Tag: obsessive-compulsive disorder

Pediatric Bipolar Versus Asperger’s Disorder

Pediatric bipolar disorder, or manic depression, is a mental illness that presents itself in patients as mood swings or mood cycling. Pediatric bipolar type one patients tend to experience episodes of mania alternating with periodic episodes of depression. Pediatric bipolar type two patients tend to experience episodes of depression interspersed with periodic episodes of mild mania. Depression symptoms include anger, extreme sadness, sleeping too much, and feelings of worthlessness. Manic symptoms include bursts of rage, extreme happiness, increased energy, hyperactivity, distractibility, sleeping too little, and obsessive behaviors.

Pediatric bipolar disorder is caused by a combination of neurological, biological, emotional, and environmental factors. Not all factors are present in every case, although most cases include biological and environmental factors. Little is known about the exact causes of pediatric bipolar disorder. However, advances are being made in this area.

Asperger’s disorder can be described as a mild form of autism. Actually, asperger’s disorder is a type of pervasive development disorder that can cause developmental issues, especially in the areas of communication and social development. Symptoms of asperger’s disorder include problems with social skills, odd or repetitive behavior or habits, communication difficulties, and obsession with a limited range of interests.

The causes of asperger’s disorder are not yet known. Studies show that asperger’s disorder tends to run in families, meaning that it is hereditary. This fact shows that the underlying cause of asperger’s disorder must be biological, meaning that it is either genetic or neurologically related.

Pediatric bipolar disorder can be misdiagnosed as asperger’s disorder because pediatric bipolar disorder can present itself via symptoms such as obsessive compulsive behavior, odd habits, and bouts of rage. Patients of pediatric bipolar disorder and asperger’s disorder both have symptoms that lead to lacking social development skills, educational issues, behavioral issues, and anger issues.

Pediatric bipolar can also be present in conjunction with asperger’s disorder. Typically, this is the case. It is unknown, however, if the pediatric bipolar disorder is a result of the asperger’s disorder, or if the same neurological issues that cause asperger’s disorder are related to the chemical imbalances in the brain thought to be the cause of pediatric bipolar disorder. Answers to these questions will likely come to light as research in neurological, technological and psychiatric areas continue to progress.

Medication treatments for pediatric bipolar and asperger’s disorders are quite similar. There are no medications for asperger’s disorder; however, medications exist to treat the symptoms of asperger’s disorder. Since the symptoms of asperger’s disorder, such as depression, obsessive compulsive disorder, and anxiety, are the same symptoms often experienced with pediatric bipolar disorder, the medications used in both instances are the same.

Counseling treatments are also commonly used for both pediatric bipolar and asperger’s disorders, used in conjunction with medication or alone. Most asperger’s patients do not need medication. Counseling is required, however, to help the patient cope with their disability. Counseling treatments for pediatric bipolar disorder are considered necessary, with or without medication. These treatments can help the patient learn to recognize and correct irrational emotions or behavior.

If you notice your child exhibiting any of the behaviors mentioned in this article, you should contact your pediatrician, doctor, therapist, or other health care professional to obtain a proper diagnosis and start a viable treatment plan. Undiagnosed or untreated pediatric bipolar or asperger’s disorder can lead to

The Horrors Of Eating Disorders

You cant seem to make up your mind, you eat and eat and then you hide a purge or you starve yourself for weeks until you are at the lowest weight that you have ever been in your life. Anorexia and bulimia used to be considered the health problems of some confused young girls with troubled lives real or perceived. Lately doctors have found that more and more women are being diagnosed with an eating disorder of some kind. Other misconceptions about eating disorders are that people think that they are psychological problems that can be treated with medication easily and then the person is cured for life. Neither is true. In fact, this disorder is not easily treated and the person is left to deal with it affects throughout their lives. Doctors believe that hormonal variations occurring near the menopause of a woman may be the reason the eating disorder developed such late in life.

These women see themselves as being overweight despite the fact that they are extremely thin. These women developing strange eating rituals or eat and regurgitating over and over again. Body dissatisfaction is the main focus of these women. For unknown reasons they cant seem to become comfortable in their own skin. They often believe that their behaviors are secret and no one notices or cares enough to pay attention. The idea that middle-aged women are having this problem is troubling to physicians as they work hard to try and prevent the disorder in young women. However, doctors cant be sure if the middle aged women that are receiving treatment are new to the disorder. The thought is that they had these problems when they were very young and as they got older realized that they should seek treatment. Complicating things is that these women are finding it difficult to locate proper treatment because for so long the focus was put on the younger woman. The women that are suffering from anorexia and/or bulimia many times suffer from perfectionism, obsessive-compulsive disorder, and anxiety. Substance abuse issues also many times play a role in many cases of both younger and older women. The most memorable and recent case occurred with a South American woman, a 24 year old teacher weighting only 77 pounds at 5 foot 2 inch tall when she passed away.

You or someone close to you might be suffering from this condition. It is a very harmful thing to suffer from, and if you suspect that someone is having trouble with an eating disorder then you should immediately take action to intervene. Do it in a graceful way so that the victim knows that you are looking out for her best interests. But dont let it go on for any longer than it has to. Therapists are the most common way to deal with eating disorders, but there are also entire camps and seminars devoted to getting the victims back to regular eating habits.

