PTSD – A Debilitating Mental Condition

Mental Health blogger

PTSD (Post-traumatic stress disorder) is a debilitating mental condition. PTSD sufferers may feel like they can never return to their normal self because of an inability to move past the distressing incident that triggered the trauma. Traumatized people whether affected by PTSD or not, have a higher tendency towards using alcohol, cigarettes, drugs, and towards developing Eating Disorders, OCD, and Dissociative Disorders.

In earlier times, beginning with the Civil War, PTSD was known as -Da Costa’s syndrome.- The anxiety disorder has also been known by alternate terms such as -battle fatigue- or -shell shock- owing to its link with military service. Now, it is understood that PTSD is not just a wartime disorder but can develop in anyone who has experienced or witnessed a very traumatic event. Events of this nature include kidnapping, rape or sexual abuse, plane/car crash, medical procedures, or neglect in childhood.

C-PTSD (Complex post-traumatic disorder) arises from continued exposure to a traumatic happening or sequence of traumatic events. In this case, the patient experiences long-lasting issues in social and emotional functioning.

Symptoms of PTSD

Provided below are some of the symptoms of PTSD that help in diagnosing the disorder. From the symptoms, it is easy to understand how much the disorder can affect a person’s health and happiness.

Avoiding places, feelings, thoughts or activities that remind the person of the traumatic event
Frightening thoughts
Nightmares
Outbursts of anger/irritability
Hopelesness and/or severe depression
Difficulty concentrating
Emotional numbness
Substance abuse
Stomach problems, headaches, chest pain, dizziness
Reduction in interest in life and usual activities
Finding it difficult to fall asleep or to get back to sleep after waking up in between
Hypervigilance
Detachment from people

Effective Treatment- Comprehensive and Individualized

Different kinds of treatment are available for post-traumatic stress disorder namely Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing (EMDR), trauma focused CBT (Cognitive-Behavioral Therapy), family therapy, group therapy, attachment therapy, exposure therapy, Internal Family Systems Therapy and medication management.

Treatment for PTSD which can be quite a debilitating condition should be comprehensive- involving the client’s support system, body, mind, and spirit and should be highly individualized.

PTSD – Castlewood, a residential eating disorder treatment center in St. Louis, Missouri, provides comprehensive eating disorder treatment and anxiety treatment.

Afraid Of Getting Military Mental Stress Discharge Train Your Mind, Not Just Your Body!

Mental Health blogger

Several military members get discharged every year because of the mental stress they experience while deployed. Getting discharged may be for their own health and safety in such situations; their stress, anxiety, and depression can put them in trouble and may even worsen if they stay in the field.

Unfortunately, as a military member, you would want to avoid getting discharged, especially if you have not served your full term. When you get discharged due to mental stress before you complete your term, you will not be eligible for Veteran benefits unless the doctors rule it as a medical discharge.

Being in the military is naturally stressful for anyone. You have to let go of the comforts of home and exchange it for an environment you have no control over. You also dont know what to expect. And who knows when war is going to strike? This kind of situation is enough to cause severe mental stress on anyone; some are able to handle it, while some are not. If you are about to get deployed, it would be best if you know what to do to keep the mental stress from overwhelming you.

Train the Mind. As you train your body in the military, make sure to also train the mind. Before you understand how to do that, lets give you a brief overview of how the mind works.

How the Mind Works. The mind has several levels of consciousness, the most prominent of which are the conscious mind and the subconscious. The conscious mind decides what we do, what we think of, and what we are aware of at the present moment. When we are faced with a certain situation or knowledge, the conscious mind filters it and stores it in the subconscious.

The subconscious mind, on the other hand, influences us from underneath the conscious state. Its influences can be very strong and powerful because they just direct our actions and behaviors. Since these influences come from the subconscious, we are not able to filter or evaluate them.

Unfortunately, the subconscious is very sensitive. It can absorb practically anything positive or negative. So when youre out on the field, the subconscious mind is actively absorbing everything you experience. Your subconscious absorbs all the fear, anxiety, restlessness, and negative moods of the people around you. It absorbs the threats in the environment. Slowly, these build up into powerful thought patterns and beliefs, until you stress yourself out because you start to believe in all these negative thoughts.

How to Train the Mind. Training the mind means getting into your own subconscious and conditioning it so that it does not absorb and automatically fends off negative thoughts and beliefs. Instead, you replace these negative thoughts with powerful messages that the subconscious mind can hold on to at all times during deployment.

Some examples are:

I am a survivor.
Survival skills come naturally to me.
I make the best of every situation.

These messages are called subliminal messages, because they pass under or sub the threshold or limens of the conscious mind. They are not recognizable or registered in the conscious mind; they go directly to the subconscious.

Beginning Jiu Jitsu How To Avoid The Most Frequent Mental Errors

Mental Health blogger

The sport of Brazilian Jiu Jitsu is both physically and mentally challenging. In fact, many refer to jiu jitsu as physical chess! The beauty of this sport is that you can have the most talented physical traits, but it is quite possible to be beat by someone who understands the mental game.

