Changing an addictive habit usually means coping with sometimes relentless urges. Urges often dominate thinking and interfere with the daily routine. Many people give up because they believe they can't function without their habit.
Remember that urges, in and of themselves, are normal. We all experience craving in varying degrees every day. Because your habit has been important to you for a long time, it is unreasonable to expect urges to vanish completely. If they do, don't be surprised if they occur a month or two down the road.
The "three Ds" can be helpful in coping with urges and craving, whether these urges are related to alcohol or drug use, overeating, tobacco use or any habit you are attempting to change. The Ds stand for:
Online Support for People with Illness
The Internet is a medium of choice for millions of people who need health-related information. Medical websites have multiplied exponentially over the past several years. Thousands of virtual support groups have sprung up for those suffering from particular illnesses. Whether formatted as chat rooms, as newsgroups, or in other ways, they offer patients and families the chance to share their hopes, fears, and knowledge with others experiencing life as they are. These online groups can counter isolation and serve as bastions of understanding, deep concern, and even affection.
Unfortunately, cyberspace resources are sometimes deliberately misused by people intent on deceiving others. False product claims in spam are perhaps the best-known example. But even in the relative intimacy of health support groups, individuals may choose to mislead others by pretending to have illnesses they do not. They divert the attention of the group toward their feigned battles with cancer, multiple sclerosis, anorexia nervosa, or other ailments. The eventual discovery of the deceptions can be devastating. One group member called it "emotional rape" to have cared so deeply about a person who lied to her and others from his first post on.
Munchausen by Internet
For decades, physicians have known about so-called factitious disorder, better known in its severe form as Munchausen syndrome...
Phobias are on the increase, but there’s no reason to suffer in silence if you’re plagued by an irrational fear.
Fear's not all bad. In fact, it helps keep us alive. It warns us to steer clear of dangerous situations and is a natural response to immediate threats. But sometimes fear can get out of control and start to govern our lives. At this point, fear becomes phobia.
A phobia – the word derives from the Greek word for ‘fear' – is a fear completely out of proportion to the perceived threat behind it. ‘Fear is a natural emotion which is usually exhibited in response to a dangerous situation, but a phobia is an irrational fear of any object or situation,' says Nicky Lidbetter, senior manager at the National Phobics Society. ‘Sufferers realise that the fear they experience is irrational, but are often unable to control it.'
When fear takes over
Many of us may not like spiders much, or feel scared during thunderstorms, but what distinguishes a phobia from an ordinary fear or dislike is the effect in can have on the affected individual's everyday life.
Fear becomes a phobia when sufferers...
Feeling tired all the time is such a common complaint that it’s even got its own acronym: TATT, but its causes and treatment vary.
When you've got a lot on your plate, you're bound to feel tired sometimes, but when tiredness is ever-present or starts to interfere with normal living, it needs to be investigated properly. First, you need to rule out a physical cause with the help of your GP. The commonest ones are anaemia, thyroid problems, glandular fever and diabetes, and most doctors will take blood and urine tests to check for these.
However, it's estimated that comparatively few cases of TATT actually have a physical cause. It's more likely to be down to stress, depression, boredom, poor sleep habits or simply being very busy. Getting the right amount of exercise and relaxation, eating the right food at the right times and having the necessary amount of sleep can all help you to get your energy back.
Dr Joe Fitzgibbon is the author of Feeling Tired All the Time (Gill and Macmillan, £7.99). He estimates that out of 100 cases of TATT, only five or so will have a physical cause such as anaemia. Up to 70 per cent will be caused by depression, but for the remaining 25 per cent, other avenues must be explored.
‘Not all tiredness is depression,' he explains. ‘There are some...
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The idea that anyone needs to learn how to relax may seem strange – isn’t it just what you do at the end of the day in front of the TV or over a meal with friends?
For some people this may be the case, but most of us know that it's not always that easy to switch off: anxiety and stress won't always go away just because we want them to. Even though you may appear to be relaxing, your brain may still be churning over, trying to reconcile the pressures and concerns that arise from having too much to do, trying to meet the needs of family and friends, of work or home responsibilities and so on. When this continues for any length of time, not only does it affect your mental wellbeing, it also can have consequences in terms of physical ill effects: muscular aches and pains, headache, indigestion and increased susceptibility to infection, for example.
