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Friday, November 4, 2011

5 Reasons Why Diary Writing Helps Your Mental Health




Author: Hayden Boyd

There are many mental illnesses out there in the big wide world, and it seems that little by little each day medical science is getting closer to making discoveries, getting closer to not only what causes each type of mental illness, but also what sorts of things are preventative measures, and also possible cures for them.


We all have family members who either throughout their lives, or as they have gotten older, have suffered from a form of mental illness such as depression, Alzheimer's Disease, autism or many more of these life changing and debilitating diseases and illnesses. At the moment there aren't a lot of things that we can do to cure them either. But one thing that a lot of medical professionals have put forward is that writing in general, or even diary writing is something that research has picked up on having some significant effects on slowing down these mental illnesses.


Let's have a look at five different reasons why diary writing helps your mental health and could also help prevent the onset of these mental illnesses both now and later in your life:


It helps to bring out your thoughts and your memories.


Ever been on a trip and taken photos and laughed along with people along through the event, only to get home and then realise that you may remember some things about the trip, but not everything, and that it was a faded memory? Even the photos can't help you remember. Writing it down in a diary helps to record those thoughts and feelings of what it was like when you were there. It stimulates thoughts and emotions. You then remember, what you were wearing, what the weather was like, how good or bad the food tasted. The culture and experience of the place you visited.


It helps you reflect on what sort of a person you are.


Maybe the diary you are keeping is your personal thoughts or part of a therapy advised by a psychologist or practitioner, to help you release those inner feelings and emotions, in order to help you deal with them and perhaps move on from an unpleasant and traumatic experience. By writing down what you thought, what you said, how you acted during a particular event, or a time or a place that you were in, it helps you to recognise perhaps some sorts of behaviours that you may need to correct or think about. It kind of gives you a mirror image of yourself and can often be a positive and useful tool and help you create a better person.


Diary writing gives you that "space" that you often need.


Ever had a time that you just wanted to be alone to collect your thoughts? Some people find that by writing in a diary, it gives them an outlet to get rid of all those constant thoughts going around in your head and it can often be a very cathartic experience. Diary writing can often be that "person to talk to" when you have nobody to share your thoughts with. Even though it can't answer your questions and things, just by writing it down can often help just to get it out of your mind.


Sometimes it shows your journey or how far you have come.


We have all had challenges in our lives that have seemed at the time against all impossible odds, and by writing these down, it can show how far we have come when we read back over them later. Especially if you are recording things in sequence, you can measure points of time and at what stage you were making certain amounts of progress. It can show your improvements, or even sometimes your failures. But it is like doing your own clinical observations of yourself, it can help you make better decisions and show what mistakes you possibly made in the past to help you try and avoid them in the future.


Writing stimulates brain activity and works your co-ordination.


It's a healthy experience to write. Whether you are writing by hand, using a typewriter, or maybe even a computer keyboard, you are using the brain actively, along with the muscles, movements and co-ordination to think of what you are writing and also to make it make sense. Are you looking for a particular pattern when you are looking at your mental health? You can often see the highs and lows if you have been recording experiences for a long time. It may show your particular thoughts on a day or your actions during a particular time. This may help you change your thoughts and stimulate other parts of the brain that could be not being used at that particular time.

Article Source: http://www.articlesbase.com/mental-health-articles/5-reasons-why-diary-writing-helps-your-mental-health-5350942.html


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Some Conditions Helped by Homeopathic Treatment



Author:


kelvin warren

Homeopathic treatment is a natural form of medicine with little to no side effects that some people swear by. Following are just some conditions homeopathic treatment can be used for.

Anxiety

If left untreated, the problems caused by anxiety can become very troublesome to a persons health, leading to eventual problems such as high blood pressure and stress, which could even lead to a heart attack, and so possibly death, in the most severe of anxiety cases.

Thankfully there is anxiety treatment that does aim to rule out many of these possible health complications, so even those individuals who suffer with the most severe forms of anxiety can receive treatment to help them to overcome their problems.

Anxiety can be triggered by many forms so in each case it is important to look into an anxiety sufferers exact problem as they can all vary so widely. Some people may be anxious about losing their job, and possibly are afraid of losing money and maybe eventually their home, whereas others may suffer from anxiety when having to give presentations in front of large groups.

Other anxiety treatment can involve therapy in which a counsellor can talk to the sufferer and try to find out any underlying problems, while other treatments could involve simply eating or drinking specific plants or vitamins which are said to reduce the symptoms of anxiety and to relax the sufferer.

