Bharasa Clinic

In spite of several reminders about the ill- effects of smoking, you might still be an unperturbed chain smoker. Smoking is one vice that not only ruins the health of your heart, lungs and brain, but it also damages your skin. The changes smoking can bring about are usually gradual and hence we tend to overlook. A peek into the effects of smoking on your skin may curb your urge to smoke henceforth.

1. Smoking increases chances of a scaly skin: You may not be aware that puffing cigarettes can make you develop a serious skin condition. Scaly skin or Psoriasis is an autoimmune skin disorder but the chances of contracting this disorder are increased with every pack of cigarettes you smoke. Psoriasis has severe impacts on the kind of life you live. It might lead to estrangement from friends and acquaintances, making you end up lonely and depressed. Studies reflect smoking a pack each day for twenty years at a stretch increases your risk of developing a scaly skin by sixty percent.
2. Smoking leads to irregular sleep patterns: It is frequently noticed that despite a full night's sleep, a person feels tired and overworked. The reason could be a lack of nicotine during your hours of sleep. This lack makes you uneasy in bed. Lack of sleep is always evident in the quantity and quality of work a person does.
3. Smokers can have bags under their eyes: Do you wonder why make- up tips fail in freshening up your appeal? It could be the result of your bad habit of smoking. Though dark circles and bags under eyes are not indicative of other essential problems, they do make you look exhausted and elderly. Instead of using cold compress to get rid of these bags, try quitting cigarettes.
4. Smoking can cause persistent scars and bruises: Smoking prevents or rather delays the process of healing. Researches show how nicotine leads to vasoconstriction. It constricts the small blood vessels in different parts of your body prohibiting blood flow to these parts. Scars and bruises take a longer time to heal because the oxygen in your blood doesn't reach them.
5. Smoking will make you lose your radiant skin: If you have a beautiful, glowing skin, prepare to bid farewell to that glow. An excess intake of nicotine deprives your skin of oxygen. Your skin looks dehydrated. Smoking also drains out important nutrients like Vitamin C which is known for its effects against skin damage.

A healthy skin is the easiest key to the secret of looking pretty and confident. Quit smoking and experience the wonderful effects.

One of the scariest fallouts of divorce is parental alienation for the child. In most cases, the custody of the child is passed on to the mother. In such cases, the child is very likely to be separated from the father. The child can develop a sense of alienation towards his father. The reverse is also true. Sometimes the feeling develops to such an extent that the child may refuse to meet the father or mother at all. This is the tragic fallout of a toxic divorce. 

Why It Happens

Parental alienation is common to children of divorced partners. Divorce alters the family structure dramatically. Children don’t have any say or control over such changes. They love both their parents and want to stay with both of them. Although many parents understand this, there are some that don’t. These are the people who stoke parental alienation in their children.

In their zeal to win over the confidence of their children, some parents take stern measures. They take recourse to measures like keeping the child away from its father/mother or speaking badly about the former partner in the presence of their children. Such measures can strike a sense of hatred among children about their father or mother. If one partner continues to engage in such activities, the child may develop a deep sense of alienation towards his separated father or mother. Parents should not use their children to fulfil an urge for vengeance on their former partners.

Immediate Requirement

The need of the hour is to protect children from parental alienation irrespective of the toxicity between the parents. However, protecting children from such abuse is easier said than done.

How to Protect Children from Parental Alienation?

Ways to help a child from parental alienation depends on the age of the child to a large extent. If the child has come out of its infancy and is able to learn and retain things, one needs to maintain the following:

• Don’t ever speak badly of former partner, especially in front of the child.

• Don’t ever try to go one up above the other partner, especially with gifts or punishments.

• One needs to love the child unconditionally. Children love their parents unconditionally and parents need to reciprocate that in order to be in their reckoning.

• If the person blames his/her children for something or the other, he or she may develop a sense of alienation.

• Reminisce the fun times with the child. If possible, get together with a former partner and spend some happy moments.

• One needs to be on time for routine visits with former partners. Children look forward to such visits. Dithering with such visits with children may develop a sense of parental alienation.