The effects of stress
When you are feeling threatened or anxious, your body reacts as if you were facing a real physical threat, such as an attack by an aggressive enemy or a wild animal. In such a situation, you can either run away or fight back and evolution has conditioned your body to make physical changes to ensure that you can do either with maximum efficiency. These changes are what are meant by the ‘fight or flight' response: all bodily functions not crucial to immediate survival, such as digestion, are slowed and maximum energy resources are allocated to the muscles, and your heart and breathing rates increase. In prehistoric times, once the crisis was over – that is, once you had defeated or escaped the immediate threat – all these functions would return to normal. Unfortunately, when the stress is the result of psychological rather than physical stress, the changes...
We all worry from time to time, but when it starts to affect your enjoyment of life, it’s time to take action.
‘Worry is characterised by the question “What if...?”, says Dr Gillian Butler, clinical psychologist at Oxford''s Warneford Hospital. ‘It is about the risk or threat of something bad happening in the future and whether you could cope if it did. It can also be rather vague. Just a sense that something might go wrong, and not being sure what to do to prevent it.'
So what causes some people to be worriers? ‘Worry is a perfectly normal human reaction,' says psychiatrist Professor Brice Pitt. ‘Some people are born worriers and to a certain extent once a worrier always a worrier. It may be genetic'. Dr Butler believes experiences in early life may also be a factor. ‘People who worry a lot have been shown to find uncertainty especially hard to tolerate. There is also evidence to suggest that as children many adult worriers were genuinely in situations that threatened to overwhelm their abilities to cope at the time – for example looking after an alcoholic parent, being left in charge of young siblings, sick parents, lack of protection, that kind of thing. It's no wonder they learned to worry: to think ahead about what might go wrong, and about how they might deal with it, with an anxious sort of feeling that they might not be able to do so.'
Some experts attribute temperamental characteristics such...
As the days draw in and the temperatures plummet, resist the urge to hibernate under the duvet by helping yourself to better health.
When it's warm and sunny and the days are long, it's great to be outside, to exercise and enjoy lots of antioxidant-rich fruits and salads. Come October, the rocket leaves are left on the shelves while we fill our baskets with hearty, stodgy foods. But ironically, our bodies have a much greater need for immune system-boosting foods in the winter months to help us fight off viruses.
Soul food
Foods your soul will thank you for include lean meat, cheese and eggs - all rich in tryptophans; chemicals that the body can convert into serotonin, the happy hormone that boosts your mood. Combine them with complex carbohydrates such as oats and whole grains to aid absorption of tryptophans and benefit from a slow release of energy. Simple carbs like white bread will send you soaring on a sugar high followed by a dramatic drop in blood glucose. The answer? Ditch the white bread muffins and start your day with a bowl of comforting porridge instead. A good way to end it would be with a supper of omega 3-rich salmon or mackerel, as several studies have linked high intake of omega 3 fats with lower rates of depression.
You are walking through the woods, and you see a coiled shape lying across your path. Instantly -- before you even think "A snake!" -- your brain begins to respond fearfully to the danger. Fear is an ancient emotion involved in a number of mental disorders, says neuroscientist and NIMH grantee Dr. Joseph LeDoux of New York University. His research and that of fellow scientists, reported at the 24th annual Mathilde Solowey Award Lecture in the Neurosciences at NIH on May 8, has shown that the fear response has been tightly conserved in evolution, and probably follows much the same pattern in humans and other vertebrates.
Dr. Joseph LeDoux
According to LeDoux, he and others are making progress in tracing the brain circuitry underlying the fear response. Research attention is now focused on the amygdala, a small almond-shaped structure deep inside the brain. A portion of the amygdala known as the lateral nucleus appears to play a key role in fear conditioning, an experimental procedure in which an animal (rats were used in most of these experiments) is taught to fear a harmless stimulus such as a sound tone. The conditioning is accomplished by pairing the tone with a mild electrical shock to the animal's foot. After a few times, the animal comes to exhibit...
It can get to be a habit – and one you are better off without.
A really strong cup of coffee or a can of cola can wake you up and make you feel as if your brain is firing on all cylinders and there is no doubt that the effect is real. The reason is that both drinks - and, to a lesser extent, tea and hot chocolate – contain caffeine (trimethylxanthine). In medical terms, this substance is known to be a cardiac (heart) stimulant and a mild diuretic, which means it encourages the body to excrete urine. Coffee made from ground beans has the highest caffeine content (instant has less), followed by cola, hot chocolate and tea.