IBS

IBS or irritable bowel syndrome is actually a very common illness suffered by people, with the main symptoms being gas, an uncomfortable stomach, and excessive trips to the toilet. IBS is usually brought on by the consumption of specific kinds of foods, with dairy products such as milk and cheese one of the most popular types of irritant. Ways to reduce the effects of IBS involve trying to analyse the diet to find out exactly what forms of food are causing the irritation, whereas medication and even bowel surgery are other possible IBS treatment methods.

Headache

Probably the most commonly complained of health condition has to be that of a plain old headache – something that probably everyone has suffered from at one point in their life, with some people apparently more susceptible to having them then others. Headaches can vary wildly in severity, with migraines being one of the worst forms, whereas other times it can simply feel like a slightly dull ache in the forehead area. They can be brought on by many things – a lack of sleep, over-activity, too much loud noise, stress, and so on. Unfortunately they\'re not always easy to get rid of and that\'s why homeopathic treatment is so popular, but alternatively by using paracetamol or ibuprofen, two common forms of painkillers, they can often be lessened or ceased.

Insomnia

Insomnia treatment can involve trying to analyse what it is that is causing a sufferer to be unable to sleep, which is never an easy task. Many people complain of having insomnia at some point in their lives, and it can be such a frustrating condition to suffer from, with sleep being such an important part of life. Finding people who offer insomnia treatment can be quite a task in itself, with the illness being so hard to research, but thankfully with modern medicines there are some ways of at least alleviating the suffering and to help people to overcome their insomnia and get some sleep though these have some side effects.

Article Source: http://www.articlesbase.com/mental-health-articles/some-conditions-helped-by-homeopathic-treatment-5359198.html

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Depression Treatment


Depression Treatment: How to Encourage and Support Your Loved One Through It


Author: Benjamin Brafman

Depression treatment is not an easy thing to accept that you need. People with depression often report feeling worthless, sad and empty for weeks and even months at a time. During these times, they can be so downtrodden that they lose all interest in activities they used to enjoy and have a general disposition of hopelessness. Common symptoms of depression also include irritability, difficulty concentrating and making decisions. When someone is experiencing this variety of negative symptoms, it can be very difficult for their loved ones to know how to behave around them and provide the proper support they need to encourage them to seek depression treatment.


Starting the conversation can be a sizable hurdle to overcome. Many individuals suffering from depression don't think that they have a problem because they've felt this way for so long that they just assume that's normal. Talking to them and explaining troubling signs and concerns you have can be helpful. Other people think that having depression is a sign of weakness and they need to be able to "cure it" on their own, and are therefore averse to depression treatment. In this case, a good initial approach would be explaining that depression is a serious, but treatable medical condition, not a personal flaw, and without treatment symptoms usually worsen.


How to Encourage Depression Treatment


After discussing your loved ones depression symptoms and your concerns, the next step is to encourage them to see a professional for depression treatment. This professional should be a medical doctor, licensed counselor or psychologist. If your loved one is unsure about what to say to the professional, offer to help them prepare a list of questions or talking points to ease some of their anxiety. Finally, vocalize your support of their depression treatment by offering to set up and accompany them to appointments as well as participating in family therapy sessions.


Cheat Sheet on How to Provide Support for your Loved One with Depression


The Mayo Clinic offers the following tips on how to effectively support your loved one through their depression treatment:



  • Learn about Depression- The more you learn about the illness, the better you'll be able to understand the symptoms and support your loved one. Talking to someone who has gone through depression treatment or supported a loved one through it is a plus.

  • Be a Good Listener- People with depression often don't want to discuss their feelings and symptoms, so when they do, it's important that you listen.

  • Provide Positive Reinforcement- Depression can seriously impact a person's self esteem so reminding them of their positive qualities and how much they mean to you can be a helpful tool.

  • Help Create a Low-Stress Environment- Minimizing stress can help make a person with depression feel more in control. Establishing a regular routine with regard to meals, chores, medication, exercise and sleep can be beneficial.

  • Encourage Following Through on Treatment- Always be an encouraging part of depression treatment by helping your loved one stay on top of medications prescribed and attending appointments.

  • Be Patient- Remember that depression is a complicated mental illness and it's not something that can be resolved overnight. Depression usually improves with treatment but everyone improves at their own rate so having patience is key.

Article Source: http://www.articlesbase.com/mental-health-articles/depression-treatment-how-to-encourage-and-support-your-loved-one-through-it-5360187.html


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What is Severe Anxiety Disorder? Is It Some Kind of Untreated Illness?




