Psychological problems including conditions said to be due to CHEMICAL CHANGES IN BRAIN are as treatable as physical disease. Wait no longer, get well now. 

Hello and warm greetings. I am Dr S K Sharma, practicing in the field of psychology in New Delhi, India since 1994. Before we proceed, I would like to share about my growth in this field. I completed my basic medical education from Delhi University. While I was undergoing training, I was moved by seeing people’s suffering both physical and psychological. As I studied more and more about psychiatric diseases and psychological problems, I was fascinated about the working of human mind and its enormous abilities. This led to my journey of exploration of psychological problems and sickness. After long years of studies, training and research, I am finally able to reach a state where I am able to help people with psychological problems in less time and more effectiveness.

Mental Health Assessment

Any health practitioner who is desirous of helping a person in difficulty or treating a sickness can not deny the fact that most important task is to assess or diagnose the condition. And this diagnosis must be characterized by following:

• Complete but quick

The assessment must be complete. It must take into account all factors which could have led to present status as well as complete assessment of person’s psychological status. At the same time it should not be hasty but reasonably quick so that the main purpose of assessment should not get lost in the long process.

• Correct

Everyone will agree that assessment must be correct and no mental health professional would like to make an incorrect assessment. But this occurs due to many factors like haste in assessment, preconceived ideas about condition, lack of knowledge, lack of effort, even lack of desire to go deep into complexities of condition. Needless to say that incorrect assessment can only lead to incorrect treatment.or management.

• Not just to give name of sickness

It should not be the approach on part of mental health professional to somehow fix a name to the condition. There are cases where one may not be able to reach any conclusion. It would be much better on part of the mental health professional to seek second opinion.

• Meaningful for suitable effective remedial action

Mental health assessment is not meant to fill pages for records. It should be meaningful assessment which could prove useful towards correct management and treatment of the condition.

How I found many cases on wrong medication

Over these years I have come across a large number of cases where people were on wrong medication due to incorrect assessment. Strange but true some of them required no medicine at all. There were people who got better in no time only by change in certain behavior patters or coping skills. But for years they were on medications because they were labeled as patients of depression or anxiety. And unfortunately, there is other extreme as well. Many cases which are actual psychiatric diseases are too not correctly assessed. This leads to either wrong medication or even no medication.

Complaints

Psychological Complaints people suffer from can be divided into following types:

• Difficulties or disorder in perception like delusions, illusions or hallucinations.
• Difficulties or disorder in cognitive functions like thinking pattern, concentration, memory, calculation, reading, writing, learning etc
• Difficulties or disorder in emotions like mood disorders, anger, sadness, fear, grief etc.
• Difficulties or disorder in behavior including behavior towards self and behavior towards others.

Solutions

Management or treatment of psychological complaints requires a comprehensive approach. I use following techniques depending on their suitability and applicability in a certain case.

• Counseling
• Psychotherapy
• Homeopathic Psychiatry
• Hypnotherapy
• Lifestyle management
• Life Management 

My focus of management is :

• Immediate relief.
• Long term sustained benefit
• Prevention of relapse
• Better abilities to defeat further problems

Negative effects of anger

• It hurts your physical health. Chronic anger makes you more susceptible to heart disease, diabetes, high cholesterol levels, a weakened immune system, insomnia, and high blood pressure.
• It causes lasting scars in the people you love most and gets in the way of your friendships and work relationships.
• It consumes huge amounts of mental energy and clouds your thinking, making it harder to concentrate, see the bigger picture, and enjoy life.
• It can also lead to stress, depression, and other mental health problems.

How to manage anger

• Simple relaxation tools, such as deep breathing and relaxing imagery, can help calm down angry feelings. Deep, slow breathing helps counteract rising tension
• Identify the negative thought patterns that trigger your temper
• Avoid people, places, and situations that bring out your worst
• In the heat of the moment, it’s easy to say something you’ll later regret. Take a few moments to collect your thoughts before saying anything
• As soon as you’re thinking clearly, express your frustration in an assertive but nonconfrontational way. State your concerns and needs clearly and directly, without hurting others or trying to control them.