Caffeine has its effects because the molecules lock on to receptors in the brain which would otherwise be used by a natural chemical called adenosine. Normally, this makes you feel sleepy and causes the blood vessels to dilate. By blocking the action of adenosine, caffeine makes the blood vessels constrict and promotes the release of adrenaline, the ‘fight or flight hormone, so you feel mildly excited, your muscles tense and your heartbeat quickens. Your body releases dopamine, so your mood is enhanced. Six hours after a dose of caffeine, half of it still remains in your system, so you may find it hard to sleep properly. If you regularly consume a lot of caffeine, your system gets a taste for it and stages a protest if suddenly deprived of its regular ‘fix'. You may feel tired and even a little depressed, but the most common symptom of caffeine withdrawal is a headache as the blood vessels in your brain dilate once more.
Giving up
It's up to you whether you decide to taper off your consumption...
Changes in emergency mental health intervention in Bedford are yielding good results, judging from the first three months of a new system, organizers say.
The success of the transition in Bedford has implications for Lynchburg as well. Central Virginia Community Services, which took over emergency mental health at Bedford Community Hospital this summer, likely will take on the same role in Lynchburg in January...
CPA: Antidepressant Use and Hormone Replacement Therapy Have Inverse Relationship Among Postmenopausal Women
By Louise Gagnon
MONTREAL, QC -- October 20, 2004 - There is an inverse relationship between the prescription of antidepressants and the prescription of hormone replacement therapy (HRT) amongst women of menopausal age in Ontario, according to study findings.
In light of the negative publicity resulting from the outcome of the Women's Health Initiative that found detrimental effects of HRT, researchers investigated the effect that the negative publicity had on prescribing practices. Study investigator Roger McIntyre, MD, assistant professor of psychiatry at the University of Toronto, and head of the Mood Disorders Clinic at the Centre for Addiction and Mental Health in Toronto, Ontario, Canada, presented the findings here at the Annual Scientific Meeting of the Canadian Psychiatric Association.
"We found that there was an abrupt decrease...
(Health Behavior News Service) -- New Yorkers' use of mental health services rose only slightly during the year after the September 11, 2001, World Trade Center attacks compared with the year before the attacks, a recent study suggests. But the number of mental health visits among people already receiving treatment increased after the attacks.
The study is one of the few to look at long-term use of community mental health services within a population after a major catastrophic event, say Joseph A. Boscarino, Ph.D., M.P.H., and colleagues at the New York Academy of Medicine and Florida State University. Their findings appear in the journal General Hospital Psychiatry.
"Following the World Trade Center attacks, mental health service providers geared up to provide mental health services for thousands of New Yorkers potentially affected by this event," Boscarino says. "This major increase in utilization, however, never...
A national health report released Monday shows that progress in the nation's overall healthiness is slowing dramatically and even declining in some areas -- a trend that's reflected locally.
Increases in obesity, the number of uninsured individuals and child poverty slowed progress across the nation, according to the report.
Ohio and Kentucky ranked 26th and 39th, respectively, in overall healthiness -- the same positions they held last year.
While both states held their ground in the rankings, the report also shows obesity, smoking and other problems continue to plague Ohio and Kentucky.
The report, "America's Health: State Health Rankings," is produced annually by several nonprofit health organizations and rates the 50 states on 18 measurements. They include personal risk factors such as smoking and obesity; environmental risk factors such as child poverty, crime and disease; public health policies such as spending per person; and outcomes such as cancer deaths and mortality rates.
Both Ohio and Kentucky contributed to the national obesity epidemic, ranking among the top...
MENTALLY ill patients were forced to sleep on the floor or kept in seclusion for days because of NSW's chronically under-resourced mental health system, a forum was told today.
Unions, health professionals and frontline workers launched a campaign for better care of the mentally ill at NSW Parliament House.
The Mental Health Workers Alliance (MHWA) is a joint initiative of the NSW Police Association, the NSW Nurses Association, the Australia Salaried Medical Officers Federation, the Health Services Union and the Australian Services Union.
Toby Raeburn, nursing unit manager at the Matthew Talbot Hostel for homeless men in inner Sydney, said mental health care was a basic human right, but it was not available to all.
