In days gone by, mental ‘disturbances' were considered something you should ‘snap out of' - a mere emotional phase that you should grow out of, like adolescence. Decades later and mental illness is an actual, recorded disease, warranting much-needed medical intervention. Well, yes, but how do we know we actually have it - especially in those crucial, early stages?
Early diagnosis of Alzheimer's would be critical in order to stop and reverse cell death before it is too late. As we all know, once brains cells are dead there is no way to revive them. But, if you catch Alzheimer's Disease early enough you could slow it down and even reinvigorate the cells.
What we have always needed is a ‘Dr. Bones'-type machine from Star Trek that doctors can run down our apparently healthy bodies to pick up those tell-tale early signs.
Posted by: Uticopa in Untagged on
Dec 14, 2009
Christmas is almost upon us. We are bombarded on all sides by lures and enticing goods on display, coupled with increasing demands for more, more, and more from our families. But, this is not the time to be weak. Some people, particularly men, will resort to things like gambling to feed their craving for money. Others, particularly women, will treat shopping as an addiction rather than a necessity.
Let's start with gambling. How to treat it?
Some new research says that the same drugs used to treat substance addictions could prove effective in treating pathological gambling. They tested medications designed to decrease urges and increase inhibitions in two groups of male and female pathological gamblers: those driven by urge (those who gamble when the desire becomes too strong to control) and those who don't have normal inhibitions of impulsive behaviour (they're unable to control the desire to gamble even when the urges are minimal or nonexistent).
Posted by: Uticopa in Untagged on
Dec 13, 2009
If you can't afford all the things your family wants, you just need to be strong and tell them enough's enough.
As far as your mental health is concerned, being stressed can actually be good for you, but you've got to find the right balance. There's no point in spending more and more in an effort to please everyone and end up making yourself too ill to enjoy it.
There are good and bad types of stress. The bad kind is chronic and uncontrollable, like the tension caused by an unhappy marriage or a sick relative. But there are a lot of positives associated with short bursts of stress, especially now with that big build up to Xmas. The reason? Stress jolts you into repair mode. When you injure yourself, your body goes into alert mode and starts to repair itself - healing your injury and revving up your immune system to protect against infection. Short-term stress works the same way. Initially, it produces free radicals and hormones such as cortisol that wreak havoc on your tissues. But then, when your body senses the damage, it begins to repair itself. If the stress is short-lived, you can heal quickly and still have enough energy left over to heal everyday wear and tear, like a scratch or a bruise.
It's now official. Mentally-scarred veterans are being medically discharged from the British army with...wait for it....a golden handshake of £3000! Is that all they're worth? Soldiers whose lives have been shattered by the traumas of fighting in Afghanistan and Iraq are being paid as little as £3000 as compensation for all they've suffered after their medical discharge.
What price bravery? What price to sacrifice your own mental health in pursuit of fighting for your country?
Of course, none of this is ever mentioned in those exciting ads inviting you to apply for a career in the British forces. The ads are full of enticing scenes of far-away exotic locations, team-work with your mates, and you get paid too. What a wonderful job! However, there isn't even any small-print to warn you against the worst thing of all. You might just lose your life in pursuit of this new ‘wonderful' job, and at the very least return home injured and battle-scarred. What? I hear you say. A small price to pay for all that this career offers you?
When random surveys are taken of what worries people the most, the issue that keeps rising to the top of the pile is hooliganism and knife-wielding young people. When you look at police case-studies of the perpetrators of such youth crime, the same family scenario constantly surfaces: neglect, a missing parent or two, a family background lacking in essential ‘tough love' guidelines etc. etc. All of these things, if left unaddressed, can leave children with burgeoning mental health issues that could have been avoided.
Foster parents, who know only too-well about dealing with childhood disruption, often say that they wish mental health services were available to all. It's ironic that they have better access to such services than is available to most parents. It seems that if you're in the system, it's easier to get help, whereas parents are often out there on their own. Foster parents can qualify for remedial services in the home, which involves home visitations from mental health professionals. And, of course, the professional sees a better picture of the family situation.
Many foster parents will cite children who have come to them "wounded". They say that counsellors they have worked with have been very good, but there are just not many people who specialize in children. You can't treat a child as an adult.
Posted by: Uticopa in pets and mental health on
Nov 09, 2009
It's proven! Mental health therapists have discovered that animal-assisted therapy (AAT) increases social interaction and decreases aggression in people with mental disorders. So much so, that sufferers who interact with animals on a regular basis often no longer need medication at all. It's those patients with poor communication skills who are most likely to benefit from participating in AAT programmes, since they find it easier to communicate with others in the presence of animals.
