health sectionhealth section
Many young adults experience the onset of depression and anxiety while in college. The Anxiety and Depression Association of America, or ADAA, reports that 75 percent of the 40 million adults who have anxiety experienced their first episode before age 22. Thirty-five percent of college students report being depressed sometime in the last three months. As many as 13 percent of college students have been diagnosed with a mental health disorder, most commonly depression or anxiety.
After experiencing a stressful or traumatizing event, a person may develop post-traumatic stress syndrome, usually referred to as post-traumatic stress disorder. Those with PTSD continue to experience the fear, anxiety and stress they felt during their initial trauma, even after the event passes. While medication and psychotherapy help to treat PTSD survivors, scientific evidence has shown that incorporating animal-assisted therapy into treatment can further help those affected manage their condition.
Teenagers' lives are so stressful at times that many may experience anxiety occasionally. Studying for exams, trying out for a sports team or asking someone out on a date are common situations that may make a teen feel anxious. But when anxiety becomes so extreme and prevents your child from functioning normally, it may be a sign of mental illness.
Everyone has time constraints and schedules to keep – including kids. When your child has something to do or complete with a specific deadline, such as getting ready for school to leave the house on time, he may need your help. Stress and anxiety can occur with a child if he feels overwhelmed with too much to do without enough time. Your job involves helping your child accomplish his goals without becoming overly anxious.
What if you're anxious and your doctor tells you to pet a cat, listen to him purr, and if that doesn't help then call the office in the morning? Although doctors aren't in the habit of prescribing "cat therapy," research shows a cat's purr can help people to overcome anxiety.
While determining a dog's approximate age may not be instantly successful, close inspections usually yield telling hints that can assist in forming educated guesses. Aging dogs appear differently than younger ones in various ways, including fur texture, coloration and weight. Do not hesitate to take your dog to the veterinarian to ensure his changes are normal, however.
Stopping an obsession with a celebrity requires you to examine why you're obsessed in the first place. Learn how to stop being obsessed with a celebrity with help from an educational consultant in this free video clip.
Anticipating the start of school is exciting for kindergarten students. However, when the day finally arrives, some children might be hesitant to separate from their parents. Crying, tightly clasping mom or dad and throwing tantrums are behaviors that indicate separation anxiety. To ease kindergartners' stress from being away from their parents during the school day, teachers can create crafts and activities that are fun and distracting, eventually leading to a peaceful separation.
The cure for interview anxiety includes a blend of preparation, research and confidence. The best preparation takes time, so if your interview is right around the corner, do as much research as possible and learn all you can about the organization -- inside and out. Confidence, combined with adequate preparation, can enable you to shine during your interview.
Starting a new job is both exciting and nerve-wracking. New employees often face high levels of anxiety before starting work, mainly due to a fear of the unknown. Relieving this anxiety is critical, because if left untreated it may affect job performance. Most new job anxiety is due to unfounded fears and thoughts. Successfully relieving these feelings includes using a variety of techniques to induce calmness.
Military children often have to mature beyond their years as they cope with constant changing environments, dealing with the unexpected and facing such issues as mortality before they are ready. The military lifestyle brings about stressors that the ordinary child just doesn't have to deal with. For children living on military bases, sometimes it is easier to cope, surrounded by those who are dealing with the same circumstances. The majority of military children, however, live in civilian communities that do not offer such advantages.
A chihuahua is often the baby of the family, spending time in his owner's lap, sleeping alongside humans in the bed and enjoying treats for his spinning and dancing tricks. When your chihuahua starts acting strange, or as if he is having an anxiety attack, your best response is to take him to the vet. The vet will address the possible causes of your pet's attack.
Obsessing about food and weight can be a symptom of underlying emotional or physical health issues. The first step must always be to seek professional medical advice before embarking on any kind of self-help program or diet. The following techniques may help to modify your eating habits and assist in weight control, but should be discussed with your health-care provider.
Many people have those moments when unrelenting negative thoughts enter the mind. Sometimes those thoughts refuse to leave, forcing you to rehearse those thoughts. This pattern may leave you stressed and in a bad mood. Negative thoughts may also contribute to the development of anxiety and depression, according to Spring Harbor Hospital, a hospital specializing in mental health. Fortunately, you can diminish negative thoughts by rehearsing a few techniques and exercises.
