Asperger Syndrome


Asperger syndrome or disorder Asperger's syndrome is an autism spectrum, differing from the classical autism not include any delay or retardation in cognitive development or global language of the individual.

AS is more common in males, as adults, many can live in a common life, and some individuals with Asperger syndrome have become university professors (as Vernon Smith, "Nobel Prize" in Economics in 2002).

Some symptoms of this syndrome are difficulty in social interaction, lack of empathy, very literal interpretation of language, difficulty with change, perseveration in stereotyped behaviours. However, this can be reconciled with high or normal cognitive development.

Some scholars contend that great figures in history had strong traits of Asperger syndrome as physicists Albert Einstein and Isaac Newton, the composer Mozart, the philosopher Socrates.

Asperger syndrome, also known as high-function autism (HFA), which defines the syndrome as a condition with the following characteristics:

• Severe and persistent impairment in social interaction;

• The development of restricted, repetitive patterns of behaviour, interests and activities;

• Clinically significant impairment in social, occupational or other important areas of functioning;

• No significant delay in language development;

• There is, no clinically significant delays in cognitive development or skills development, self-help age-appropriate, adaptive behaviour (in an area other than social interaction) and curiosity about the environment in childhood.

The diagnosis of AS is complicated because even through the use of various assessment tools in the absence of a clinical examination to detect it.

Asperger syndrome in children may develop as a level of intense and obsessive focus on matters of interest, many of which are the same as normal children. The difference in children with AS is the unusual intensity of this interest.

Sometimes the interests are for life, in other cases, is changing the unpredictable intervals. In any case, are usually one or two interests at a time. In pursuing these interests, people with SA often manifests extremely sophisticated argument, an almost obsessive focus and an amazingly good memory for facts.

People with Asperger Syndrome may have little patience for things outside of those fields of particular interest. At school, may be deemed unfit or gifted highly intelligent, clearly able to overcome your colleagues in your field of interest, and yet constantly motivated to do homework.

Others may be highly motivated to overcome their schoolmates. The combination of social problems and intense special interests can lead to unusual behaviour such as approaching a stranger and start a long monologue on a topic of special interest instead of performing before a socially accepted. However, in many cases adults can overcome such impatience and lack of motivation and develop more tolerance to new activities and meet people.

In 2010, the American Psychiatric Association released a proposal for DSM-V, where Asperger syndrome disappears as a distinct diagnosis, starting to be included in autism.

Characteristics of SA:

• Specific interests or concerns and restricted to one theme at the expense of other activities;

• Repetitive behaviours or rituals;

• Peculiarities in speech and language;

• Standards of logical / technical extensive;

• Socially and emotionally inappropriate behaviour and interpersonal interaction problems;

• Problems with communication;

• Ability to design to compensate for the difficulty in expressing themselves verbally;

• Disorders engines, clumsy and uncoordinated.

A person with AS may have trouble understanding the emotions of others: the messages passed through facial expressions, looks and gestures have a low impact, but not zero. They may also have difficulty in showing empathy.

Thus, Aspergers may seem selfish, self-centred or insensitive. In most cases, these perceptions are unfair because the syndrome patients are neurologically unable to understand the emotional states of people around them. They usually are shocked, angered and hurt when they say their actions are offensive or inappropriate. Clearly, people with AS have emotions. But the precise nature of the emotional ties that may have can seem quaint or even be a cause of concern for anyone who does not share the same perspective.
Not being able to show affection - at least in the conventional way - does not necessarily mean they do not feel affection. Understanding this can help those around you to feel less rejected and be more understanding.



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