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Psychiatric Disorders

December 19, 2009 By Psychiatric Disorders Help Leave a Comment

In the words of the great President FDR -“Men are not prisoners of fate, but only prisoners of their own minds.”.

It’s all in the mind. Indeed, the ways we are influenced and behaved is normally called the system. It starts with cognition, then it’s put to action. However, it is normal to ask what will happen when our mind goes out of control. This can mean that our behavior will function abnormally. The mind is a very powerful part of us that somehow, whatever it thinks becomes seemingly authentic for the individual when actually it is not. When this happens, our whole personality is affected and could have an impact in our lives as well as affect the people around us.

Psychiatric disorders are mental health disorder. Experts have seen significant psychological syndrome that happens on a person will always be associated with present sufferings such as a painful symptom, disability, or a significantly increased risk of death, pain, disability, or an important loss of freedom. Furthermore, this syndrome is not just an expected and culturally sanctioned response to a particular event. For example, the loss of a loved one. Schizophrenia and major depressive disorder are some examples of mental illnesses. One is diagnosed with psychiatrical disorder when one experiences the following symptoms: confusion; erratic behavior; hearing voices; hallucinations; headaches; depression; anxiety; fatigue; weight loss; anorexia. One will be identified as having psychiatric disorder when one experiences three or more of the above symptoms.

Disorders of the mind do not show specific causes. However, a blend of biological, psychological, and environmental factors would supply to the acquisition of certain mental disorders. A few biological factors consist of genetics, prenatal damage, and substance abuse. Exploitation of substance could affect the chemical balance in the brain which can lead to it’s dysfunction. And for some, psychiatric disorders are hereditary. Example, a person with schizophrenia is said to have a relative also having schizophrenia. Psychological and environmental factors may include trauma. These experiences could have an impact on the person’s well being and thus if emotional wounds are not immediately mend, these could lead to mental disorders.

Psychiatrical disorders are treated with therapy- behaviors or cognitive, and medications. Antidepressants are used for individuals who are clinicall depressed and anxious. Anxiolytics are used for anxiety disorders. This can be also used by people afflicted insomnia. There are mood stabilizers for bipolar disorders and antipsychotic for psychotic disorders. Furthermore, electroconvulsive therapy is sometimes used in severe cases when other interventions for depression have failed. Creative therapies such as music, art, and drama therapy are also being used. Also, in line with the cognitive-behavioral treatment, lifestyle adjustments and supportive measures are used such as support groups.

Some disorders are transient and some may last a lifetime. In some way, the given treatment will never take away the disorder but will only lessen the symptom to be able to make an individual live a normal life. A few disorders may be very limited in their functional effects, while others may entail substantial disability and support needs.

People in all walks of life could be afflicted with a psychiatric disorder. Based on varying personalities, an individual could possibly build up a disorder of the mind depending on how he/she react to stimulus around his or her environment such as stressful events in one’s life. For example, a loss of a loved one is a traumatic yet natural phase in a person’s life. Almost everyone gets a chance to experience loss. A person’s natural reaction to loss is grieve, anger, pain, and other negative emotions. However, any emotion normally has its limit. Thus, the negative feeling soon subsides and is replaced with hope and strength so as the person tries to recover from the loss. On the other hand, when one’s negative emotion such as sadness does not subside, the diagnosis is different. When an emotion goes ahead to the dysfunction of the life of an individual, the individual is sure to need professional help. This is when we can say that someone has not recovered from the loss and thus has acquired a mental disorder.

Our own minds will always serve us our prison cells.Anyone can always say that being happy is a state of mind yet we must also take into account that being sad is also a state of mind.

Cocaine Addiction as Part of Dual Diagnosis

May 20, 2011 By Psychiatric Disorders Help Leave a Comment

Ever since, the problem of cocaine addiction has always been present. It can affect every level of the society. It can be a key variable to ruined one’s family. One should be wary. This kind of addiction usually starts from simple things leading to big and complicated problems.

The origins of cocaine can be traced from the coca plant. Cocaine can be used in many different ways. It can be snorted for its effects to be felt faster. It can also be dissolved in water and be injected intravenously. The use of cocaine gives off feelings of euphoria. People keep on using this kind of substance for repetition of this kind of experience.

There are indications when one can say that a person is cocaine addicted. These signals can be seen via intoxication symptoms and withdrawal symptoms. Examples of withdrawal symptoms are dysphoria, extremely low level of energy, horrid kind of dreams, too much or oversleeping, eating too much, and a very high level of anxiety. On the other hand, convulsions, pains in the upper body, difficulty of breathing, muscle weakness, losing of weight, and changes in the behavior are examples of intoxication symptoms.

The very apparent change in behavior is the thing that is most noticed when one gets tangled to an addictive substance. These behavioral changes can include the following: changes in the way one interacts with people, hypervigilance, super sensitivity, too much anxiety, and easiness to get angry. As a way to describe these symptoms in a few words, it’s really a damaged way of thinking.

These changes in behavior due to the use of drug can actually develop to a mental illness. Substance addiction plus a mental illness does actually have a term, dual diagnosis. Dual diagnosis is the co-occurrence of substance abuse problem and a mental disorder. The causality theory of dual diagnosis explain that there are certain types of substances that can lead to a mental disorder. This due to the fact of the effects the substance brings. Example of this is the substance cocaine.

This co-occurrence of a substance abuse problem and mental illness leads to the problem of how to treat an individual suffering this kind of situation. When one has substance abuse problems, he or she is most of the time advised to be put in a center for recovery. When one also has mental illness, there are centers that cater to their special needs. However, there are actually no centers that specialize in the treatment of a co-occurrence of a mental disorder and a substance abuse problem. Experts in treating substance abuse problems have little or no idea in treating a person with mental disorder and vice versa.

In the field of psychology, dual diagnosis is quite new which is its treatment only exists by principle. The way in treating substance abuse problems and the way in treating the problem of mental illness should be joined together. The kind of treatment should not be taken apart from each other but like the disease, should co-exist.

Cocaine addiction and mental illness’ symptoms can overlap each other leaving it hard for dual diagnosis to treat easily. There is also the problem of denial. In most cases, a cocaine addict would not acknowledge that he or she is into drugs. The specialist would then assume that the individual only has a mental illness when in fact, the mental illness is due to his or her use of the drugs. The greatest factor for dual diagnosis is recover is for the affected to really want help. When the affected is the one to ask for help, denial would never be a problem. Thus, recovery is on its way.

Cocaine addiction has a very high chance of developing into dual diagnosis, one should always be careful.