A New Choice Available To People With This Condition
The inability to distinguish between reality and hallucination - this is what distinguishes schizophrenics from the rest of humanity. Like the virtual worlds that we see in computer simulation applications, the schizophrenic weaves a whole fantasy world that exists only in their mind. And they dwell in this world often for long times, only to occasionally emerge to reconnect with the others.
Psychopharmacological interventions for this neuropsychiatric condition require consistent and regular medication. However, it has been found that consistency in taking oral medications is the first casualty. People simply miss popping the tablets on time, or they discontinue medication altogether, due to a host of reasons - side effects, absence of support from family or society, non-affordability are just a few. For schizophrenics, the consequence of this non-adherence to medication is relapse, usually at least once within five years of diagnosis. And relapse in the case of schizophrenia leads to worse degeneration compared to other major mental illnesses, with an increased risk for suicide and mortality. Getting them to continue taking medications, therefore, is a major challenge facing researchers.
In this backdrop, a new alternative to oral medication has been recently approved by the FDA. "Invega Sustenna", manufactured by Janssen, a division of Ortho-McNeil-Janssen Pharma Inc, is administered as an injection in the deltoid muscle. After the first injection, the second injection is given 8 days later; and then for all subsequent injections the patient has to visit the doctor once a month. What does this drug do? Consistent administration delays the relapse - the schizophrenic continues to stay rooted into reality for a longer duration, and is held back from reentering their world of hallucinations and fantasies.
Like most psychopharmacological interventions, the Invega Sustenna too comes with a long list of caveats. This drug cannot be given to the elderly - it puts them to a higher risk of death. Some people have been found to develop symptoms such as high fever, rigidity in muscles or twitching and / or jerky movements in the body (Tardive Dyskinesia) or seizures, profuse sweating, akathisia or restlessness, abnormal change in heart rhythm, high blood sugar and diabetes, obesity, sexual dysfunction, dizziness, sleepiness,... and this is just a partial list. When the patient is under the Invega Sustenna treatment, rigorous care and careful monitoring by family members is therefore called for.
Side-effects are unfortunately a way of life with modern medicine. Taking full cognizance of the side-effects, given that the injections are an improvement over the earlier oral tablets to the extent that they can at least prevent the missing out of the dosage administration, schizophrenics now have on offer one more choice to not return to their personal world of hallucinations, and to get well.
[It is all quite well to say that medications have side-effects, and that one must be careful about them. But is there any side-effect-free, non-psychopharmacological intervention that can address mental health conditions such as schizophrenia without any pain and without any tears? Turns out that such an intervention is emerging on the medical horizon. This article discusses: "Exploring The Fourth State Of Consciousness".]
People suffering from obsessive compulsive disorder (OCD) may not even realize it themselves; but those around them can see the suffering. A person who keeps going to the washbasin to clean their hands every fifteen minutes makes life difficult for family members who find it difficult to explain this behavior to strangers meeting them for the first time. Somebody who wants to take bath every half-an-hour during their waking hours is never ever able to leave the house. Somebody who returns back to the vehicle after locking the door the first time, to check, re-check and re-re-check whether it has been securely locked becomes an embarrassment for the people accompanying them. The disorder goes beyond one's control at some stage, and affects the quality of life of not only the person affected, but also the lives of those around.
This psychological condition is talked about in the same breath as are asthma and diabetes due to its prevalence. In the foreground of this fact is the buzz created by the press release issued by the FDA (available here) about the agency approving the use of an implantable device that delivers intermittent electrical therapy - called deep brain stimulation (DBS) -deep within the brain to suppress the symptoms associated with OCD. The approval comes under the category of "Humanitarian Device Exemption" (HDE), which means that, though the efficacy of treatment has yet not been established, the probable health benefits of the therapy have been found to outweigh the risks. So people suffering from OCD can get to avail themselves of this therapy right away before waiting for the efficacy to be fully established on humanitarian grounds. The therapy has been developed by Medtronic, Inc and is called "Reclaim DBS". It is expected to become available in the US by mid-2009, and will be administered at specific centers across the country. (There is a "Notify Me" online form on the company's webpage for those who wish to be notified by email when the treatment does become available.)
The therapy comes with a small battery-operated device that is implanted near the abdomen or the collar bone. This is in turn connected to four electrodes implanted in the brain at specific points with the help of insulated electric wires. The device generates pulses of the appropriate strength set by a clinician trained for this purpose.
The OCD treatment targets the anterior limb of the internal capsule (AIC) in the brain, and within it the ventral capsule / ventral striatum (VC/VS). This is the point in the complex web of neural circuits where mood and anxiety get to be regulated.
