“Remember that there is nothing stable in human affairs; therefore, avoid undue elation in prosperity, or undue depression in adversity.” – Socrates Every single day, Cindy (not her real name) felt utter, total despair that could be compared with the kind desperation that drove the famous grunge band singer Kurt Cobain to commit suicide. According to Cindy, she was only 23 years old when she got married and had a baby early in the marriage. She said that the first time she held her baby, she did not feel the joy and excitement that were usually felt by first-time mothers. In fact, she said that she felt numb… as if she was stuck in a proverbial black hole. She could not explain the sadness that she felt. Even if she was afraid to admit it, deep inside, she did not feel that she wanted to take care of her baby. Her emotional instability strained her relationship with her husband, family, and friends. She tried to hide it from her husband but she felt really miserable about her situation as a new bride and new mother. To make it worse, she felt guilty about having all those melancholic feelings. The medicines she took to alleviate her sadness did not work. She suffered side-effects like nausea, migraine headaches, muscle spasms, and cramps. Upon the prodding of her husband and family, she went to another doctor who gave her a complete examination. Unlike the usual medical check-up, the doctor spent more time speaking with Cindy about how she felt and though about her new situation as a young mother. After some time, the doctor finally identified what was wrong with Cindy. He said that Cindy was suffering from Postpartum Depression. Beyond the Blues Postpartum Depression (PD) is caused by a number of factors that vary from individual to individual. First-time mothers experience some degree of depression during the first weeks after birth. This happens when hormonal changes takes place and affects the emotions. Experiences may vary but some of the most common symptoms of PD are: l anxiety panic attack l persistent low mood l helplessness l exhaustion l insomnia l not eating or overeating l inability to cope with routine task l withdrawal from the outside world Coping with Post-Partum Depression Postpartum Depression (PD) cannot be determined through a simple diagnostic test. It takes a lot of experience to know if a woman is suffering from PD. The key is to convince the woman to undergo a treatment method or therapy such as counseling, group sessions, and psychotherapy. Alternative therapies such as constitutional homeopathy and acupuncture also work for some women. Being a new mother could be very stressful for the few months but it won’t last forever. In addition, to the available medications and therapies, here are more useful tips to cope with postpartum depression: l Make your day as simple as possible. Don’t do heavy tasks that leave you feeling so exhausted. l Avoid undue pressures. l Involve your partner in taking care of the baby. l Divide the household chores between you and your partner. l Get some sleep or rest when the baby is sleeping. l Schedule some time out to go to the park. Have a picnic or watch a good movie. l Have a good time with your best friend or group of friends. l Have a good laugh. l Get some exercise. With enough love and support from your husband, family, and close friends — you can overcome your postpartum blues in no time.
Tag-Archive for ◊ Depression ◊
People normally eat more whenever celebrations arise, such as birthdays and the holidays. We tend to ear more whenever these kinds of events occur. In line with this, a new study found out that people who have the tendency to eat in response to external factors, such as holidays and celebrations, have lesser problems in dealing with their weight loss than those people who eat in response to their emotions (considering internal factors). The study also found out that emotional eating was associated with weight regain for people who lost weight.
Lead author Heather Niemeier of Miriam Hospital’s Weight Control and Diabetes Research Center states that they have findings that the more people report eating to respond for thoughts and feelings such as when one is lonely, the less weight they lose in a behavioral weight loss program. The findings also showed that among those who have successfully lost their weight, those who report for emotional eating, were more likely to regain. The authors noted this as important, since one of the greatest challenges in facing the field of overweight and obesity treatment remains the problem of weight regain following the weight loss. According to Niemeier, participants in behavioral weight loss programs lose an average of ten percent of their body weight, and these losses are associated with significant health benefits. Unfortunately, the majority of participants return to their baseline weight within three to five years.
In this particular study, the researchers analyzed the individual’s responses to a questionnaire that is widely used in overweight and obesity research called the Eating Inventory. The Eating Inventory is a tool designed to evaluate three aspects of eating behaviors in an individual such as cognitive restraint, hunger, and disinhibition. For a more specified research, Niemeier and her team only focused on the disinhibition aspect of the Eating Inventory. Although, past studies have suggested that disinhibition as a whole is an accurate predictor of weight loss, the scale itself includes multiple factors that could separately forecast outcomes. Niemeier said that the disinhibition scale will evaluate the impulse eating in response to emotional, cognitive, or social cues. Their goal was to examine and isolate the factors that make up the disinhibition scale, and then determine if these factors have a specific relationship with weight loss and regain.
