The Challenge of Coping with Sexual Trauma

According to the National Center for Victims of Crime and Crime Victims Research and Treatment Center, over 683,000 women are victims of sexual assault every year. Of these, nearly 211,000 suffer from post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD). However, the cases of sexual abuse are not only limited to women. You will be surprised to know that as compared to girls, boys are more likely to get assaulted sexually by non-family members such as coaches, priests or ministers in places such as schools, churches and athletics program. In nearly 86% of the cases, boys become victim to male perpetrators.

Upshots of Sexual Trauma

The incidence of sexual harassment leaves a deep impact on the mind of the victim. This wound takes a long time to heal and during this healing period, the sufferer undergoes a number of mental and psychological instabilities. This article deals with some of the heart-wrenching effects of sexual trauma.

• Flashbacks

Memories are supposed to bring back loud laughter and cherish-able moments. However, this may not be the case with a victim of sexual assault. Flashbacks are a very common after effect of sexual trauma. When a flashback occurs, the victim is unable to differentiate between the past and the present and feels that he/she is experiencing the entire incident all over again. Such flashbacks can recur in the any form, such as dreams, images, overwhelming emotions or even a specific smell. Although flashbacks are a passing moment, some can prove to be highly dangerous and last for a long time. In case of flashbacks, try to comfort the victim and make him/her aware of the reality.

• Depression

Out of the various mental and psychological reactions, depression is the most common after effect of sexual trauma. It is very normal for a person to feel blue for few days after the assault. However, if this sadness persists for longer, that is more than two weeks; depression becomes a serious matter of concern. The most dangerous part of depression is that its effects are reflected in the victim’s day to day life. Depression often leads to obesity or extreme weight loss, persistent fatigue, indecisiveness, and anxiety. In some severe cases, the victim can develop a feeling of worthlessness and may even attempt suicide. It is therefore essential to seek professional help if you observe persistent depression.

The experience of sexual trauma varies from person to person. Therefore, there is no single best way to deal with sexual assault. Remember, it is a terrible experience and people just can’t snap-out of it all by themselves. They need care and help from their loved ones. 

Schizophrenia Treatment Options: Things You Need to Know

According to statistics from the National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH), approximately one percent of the US population suffers from schizophrenia. Some common symptoms of this psychiatric condition include inability to make decision, hallucinations, emotional imbalance, disorganized speech and delusions. While there are a number of schizophrenia treatment methods, they will vary a lot from patient to patient based on the symptoms and severity of the disorder. Let’s take a look at some of the most common schizophrenia treatment options.

Schizophrenia Treatment: Your Options

Schizophrenia treatment is usually a life-long process. Although the disease can not be completely cured, the symptoms of the disease can be reduced to a large extent with proper treatment. Following are the three most effective methods of schizophrenia treatment.

1. Use of medication – Doctors often prescribe antipsychotic drugs for schizophrenia treatment. Some commonly prescribed drugs include thioridazine, haldol and fluphenazine. These drugs help to eliminate symptoms of delusions, paranoia, and hallucinations. However, frequent use of these medications may trigger side effects. As an alternative to these traditional drugs, many doctors are now prescribing atypical antipsychotic medications such as olanzapine, clozapine, ziprasidone, risperidone, paliperidone and quetiapine. However, such medications should be taken only with doctor’s advice.

2. Cognitive behavioral therapy – This treatment method focuses on the thought process and behavior of the patient. Professional therapists offer advice and guidance about how to change behavioral patterns. Cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT) is considered to be the most effective way of schizophrenia treatment. The idea is to help the patients learn some useful ways to cope with the disease or to reduce the symptoms naturally.

3. Rehabilitation – Some patients are recommended to attend rehabilitation center for quick recovery. Living in the rehab center helps the patients grow healthy living habits such as taking meals on time, learning to cook and growing communication skills.

4. Support from near ones – It is very important for schizophrenia patients to get proper support from the friends and family members. They can also join support groups. Friends and relatives of the patient can also help patients learn basic behaviors such as how to speak with dignity, how to eat, how to dress up and so on. All these can be quite effective when it comes to treating a patient of schizophrenia.

Intake of alcohol and other illegal drugs can make things worse for a patient. On the contrary, growing healthy lifestyle habits such as taking adequate amount of sleep can help improve quality of life for a schizophrenia patient. Lifestyle training can also have positive impact on the patients of schizophrenia.

