Practical Life Skills

Borderline Personality Disorder (BPD) is a mental illness. A patient suffering from BPD maintains unstable relationships with other people, shows inappropriate emotional reactions and possesses suicidal or self-harm tendencies. It is purely a personality disorder caused due to multiple factors. Patients suffering from BPD may find it difficult to stay alone. They fear abandonment and loneliness. Yet they have a tendency of showing mood swings, sudden emotional outburst or anger and hostility. This prevents them from having a long lasting relationship in life.

It usually starts affecting the patient's life from early adulthood. It however seems to improve with age. The patient also has distorted self-image. He or she is unclear about what they want from life or what they are in reality. Even minor incidents can trigger intense reactions in people with BPD.

Symptoms of Borderline Personality Disorder:

The signs of suffering from BPD are listed below:

1. Intense and frantic effort to avoid abandonment or loneliness
2. Unstable relationships with people and changing the attitude towards them drastically. It can change from being in immense love with each other to intense hatred.
3. Developing paranoid thoughts and having dissociative feelings-The patient often lacks the feeling of self and suffers from identity crisis.
4. Suicidal feelings and attempts
5. Tendency to cause self harm or destruction by drug abuse, driving irresponsibly or be having unprotected sex
6. Reflecting intense depression
7. Chronic boredom
8. Sudden anger and hostility

Causes for Borderline Personality Disorder: Borderline Personality Disorder can be caused due to multiple reasons. Usually it has been found by researchers that it occurs to patients who have had a disturbed childhood. Complex and unpleasant happenings in the childhood may leave a deep impact on the patient's personality, which comes back as a disorder in his or her early adulthood. From mental, physical to sexual abuse in the childhood can lead to this condition in adults.

Besides, researchers have discovered recently that this illness has hereditary links. Some genes may be responsible for BPD. Improper functioning of the brain is also another factor. Especially, the portion of brain that controls emotions might not be functioning properly in co-ordination with other parts of it.

Diagnosis: There is no particular clinical test that can diagnose BPD. It can be diagnosed by a series of interactive session with the patient by a psychiatrist.

Treatment:  The treatment of BPD involves three steps- psychotherapy, medications and support from peer and family. Dialectical Behavioral therapy, cognitive behavioural therapy and psychodynamic psychotherapy are used in treating the patient. There are no specific medicines to cure identity crisis, boredom and loneliness. However, other symptoms like mood swings, depression and anxiety can be treated with anti-depressants and mood stabilizers. Antipsychotic drugs are also helpful to a certain extent. In extreme cases, hospitalization may be needed. If you wish to discuss about any specific problem, you can consult a Psychiatrist.

Improve Your Mental and Emotional Health

Epilepsy is a brain triggered disorder that can result in the affected person having seizures or convulsions of the body. Such convulsions last about a few minutes and the person undergoing epileptic seizure might be unaware of what’s happening to him/her during those brief moments. They may recover and appear disoriented for a few minutes more.

Epilepsy can’t be cured but is treated through medicines called anticonvulsant drugs.

1. Epilepsy is a neurological disorder brought about due to unusual electrical activity in the brain
2. The person having the disorder can have episodes of seizures where there can be sudden involuntary movements of the person’s whole body and shaking of the arms and legs lasting a few minutes
3. The condition can occur to anybody irrespective of age but children seem to suffer more from the condition following a head injury or emotional trauma
4. Electroencephalogram or EEG is the best way for the doctor to understand the exact nature of the disorder and this will help in the treatment.
5. Treatment through drugs is the most popular way of keeping the convulsions under check
6. Medically, if the patient goes without seizures for a few years under regular medication then there is every possibility the person may not suffer further convulsions
7. Apart from medication, dietary regulations have also been adopted by many physicians to treat the condition. Low carb and high protein items are advised as a way to reduce/stop the epileptic seizures
8. In some cases, the doctor might decide to conduct a surgery to remove the aberrant part of the brain to treat the individual for epilepsy
9. People with epilepsy have to take a lot of precautions in their daily routines to avoid getting seriously injured if they were to suffer a sudden attack of seizures
10. Driving and swimming are to be avoided by them
11. People standing around can help reduce the suffering by turning the person over to one side and offering a support to the head. Care can also be taken to remove any object that can cause injury to the person while having the convulsions.
12. Some doctors study the pattern of the seizures occurring and help in regulating them in such a manner that the person gets the convulsions only in the nights while asleep
13. This can limit the damage done to the person and can also help the person in going about normal routines
14. Parents must inform the school authorities if their children suffers from epilepsy so that they can provide first aid to such students immediately if episodes occur in school