Those included in the study are divided into two groups. The first group was composed of 286 overweight men and women who are currently participating in a behavioral weight loss program. The second group on the other hand included 3,345 members of the National Weight Control Registry (NWCR), an ongoing study of adults who have lost at least thirty pounds and kept it off for at least one year. According to the study, by examining these two different groups, they were able to evaluate the effect of disinhibition on individuals attempting to lose weight, as well as on those who are trying to maintain weight loss. Upon further examination, the researchers found that the components within the disinhibition scale was to be grouped in two distinct areas: external and internal disinhibition. External disinhibition describes experiences that are external to the individual, while internal refers to eating in response to thoughts and feelings, which includes emotional eating. Results showed that in both groups, internal disinhibition was a significant predictor of weight over time. For those people enrolled in weight loss programs, the higher level of internal disinhibition, the less weight is lost over time.
Their research has suggested that attention should be given to eating that is triggered by thoughts and feelings, since they clearly play a significant role in weight loss. Internal disinhibition, however, predicted weight change over time above and beyond other psychological issues including depression, binge eating, and perceived stress. By further modification of treatments in order to address these triggers for unhealthy eating and at the same time help the patients learn alternative strategies could improve their ability to maintain weight loss behaviors, even in the face of affective and cognitive difficulties.
Related posts
Menopausal women searching for new ways to cool down hot flashes have found a new prescription: antidepressants. Although this does not mean that all menopausal women are going through depression, none of these drugs are specifically approved for the condition, yet the number of doctors giving “off label” prescriptions is on the rise. Hot flashes are characterized by the sudden, intense, hot feeling on your face and upper body, and can be preceded or accompanied by a rapid heartbeat and sweating, nausea, dizziness, anxiety, headache, weakness, or a feeling of suffocation. According to research, the use of antidepressants for menopausal women has become increasingly common due to the fact that women and doctors alike are seeking alternatives to menopause hormones. It has been observed that the use of hormone drugs for menopause has decreased significantly since 2002, after a government study that linked hormone use in older women may result to stroke and breast cancer. There is no clear evidence why antidepressants seem to have a cooling down effect in the hot flashes of some women. The connection was made only by chance in the studies of women with breast cancer. There are some cancer drugs that can set off hot flashes, and researchers noticed that women who were also taking the antidepressants known as a selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors had fewer flashes. There are studies which showed that the use of these and other serotonin-altering drugs to treat hot flashes in healthy menopausal women have shown disappointing results. On the other hand, Wyeth’s Effexor and GlaxoSmithKline’s Paxil, have shown a meaningful benefit in high-quality controlled studies, as per a review published last year in The Journal of the American Medical Association. Most women welcome the idea of relief more than they would receive from drugs. In one Effexor trial, the antidepressant users reported about 60 percent fewer hot flashes. By comparison, studies of hormones show estrogen reduces the frequency of hot flashes 80 percent. However, some women also complained of numerous side effects, such as constipation, dry mouth and nausea. According to Cynthia Pearson, Executive Director of the National Women’s health, some women are fine with antidepressants and say, “It helps and it makes a difference,” while others say, “Forget it. I don’t feel like myself.” Different studies produce a variation of results in connection with the drug responses. A study of the antidepressant Zoloft which was sponsored by its maker, Pfizer, and published this month in the journal “Menopause,” has reported that one-third of the subjects actually had more hot flashes while taking the drug, a third stayed about the same or experienced just a slight benefit, and another third reported far fewer hot flashes. Such finding is similar to trends shown in other studies of antidepressants for hot flashes, which include Prozac and Paxil. Figuring out which type of women have the most to gain from taking antidepressant drugs is the real challenge but the number of women to be studied should increase in order to come up with significant conclusions. In the Zoloft trial, only 27 women were in the high-benefit group. A very interesting trend emerged among women who were recently menopausal. These women who had just stopped having their periods turned out to receive the most benefits from antidepressant treatment. However, women who had been menopausal for a year and those who were just starting to experience the effects of hormonal fluctuations fared worse on the drug. The biggest concern about antidepressant use for menopause is that the drugs may worsen some symptoms already common during menopause — things like anxiety, sleep problems and loss of libido. And while the drugs have been used safely for years in people with depression, there’s no long-term data on their use in healthy women with healthy brains. Women who will opt to try antidepressant treatment for the relief of hot flashes should first consult professional medical advise. Regular follow-up is also necessary in the first weeks after starting the drug.
