Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) can happen to anyone at any point in their life. It consists of fresh memoties and emotions that don't fade away after a traumatic expirience; like war, sudden death of loved one, sexual assault or neglected childhood. PTSD usually shows its symptoms within 3 months from the traumatic event but in rare cases it may appear later. Symptoms vary in different people but most common are nightmares, flashbacks, outbursts of anger, emotial numbness and detachment from others and avoiding remainders of trauma (eg. people, places, sounds). Besides of expiriencing these symptoms that change their lives, people with PTSD are often not taken seriously, and therefore are pushed as far as "self-treatment" with drugs, alcohol and suicide.
Types of Treatments
Trauma-focused cognitive-behavioral therapy: This therapy involves exposing the traumatic thoughts by talking about the event, feelings and thoughts and things that remind you of it. Thoughts that are irrational are then replaced to create a "balance".
Family therapy: This type of therapy consists of you and your family where problems related to the incident are discussed, since PTSD also effects relationship.
Medication:
Medication is prescribed to some people with PTSD to reduce their symptoms such as depression and anexiety. Medication makes these symptoms more mild but it doesn't treat PTSD.
EMDR (Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing): Left to right eye movement, or other rhytmic activities such as hand taps are believed to "unfreeze" the part of brain responsible for memory that maight have been in schock (and therefore no remembering) during the trauma.
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Treatment doesn't magically heal PTSD, since emotions cannot be "healed" but only dealt with. The help comes in form of confronting original thoughts and feelings as during the trauma. These repressed emotions are a way to reduce the symptoms and help restore self control. During the PTSD treatment you will explore the thoughts and feelings about the trauma, try to abandon guilt and mistrust, control and accept the memories and deal with problems caused by PTSD in relationships.
SOURCE: http://www.helpguide.org/mental/post_traumatic_stress_disorder_symptoms_treatment.htm
Sunday, September 30, 2012
Wednesday, September 26, 2012
Autism and Preceiving Emotion
Autism has no known causes and is believed to be hereditary, more common in the male population. As Dr. Oz said "..It robs child of its emotional foundation" because for kids with Autism it is difficult and sometimes impossible to recognize different emotions. This makes it hard for individuals to express their needs and understand unsaid clues, in many cases leaving them socially excluded. Scientists say that the inability to recognize body language and facial expressions is to be blamed on part of brain that is responsible for visual perception. Autism symptoms differ in each individual yet the most common are: lack of eye contact, advanced knowledge in one area, preferring to be alone, hates to be touched, obsession, lack of emotions and not responding to other people's emotions.
People with Autism are many times labeled as "dumb" or "stupid". THIS IS WRONG. These people are different, and just because they don't fit with the general standards does not make them less valuable.
People with Autism are many times labeled as "dumb" or "stupid". THIS IS WRONG. These people are different, and just because they don't fit with the general standards does not make them less valuable.
Tuesday, September 18, 2012
Memory- Are Gender and Culture Important?
Memory is stored in schemas, the cognitive frameworks, no matter who you are. Yet each gender posesses certain "advantages" and people from different cultures have their first memories at various times.
Gender
Studies show that women are more evolved in terms of episodic memory. Emisodic memory is a
long-term memory based on individual expiriences. These verbal tasks that favor women include remembering words, pictures, everyday events, objects, and remembering faces, especially of females. When a study was performed, women were given faces of hairless and make-upless men and women. When shown again, participants remembered the faces that were mostly of the women. Also women perform better in almost no verbal processing such as recognizing smells.
At the same time, however, men are not as disadvantaged as it may seem. When it comes to visuospatial precessing, which is remembering symbolic and non-linguistic information, the male population take the lead. So in case you get lost in a forrest with your boyfriend (assuming you are a female), the man has better chance of finding way out, so you better stick with him. On the other hand, there are cases when women remeber the location of car keys because it requires both, verbal and visuospatial processing.
Culture
Studies have shown that people from different cultures can recall their first memory at different ages. People from a Pacific island may recall a memory of a funeral of a family member as early as 2.5 years old. While Americans remember their first memory in average obout the age of 3- 3.5, Korean adult will remember an expirience from when he was 4 year old. A study proved that people who focus on family history (eg. tribal legends) and talk about it more to their children, are more likely to have early memories, in comparison to Asian population who values individuality.
Also recent evidence from the University of Michigan revealed that Americans focuse more on objects and categories, while people from Asia and Middle East focuse more on contextual details, simillarities and function. An experiment has been done where Americans and people from Turkey were given paired words. While Westerners paired a squirl with a racoon, because they are both animals, Easterners tend to pair squirl with a nut. At the same time, Angela Gutches, the head of the Aging, Culture and Cognition Laboratory, stated that if you depend on using categories you may make some errors. For example if you remember context of paper - red, you may end up switching paper - blue, in case the color blue was on the list of words.
Gender
Studies show that women are more evolved in terms of episodic memory. Emisodic memory is a
long-term memory based on individual expiriences. These verbal tasks that favor women include remembering words, pictures, everyday events, objects, and remembering faces, especially of females. When a study was performed, women were given faces of hairless and make-upless men and women. When shown again, participants remembered the faces that were mostly of the women. Also women perform better in almost no verbal processing such as recognizing smells.
At the same time, however, men are not as disadvantaged as it may seem. When it comes to visuospatial precessing, which is remembering symbolic and non-linguistic information, the male population take the lead. So in case you get lost in a forrest with your boyfriend (assuming you are a female), the man has better chance of finding way out, so you better stick with him. On the other hand, there are cases when women remeber the location of car keys because it requires both, verbal and visuospatial processing.