Author: kdine

Severe anxiety disorder is a serious mental illness. For those who are not familiar with it, this disorder usually grouped together with panic disorder, generalized anxiety, phobias, obsessive-compulsive disorder, and post-traumatic stress disorder. When the victim's emotion is overwhelming with negative thoughts, this disorder itself start taking physical form, and disrupt the victim's daily life.

People who are suffered from the severe anxiety disorder tend to have unrealistic worry, irrational fear, and unable to sleep well. When the severe anxiety symptoms kick in, the victim will experience numerous changes of his body. His body will start shaking indefinitely. His body temperature is dropping. He starts to sweat a lot. And lastly, his chest and muscle will feel pain. These changes can easily last for several hours.

Because of their inability to control their worries, these people always look tense and insecure. They are always expecting any bad situations will occur on them. Furthermore, these people are also easily to get distracted or absorbed by their own thoughts. Because of their unrealistic awareness or worries, they tend to choose to isolate themselves from the society.

People usually develop severe anxiety disorder from an early stage of life or experience a traumatic incident in the past. It is advisable for one to seek help or treatment immediate before this mental disorder growing worse. In the early stage, this disorder can be controlled by taking antidepressants that given by the doctor. The antidepressants will ease and relief the patient's anxiety symptoms. Another solution is going for therapy treatment. This treatment is more reliable than medication treatment although it takes time to achieve the results. Instead of suppressing the mental illness with drug prescription, the victim will learn to confront their fears and worries in the therapy treatment. Also, the victim will be taught to think positively in any condition that they were dealing with.

There are 2 types of phobia that the severe anxiety patients can get. One of them is social phobia, and another one is a specific phobia. The victim who has social phobia does not like to be surrounded by many people. Under this scenario, the victim is going to feel extremely uncomfortable and unease. Also, the victim also shows a strong dislike of being judged by people. As for the victim has specific phobia, he will feel unease and nervous if he see or hear something or going to the place that he dislikes. The specific fear/phobia is usually involved with fear of height, fear of specific animals or insects or things, and fear of certain events or incidents. Either way, these types of people have a difficult time to enjoy their normal life.

If your friends or family members are suffering from this severe mental disorder, you can help them by communicate with them more often. This action will reduce or minimize their stress catalysts that they are dealing with. Also, never restrict them from doing their daily activities, even though you are aware that the core of the problem lies in their action or activities. A sudden change of their activities can lead or trigger the anxiety attack.

Article Source: http://www.articlesbase.com/mental-health-articles/what-is-severe-anxiety-disorder-is-it-some-kind-of-untreated-illness-5362677.html


