How To Guide

This lesser diagnosed disorder exists in youngster and teens and may be put down to growing problems.

Oppositional defiant disorder exists to a certain extent in almost all children and teens, but is often not diagnosed. That is because youngsters are expected to be defiant and questioning and oppose whatever their parents tell them. They usually do not like to be disciplined. However, this disorder becomes a problem when it prevents the child from doing well at school or college as well as in the home and social environment.

Arguments are common between parents and children as children want to test the limits of what they can get away with and assert their independence. Often parents just disregard behavioral problems or do not realize that there may be an underlying cause for this kind of behavior.

What is oppositional defiant disorder?

Oppositional defiant disorder is a combination of behavioral problems which are not normal. ODD is a consistent pattern of negative and disruptive behavior on the part of the child. It includes

• Constant defiance
• Temper tantrums

… Read More

Munchausen syndrome is a strange psychiatric disorder which affects some attention seeking people.

Named after Baron Karl Friedrich Hieronymus Freiherr von Munchausen, who used  to tell tall and heavily embellished tales having no basis in reality,  this disorder is a personality problem which affects a few people. There are two different types of this disorder. One affects the individual and the other affects others living with the individual, usually kids, wherein it is called Munchausen By Proxy Syndrome (MBPS).

What is Munchausen Syndrome?

This illness is one in which the individual seeks attention by imagining and talking about fictitious medical problems. He or she feels happy and cared for when getting sympathy and attention from hospital staff and others. The person reads up and learns about medicines, medical disorders, surgery and other medical jargon and then pretends that he or she has some medical problem. These are usually not run of the mill medical problems, but can be serious disorders.

While this may seem to be the same as hypochondria, it is not, because hypochondriacs truly believe that they are… Read More

Nell

Nell was fighting the damaging effects of claustrophobia for almost 50 years, when her daughter Nadine Featherkile decided to use a new kind of treatment. Nell’s claustrophobia was caused by her workplace conditions. During the World War II, Nell worked as a ‘burner’ in the shipyards. Her job was quite dangerous: she worked in a restrained area, where high temperatures could easily cause fires. As a result, Nell started to fear that if a fire would occur, she will remain trapped inside, because there was no exit. Nadine used a popular NLP technique, which involved an entire re-learning process.A key element of the claustrophobia was the heat, so in order to achieve the set goals; Nadine also used a ‘temperature adjustment’ resource.

The NLP technique (or the Neuro-Linguistic Programming technique) is quite controversial and it is based on a pattern of interpersonal communication. The focus refers to the relations between successful patterns of beaver and subjective life experiences. Nell has actually managed to improve self-awareness and change her psychological and emotional characteristics.

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Kathy Warlow

Kathy Warlow is one of the people dealing with arachnophobia, a disorder that causes extreme fear of spiders. Kathy was afraid of spider so much, that she froze instantly only if she saw one on the television. Although her fear was irrational, she just could not help it. Her family wanted to do something for her. An opportunity occurred when they read an article about a special program conducted at London Zoo.

Twenty people signed for the Friendly Spider program, and Kathy was one of them. Each participant was encouraged to reach a small glass box containing a spider. They had to catch it then let it go. Surprisingly, Kathy managed to do it, and she had no explanation. She even held a huge tarantula. When she returned home, her entire family was happy to see the picture that immortalized Kath holding one of her most reputable enemies: a red tarantula. She still jumps when she sees a spider, but the terror is no longer affecting her life.

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Nell

Nell was fighting the damaging effects of claustrophobia for almost 50 years, when her daughter Nadine Featherkile decided to use a new kind of treatment. Nell’s claustrophobia was caused by her workplace conditions. During the World War II, Nell worked as a ‘burner’ in the shipyards. Her job was quite dangerous: she worked in a restrained area, where high temperatures could easily cause fires. As a result, Nell started to fear that if a fire would occur, she will remain trapped inside, because there was no exit.

Nadine used a popular NLP technique, which involved an entire re-learning process. A key element of the claustrophobia was the heat, so in order to achieve the set goals; Nadine also used a ‘temperature adjustment’ resource. The NLP technique (or the Neuro-Linguistic Programming technique) is quite controversial and it is based on a pattern of interpersonal communication. The focus refers to the relations between successful patterns of beaver and subjective life experiences. Nell has actually managed to improve self-awareness and change her psychological and emotional characteristics.

