Dr. Prashant Goyal

Have you been getting emotionally dependent on other people? Are you not being able to make your own decisions and feel like taking suggestions or advice? These symptoms signify dependent personality disorder, which is a common form of personality disorder. This disorder may occur in both men and women, especially during young adulthood. It is caused due to a combination of biological, developmental, psychological and temperamental factors. It is also likely to develop in people whose parents are authoritarian and overprotective.

Symptoms

People affected with dependent personality disorder may experience the following symptoms:

1. The inability of making the pettiest of decisions without consulting other people.

2. The person may avoid all responsibilities and be helpless or passive. He or she may get dependent on their spouse or friends.

3. The person has a great fear of getting abandoned by friends and loved ones. A sense of devastation develops when a relationship ends.

4. The patient gets extra sensitive to any form of criticism.

5. Self-confidence and self-reliance are lost, and the person becomes pessimistic. They may feel that they cannot take care of themselves.

6. The person will tend to avoid disagreeing with others as they fear of losing approval or support.

7. Difficulty is experienced while being alone.

8. The patient develops a willingness to tolerate any kind of abuse or bad behavior from others.

9. The patient is unable to start any new project owing to lack of confidence.

10. A tendency to fantasize and be naïve develops.

Treatment

In major cases of dependent personality disorder, the affected people usually do not seek treatment for the disorder. Instead, they would want treatment when a certain problem in life becomes overwhelming and they cannot cope with it. The symptoms of depression and anxiety are treated.

Psychotherapy is the primary method used in the treatment of dependent personality disorder. Psychotherapy aims at making the affected person independent and active. He is taught how to form and maintain healthy relationships. Regular sessions with a therapist are good for making the patient better. Cognitive behavior therapy and assertiveness training may also be used.

Several medicines may be prescribed for treating people with dependent personality disorder. The medicines help in the management of depression and anxiety, which are common symptoms.  The medications must be monitored well, as the patient may abuse these prescription drugs or use them inappropriately.

People affected with dependent personality disorder are at an enhanced risk of substance abuse. They are also prone to being abused by other people as they are willing to do anything in order to maintain a relationship. You should visit a psychiatrist in case you experience any symptoms of this condition.

Hyper somnolence or hypersomnia is a condition that leads to constant daytime fatigue and drowsiness as well as prolonged night time sleeps. In this condition, the patient will usually go through repeated bouts of sleep, which he or she will not be able to resist without proper treatment and intervention. This condition makes patients take naps throughout the day even after a long and unhindered sleep throughout the night. Patterns of excessive drowsiness will begin to set in at the most inopportune times including meal times and even in the middle of a conversation. While there is no scientifically or medically proven cause for the onset of this ailment, it is known to affect adolescents more than adults. Read on to know more about the symptoms and treatment of this condition.

Symptoms: The patients suffering from this condition will experience a variety of other symptoms in addition to the constant state of drowsiness. These symptoms include anxiety, which may even go to a severe level if it is not treated properly and on time. Also, the patient may experience restlessness and a sense of increased irritation even in the most normal, everyday situations due to a perceived lack of sleep and constant state of drowsiness. Loss of appetite and hallucinations may also begin to plague patients who suffer from this condition on a chronic and prolonged basis without proper treatment. Slow thinking and slow speech are other symptoms that will start to set in with time as well.

Social Situations: In many social and personal situations, the patient may begin to lose basic functionality because of the constant urge to sleep. The patient’s interactions on a social platform may begin to deteriorate due to the lack of coherent thinking and speaking as well as the sense of irritability and restlessness displayed.

Medication: In most cases, it is best to go about this condition by treating the symptoms with medication prescribed by a doctor. The doctor may prescribe stimulant medication that will help in keeping the system awake for longer periods at a time. The doctor will also stress on the time of the day when these must be ingested so that nighttime sleep is not affected in any way. These medicines include amphetamines, which are usually prescribed for patients suffering from ADHD or attention deficit hyperactivity disorder. This medicine is usually given in controlled doses so as to keep the patient alert for longer periods of time. Other medicines include clonidine, antidepressants, bromocriptine, monoamine oxidase inhibitors and levodopa.

Therapy: Behavioural therapy is also known to make a marked difference in such cases, which helps in regulating and normalizing the sleep patterns.

Sleepwalking is a sleep related disorder that affects many individuals globally. It causes people to get up and start walking even when they are in a deep state of sleep. This condition happens when the patient is going through a state of deep sleep to light sleep, before actually awaking. In most cases, the patients are not aware of their actions and may find themselves in another room or part of the house when they wake up. While this condition usually happens for children between the ages of four to eight, it may even happen for certain adults. Here is everything you need to know about sleepwalking from the reasons that cause it, to the ways in which it may be treated.

