Christmas Depression

Christmas is considered a period of joy and optimistic hopes. Usually this is so, but for many people can be a very sad time and do accompanied by feelings of loneliness, helplessness and discouragement. This condition is called Christmas Depression Christmas Blues". Depression is common in the festivities of December during the Christmas and New Year, when we balance sheets and projects. What for too many is the happiest time of year for others it is quite the opposite. Christmas and family gatherings can become sad and difficult time to endure, especially if the person is already depressed or going through an existential crisis.
Christmas is the season that most affects the depression; while depression can strike at any time of year is around Christmas that the majority of suicides happen. We must be aware of it and especially to the elderly who need more attention.
There are many causes for this type of mood disorder that can develop into a true depression, with the same symptoms of clinical depression.
Usually the Christmas depression is brief in duration from several days to weeks and often end when the holidays end and returns to the daily routine.
It is necessary to try to understand, what might be the reason for each one, the most closely related to the sphere of affection and the more strictly physical.
However I can suggest some basic rules of health during the holidays.

Factors contributing to the Depression Christmas
• Increased stress

• Fatigue

• Expectations unfulfilled

• Vulnerability to the biological station and the low solar radiation

• Unable to be with family

• Memories of past celebrations

• Social pressure to binge

• Change of diet

• Change in daily routine

• Lack of someone who no longer exists


The most common symptoms of depression for Christmas are:
• Headache

• Inability to sleep or sleeping too much

• Changes in appetite

• Agitation or anxiety

• Feelings of excessive or inappropriate guilt

• Decreased ability to concentrate

• Diminished interest in activities that normally lead to pleasure


How to defend off the "Christmas Depression":
• Try to minimize the expectations and turn Christmas into a "normal festivity."

• Have an organized program for this holiday season.

• Do not make intentions to change total after the New Year.

• Practice an outdoor physical activity, even if it is cold and mostly in daylight hours.

• Being with people

• Do not change a lot and especially the rhythms of sleep

• Do not drink alcohol to excess

• Do not overdo it with food

• Not having unattainable expectations

• Do not focus on what we have

• Do not lament the past, but make small realistic goals for the future and concrete.

In conclusion; leaving aside projects "extraordinary" to propose realistic goals, organize their time, make lists, priorities, make a plan and follow it. Exit spirituality very "Liturgy" of the parties and seek to invent new ways to celebrate Christmas.
The depressed person needs to be understood and cared ... It is therefore especially important to allow yourselves to be sad or nostalgic. These are normal feelings, particularly at Christmas.

Anxiety

Anxiety is a mental disorder characterized by an almost constant state of permanent anxiety, worry, anxiety, uneasiness, restlessness, anxiety, fear, etc.. What causes a malaise and a constant tension.
Anxiety, nervousness or anxiety is a biological characteristic of humans, which proceeds moments of real or imagined danger, marked by unpleasant bodily sensations, such as an empty feeling in stomach, heart beating fast, intense fear, tightness in chest, sweating etc.

The person is always in constant tension and 'afraid of anything "that she does not know or know how to define.

She feels uneasy and situations around her often create a malaise that she can not define or control.

This negative mood changes a person's life and takes her to depart from the reality around them, often ending up harming your life and your relationships.

Change of job, home, wedding, etc.. Any situation involving a change can unbalance the person suffering from anxiety.

All people can feel anxiety, especially with the busy life today. Anxiety turns out to be constant in the lives of many people. Depending on the degree or frequency, can become pathological and lead to many problems later, such as anxiety disorder. Therefore, it is not always pathological.

Having anxiety or suffer from this evil makes the person lose a good part of their self-esteem, or she fails to do certain things because it is judged to be unable to perform them. Thus, the term anxiety is somehow connected to the word fear, so the person becomes afraid of making mistakes when performing different tasks, without even trying to reach.

Anxiety at very high levels, or when presented with shyness or depression prevents a person to develop their intellectual potential. Learning is locked and this affects not only the learning of traditional education, but social intelligence. The individual does not know how to behave in social situations or at work, which can lead to stagnation in their careers.

Psychotherapy is used to give help in this situation as well as the practice of relaxing exercises like yoga, tai-chi and other exercises in order to release stress and relax the person.

However we must do another type of work that are located behind the causes of anxiety and that way it can work and eliminate the causes of anxiety.

Anxiety is a characteristic of anxious personalities and as such anxiety has a lot to do with the personality of the person as we know it is inherited and created lifelong.

Loss of loved ones can often aggravate this condition as experienced other stressful situations throughout life.

We have to change the way you see and feel for the person and it has to take the person to see and resolve situations that affect the unconscious level and without her realizing it.

In too many cases there are frequently situations in the physical body that underlie the anxiety and need to be corrected and eliminated that anxiety can be overcome and win.

Basically we have to recognize what causes behind the anxiety and how to fix them for the person to go to live your life the way she deserves to be lived.

Motivation

Is a set of internal forces that mobilize the individual to achieve a given target in response to a state of necessity, need or imbalance.

The word motivation comes from the Latin movere, which means "move". The motivation is what is likely to move the individual to get him to act, to achieve something (the objective), and will produce a goal-oriented behavior.

According to Maslow; (founder of humanistic psychology) the process as the individual goes thru basic needs such as feeding, the higher needs such as cognitive or aesthetic. Maslow provides a uniform hierarchy of needs on the idea that if they do not satisfy a basic need, it becomes impossible to satisfy other order superior. If we are hungry (physiological need), for example, we are unable to focus on aesthetic activities. This idea applies to all activities of life, affirming that all men aspire to self-realization of their full potential.

Hierarchy of motivations (ascending order) Maslow Pyramid:

1. Physiological needs (water, sunlight, food, oxygen, sex, shelter);

2. Necessity of security (free from fear and threats, not dependent on anyone, of autonomy, of not being abandoned, protection of confidentiality);

3. Necessity of affection or belonging (affection, companionship, interpersonal relationships, comfort, communication, give and receive love);

4. Necessity of prestige and social esteem (respect for personal dignity, deserved praise, self-esteem, individuality, sexual identity, sexual identity, recognition);

5. Needs for self-realization and creativity (self-expression, usefulness, creativity, production, entertainment);

6. Cognitive and curiosity, to see the world (namely, intelligence, study, understanding, encouragement, personal asset);

7. Esthetic (creating opportunities, personal autonomy, order, beauty, intimacy, truth, spiritual goals).

There is a classification of motives, but several. The motivations can be classified into two major groups:

1. Physiological (primary, organic): those linked to the survival of the organism and not a result of learning. They trigger certain impulses in the body to restore its balance. These motivations are closely related with certain internal state of the organism. Ex: breathing, hunger, thirst, sex, sleep, etc.. Homeostasis means that the mechanism regulating the body's internal balance.

