people to care for others whom they do not know or never met. This is the human nature which has made us coexist since so long. The feeling of altruism, sympathy, and empathy are still in all of us fundamentally. Be helpful and provide hope for yourself and others.

2. Are we destroying our planet and making it inhabitable – The population of the world has been growing ad currently it is over populated, due to which we are consuming more and more resources. This causes Earth to suffer due to waste, deterioration of resources, oil reserves, etc.

Well, think that the basic step starts from you. We must do all that we can individually and collectively to make our planet better.

3. Feeling Lonely – We are living in a mobile world where people are moving constantly for school, work, leisure, etc. Therefore, we are often lonely with extended family living at distance, whether hundred miles or thousands of miles. Disintegration of community and relatives is making us get lesser and lesser emotional support.

To cope up with feeling of loneliness, we do need to be with others and feel part of a group. Invite friends over for dinner or extended an invitation to someone for coffee. Be inspired and extend yourself to an activity or an invitation and savor some connection.

4. There is so much anger around us with people upset naturally always. – The frustrations of life comes out in any form at any time with minimal or no provocation at all. Well, you might have heard it million times before, but the coping mechanisms remain same – exercise, meditation, friends and family, vacation time, etc are all the ways to reduce the daily life frustration. Do what you enjoyed once and stopped doing it due to time and its relevance.

5. How can I help or how can I get help – Healthy stepping back from your own world can take you to the longer road of good and destressed life. Keep in mind that grief and loss are part of life. What does loss or grief mean to you? How have you managed your own loss or grief in life? What helped, what didn’t? How can you cultivate them? Time to introspect and help others introspect.

6. Accept that stress is part of life – When stressful situations arise, remind yourself that they are part of life and will come and go. Nothing in this life is permanant – neither does your stress. So take a relaxed approch towards stress in life.

7. Have a realistic outlook about everything in your life. Do not see the world through rose-coloured glasses rather have your own outlook which is realistic. You also need to check the silver lining in the tough circumstances. Stressful circumstances are there to make you become stronger and better.

The Art of Nostalgia

“The Art Of Nostalgia” is a elaborate collection of nine personal essays of Lauren. These essays aim to capture nostalgia’s essence on how does it effects the person and the thought process. The essays bring the reader on a journey as Lauren crafts a timeline of memories that reflect a deep-rooted nostalgia for places, people, and transient phases of life. She, inadvertently, strings together pieces of herself, pieces that shape who she is at her core, daring us to ponder our own stories, our own past that vitally remains within us.

Here is some insight on how to tame the phenomenon that is nostalgia.

The cycle of Nostalgia

Keep in mind that you’ve missed things a thousand times before, and it always becomes easier. It may take weeks, or months, but it always does. Whether it’s a place, a person, or your favorite food that you can no longer eat because you just found out you’re gluten free, it always gets easier.

Be Realistic: The most dangerous part of nostalgia is the tendency to romanticize. When you look back, look back on the past as it actually was. Doing so will prevent you from ranking the past as better than the present.

Look Forward: Avoid excessive planning, but when that new movie tells you how enlightening your twenty-something years are, or how incredible your forties are, listen. Your grandmother is right when she says you have a lot to look forward to. Be excited for, and do not fear, what lies ahead.

Always Live In The Moment – Try to embrace how exciting life can be when you truly live in the moment. Respect the epitomic Cards and try new things everyday.

Balance – Try to find a balance between the past and the present. Keep in touch with old friends, and remember the events that made you the person you are today. Most importantly, always participate in Instagram’s “throwback Thursday.”

The first and probably the most important consideration is the attitude with which we approach our material. Since nostalgia serves no immediate purpose besides providing pleasure it is a fundamentally aesthetic memory experience, which means we should approach our material with the mindset of an artist.

Change Your Thoughts

Can change in Thoughts Brings a change in Attitude?

Is Cognitive restructuring here as a miracle or it is a myth? Let us find what it is and get the solution.