Symptoms

• Have difficulty sustaining long-term relationships
• Not be able to control their anger
• Break the law repeatedly
• Not show guilt or remorse
• Often be angry or arrogant
• Being irritable and aggressive
• Disregard the safety of self and others

People with antisocial personality disorder typically have no regard for right and wrong and often disregard the rights, wishes and feelings of others. Someone with antisocial personality disorder will typically have an antisocial or alcoholic parent, and will have grown up with harsh, inconsistent parenting.

This behaviour becomes most extreme and challenging during the late teens and early 20s, and may improve by the time the person reaches their 40s. It is very difficult to treat. A mental health provider can question individuals who are over 18 years about past and current behaviors. This will help detect signs and symptoms that could support a diagnosis of ASPD. The main treatment is psychotherapy, which involves talking to a trained therapist about feelings that the person has about themself and other people, particularly family and those close to them.

The main feature of borderline personality disorder (BPD) is a pervasive pattern of instability in interpersonal relationships, self-image and emotions. People with borderline personality disorder are also usually very impulsive.

Symptoms include:

• Persistent impulsiveness
• Deep feelings of insecurity
• Confused, contradictory feelings
• Anxiety or mood disorders
• Causing deliberate pain by cutting, burning or hitting oneself
• Binge eating or starving; abusing alcohol and other drugs

The exact causes of BPD remain unknown, although the roles of both environmental and biological factors are thought to play a role in people who develop this illness.

It is diagnosed by mental health professionals following a comprehensive psychiatric interview that may include talking with a person’s previous clinicians, reviews of prior records, a medical evaluation, and when appropriate, interviews with friends and family.

The most effective treatment usually involves a combination of, psychological therapy, medication and support. Psychological therapies that have been found to be effective in the treatment of BPD are Interpersonal Psychotherapy (IPT) and Dialectical Behavioral Therapy (DBT). During IPT, a person learns new and effective ways to relate to significant people in their lives. DBT helps people learn to handle their emotions better and re-learn the way they typically respond to situations and other people.

There are processes and techniques to improve decision-making and the quality of decisions. Decision making techniques can be separated into two broad categories:

• Group decision making techniques
• Individual decision making techniques

The method used depends on the nature of the decision to be made and how complex it is.  The method described below follows seven stages.

The stages are:

1. Listing all possible solutions/options.
2. Setting a time scale and deciding who is responsible for the decision.
3. Information gathering.
4. Weighing up the risks involved.
5. Deciding on values, or in other words what is important.
6. Weighing up the pros and cons of each course of action.
7. Making the decision.

When trying to make a good decision, a person must weight the positives and negatives of each option, and consider all the alternatives. The decision maker(s) may face a problem when they try to rank alternatives in terms of how attractive they are when all the criteria are considered simultaneously. Time and emotion also play a role in the quality of decision making – the more time, the more deliberate the decision making process. Secondly, the more that is at stake, emotion will come into play, rising as the decision making timeline is reached.

Symptoms 

• Inability to make decisions, even everyday decisions like what to wear, without the advice and reassurance of others.
• Feelings of helplessness when alone
• An inability to disagree with others
• Avoidance of disagreeing with others for fear of losing support or approval.
• Inability to start projects or tasks because of a lack of self-confidence.
• Oversensitivity to criticism.
• Urgently seeks another relationshipas a source of care and support when a close relationship ends
• Willingness to tolerate mistreatment and abuse from others.
• Having problems expressing disagreements with others

Like most personality disorders, dependent personality disorder typically will decrease in intensity with age, with many people experiencing few of the most extreme symptoms by the time they are in the 40s or 50s.

Talk therapy is considered to be the most effective treatment. The aim is to help people with this condition make more independent choices in life. Medicines may help treat other mental health conditions, such as anxiety or depression that occur along with this disorder. This type of therapy helps individuals develop new ways of thinking, behaving, and communicating.