General causes of sleepwalking: Sleepwalking may be caused by sudden stress or a chaotic sleep pattern. In such cases, it may last only a few weeks and may even come with other symptoms like bedwetting. This is most commonly seen in children. It is also a genetically inherited disorder that can affect people whose parents or siblings have suffered from the same.

Also, if you have a sleep deprivation problem and experience trouble when it comes to falling asleep, then this condition may set in. Many people also walk in their sleep when they are drunk or are known to regularly get drunk. Excessive alcohol consumption may also lead to such sleep disorders. Also, if the patient is taking sedatives that are hypnotic in nature, then they may experience such symptoms as sleepwalking.

Medical conditions: There are also a number of medical conditions that may cause this condition. To begin with, sleepwalking may arise as a symptom of heartburn and fever. Also, patients who are suffering from an irregular heartbeat or heart rhythm may end up walking in their sleep. Restless leg syndrome, obstructive sleep apnea, night time seizures and asthma may also cause this condition. Other psychiatric disorders like post traumatic stress disorder, panic attacks and multiple personality disorder can also cause symptoms such as sleepwalking.

Treatment: The method of treatment is usually based on the genetic, environmental or physiological reasons that are behind the actual disorder. While changing the medicines and treating the actual ailment that causes sleepwalking as a symptom may be recommended by most doctors, one may also have to undergo therapy. This therapy will help in reaching the root cause of the sleepwalking disorder in case it is a chronic problem that has nothing to do with any other ailment or disease. The doctor may also look for signs of nocturnal seizures and confusion arousal in order to treat the same with proper therapy and medication. If you wish to discuss about any specific problem, you can consult a psychiatrist.

While sex is an important part of an adult’s life, it may also come with a number of problems for certain people. Sexual addiction is a problem faced by many and includes a wide range of behavioural patterns when it comes to sex and excessive indulgence in the same. This condition may impact the life of an individual in a significant and even debilitating manner. While many people may confuse this with mere addiction to porn, this is not true. Let us find out more.

Types of Sexual Addiction: There are a number of ways in which sexual addiction may be characterised. As mentioned above, it does not merely include addiction to pornography or any other aspect of sex. It may include an addiction of one or multiple aspects, which include pornography as well. The various forms of sexual addiction include pornography addiction, addiction to fantasy or masturbation, addiction to sadistic behaviour, addition to prostitution, and other excess sexual activities and pursuits like exhibitionism.

Symptoms and Signs: There are a number of physical and emotional symptoms and signs of this condition. The patients suffering from this condition may end up isolating or alienating their partners, which is one of the most common giveaways of this condition. They may also go from one relationship to another in no time at all, with multiple partners in many cases. Also, they will not really have healthy relationships with their partners because of their fantasy based perceptions when it comes to sex. The physical symptoms of this condition include falling prey to venereal diseases and infections on a frequent basis, as well as the exposure to unwanted pregnancy in at least 70% of the cases, as per many medical reports. Anxiety, depression and substance abuse are also some of the common outcomes of this kind of addiction.

Treatment: Sexual addiction and sexual dependency can be treated by first of all treating the physical manifestations of this condition and its symptoms like infections and other ailments. This will be done with the help of medication in most cases. Further, the patient will be put through CBT or cognitive behavioural therapy as well as other forms of sex therapy so that the evaluator or psychologist may find the root cause behind the condition.

This kind of therapy usually follows the route of exhaustive discussions in which the patient will be asked to talk about his or her emotions and problems. These will then be used in order to reprogram the attitude and thinking of the patient. In such cases, the patient will also be encouraged to invest time and effort in the emotional side of a committed relationship so that the dependency on sex may reduce. If you wish to discuss about any specific problem, you can consult a doctor and ask a free question.

Serious mental disorders and side effects to varied medicines may cause hallucinations in many individuals. Psychosis and Schizophrenia are the most commonly known causes that may cause this condition. Hallucinations are sensations and feelings that may appear as real to the patient, convincing him or her of the occurrence of things that are not really happening in reality. Hearing voices, seeing people, and experiencing things that no one else can, are some of the ways in which hallucinations work.

Let us find out the varied signs and symptoms of this condition.

1. Hearing Voices: One of the most common signs of hallucinations includes hearing voices. You may hear voices from people who cannot be seen or heard by other people around you. In such cases, you may have the distinct feeling of hearing these voices from within or from a source outside your own mind and body. In many cases, you may feel like these voices are trying to talk to you or give you a certain message. Ringing of the ears on a persistent basis may also be experienced in such cases.