Fear of public speaking, or speech anxiety, is actually a "fight or flight" response that our body develops in response to perceived danger. It is a feeling that very few people, no matter now seasoned they are at giving speeches in public, are able to overcome completely. In fact, being anxious before having to give a speech could actually help you prepare for it.
Female bullies are just as cruel as male bullies, and dealing with them is often more difficult without a plan in place. Each situation is different, but each can typically be handled in a similar way. Changes aren't going to happen overnight, but standing your ground and staying strong can help you get through it. Don't handle the problem on your own -- dealing with the bullies involves action on your part as well as help from others.
Everyone occasionally feels worn out and overwhelmed by life and all that it entails. If you find yourself lying in bed awake at night with racing thoughts and feelings of intense panic, you may benefit by taking some time out of your day to calm your mind and manage your stress. Work on your personal well-being and health by gaining a sense of inner calm and relaxation.
There are many approaches to achieving relaxation. Dozens of books and recordings are available offering a variety of techniques of varying complexity. There are, however, some basic techniques common to many of these approaches. Choosing a conducive environment, deep breathing and conscious muscle relaxation are among the most frequently recommended. Through consistent practice, these basic methods will help to achieve complete relaxation and help to improve overall health. According to the Mayo Clinic website, some of the benefits of relaxation include lowered blood pressure, better concentration and improved emotional control.
No one wants stress in a relationship, but it often seems impossible to avoid. Jobs may be time-consuming, money may be tight and children can be demanding, and what suffers is your relationship with your partner. A certain amount of stress is normal, but overwhelming stress is unhealthy. Stress within a relationship that interferes with your life needs to be addressed. Working with your partner is the best way to go about it.
It is normal to feel emotionally distressed every now and then, so knowing how to cope in a healthy way is important. Too much stress can be mentally and physically harmful. Fortunately, there are simple things that you can do to relieve emotional stress and anxiety right in your own home. Drinking tea, meditating and breathing exercises can quickly and effectively reduce stress.
An individual who is a severe "pack rat" can usually be classified as a hoarder. Hoarding is the practice of obsessively collecting and storing items that are often considered junk by outside observers. Many experts believe that hoarding is a mental illness that occurs when the prefrontal cortex, the part of the brain that processes information and organization, is damaged.
Tingling of the pointer -- index finger -- and thumb are symptoms of two common conditions known as peripheral neuropathy and carpal tunnel syndrome. Knowing the causes of the symptoms helps you decide on appropriate treatment, whether it is a lifestyle change, prescription medicine or surgery. Early diagnosis is key in reducing the problems associated with these problems.
Selective mutism is a rare condition that occurs in children, usually before the age of five. In selective mutism, children will speak to parents, siblings or other trusted family members, however they will not communicate verbally in certain other situations, such as ordering food at a restaurant. The systematic desensitization technique allows the child to slowly become more comfortable ordering food by using explicit steps. The child will need to relearn how to associate calming feelings with anxiety producing situation.
Hobbies are an activity that can take us out of the doldrums of daily life. Whether it is golf, home decorating or knitting, hobbies are something to do outside of work and obligations. If you are experiencing a loss of interest in hobbies, there can be something going on. One symptom of depression is a lack of interest in hobbies and daily activities. It may be that it is time to learn something new or get yourself excited again.
The average person spends two hours a night dreaming, according to the National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke. Dreams occur during REM sleep, which is unique to mammals and birds. Researchers believe that dreams are the way a brain makes sense of random information it gets during the day and during REM sleep. This means that things occurring during the day can have an impact on dreams.
Existential counseling, developed by Viktor Frankl, focuses on the meaning of life and a person's reason for existence. It allows a person to explore questions such as "Why am I here" or "What is my purpose in life?" Also known as meaning therapy, existential counseling can help a person look at the bigger picture of life and take responsibility for their own happiness and present life.
A mental collapse, more commonly referred to as a nervous breakdown, occurs when stress levels are so high that your body is unable to cope with them. You become emotionally and physically unable to function on a daily basis. Because you are unable to fulfill obligations, your personal and professional life suffers. The signs associated with a mental collapse differ per person, but recognizing them may help you seek treatment faster.