"The mental health system is going downhill for sure," Mr Raeburn said
Heartburn Drugs Linked To Pneumonia
October 27, 2004
CHICAGO (AP) -- Widely used heartburn and ulcer drugs such as Nexium, Pepcid and Prilosec can make people more susceptible to pneumonia, probably because they reduce germ-killing stomach acid, Dutch researchers found in a study of more than 300,000 patients.
The highest risks occurred with more powerful acid-fighting drugs called proton pump inhibitors, which are sold in the United States under such brand names as Nexium, Prevacid and Prilosec. Over nearly three years, users of these drugs faced almost double the risk of developing pneumonia compared with former users.
Users of another class of acid-fighting drugs that includes cimetidine and famotidine -- sold in the United States as Tagamet and Pepcid -- also faced an elevated risk.
The study was led by researcher Robert J.F. Laheij at University Medical Center St. Radboud in Nijmegen, Netherlands, and appears in Wednesday's Journal of the American Medical Association.
The acid in normal stomach fluids generally...
The “common cold of mental health,” is more common at NAU.
Health experts at Fronske Health Center and Counseling and Testing report the number of students seeking help with depression is increasing.
In the fiscal year 2002-2003, 184 students came into Counseling and Testing with depression, said director Chris Gunn. The number jumped to 214 students in the 2003-2004 school year.
Fronske Health Center has also witnessed a rise in students seeking help with depression, said Dr. Timothy Flemming, Chief of Staff.
Between Aug. 16 and Oct. 25 of this year, 114 patients were diagnosed with depression at Fronske Health Center, Flemming said.
“My impression is that over the past five years we have seen an increase in the number of students coming to the Fronske Health Center with depression,” Flemming said. “The increase has been gradual though. I think it represents the increased awareness and willingness of students to accept the diagnosis and accept treatment.”
Gunn said more than 1,100 students sough counseling last year for a variety of reasons.
One NAU student, who wished to remain unnamed, said she was diagnosed with depression in middle school, but it was difficult for her to accept.
“The symptoms of depression were first recognized...
Now that the election is over, let's hope the White House can focus on the issue of the overmedication of young people with psychotropic drugs, namely, the prescription of stimulants, such as Ritalin, for children diagnosed with attention-deficit (hyperactivity) disorder.
For starters, there is no scientific basis for the diagnosis of ADHD. If a child is bored, distracted and/or boisterous in the classroom, he is often believed to be suffering from ADHD as opposed to, say, childhood.
Every child in public school is required to undergo testing for attention-deficit disorder. The most recent analysis from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reports that 1.6 million elementary school children were diagnosed with ADHD between 1997 and 1998.
By drugging these children into complacency, the pharmaceutical companies make lots of money off of children acting like children. A recent study published in The Journal of the American Medical Association revealed that Ritalin has addictive qualities and cardiac side effects similar to those of cocaine. Nonetheless, doctors, school counselors and misinformed parents continue to push the stuff to kids.
A worried family today joined the growing tide of concerned people who fear their relatives will suffer if specialist care homes in Norfolk are closed.
Plans by the Norfolk and Waveney Mental Health Trust Partnership to close five homes which provide care to more than 100 elderly and mentally ill patients has sparked fears among community members who say care in the community would not be enough.
Janet Hawkins' father, 82-year-old Robert Whitmore, suffers from dementia and is currently being assessed at Julian House in the city, where he has been for the last six weeks.
Last week the Evening News reported how the campaign to prevent the closure of Ellacombe House on Ella Street, Norwich, Cygnet House in Long Stratton, Rebecca House in North Walsham and two units of the old Hellesdon Hospital has caused outrage across the county...
UK - Youth suicide is a major global public health issue and consistently ranks as one of the leading cause of death for adolescents aged 15 -19. Suicide accounts for 30% of deaths in the 15-24 year age group. Studies have shown that many young people that die by suicide or who make a serious attempt have a recognisable psychiatric disorder such as depression, anxiety, conduct disorder and substance abuse at the time of their attempt.
Youth suicide prevention, is a joint initiative between the Health Development Agency, the Institute of Public Health in Ireland and Programme for Action in Ireland. It aims to identify all systematic reviews in this field and to analyse and combine the evidence to highlight what measures work to prevent youth suicide.
