When it comes to speech, every child has a different pace of learning. In the first year, they should be able to recognize and respond to their own names and simple directions like  come , etc. By a child s second birthday, he or she should be able to use a single word or two-word phrases and understand simple questions. If a child s speech development seems atypical for his or her age, you may need to consult a speech therapist. Some of the things you should look out for are:

Mispronouncing vowels: Many children have problems with pronunciation. Pronouncing  bath  as  baf  or  animal  as  amal  is normal. However, if they cannot pronounce vowels correctly, they may be having problems with articulation. For example, your child might say  coo  instead of  cow .
Using only single words: Part of a speech therapist s job is to teach a child to join words together to create phrases and sentences. If even after your child s second birthday, they still prefer using single words instead of phrases, you should consult a speech therapist. For example, they may just say  water  instead of  i want water .
Stuttering: Many children are shy and hesitant of speaking especially in front of strangers. However, stuttering is a more serious problem. This could be in the form of repeating syllables or prolonging words. For example,  s-s-s-s-s-stop  or  mmmmmm me . If this is not nipped in the bud, it could continue into the child s adult life as well.
Answering a question by repeating part of it: By the age of three years, a child should be able to understand and answer simple questions. If the child answers a question by repeating part of it, such as answering  do you want food  with  you want food , it could be a sign of a bigger problem. This is known as echolalia and might be an early symptom of autism.
Limited vocabulary: Each child s vocabulary grows at a different rate but it is important to be able to notice an increase in the child s vocabulary from month to month. If the child uses only a finite set of words and does not catch on to new words, you may need a speech therapist. They can help the child expand their vocabulary and become more receptive to new words.
Other factors you should watch out for include difficulty with pronouns, not being able to follow instructions and understand prepositions and confusion with gender.

When Does My Child Need Speech Therapy?

Is someone close to you into drugs? Are you concerned about him or her having a drug problem? There are several patterns of drug abuse, which help you to determine the extent of drug abuse a person is undergoing. It is important for you to recognize your dear ones  drug use patterns and analyse whether you need to take further steps. The different drug abuse patterns are classified as follows:

Hard drug use
Hard drugs like cocaine, heroin, and methamphetamine are considered to be the most dangerous in terms of their harmful effects on health and behavior.
They are associated with risks of addiction. Most people start with such drugs recreationally, but addiction can set in very quickly.
People engaging in hard drugs are subjected to high risk behavior. They usually become isolated and live in their own world, away from society.
Frequent drug use
The frequency of drug abuse is not good enough for determining, if a person is addicted.
People engaging themselves in binge drinking during weekends can have serious issues in spite of not drinking every day.
Frequent drug use indicates a person s drug tolerance and dependence. A person who drinks or uses drugs regularly is quite likely to continue this pattern.
Early drug use
People who start taking drugs from early adolescence are at an enhanced risk of developing drug problems in their adulthood.
The earlier a child gets into drugs, the sooner they become addicts.
During adolescence, a person s body and brain still undergo development and any kind of drug-related consequences may be quite severe.
Drug use from an early age is quite a common phenomenon.
Solitary drug use
Teenagers who use marijuana, cigarettes and alcohol while they are alone are at a higher risk of developing drug problems later in life.
They are quite likely to have poor physical health by the age of 23, compared to social drug users.
Solitary drug use is also quite a common aspect that prevails.
Escapist drug use
The reasons for using alcohol and drugs vary from person to person.
People who use drugs for coping with stress, medicating anxiety or depression, and building self-esteem are prone to becoming addicts.
Teens using substances for coping with boredom and grief are highly subjected to drug problems.
A lot of people drink on some occasions, and try some substance just for the sake of experimenting. However, when the substance starts affecting your career, relationships and activities, a pattern of drug use is recognized. These patterns increase the risk of addiction, no matter how many months, years or weeks a person is engaged in them.

Drug Abuse - Understanding The Pattern!

If you are living with bipolar disorder then you will need a combination of skills to successfully combat each day of your life. Educating yourself about the disorder is the first step, however, there are certain tips that can come in handy on numerous occasions. 