2. Social motives (secondary culture) which depends essentially on learning; they were acquired in the socialization process. Ex: The need for coexistence, recognition of social success, etc.. This group can be subdivided:

a) Centered on the individual (self-affirmation): desire for security, to be accepted, to belong to a group, to achieve high social status, to enrich, etc..

b) Centered in society (independent of our interests): respect for others, solidarity, friendship, love, etc..

Some question this division of the motivations, saying that they all have a common background: the pursuit of pleasure, the only true source of all human actions.

So, there is a Motivational cycle:

1. Necessity; It is the reason for the action. It is caused by a state of imbalance due to a lack or deprivation (ex. Lack of food in the body);

2. Impulse or drive; It is the activities undertaken by necessity or reason; the internal energy that propels the individual to act in a given direction. (Ex: force that moves the individual to obtain food);

3. Answer; it is the activity triggered to achieve something (Ex: Looking for food);

4. Incentive; it is the purpose for which it guides the action. (Ex: eating the food);

5. Satiety; It is the satisfaction resulting from having attained the desired goal (after having eaten the food, hunger disappears).

This sequential behavior back to again and again whenever you need to repeat that causes them.

Psychology and Nutrition Reorientation

Feeding Behaviour refers to any food. A person who has just eaten chocolate today fed but not nourished properly. Nutrition refers to eat properly in quality and quantity.
Feeding behaviour is more "primitive, unconscious and less rational than nutrition, which can be considered more intelligent and scientifically substantiated.
Should be regulated by complex mechanism hunger - satiation, but it is important to understand that emotions, anxiety, depressive mood states and other negative psychological factors can profoundly alter it and thus the nutritional behaviour.
In nutritional guidelines aimed at slimming the person "knows" what to do and what to eat, but feel powerless to do so. Something stronger than his desire to prevent. Come hungry without knowing that it should not do it, but does so in the absence of pleasure. When eating is a temporary relief from the negative feeling of anxiety, guilt comes back stronger, leading people to eat more, to make ease the tension.
The person begins to avoid fattening and a whole range of situations and activities, and gratuities thereon. Decrease physical activity gained because, questions there appearance and avoid going to places where they have to expose themselves physically. This restricts their social life and may tend to isolation. This reaction causes the removal of others, but the fat does not seem to realize that this is due to their behaviour and not its appearance.
This anxiety increases the loneliness which in turn reinforces the anxiety. Drying up the pleasures of the poor quality of life and growing anxiety, the food assumes the role of "stress reducer" and often, sole source of pleasure! ... Self denial of pleasure leads one to reject there body and leads to an infantile dependence of food, which is to symbolize the body satisfaction and eventually form a vicious cycle.
The most tenuous signs of anxiety, even before they become aware they can be "cushioned" by the act of eating, automatic.
The child, from birth, establishes a bond with the mother through breastfeeding. The first sensations of anxiety (unpleasant feeling negative) are experienced when the baby is hungry.
The stress relief (good feeling) is achieved when the child eats (satiety). With the growth receives influences of family and culture that help shape an "eating style", deeply associated with positive and negative emotions and modifiable hardly by persuasion and information only. Examples of this, are patients that even well-motivated and driven professionals and teach them balanced nutritional guidance, customized and tasty end self sabotaging it at some point, so irrational, showing feeding behaviour governed by dark emotions and not reason, and unprepared for the nutritional guidance.
Obesity becomes, in this way, a maladaptive form of a use of feeding behaviour in an attempt to cover up problems that become progressively insoluble, gradually reducing the options of one's life.
Psychology can and should collaborate with the medical-nutrition, enabling nutrition behaviour through the control of feeding behaviour that the foregoing, acting in various ways, leading the patient to reassess the "continuum" hunger-satiety, focusing on and treating the gains side that keeps the fat person, working on self-image, often hampered by treating the co morbidities associated with obesity, such as mood disorders (depression), social phobia, personality disorders with binge eating and others, but particularly anxiety, deviating from the act of eating, allowing behavioural changes that allow a new style of life, essential to weight loss and weight maintenance later.

Stroke

A stroke is, a disease associated with changes in the vessels of the brain, and these changes can be of two types: ischemic and hemorrhagic;
The first involves a reduction in cerebral blood flow. This flow is important because it allows the brain to carry oxygen and nutrients essential to the functioning of cells that constitute it. If this flow is reduced or stopped, brain cells fail to receive these essential elements and eventually die.

The hemorrhagic disorders account for changes in the permeability of blood vessels in the brain or even break them. Thus, there is output of blood vessels triggering the formation of a cluster of blood compressing the brain structures, altering their functioning.

When this happens the functions performed by the group of cells that die are lost and the individual has what is called neurological signs; manifestations of the lack of these same functions.

Why does stroke happen?

Well, it depends on the type of stroke that we are talking about; In the case of ischemic stroke are two main causes: thrombosis and embolism. A stroke happens when an artery for any reason will become increasingly narrow and eventually occlude (the most common reason is atherosclerosis). Embolism occurs when something that circulates in the bloodstream reaches an artery with smaller size and occludes (more often it is blood clots that form in arteries outside the brain or heart). There are other causes but are less common.

In the case of hemorrhagic stroke the two major causes are head trauma and the existence of change of the arteries, including aneurysms, arteriovenous malformations, but more often changes caused by the existence of hypertension.

How can I prevent it?

Like all vascular diseases, the best treatment for stroke is prevention, identifying and treating risk factors such as hypertension, atherosclerosis, mellitus, high cholesterol, smoking and alcoholism. Regular exercise of moderate intensity at least three times a week can help, as a diet rich in fish, calcium and potassium. And Follow the advice of your doctor, especially if you are hypertensive, diabetic or have heart problems.

How to identify stroke?

