Problems

What Is ADHD?


Attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder is characterized by a combination of inattentiveness, distractibility, hyperactivity, and impulsivity. Managing work, school, and household tasks can be very challenging for people with ADD and ADHD.


Fortunately, those afflicted can learn coping skills to work around shortcomings and harness their talents — as many successful people with ADD and ADHD have do


How Do I Know If I Have It?

The symptoms of ADHD fall into two distinct categories:

Symptoms of Inattention:

  • Difficulty maintaining attention, organizing tasks, or setting up tools needed for a task
  • Does not pay attention to detail or follow instructions carefully
  • Makes careless mistakes in schoolwork or other activities
  • Fails to finish schoolwork or other chores
  • Loses things and is forgetful
  • Does not seem to listen when spoken to directly; lethargic, appears to be daydreaming


Symptoms of Hyperactivity/Impulsivity:

  • Restlessness, fidgeting with hand or feet or squirming while seated
  • Unable to stay seated or play quietly
  • As small child, may run, jump, or climb about constantly
  • Talks excessively at inappropriate times
  • Blurts out answers before questions are completed
  • Has trouble taking turns or waiting in line
  • Interrupts or intrudes on others, grabs things from people


EATING DISORDER

What Is An Eating Disorder?

Eating disorders includes extreme emotions, attitudes, and behaviors pertaining to food and weight. Eating disorders can involve the restriction of food, binging on large amounts of food in a short period of time, and destructive behaviors to prevent weigh gain such as self-induced vomiting or taking excessive laxatives. Eating disorders often have complex and devastating consequences for one’s health, productivity, and relationships.

 

While an eating disorder may seem to be an unhealthy obsession with food and weight, it is really a symptom of something deeper. It is common to find that the control that people try to establish within their eating disordered behaviors are just the person’s attempt at coping with strong emotions and anxiety that exists in other areas of their life.


Psychological factors that can contribute to Eating Disorders may include low self-esteem, feelings of inadequacy or lack of control in life, and/or depression, anxiety, anger, stress or loneliness. Interpersonal factors can also contribute. These factors can include troubled personal relationships, difficulty expressing emotions and feelings, history of being teased or ridiculed based on size or weight, or even a history of physical or sexual abuse.


Social pressures are very strong especially with the increase use of social media. There are cultural pressures that glorify “thinness” or muscularity and place value on obtaining the “perfect body”. This places all of a person’s value on what they physically look like on the outside and discount the inner qualities.


How do I know if I have an eating disorder?

  • Recurrent episodes of binge-eating, characterized by consuming in a short amount of time an amount of food larger than most people would eat
  • During those binge-eating bouts, a feeling that one cannot stop eating or control how much one eats
  • Some compensatory behavior to prevent weight gain; purging is most common, but laxative use and excessive exercising are also widely used
  • Extreme influence of body weight or shape on self-evaluation
  • Chronically inflamed sore throat
  • Swollen glands in the neck or jaw
  • Wearing of tooth enamel and frank decay as a result of exposure to stomach acids
  • Dehydration due to purging of fluids
  • Kidney problems from diuretic abuse


By contrast, Binge-Eating disorder is marked by recurrent episodes of extreme overeating not accompanied by compensatory behavior, so those with the disorder are usually overweight to obese. Symptoms include:

In Bulimia, periods of food restriction are punctuated by bouts of binge-eating and some compensatory behavior, usually purging. As a result, sufferers may appear to be normal weight.

Symptoms of bulimia include:

  • eating much more rapidly than normal
  • eating until feeling uncomfortably full
  • eating large amounts of food even when not hungry
  • eating alone because of shame or embarrassment over eating behavior
  • binge-eating occurs at least two days a week for six months or more



BIPOLAR DISORDER

What Is Bipolar Disorder?

Bpolar Disorder, also known as Manic Depression is a chronically recurring condition involving moods that swing between the highs of mania and the lows of depression.

How do I know if I have Bipolar Disorder?

The defining feature of Bipolar Disorder is Mania. There is great variability in manic  symptoms but features may include:

  • Increased energy, activity and restlessness
  • Euphoric mood and extreme optimism
  • Extreme irritability
  • Racing thoughts, pressured speech, thoughts that jump from one idea to another
  • Distractability and lack of concentration
  • Decreased need for sleep
  • Unrealistic beliefs in ones abilities, powers and ideas
  • Poor judgement
  • Spending sprees
  • Increased sexual drive
  • Reckless behavior including fast driving
  • Provocative,  intrusive, or aggressive behavior
  • Denial that anything is wrong

While there is great variability in the degree and duration of depressive symptoms, features generally include:

  • Lasting sad, anxious, or empty mood
  • Feelings of hopelessness or pessimism
  • Feelings of guilt, worthlessness, or helplessness
  • Loss of interest or pleasure in activities once enjoyed, including sex
  • Decreased energy, feelings of fatigue or of being "slowed down"
  • Difficulty concentrating, remembering, or making decisions
  • Restlessness or irritability
  • Sleeping too much or inability to go to sleep or remain asleep
  • Change in appetite and or unintended weight loss or gain
  • Chronic pain or other persistent physical symptoms not accounted for by illness or injury
  • Thoughts of death or suicide or suicide attempts

Not infrequently, the symptoms of mania and depression can occur together in "mixed" episodes. Symptoms of a mixed state can include:

Agitation

Trouble sleeping

Significant change in appetite

Psychosis

Suicidal thinking

Felling sad in mood yet highly energized


OCD

What is Obsessive Compulsive Disorder and how do I know if I have it?