People act like control freaks to avoid the unpleasant feelings associated with giving up control. If you behave this way and want to be less of a control freak, you must learn to tolerate the unpleasant feelings. Learning how to change the thoughts that lead to these unpleasant feelings and drive the controlling behaviors will help reduce your need for control. Learning how to tolerate the distress caused by not being in control can be helpful as well. At first, giving up control feels uncomfortable for people who have tried to remain in control of everything for a long time,…
Withdrawal, which occurs when a person discontinues the use of an addictive substance, is rarely pleasant. The nature of a withdrawal is connected to the substance the person is withdrawing from. There are seven recognized substances, which when the dependent person stops taking them abruptly will cause withdrawal: alcohol, opioids, marijuana, benzodiazipines, cocaine, caffeine and nicotine. Patience and understanding is needed to help a person dealing with withdrawal, regardless of the dependency.
Several television series devoted to the subject of hoarding have revealed a seldom-publicized problem in which people fill their homes with objects that are useless, unhealthy and even dangerous. The condition may affect as many as 2 million people in the United States. Hoarders may be people who compulsively buy or acquire items, or those who simply never throw anything away. Some hoarders collect animals, although they have little ability to care for the health of their pets.
Developing a literacy in health issues is valuable for a number of different reasons. First, it is very beneficial to understand basic diseases and health news in the event that you, a family member or a friend is diagnosed with a disease. Second, it is helpful to understand the options and treatments available to you as a patient. The days of blind acceptance are long gone and it has never been easier to be a health literate consumer.
Almost everyone experiences some type of unwanted criticism from time to time. Sometimes it can really hurt and do damage to your ego, especially when the criticism comes from someone you like or respect. Fortunately, there are multiple methods for dealing with a bruised ego that can create simultaneous personal growth as well.
The term "neurosis" is out of fashion in formal psychiatry. It was removed from the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders in 1980 and is now more of a colloquialism for quirky, anxiety-inspired behavior. Though, behaviors may go by different names, unusual behaviors result from high anxiety. They are not behaviors of a person who is psychotic (detached from reality.)
Exposure therapies and systematic desensitization are behavior therapy techniques used to expose anxiety sufferers to their fears in order to overcome them. Exposure therapy is technically the broader term which includes specific treatments such as systematic desensitization. In every day usage, however, exposure therapy refers to the techniques called in vivo desensitization and flooding --- where the patient is brought to the feared object or situation and practices relaxation techniques to combat anxiety, according to Theory and Practice of Counseling and Psychotherapy.
Flashbacks are a vivid and often violent recollection and reliving of traumatic events that reoccur in the mind of the victim. They are often triggered by certain stimuli such as a loud noise or a certain smell but they can also happen randomly, leaving the victim often feeling helpless due to the panic and anxiety the flashbacks cause. Flashbacks are a common problem for soldiers who have been through war experiences. Controlling these flashbacks requires diligence, patience and proper treatment.
Consider the following two excerpts, "She thought about this time last month," and "Do not talk to strangers; you would get into trouble." In the first excerpt, the author provides the readers with hints of what happened before, and in the second, the author provides hints of something that is about to happen. These components guide the readers' analysis of the story and to provide a better understanding of its meaning are called literary devices. The former excerpt is an example of flashback, and the latter is an example of foreshadowing.
Irrational beliefs can be detrimental to achieving a goal or living a stable lifestyle. Beliefs that don't hold any truth or don't contain any logical sense to them can keep you from overcoming emotional blocks and can influence the way you view people, places and things on a large scale. Depending on the severity of the belief, people can view you as insane. Fortunately, the first step in treating an irrational belief is identifying and becoming aware that you have it.
Cognitive therapy revolves around the idea that people are emotionally driven by irrational convictions about what should and should not be. Convictions are irrational when there is no objective evidence supporting them. They tend to be inflexible, extreme and negative, and they trigger disproportionate emotional responses in the people who hold them. Cognitive therapy, specifically rational emotive behavior therapy, nullifies these irrational convictions and replaces them with more moderate, rational beliefs about what is expected of us and what we can expect from other people.