• Ask first for the person to smile. If she moves her face just to one side, it may be having a stroke;

• Request to lift the arms. If there are difficulties in removing one or two after waking up, one fall, seek medical help;

• Give an order or ask the person to repeat a phrase. If she does not respond to the request, may be suffering a stroke.

Signals that precede a stroke:

• Sudden and severe headache without apparent cause;

• Numbness in the arms and legs;

• Difficulty speaking and loss of balance;

• Decrease or sudden loss of strength in the face, arm or leg on the left or right of the body;

• Sudden change in sensitivity, with tingling in the face, arm or leg on one side of body;

• Sudden loss of vision in one eye or both;

• Acute amendment speech, including difficulty to articulate and express words or to understand the language;

• Instability, sudden and intense vertigo and imbalance associated with nausea or vomiting.

Treatment:

For most patients, after a struck there is a long journey of medication, physiotherapy, speech therapy and neuropsychological rehabilitation according to the functions that were lost and the age of the patient.

Psychology & Cancer


How to deal with Grief

Death is the most harrowing experience we went through. Sooner or later we will suffer the loss of someone close, can be a friend, a lover, a close relative. In our culture, speak and think very little about death. So do not learn to cope with bereavement: how we feel, what we do, what is "normal" case - and accept it.

Grief is a process that occurs immediately after the death of someone we love. There is a unique feeling, but a set of feelings and emotions that requires time to be digested and resolved and that can not be rushed, each of us has an "emotional time" that must be respected. Although we are individuals with our own characteristics, the way we experience the grief is very similar in most cases.

Talking about the grief remains to some extent, to be taboo. Moreover, we are almost always difficult to address the issues surrounding the death. But speaking of grief is much more than talk about the physical loss of someone we love. It is possible to experience grief at the end of a marriage, a situation of serious illness or after an accident whose consequences involve some form of disability. Sooner or later, all people have to deal with grief - and may do so on a more or less adjusted.

We know that grief is different from person to person. There is a “normal” way to mourn. Each person may experience different emotions, often combined in a kind of devastating turmoil. Emotional states can range from denial, sadness, anger, confusion, despair and even guilt.

In some cases, this suffering is reflected in a series of physical manifestations that include sleep problems, appetite changes, service outages and body aches.

The period of mourning may also vary from person to person - in some cases, this process can involve several months, but there are also people who reach the acceptance and adaptation only after some years.

Dealing with bereavement involves primarily:

Being able to express the emotions clearly; It is important to accept that all the feelings associated with loss is normal. Some people repress the expression of their thoughts and their feelings for fear that their relatives and friends can judge them. So if someone asks "How are you?" Have the courage to say how you feel.

Organize your thoughts; Write regularly (in a notebook, a diary, a blog, etc.) It is a therapeutic way of dealing with your loss. Focus on recognition and acceptance of their feelings. Reread what you wrote before and find that, over time, changes appear. This activity will help you to realize that all emotions are "normal" and that its intensity gradually decreases.

Facing memories; Sooner or later comes the confrontation with potentially uncomfortable situations. Escaping the activities that they do remember the person who lost will not help. Give yourself the opportunity to plan these activities and accept setbacks. Reviewing photographs, letters or postcards is part of mourning.

Postpone major decisions or changes; In the midst of pain, may become difficult to maintain the needed insight to decision-making, such as moving house or other changes involving financial commitments. Failing to postpone decisions, seek advice from family and friends.

Health care, our physical health goes hand in hand with emotional health and therefore, more than ever, it is essential to a careful diet, maintain good sleep and hygiene. In addition, regular physical exercise can relieve anxiety.

Seek help, There are people for whom the passage of time does not imply any change, much less relief. If you feel stuck in a loss, you may be at risk for depression and you should seek expert help.

Hyperactive Children:

How to act with them

Before anything, we must define what is, in fact, hyperactivity, because that term has been widely confused with business outright or even with indiscipline:

Hyperactivity, known in medicine for attention deficit disorder, can affect children, teenagers and even some adults. Symptoms vary from mild to severe and may include speech problems, memory and motor skills.

Although, the hyperactive child often have a normal intelligence or above average, the state is characterized by problems with learning and behaviour disabilities.

Teachers and parents of hyperactive children should be able to cope with the lack of attention, impulsivity, emotional instability and uncontrollable hyperactive child.

The hyperactive behaviour may be related to a loss of vision or hearing, a communication problem, as the inability to properly process the symbols and ideas that come up, emotional stress, seizures or sleep disorders. It may also be related to cerebral palsy, lead poisoning, abuse of alcohol or drugs during pregnancy, reaction to certain medicines or food and birth complications, such as oxygen deprivation during birth or trauma. These problems should be discarded as a cause of behaviour before treating hyperactivity in children.

The real hyperactive behaviour interferes with family life, school and social development.

Eliminate preservatives and sugar from your child's diet. It is the most important and vital to making the hyperactive child. Give your child a liquid supplement of calcium and magnesium.

Seek therapy and behaviour modification experience. These disciplines help children understand the problem which is fighting against the established goals and standards and to recognize and evaluate their behaviour. These programs teach internal controls that can be used in various situations. Your child will learn to offer rewards for their achievements and learn from their mistakes.

Cooperate with your doctor or therapist to develop behavioural modification programs. It is important that the program is clear, easily understood and easily executed by all who participate (children and adults).

Make sure that the two have understood that these programs help objectify and not to punish.

Develop a stable routine at home. To reduce confusion and the amount of daily stimuli, set specific times for eating and sleeping.

Seek therapy for you and your spouse, to help reduce the feelings of frustration and isolation; parents of hyperactive children need information and support. Seek help; surely you will find. You will learn to support your child and stay calm and close, even when things seem out of control. You also learn that it is important that parents take a holiday without feeling stressed or guilty about leaving a child "difficult" with other competent persons.

Try to assign a small task and quickly and gently insist that it is complete. Then be sure to thank and praise your child when the task has been completed.

It can not overemphasize the need for parents to have a break. Take an afternoon, an evening or a weekend. Contact with a person who can take care of your child. Call your parents and friends.

If you do this for your own good, do it for her son. Probably you will return feeling renewed, more peaceful and loving.

