Types of Schizophrenia

Catatonic type schizophrenia

Patients with this subtype of Schizophrenia may exhibit extremes of behavior including catatonia. Some may allow their posture to be rearranged, holding the new position (catalepsy or waxy flexibility). Others may imitate sounds (echolalia) or movements (echopraxia) of others. At times, some patients may explode into an excited, activated state marked by purposeless ad repetitive movements. The catatonic type is rare today, and probably reflected an advanced stage of schizophrenia before the advent of modern treatment methods.

Disorganized type schizophrenia

A form of schizophrenia that is characterized by a disorganized behavior and disorganized speech. Their affect may be flat or inappropriate. This type involves a disturbance in behavior, communication, and thought. Usually these patients show a variety of eccentric characteristics such as unusual clothing or peculiar gestures.

Paranoid type schizophrenia

Delusions and auditory hallucinations predominate in patients with this subtype of schizophrenia while their affective and cognitive functioning remains relatively intact. This type of patient often has highly elaborate delusions of persecution or personal grandeur. However, the patient may appear rather normal until he or she becomes entangled in typical argumentativeness and suspiciousness.

Residual type schizophrenia

A form of schizophrenia that is characterized by a previous diagnosis of schizophrenia, but no longer having any of the prominent psychotic symptoms. There are some remaining symptoms of the disorder however, such as eccentric behavior, emotional blunting, illogical thinking, or social withdrawal.

In the residual type of schizophrenia, the patient has had at least one episode of schizophrenia. If delusions or hallucinations are present, they are not prominent, and are not accompanied by strong affect.

Undifferentiated type schizophrenia

This subtype of schizophrenia applies to patients who fail to meet the criteria for the other subtypes but clearly suffer from this mental disorder. The patient suffers from pronounced psychotic symptoms, which may not fit in any other specific category or more than one.

About The Author

David Chandler

For more information about schizophrenia, visit http://www.schizophreniainfocenter.com

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Manic Depression

By Arthur Buchanan

So, What's the Difference?

Manic Depression is also known as Bipolar Illness.

Like depression, people with this disorder go through stages of depression, but Mania or Manic adds a cycle.

Mania is a very "up" mood, over elated, over happy. Too much of anything is no good, and because of these cycles, people experiencing Manic Depression visit the two extremes of depression and elation.

Sure, sounds great to be able to be really happy and energetic all the time. However, with the elated mood, the sufferer will often talk rapidly, and become disjointed.

There are three types of cycles that people may go through during mania. These are Rapid Cycle, Ultra-Rapid cycle and Ultradian cycles. All of these show how many episodes of mania the person goes through a year.

Rapid Cycles are most common, and this means 3 or 4 cycles of mania per year.

Ultra Rapid Cycles mean that the person goes through episodes that are shorter than a week, a bit more often.

Ultradian cyclers go through distinct, dramatic mood changes within a 24 hour block.

Manic Depression Symptoms:

-persistent sad, or empty mood

-feelings of hopelessness, or pessimism

-feelings of guilt, worthlessness or helplessness

-loss of interest in ordinary activities

-decreased energy, a felling of fatigue or of being "slowed down"

-difficulty concentrating, remembering, making decisions

-restlessness or irritability

-sleep disturbances

-loss of appetite and weight, or weight gain

-chronic pain or other persistent bodily symptoms that are NOT cause by physical disease

-thought of death or suicide; suicide attempts

*If you or anyone you know experiences a large portion of these symptoms on a regular basis, you may need to talk to a professional.*

About The Author Listen to Arthur Buchanan on the Mike Litman Show! http://freesuccessaudios.com/Artlive.mp3 THIS LINK WORKS, LISTEN TODAY! With Much Love, Arthur Buchanan President/CEO Out of Darkness & Into the Light 43 Oakwood Ave. Suite 1012 Huron Ohio, 44839 www.out-of-darkness.com www.adhdandme.com www.biologicalhappiness.com 567-219-0994 (cell) arthur@out-of-darkness.com

Mental Health and Self Improvement

No matter what part of society you operate in, mental health care is one of the most ignored issues that there is. I know this might seem like an excessive generalization, but think about it. If people are sick - even if they just have a minor cold - they often go to the doctor. At the very least, they might take a sick day. With mental health disorders, however, illness is ignored until it reaches a critical level.

Basically, mental illnesses are completely acceptable as long as you can still function in your job. If you constantly had sinus pain, congestion, and a runny nose, people would think that you were insane if you didn't go to the doctor. Nonetheless, there are people with neurotic conditions that last their whole lives who never seek any mental health counseling.

