Category Archives: Mental Health

Mental Health

CBT as Treatment for Bipolar Disorder

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Bipolar disorder, known by many as manic depression, is a mental illness caused by a combination of factors, including neurological, biological, emotional, and environmental factors. It is most commonly described as mood cycling or mood swings, in which the patient cycles through moods of depression, mania, and normal behavior.

There are many treatment options for bipolar disorder. The most common treatment for bipolar disorder includes a combination of medication and therapy. However, some patients are not candidates for medication treatment. Patients that have a history of drug abuse, for instance, should in most cases not be placed on medication for bipolar disorder, as the risk for abuse is too great. Additionally, patients may not have a case of bipolar disorder severe enough to warrant medication. Other patients may choose to avoid the route of medication until it becomes absolutely necessary.

In response to these special cases in which medication treatment is not a viable option for bipolar disorder, that Cognitive Behavioral Therapy, or CBT, was developed. CBT is a type of therapy that assists patients in recognizing triggers and causes for their manic and depressive states. The patient can then learn techniques to avoid these triggers, and cope with symptoms during episodes. Seventy percent of bipolar disorder type one patients that undergo CBT experience one or fewer episodes within four years of starting the CBT treatment.

There are two main goals that are met by using CBT as treatment for bipolar disorder. The first goal is to recognize manic episodes before they become uncontrollable, and consciously change how they react to the episode. The second goal is to learn techniques, reactions, thoughts, and behaviors that can help to offset depression. These goals are realized through various techniques and activities prescribed by the therapist. With CBT, the treatment of bipolar disorder rests with the patient, who is given homework in the form of exercises and reading, which helps them to understand their condition and learn methods to cope with it.

The first step to successful treatment of bipolar disorder through CBT is to develop a treatment contract with the patient. This is a treatment plan that the patient agrees to follow, and also involves the patient’s promise to complete all homework assignments and take any prescribed medication as directed. Because the success of CBT depends largely on the patient’s responsibility and desire to cope with bipolar disorder, this is an important first step to successful treatment.

The second step to successful treatment of bipolar disorder through CBT is to monitor and grade moods. This is done with various worksheets that the therapist gives the patient. The patient may record their mood for the day, how many hours they have slept, their level of anxiety, and their level of irritability. Those with type two bipolar disorder may need to record their mood two or more times per day, as their moods cycle more often.

Understanding the pattern to mood cycling can help the patient then undergo the next step to CBT treatment for bipolar disorder. This step of CBT for treatment of bipolar disorder requires the patient to do homework in the form of worksheets and reading that will help the patient to understand how their thoughts effect their emotions. By understanding these things, the patient will be able to then practice altering their thoughts in a rational way to make emotions more rational as well, decreasing the number and severity of depressive and manic episodes.

The next step to CBT treatment for bipolar disorder is to learn how to recognize triggers. Triggers are the thoughts, emotions, situations, times of year, events, or environments that set off a depressive or manic episode. By learning how to understand and recognize their triggers, the patient can then learn to avoid the triggers entirely, thereby decreasing the number and severity of depressive and manic episodes.

Overall, CBT is a viable and quite successful treatment for bipolar disorder, and can be a healthy alternative to medication in some cases. If you feel you may be a candidate for CBT, you should contact your doctor or therapist to discuss this and other bipolar disorder treatment options.

Mental Health

What Are the Symptoms of Bipolar Disorder?

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From historical figures to celebrities to everyday people, there are many people with bipolar disorder. Whether one hears of these people on television or in real life, the question often arises as to how they know they have bipolar disorder. So, what are the symptoms of bipolar disorder?

Since there are two distinct parts of bipolar disorder, there are also two separate sets of symptoms of bipolar disorder. These symptoms of bipolar disorder many times reflect opposites from the manic to the depressive sides of the illness.

The most obvious of the opposites in the symptoms of bipolar disorder is level of energy and activity. In depression, the person will feel a loss of energy and suffer from fatigue. That person may even appear to be slow. On the other hand, the manic person will have an increased level of energy and much more than usual activity.

Degree of self-esteem is another of the symptoms of bipolar disorder. A depressed person feels unworthy or is guilt-ridden. A manic, though, is so full of him- or herself that he or she has unreasonable ideas of him- or herself or even delusions of grandeur.