Click for source

Kathy Warlow

Kathy Warlow is one of the people dealing with arachnophobia, a disorder that causes extreme fear of spiders. Kathy was afraid of spider so much, that she froze instantly only if she saw one on the television. Although her fear was irrational, she just could not help it. Her family wanted to do something for her. An opportunity occurred when they read an article about a special program conducted at London Zoo. Twenty people signed for the Friendly Spider program, and Kathy was one of them. Each participant was encouraged to reach a small glass box containing a spider. They had to catch it then let it go.

Surprisingly, Kathy managed to do it, and she had no explanation. She even held a huge tarantula. When she returned home, her entire family was happy to see the picture that immortalized Kath holding one of her most reputable enemies: a red tarantula. She still jumps when she sees a spider, but the terror is no longer affecting her life.

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James

ADHD or the Attention deficit Hyperactivity disorder is a common child behavior disorder. Children with ADHD present a series of symptoms, but the most relevant one is the inability to stay focused or follow simple guidelines. James was considered a normal child during his first years of life. However his parents started to notice some differences around the age of two, two and a half. He wasn’t able to learn how to talk by listening, and he seemed to prefer noisemaking as opposed to talking. At three years old, the signs became obvious: James had trouble finding friends, simply because he was too aggressive with the other children, including his sister.

The parents’ frustration lead to divorce, but the mother was aware that James had a problem. Kindergarten was yet another challenge for James, since no one wanted to admit he had ADHD. The mother insisted to take a test for determining if James had ADHD. The score was 31 (any score above 19 indicated a problem). Seeking professional help was the best solution. James was placed on… Read More

Everybody get angry occasionally. But if you are angry constantly, you need to work on it.

Anger management is a big issue. The fact is that anger is a natural human emotion. It is an emotional response to a perceived or real threat. It causes an adrenaline rush and also often overpowers other emotions. It usually results in aggressive behavior.

When you should be concerned

You should be concerned when you seem to be angry all the time and when it seems that anger has taken over your life. When anything little thing can set you off, and you experience a lot of rage, including road rage, which affects your normal daily life, you need to take a close look at yourself.

And if that anger finds expression in violence, destructive or abusive behavior, you definitely need help. That is the time to see a psychotherapist or a psychologist.

Should you express your anger?

There was a time,… Read More

Six examples below

Mario Della Grotta

Mario Della Grotta suffering from a devastating form of mental illness called obsessive compulsive disorder (OCD). At the height of his OCD symptoms, he lost the time to be with his family, to pursue his college studies, and to enjoy living. The OCD totally consumed his life – he could not do anything without spending a lot of time of fruitless rituals.

He went in for therapy at the insistence of his wife, but he did not get any relief. Finally he and his doctors agreed on Deep Brain Stimulation (DBS) surgery, where a device is implanted in the brain. Now he says he feels 70 percent better.

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Wendy

Though Wendy was diagnosed with OCD when in her fifties, she feels she was suffering from it from childhood. She used to worry about sins and going to hell. She also developed an eating disorder. She wasted a lot of time checking or cleaning or worrying about illogical things. ‘It was exhausting and rather horrific, because it never let my mind rest.’… Read More

Two examples below

Trevor

Trevor tried to commit suicide when he was 26. He has a lot of personal problems and kept them bottled inside. He injured himself so badly that when he woke up in hospital and saw himself in the mirror, he wished he had succeeded.

Apart from his family and friends, he says,’ the most valuable support I received was from the nursing staff at the hospital. They taught me how to deal with my injuries and gave me the courage to come out from the shadows and not be ashamed of how I looked. My surgeon gave me confidence by telling me he would put a smile back on my face, however long it would take.’

He is now 40, lives with his partner and their daughter and her three children form a previous relationship. He has never had any suicidal thoughts since that time.

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Artie Lange

‘The Howard Stern Show’ comedian Artie Lange stabbed himself nine times in a suicide attempt. Artie Lange’s mother discovered the funny man bleeding on his Hoboken… Read More

Two examples below

Donnie

Donnie’s wife noticed signs of dementia over the years but it was only when he was finally diagnosed with dementia was she able to put it together. He had been driving poorly, he had terrible financial insight, exercised poor judgment dealing with the children; there were also anger outbursts, repeating stories from the past over and over and always talking about the future but never living in the present.