There are criteria for selecting candidates to undergo this therapy, such as they must have failed at least three selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors (SSRIs), they should not be scheduled to undergo electroconvulsive shock therapy or magnetic resonance imaging or deep tissue heat treatment (diathermy), females should not be pregnant, etc.
The HDE tag implies that up to a max 4,000 such candidates can avail themselves of this therapy per year.
How it works exactly, is not known. Of the subjects on whom clinical trials were carried out, 40% have been reported to have reduced their OCD symptoms. (The results of the trials have been published in the Feb 2009 issue of Biological Psychiatry, here:http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.biopsych.2008.08.029.)
The probes in the brain position themselves to the point where the thought-tokens that control mood and anxiety and apparently generate all the drives of obsession and compulsion. Thought-tokens that are beyond grasp. Can these physical, tangible pieces of fine wire grasp that which is not graspable? It is like a shot in the dark, relying on empirical observations. While wishing the new therapy all the best, here is another, non-invasive, technique that may alternatively be tried: Obsession Disorders - Cure Possible Through Meditation.
What was once only in the realm of hypotheses and theory, with just a semblance of evidence to back, has now been proven by overwhelming empirical data. Entertainment recommendation website TheFilter.Com says a good many Americans are now tuning in to depressing music these days: perhaps a reflection of the depressing news that is bombarding them and all of us 24X7.
The conclusion from the empirical observation is this: that when we have the blues, our natural propensity is to reinforce it by some more sad, soulful, melancholy music. And we actually enjoy going deeper down the spiral of self-pity and wallow-of-depression.
Sia's "Breathe Me" song has just the sort of lyrics to help you reach there. The haunting music and that melodious voice soothes, but ironically the song as a whole is just the right, poignant setting for our mood of doom and gloom. Sia's "Breathe Me" incidentally tops the most popular depressing song in the list compiled by TheFilter.com website.
_*
[* Image of Sia Furler, who crooned the "Breathe Me" song that brought her international fame. ]
Help, I have done it again I have been here many times before Hurt myself again today And, the worst part is there's no-one else to blame
How true. There is no one else to blame, but me. It is in my hands to uplift my moods from the morass. It is my choice entirely to be happy.
Be my friend Hold me, wrap me up Unfold me I am small and needy Warm me up And breathe me
Yes, we need the nourishing support of understanding hearts and the warm touch of healing hands to bring us back to life. But what if there aren't any around? Oh, we summon the inner nourishment and the inner love for self to provide the support and the healing.
Ouch I have lost myself again Lost myself and I am nowhere to be found, Yeah I think that I might break Lost myself again and I feel unsafe
It is an ongoing game of life. Losing oneself again and again in the wilderness of negative thoughts and dark self-pity. Does take an effort, considerable effort in fact, to come out of the wilderness and into the light. To make an effort itself requires some effort. But it comes automatically, once we make up our mind to beat it all.
Be my friend Hold me, wrap me up Unfold me I am small and needy Warm me up And breathe me
It is the "I am small and needy" that needs to be re-spun, rewoven, and reshaped into something that is more self-enhancing. What the new words should be, depends on our particular set of circumstances. But to banish such negative thoughts is a must, and if we have to beat the blues and the depressive moods, let's turn towards more uplifting tracks.
Here is the song. This time, listen to it with the full knowledge that it is meant to uplift you!
We aren't talking escapism here. We are simply taking a decision to be happy, and remain happy, whatever be the circumstances around us. Here is another post about another beautiful song - it never fails to uplift!
Price They Pay For Their Special Position In The Universe
Whatever the outward poses and postures of men, it is of course agreed that women do have a special position in the universe. Everything would come to a standstill, wouldn't it, without them? Nature must not have had any hesitation deciding on which amongst the two genders be given the onerous task of carrying the race forward. And so Nature bestowed upon woman all the biological paraphernalia required to bring forth Life, and then rear it. And along with it, a liberal dosage of the right chemicals with which to execute the job smoothly.
Indeed, their strength it turns out becomes their vulnerability. The way she is structured, it is oh very easy for the woman to multi-task. And to assume more and more responsibilities with a smile. A job where the boss has set impossible deadlines, or which simply sucks but there is no alternative but to stay put. A spouse or partner who is looking for the next opportunity to bark and spite. Kids, if they are around, who demand their needs be met _now_, her own needs be damned. In the process of balancing everybody's wants and needs, in the process of tip-toeing through life without upsetting anybody's sense of comfort either physically or emotionally --- somewhere along the way, she begins to lose her own sense of identity. Her own sense of balance begins to vertigo. Her own sense of comfort - at both the physical and emotional level - begins to get compromised. The sad part is that all this happens silently in the background, without her becoming aware of it.