Who Are The Victims?

Domestic violence can happen to anyone of any race, age, sexual orientation, religion or gender. It can happen to couples who are married, living together or who are dating. In general, anyone can be a victim of domestic violence. Male, female, young, old, Asian, African-American, Jewish, Catholic, rich, poor, highly educated or not, everyone is a potential victim. Some people have a higher risk than others. It affects people of all socioeconomic backgrounds and education levels. Men are sometimes abused by partners, but domestic violence is most often directed toward women. Domestic violence can happen in heterosexual or same sex relationships.

Domestic violence is not limited to obvious physical violence. Domestic violence can also mean endangerment, criminal coercion, kidnapping, unlawful imprisonment, trespassing, harassment, and stalking. Domestic violence can be physical, sexual, emotional, economic, or psychological actions or threats of actions that influence another person. This includes:

• Physical Abuse: Hitting, slapping, shoving, grabbing, pinching, biting, hair pulling, etc are types of physical abuse.
• Sexual Abuse: Coercing or attempting to coerce any sexual contact or behavior without consent is sexual abuse.
• Emotional Abuse: Undermining an individual’s sense of self-worth and/or self-esteem is abusive.
• Economic Abuse: making or attempting to make an individual financially dependent by maintaining total control over financial resources, withholding one’s access to money, or forbidding one’s attendance at school or employment.
• Psychological Abuse: Elements of psychological abuse include – but are not limited to – causing fear by intimidation; threatening physical harm to self, partner, children, or partner’s family or friends; destruction of pets and property; and forcing isolation from family, friends, or school and/or work.

Domestic violence is a major public-health problem. It affects millions of people and often results in physical and emotional injuries and even deaths.

People may go on to develop mental illnesses as a result of their gambling, most commonly depression as they lose control of their finances, relationships fail etc., which can put them into the next classification.

Depression and a deterioration of physical and emotional health are general signs and symptoms of a gambling. The gambler becomes moody, withdrawn and irritable and preoccupied with gambling, winnings of the past and getting hold of more money with which to gamble.

Here are some suggestions to keep gambling from becoming a problem in your life:

• Allocate money for necessities first
• Budget your income
• Never use more than 2% of your income for gambling
• Avoid temptation – do not go to casinos or associate with gamblers
• When you gamble, do not carry with you more money than you can afford to lose
• Never borrow money to gamble
• Don’t lend money to a gambler

The more significant the loss, the more intense is the grief. However, even subtle losses can lead to grief. For example, you might experience grief after moving away from home, graduating from college, changing jobs, selling your family home, or retiring from a career you loved.

The five stages of grief:

• Denial – In the denial stage we refuse to believe what has happened. We try in our mind to tell ourselves that life is as it was before our loss
• Anger – The anger can manifest itself in many ways. We can blame others for our loss. We can become easily agitated having emotional outbursts
• Bargaining – Bargaining can be with ourselves or if you are religious with your god. Often we will offer something to try to take away the reality of what has happened.
• Depression – Depression is a very likely outcome for all people that grieve for a loss. There can even be thoughts of suicide.
• Acceptance – it is the final stage of grief. It is when you realize that life has to go on. You can here accept your loss. You should now be able to regain your energy and goals for the future.

Some people have found the stages to be a helpful way to think about grief; others have not. Grief counselors and researchers point out that the stages describe grief as a passive process. In the decades since Kübler-Ross’s work, people who work with the bereaved have learned that grief is an active process. Many people find it empowering to know that they are resilient. They take comfort in actively processing their feelings and memories and creating ways to honor and celebrate their loved one.

Benefits of happiness

• Happy people manage their money well.
• Happy people spend their money on life experiences instead of material items.
• Happiness is good for our relationships
• Happiness is good for our health
• Happy people think about the past fondly.
• Happy people live in a great community.
• Happy people are more creative and are better able to see the big picture
• Happy people “catch” the emotions of others.

Once you learn to have confidence in your own mind and once you discover the virtues that make it possible for you to achieve your values and that make your life worth living, then you will experience the result – an earned pride and a genuine self-esteem and of course happiness.