The treatments include therapy, medication, and counseling and more counseling. Some others treatments tried are yoga. Studies have tried to link the two yoga and anorexia but studies were inconclusive and did not produce any significant changes in behavior or eating habits. Dissonance based therapy which works as therapy and counseling aimed at the persons competing ideas. There are group meetings and other more intensive therapies for those with severely dangerous cases of anorexia and/or bulimia. Many women have been able to make positive life changes to battle their self inflicted disorder and go on to live healthier lives. It has been reported that these women will have to battle the urges and cravings to purge or starve themselves for the rest of their lives. Since no cures exist for this disorder it is the hope of therapist and people suffering anorexia and/or bulimia, that some kind of definitive preventive measures can be developed or found.

Obsessive Compulsive Disorder in Adolescents

Obsessive compulsive disorder or OCD starts from adolescence onwards. OCD is feeling of strong obsessions and compulsions which result in intense discomfort and affects daily functioning. Obsessions are thoughts which are persistent and recurrent. They even include unwanted images and impulses which lead to distress and anxiety. These feelings and thoughts are usually irrational or unrealistic. Compulsions are repetitive rituals or behavior such as checking something again & again, or mental acts such as counting. These obsessions & compulsions cause intense distress and anxiety and can interfere with the daily activities, relationships, social activities and academic functioning. The person with OCD thinks that he has no control over his actions. OCDs are relapsing and chronic illness.

The thoughts change as the adolescent grows. Younger children suffering from OCD often have thoughts of harm befalling on them and their family such as thief getting into the house through an unlocked door. This will make the children to recheck the door and windows again and again fearing that they might have left the door unlocked accidentally. Teenagers suffering from OCD fear that they might get fall sick due to germs, contaminated food and AIDS. The adolescent develops certain rituals, such as washing hands innumerable times, in order to get over the fear. These rituals help them to think that they have overcome the problem for the time being and give them temporary relief. If they do not perform these rituals, they become more and more anxious.

OCD is a sign of brain circuitrys unusual functioning and it involves the striatum part of the brain. The brain activity patterns of such people differ from normal people and people with other mental disorders. Researchers have concluded that OCD is usually a family problem and is a disorder of the brain. Streptococcal bacterial infection can create or worsen the condition of OCD. Adolescents with no family history of OCD can also develop it. Most of the adolescents feel embarrassed to talk about their OCDs. They think that people will label them as crazy and this will make them feel ashamed. This will make it difficult for the parents to talk to their children about their OCD, in order to solve them. Parents need to develop good communication skills for this purpose. Parents support is also very important to the adolescent. Cooperation is extremely important along with treatment, because if the problem is not treated the adolescent will grow into a disturbed adult.

Most of the adolescents with OCD can receive effective treatment. The treatment can include psychotherapy and intake of medications such as fluoxetine, clomipramine, fluvoxamine, paroxetine, sertraline and other serotonin reuptake inhibitors. When OCD is caused due to streptococcal infection, the adolescent can be administered with antibiotics to kill the bacterium which is causing it. Exposure and response prevention behavioral therapy is very useful in solving OCD. In this therapy, the adolescent is wontedly exposed to his/her fears which give him/her obsessive thought. After that he/she is trained to avoid these thoughts and the rituals which he/she carries out to tackle the anxiety.

An adolescent having OCD can also have depression, substance abuse, attention deficit hyperactivity disorder, eating disorders, and other types of anxiety disorders. When a person with OCD and other mental illness, is treated, OCD becomes more difficult to treat and even diagnose.

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Anxiety And Nervouse Breakdown Tie In Together

How do anxiety and nervous breakdown tie in? The term anxiety is an umbrella term which encompasses panic disorder, obsessive compulsive disorder, post traumatic stress disorder, social anxiety disorder, phobias, and generalized anxiety disorder. The term nervous breakdown is no longer used by the medical profession. It is now referred to as situational depression or anxiety disorder.

While clinical depression and anxiety disorders can be triggered by something that happens in your life, their causes can often be linked to something biological, genetic, neurological, or that occured in your childhood. In contrast, a nervous breakdown could describe the sudden onset of a mental illness, or it may just be your way to process something that happened in your life. The term nervous breakdown conjures up terrible, scary images. But while it is upsetting, it’s important to keep in mind that this anxiety disorder is just your body’s way of saying “Hey, you’re ignoring some feelings here that need to be dealt with.” Panicing in the face of anxiety and nervous breakdown only makes matters worse.

One key to getting through a nervous breakdown (or preventing one) is to stop fighting it off. If you’re starting to feel that everything is just getting to be too much, just try to identify some areas in your life where you can reduce some of your stress and causes of anxiety. The typical reaction when you feel like your are losing control is to get it back again. But getting it back by ignoring what you are feeling is not the way to go about it. In the case of a nervous breakdown, taking back power means actively seeking out rest and peace. If you try to just push through and force yourself to continue beyond what you can mentally or physically take, you actually give your anxiety more power. If you can allow yourself a little patience and space to actually feel what you need to feel, you offset the reasons your mind and body brought you to the point of a nervous breakdown in the first place.

Seek help. Many people look at getting help as a sign that they have lost the battle with their anxiety and nervous breakdown. It is actually the opposite. The fact that you are seeking help means that you are taking a step to being able to take care of yourself and others if necessary. Look at it this way: if you were physically hurt one day and bleeding profusely, you would run stratight to the emergency room. It’s the same with whatever anxiety you’re going through. Professional help and therapy does not have to be a lifelong commitment. Once you have worked out the cause for your pain and suffering and have the tools to prevent it from happening again, you no longer need the help of professionals. But if you avoid seeking them out in the first place, the anxiety and nervous breakdown may have already caused permanent damage.

This information does not substitute medical advice given by a health professional.