The result? NAMI, the "nation's largest grassroots mental health organization dedicated to improving the lives of individuals and families affected by mental illness", has recently brought out an e-brochure that gives facts that startle, but shouldn't be unexpected really. Women, it says, "experience twice the rate of depression as men, regardless of race or ethnic background." The document lists the causes for depression very lucidly: genetic, biological, psychosocial, victimization and poverty.
Of the different intervention methods that the brochure outlines, the positive spin given to anti-depressants is disturbing. Wish the authors of the brochure were more aware of the side-effects of antidepressant medications. Here is one post where I have dwelt on the sense of unease amongst the researchers themselves about the drugs doing more harm than good.
As self-developer, the only solution that I can offer to anyone who is willing to pay heed, is to try the free-of-cost technique of auto-suggestion. This blog and my other blog have scores of posts about this technique. I guarantee that there are no side-effects whatsoever. And it works, if persevered with consistently.
Perhaps the authors of the NAMI e-brochure might consider devoting, in their next version of the publication, a paragraph or two on auto-suggestion as one very good CBT under the section of "Psychotherapy".
Statistically speaking, one in sixty people suffer a panic attack at least once at some point of time in their life. Whether it is a student facing the stress of an impending exam the next day, or it is a wife worried about the fate of her spouse in the war, or it is a businessperson faced with the prospect of bankruptcy... think of any of the myriad situations where there is gloom and doom looming over the person... and all the ingredients of a panic attack are there.
You may be brooding on some aspect of your life, where the outcome is (naturally) less than desirable. You either brood overtly, and spend huge chunks of your waking hours on the issue, or you dismiss the streams of thought from the conscious plane of your mind and go about the daily humdrum, but ignore the slow, festering that is going on at the subconscious plane. In both the cases, a possible end result is panic attack.
Though the manifestation is supposed to be "sudden", the roots of the condition can be traced to the thought patterns that dominate the psyche of the sufferers up until that moment. The best example of the impact of thoughts - an invisible energy and which "happens" in the "unknown" terrain of the mind - over the physical mass of the body: is the panic attack. The continuous streams of thought build up such a crescendo of energy that the brain is forced to trigger the appropriate neurochemicals to bring about the famous "fight or flight response" symptoms that physiologist Walter Cannon had postulated.
[So, in other words, my hypothesis is in alignment to some extent with the Cannon-Bard Theory of Emotion, and rejects outright the James-Lange Theory of Emotion.]
Literature suggests two lines of treatment:
- Medication, such as Benzodiazepines, anti-depressants. - Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT), which attempts to desensitize the sufferer of the impact of panic attack, by actually inducing the attack in them.
Medication, we all know, brings with it its own set of side-effects. The technique used by CBT doesn't really attack the root problem, does it? The streams of thought that are the root cause; continue to be harbored by the sufferer even after they have undergone CBT, and have supposedly been cured. I think CBT heaps on panic attack an added layer of cynicism that "one can continue to live in hell, and that hell is enjoyable!"
Here is my two-step process to beat those panic attacks; a New Age technique:
1. First and foremost: throw to the junkyard all the thoughts that have doom and gloom and worry splattered all over them! Look at these streams in the face. And work at eliminating whatever it is that is bothering you. If it is something within your control, well, do it. If it is something that you have no control over, then why worry in the first place! Rest assured - the universe wants the best for you. And whatever lessons it wants you to learn, well, learn them happily, without crying.
2. Prepare an inventory of happy thoughts and events and imageries. These will help you wash away the stock pile of neurochemicals created thus far due to the same old, dreary thoughts. And the next time, when panic attack hits you, simply shift your focus on the items in this inventory. Within moments, you will find the attack ebbing away. And this happens one hundred percent.
Remember Maria von Trapp telling the kids of the things she loves? Like the raindrops on roses, the whiskers on kittens? The cream colored ponies, the crisp apple strudels? The snowflakes that stay on the nose and eyelashes? And then she says - "When the dog bites, when the bee stings, when I'm feeling sad, I simply remember my favorite things, and then I don't feel so bad!"
And then one of the kids asks her - "Does it really work?" she assures them, "of course, it does!"
Then she asks the kids what their own list of things was that they loved? And each of them comes up with their own answer, based on their perspective on life - from "bunny rabbits" to "no school!" to "telegram"!
So, you can prepare your own list. And whenever your particular dog bites or your particular bee stings, just fill up your mind with the things you love and like and which make you happy.