For those who are still not convinced, below are some of the known benefits of having a pet:
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Pets can help ease loneliness or isolation. They give us a reason to get up in the morning. They accept us for who we are and don't judge us.
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Physical contact is important to our mental health. Stroking and cuddling with a pet is very therapeutic.
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Animals improve our mood with their companionship. A pet can provide a reason for living.
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Pet owners are more active. The exercise we get from walking, feeding and grooming a pet keeps our minds healthy. We're also likely to laugh and feel more playful when we share our home with a pet.
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Routine is beneficial in enhancing emotional stability. Caring for a pet provides a predictable routine and link to reality.
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Having a pet improves attention and decreases aggression, anger, stress and anxiety.
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Pets can help us relax and forget about our problems for awhile. Gazing at fish in an aquarium is soothing.
For sufferers with more serious disabilities, there are specially-trained psychiatric service dogs, which are usually identified with a cape, tag or harness. These dogs perform specific tasks that mitigate the negative effects of a person's mental illness. For example, a psychiatric service dog might bring patients their medication or lead them to a safe place when they are having a panic attack.
What's the main difference between Western societies and those from the East? Many might cite such things as skin colour, dress codes, dietary habits etc. However, there is something much more important which those of us born and brought up in the West should take heed of - especially if we want to avoid the stress of mental disorders. It is how we, as a society, deal with each other.
Western societies are generally termed ‘individualistic', which means they encourage people to be independent from one another. Promoting self expression and the pursuit of individuality over group goals are paramount in such societies. It's what our schools teach us in order to promote personal growth and achievement. However, the underside of all this is that such styles of living are also much more likely to promote tendencies towards depression than for people from Eastern cultures, whatever the genetic factors each individual may possess.
Research supports the idea that depression can result from both genes and the environment, and an interaction of the two. In Western populations, people who carry the short version of the serotonin transporter gene (STG) tend to suffer major depressive episodes when they experience a number of life stressors.
Childhood memories: sibling bonds run deep and the trauma of losing a loved one can last a lifetime.
I lost my brother last year, aged 61. He had been diagnosed with terminal myeloma - a devastating cancer of the bone marrow - but by the time I discovered his illness, he was already in a coma. I was therefore denied the spiritual healing of a final conversation with him. Many bizarre symptoms have followed this event. Even though I now live in another country, far away from where my brother spent his whole life, I have recently ‘seen' my brother walking past the car as I drove along. The build was the same, the clothes similar - he was even carrying the unusual multi-striped golfing umbrella he always used - and his ‘eyes' red-rimmed. It is truly chilling when such an experience happens. The brain is an amazing organ.
Losing a close member of the family, particularly when they are still relatively young, is very difficult to deal with. In my case, there was a long-running family saga which meant that my brother and I had lost touch for many years.
Don't take no for an answer. It's vital. Older people can boost their brain activity by performing simple online searches, according to a study that suggests the web could be used in the fight against mental decline.
Researchers in California have discovered that internet searches are more effective than reading at improving brain function. It seems that ‘Googling' is particularly beneficial because it involves a number of simultaneous mental processes, including memory - of the original search term - and the comprehension and analysis of the results. The researchers say that searching online is a simple form of brain exercise that can be employed to enhance cognition in older adults. As part of the study, 24 people between the ages of 55 and 78 were asked to carry out a series of online searches while having the flow of blood around their brains monitored by a functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) scanner. They underwent the same test a fortnight later, having followed a regime of online searching at home.
The results showed that the function improvements detected in the initial scans - in the parts of the brain controlling language, reading, memory and vision - had definitely moved to other areas of the brain responsible for memory and decision making.
In her prime, Dorothy Johnson was quite a woman. Not only was she an international bridge player, an active social organiser, she was entrepreneurial in the way she thought.
But, what happens when someone like this, who was known for her intelligence, suddenly develops dementia? Is there something of that original sharpness of mind that can somehow overcome the crisis of the mind?
When, at 59, Dorothy started to show symptoms of dementia and simultaneously to provide illuminating chinks of information about what was happening to her, her daughter Penny watched and listened attentively. She remembers the day Dorothy, feeling agitated, stood in her kitchen brandishing a milk bottle and asking where the fridge was. "I wouldn't be asking if I didn't need the information," Dorothy explained.