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Monday, October 17, 2011

20 Ways to relax your mind


Follow these simple tips to relax your body and mind, you will be on the best way to find relief from tension and anxiety, cope better with everyday problems, be emotionally stronger, and improve your concentration. You can become more positive, more tolerant and get more out of life. Generally the most effective way to overcome stress and anxiety is not so much to try to change the situations themselves, but simply to change the way you deal with them.
There are many ways to relax body and mind, ranging from the physical (massage, acupressure etc), to the emotional (influencing the subconscious) and spiritual (tapping into the universal life force and your inner spirit). In this article I will give you a few starters so you can instantly begin to relax. There is always more to learn!
1. Improve your fitness - a fit body is much more able to cope with stress and there is a lot of satisfaction to be gained from physical fitness and achievement. Start slow and don't overdo it - but steadily build up your strength.
2. Improve your eating habits - You are what you eat - try eating more vegetables and less fat and see how quickly your body will react and your ability to relax will improve.
3. Improve your drinking habits - instead of coffee, have a glass of water or herbal tea. If you are feeling anxious, try to cut down on stimuli like caffeine or alcohol which will stress your body even more.
4. Improve your posture: slumped shoulders and a dropped neck inhibit breathing properly. Straighten up and feel how good it feels to stand up to yourself.
5. Get comfortable: To be able to calm and relax, remove your shoes, undo your tie or neck button, loosen your belt, unclasp your bra, slip into something comfortable. This is the prerequisite of any relaxing exercise.
6. Fresh air: Open the windows and breathe in the fresh air.
7. Slow down: Instead of talking and searching for company at any cost, take a couple of minutes outdoors to slow down. Nature has its own way of calming your mind.
8. Silence: find a place in silence - treasure it, absorb it, immerse yourself in it, hang on to it as long as possible. Many relaxing exercises will start with a place of silence.
9. Control Your Breathing: Straighten up and take a deep slow breath through your nose, deep into your tummy, do not let the chest rise, relax your shoulders - then release the breath slowly through your mouth.
10. Muscle relaxation: Sitting or lying comfortably tense the muscles of one arm - hold it - then let them go limp and feel the difference. Savour the relaxed feeling. Do the same with the other arm and the legs one at a time
11. Shoulders and neck: Slowly rotate one shoulder backwards and forwards, then up and down. Do the same with the other shoulder. Gently let your head fall down on your chest, then bring it up and backwards. After that, tilt your head on the left and right shoulder. Repeat this slowly.
12. Jaw release: Open your mouth wide, then close. Repeat this a few times. Then put your fist under your chin, open your mouth and press the lower jaw against the fist. Hold this for a few seconds, then release.
13. Hands: Clasp fingers tightly and press, then release. Become aware of how tension feels. Then nestle your left in your right hand, the thumbs gently touching each other. Remain like this and relax.
14. Motivation: motivate yourself to continue on your path to calmness. Actively seek it; if you are certain that you can achieve it the positive energy will push you forward.
15. Reject stress: Distinctly reorganize your priorities. Reject anything that will put pressure on you. Learn to say no and become more positive and energetic.
16. Affirmation: This is a whole wide field of possibilities. Try to visualize a certain situation (you being able to cope with a stressful situation for example), then imprint this picture onto a stone or small object you can fit into your pocket. Then every time you touch it you will see this picture and affirm yourself that you can achieve it.
17. Autogenic Training: This as well is a big field and is a good method for emergency stress response. Lie down and think of your arms. Feel them getting heavy. Think: "My arm is getting heavy", again and again. Do the same with the other arm and each leg. You can also think: "My arm is getting warm" and repeat that. Feel it getting warm.
18. Influence your subconscious: To reinforce messages to your subconscious, like "I am calm and can cope with this situation", there is no way like this: repeat, repeat, repeat.
19. Visualization: Go to sleep with a picture in your mind how you would like to be. Do this again and again, every night. Try to wake up with this picture in your mind.
20. Concentrate on the task at hand: If you immerse yourself totally in a task, so that you achieve the very best result you are capable of (this can be anything at all, for example washing the dishes, ironing, driving a car or mowing the lawn), you will find that task becomes like a meditation in itself. Time flies, you derive satisfaction from your efforts and you spend at least this time completely in the here and now, not worrying about past or future.

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/1445624

Tuesday, October 11, 2011

Why human suffer from tension


Turning Stress into Success

1. The starting point to turn stress into success is to lessen your load. Eighty percent of the cure can come out of writing down all your cares and responsibilities in order of priority, then eliminating the least important.

2. Remember that Superman and woman exist only in comics and films. Everybody has a breaking point, so recognize yours and call a halt before you reach your limit.

3. With stress comes pent-up feelings. Get them "off your chest" by sharing them with a trusted friend or counsellor. This of itself can bring immediate relief and helps you to think and plan more objectively.

4. Stop fighting situations that can't be changed. As one father told his impatient teenager, "If you would only realize and accept the fact that life is a struggle, things would be so much easier for you." Learning to live with and get on top of struggles is what helps us grow and mature.

5. Watch your diet and eating habits. When under stress we tend to overeat—especially junk food which increases stress. A balanced diet of proteins, vitamins, and fiber while also eliminating white sugar, caffeine, too much fat, alcohol and nicotine is essential for lowering stress and its effects.

6. Be sure to get plenty of physical exercise. This keeps you healthier and helps burn up excess adrenaline caused by stress and its accompanying anxiety.

7. The ultimate answer to turning stress into success is to learn to trust God through Jesus Christ and live in harmony with his will for your daily life. God's peace comes through accepting and trusting in Jesus Christ.

"Don't worry about anything, instead, pray about everything; tell God your needs and don't forget to thank him for his answers. If you do this you will experience God's peace, which is far more wonderful than the human mind can understand." Phili.4:6-7

Suggested prayer: "Dear God, please 'give me the courage to change the things I can change, the serenity to accept the things I cannot change, and the wisdom to know the difference.' Help me to trust my life to you in every situation in which I find myself.

Not only men but also women suffer from tension because it comes on people"s personal behave and it also depend on the thought and feelings of person to person some people just ignore the tension giving behave and talk of the other people but some start to think about that and start to argue. the argument brings tension but ignore does not. So my feeling is something that give u tension have to be ignored when it comes
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