Dr. Rakesh Chandra

Psychiatric illnesses occur due to bio-psycho-social reasons. Biological is your brain neurons and functioning, psychological are the factors during your developmental stage and sociological are the external environment/ people/ job/ stress u r exposed to. So it is multifactorial for various disorders, each contributing in varying proportion. For OCD, there is altered serotonergic ( a neurotransmitter) transmission in certain brain areas as the main reason.

Only by using strong will power and avoiding all situations where you feel like smoking, chewing tobacco or drinking or using drugs/ weed, avoiding friends who smoke and diverting mind by reading or chewing a gum, like NICORETTE and taking a walk when you crave for a smoke can all help. You can chew Nicorette gum which is nicotine replacement. There are medicines available. Which can be prescribed if asked personally Cigarette smoking is a leading preventable cause of mortality. It kills more than 60 lakh people worldwide every year. More than 50% of regular smokers would invariably die from tobacco-related illnesses which includes heart attack, cancer or asthmatic lung diseases. Best age to stop smoking is before 40.

Dear lybrate user. I can understand. You can be a good friend to your ex boyfriend. But you must also make sure that your friendship does not interfere with their family life. Your confusion is because you still has some crunch towards that married man. Leave it. I suggest online counselling. Take care.

Escitalopram is not addictive. Yoga, meditation and cognitive behavioural therapy are the other ways to treat anxiety and depression. Its upto you whether you can do all these on regular basis or not. Otherwise, there is no short cut, unfortunately. BW.

Dear , memory and mind power consists of understanding, storage and recollection of information you learn. Understanding depends on concentration. The more creative you are on doing tasks or reading, the more you understand. Storage and recollection depends on your understanding and how well you review what you have learned. Repetition and review of material learned and other tasks provides easy recollection. You can improve your concentration and total brain power with the help of green leafy vegetables, exercise, creative activities, number puzzles like sudoku etc. Hard work is the key to learning and recollection

From what you describe, it appears like that even though you have a medical problem which you have barely fixed you continue to test your health in obviously dangerous ways. This is an indication that you do not comply with healthy ways and much more can be read from that. Now, whether the problems came first or your irresponsible behavior caused these health problems may be a contentious point. From this, I can garner that you may be contributing to the conflict with your wife to a large extent, after so many years of marriage, and now pushing for a divorce that may add more to your misery. With your father having committed suicide, which incidentally can run in families, you need to be very responsible about various things. My advice is that you drop the idea of divorce and sort out the differences with your wife together with the help of a marriage counselor, immediately. Then you must give up your drinking habit and if need be, admit yourself in a rehabilitation center to resolve that. You must get into a health regimen that will ensure good health and longevity. You must also look at getting some employment since the business deals failed ( I do not know how much of that was due to your attitude). Please take serious note of my suggestions even if it upsets you and take concrete action steps to reduce the stressful life you are leading right now. They have only one outcome if you continued to persist with it: total ruin and destruction that need not be named.

Dear lybrate user We have had many such clients who were not doing well in their life specially professional life. After mind training such people they get back their confidence. They also get out of the confusions and doubts they have as their mind guides them according to their capabilities strengths and weaknesses. Their mental energy no longer gets spent in useless unproductive things and they get more focused and productive. You can tell him regarding this. He can take a free consultation for more information and then decide if he wants to go ahead or not.

Voice rest is need be cautious with medications. Many can directly or indirectly affect your voice. Avoid habitual and frequent throat clearing and excessive coughing. Avoid speaking in noisy environments and open spaces such as playgrounds. Avoid intake of spicy, oily and fast food. Avoid caffeinated beverages like coffee, tea and colas. Do not smoke & avoid alcohol intake. Do not sing or mimic natural sounds or animal cries to train your voice. Consult a speech-language pathologist.

No do not take it is like alcohol, pure sleeping pill, and does not treat the cause, consult a psychiatrist and get your emotional symptoms/ stress treated correctly. All the best.

Dear lybrate-user, Serta is not a sleep inducing antidepressant. Your sleep will improve if your depression is lifted. Even after 4 years, if you have a sleeping problem, please consult your psychiatrist again. Please try taking serta in the morning.