Tag: psychotherapy

Long Term Anxiety Characterized as Generalized Anxiety

Generalized Anxiety Disorder (GAD) is characterized by long-term anxiety, excessive worry, and tension, even though there appears to be no reason to feel this way. This disorder affects about 6.8 million American adults (and twice as many women as men). The disorder usually develops gradually. It can start at any age but the highest-risk years are between childhood and middle age, a rather large time span. Evidence shows that genes play a modest role in GAD.
Those who suffer from GAD will go through the day feeling worried and aprehensive. They often anticipate disaster in even minor situations and are usually overly concerned about various issues such as health, money, family problems, or difficulties at work. It may even be hard getting started in the morning because of the thought of what lies ahead of them for the day.

If you find you have been over-worrying about many every-day problems for at least 6 months, you may be diagnosed with GAD. Although you may realize that your concerns are exaggerated, the problem still persists. Not being able to relaxe, startling easily, having difficulty concentrating are all symptoms of generalized anxiety disorder. Other problems include having trouble falling asleep or staying asleep. Physical symptoms that often accompany the anxiety include fatigue, headaches, muscle tension, muscle aches, difficulty swallowing, trembling, twitching, irritability, sweating, nausea, lightheadedness, having to go to the bathroom frequently, feeling out of breath, and hot flashes.

The level of severity of your GAD can vary greatly. If you are diagnozed with a mild case, you can function socially for the most part and hold down a job with little difficulty. If your GAD is severe, you can find it difficult even to complete what may seem like the simplest activities.

GAD is usually treated with medications and/or psychotherapy. You may benefit most from a combination of the two. It may take some trial and error to discover exactly what treatments work best for you.

Medications include antidepressants like fluoxetine (Prozac), paroxetine (Paxil), escitalopram (Lexapro), sertaline (Zoloft), venlafaxine (Effexor) and imipramine (Tofranil); Buspirone (BuSpar); and Benzodiazepines like clonazepam (Klonopin), lorazepam (Ativan), diazepam (Valium), chlordiazepoxide (Librium) and alprazolam (Xanax). Benzodiazepines are for the most part only used for relieving acute anxiety on a short-term basis (for example, when you are having an attack). However, they have a tendency to be addictive and some pretty serious side effects like drowsiness, reduced muscle coordination and impaired balance and memory.

Psychotherapy, often referred to as talk therapy and psychological counseling, deals with trying to work out the underlying life stresses and concerns that may cause your GAD. Once these have been identified, it is possible to and make behavior changes that can reduce your anxiety. One of the most recognized types of psychotherapy is cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT). Basically, short-term cognitive behavioral therapy aims to teach you specific skills that you can then use to identify negative thoughts and behaviors and substitute them with positive ones.

The above information about generalized anxiety disorder does not substitute medical advice given by a health professional.

The Unknown Cause Of IBS

Not many people know about irritable bowel syndrome. Perhaps because not much is known about it despite the fact that it affects a lot of people. In fact, statistics in the United States have shown that one out of five people suffer from irritable bowel syndrome. That is roughly about 20 percent of the population. That is pretty prevalent for a disease that is not so known.

In fact, most doctors believe that the numbers should be even higher. The lack of information has contributed to a lot of misdiagnosis and under diagnosis. Patients, it seems, do not even know that they have irritable bowel syndrome until after a few years when the symptoms are already getting out of hand.

With irritable bowel syndrome, the symptoms are often mild. In fact, among patients suffering from the disorder, about 70 percent of them only have mild symptoms at the onset. This is the reason why the problem is not detected early on.

Irritable bowel syndrome does not have a specific cause. Up until now, doctors cannot still pinpoint what causes the problem in the first place. Although much research has already been done about, there is still no clear cut answer as to what exactly starts off the problem. One existing theory in the medical profession is that people suffering from irritable bowel syndrome have very sensitive large intestines or colon. Because of this increased sensitiveness, minor changes in the chemicals and substances that enter the chamber sets off a series of reactions that affect the movement of bowel in the body. Another possibility is the role of stress in the problem.

This happens when stress brings on changes with how the body responds and work internally. Although stress is not the cause, many still believe that easing stress can significantly improve the condition. This is true. In fact, some doctors also recommend undergoing some psychotherapy to help the patient deal with some of the stressors in his life. Another triggering factor that are being researched upon are milk and other milk products that are said to often trigger irritable bowel syndrome.