Every thought we have brings a simultaneous neuro-chemical change in the brain out of which few are temporary while some are long lasting. When some people show or express gratitude, they experience an increase of neurotransmitters like dopamine which are often associated with Rewards or being rewarded.

Any thought or information which flows through the brain changes or sculpts the brain in permanent ways. The pattern in the brain is changed by the flowing thoughts across the brain structure and the change in neural activity actually changes your neural structure.

How Negativity in Thoughts Effects Brain functioning?

Negativity flows in the brain in the same fashion and it causes the brain cells to be hit by peptides from negative thoughts. These peptides will then dominate you thought process as well whenever there is any kind of though, whether positive or negative. It further reduces the positive peptides in the cell, inclining you more towards negativity.

There is though good news for all of us that the cells in the brain are replaces every 2 months and they can be reprogrammed to work with good positive cells rather than the same negative thoughts. You need to be more optimistic and start taking positive thinking practices for example – mindfulness and gratitude.

The Ten Commandments for Effective Personal Development

Here are the top picks of the Principles for effective Personal Development. Do not read them in order and follow them from top to bottom with same preference.

  1. You should be loving toward everyone you meet.
  2. Remember, you become what you think and believe. So think positive and be positive.
  3. Express gratitude by looking and doing ways which can strengthen those who have less than you have.
  4. You should always seek knowledge and truth.
  5. Remember honesty is the best policy for your brain training for being positive.
  6. Forgive all.
  7. Do not waste anything whatever you have whether time, money, energy, etc.
  8. Always to thankful to God for all that you have.
  9. Be optimistic.
  10. Believe and have faith in something which is greater than you.

Ketamine for Bipolar Disorder

Ketamine Helps Patients With Bipolar Disorder – All you need to know about Ketamines?

Ketamine is an anesthetic and if it is used in higher doses it can also relieve depression within hours when taken intravenously. According to a research by Morteza Jafarinia and colleagues in the Journal of Affective Disorders, oral ketamine can help in treatment of mild to moderate depression in people with severe pain.

In this study the scientists compared 150mg daily doses of oral ketamine to 150mg daily doses of the anti-inflammatory pain reliever Diclofenac over 6 weeks. The subjects were interviewed after week 3 and week 6 and the ketamine group reported fewer symptoms of depression than the Diclofenac group.

This effect of Ketamine is the result of the blockade of a particular receptor for the neurotransmitter glutamate (the NMDA glutamate receptor). Researchers originally thought that the NMDA blockade was linked to ketamine’s antidepressant effects, but this appears not to be the case.

How Ketamines works?

Ketamine are strange substance and they works in a completely different way from other medicines you have ever taken for depression, bipolar, PTSD, or anxiety. Most of the medicines work by manipulating the quantity of certain neurotransmitters in your brain, which can have miserable side effects. Ketamine works differently since it briefly blocks a certain type of receptor in the brain from being triggered. Ketamine is not a one-time, permanent cure but it has the potential for lasting relief.

In general, a series of multiple injections gives longer, faster and lasting relief than a single infusion, and younger patients tend to get longer relief than older ones. For patients who relapse, getting additional infusions can often restore the relief.

Further use of Ketamines

According to a study, adding two more existing drugs to Ketamines, prolongs the effect of Ketamine which otherwise has very short lived effects. They after the addition effectively reduce symptoms of depression and suicide in patients with bipolar depression.

Stopping Meds Leads To Relapse

Caution for Stopping Psychiatric Medication Abruptly – All you need to know about Relapse

Why people decide to stop taking medicines? Do they know it can cause more harm than benefit?

Well the answer according to the study conducted by Dr. Banov, lies in the thought of people that they might feel better by stopping medicines and thinks they don’t need them anymore. Their family might be pressuring them to stop when they read some nasty feedback or side effect of the medicine.  Many a times, people stop taking medicines when they are experiencing a major change in life like change of job, divorce, changing house, etc. According to psychologists, this is the worst time to stop taking medicines.

There are many other mental health conditions which need the medicines to be taken perpetually. There would be a disaster if they are stopped in between.