This is why it is so important to educate people on the importance of health mental. Mental health outreach is crucial. Everyone, from victims of torture and horrible physical abuse to people who have grown up in a fairly normal and healthy environment, runs into a psychological issue at some point in their life. It is estimated to be practically epidemic in our society. Depression mental health issues account for hundreds of thousands of missed workdays every year, and suicide has become a common preventable cause of death. If you know someone who has a psychological health problem, it is important that you do everything in your power to get them into therapy. Undiagnosed mental health problems can put an incredible strain on the patient and the community.

Unfortunately, our society has an absence of mental health support. There is emergency mental health care available almost everywhere, but once you're out of that critical stage, unless you have extremely good insurance, it is hard to be covered. The philosophy is basically to give you a pill and forget about it. Back even a couple decades ago, health care mental was much better. People could get full courses of therapy to help them deal with chronic mental health problems. The problem is that the pharmaceutical companies and the health care providers are more concerned with profit than with people. It is cheaper to write out a prescription for Prozac than to actually get to the root of a mental issue. Until our society changes its attitudes about psychological health, things will only continue to get worse.

SO...What do we do? You and i can take the matter of mental health,and self improvement,and take care of ourselfs,if the problem is not too bad.Self esteem,confidence,including the power of 'positive thinking' can all be improved,with tools like NLP,a "mind tool",what i like to call it,which changed a person like 'Anthony Robbins',to great heights,as we all know.But even the best garden in the world,needs to be maintained..to stay in good shape.

From Sukbinder SINGH
http://wWw.The-Better-Mind.com.
Self Improvement Made Easy.

About The Author Mr Sukbinder Singh, Owner of Self Improvement site http://wWw.The-Better-Mind.com. Writer on various subjects.

This article was posted on July 07, 2007

Self Mutilation-Why They Do It

Self-mutilation comes in many names – self-harm, self-cutting, self-injury. But regardless what the act is called, it all boils down to one thing – the deliberate infliction of damage to one’s skin tissues for reasons other than suicide.

Self-mutilation is quite popular among teens. Between men and women, women do it more frequently. Self-mutilation is the process of injuring one’s self, which is actually a problem associated with one’s behavior and mind.

What Are The Reasons For Self-Mutilation?

While there could be a hundred reasons why a person chooses to inflict wounds, the most common one is mounting agitation. When a person gets very angry, she would attempt to vent it into something or someone. It is not very unlikely that she’ll turn to herself to release her anger if she can’t find anything or anybody else to direct it to. Inflicting pain towards one’s self is a method of expelling tension and anxiety.

Some people find joy in mutilating themselves. For some reason, they find cutting their skin as an enjoyable act. They take pleasure in the jolt of pain that they feel as they glide a sharp object along the length of their arms. They also get happiness just by looking at the blood as it seeps out of the cut.

When a person feels gratified by the act of self-mutilation, they become addicted to it. They will experience an irresistible need to cut themselves from time to time, especially if there are anger or anxiety triggers. Self-mutilation is usually done in private, although it is possible for a person to do it in the company of another, with both of them enjoying the act.

What Can Be Done About It?

Since self-mutilation is most popular among teens, parents should be the first persons to be aware about it. They should be able to detect the problem at hand through the warning signs. Parents who see scar marks, carvings, brandings, bruising, and bites on their teens should be immediately concerned. It is best that they talk to their child and seek the help of a health expert.

Since self-mutilation is considered to be a psychological problem, it should be addressed by a qualified psychiatrist. The treatment procedure involves behavioral correction techniques and stress-management strategies. Therapies should be conducted on a regular basis, up until full recovery is achieved.

Self-help is also possible, and this is most applicable to adults who want to rid themselves of their destructive self-mutilation habits. Here are some tips that can help:

1. Try to find the strength inside you to keep yourself from cutting.

2. Calm your nerves by counting down from ten down to one.

3. Focus your senses and attention into something else. This will distract your mind from entertaining thoughts about self-mutilation.

4. Breathe slowly. Breathe through your nose and release air through the mouth.

5. Keep all blades and sharp objects out of reach, preferably in some place locked.

6. Use a felt-tip pen instead of a knife if you can’t control the urge of cutting yourself.

7. Find other ways to vent frustration and anger, like hitting a punching bag or squeezing a stress ball.

About The Author

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Panic and Anxiety Disorder - Are You Suffering Silently?

It seems that many people nowadays suffer from certain disorders. One of the most common is the panic and anxiety disorder. To better understand what this disorder all about, you must know its definition and other related information.

This disorder is often related to panic disorder agoraphobia, phobias panic disorders, panic attacks anxiety disorder, panic disorder (OCD), and generalized anxiety disorder. Panic disorder is not a severe health condition, but you must seek the help of a professional immediately when you experience symptoms because it can have drastic effects in your life in the long run.

You also need to be aware of the physical symptoms related to panic anxiety disorder like chest pain and shortness of breath. The symptoms can be physical and psychological. Did you know that it's possible to lose your mind if you don't give proper attention to your condition?