Concerned with memory loss, Donnie went to a neuropsychologist who tested him and he was diagnosed with dementia. Unfortunately one month later he fell down in the bathroom and developed a subdural hematoma, which later presented with hallucinations and seizures. In the hospital he was found to have frontotemporal dementia (FTD). Now there are days when he seems normal and days which are not too good.

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Carole Woodvine

Carole Woodvine (53) first noticed that her mother Nancy was becoming confused about six years ago. She often seemed vague and confused. After a year, she was getting worse and Carole decided to give up her… Read More

What is obsessive compulsive disorder?

Obsessive compulsive disorder is a disease or illness that makes people have unwanted thoughts and repeat specific behaviors. The unwanted thoughts are known as obsessions. These ideas, impulses, or images are in the person’s mind that they do not want, and cannot control. Compulsions are habits or behavior the person must do often called rituals.

In some cases a person with obsessive compulsive disorder will be afraid of germs, therefore will need to wash their hands repeatedly, some individuals will count to a specific number before opening a door, while in children they may be obsessed with being friends with one child so intensely that the other child may be accidentally hurt do the exaggerated attention.

Symptoms of obsessive compulsive disorder

There are several different signs and symptoms of obsessive compulsive disorder. Some of the most common include:

• Fear of hurting someone or themselves
• Fear of germs or dirt
• disturbing sexually explicit thoughts and images
• Disturbing violent thoughts and images
• Fear of losing things a person needs
• Excessive focus on moral ideas
• Excessive focus

… Read More

There are no known causes of ADD but there are many different theories concerning the possible causes.

Brain

The first theory is that ADD is caused from organic brain damage. Tredgold as far back 1908 stated that there was a link between hyperactivity and organic brain damage. He believed this was caused by an injury, prenatal complications, infection during birth, or oxygen deprivation. Research by Stewart and Olds in 1973 showed that the majority of children diagnosed with Attention Deficit Disorder had no signs of brain damage.

Metabolism defect

The next theory is that children with ADD may have a deficit in metabolism of neurotransmitters. Due to this assumption, drugs such as Ritalin and Dexedrine have been given to children with ADD. These drugs have proven to be affective thus suggesting the cause to be a lack of or the access of a certain chemical in the brain. These medications only work short term and do have side effects.

Defect

Next in line of theories is that children with ADD have signs of a defective inhibitory system in the… Read More

There are different types of treatment options for ADD, however, they will not cure the condition only make the symptoms better and tolerable. There is no cure for Attention Deficit Disorder.

The most important thing to do if you have a child with ADD is to talk with your doctor about the options available. Just because one treatment did wonders with one child does not mean the same treatment is the correct one for your child.

If you want to try non-prescription alternatives then you will find various supplemental minerals and vitamins that often aid individuals with ADD. In clinical trials, children and adults alike both showed improvements with supplementing their diets with Acetylcarnitine, Bacopa, Hyperforin, Lemon Balm, Magnesium, and Zinc.

Behavioral therapy

Behavioral Therapy has also been successful with some individuals with ADD. This type of therapy helps the person learn and deal with the connections with annoying situations and the reactions that are derived from them. Common reactions seen in those with ADD include anxiety, anger, depression, fear, and hurting oneself. With behavioral therapy, these emotions can learn… Read More

What are panic attacks?

A panic attack is an emotional feeling of intense fear that comes on a person without any reason, which can bring on serious physical reactions. The experience is very frightening and can cause a person to believe they are having a heart attack or that they are losing control.

Sometimes panic attacks may only occur once or twice during a person’s life, however, for those that have panic attacks more frequently they could have what is known as panic disorder, which is a chronic anxiety disorder.

Causes of panic attacks

The cause of panic attacks is not known however, there are a few things that may play a role in whether a person will be susceptible to panic attacks or panic disorder including genetics, stress, and changes in the specific parts of the brain functions.

Symptoms of panic attack

There are a wide range of symptoms associated with panic attacks and panic disorder include fast heart rate, sweating, shaking, shortness of breath, hyperventilating, chills, hot flashes, nausea, chest pain, cramps in the abdomen, headache, faint feeling,… Read More