Depending on the type of medicine, stopping them suddenly can create many reactions which can range from mild to moderate during early days of discontinuation to even life threatening seizures in some cases in the later phases when the disease relapses with much more severity.

Remember – You should always consult your doctor before stopping any medicine. Do not ever attempt to do it you’re your own thoughts and decision.

Stopping medication is not a quick process

Safe and slow process of drug discontinuation lasts for more than many weeks or months rather than many days. Drugs like antidepressants, takes weeks to show their results; similarly their withdrawal is also spread over several weeks.

Causes and Trigger of Relapses

The environmental cues like people, places, sights and sounds experienced by an addict are among the primary triggers of any kind of relapses which happens to a person.

First we need to understand the triggers. These can be a person, a place, events, or unresolved psychiatric issues, such as depression. While undergoing a treatment for drug addiction, doctors tell the patients to stay away from triggers such as old friends who are still on drugs, stressful situations, etc.

Does relapse to drug abuse mean treatment has failed?

Relapse rates for people with addiction and other substance abuse disorders are similar to rates for other medical illnesses such as diabetes, hypertension, etc. Treatment of these chronic diseases has many changes in behavior and personality. When relapse occurs, it cannot be concluded that the treatment has failed. It just suggests that the treatment needs to be reinstated or adjusted, rather than suggesting the failure of treatment.

Video Games Relieve Depression

Can Video Games Help Relieve the Symptoms of Depression?

According to research and multiple studies conducted across the western world, there is promising results shown in the treatment of depression with a video game interface which fights with underlying cognitive issues associated with depression. They just do not manage the symptoms only.

Different studies on Depression and Video Games

There were many studies conducted on the implications of video games on depression. The first study enrolled older adults diagnosed with late-life depression into a treatment trial where they were randomized to receive either a mobile, tablet-based treatment technology developed by Akili Interactive Labs called Project: EVO or an in-person therapy technique known as problem-solving therapy (PST).

Project: EVO was an app running on tablets or mobile phone and was designed to improve focus and attention at a basic neurological level. The people who were using the app from Project: EVO demonstrated specific cognitive benefits compared to the behavioral therapy, and saw similar improvements in mood and self-reported function.

Joaquin A. Anguera, from University of California, San Francisco (UCSF), who is a researcher in neurology and psychiatry, performed this study and intervention manufactured by Akili Interactive Labs, Boston was used.  The study is funded by National Institute of Mental Health.

As per another research study going on at the University of California, Davis – using video games and brain training applications can help treat depression. The study found that not only can video games potentially treat depression, but when participants are reminded to play games, they are more likely to play more often and increase time playing.

An App, a Video Game, and a Placebo for Depression

A larger trial was conducted with more than 600 participants having mild or moderate depression. These participants assessed the value of different video games in the treatment of depression. One group played Project: EVO, second used an app called iPST, while the third used placebo control who used an app called Health Tips, suggesting health suggestions.

For mild depression, all three groups’ experienced similar improvements, while people who had more than mild depression saw greater improvements with iPST and Project: EVO than with the placebo app.

Video game has nothing to do with mental health, but it can help fixing brain function in people who suffer from this particular flavor of depression.

Receptive Expressive Language Disorder

Receptive-expressive development language disorder

In this disorder the understanding of language is below the level appropriate to the child’s mental age. In almost all cases, expressive language is also disturbed (a fact recognized in DSM-IV by the term receptive-expressive language disorder).

Characteristics of the Receptive-Expressive Language Disorder

The development of receptive language ability varies considerably among normal children. However, failure to respond to familiar names, in the absence of non-verbal cues, by the beginning of the second year of age, or failure to respond to simple instructions by the end of the second year, are significant signs suggesting receptive language disorder – provided that deafness, learning disability, and pervasive developmental disorder have been excluded. Associated social and behavioral problems are particularly frequent in this form of language disorder.

The prevalence depends on the criteria for diagnosis, but a frequency of up to 3% of school-age children has been suggested (American Psychiatric Association 1994a). The prognosis is poor with around 75% continuing throughout childhood. The prognosis is worse when the language disorder is severe, or there is a co-morbid condition, such as conduct disorder.