By talking to a professional, you will know how to deal with your condition effectively. You will need to discuss your medical history and other related information with your doctor. It's vital to identify what triggers the disorder so that you can avoid them. Certain treatments can also be given to patients especially those who are having severe attacks.

With so many people suffering from panic and anxiety disorder, experts have already experimented on alternative ways to treat the disorder. If you try to surf the internet, you can find a plethora of information on how to treat the disorder through homeopathy and the holistic approach. Well, it's up to you whether you will settle with conventional treatments or you will opt for the alternative ones.

If you want to control your mind and emotions, you will need to receive specific treatments. At times, the panic and anxiety attacks are mistaken for life threatening illnesses like heart attacks. Hospitals also claim that 25% of patients who are brought to the emergency rooms due to chest pain are not actually heart attacks, but are simply experiencing panic. To rule out other possible illnesses, you will need to undergo extensive tests to confirm if you have the disorder.

Panic and anxiety disorder can be managed, but you will also play an important role. Even if your doctor tells you that it's nothing serious, you're the only one who can control the disorder. You must be willing to cooperate with the doctor and if you need to take medications, take them religiously. Avoid the triggers to effectively manage your condition.

For further information on panic attacks and causes please visit: http://squidoo.com/panicattackscauses Nischal Damieon Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Nischal_Damieon

How to Cope with Dementia

Coping with dementia can be very hard. Many people don't know how to react best on difficult situations with their loved one who has dementia. This misunderstanding often leads to stress and health problems in caregivers. Scientific research has proven that caregivers have a 7 years less life expectancy. Caregiver burden is a real problem and underestimated.

Caregivers have often problems to subscribe the problem behaviour to the disease instead of to the person itself. It is easy to see when someone has cancer and is dying, but in some way it is very hard to see the same thing in persons with dementia. Behaviour is often related to the personality of the person it is hard to make a distinction between normal behaviour and unhealthy behaviour cause by a disease like Dementia.

The best way in trying to understand someone's behaviour is by placing yourself in to his mind. People with Dementia are disoriented in time and place and sometimes in person. This means that they don't know how late it is, if it is day or night, if they need to eat in an hour or in 4. They often don't know where they are, sometimes they can get lost in their own house by not finding the bathroom. When the process goes on people often forget names of their loved ones, and after that their faces. They don't recognise their wife or children and even forgot they had a wife.

Another problem is their language usage and understanding. They make mistakes when they talk to people. They may use strange words that don't exist or they can't remember how the TV is called. When the process goes on, people don't understand the words you are saying to them. You told them twice or 3 times that you should eat with your fork but they just can't understand what a fork is, maybe they even get angry at you for yelling to him. Eventually persons with dementia often go mute in the end. Not able to talk and understanding words but still able to feel and think.

Caregivers often don't understand why he is not talking to the neighbours any more. And when you talk to him he is never listening. This is because they have a short span of concentration. They have difficulties in pointing their concentration to one point. All this is accompanied by primary memory problems. And the problem is they are accusing you of the problem.

Alex Mayor is a psychologist and works in both research and a nursery home. He works mostly with people who have Alzheimer or another form of Dementia. He gives support in coping with dementia to caregivers and to the nurses who work with demented people.

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Alex_Mayor

Conquering the fear of small things

Do you know that there are actually people who have the fear of small things? Anybody who has been to a science or physics class understands that everything on this planet is made of microscopic things that combine to form larger objects. This is true on a larger scale.

Houses could not be built without bricks, and thin thread is woven to become fabric that will eventually become clothes. Even the human body is a collection of little things. We have cells as the main foundation, which then form into tissues, organs, and whole body systems.

Even with this common understanding, though, there are still a small number of people that dread small things. Since it will be very hard to avoid them, persons living in with fear of small things will be unable to live a normal life.

Fear of small things, or microphobia, may be hard to diagnose especially if you are not afraid of something in particular. Your definition of small may vary from case to case as well. Nevertheless, the fear may stem from a horrible incident that could have happened during your childhood or even recently.

Small things may not even be the main cause of your traumatic experience, but you can associate certain emotions to them. Seeing any small thing will trigger all the fears, pain, and confusion you might had before; thus, you end up developing microphobia.

Common symptoms of this fear include excessive sweating, shortness of breathing, and rapid heartbeat. Panic attacks may start to become regular if your phobia is not treated early on.

The process for treatment will be similar to other fears. First, you have to be convinced that small things will not cause you any harm. A way to do this is to introduce certain small items to you in a gradual manner.

For severe cases, though, mild hypnosis will be applied, so you can willfully remove the fear from your mind.

Get help to conquer your fear of small things safely and naturally with this fast phobia cure.

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Trevor_Johnson