Related posts
The article is about the psycho-emotional problem of depression that afflicts millions of people today. The article also goes through the symptoms, effects, and possible treatments for depression. It also makes a case for the use of alternative, non-drug remedies to treat depression.
Related posts
The words “mind over matter” are more than just three words randomly strung together to make something that sounds somewhat sensible. “Mind over matter” is more than just a myth, because there are times when a person’s state of mind has considerable effects on matters of the flesh. Performance anxiety can make someone do a sub-par job on physical activities, like missing critical free throws and over-extending left jabs. Mental health can have an effect on a person’s physical performance, with certain issues having more noticeable effects than others. As an example, there is the connection between depression and sexual impotence.
Impotence is one of those problems that an increasing number of men have difficulty coming to terms with. It takes a significant amount of courage to even consider talking to a physician about the possibility of a problem. It can even be harder to admit to others that the problem is there, whether they are undergoing treatment for it or not. Sexual impotence as seen as being highly damaging to the measure of a man, by modern socio-cultural standards. Fear of failure and extremely stressful situations can wear down a man’s ability to “get it up,” but very few can make the problem as long-term as depression can.
In what might be the worst possible case of “mind over matter” than any red-blooded male can imagine, depression can effectively cripple a man’s ability to function sexually. The emotional problems caused by depression can have serious effects on the hormones and biochemical transmitters that the body uses to signal or initiate an erection. Obviously, if a man can’t attain a proper erection – or has difficulty maintaining it long enough to be of any importance – then he’s going to be classified as impotent. Sadly, if the problem is left untreated long enough, there’s a very good chance that the condition would just worsen.
Once a man begins to believe he has entered a state of sexual impotence, he may actually become even more depressed. This is because of a psychological loss of gender identity as dictated by socio-cultural factors. With equal rights and women’s liberation, men have lost the part of “manliness” that involved being the sole provider for one’s family and loved ones, forcing a socio-psychological focus to rest on that other aspect that supposedly defines masculinity. Essentially, society has made men think that to be classified as men, they have to be virile and sexually potent. Once they lose that critical part of their gender identity, then life just starts to go downhill that bit faster for them on a psychological level. This, in turn, not only worsens his relationships but also makes it harder for him to overcome his impotence.
There are drugs to help fight impotence, but those drugs are often best suited to treating men who have problems rooted in the body. Lack of proper circulation, damage to muscle tissue, and a variety of other physical ailments can also cause impotence. Implants and corrective surgery can fix those issues, but they are likely to do little for a man with problems deeply rooted in his own mind. For that, physical repairs may have some appreciable change, but they won’t have the same impact that they normally do unless the mind is also given proper treatment and care.