Here are 5 tips that will really help you out:

Educate yourself about the disorder: The first thing you need to do is educate yourself about the details of bipolar disorder. Find out about the symptoms, read about the causes and the diagnosis procedure and ultimately find out everything about the treatment. Your doctor will provide you all the information and suggest you all the required treatment procedures. However, don t try to self-diagnose and self-treat your disorder without an expert opinion.
Stay connected with your friends and loved ones: Isolation is not the best way to handle bipolar disorder. The more you isolate yourself the higher the risk of mood swings. This lack of connection will lead to depression and that should be avoided at all cost. So try to be as connected to the world as possible. Talk to your family members, hangout with your friends, spend time with people around you; and you will feel a lot better.
Track the symptoms: Keep a daily log of your moods, thoughts and behaviors. This is a fantastic way to track the symptoms of the disorder. This will be revealing in the end, as when you present them before the doctor, he/she will be able to easily diagnose your condition. Try to keep track of particular incidents that may trigger any stress and change in behavior and log the mood episodes that you may have experienced pertaining to those triggers.
Employ coping mechanisms: It is not always possible to call on your doctor or counselor, so try to develop your own coping mechanism with the help of your doctor or counselor. Your mood episodes are going to be spontaneous so the coping mechanisms should be kept in mind. It can be anything that induces calmness in you such as staying connected, happy thoughts, music and any other healthy habits that captures your interest and engages you in something else.
Create a crisis plan: Create a contact list that will include the people, serially, who should be contacted in case of an emergency or a crisis attack. If you feel like you are experiencing any symptoms then contact them for help. When you are out of control, you will not have much time, so it is also advised to keep emergency numbers on speed dial to get yourself hospitalized without any time loss. Add your loved ones to the emergency contact list.


Suffering from Bipolar Disorder - 5 Things That Can Really Help!

When it comes to the effects of alcohol, the liver is the most talked about the organ. However, this is not the only part of the body affected by alcohol. Alcohol can also affect your cardiovascular health. This effect is determined largely by the quantity of alcohol being consumed. In restricted amounts, alcohol can in fact be beneficial but in large amounts, it can be the cause of a number of heart health issues. Let s take a look at both sides of the coin.

The Good
For women over the age of 45 years, drinking a small amount of certain types of alcohol such as red wine can be good for the heart. It protects the heart against damage to the arteries by increasing the good cholesterol levels. This prevents the narrowing of arteries by reducing the amount of fat deposited on the arterial walls. Good cholesterol also helps lower the level of bad cholesterol and fights against its ill effects.

Alcohol also reduces the ability of platelets to stick together by increasing the amount of fibrinogen produced by the liver. Thus, it prevents the formation of blood clots an in turn heart attacks caused by them.

The Not so Good
The ill effects of alcohol consumption overshadow its benefits. Drinking heavily over an extended period of time can increase your risk of heart disease. It increases blood pressure that can further trigger a stroke or heart attack. Alcoholism can also lead to weight gain that again causes an increase in blood pressure.

Excessive alcohol consumption also weakens the heart muscles. This condition is known as cardiomyopathy. As the heart muscles grow weaker, they cannot pump blood efficiently and the heart may fail and cause premature death.

Binge drinking can cause a condition known as Holiday Heart Syndrome. It is characterized by severe pain in the center of the chest, increased blood pressure, irregular heartbeats and breathlessness. It may make the person feel as though they were experiencing a heart attack. The term was coined as this condition was seen more commonly during the holiday season when people tend to drink more heavily.

Thus, if you want to enjoy a long, healthy life, avoid alcohol or drink in moderation. For women, this means one drink a day while for men; consumption should be limited to two drinks a day. If you have an existing heart condition or a history of strokes, alcohol should be avoided completely. In case you have a concern or query you can always consult an expert & get answers to your questions!

Alcohol Intake and Heart Health - Know The Link!

According to most experts, depression and diabetes have been intricately connected in a vicious cycle. While the prolonged and sustaining nature of diabetes directly makes one vulnerable to the bouts of depression, doctors tend to locate traces of depression in the family history of an individual in order to diagnose the roots of diabetes. It won't be too far-fetched to state that both causes as well as affects the other.

If you have diabetes, either type 1 or type 2, you have an increased risk of developing depression. And if you're depressed, you may have a greater chance of developing type 2 diabetes. The good news is that diabetes and depression can be treated together. And effectively managing one can have a positive effect on the other.

How diabetes and depression correlated? 
There are myriad ways in which diabetes affects depression and vice versa. 