10 Tips for keeping a healthy relationship

1. Talk to one another; Be best friends, Speak, once the initial passion fades just left the conversation. If there is no conversation then the relationship must be based only on the physical part. And consequently, will not last. Find new subjects to talk every day, even if just chat about your day and how he ran, and ask the same to those who are with you. Talking is the key to longevity;

2. Flee alone; Organize a trip together, even if only for a night or a weekend. Will bring a breath of fresh air to any relationship, and will test you away from your place of refuge. Furthermore, will create memories that will last forever;

3. . Offer gifts; Never forget the importance of gifts. And do not worry about spending fortunes with gifts, the rule is simple: they are tiny little things that ultimately count. A flower, a frame, a magazine, any little thing that shows you that it was considering him (her). Will make any love grow;

4. Make love, well done; This sentence is self fulfilling, often in a relationship, sex becomes an obstacle. Do not let this happen. Innovate! Do different things. Open your horizons and try new things. Above all, when you make love, concern yourself with who is genuinely you. Will be much better for both;

5. Write little notes; Let hidden notes where you know the people you're going to find it. Under the pillow in the bathroom mirror, in a backpack or even through e-mail. Keep the stage of courtship during the relationship;

6. Walk together; A great way to spend time with you love is go hiking together. Not only will quality time together, but it makes you feel good about yourself;

7. Flirt with one another; When people establish a relationship, find that you no longer need little flirts. It is as important as remembering the name! It's simple to do a flirt, even after a few years and has with some children;

8. Have romantic encounters; Take your calendar and plan a romantic time Preferably with a time and alternately so that both strive to show that they know what the other likes. Offer him tickets to football and will have tickets for the exhibition which both want to go see but that does not want to go alone. Join this gathering a romantic dinner. Let the kids with the mother or babysitter;

9. Great each other; Never, I repeat, never forget this - Especially if whoever is with you is a woman. Women love compliments. And make sense and honest, never lie. It is better not speak at all to tell a lie. Look what he likes best in the person himself, one way, a smile, a sentence and praise it;

10. Surprise him/her; Make a surprise to your loved one, kidnap him/her for lunch, dinner, get him something that he or her is not expecting but will really like to get, just put your imagination to work and you will see how this little things can bring you two together.

Bulimia

It is an eating disorder characterized by recurrent episodes of "binge eating" in which the patient eats a short time large amount of food as if very hungry. The patient loses control of himself and then tries to vomit and / or evacuate what they ate, through devices such as medication, in order to not gain weight.

There is a popular tendency to think that bulimia is the opposite of anorexia. In fact the opposite of anorexia patient would feel that is too thin and needs to gain weight, is gaining weight, becoming obese and continues to try to thin and continues eating. That would be the opposite of anorexia, but this psychiatric condition does not exist. In bulimia patients do not want to gain weight, but can not contain the impulse to eat for more than a few days.

The patient with bulimia typically is not obese because they use resources extremes to eliminate excess ingested. As the world psychiatric community does not recognize the binge as a condition to the party will be obliged to admit that there are two types of patients with bulimia, those who try to eliminate excess ingested by vomiting or laxatives and bulimic patients who do not do that and end up gaining weight, this second type might be in another eating disorder, the Binge. Patients with bulimia usually have 2-3 episodes per week, which does not mean that the rest of the time is right. Actually these episodes just are not daily or even once a day because the patient is constantly struggling against them.

Causes:

As in anorexia, bulimia nervosa is a multifactorial syndrome by a mixture of biological, psychological, familial and cultural factors. The emphasis on culture in physical appearance can have an important role. Family problems, low self-esteem and identity conflicts are also factors involved in triggering this condition.

How does it develop?

Often, it takes time to realize that someone has bulimia nervosa. The main feature is the episode of binge eating, accompanied by a feeling of lack of control over the act and sometimes done in secret. Behaviours directed at weight control including fasting, self induced vomiting, use of laxatives, diuretics, and strenuous exercise. The diagnosis of bulimia nervosa requires episodes with a minimum frequency of twice a week for at least three months. The phobia of fatness motivator is the feeling of the whole picture. These episodes of binge eating followed by compensatory methods, the family can remain hidden for long.

Bulimia nervosa strikes teenagers a little older, around 17 years. People with bulimia are ashamed of their symptoms, so avoid eating in public and avoid places like beaches and pools where they need to show the body. As the disease progresses, these people are only interested in issues related to food, weight and body shape.

How is it treatable?

The multidisciplinary approach is most suitable for the treatment of bulimia nervosa, and includes individual psychotherapy, pharmacotherapy and nutritional approach at outpatient clinics.

Antidepressant medications also have proven effective in controlling bulimic episodes.

The nutritional approach is to establish healthier eating habits, eliminating the cycle of "binge eating / purging / fasting."

The orientation family therapy it is necessary because the family plays a very important role in patient recovery.

Teenager; going to the University;Changing priorities and behavior

Enter university is certainly the dream of many young people, however, out of school and enter college is a difficult period of change. The adjustment may not be easy. An undergraduate student requires dedication, changing priorities and results in reduced contact with friends, lack of time. However, this transition does not bring only losses, on the one hand the horizon looks bleak on the other hand, college life offers new friends, a chance to meet people with different lifestyle and various social levels.


The change makes the student mature; the circle of friends of the student changes. At school he meets people closest to him. Already in college he will have colleagues of all ages and social classes. The contact with different people makes it grow not only academically but as a whole.

After beginning college, the student becomes more independent and increases their autonomy. However, one of the main fears of the students is to be disappointed by a wrong choice regarding career.

The student’s priority is the job market and how it needs to enter the profession even in very young age, you may be afraid of being frustrated.

The fear is greater when the parents have invested in educating the student. Under these conditions, he feels pressure to show that money was not spent in vain. This will prove that the investment made by parents was not wasted is a charge for the student.

It is not necessarily that the parents creates that kind of pressure, it may be the student himself. Therefore, their targets when entering the university change.

But the maxima that get into college is a sort of trampoline for the young to make new friends may not be a process so simple, and the student may have difficulty making friends.

The relationship between new and old friends is also another aspect that may interfere.

It is natural that the student now has more friends among fellow students, after all, one sees every day, and the student no longer has time to maintain contact with friends he had in school. That does not mean that those friendships have to end earlier.

Despite certain difficulties, the task of adapting to higher education can not be seen so dramatically amongst young people. After all, for many it is extremely easy and exciting this new stage.

Gaining independence can not be an easy task, the students are afraid of change. But this is a necessary transition for the growth and maturing of the teenager.

