Month: April 2017

Improve your attitude

How to bring improvement in your Attitude? – Make it more Positive

Do you have a desire to say no to your boss and act on your own at your workplace? No, right, or Yes? Well anyway, you would be tagged for your attitude and behavior – whether as one having pathetic attitude or by one with the right attitude.

If you are the former one, it is a good time to start thinking on changing the perception and improve your attitude – not only towards workplace atmosphere, but also at home or as a matter of fact, everywhere.

  1. Admit to yourself if you are not happy in your life. At least do not lie to yourself and then crib all the time. You should be aware that you need to change something to bring the change and this is the first step towards this. Take control of your thoughts and reactions to events and people.
  2. Optimism is a choice not a born habit. No one is born with a positive or negative attitude. You take one path over the course of your life and it depends on your perspective in life. Just try this simple tip – take a pen in a difficult situation and write 4-5 good things about this difficult situation at hand.
  3. Select positive words while thinking or speaking – Use sentences starting with “I am hopeful,” or, “We will resolve it”. You can change your emotional outlook by this simple change in your handling situations.
  4. Fix up a good daily positive quote for yourself and keep yourself reminding about the same. Say it loudly every morning. For Example – “Something great is going to happen today,” which will rocket you up in the positive direction rather than negative one.
  5. Check on what exactly you would like to change – understand what you wish to change. Setting up of crisp and clear goals gives you success and takes you farther. No one knows you better than yourself. So take charge of your life and you will start seeing changes.
  6. It is an old saying that you become what you keeping your company as. So choose the right company for making yourself change the negative outlook to positive outlook. Consider making friend with new people, especially the ones who are optimistic.

At the end, it cannot be denied that a positive attitude is important, it is equally important to strive for positive attitude always. You can do it too like me!

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.

Walking is the New Found Therapy

Walking can be your natural medicine for happiness as it helps release happy hormone called endorphin.

Walking not only helps you burn calories but is also considered the most effective anti-depressant. Almost 97 percent walkers revealed that it helped them improve their mental health and emotional well-being. The survey also revealed that walking helps control stress among people across age groups. While 42% of the elderly feel that walking helps beat stress, 50% of the millennials experience reduction of stress and hypertension, post walking, it added.

This is the highest for millennials. Interestingly, over 40% of the respondents are motivated to walk because of interesting walking apps and gadgets that help them track their health.

Usage of gadgets is more prominent among millennials. The Survey further said those who don’t walk regularly are more prone to depression nearly 15% of non-walkers admitted to be suffering from depression and high stress levels.

According to the survey, walking gives millennials time for self-introspection, while it gives 21% elderly the feeling of self-reliance. But there is a flip side as well. About 43% are unable to walk as long daily commute leaves them with no time for walking, 29% get bored while walking and believe that walking will not have a positive impact on their personality, 21% lack company to walk, and 21% are unaware of the benefits of walking on their mental health.

Signs of Emotional Abuse

Spotting the Signs of Emotional Abuse

Emotional abuse is all about gaining control over the other person. In this situation, a person exerts control over the life of another person. It can come in many shapes and forms and can range from very subtle version like damaging words uttered from one spouse to another to something as harsh as intimidating shouts paired with physical abuse.

According to Dr. Donnerfeld, psychologist from New York City, in the context of a relationship, the emotionally abusive person makes verbal attacks to one’s character and person. Communications in the case of emotional abusive relationships are often insulting, threatening, mocking, controlling and critical. The abuser also limits ones access to outside help such as friends, relatives, etc.

Classes of Emotional Abuse

According to the experts, there are below mentioned classes of emotional abuse:

–             humiliating or criticizing the person

–             disciplining a person with degrading punishments

–             not recognising a person’s own individuality and limitations

–             exposing a person to distressing events or interactions

–             never expressing positive feelings towards a the  person

–             never showing any emotions in interactions with the person

Emotional Abuse in Children

Small babies and pre-school children being emotionally abused can show the following symptoms:

  1. They become overly affectionate towards strangers
  2. They tend to show lack in confidence or become highly anxious
  3. Do not display close relationship with their parent
  4. They are aggressive or nasty with animals or other children

Older children Signs and Symptoms for Abuse

  1. They tend to use language that you wouldn’t expect them to know at their age
  2. They struggle to control strong emotions
  3. Often they seem isolated from their parents and friends
  4. They display lack of social skills

Watch Out for These Signs

The signs of emotional abuse can be very difficult to spot and determine.  If you see or hear one person in a relationship being openly verbally abusive to the other one, it is one of the classic emotional abuse examples. You need to look for the more subtle signs, too.

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.

Looking on the bright side

Looking on the bright side across adulthood

Eye tracking reveals changes in emotion regulation with age. We’ve all heard the advice to “look on the bright side” when we are feeling down – but is it good advice?

  1. Age Differences in Looking Patterns to Emotional Information

We next considered possible age differences in the tendency to look on the bright side of emotional stimuli.

  1. Linking Looking to Feeling

We have tried to test whether older adults’ tendency to look on the bright side is actually related to emotion regulation and effective outcomes. We have assessed mood using a potentiometer slider continuously at the same time as participants are having their eyes tracked: participants indicate their current mood by moving the slider.