Related posts
Compared to the early releases, new video games have improved in terms of plot and character development. The psychology and personalities of the characters – hero, villain, and recurring figure alike are now just as important as how the game plays. However, like in the early days of comic books before Stan Lee’s “Spider-Man,” video game characters tend to be flat caricatures of real people, with flaws like social anxiety, fragile mental health, and depression being traits reserved for antagonists. Yet, even in such a climate, there are still maverick character designers who have made heroes that are difficult to fit into the traditional definition of the “hero” role. Among the best examples of such games is Hideo Kojima’s “Metal Gear Solid” series. Being a game that both embraces the psychology of war and carries a strong pacifist undercurrent, there is a complexity in the cast of characters that is necessary. To an extent, all of the characters have some form of mental health disorder, which is appropriate for a game that relies heavily on the personalities of its characters. While some might initially see them as extreme responses to their situations, Kojima has gone to great lengths to present his characters as possibilities present when war meets psychology. The characters of the MGS series can be taken to represent the various effects of war on a person’s mental health, whether they are soldiers, commanders, or bystanders. He shows this through their personalities and the conversations that they have with the protagonist, making them more than just an obstacle to overcome to complete the game. Among the most long-standing favorites of Kojima’s multitude of antagonists is the woman known only as Sniper Wolf. She may appear perfectly sane at first glance, but some have analyzed her personality as a potential consequence of growing up in a war zone. The experience of living in war-torn Iraq has left scars that damaged her mental health and emotional development . For children who were born and raised in a war zone, the typical response is to find a way out of the chaos and destruction. For Sniper Wolf, even after her rescue, her mental health was so marked by her experiences that the only real way she could overcome her prolonged trauma was to become part of it. Yet, perhaps due to some sort of anxiety disorder, she also longed to distance herself from it. As a soldier, she became part of the very thing that terrorized her as a child. As a sniper, she perhaps relieved her fear and anxiety as a child by distancing herself from the front lines, taking lives from behind the scope of her rifle. This theme of a person becoming part of what scarred them in their youth is repeated in the “Beauty and the Beast” military unit in the upcoming finale of the MGS series, albeit with a more literal interpretation. Liquid Snake, one of the series’ primary antagonists, also exhibits a number of psychological disorders. His initial goal appeared to have been little more than the “world conquest” standard, but as the plot progresses, it is revealed to be much deeper. As the genetically-altered “twin brother” to the protagonist, Solid Snake, Liquid exhibits signs of sibling-caused status anxiety. Altered to be the inferior of the two brothers, Liquid pushed himself to perform in every aspect of his military life to prove that his inferior genetics were not going to define him. His status anxiety also pushed him to lead an insurrection of soldiers in an attempt to outdo his father and form a utopia for soldiers. His murderous competition with his brother is also driven by status anxiety, as he subconsciously desires to kill his brother to prove that he is better than both his brother and his father. This desire to outdo both his brother and father is a consistent factor in his appearances in the series. He also exhibits a slight Messiah complex in his desire to fulfill his father’s dream, as he expanded the plan to not only create a haven for soldiers, but also to destroy the governments that would use and discard them. The problem of status anxiety also manifests slightly in the goals of Big Boss, Liquid and Solid Snake’s “father.” A man deemed to be the “perfect soldier,” his genetic material was used to create his “sons,” even as he had one of them modified to be inferior to the other. As a solider, he quickly realized that the time would come when men like him would no longer be needed and would be discarded by the governments they served like obsolete trash. His own status anxiety, combined with his disillusionment at how the US government betrayed his mentor to save their reputation, forged the idea of a soldier’s utopia in his mind. It was during his second attempt to establish such a utopia – which he termed “Outer Heaven” – that he was slain in battle by Solid Snake, his genetic son. His adamant refusal to be referred to by his codename of “Big Boss” also reflects his status anxiety towards the events that earned him the name. He resents the fact that he was awarded that codename because he killed his mentor, “The Boss,” for a government that discarded and abandoned her – despite her loyal service – simply because it was politically convenient to do so. The bitter irony of the name has not escaped him. However, perhaps the most psychologically compelling case among the MGS series cast would be the chief protagonist himself, Solid Snake. According to records spread throughout the games, Snake exhibited signs of social anxiety at an early age. Trained to be the perfect killer and the ultimate stealth soldier, he was raised to dislike emotional attachments and view closeness with other people as a potential weakness. This social anxiety was reinforced by his second major mission, where he had to kill both his best friend and his father to fulfill his mission objectives. The fight with Gray Fox, his best friend, was also an instance where he showed performance anxiety, being extremely unwilling to fight a man he considered his friend and combat superior. His traces of status anxiety also plays a role in his character, though not in the way most would expect. He views himself not as the hero the people around him believe he is, but simply as “an old killer, hired to do some wet work.” He constantly seems to wish to prove that he is more than just the soldier he believes himself to be, but inevitably cannot distance himself from the battlefield. His conflicted status anxiety sometimes plays out subtly, as he no longer wishes to engage in fighting and just live out his life in isolation. However, he understands that he is a soldier and he will always be a soldier, with his only home being the chaos of a battlefield. A common trait among the front line soldier characters of the MGS series is their inability to feel grief over loss. The explanation was that, as they were exposed more and more to the horrors of war, they began to lose the ability to grieve over lost comrades and family. This has been portrayed as a side effect of the horrors of war upon a soldier’s mental health, particularly in the cases of Big Boss and Solid Snake, who both had to endure the trauma of killing someone that they were emotionally attached to.