Besides the independence won, they must also learn to handle money, be more controlled, thinking before spending, to manage it properly, and this and other facts to stimulate their creative capabilities, and transform your world view.

Thus it is important to prepare the youth before the start of this new stage, going by introducing accountability in the execution of tasks and autonomy in their daily lives, according to the approach of this new phase has been proven, it helps to better adapt and consequently improves there learning abilities.

Anorexia Nervosa

What is it?

Anorexia nervosa is an eating disorder in which the relentless pursuit of thinness drives a person to resort to strategies for weight loss, resulting in significant weight loss. Anorexic people have an intense fear of gaining weight despite being extremely thin. In 90% of cases, affects adolescent and young adult women, range 12-20 years. It is a disease with clinical risks and may lead to starvation.

What are the causes?

There is no single cause to explain the development of anorexia nervosa. This syndrome is considered multifactor by a mixture of biological, psychological, familial and cultural factors. Some studies have called attention to the extreme valuation of thinness and prejudice with fat in Western societies would be strongly associated with the occurrence of these cases.

How does it develop?

The preoccupation with weight and body shape leads the teenager to open a diet progressively more selective with minimal high-calorie foods. Appear other strategies for weight loss such as: excessive exercise, vomiting, and absolute fasting.

The following people are feeling fat, despite being extremely thin, eventually becoming a slave of the calories and rituals in relation to food. Isolate themselves from family and friends, became increasingly sad, angry and anxious. Hardly a person with anorexia admits the problem and does not accept help in any way. The family sometimes takes time to realize that something is wrong. Thus, people with anorexia nervosa may not receive medical treatment until they have become dangerously thin and malnourished.

Medical complications

* Malnutrition and dehydration.

* Hypotension (low blood pressure).

* Anemia

* Reduced muscle mass.

* Intolerance to cold.

* Decreased gastric motility.

* Amenorrhea (stopping of menstrual cycle).

* Osteoporosis (bone thinning and weakness).

* Infertility in chronic cases.

* More prone to infections with compromised immune systems



How is it prevented?

A decrease in cultural and family pressure regarding the valuation of physical, bodily form and beauty can possibly reduce the incidence of this problem. It is essential to provide information about the risks of strict regimes for obtaining a silhouette "ideal" because they have a key role in triggering eating disorders.



How does it treat it?

Treatment should be carried by a multidisciplinary team consisting of psychiatrist, psychologist, pediatrician and clinical nutritionist, depending on the complex interaction of emotional and physiological problems in eating disorders.

When diagnosed with anorexia nervosa, the physician should assess whether the patient is at imminent risk of life, thus requiring hospitalization.

The primary objective of treatment is the recovery of body weight through dietary re-education with psychological support. In general, we need some form of psychotherapy to help patients cope with their illness and underlying emotional issues.

Individual psychotherapy (psychotherapy that teaches patients to modify abnormal thoughts and behaviour) are generally very productive.

For the table of anorexia nervosa there is specific medication indicated. The use of antidepressants can be effective if there are persistent symptoms of depression after recovery of body weight.

Treatment of anorexia nervosa is often slow and difficult. The patient must remain in attendance after improvement of symptoms to prevent relapses.

Alzheimer's Disease

Alzheimer's disease or simply Alzheimer's is the most common form of dementia. This degenerative disease, so far incurable and terminal, was first described in 1906 by the German neuropathologist Alois Alzheimer, who inherited the name. This disease generally affects people over 65 years, although its diagnosis is also possible in people younger.

Each patient suffers from Alzheimer's disease in a unique way, but there are points in common, and the evolution of the disease is divided into four phases:

First stage
The first symptoms are often falsely associated with aging or stress. Some neuropsychological tests can reveal many cognitive disabilities to eight years before being able to diagnose Alzheimer's in full. The primary symptom most notable is the loss of short-term memory (difficulty in remembering recently learned facts), a patient loses the ability to give attention to something, you lose flexibility in thinking and abstract thought, can start losing their memory semantics. In this phase can still be seen apathy as a symptom rather common.

Second phase (mild dementia)
Some patients have difficulties in language, with the main functions, perception (agnosia), or execution of movements (apraxia), more striking than the loss of memory.

Language problems usually involve the reduction of vocabulary and greater difficulty in speech, leading to a general impoverishment of language. The patient may seem sloppy to make some simple motor tasks (writing, dressing, etc.) due to coordination problems.

Third phase The progressive degeneration hinders independence. The difficulty in speech becomes evident due to the inability to remember vocabulary. Progressively, the patient will lose the ability to read and write and no longer able to do the simplest daily tasks. During this phase, memory problems worsen and the patient may fail to recognize their relatives and acquaintances.

The long-term memory will be lost and behavioural changes will be worse. The most common manifestations are apathy, irritability and emotional instability, even to cry, unexpected attacks of aggression.

Fourth stage (terminal)
During the last phase the patient is completely dependent on people taking care of him. The language is now reduced to simple phrases or even single words, eventually, eventually, loss of speech.

However, aggression can still be present, and extreme apathy and exhaustion results are quite common. The patient will end up unable to perform the simplest tasks without help. His muscle mass and mobility degenerate to the point that the patient has to lie in one bed; lose the ability to eat alone.

Prevention and treatment 
All studies of measures to prevent or delay the effects of Alzheimer's are often fruitless. However, some studies appoint that the inclusion of fruit and vegetables, bread, wheat and other cereals, olive oil, fish, and red wine may reduce Alzheimer's risk. Some vitamins such as B12, B3, C and B9 were linked in studies to lower risk of Alzheimer's.

Intellectual activities like reading, playing board games (chess, checkers, etc.), completing crossword puzzles, playing musical instruments, or regular socialization can also delay the onset or the severity of Alzheimer's.

The treatment aims to comfort the patient as possible and delaying disease progression. Some drugs are useful in disease onset, and the dose should be personalized. 

Sports and Child Development

There is a widespread belief that doing sport is good for health of children. Therefore, they are increasingly the parents who are betting on sport as a form of leisure time for their children, as they recognize that this conveys a set of values and virtues.


Some researchers in this area call into question the benefits of sports, meaning, sport depends mainly on the lived experience of children. This means not just put the children to attend any sporting activity that they enjoy that same practice but the quality of the practice is most important.