Culture
Studies have shown that people from different cultures can recall their first memory at different ages. People from a Pacific island may recall a memory of a funeral of a family member as early as 2.5 years old. While Americans remember their first memory in average obout the age of 3- 3.5, Korean adult will remember an expirience from when he was 4 year old. A study proved that people who focus on family history (eg. tribal legends) and talk about it more to their children, are more likely to have early memories, in comparison to Asian population who values individuality.
Also recent evidence from the University of Michigan revealed that Americans focuse more on objects and categories, while people from Asia and Middle East focuse more on contextual details, simillarities and function. An experiment has been done where Americans and people from Turkey were given paired words. While Westerners paired a squirl with a racoon, because they are both animals, Easterners tend to pair squirl with a nut. At the same time, Angela Gutches, the head of the Aging, Culture and Cognition Laboratory, stated that if you depend on using categories you may make some errors. For example if you remember context of paper - red, you may end up switching paper - blue, in case the color blue was on the list of words.
Friday, September 14, 2012
Alzheimer's disease: The Forgetting
Why is Alzhaimer's more common now than it was in the past?
Nowdays, Alzhaimer's affects the baby booom generation. In other words, the old people. Alzhaimer's shows its noticable symptoms in people around the age of 65. And since the baby boomers are in this age category, Alzheimer's which was once a personal tragedy became an epidemic.
How is Alzheimer's an economic issue?
Since the baby boomers are old now, they are retiring. This influences economy because large part of population is retiring and/or activating health plan, which takes money away from the government.
Economic issues are also triggered by the medical expenses and people who have to quit their job to take care of their loved ones.
How was Alzheimer's discovered?
Alzheimer's was discovered by Dr. Alzheimer who was treating a patient with unknown mental disease. His patient, Auguste D., was brought to his asylum in 1901. During then next couple of years she displayed symptoms of paranoia, fortgetfulness and confusion. One time she was asked to writer her name, however, she wrote only the first part of it. After the repetition, she was still unable to finish writting her whole name. After her death, Dr. Alzheimer examined parts of her brain and discovered that it was shrunk and colorless. This was the first physical proof for a mental ilness.
How does Alzheimer's rob you of your identity?
When you have Alzheimer's, your first symptoms will be forgetfulness; like where you left your keys. Personaly changes occur and you become irritated, scared and paranoid. Later on you can't recall some major things like eating, not being able to keep up with conversation and/or forgetting your loved ones followed by not knowing who you are. Not remembering your happiest and saddest memories and your loved ones, loosing connections with them and your own negative view on world robbs you of who you once were.
Process of Alzheimer's:
Early stage: Alzheimer's kills off the learning and memory part of the brein. Later on it moves into the thinking and planning part of brain.
Mild stage: Personality changes settle in such as paranoia, fear, and unprovoced anger.
Moderate stage: Loosing most of one's memory. An individual is not able to recall his/ her own family members and friends.
Severe: Patient is not able to care of himself/herself. Importnat part of his brain that are, for example, responsible for moving, affected by the disease. In the final stage the patient eventually dies when a part of his/her brain that's crucual for survival dies, such as breathing.
Alshaimer's is believed to be a genetical disorder that differs in each individual. Scientists suscpects that it's caused by tangled parts between neurons. This swirls, which is the shape that the disease affects place, slowly consumes the whole brain. So far, this disease is not curable, but scientists are working hard to discover a medicine that would at least slow down the symptoms and pusth them from age of 65 to 75.
Nowdays, Alzhaimer's affects the baby booom generation. In other words, the old people. Alzhaimer's shows its noticable symptoms in people around the age of 65. And since the baby boomers are in this age category, Alzheimer's which was once a personal tragedy became an epidemic.
How is Alzheimer's an economic issue?
Since the baby boomers are old now, they are retiring. This influences economy because large part of population is retiring and/or activating health plan, which takes money away from the government.
Economic issues are also triggered by the medical expenses and people who have to quit their job to take care of their loved ones.
How was Alzheimer's discovered?
Alzheimer's was discovered by Dr. Alzheimer who was treating a patient with unknown mental disease. His patient, Auguste D., was brought to his asylum in 1901. During then next couple of years she displayed symptoms of paranoia, fortgetfulness and confusion. One time she was asked to writer her name, however, she wrote only the first part of it. After the repetition, she was still unable to finish writting her whole name. After her death, Dr. Alzheimer examined parts of her brain and discovered that it was shrunk and colorless. This was the first physical proof for a mental ilness.
How does Alzheimer's rob you of your identity?
When you have Alzheimer's, your first symptoms will be forgetfulness; like where you left your keys. Personaly changes occur and you become irritated, scared and paranoid. Later on you can't recall some major things like eating, not being able to keep up with conversation and/or forgetting your loved ones followed by not knowing who you are. Not remembering your happiest and saddest memories and your loved ones, loosing connections with them and your own negative view on world robbs you of who you once were.
Process of Alzheimer's:
Early stage: Alzheimer's kills off the learning and memory part of the brein. Later on it moves into the thinking and planning part of brain.
Mild stage: Personality changes settle in such as paranoia, fear, and unprovoced anger.
Moderate stage: Loosing most of one's memory. An individual is not able to recall his/ her own family members and friends.
Severe: Patient is not able to care of himself/herself. Importnat part of his brain that are, for example, responsible for moving, affected by the disease. In the final stage the patient eventually dies when a part of his/her brain that's crucual for survival dies, such as breathing.
Alshaimer's is believed to be a genetical disorder that differs in each individual. Scientists suscpects that it's caused by tangled parts between neurons. This swirls, which is the shape that the disease affects place, slowly consumes the whole brain. So far, this disease is not curable, but scientists are working hard to discover a medicine that would at least slow down the symptoms and pusth them from age of 65 to 75.
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