  1. From Feeling to Doing

Older adults’ looking on the bright side may help them to regulate their emotional state, but what happens when the negative information they are looking less at in order to feel good is important and/or health-relevant. Older adults generally looked less at the negative emotional content and showed a faster emotion regulation response compared to their younger counterparts.

Learn about looking on the bright side

Whereas younger individuals may actually benefit – at least in terms of their moods – from looking more at the darker side of things, literally looking on the bright side of emotional stimuli seems to be a key tool for older adults to regulate their emotions, and it may not be associated with behavioral deficits. Put another way, older adults – at least in our investigations so far – do not seem to need to choose between mood and health: they are able to interact with the world in a way that helps them to regulate their mood while also engaging in positive health behavior.
Older adults may even use committing to engage in health behavior as a regulatory strategy itself, leading them to feel good and do good things as well. It may be that it is younger adults who must choose between regulating their emotions and engaging in health behaviors, as they did not regulate their moods as well and in some cases engaged in fewer health behaviors than did older adults; however, we have not yet tested whether younger adults could do better in different circumstances.

These patterns may have implications for the design of health messages. Younger adults may benefit from seeing “just the facts” so their emotion regulation attempts do not interfere with their ability to learn health information. Perhaps looking on the bright side can be harnessed to improve older adults’ health behavior; at the very least, older adults’ feeling good and behaving in health-promoting ways may not be mutually exclusive.

Accident Phobia – Impairs the ability to Drive

Situational Specific Phobia :  Accident Phobia

Accident phobia has been studied most extensively in relation to accidents involving motor vehicles. It has been established that thirty-eight per cent of survivors of car crashes subsequently develop severe phobic fear and avoidance of car travel, which has had a significant effect on their normal life.

Symptoms of accident phobia

Although it is unusual for car journeys to be avoided completely, accident phobics will often only travel when strictly necessary. Also, the journey may only be undertaken at a particular time of day, for example, when traffic conditions are light. Accident phobics experience considerable anticipatory anxiety before the journey and are highly fearful while in the car. Some find it very difficult to be passengers and most constantly give the driver instructions.

It is not unusual for accident phobics to make considerable adjustments to their life to avoid car travel. This can include such extreme measures as moving house or even relinquishing a job and, in most cases, the person’s normal enjoyment of outings, hobbies, holidays and so on, is considerably restricted because of the effect on mobility. It is possible that similar levels of phobic fear and avoidance may occur in those who have been in accidents involving buses, coaches and trains.

The recently developed Accident Fear Questionnaire of American Psychiatry appears to reliably differentiate between the two conditions and indicates that phobic fear develops independently of injury, pain or depression caused by the accident. There is, however, some evidence that a person/ s psychological make-up might predispose them towards developing accident phobia.

Treatment of accident phobia

Treatment for accident phobia is in a process of continual development and refinement. Initial cognitive therapy is needed, aimed at helping the person to realize that he is a survivor, and that there is no reason to suppose that an accident that has happened once will be repeated. Therapy using the person’s imagination and the use of video-taped material may be useful. Eventually, the person is encouraged to embark upon exposure therapy by becoming a car passenger – something that most phobics find extremely difficult. The final stage, if the person is a driver, is for him to start driving again and a refresher instruction course may help in this respect.

Receptive Expressive Disorder

Receptive-expressive developmental 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). 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 1994). 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 is through special education. The psychiatrist’s role is the same as in expressive language disorder.

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.

Affirm Your Worth With Affirmations

How important it is to be self aware to make progress in your life? How important it is to know how much respect you give to yourself to start with? People, and I am saying almost 99% people across the world look at others to validate themselves in many aspects making them loose their own power and control.

Does Positive Affirmations have any Role

Affirmations are the act or an instance of affirming; the assertion that something exists or is true, a statement or proposition that is declared to be true. Using affirmation to raise the self worth has been considered as a topic of controversy among professionals. Some believe that they work and are recommended in treatment highly. While lot others pass them off and say they have no use. In the opinion of depression guide, the theraptists should at least tell the idea to clients.

What is an affirmation?

Professionals who recommend and use affirmations are using it to enhance the purpose of changing the way people think. Most of the people across the world are programmed with negative thinking – like “I can’t do ____, I am no good, I am not good looking, I’m not smart?”. The idea of an affirmation is to change the way we think over a period of time. Remember that it took however many years to leran this affirmations.
It is going to take substantial time to reprogram your mind to think positive things about yourself and then believe them.
The important thing is to find out what you think negative about yourself and then rewrite it so it is in the for of a positive statement instead of a negative one.

How to Fail with Grace and maintain Affirmation?

Failure is a part of life—at work, at school, and even in our relationships. In short, we screw up all the time. Fortunately, new research shows how we can learn from our mistakes. As it happens, preserving our self-worth helps our brains make sense of our blunders so we can do better the next time around. Affirming your values also helps your brain attune to the errors of your ways so you can learn from your mistakes.

Self Esteem Affirmations

  1. I love and accept myself unconditionally.
  2. I approve of myself and feel great about myself.
  3. I radiate love and respect and in return I get love and respect.
  4. I am a well loved and well respected person.
  5. I am a cultured and wise and yet, a humble person.