Tag: Chemicals In The Brain

Humor To Relieve Stress-Can Take Its Toll

If it is left unchecked, stress will take its toll on your health. While it isn’t possible to completely eliminate all forms of stress from your life, you can feel a lot better when you use humor to relieve stress.

It has long been said that humor is the best medicine, and there have been several studies that have shown this to be true, at least to some degree. The full effects of humor are not completely understood, but laughter appears to release certain chemicals in the brain, and these chemicals make us feel better and relieve stress.

Before we get to ways to add humor to your life, it’s important to mention that you should always discuss any health concerns with your doctor. Your stress may be the result of an underlying medical condition, and your doctor can also give you additional suggestions for relieving stress.

Now, on to the funny!

Your goal should be to laugh as many times per day as possible and then a few more on top of that. Free your funny bone and look at the lighter side of life. Stress is the result of your perceptions. You can’t always control what happens to you, but you can always choose how to respond to it. There are times when stress is a good option, but those times don’t happen all that often.

Television and movies can be good sources of comedy. Maybe you don’t like the most popular show, or romantic comedies may not be your thing, but that’s okay. The key is to watch whatever makes you laugh. If you’re the only one in the room laughing hysterically while everybody else sits there with a straight look on their face, then you can laugh at that too. Humor is a subjective thing, but that’s no excuse not to laugh.

The internet is a practically endless source of humor to relieve stress. There are tons of funny people online, though some of them are unintentionally funny. Log on to the internet and you can find funny videos, cartoons, pictures, quotations, jokes, and just about anything else you can think of.

Surround yourself with as many things that bring a smile to your face as you can. A calendar that has a new joke every day, a T-shirt with a goofy picture on it, or even a humorous bumper sticker are just a few ways to add more humor to your life.

Starting your own personal “humor file” is another way to get a much-needed chuckle when you need one. Cut out funny comics from the newspaper, stories from magazines, pictures, and so on, then put them into a folder that you can access whenever you need to. It’s a good idea to have a one physical file, as well as a file on your computer dedicated to humor.

One of the cool things about using humor to relieve stress is that it doesn’t require a prescription, so there are no side effects to worry about.

A Stress-free Guide to Managing Stress

Anxiety is a condition that is neither welcome nor enjoyable. This condition can effectively reduce a persons productivity and ability to cope with various situations. Add to that the fact that periods of anxiety are uncomfortable and bring with it a host of nervous illnesses palpitations, cold flushes, clammy hands, and a boiling sense of dread in the pit of the stomach among others.

While it has been the subject of many studies and researches, scientists are agreed that anxiety is still not fully understood even today. However, as a result of their researches, they have been able to help people effectively manage and avoid anxiety.

1. Avoid Stress Stress is the greatest predisposing factor to anxiety attacks. If one is to avoid any anxiety-related illness, that person should reduce the amount of stressors experienced per day.

While not completely avoidable, one can at least create an environment where stress plays a lesser role on they body. Make sure you put the stressors that can be avoided away from your immediate vicinity. You could try lounging in an area that is peaceful and quiet.

You will be surprised at what a good five minutes of relaxation can do for a stressed-out body. You could also come up with good coping mechanisms for stress related issues. You could listen to soothing music, meditate, and do other relaxing activities.

2. Avoid Drinking and Other Substances Studies have shown that various substances can predispose one to bouts of anxiety. These substances play around with the normal balance of chemicals in the brain, effectively increasing the chance one acquires anxiety illness.

While some people drink or take drugs to soothe their nerves it actually has a counter-effect that will discourage those that do so. Drugs for example can increase the release of a chemical called dopamine in the brain.

Dopamine is a chemical that is associated with pleasure in the body. While activities such as sex and eating good food increase dopamine release anywhere from two to three times, drugs haywire the brain and cause an increase in dopamine anywhere from four to ten times.

While this may seem like a good thing for some people, this sudden and unwarranted increase in dopamine can actually cause havoc to the chemical balance of the brain. And while it makes those that take them giddy for some time, when a persons high wears off, the sudden loss of dopamine will induce a great amount of depression, stress, and anxiety.

3. Sleep Right People need the right amount of sleep to retain a calm, restive demeanor. If you have noticed, you are usually a lot crankier and anxious the day after you pull an all-nighter. This is because sleep is a necessity for good health physically, emotionally, and psychologically.

Not only is the amount of sleep important, but the regular schedule for it as well. If possible keep your sleep patterns regular, as an irregular pattern can cause an undue amount of stress and anxiety.

4. Eat Right The body needs certain nutrients to keep itself healthy. Not only does it need these nutrients for energy and building processes, it also needs certain nutrients to keep the chemical balance in the body at normal rates.

This makes the intake of healthy food important. The intake of the right kind of food is integral to the health and well-being of any person. Anxiety is, as studies have shown, directly related to diet.

Avoid taking food substances that can alter your body chemistry in the wrong way. Coffee and alcohol are some of the food stuffs that can play with ones chemical balance and cause anxiety as well.

Alcohol Abuse And Depression

Research has shown that up to ten percent of depressed people also abuse alcohol. Many people abuse alcohol when depressed because it makes the sad feelings go away. However this is only a temporary fix. People abusing alcohol think they are treating their depression when in fact large amounts of alcohol can actually worsen the illness.