Measuring Intelligence

The measurement of intelligence is dogged by controversy and disagreement. While there are a number of different methods for measuring intelligence, the standard and most widely accepted method is by measuring a person’s ‘intelligence quotient’ or IQ. Based on a series of tests which assess various types of abilities such a mathematical, spatial, verbal, logic and memory. The results from such tests done on a group that is representative of the wider popular shows the classic ‘bell-shape’ distribution, meaning that most people are of average intelligence with a few at the extreme ends of the scale.

Successfully intelligent people discern their strengths and weaknesses, and then figure out how to capitalize on their strengths, and to compensate for or remediate their weaknesses. Successfully intelligent individuals succeed in part because they achieve a functional balance among a “triarchy” of abilities:

Within the discipline of psychology, various approaches to human intelligence have been adopted. The psychometric approach is especially familiar to the general public, as well as being the most researched and by far the most widely used in practical settings. Intelligence is most widely studied in humans, but has also been observed in animals and in plants. Artificial intelligence is the simulation of intelligence in machines.

Narcissistic Personality Disorder involves arrogant behavior, a lack of empathy for other people, and a need for admiration-all of which must be consistently evident at work and in relationships. People who are narcissistic are frequently described as cocky, self-centered, manipulative, and demanding. People with narcissistic personality disorder are not interested in the feelings of others – they lack empathy; they are unable to feel or appreciate feelings which are not their own. When you have narcissistic personality disorder, you may come across as conceited, boastful or pretentious. You often monopolize conversations. You may be little or look down on people you perceive as inferior. You may have a sense of entitlement. And when you don’t receive the special treatment to which you feel entitled, you may become very impatient or angry.

Many people with narcissistic personality disorder don’t seek out treatment. A diagnosis for narcissistic personality disorder is made by a mental health professional comparing your symptoms and life history with those listed here. They will make a determination whether your symptoms meet the criteria necessary for a personality disorder diagnosis.

Treatment of narcissistic personality disorder typically involves long-term psychotherapy with a therapist that has experience in treating this kind of personality disorder. Medications may also be prescribed to help with specific troubling and debilitating symptoms.

Symptoms of paranoid personality

• Doubt the commitment, loyalty, or trustworthiness of others
• Are generally cold and distant in their relationships with others, and might become controlling and jealous
• Concern that other people have hidden motives
• Expectation that they will be exploited (used) by others
• Inability to work together with others
• Perceives attacks on his or her character or reputation that are not apparent to others

Paranoid personality disorder is more prevalent in males than females. Like most personality disorders, paranoid personality disorder typically will decrease in intensity with age, with many people experiencing few of the most extreme symptoms by the time they are in the 40s or 50s.

Treatment

People with Paranoid personality often do not seek treatment on their own because they do not see themselves as having a problem. The distrust of others felt by people with PPD also poses a challenge for health care professionals because trust is an important factor of psychotherapy (a form of counseling). As a result, many people with paranoid personality do not follow their treatment plan. When treatment is sought, psychotherapy is the treatment of choice for PPD. Treatment likely will focus on increasing general coping skills, as well as on improving social interaction, communication, and self-esteem.

Tips for positive psychology of parenting

Parenting is perhaps one of the most difficult responsibilities most adults face.  Here are some of the tips for good parenting.

• Be optimistic – Losing hope and becoming angry for even minor mistakes of children and trivial failures is the wrong way of parenting. Constantly train the kids and be optimistic to expect the results in the long run.
• Positive emotions – Control negative emotions like anger, violence etc when dealing with kids. Be graceful to children when communicating.
• Empowering children – empower children with positive attitudes and essential values of life. Academic skills and knowledge, artistic skills, problem solving abilities, arguing, defending and protecting self dignity etc… are few of the aspects where parents need to empower kids with valuable real life lessons.
•  Respect your children – Children have feelings and their feelings are easily hurt. Saying ‘sorry’, ‘please’, ‘thank you’, and ‘excuse me’ work wonders on building our children’s self-esteem.