In the early part of the 1990s, an excellent illustration of this can be seen in Royce Gracie and his jiu jitsu matches. He was always the smaller and less athletic guy, but he ended up winning UFC 1, 3, and 4. This was incredible, and it was obvious that he possessed abilities that his opponents could not defeat.

But what does this mean for you?

The mental game is just as important as the physical. Understand what you are good at and what you need to work on. Know those of your opponent as well. Lay out your jiu jitsu plan that is going to benefit what you are good at and prey on what your opponent is bad at. Then, all you have to do is make it happen.

For instance if you are not big, but are fast, you don’t want to get under a guy who is huge. If you weigh a lot, you will want to take advantage of this when you are on top of your opponent. If you have excellent arm bar submissions, you should keep doing them and get them to where they are unbeatable.

However, you don’t want to make the error of believing that you should only concentrate on your strengths. Your jiu jitsu foundation should always be as broad and deep as possible so you understand the full breadth of your art. Instead, use this as a motivator for actually thinking about how you approach competition and live training. By tapping into your mental skills, you will gain a huge advantage over a lot of your opponents.

My advice to you is to write down on a piece of paper: what you are good at, what you need to improve on, and the two techniques you intend to develop. Now practice the two you want to work on. And after every roll, see what falls under your strengths and weaknesses. Once these are written down you are committed, so hold yourself responsible for working on them.

Effective brain cancer treatment and Mental Relief for Patients

Mental Health blogger

Many people think that the persons, who are suffering from cancer, may not be able to survive and this is an absolutely false statement and feeling. In this advanced world, there are highly qualified surgeons and advanced surgical and non-surgical procedures to treat brain cancer. Of course, depending on the individual, the treatment differs.

The age and health condition of the patients and the size of the tumor and its location are the aspects, which have to be taken for consideration in deciding about the brain cancer treatment procedures. Surgery, radiation and chemotherapy are the three important and major procedures, which are performed, generally. Home care is absolutely necessary for the patients, who have brain cancer.

The surgical procedure is normally performed, where the scope of survival is there, with the patient. However, surgeons offer various options for the patients and they need to regain confidence, for the purpose of overcoming the cancer battle. It is always possible for them to live and they need to visit the cancer rehabilitation centers, where there are people, who are living peacefully, after getting rid of their cancer.

Further, these procedures have to be performed, only after the permission from the patient and his or her family members. The patient would not be interested to be with the ventilator, which is necessary, during the procedures. Anything could happen to the patients and when they are with the life support, they can survive. Patients have freedom to think and select their treatment procedures and once they agree to the recommended treatment procedure, the surgeon would start to perform his procedure.

Radiation therapy may be a good option for the brain cancer and the size of the tumor has to be suitable for this system. Multi-disciplinary approach to the disease is required and patients should realize that they are going to live, after winning the battle with the cancer. Most of the patients may not have the tumor in brain, once they undertake the radiation treatment. This is the procedure; with the high level energy x-ray is applied, with the external treatment.

The part of the skin may be irritating and the tumor would be burned inside the brain and the patient should be in perfect condition. Now, specialized and advanced chemotherapy and immune therapy combined brain cancer treatment is being performed for the lymphoma patients. This procedure is with less toxic and at the same time, very effective.

Mental Barriers to Productivity

Mental Health blogger

I doubt there are many people who can claim that they don’t know what it feels like to be utterly stressed out or so overwhelmed you can’t make sense of anything – all due to a lack of time.

Doesn’t it make sense that you would do something it about it, if you complain everyday that you feel like your days consist of merely putting out fires? But why do so many people complain about time and never do anything about it? What separates those who take action, get amazing results to those who don’t take action and live with the same results? People who complain but don’t do anything about it might have some mental barriers to break through first.

Self limiting Beliefs and negative programming

Growing up you were influenced by your parents and others and you started to model their behaviour. Unfortunately you were too young to decide whether some actions were good or bad, or helpful or not. So if you have picked up and learnt bad habits, you can also unlearn them as well. If you find yourself saying “It is just the way I am, I have always been like this”, you may be a victim of negative programming.

I was born disorganized

You might deem that you were born messy or that you have a certain gene that keeps you “disorderly”, of course this is not true. You may half-mindedly say “I can’t be more organized, I was born this way” but thinking in this way is dis-empowering and keeps you trapped in the same position that you don’t want to be in. Keep in mind as well, that if you believe that you can’t change, you are right; the same goes for believing that you can change, you are also right, so you decide!

Moving forward

Stop sabotaging yourself from having a fabulous life, with tons of more time and tons of less stress. Almost everybody develops habits that don’t serve them, but what really sets the group apart are those who conquer their bad habits from those who are a slave to their habits. If you don’t want to feel frazzled, weighed down or anxious anymore, stop listening to the limiting thoughts that keep you where you are and from being productive.

Giving up to gain

For many, to achieve something, they have to give up something first and this could be another mental barrier. You might have to give up that extra coffee break in the morning; that extra 10minutes snooze or give up the feeling of being in your comfort zone. Whatever it is, you most likely know what is holding you back. If you don’t, ask yourself what is causing you to falter moving forward? What are the thoughts or feelings that are holding you back? Once you are able to identify what your mental barriers are to time management, you are in a much better position to break through them.

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