2. Visual Hallucinations: These hallucinations will make the patient see things. In such cases, the patient may be witness to a scene that cannot be seen by anyone else – a scene that may not be happening in reality. In visual hallucinations, the patient may also see people that other people in the room or the area cannot see. The patient may also see objects and other creatures like insects crawling across his or her hand, and may react with fear or anxiety, when in reality, no such scene may be happening. These kind of hallucinations also cause occipital seizures where the patient will see spots, shapes and rings of brightly coloured lights that may be coming towards him or her, or even encircle him or her.

3. Feeling Things: These kinds of hallucinations will make the patient feel things that may not really be happening. For example, these hallucinations will make the patient feel hot during winters or feel a blast of air even when there has been none.

4. Taste Hallucinations: In these hallucinations, the patient may get a salty taste from sweet food, or vice versa. These hallucinations make the patient imagine that he or she tastes a certain flavor when in reality, this may not be true. These are also called gustatory hallucination.

5. Olfactory Hallucinations: These hallucinations have to do with odd smells that the patient may get a whiff of. In these hallucinations, the patient imagines certain smells like burning, or other odours. Patients may also feel that their own bodies are letting out certain odours which may not be the actual case.  

Delusion vs. Hallucination

A delusion is a false belief based on incorrect inference about external reality that is firmly sustained despite what almost everybody else believes and despite what constitutes incontrovertible and obvious proof or evidence to the contrary. The belief is not one ordinarily accepted by other members of the person's culture or subculture (e.g., it is not an article of religious faith).

A hallucination occurs when environmental, emotional, or physical factors such as stress, medication, extreme fatigue, or mental illness cause the mechanism within the brain that helps to distinguish conscious perceptions from internal, memory-based perceptions to misfire. As a result, hallucinations occur during periods of consciousness. They can appear in the form of visions, voices or sounds, tactile feelings (known as haptic hallucinations), smells, or tastes.

Delusions are a common symptom of several mood and personality-related mental illnesses, including schizoaffective disorder, schizophrenia, shared psychotic disorder, major depressive disorder, and bipolar disorder. They are also the major feature of delusional disorder. Individuals with delusional disorder suffer from long-term, complex delusions that fall into one of six categories: persecutory, grandiose, jealousy, erotomanic, somatic, or mixed.

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Depression is an illness, which has a direct impact on the brain. People feel that it’s just feeling down, but it is more than that. It is a serious illness caused by changes in brain chemistry. There are other factors also that contribute to the onset of depression, including

1. Genetics

2. Changes in hormone levels

3. Stress

4. Difficult life circumstances

Any of the above mentioned factors or combination can precipitate changes in brain chemistry and may lead to depression. Depression is a serious and a very common condition these days which may lead to suicide in extreme cases.

Signs of Depression:

1. Loss of pleasure in virtually all activities

2. Feeling of fatigue or lack of energy (Learn more to boost the energy level)

3. Difficulty with concentration or memory

4. An increase or decrease in appetite, with a corresponding change in weight

5. Thoughts of suicide Depression & Suicide

A major cause of suicide is mental illness, very commonly depression. People feeling suicidal are overwhelmed by painful emotions and see death as the only way out, losing sight of the fact that suicide is a permanent solution to a temporary state. Most people who succeed with living feel glad that they resist and are alive today. Suicidal thoughts may be fleeting or more frequent, passive or active. People who are in depress state often start preparing for death, such as giving away possessions or acquiring a gun and these are cause of great concern and should be taken very seriously.

How to judge if suicide is a possibility?

There may be some warning signs, though hard to predict, but can be an area of concern:

1. Being depressed or signs of some mental disorders

2. Talking about the loss of interest in living or not to be around

3. Increased social isolation

4. Mood swings very often

5. Buying suicide materials

6. Preoccupation with death

While anyone can become suicidal, there are certain risk factors that make suicide more likely:

1. Previous suicide attempts

2. Recent losses like loss of a relationship or job

3. Cultural and religious beliefs supporting suicide

4. Access to means of suicide

How to help a depressed person?

• Let the person know if you've noticed a change in their behaviour.

• Spend time talking with the person about their experiences and let them know that you're there to listen without being judgmental.

• Suggest the person see a doctor or health professional and/or help them to make an appointment.

• Offer to go with the person to the doctor or health professional.

• Help the person to find information about depression and anxiety from a website or library.

• Encourage the person to try to get enough sleep, exercise and eat healthy food.

• Discourage the person from using alcohol or other drugs to feel better.

• Encourage friends and family members to invite the person out and keep in touch, but don't pressure the person to participate in activities.

• Encourage the person to face their fears with support from their doctor/psychologist.

Remember that your loved one's depression isn't anyone's fault. You can't fix the person's depression, but your support and understanding can help.