Epilepsy is a brain-related disorder that can cause the person to go through involuntary shaking of the body and the limbs. It is usually treated with drugs. If you wish to discuss about any specific problem, you can consult a Neurosurgeon.

In today’s stressful environment, more and more people are being diagnosed with psychological disorders such as insomnia and depression. Neither of the two are things which people feel lucky to possess. However, it is interesting to note that there is a link between the two conditions. Also, the problems are a lot more common than a person is likely to first think; 80% of depressed people suffer from chronic insomnia!

For a long time until recently, many people were of the opinion that most depressed people were insomniac. But that is not really correct. The two issues do overlap to a large extent, but they are different from each other. Again, that does not mean one cannot affect the other.

When a person has depression, one of the main things that he or she can experience is a lack of pleasure from the activities and happenings which occur in his or her daily life. Similarly, when a person does not get enough sleep or even just cannot sleep, he or she is quite likely to display a tendency to worry. Often, worrying sets the stage for depression to develop in the person. In fact, doctors have observed that people who do not sleep enough are more likely to undergo treatment for depression than the others.

Recent findings have concluded that when a person sleeps better, the case of depression also shows an uptick. In addition to this, the habit of sleeping well can also go quite a long way to make sure that a person does not relapse into depression. According to some sleep therapies, people who suffer from lack of sleep are advised to follow a systematic routine of getting to bed and getting out of bed. Activities including reading in bed or watching TV after going to bed must be avoided. While there are various means to help a person sleep better, the choice as to which one would suit a person in the best possible way is only best decided by the person’s personal doctor. What is for sure is the fact that a person can effectively sleep to a better life!

So, it can be said that if a person wants to cure his/her depression and enjoy life being peppy, napping away is not such a bad idea after all. Having said that, everything is good only up to a certain limit!

How to Take Care of Your Emotional Health?

It is often said that a human being is a social animal. While this is true, does this mean that all degrees of social attachment are completely fine? Honestly, no. In fact, attachment displayed by children, to a very great extent, can have an unhealthy impact on the child’s psychology.

Children are sometimes affected by attachment disorders. This results in the child not being able to manage emotions to a sufficient degree. In addition to this, a child may suffer from a lack of self-worth due to not being able to connect on an emotional level with another person. Can you imagine how damaging this could be for a child who is so vulnerable while growing up?

When a child has a negative experience in his or her relationship with a parent, especially early on, an attachment disorder can develop. All children need varying degrees of a feeling of security to develop in initially and this is gone when they feel helpless and uncared for; not good indeed, to say the least!

What are some specific things, which can lead to the development of attachment disorders? One of the prime examples would be the needs of the baby being met some times but not all of the time. What this leads to is a baby not really knowing what is to be expected. Another thing which has the potential to be a trigger for an attachment disorder is the baby being neglected in the way that no person interacts with him or her and as a result of this, the baby seems to have no option at all, but to feel lonely.

So, what can be done in order to be able to deal with this situation? To start off, it can be said that the person himself or herself needs to put in a lot of effort. Patience truly is key as it helps in the improvement process and a parent needs to stay calm at every step.

When it comes to interactions with the child, listening, talking and playing while eliminating distractions, allows the child the opportunity to open up. Also, helping a child identify the emotions that are felt helps a lot.
Bonding with the child and physical care by the way of holding and hugging provides a sense of care and security to the child. Adequate sleep and a sufficient diet for the child are very important, as is exercise. The diet should ideally be low on sugar and must consist of good fats, like those from olive oil and fish. If you wish to discuss about any specific problem, you can consult a Psychiatrist.