Depressed people do not realize that the more times they drink alcohol, the more they are increasing their tolerance levels to alcohol. This then requires even more alcohol to induce the same feelings of relative happiness that the first few drinks used to achieve. This is how alcohol can become addictive and gets to the abuse stage.

Unfortunately both depression and alcohol abuse are more common than ever before. While 10% of depressed people also abuse alcohol, up to 40% of alcohol abusers show signs of depression. These numbers are growing every day. These numbers keep growing as more and more people become addicted to alcohol and/ or become depressed due to the increasing levels of stress in todays world.

Often the symptoms of alcohol abuse and depression can be interchanged. Both illnesses show changes in behavior such as becoming increasingly impulsive, increasing acts of violence and aggression, increasing isolating tendencies, and impaired judgment. Both illnesses can lead to problems in the marriage and result in the breakdown of the family. One must also be concerned with the fact that depressed people are more likely to cause accidents within the home. There is also an increased link between alcohol abuse, depression and suicide. This is really a cause for concern for these individuals.

Research also indicates that the abuse of alcohol can be genetic. Children of alcoholic parents are much more likely to suffer from alcoholism themselves. Their alcohol tolerance levels are much higher than the average child the same age. The same research indicates that alcohol abuse affects chemicals in the brain. These chemicals affect the way the brain processes information. Depression is also immediately inherited from parents to child, as well as from relatives.

Trying to determine if an individual is depressed, abusing alcohol or both is difficult. Many of the symptoms are the same for each illness. Insomnia, waking up frequently, poor appetite, sleepiness, and feelings of disorientation are symptoms of both illnesses. To complicate the situation, many people who abuse alcohol become depressed over time. Doctors will first treat the alcoholism and see if the persons mood improves; if it does not then they will treat the depression.

Alcohol is in a set of drugs known as sedative hypnotics. Other drugs in this category are tranquilizers. Many depressed people, especially young adults, abuse other drugs as well as alcohol. Some of the antidepressant medications on the market today also contain a sedative. Thus if combined with alcohol, the person becomes severely sedated and can even stop breathing.

The danger of combining alcohol with drug treatment for depression is one doctors know well. This is why they tend to treat the alcoholism before the depression.

How Depression of Women Affects Mental Health

The following article lists some simple, informative tips that will help you have a better experience with mental health.

According to studies, there are more or less 17 million Americans who are suffering from depression annually. Majority of these cases are women. Persistently, unfeigned was stated that women suffer more depression than men in terms of time, duration and severity. Depression in women or in men affects their mental health and disregards some of the most salient factors in their lives. With increased rates of depressive behavior in women, it may be concluded that it is because of social and biological differences.

Depression is not your ordinary blues. Being sad because of some event that happened in your life is ordinary. You grieve in a burial and that would be acceptable. After appropriate time, youll get over it. But, depression is another mechanism. It affects a form undividedness in terms of life, body mind and work. Present drives a person to NOT do the things he or she normally do, thus affecting the facts of daily living.

What happens in depression?

Once a person becomes depressed, some chemicals in the brain decreases which may cause some of the nerve in the brain to pains in a slower pace. Alleviation of chemicals inside the brain is the cause of depression. True depression can result to a stress which may give forth on how a person manipulates his life and the people around him or her.

Aside from being depressed, women can also be the bearer of associated conditions like anxiety, stress and eating disorders. In men, they tend to have depression that can be connected with antisocial behaviors, alcoholism, OC personalities and self – centeredness.

Why women?

Because of the effects of their premenstrual syndrome. When premenstrual syndrome occurs, women become depressed within the week of the actual menstrual path. There are about 3 – 5 percentage of women who experience depression due to the menstrual due to the regulation in hormones pipeline inside the womens body. Women may also feel depressed because of menopause, infertility and miscarriage. Compared to men, women, especially those who are already married, tend to suffer increased depression. Older women can be at risk for danger which can lead to fractures just because of depression.

What is PMDD?

If the depression becomes severe and anxiety gets involved, it becomes more severe which may lead to PMDD or premenstrual dysphoric cycle. PMDD is a disorder that can be debilitating and requires immediate treatment.

Depressive risk – factors

Sexual or physical abuse during childhood

Contraceptives especially those that has a very high content in progesterone

Stress

Loss of support from family, friends and loved – ones

Mood disorders in the family

Parent ruination before reaching the age of 10

In placement to eliminate depression, one must comprehend the symptoms which include: decreased in attention with the usual activities, moody, emotions of hopelessness, worthlessness, and guilt, too much or not enough sleep, weight gain or loss, constant fatigue, disturbances in behavior and thoughts of joking oneself.

The good new is, depression can somehow be treated and has an 80 percent transpire of stability although, when unrecognized, depression will never find its plan out of someones system. Some of the most common treatments for depression are hormone replacement therapy and other medications that can lessen toxins which causes depressive state. Upon recognizing that you already are being unhappy and can no longer handle it, to attain mental health, you must go to your psychiatrist and ask for treatment.
Now that wasn’t hard at all, was it? And you’ve earned a wealth of knowledge, just from taking some time to study an expert’s word on mental health.