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Stress

Stress is body's automatic response to a challenging event and involves body, mind and emotions. It is a person's reaction to external pressures and is experienced as thoughts and feelings as well as physical processes. It is a normal part of everyone's life but negative stress has the potential to severly affect your quality of life.

When the stress stays around for weeks generally because of reasons such as workplace stress, illness, relationship trouble, then it has profound physical aspects such as high blood pressure, clotting, increased heart rate sugar. It can weaken the immune system, which makes the person vulnerable to normal sickness. If left unchecked, then overtime these issues can manifest into complex conditions such as hypertension, stroke, diabetes, chronic pain, and heart attacks.

Discussing stresses with a medical professional such as psychologist or psychiatrist can help you develop coping mechanism to better deal with stress and adversity in your life. Managing stress can help you lead a more balanced, healthier life.

Internet Addiction Disorder

Internet Addiction Disorder prevalence is staggering and increasing – several studies claim it affects up to 15% of the general population across the world.
As the name suggests, its related to compulsion with the Internet usage. In this digital age, Internet has taken over a lot of activities of our lives, from shopping to playing video games to watching movies. We are always surrounded by internet 24 hours and using it is perfectly normal thing to do. However, in certain cases, the troubling part is when these activities start interfering with your daily life. Some Internet users develop an emotional attachment to on-line friends and activities they participate in, and gradually use the virtual world as a substitution for real-life human connection. They find it particularly hard to cut back or stop Internet use and when in such situations they feel restless, mood swings or irritabile. Internet addiction results in personal, academic, financial, and work related problems just like any other addiction.

Internet addiction disorder is technically still not a diagnosis in the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of America Psychiatry. However, it share similarities with other forms of addiction such as gambling addiction and is a treatable condition. Cognitive behavioral therapy has shown to be an effective method for the treatment of Internet addiction.

Prenatal Depression

Prenatal depression is one form of clinical depression that can affect a woman during pregnancy, and can be lead to post natal depression if not properly treated. Different studies estimate that upto 15-20% of pregnant women are affected by this condition, though the actual number are higher because so many pregnant women affected by depression are reluctant to admit it.

Just like most forms of depression, it is difficult to pinpoint a single cause for prenatal depression, but possible causes include history of depression or premenstrual dysphoric disorder, young age at the time of pregnancy, marital conflicts, living alone or having limited social support. Stress related to pregnancy contributes to worsening of depression symptoms. Some studies even suggest that depression during pregnancy may increase the risk for pre-term delivery and low infant birth weight.

Preparing for a new member in your life is a lot of hard work, but your health comes first. So resist the urge to get all things perfect, reduce your daily chores, and participate in relaxation activities. If the symptoms still don't subside then its best to talk a psychologist or psychiatrist who can carry out a proper assessment and decide the course of therapy.

Eating Disorders

Eating disorders are symptomised by an abnormal attitude towards food that causes someone to change their eating habits and behaviour. People suffering from eating disorders focus excessively on their weight, leading to unhealthy food choices, which damages their health. Although it is widely believed that the afflicted person has a desire to be thin, the fact is that there are other underlying causes behind an eating disorder. An eating disorder may be associated with biological, genetic or environment factor. Several factors can cause the onset of an eating disorder and these include certain personality traits and psychological factors, stress, abuse, post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), and a difficult personal or family life.

If left untreated, eating disorder can have a negative impact on someone's professional life and can disrupt relationships with family members and friends. The physical effects of an eating disorder can sometimes be fatal. Treatment for eating disorders is available but it's important that the person affected should have the inclination to get better. Psychological Counseling (primarily CBT) focuses on changing how a person thinks about a situation and has proved to be extremely effective in treating eating disorders.

Sexual Issues

"Sexual dysfunction suggests a problem occurring during any phase of the sexual activity that prevents one of the partners or the couple from experiencing satisfaction from the sexual activity. The sexual response cycle includes excitement, plateau, orgasm, and resolution. Arousal and desire are both part of the excitement phase.

The 2 most important causes of sexual dysfunction are physical causes and psychological causes. Physical causes which include prevelance of some conditions such as diabetes, heart condition etc. can be treated with medicines. However, psychological causes including stress, anxiety, concern about sexual performance, relationship problems, guilt etc. can also lead to sexual dysfunction. In such cases, psychotherapy works best for the individual or the couple.

Therapy with a trained counselor can help the couple address psychological issues that may have an impact on sexual function. Therapists are often good marital counselors, as well so for the couples wanting to begin enjoying their sexual relationship, it is well worth the time to work with a trained counselor. "

Phobias

"Phobia is an unreasonable and excessive fear of an object or situation, which involves a feeling of fear of getting harmed. Though in most cases the situations do not pose any real danger. It is common to confuse anxiety with phobia since feeling of anxiety accompanies phobia but unlike the brief anxiety which one may feel before an important event like taking a test, phobias are long lasting and cause intense physical and psychological reactions. Phobias can affect the ability to function normally at workplace or in social settings.

There are many types of phobias and often patients experience a specific phobia about more than one object or a situation. Common categories of phobias include fear of nature such as heights or thunderstorm, insects such as spiders, injection or needles or medical procedures etc. Each specific phobia is referred to by its own term, for eg: acrophobia for the fear of heights and claustrophobia for the fear of confined spaces. Regardless of what kind of phobia a person is suffering from, he/she is likely to produce reactions such as feeling of intense fear and panic, worsening anxiety as the situation or object gets closer to you, and physical reactions such as sweating, rapid heartbeat.

An unreasonable fear can be annoying and has the potential to disrupt your life. Most people with phobia can be helped with the right psychotherapy and therapy is easier when the phobia is addressed as soon as possible rather than waiting.

Grief (Bereavement Disorder)

Grief is a strong overwhelming sad emotion for people, regardless of where the sadness comes from. The sadness usually comes from the loss of a loved one or from a terminal disease diagnosed for themselves or for their family members. Grief accompanies feeling of numbness and removed from daily life, unable to carry on with regular duties while saddled with their sense of loss. Grief is a personal experience that almost all of us go through at some point in our lives. It is a natural reaction to a loss. However, individual experiences of grief may vary and are a function of the nature of the loss. Some losses such as death of a loved one, ending of an important relationship, job loss etc. are particularly intense.

The experience of grief is difficult to recover from completely, but passage of time tempers the intensity of grief. However, certain people feel a persistent form of bereavement that starts dominating their lives and interfering with daily functioning for an extended period of time. This is termed as complicated grief or ""persistent complex bereavement disorder"". Prolonged symptoms include intense feeling of sadness, longing or yearning, difficulty engaging in happy memories, and lack of interest in pursuing personal interests.

For such cases, it is best to visit a mental health professional such as a psychologist or a psychiatrist to start psychotherapy process. Therapy is the most effective way to cope with stress associated with the loss.