Sports activities can also be very important in hyperactive, handicapped and autistic children, do to the facts that brings them several benefits (balance, motor and social skills, self esteem, etc.)


Benefits of sports
  • Exercise, no matter what age, can bring a range of benefits, not only physical, but as mental and social;
  • Physically it is known that sport helps to combat obesity, reduce the risk of cardiovascular diseases, strengthens muscles, bones, and joints;
  • The psychic level, raises self-esteem of practitioners, as it develops a skill set that did not have before, and improves their physical appearance, and therefore had a better image of themselves;
  • Socially, the Sport is assumed as an obvious place to make social ties of friendship, allowing the sharing of feelings and giving the individual the feeling of belonging to a group.
In sport your child can learn:
  • The value of health, for sport calls for a healthy lifestyle;
  • The value of cooperation, as a team sport only if they reach the goals when all join forces around a common project;
  • The value of respect, or recognize that all wrong and that the most important thing is to support colleagues in bad times, so that their colleagues do the same;
  • The value of Friendship, because the sport promotes the possibility of making friends;
  • The value of justice by refusing unjustified advantages and recognizing the opponent an indispensable element without which there is no competition;
  • The value of Multi-culturalism, as in sports, young people share the same space with children of various economic and cultural, contributing to the respect for different cultures;
  • The value of the Pledge, because they learn that to achieve a specific objective is required, hard work, effort and dedication, without which they never will be successful;
  • The value of defeats. Sport teaches the children understand that life is made of successes and failures, it is important to learn from the failures that arise throughout life.
However to make all this possible, the role of parents is decisive, regarding the respect, that they should present towards the coach, the coach rules and decisions, the games rules, team players, and do not forget to tell the child, that to do sport is a healthy option and an excellent complement to leisure, but the most important thing is to study.

Entering University - changing priorities and behavior

Entering university is certainly the dream of many young people, however, out of school and enter college is a difficult period of change. The adjustment may not be easy. An undergraduate student requires dedication, changing priorities and results in reduced contact with friends, lack of time. However, this transition does not bring only losses, on the one hand the horizon looks bleak on the other hand, college life offers new friends, a chance to meet people with different lifestyle and various social levels.

The change makes the student mature; the circle of friends of the student changes. At school he meets people closest to him. Already in college he will have colleagues of all ages and social classes. The contact with different people makes it grow not only academically but as a whole.
After beginning college, the student becomes more independent and increases their autonomy. However, one of the main fears of the students is to be disappointed by a wrong choice regarding career.

The student’s priority is the job market and how it needs to enter the profession even in very young age, you may be afraid of being frustrated. The fear is greater when the parents have invested in educating the student. Under these conditions, he feels pressure to show that money was not spent in vain. This will prove that the investment made by parents was not wasted is a charge for the student.

It is not necessarily that the parents creates that kind of pressure, it may be the student himself. Therefore, their targets when entering the university change. But the maxima that get into college is a sort of trampoline for the young to make new friends may not be a process so simple, and the student may have difficulty making friends.The relationship between new and old friends is also another aspect that may interfere.It is natural that the student now has more friends among fellow students, after all, one sees every day, and the student no longer has time to maintain contact with friends he had in school. That does not mean that those friendships have to end earlier.

Despite certain difficulties, the task of adapting to higher education can not be seen so dramatically amongst young people. After all, for many it is extremely easy and exciting this new stage. Gaining independence can not be an easy task, the students are afraid of change. But this is a necessary transition for the growth and maturing of the teenager.

Besides the independence won, they must also learn to handle money, be more controlled, thinking before spending, to manage it properly, and this and other facts to stimulate their creative capabilities, and transform your world view.

Thus it is important to prepare the youth before the start of this new stage, going by introducing accountability in the execution of tasks and autonomy in their daily lives, according to the approach of this new phase has been proven, it helps to better adapt and consequently improves there learning abilities.

Premature Babies

A baby is considered premature if he or she is born before the 37th week of gestation. The prematurity was in times one of the most common causes of infant mortality, but the evolution of the medical treatments has contributed to an continuously increased their survival rate.

Some characteristics of a premature baby:

  • Low weight when at birth; 
  • Small size; 
  • Head and hands are relatively bigger; 
  • Skin smooth and thin; 
  • Visible veins under the skin; 
  • Irregular breathing; 
  • Difficulties in suction; 
  • A weak and irregular cry. 
The motor and mental deficits are 3 times more frequent in babies of the male gender; and usually they will present difficulties: 
  • In the development of language; 
  • In the visual- motor integration; 
  • Attention and memory. 
At school age frequently present behaviour and learning disabilities (Generally this implication appears due to the low family and school demanding that is made to these children’s), so it is important that these children’s are stimulated.

Regarding the intelligence, even if in the media, premature babies generally have lowers than the average I.Q´s. However 80% of the premature don’t reveal any compromise regarding there I.Q Level and when that happens usually is associate to other factors (like cerebral hemorrhagic) and not prematurity.

Regarding the language, at 12 months 8% presents a serious delay in his language skills; at 24 months 28 presets a compromise in the expressive language and 6% a compromise in the receptive language.

The premature child with no other medical or neurologic complications do not presents any compromise regarding this aspect.

Like any other cognitive function the family relation seems to modify and with very frequency in a significantly scale the factors responsible for the cognitive defect.

With reference to attention and memory, the studies have been contradictory, and it changes from child to child.

The prematurity presents a high risk in a variety of disturbances of the development, since the more sever disturbances like the cerebral palsy and the intellectual deficiency, to a series of dysfunctions less sever in areas like the expressive language and comprehension, visual-motor abilities, attention, learning process and memory.

The percentage of cases that present this complications mite not be that high like the cumin sense will expect, but it exist in sufficient number to justify a psychological and neuropsychological evaluation of all the cases, with in the need of foil and trigger the necessary interventions to the minimization of the damage.

Down Syndrome


Question: I have a lot of questions to you about my 7+years old daughter who has Down Syndrome. She lately likes to play and talk to spoons..... yes spoons and other cutleries instead of toys. She will pick two spoons and pretend to be two people talking to each others. I have tried to replace with dolls or soft toys but she goes back to hers spoons. I have been talking to another parent of Down syndrome child; she told me that her daughter is doing the same. Please advise if it something to worry or it is normal. It is really irritating sometimes she even want to sleep with the spoons.