Sexual abuse is a very real concern for all societies. Often viewed as a taboo topic, quantifying how common it is can be difficult because a lot of abuse cases are never reported. Being the victim of sexual abuse is traumatizing at any age, but the effects of abuse on children and teens can cause lifelong problems. Reporting the problem immediately and working with a licensed therapist often helps teens deal with these problems.
Hoarding manifests in many forms, from keeping trash and junk to even hoarding animals. People who hoard animals keep a large number of cats, dogs or other animals in a small home or environment, and often fail to provide basic care, food, water or clean living spaces. Animal hoarding can also be considered a form of animal cruelty. Signs of animal hoarding are visible as malnutrition, medical conditions that have been left untreated and diseases in the eyes and teeth. Steps can be taken, however, to prevent animal hoarding and neglect.
Bullying is a problem for both children and adults. The American Medical Association recently reported that more than 3.2 million students are victims of bullying each year, and a 2010 Workplace Bullying Institute study revealed that 8.8 percent of working adults felt they were currently being bullied. Mob bullying is a particularly dangerous form of bullying that involves a group of people ganging up on one individual. In a mob, there are often only a few people doing the actual bullying and a number of people who are bystanders.
Millions of people across the world obsess about calorie content, fat content and weight gain. They obsess about every bit of food that goes into their mouth and worry if particular foods will make them put on weight. However, this is not healthy and can result in the development of eating disorders, a common problem across the United States. According to Mirasol Eating Disorder Treatment Center, the South Carolina Department of Mental Health estimates that 8 million Americans (7 million women and 1 million men) have an eating disorder. This is why you need to stop obsessing over food and…
Automatic negative thoughts also known as ANTs, will affect nearly every aspect of your life making even the simplest tasks or events frustrating and difficult to handle. Automatic negative thoughts typically stem from negative experiences in the past and are associated with anxiety and panic disorders. These negative thoughts come on suddenly, hence the title automatic, without any seen trigger and are almost impossible to prevent. The only thing you can do is to learn how to cope with these thoughts when they arise.
People with auditory disabilities have a number of tools available to help them adjust and live normal lives. Like their hearing counterparts, the hearing impaired enjoy watching television programs, communicating with friends and attending classes. Hearing aids, interpreters and surgery can improve the quality of life or provide a cure for those who have incurred such loss.
Animal hoarding is a complex mental health condition that endangers humans and pets alike. Animal hoarders think they are helping animals, unaware that they are hurting both themselves and the animals, and unaware that they are doing anything wrong. Often, a hoarder's home will be so unhealthy and unsafe that professionals need to intervene. Seeking help for animal hoarding is the first step in accepting that there is a problem.
Increasing diversity in communities has led to a greater awareness of the need for muliticultural sensitivity and communication skills, particularly in the counseling and mental health fields. A number of cultural assessment tools have been created to help counseling professionals assess and improve cultural sensitivity when working with clients from diverse backgrounds. These include self-assessments, multicultural skills inventories, and simulated sessions with culturally diverse clients.
Floating is the practice of reassigning nurses from their assigned areas and placing them elsewhere. They could be needed because the other unit is short-staffed or because hospital policy may require that nurses be familiar with all units. Though floating nurses does have some advantages, it also has several disadvantages that could affect both patients' health and nurses' health as well.
The word "bullying" conjures up images of the big kid pushing around the little kid on the playground and taking his lunch. Unfortunately, adults bully too. Although adult bullying also may be physical, it often appears in the more insidious form of emotional bullying. An emotional bully psychologically attacks you through actions including threatening, mocking, embarrassing and ignoring you. There are multiple steps that you can take to disarm an adult emotional bully.
You may have noticed that as you experience different situations in life, your diet is often affected. These situations can be day by day. For example, you may have just eaten dinner when your friends call and ask you to go out to a restaurant with them. They can also be repetitive situations which can lead to health problems.
Food plays an important role in the way we feel mentally and physically. A poor diet of junk food and takeouts can wreak havoc on your skin, lead to weight gain and leave you feeling tired and sluggish. Introducing healthier foods with key ingredients is the easiest and quickest way to feel happier, more positive and stave off depression.