Understanding Obsessive Compulsive Disorder

According to National Institute of Mental Health 2008 studies, it was reported that obsessive compulsive disorder is a widespread psychiatric disorder. OCD affects nearly 2.2 million Americans each year. It is an anxiety disorder, in which the victim repeatedly faces unwanted sensations, thoughts, ideas, feelings or behaviors that forces them to perform the same rituals over and over again. People suffering from OCD often feel helpless and isolated because of their condition. However, educating yourself about obsessive compulsive disorder can help you effectively deal with such uncontrolled thoughts and feelings. Here in this article we will take a look at the different forms in which the disorder manifests itself.

Obsessive Compulsive Disorder: The Types of Manifestations

Obsessions are spontaneous and irrepressible thoughts or impulses that come to your mind over and over again. These unwanted thoughts occur frequently, and tend to be quite distracting and disturbing. On the other hand, compulsions are rituals that force you to act repeatedly. These compulsive rituals are performed as a result of obsessions. Over time these compulsive behaviors cause anxiety and start taking a toll on the person’s life.

Obsessive compulsive disorder primarily manifests itself in the following forms:

• Washers: These people are mainly fears of being contaminated by dirt or germs. They usually suffer from hand-washing or cleaning compulsions.
• Checkers: Such people repeatedly double check things, which they relate to danger or harm, such as checking appliances, locks and switches.
• Sinners and Doubters: These types of people always fear that haven’t done things perfectly or correctly. As a result they always feel that they will be punished or something horrible will happen, if they don’t do things correctly.
• Arrangers and Counters: These people are mainly obsessed with symmetry and order. These people spend a lot of time ensuring that everything is in the right place and in the right order, and get very upset if things are rearranged or moved around. Sometimes they may also have superstitious views about some colors, numbers or arrangements.
• Hoarder: Such people are afraid that something terrible will happen if they chuck out anything. They suffer from the habit of compulsively gathering things, even those things that are completely useless to them, such as empty food containers or old newspapers.

People suffering from obsessive compulsive disorder suffer from distress and faces interference in their lives and relationships. However, the good news here is that there are so many ways to deal with such feelings and thoughts. Various medications are available today to treat such disorders. However, medication alone is not an effective treatment. Also, medications may have side effects. This is why doctors suggest using cognitive-behavioral therapy for treating obsessive compulsive disorder in conjunction with some antidepressants. You could also try to keep yourself occupied with healthy things such as going out for a jog, exercising, walking, listening to music, playing games or surfing Internet in order to avoid such obsessions and compulsions. 

How to Recognize Multiple Personality Disorder

According to statistics from WebMD, one out of every three people feels like watching themselves in movies at times. While this is may be a symptom of multiple personality disorder, statistics from WebMD reveal that only 0.01 to 1 percent of the population suffers from dissociative identity disorder (DID), commonly referred to as multiple personality disorder. This mental disorder often remains undiagnosed in many cases. Recognizing the symptoms of this disease should be the first step towards the diagnosis as well as its successful treatment. In this article, we will take a look at the different symptoms of multiple personality disorder.

Symptoms of Multiple Personality Disorder

Psychological, physical or/and sexual trauma are some of the main causes of dissociative identity disorder (DID). Following are some of the most common symptoms of the disorder.

• Depressive mood – A patient with multiple personality disorder is likely to have a depressive mood. He or she may also have a tendency to commit suicide. Patients with DID are often quite confused about taking decisions in life.
• Loss of memory – Patients with a medical history of amnesia are often prone to suffer from dissociative identity disorder. In most cases, victims of DID find it difficult to remember simple things like when or where they met a person in the recent past and so on. In severe conditions, the patients may forget what they bought last week or what they had for dinner last night. Memory loss is considered as one of the major symptoms of multiple personality disorder.
• Hallucination – A person with multiple personality disorder may also experience visual or auditory illusions, know as hallucinations. The patient may often talk loudly to himself in case of auditory hallucinations or behave strangely while having a visual hallucination of different personalities.
• Problem in recognizing himself – Another very common symptom of DID patients is that they often can’t recognize themselves. This feeling usually comes when they look at themselves in the mirror. Different alters of the patient may also make him feel that he is not truly living in the present.
• Lying – The influence of multiple personalities might make the patient say or do contradictory things. Patients with this disorder, often forget what they said or did to a person even a few days ago. All these may make him seem like a liar. However, he is not lying in the true sense. It is because he is influenced by different alters that his actions and statements may seem contradictory.

A patient with multiple personality disorder may also experience rapid change of thoughts and moods. If you identify these symptoms in yourself or your close ones, you should seek medical help for proper diagnosis immediately.