From hoarding to hand-washing to forever checking the stove, obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD) takes many forms. It is an anxiety disorder that traps people in repetitive thoughts and behavioral rituals that can be completely disabling.


First come the obsessions-unwanted ideas or impulses that occur over and over again and are meant to drive out fears, often of harm or contamination. “This bowl is not clean enough. I must keep washing it.” “I may have left the door unlocked.” Or “I know I forgot to put a stamp on that letter.”

Then come the compulsions––repetitive behaviors such as hand-washing and lock-checking and hoarding. Such behaviors are intended to eliminate the fear and reduce the threat of harm. But the effect does not last and the unwanted thoughts soon intrude again.

 

Sufferers may understand the uselessness of their obsessions and compulsions, but that is no protection against them. OCD can become so severe that it keeps people from leaving their house.



PTSD

What is Post Traumatic Stress Disorder?

Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) is a debilitating mental disorder that sometimes follows when a person has directly experienced or witnessed an extremely traumatic, tragic, or terrifying event.


People with PTSD usually have persistent frightening thoughts and memories of their ordeal and feel emotionally numb, especially with people they were once close to.

 

Ordinary events can serve as reminders of the trauma and trigger flashbacks or intrusive images. A flashback may make the person lose touch with reality and reenact the event for a period of seconds or hours, or very rarely, days.


 A person having a flashback, which can come in the form of images, sounds, smells, or feelings, usually believes that the traumatic event is happening all over again.




How do I know if I have PTSD?

Symptoms associated with reliving the traumatic event:


  • Having bad dreams, or distressing memories about the event
  • Behaving or feeling as if the event were actually happening all over again (known as flashbacks)
  • Dissociative reactions or loss of awareness of present surroundings
  • Having a lot of emotional feelings when reminded of the event
  • Having a lot of physical sensations when reminded of the event (heart pounds or misses a beat, sweating, difficulty breathing, feeling faint, feeling a loss of control)



Symptoms related to avoidance of reminders of the traumatic event:

  • Avoiding thoughts, conversations, or feelings about the event
  • Avoiding people, activities, or places associated with the event

Symptoms related to negative changes

in thought or mood:


  • Having difficulty remembering an important part of the original trauma
  • Feeling numb or detached from things
  • Lack of interest in social activities
  • Inability to experience positive moods
  • Pessimism about the future


Arousal and reactivity symptoms

  • Sleeping Difficulties including trouble falling or staying asleep
  • Irritability and outbursts of anger
  • Difficulty concentrating
  • Feeling easily startled

Other symptoms related to depersonalization (feeling like an observer to one’s body and thoughts/feelings) or derealization (experiencing unreality of surroundings) may also exist for some individuals.


ANXIETY

What is Anxiety Disorder and how do I know I have it?

Anxiety, worry, and stress are all a part of most people’s life today. But simply experiencing anxiety or stress does not mean you have a problem. In fact, anxiety is a necessary warning signal of a dangerous or difficult situation.


Anxiety becomes a disorder when the symptoms become chronic and interfere with our daily lives and we can not function the way we want. Symptoms can include muscle tension, weakness, poor memory, fear or confusion, palpitations, upset Stomach, poor concentration, worrying, and sweaty palms. Individuals may also feel out of control, very uncomfortable or helpless.

DEPRESSION

What is Depression?

We have all felt sad or depressed at one time or another. Feeling depressed can be a normal reaction to loss, life’s struggles, or an injured self-esteem.


When feelings of intense sadness — including feeling helpless, hopeless, and worthless — last for many days to weeks and keep you from functioning normally, your depression may be something more than sadness. It may very well be clinical depression — a treatable medical condition.

How do I know if I have Depression?

Depression occurs when you have at least 5 of the following symptoms for at least 2 weeks

  • A depressed mood during most of the day, particularly in the morning
  • Fatigue or loss of energy almost every day
  • Feelings of worthlessness or guilt almost every day
  • Impaired concentration, indecisiveness
  • Insomnia (an inability to sleep) or hypersomnia (excessive sleeping) almost every day
  • Markedly diminished interest or pleasure in almost all activities nearly every day
  • Recurring thoughts of death or suicide (not just fearing death)
  • A sense of restlessness or being slowed down
  • Significant weight loss or weight gain