Improve your parenting and provide your children with the tools they need to succeed so that they can enjoy a strong sense of well being and contentment throughout life.

Symptoms

• Prefer being alone and usually choose solitary activities
• Prize independence and have few close friendships
• Feel confused about how to respond to normal social cues and generally have little to say
• Feel little if any desire for sexual relationships
• Feel unable to experience pleasure
• Come off as dull, indifferent or emotionally cold
• Feel unmotivated and tend to underperform at school or work

The disorder manifests itself by early adulthood through social and emotional detachments that prevent people from having close relationships. People with it are able to function in everyday life, but will not develop meaningful relationships with others.

Many people with schizoid personality disorder don’t seek out treatment. A diagnosis for schizoid personality disorder is made by a mental health professional comparing your symptoms and life history. They will make a determination whether your symptoms meet the criteria necessary for a personality disorder diagnosis.

Treatment of schizoid personality disorder typically involves long-term psychotherapy with a therapist that has experience in treating this kind of personality disorder. Medications may also be prescribed to help with specific troubling and debilitating symptoms.

Symptoms

• Being a loner and lacking close friends outside of the immediate family
• Discomfort in social situations
• Peculiar, eccentric or unusual thinking, beliefs or behavior
• Dressing in peculiar ways
• Belief in special powers, such as telepathy
• Behavior or appearance that is odd, eccentric, or peculiar
• Suspicious or paranoid ideas, hypersensitivity, and constant doubts about the loyalty and fidelity of others
• Flat emotions, or limited or inappropriate emotional responses
• Excessive social anxiety that does not diminish with familiarity and tends to be associated with paranoid fears rather than negative judgments about self

Schizotypal personality disorder typically is diagnosed in early adulthood and likely to endure, though symptoms may improve with age. Medications and therapy also may help. Psychotherapy, also called talk therapy, may help people with schizotypal personality disorder begin to trust others by building a trusting relationship with a therapist. Psychotherapy may include, for example, learning specific social skills and behaviors (behavior therapy) or identifying and changing distorted thought patterns (cognitive therapy). Treatment can be more effective when family members are involved (family therapy). Seeking professional counseling as a group may help reduce fighting or emotional distance and improve trust in the home.

Shyness is most likely to occur during unfamiliar situations, though in severe cases it may hinder an individual in his or her most familiar situations and relationships as well. Shy people avoid the objects of their apprehension in order to keep from feeling uncomfortable and inept; thus, the situations remain unfamiliar and the shyness perpetuates itself. Shyness may fade with time; e.g., a child who is shy towards strangers may eventually lose this trait when older and become more socially adept.

Symptoms of shyness

• Blushing
• Sweating
• Upset stomach
• Tendency to withdraw from social interactions

Shy people think more than all other people. They analyze everything that happens, keep thinking about the comments they hear and over think everything.

Shyness can be treated. The following is a list of tips that can help you overcome shyness:

• Build your self confidence
• Control your self talk
• Get rid of inferiority
• Practice talking to people that you don’t know well

The symptoms of psychological stress

• Lack of judgment
• Problems with memory
• Worrying all of the time
• Inability to concentrate
• Negative thinking
• Trouble thinking clearly

Psychological stress also has a physical impact on your body. Headaches are common for people under a lot of stress. People often feel muscle tension and stiffness, nausea, insomnia, chest pain and rapid heartbeats, hives, loss of sex drive, and frequent colds.

Stress can be reduced and even eliminated before it becomes a chronic problem. There are many things you can do for natural stress relief. The two primary ways to relieve your stress include:

• Exercise – Exercise is known to make anyone feel better after they have a good workout.
• Eat healthy – It is important to eat healthy and get all of the supplements your body needs in order to have proper stress relief.

Psychological stress may also have evolved from a real event that caused an emotional disturbance in the past. Counseling can help people to accept the initial stressful event and rationalize the subsequent stress inducing thoughts.