Answer:
Most kids with Down syndrome have a delay in developing their social & communications skills. It is not un-common, that they also show signs of immature behavioural and emotional development, due to the lack of an adequate communication system.

Referring to your query and after reading it, I can assume that your daughter presents a status of “immature development” of communications & emotional skills benched to children at age of seven. She has developed a certain way of playing that might seem strange to you, but for her that way of playing is giving her satisfaction.

She is still not ready to enter the world of the “humans”, and you could try to play with her by using the spoons as a way of interaction between the two of you in order to enable her to the next “stage”. I also recommend, if possible try to get a psychotherapist to work with her on a weekly basis and get some extra activities for her and you will see big progress.

How is the personality of children with Down syndrome? 
The intellectual deficiency exists with an IQ of between 25 and 50. The subjects with Down's syndrome have very different personalities, different learning styles, obedience and humour.

When and what can we do to improve their quality of live and self development? 
Since a very early age they should be provided with extensive health evaluations, early stimulation, physical therapy, strengthening of reporting and assessment of development.

Children with Epilepsy

Epilepsy is a situation characterize for the existence of anomaly crises, that persist to repeat end start from pathologic brain charges, that not necessary associated to a mental deficit.

The crises can be generalised or focal.
On the generalise crises all the brain is the start point for the charges, being the most common the Convulsions and Absents.

In the Convolutions there are several stadiums:
In the beginning the young child stays hard and falls with no conscience; it mite lose his breadth and stays with purple lips and with a dark colour.
In the next stage they can shake, dribble, urinate themselves and have a noisy breath. In this stage they can bite their thong and hurt themselves if they are closer to hard objects.
After there is a period, more or less log, of sleep that the brain recovers, and when the child awakes doesn’t have any conscience of having the crises.
In the Absents there is a break on the activities or a imperfect continuation of the same; the way they look to others looks vague and they don’t respond if someone talks to them. However they can blink and shake their heads for a brief moment, and some minutes later they can return to their activity with out realising what happen to them.
It is important to alert the family and the doctor.

What shod the professor do when children have a crisis?
1)    Keep calm during the crises, because it is not possible to do something to stop it;
2)    Observe what happens to tell to the family or doctor after the crises;
3)    Avoid obstacles were the child can hearth themselves:
4)    Open the shirt neck our seatbelt to facilitate the circulation:
5)    Put between the teeth a folded scarf, to prevent them to bite the thong;
6)    Call an ambulance is the crisis takes more then 15 to 20m:

Situations that can provoke an Epileptic attack
1)    Lose nights or wake up very sudden;
2)    :A very strong felling of anxiety and situations of very strong fear and sadness;
3)    The consume of alcohol can produce secondary effects, that later on can provoke an attack;
4)    Eat or drink in excess specially at night time;
5)    Stay a long time in very noise places, with very intense and intermittent lights;
6)    Watch TV, special when the light is intermittent, or the subtitles and the imaged is not very fixing.
The most frequent cause for the reappear of the Epilepsy attacks is the irregular or non administration of the medication prescribed against Epilepsy.

Dyslexia

The term comes from Greek meaning “hard" and is characterized by a difficulty in the area of reading, writing and spelling, and it was first identified in 1881 by Berklan but the term 'dyslexia' was coined in 1887 by Rudolf Berlin, in Germany.

People with dyslexia have difficulties in the association of sound to the letter (the beginning of the alphabet); also tend to exchange letters, or even write them in reverse order.
These symptoms may coexist or be confused with the characteristics of various other factors of learning disabilities such as attention deficit hyperactivity disorder. Nevertheless dyslexia and disorders of attention and hyperactivity disorder are not correlated with development problems, and it can even occur to children’s with a intelligence Quotient (IQ) above average.

In the case of school-age child, the Psycholinguistics defines dyslexia as an unexpected failure in reading (dyslexia), writing (dysgraphia) and spelling (disortographia) provided the age at which these skills have to be automated. Is what we called of developmental dyslexia.

Is there any physical causes?
There isn’t a consensus among scientists about the causes of dyslexia; recent studies find strong evidence for neurological dyslexia. Several researchers have suggested a genetic origin. According to this approach dyslexia, is a condition that manifests itself throughout life with no cure. In some cases medication and compensation strategies help dyslexics to live and overcome their difficulties with written language.

Is it possible to identify some reading and writing mistakes?
* Errors due to confusion around particular:
* Confusion on the proximity and sequel of articulatory speech disorders:
The linguistic features, involving the skills of reading and writing, the most striking of dyslexic children are: the accumulation and persistence of their spelling errors when reading and spelling; confusion between letters, syllables or words with subtle differences in spelling; confusion between letters, syllables or words with similar spelling but with different orientation in space; confusion between letters that have a common point of articulation; partial or total inversion of syllables or words.

Are there any other learning disorders accompany the dyslexics?
Some times we can find changes in memory series, written language, difficulties in mathematics, Poverty vocabulary, Shortage of prior knowledge (long-term memory)

Can an adult be dyslexic?
In the case of adults, such difficulties may occur after a stroke accident (CVA) or brain trauma, when that happens we say that it is acquired dyslexia.

Can  it be treated, can they be successful in there life’s?
In case of dyslexia, the most appropriate treatment is thru the rehabilitation of the brain; meaning, by reaped exercises we try to transform the num automatic process of reading and writing in an automatic process. Usually dyslexic people can have a normal live, and they can be very successful. 

Examples of dyslexics that have been or still are successful in several different areas:
  • Agatha Christie
  • Alexander Pope
  • Albert Einstein
  • Charles Darwin
  • Cher (Singer)
  • King Constantino of Greece
  • Franklin D. Roosevelt
  • George Washington
  • General George S. Patton
  • Jackie Stewart (racing pilot)
  • Keanu Reeves (actor)
  • Leonardo Da Vinci
  • Napoleão Bonaparte
  • Pablo Picasso
  • Robin Williams
  • Thomas A. Edison
  • Tom Cruise (Actor)
  • Vincent van Gogh
  • Winston Churchill
  • Walt Disney
  • Whoopi Goldberg

The Down Syndrome

In 1866, John Langdon Down realised that there were numerous physiologic similarities between a numbers of children’s with retardation. The identification of the chromosomal anomaly regarding the pair 21 (the cause of this syndrome), it began to use the term trisomy 21, or Down syndrome.