Firstly, tackling such a long drawn disease and its various pitfalls might cause a lot of anxiety to one and lead to depression. Whereas on the other hand, depression reduces the zeal to live and thus results in poor lifestyle choices which in turn causes weight gain, unhealthy food habits, physical inactivity. As we are well aware, all these have the potential to wreak havoc for any patient of diabetes. 

Similarly, diabetes ushers in various other health complications, adversely impacting one's productivity. This may cause depression in a lot of people. 

On the flipside, depression impedes one's ability and enthusiasm to work or communicate, this in turn intervenes with one's monitoring of diabetes. Since these two extremely malevolent diseases have such close connections, medical science recommends ways to grapple with both. The rigors of managing diabetes can be stressful and lead to symptoms of depression.

Diabetes can cause complications and health problems that may worsen symptoms of depression.

Depression affects your ability to perform tasks, communicate and think clearly. This can interfere with your ability to successfully manage diabetes.

Treatment

Depression is just like any other illness, it can be treated. Treatment can lift the depression and improve diabetes control.

Looking after your diabetes will help decrease the risk of getting depression. If you already have depression, good diabetes management will help lessen the negative impacts it can have. Depression is no different to any of the other complication of diabetes. It is a genuine illness for which you need to seek help and support from health professionals.

The treatment for depression and diabetes involves a coordinated approach that monitors both diabetes control and the symptoms of depression. It is about finding the treatment that works best for each person. For example, people with diabetes and mild depression may find that regular physical activity improves depressed moods and also helps control blood glucose levels.

Helping yourself.

If you suspect you might have depression, take control of your health by:

Going to a doctor or other health professional
Getting involved in social activities
Engaging in regular moderate physical activity
Learning about depression and diabetes
Very particular about medicines prescribed for diabetes
Eating healthily and including a wide variety of nutritious foods
Achieving and maintaining healthy weight
Limiting your alcohol intake
Getting help, support and encouragement from family and friends
Asking your doctor to check your blood pressure, cholesterol and blood glucose levels.

Diabetes and Depression

6 Easy ways to not let your anger get the better of you

Although a natural emotion, anger needs to be managed at all times so that it doesn’t get out of control and cause problems in your life. Whether at home, work or in your relationships, uncontrolled anger can affect your general life quality. However, controlling your anger comes with the benefit of improving your overall health, while reducing stress levels. 

Here are some of the ways that you could learn to gain control on your temper:

1. Practice deep breathing
Instead of allowing your anger to get out of control, every time you start feeling angry, get down to practicing some simple breathing techniques to calm your tense body and mind. Here’s what you should do when enraged:
- Take slow, but deep breaths to counteract the stress reaction that usually accompanies anger
- Slowly repeat a calming word or phrase, which could be “relax”, “take it easy” or “I am in control of my anger”
- Work on your muscles by tightening and then relaxing them

2. Count from 1 to 100 or 100 to 1
Counting numbers can prevent you from flying off the handle. It takes your mind away from the cause of your anger and prevents you from mulling over the situation. The act of counting also provides you with the time to delay the impulsive behaviour that often follows the emotion. You can even make this more effective by breathing in slowly and deeply whenever you start on a 
new number. 

3. Focus on the present
Whenever you’re angry, don’t look back at the past. By doing so, you may end up bringing past grievances into your present situation, while holding others responsible for feeling how and what you feel. Instead focus your attention on what you can do in the present to work out the issue. 

4. Relax tight muscles
Another tip that can help you to cool down fast is a gentle massage of the areas of tension, which are usually the shoulders, neck and scalp. For the shoulders, simply rotate them to relax tight muscles. To release the tension that gets built up in your neck and head region, perform a simple scalp massage to improve blood circulation and consequently, relax your mind. 

5. Listen to music
Listening to music can soothe frayed nerves and calm you down. It works by helping you to sieve through the feelings of anger and disappointment in a constructive manner.  

6. Change of situation
Taking yourself away from the source of anger, whether it’s the place or the person concerned, is an anger management skill that you can use to calm yourself. To do this, you can either close your eyes and transport yourself to a quiet and peaceful place or simply walk away to let your anger fizzle out. 



6 Doable Ways to Control Your ANGER and Not Let it Control You!

Don't wait any longer, manage your Addiction Specialist online with a Lybrate doctor today

Consult for Addiction Specialist - Online and Easy!

FilterClear All

COMMON SPECIALITIES

COMMON ISSUES