Parental alienation is one of the most difficult situations for children to deal with. They go through a mix of emotions, which is why both parents should understand the impact of divorce or separation on their children. It can even spoil the personality of the child. One should always comfort his/her child and avoid situations where a child needs to choose one of the parents.

Intercourse is meant to be a pleasurable and intimate experience. But it might become an unpleasant act if you are suffering from performance anxiety. When you are mentally occupied by questions such as "Do I look too fat?" or "Did I do that right?", sex stops being a gratifying experience.

Incessant anxiety over your ability or appearance can result in sex becoming nerve-wracking and stressful for you. It might even have you avoiding sex altogether. This psychological condition is termed as sexual performance anxiety.

Sex isn't only a physical reaction, there are emotions tied to it as well. If you are too stressed out and your mind is preoccupied, your body reflects your inner turmoil and you cannot get aroused.

Causes: The causes of sexual performance anxiety include:

1. Fear that you wouldn't be able to satisfy your partner and perform well sexually
2. Body image issues (Such as stressing about your weight)
3. Problems in your relationship
4. Men worry that their penis don't 'measure' up
5. Men might be concerned about taking too much time to orgasm, or about premature ejaculation
6. Women worry about not enjoying the experience or being unable to have an orgasm

Symptoms: Your mental state has a deep impact on your physical state. The effect of stress hormones norepinephrine and epinephrine can hinder your sexual performance. Symptoms of sexual performance anxiety include:

1. In men, blood vessels constrict due to the effect of stress hormones. This leads to reduced blood flow to the penis, thus making it difficult for the man to get an erection.
2. Often though it is less diagnosed in women, sexual performance anxiety leads to trouble in lubrication during sex. Lack of lubrication dims the desire to have sex.

Sexual performance anxiety is a vicious, inescapable cycle. Increased anxiety hampers you from having sex, making you think you won't be able to perform well, which causes even more anxiety.

Treatment: Consult a doctor you will be comfortable with discussing your problems. Sexual performance can be either treated by medication (if you have an underlying medical condition such as erectile dysfunction) or through therapy.

Talking to a therapist or counsellor about your problems can help you in several ways. You can learn to become more comfortable with yourself and your body. You can also understand your problems better, which can eliminate your anxiety.

Depression is a psychological condition, which can develop in men and women of any age. No one can identify the cause of depression. It can be excessive stress, failure in relationships, academic pressure and various other issues of these sorts. But depression in itself is a serious condition and needs to be treated as soon as possible, lest it aggravates.

Before trying to deal with depression through medicines and counselling, it is important to recognise the signs and symptoms of this condition and try as much as possible to come out of it on your own. There are certain natural remedies, which work during the initial stages of depression. It is only when these fail or it aggravates that the patient must be rushed for immediate counselling. Here are certain natural ways of treating depression.

1. Sleep well: A sign that you are suffering from depression is lack of sleep. One does not get sleep no matter how hard he/she tries. Even after having sleeping pills, one does not get the correct amount of sleep that he/she requires. This triggers insomnia, thereby causing other health problems to develop. Thus, sleeping is mandatory. If needed, you must force yourself to sleep.
2. Eat well: It is often said and seen that depression leads you to binge eat or over eat. Overeating would include indulging yourself to too much chips, chocolates, junk food and the like. This would unnecessarily make you gain extra pounds and can trigger obesity. Alternately, it has been seen that the patient lacks the desire to eat anything. This too can lead to adverse effects as the body balance gets disturbed.
3. Exercise: Regular exercise helps in diverting your mind to something else for a little while. It also helps in keeping you fit and healthy. In case you do not like to exercise, you can opt for jogging or running or even simply taking a walk out in the open. Going out and inhaling fresh air, makes you focus on positive thoughts for a while. A daily dose of positive thoughts can do wonders for you.
4. Experiment with yourself: Try something new each day that you have not tried ever before. This might include cooking, knitting, riding a bike and the likes. This keeps you busy and keeps your mind off the negative thoughts. What’s more, you might discover some of your hidden talents.