It sounds strange that, despite this being 2007 - Hypertension or HTN can still only be diagnosed incidentally - somebody does a routine blood pressure check and discovers that you have high blood pressure. But it is true. Yet, this fact is so fundamental to our existence. That the heart is having to exert a lot of effort to do so normal an activity as reaching life-giving blood to all the cells in the remotest corners of the body.
However, all medications to cure hypertension solve only the symptoms, and while attempting to solve one problem, bring in another problem in the form of side-effects. I have always advocated life-style changes and natural techniques that do not require any invasion of chemicals on the body.
One natural technique that I have found particularly useful is: Meditation. The internet has tons of information on the subject of Meditation. Jon Kabat-Zinn's eight-week course called "Meditation-Based Stress Reduction" (MBSR) is a technique that the West has been familiar with, since 1979.
You can practice meditation anywhere, so long as you are passive, and not doing any activity. So you may be traveling (in the passenger seat, not in the driver seat), or waiting outside your doctor's chamber - whenever you get the opportunity to sit still, simply meditate. I have a set of articles post on another blog of mine; here is the URL: http://success-nirvana.blogspot.com/search/label/Meditation.
When you begin practicing meditation, you will slowly discover that you feel rested, refreshed, rejuvenated...
And when you are in that deep meditative state, begin visualizing the entire body, and consciously feel the plaques in the arteries being removed, the salt imbalance being restored to what is just right for your body, the arteries regaining their original, healthy diameter ... in short, whatever it is that the good doctor has told you is the root cause of hypertension in your particular case. This visualization is very powerful: it is the Law of Attraction being put to practice!
At the same time, it is perfectly understandable to not being able to meditate initially. A lifetime of not being "mindful" is a hard habit to crack! So what do you do? This is one great way to begin: use self-Hypnosis. Self-hypnosis is one great way to tell your mind very gently but emphatically, the goal that you desire. It is like an intense, yet calm method to restore the self to a particular state of living.
Here is one URL where you can find a Self-Hypnosis CD for lowering blood pressure: http://www.short10.com/?c=sdb_hypno_lowbp1. Costs USD 12.95 for a download, USD 25.95 for a physical CD.
Another technique that simply relaxes you at the end of the day is this: listening to Relaxation CDs. This is the most-diluted and weakest form of reducing hypertension, but effective, nevertheless.
Try any one of them. These techniques are much, much better and more effective than those medications which mess with your body. (With apologies to the medical profession; but I not sure whether the good doctors have completely understood how nature works. Most of the time they work with the symptoms, and not the cure. But I may of course be prejudiced.)
Depression: The Wide-Spread Malady It is not the ordinary guy in the next cubicle who might be suffering from Depression. The rich, the famous and the mighty too have faced this malady. Whether it was impressionist painter Vincent van Gogh...
... Or the Nobel Laureate Sir Winston Churchill...
... they have all gone through the dark swings in their moods at some time or the other in their life, in some cases ending it due to depression.
They Are From Mars, You See Men are supposed to be the strong, silent types - who can endure whatever stress and strain come their way. They tend to align their personality with this image of manhood in society, and put on camouflages that hide the stress and the strain gnawing at their innards. The final manifestation? Depression.
Sadly, this depression manifests itself not as depression, but in the form of one or the other defense mechanisms, such as compensation (displaying some other behavior because they are not supposed to let their true reality be revealed: alcoholism, wife-abuse, continuous irritability, and the like), or substitution, or even denial. And when the depression becomes chronic enough, it somatizes into diseases such as heart attacks and strokes.
Solutions After a person is diagnosed as depressive, one from a range of solutions may be administered to him: stress-chemical blockers, De-Hydro-Epi-Andro-sterone (DHEA) hormone therapy, stimulating the anterior cingulate cortex (ACC) with the help of electrodes, and the like.
One solution that offers a lot of promise is the psychotherapy technique of self-hypnosis. The way a self-hypnosis session works is as follows:
1. For the first five to fifteen minutes, the subject is made to relax his body and mind with the help of some soothing background music. A soft voice takes his attention to the different parts of his body, from the toes to the head, progressively relaxing them.
2. This progressive relaxation makes the body go limp. The mind too relaxes, and becomes receptive to further suggestions from the recorded voice.
3. The suggestions form the meat of the session. It is these suggestions that address the core issues that a depressive person faces: emotions bottled up, with no valve to release; negative thought patterns, ingrained deep in the psyche, with no respite or let; and frustrations, which keep eating into his sense of well-being and happiness. The suggestions are positive in nature, and help the person in releasing the emotions, create new and positive thought patterns, and dissolve away the frustrations.
4. At the end of the session, the person is brought back to the "physical world", by regaining alertness about his body and his surroundings.
_*