Panic Attack Treatment Options

According to statistics from the National Institute of Mental Health, 2.7 percent of American adults suffer from 12-month prevalence of panic disorder. A person suffering from panic disorder gets panic attacks at frequent intervals. Some common symptoms of panic attack include racing heart, sweating, feelings of dying, chest pain and heavy breathing. These panic attacks may last for 10 minutes or more. A person suffering from panic disorder often gets a feeling that he is going to die, even when there is no actual physical danger. So how does one approach panic attack treatment? You have two major options when it comes to panic attack treatment - medication and psychotherapy. In this article, we will take a closer look at both these panic attack treatment options.

Panic Attack Treatment: Your Options

Depending upon the frequency and severity of panic attacks, your doctor may decide any one of the two major panic attack treatment options. In some cases, combination of both panic attack treatment options may be required. Following are the two major types of treatment options for panic attacks and panic disorders.

1. Psychotherapy – Cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT) is perhaps the most effective form of psychotherapy for treating panic attacks. This involves weekly sessions where the psychotherapist discusses with the patient to discover the root cause of panic attacks. Behavioral therapy aims to change the way the sufferer thinks or reacts to a situation. This approach to panic attack treatment usually takes one or two hours per week. According to the National Institute for Health and Clinical Excellence (NICE), a person suffering from panic attacks needs up to 14 hours of cognitive behavioral therapy in total. In a CBT session, the patient learns how to think differently during a panic attack. This is generally done by telling the patient about the worst that can happen to him or her at the time of an attack. For example, if an attack strikes while you are driving and you park the car by the side of the road, there is no way you can die.

2. Medications – Doctors may also recommend FDA approved anti-anxiety medications or anti-depressants in severe cases. Although use of medications can give you quick relief, it may trigger some unhealthy side-effects. It is advisable that you consult your doctor before using medications for panic disorder treatment.

You should also avoid alcohol and smoking for better results. It is also important to grow healthy living habits such as exercising regularly and taking a balanced diet in order to reduce the ill effects of panic disorder.  

Bipolar Disorder Treatment: What You Need to Know

Dr. Wes Burgess in his book, The Bipolar Handbook: Real-Life Questions with Up-to-Date Answers, Penguin 2006 says - “It is estimated that 2 to 7% of people in the United States suffer from bipolar disorder. Almost 10 million people will develop the illness sometimes during their lives.” The book also says that about half of these people will never receive the correct diagnosis or proper bipolar disorder treatment. And
according to reports from the National Mental Health Association, about 30% to 70% of suicide attempts are results of depression. People suffering from bipolar disorder are more prone to suicide if they don’t get any proper treatment. This is why bipolar disorder treatment is of utmost importance.

Bipolar Disorder Treatment: Some Important Things You Should Know

Ignoring bipolar disorder treatment can have far reaching effects on the patient’s life, right from health to career to relationships. The early diagnosis of the disorder and proper bipolar disorder treatment can help prevent such complications. It improves the patient’s chances of getting back to a normal life and staying well. Effective bipolar disorder treatment helps patients by reducing the intensity of depressive and manic episodes and in restoring their ability to function normally.

Here are some important things that you need to know about treatment of bipolar disorder:

• Bipolar disorder requires long-term treatment

Bipolar disorder is a relapsing and chronic disease. This is why it is vital to seek long-term treatment, even when the patient feels better. Patients might need medication to stay symptom-free and avoid new episodes.

• Medication alone is not enough for bipolar disorder treatment

Medication alone is not enough for the treatment of this disorder as they can’t entirely control symptoms. People suffering from this disorder sometimes self-medicate with drugs or alcohol to get relief from their symptoms. However, self medication can lead to further complications and side effects. For effective treatment, bipolar disorder requires a combination of therapy, medication, social support, and lifestyle changes.

• Seek advice from an experienced psychiatrist

Diagnosis of bipolar disorder can be delicate even for qualified professionals and so it is preferable to seek assistance from an experienced psychiatrist rather than just any physician or family doctor. A skilled and experienced psychiatrist can help patients successfully handle the turns and twists of this disorder. Experienced psychiatrists will also know more about the latest bipolar disorder treatment techniques and researches.

It can be tricky to distinguish bipolar disorder from other problems such as borderline personality disorder, major depression, and Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD). However, in some cases it takes years to identify and treat the disorder. So if you think that you or someone close to you is displaying symptoms of the disorder, you should immediately seek treatment, without wasting anytime.