Treatment of this disorder

Treatment is through special education. The psychiatrist’s role is the same as in expressive language disorder

The Best and the Beauty of Naturopathy

Naturopathy is a combination of different methods of natural healing that are extremely wide-ranging, and a practitioner may become a specialist in one particular area. Although naturopathy can be used to treat the symptoms of an illness it is, fundamentally, a way of life and a means of disease prevention. The management of stress and anxiety is a particular area that is addressed by naturopathy and adopting a healthy, naturopathic lifestyle benefits everybody and can be helpful to those suffering from phobias.

Naturopathy’s principle therapeutic elements

The examination of nutrition and diet including the use of vitamin and mineral supplements. Detoxification – the use of short periods of fasting or controlled diets and supplements to aid the natural processes by which the body rids itself of toxic substances.

Ways and means to control and reduce stress and anxiety including recognising and eliminating the cause whenever possible, relaxation techniques, modification of diet and the use of supplements, particularly to support the adrenal gland.

  1. Hydrotherapy – the use of water to promote healing.
  2. Herbal medicine Homeopathy
  3. Physical therapies such as massage, chiropractic and osteopathy

Counseling and lifestyle modification, which can be of particular value in relieving psychological, behavioral and emotional problems as well as physical ailments. Treatment may include hypnotherapy, relaxation ,techniques, visualization (image) therapy, color, music or dance therapy in addition to other naturopathic methods.

The use of acupuncture and Oriental therapies such as shiatsu, yoga and T’ai Chi Ch’uan

Exercise – the importance of exercise in the promotion of good health, including psychological and emotional wellbeing, and in the treatment of ailments is recognized by naturopaths and forms a part of most therapeutic programs.

A naturopath is interested in the person as a whole and not just in a particular condition or set of symptoms that may be troubling the patient. Hence consulting a naturopath gives a person the chance to discuss every aspect of life with someone who is concerned to offer help.

Differences between behavior therapy and cognitive therapy

The differences between the two approaches can perhaps be best understood by considering an illustration. Behavioral therapy may be able to help an agoraphobic to get used to the feared situation by repeated exposure. However, it is also possible that the agoraphobic could be employing an undisclosed safety or coping strategy on which he is secretly relying. He might in fact have his belief in the effectiveness of this reinforced by exposure alone, that is believing that he can confront the agoraphobic situation better because his safety strategy is working so well.

Also, if panic control measures have been strongly taught as a part of behavioral therapy the patient may subsequently be able to enter the agoraphobic situation only because he now believes that he can avoid catastrophe by employing them. It is then likely that he will not have come to realize that panic symptoms are harmless as this belief is not challenged by control alone. His agoraphobia has been controlled rather than changed and panic control has become a safety or coping strategy in its own right.

Cognitive Therapy facts

In cognitive therapy, panic control would perhaps be viewed as one of several useful measures aimed at changing an agoraphobic’s belief in the harmfulness of panic symptoms. In practice, cognitive therapy experiments, such as those described above, have to incorporate exposure, which is a key element of behavioral therapy.

There is, in fact, a considerable degree of overlap between the two approaches. The behavioral approach to agoraphobia, based on exposure therapy, has been proved to be effective in most cases and has also been shown to bring about cognitive changes. Many experts believe that the effectiveness of purely cognitive treatments has not been established or is inferior to that of behavioral therapy. The same view also tends to be taken with regard to combined therapies which have been tried. However, both behavioral and cognitive approaches have been proved valuable in the treatment of panic disorder.

The fact that a high percentage of agoraphobics are helped by behavioral exposure therapy is especially encouraging when one considers that it is generally only the most severely affected patients who seek treatment. As mentioned above, it is thought that many agoraphobics (no doubt including those who see themselves as being less seriously affected) remain ‘hidden’ within the community and never seek professional help. Hence part of the function of a book such as this should be to stress the importance and effectiveness of treatment compared with suffering the distress of agoraphobia.