Because irritable bowel syndrome has no specific cause, diagnosis often relies on the account of symptoms that come from the patient was well as the medical history. There is no specific test that can detect the occurrence of irritable bowel syndrome. The most that doctors do is to make sure that other problems are not causing the symptoms. Hence, they will give you a number of tests designed to test other diseases and not irritable bowel syndrome.

Various Treatments for Panic Attacks

The cause of panic attacks is still not fully understood. What is known is that it can happen to anyone, without any reason, regardless of age. Meaning, a happy and healthy person has an equal chance of experiencing a panic attack with those who are depressed and unhealthy. An episode of panic attack chooses no time. It can happen while you are at home, sitting on your couch, watching television, while driving, shopping or walking, at the office, etc. It can even happen while you are asleep.

Given such circumstances, methods of treatment may vary from person to person, depending on his conditions, symptoms, lifestyle, and frequency of attacks. Typically however, treatment involves psychotherapy, cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT) and/or medication. Other treatments that can be employed are meditation, breathing exercises, relaxation techniques and herbal treatment.

Anti-anxiety medications such as Ativan, Xanax and Klonopin provide quick relief from the symptoms panic attack. Benzodiazepines have immediate effects, usually within 30 minutes to an hour. Benzodiazepines, however, are highly addictive and have some serious withdrawal symptoms. Anti-depressant drugs (Paxil, Prozac, Zoloft, Lexapro, and Celexa) should be taken continuously before you can begin to notice the effects, usually up to 6 months to a year. You cannot take anti-depressant drugs just during an attack.

In addition, since you cannot anticipate when you will have such attack, only those who are diagnosed with panic disorder (or recurring panic attacks) can acquire these types of drug.

Panic attacks, as well as panic disorder, agoraphobia and other phobias and related conditions can be treated effectively by psychotherapy. Cognitive-behavioral therapy is proven as an effective way to reduce the symptoms of panic attacks or completely eliminate the condition. CBT focuses on changing the thinking pattern of the person from negative to positive thoughts as well as changing the way a person reacts or behaves when he encounters emergency or situations that can trigger an attack.

Another treatment similar to CTB that is worth mentioning is exposure therapy. This helps the person overcome his fear by letting him face those fearful situations in a controlled and safe manner. The result of this technique is that the person learns how to react positively on what he thinks are fearful situations. Moreover, through this experience, the patient learns that the situations he fears are not harmful and dangerous.

In many cases, medication alone or therapy alone is enough to completely treat the condition, but other cases require both treatment methods to effectively treat panic disorder.

Meditation, breathing exercises, and relaxation techniques have been found effective in reducing the chances of experiencing another attack. They help calm the mind and relax the muscles. Regularly practicing these exercises and techniques strengthen the body’s relaxation response.

Natural herbs such as bacopin, ginkgo biloba, passion flower, St. John Wort, hyperforin, 5HTP (5-hydroxytryptophan), chamomile, rhodiola, are equally effective since they have natural anti-stress properties. In some cases, using these herbs is sufficient enough to combat panic attacks. Many people also react positively using this kind of treatment.

Fresh leaves can be made as tea. Some are also available over-the-counter in oil, tincture, capsule, powder and tea. The best thing about these natural herbs is that they do not carry any side effects as compared to mainstream anti-anxiety and anti depressant prescription medications.

Who Wants Breast Augmentation?

Breast augmentation is a personal choice for many women. The primary reason is cosmetic. Increasing the size or shape of their breasts is the goal they hope to achieve with implant surgery. This is known as primary augmentation.

There is also revision-augmentation. This surgery is required to correct or improve the results of a prior breast augmentation surgery. Many women undergo the surgery numerous times, slowly achieving the end results they desire.

Replacement of breast tissue that was removed because of cancer, trauma or that failed to develop properly because of a severe breast abnormality, is considered primary reconstruction surgery. Corrections or revisions to this surgery are called revision-reconstruction surgery.

Breast augmentation patients are usually younger, healthier and from higher socio-economic status than the population norm. These women are also more often married with children.

Studies have shown a pattern in breast augmentation patients. This pattern is also shared by many other cosmetic surgery procedures. It suggests women who choose breast implantation are slightly more likely to have undergone psychotherapy, have lower self-esteem, and have higher tendencies toward depression, suicide attempts and mental illness than the general population.

Post-operative surveys on the issues of mental health and quality of life have reported improvement in a number of areas. These areas include health, appearance, self confidence, self esteem, social life and sexual function. Most women report long term satisfaction with their breast implants. Even in cases which have required additional operations due to complications or aesthetic reasons.