It is the most common and most known for the chromosomal alterations. It results in the existence of 47 chromosomes instead of 46, being the extra element the chromosome 21. In the pattern trisomy 21 the genetic material in excess is on the pair of chromosome 21, and is the result of an anomaly in the cellular division on the time of the fertilization of the egg by the sperm and occurs in 95% of the cases. Approximately 1% of the cases have pattern trisomy 21 meaning that not all the cells have an alteration of the chromosome 21. In these cases the characteristics are less marked and the mental retard is less sever then in the other cases. The rest of the 4% the alteration occurs due to translocation; there is an extraordinary disruption of the chromosome 21, that adheres to another chromosome (in this case is important to make a genetic study of the family).

When can be diagnosed?
The Down syndrome can usually be diagnosed at birth or shortly after, by their phenotypic characteristics:
Hypotonia, brachycephalic head with a flattened occipital lobe, eyes with folds on the corners, nose root low, the language usually large and fissured, small hands and broad, short fingers and misuse of the 5th finger, extended interval between the 1st and 2nd toes, small ears, external genitalia poorly developed, low and average height, in 40% of cases a fetal hearts malformation.

How is the personality of children with Down syndrome?
The intellectual deficiency exists with an IQ of between 25 and 50. The subjects with Down's syndrome have very different personalities, different learning styles, obedience and humour.

When and what can we do to improve their quality of live and self development?
Since a very early age they should be provided with extensive health evaluations, early stimulation, physical therapy, strengthening of reporting and assessment of development.

Difference between Psychologist and Psychiatrist

Avoiding very complex definitions, I present here a generic explanation. The formation of a Psychiatrist develops within the Medicine; he does a course in Medicine after which he specializes in psychiatry. In this sense, a psychiatrist is a doctor.

In general, psychiatry aims to treat mental illnesses that have an organic cause (endogenous). In this sense, it uses the medical model, both in diagnosis and treatment of disease.


In this expertise the problems are seen as a disease or disorder, in which the psychiatrist uses the resources of medicine (analysis, radiology techniques, electroencephalogram, etc.), to establish diagnoses and to carry out the treatment, being the treatment predominantly based in Drug therapy (psychopharmacology).

However, there are many psychiatrists who perform additional training (Psychoanalysis, Psychodrama, Gestalt, Cognitive, etc), which allows them to develop psychotherapeutic interventions.

The psychologist is a professional who completed his university degree in Psychology.
Because it receives influences and theoretical hybridization of various areas (Philosophy, Medicine, and Humanities in general) Psychology has a spectrum of action much wider than psychiatry (as in businesses, schools, communities, hospitals, etc.)
Generically, the psychologist believes that the psychological problems primarily are consequences of life experiences and relational experiences, linked to the way that the person has developed its way of dealing with themselves and with others.

Therefore, this work involves the professional psychotherapeutic intervention, by counselling, therapy or other arrangements to promote the development of the individual, focusing on the mental processes, emotional and physiological characteristics that affect the behaviour and human functioning.

In general, the psychologist studies and diagnoses problems through individual interviews, questionnaires and assessment tools, all within an established relationship between professional and client and within a psychosocial framework. The benefits of Psychology and Psychotherapy emerge from the therapeutic relationship that is established between the client and the therapist during the course of each case.

One of the major differences between a psychologist and a psychiatrist is that the first do not prescribe medications. This happens because of not only having medical training, but also because the way the intervention design has nothing to do with this type of therapy.
However, when the psychologist considers that the prescription pharmaceutical is in the best interest of his client, he may advise you to seek a psychiatrist or family doctor to obtain such medical assistance.

In this way, psychologists embraced a vision rooted in experiential factors, developmental, relational, while psychiatrists opt for a more organic / biochemistry, however, very often these two "components" are deeply intertwined, and it is very common that most psychologists, have a close working relationship with a particular doctor, which build a multidisciplinary collaboration and complementarity.

Depression

Depression is the principal cause of the incapacities and the second cause of lost of healthy years of life, between the 107 diseases and problems of health more relevant. The personal costs of this disease are very high, being recognized in Europe as a primary problem of public health.

What is a Depression and who can be affected by it?
A depression is a mental disease that features more marked by a more marked sadness or more prolonged in time, with lost of interests for the activities usually felt like pleasant and lost of energy or easy tiredness.
The depression can affect people of all age, since the childhood to the oldest, and if not treated can lead to suicide (with is a common consequence)
It can be episodic, recurrent or chronic, and leads to the substantial diminution of the capacities of the person in guarantee every day responsibilities
It is more common between the women’s than in men, but some studies reveal that 1, 9% of men suffer of depression and 3, 2% of women.

What are the Symptoms?
It is different from the normal mood changes by the severity and permanence of the symptoms. It is often associate to anxiety and panic and the most common symptoms are:
-      Modifications of the appetite;
-      Sleeping disorders;
-      Extreme tiredness, lost of energy;
-      Apathy, sadness and lack or difficulties of concentration;
-      Concern about the meaning of life and with death;
-      Sentiments of gilt, lack of self esteem;
-      Irritability,…

Are there people with more risk factors?
-      People with episodes of depression in the past;
-      People with family history of depression;
-      People that suffer a significantly lost of someone;
-      People chronic diseases;
-      People that cohabit with people with chronic diseases;
-      People with a tendency to anxiety and panic attacks;
-      Older people,…

How long can it last?
Depression can last from a few months to a few years. However in about 20% of the cases it becomes a chronic disease with no remission. These kinds of cases usually happen due to the lack of adequate treatment.

When is it important to look for help?
Having depressed feelings is common to any of us, especially after experiences or situations that affect us in a negative way. However if the symptoms aggravate and maintain for more then 2 consecutive weeks, it is important to start looking for help.

How to treat it?
Usually with the use of medication, psychotherapy intervention or a combination of both.
The medications used in the treatment of depressions are designated by antidepressants and showed be prescribed by a Psychiatrist doctor, and you showed follow his instructions.
The psychotherapy interventions are particularly useful in most of the situations of depression. The decision of to begin a therapeutic process it’s  not always came from the patient, but from the others next to them, but is important to do so if the person doesn’t have the energy to do it.
The time of treatment depends of the patient but is never less thin 6 months.