Professor Mike Kelly, Director of Evidence and Guidance, HDA said:
‘Suicide and suicidal behaviour in young people is a significant public health issue. While suicide rates are higher in young adults, many of the risk factors and associated behaviour patterns are established in adolescence. This makes the development of evidence-based suicide prevention strategies a priority for our society. To achieve this, we need the involvement of...
Alcohol has become and is still the number one cause of family violence in Guam, say officials of the Department of Mental Health and Substance Abuse drug and alcohol branch.
Statistics have revealed that from October 2003 through April 2004, there were 36 outpatient clients and 34 intensive outpatient clients at the branch.
Paca Remengesau, supervisor for the drug and alcohol branch, said all these family violence and drug/alcohol-related cases were referred to the department by the court system.
"They got into family violence while...
Summary: What to do when loved ones battle depression. How to work on keeping a relationship working when one partner is battles depression. Also keeping communication with an unhappy 15-year-old son.
Q: I love my wife, but she's driving me crazy. She's been going through her own personal hell for the last few months with depression. She's in therapy and on medications. I'd love to be able to help her, but I don't know what to do. I don't want to baby her, but I also don't want to push her too much. How do I handle a depressed family member?
Compassionately, lovingly and firmly. The last thing anyone needs is to be blamed for depression. I'm pleased you don't seem to be doing that. People don't choose to be depressed, nor do they stay depressed because it's such a rewarding experience.
Many depressed people don't do much to help themselves. It is the nature of the disorder to make...
WASHINGTON (AP) -- How many people have gotten home after a blindingly stressful day and realize they've forgotten some important event or errand? Well, now at least there's a scientific explanation for the oversight. Stress makes you forgetful.
People going on stage or taking an exam or finding themselves in similarly tough situations already knew this, of course.
But a team of researchers has found how it happens, a discovery that they say could point the way to better treatments for such illnesses as schizophrenia and bipolar disorder.
Stressful situations in which the individual has no control were found to activate an enzyme in the brain called protein kinase C, which impairs the short-term memory and other...
Mental Health reform is a pressing, loaded topic which much be approached delicately, but with a great deal of vigilance.
Mental Health reformation is a pressing, loaded topic which must be approached delicately, but with a great deal of vigilance.
In a sense I consider myself an advocate for the mentally ill, as I myself have suffered bouts of severe depression, and have attempted to seek treatment by various recourse over the past 8 years. The means have included involvement in an excellant partial program as well as individual therapy, and one very harrowing stay at a state hospital (self commital).
A very real part of the problem as far as funding in my opinion is that the standard healthcare provider for the average American is sparse in this arena. Part of that I believe is due to the stigma and misunderstanding often associated with varied forms of mental illness.
Often, too often when one approaches...
MONTREAL, QUEBEC -- October 19, 2004 -- Topiramate is effective add-on therapy for some patients with obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD) who have proved resistant to traditional treatment, according to results of an open-series study presented here at the 54th Canadian Psychiatric Association Annual Meeting.
"A sub-group of patients…responded to the addition of topiramate in their therapy," said Michael Van Ameringen, MD, Principal Investigator and Associate Professor of Psychiatry, Department of Psychiatry and Behavioural Neurosciences, McMaster University, Hamilton, Ontario, Canada. "We have taken [patients'] OCD from very severe to very minimal by adding topiramate to their therapy. It appears promising."
Depression is a disorder of the body as much as of the mind. Consider that several of the core symptoms of the condition manifest in body systems: depression invariably expresses itself in a change of appetite, usually inhibiting the desire to eat, but occasionally reversing course, as in atypical depression, and increasing it.
Similarly, the body's need for restorative sleep is profoundly disturbed, and nearly all depressed individuals experience sleep problems; 80% complain of insomnia, another 15% sleep excessively. Insomnia by itself appears to be a risk factor for depression. Most patients complain of body fatigue. In many, energy loss is so overwhelming that physical movement is arduous and grinds to a paralyzing halt.
Increasingly, there's evidence that depression involves various body systems. There seems to be a complex relationship between depression and the heart. Depression raises the risk of heart disease; it also magnifies the deadliness of existing cardiac problems. It's not clear why, although researchers have found that depression alters blood platelets, circulating elements that are responsible for clotting.
What's more, depression leaves footprints on the...