This loss of self-esteem may be what leads the depressed person to be indecisive, and overblown self importance that urges the manic to become reckless. Neither the depressed person nor the manic one sees these decision-making processes as symptoms of bipolar disorder. But that is exactly what they are.

The symptoms of bipolar disorder differ from the depressive to the manic mostly because the general themes are different. In depression, everything is slow, dull, small, introverted, and hopeless. In mania, things are overblown, huge, fast, outgoing, and full of impossible dreams.

Some symptoms of bipolar disorder seem, on the surface, to be similar. For example, The poor concentration of the depressed person may appear similar to the distraction of the manic person. They both, in fact, have trouble holding a thought in their heads. This happens for different reasons, though. The depressed person has fewer thoughts but just cannot focus on any, while the manic person has excessive thought and goes rapidly from one to the next.

Sleep cycles vary in both depressed people and manic people. This is one of the symptoms of bipolar disorder which cause trouble for both. The depressed person may not care whether he or she sleeps or not, sometimes sleeping for long periods and sometimes not bothering to go to bed. The manic person will most surely feel little or no need for sleep. He or she may go without sleep for days.

The symptoms of bipolar disorder which vary the most from depressives to manics happen at the far ends of the spectrum. A person who is extremely depressed is likely to think dark thoughts about death, suicide, and even plans to commit suicide. The person who is manic enough can have strange thoughts such as delusions, and bizarre perceptions such as auditory and visual hallucinations.

If a person is truly bipolar, he or she will display some, if not all, of the symptoms of bipolar disorder on both the depressed and manic sides of the line. Because this illness is so serious and can have life changing consequences for the person with it, it is important to recognize the symptoms of bipolar disorder.

Mental Health

Tell Tale Signs Of Alzheimer’s

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Alzheimer’s disease is a progressive brain disorder. Its gradual effects on the brain are relentless as a sufferer’s memory is progressively destroyed and along with it, the capability to learn, make judgments, and communicate. The disease will eventually make it difficult for the sufferer to even carry out normal daily tasks to the point of total disappearance of any capability.

It is a very difficult circumstance to be in, to watch a family member seemingly waste away bit by bit. The sufferer’s the struggle to maintain some form of sanity despite the condition is often too much for many relatives to bear that they, sadly, distance themselves from the sufferer instead of giving support.

It really pays to know more about Alzheimer’s and better understand the condition lest you find yourself or a member of your family in this type of situation. Knowing the warning signs early on can help you cope up with the disease earlier where there might still be some chance at minimizing the damaging effects of Alzheimer’s. Knowing what to look for will not only help you but also your friends or loved ones who might also have the odds against them in developing the said debilitating disease.

It is of the utmost important to understand some of the warning signs of Alzheimer’s. While memory loss is reasonable and is an expected symptom of aging, the type of memory loss symptoms of Alzheimer’s are significantly greater and are often accompanied or followed by other tell tale symptoms. People suffering this disease often have difficulty with general cognitive abilities such as communication, thinking, reasoning, comparing, and learning new skills.

Short-term memory is what Alzheimer’s disease usually affects first. Sufferers tend to forget family names and even how to perform simple daily tasks. However, long-term memory is somehow attained with Alzheimer’s disease where some patients may even retain the ability of remembering events from the past.

Another sign shown by patients suffering from Alzheimer’s disease is the gradual loss of verbal communication skills. Instead of speaking up, sufferers will begin to communicate their feelings, preferences and needs through body language and facial expressions more frequently. Perception is another area that can be affected by Alzheimer’s disease.

It may be difficult to set up a clear warning sign level as some of the symptoms exhibited by Alzheimer’s sufferers might just be a part of normal behavior. Such symptoms may even be related to another ailment entirely. But when you see such signs being exhibited by someone near to you or someone that you know, you should never be quick to rule out Alzheimer’s as a possible reason. Here are the ten basic warning signs for Alzheimer’s to always look out for:

Gradual loss of memory
Difficulty performing simple everyday tasks
Problems with language
Disorientation
Declining judgment
Inability to perform complex mental tasks
Misplacing certain everyday items
Noticeable behavioral changes
Increased confusion, fear and suspicion
Loss of initiative

As of the present there are no Alzheimer’s treatments that will totally cure, prevent or reverse the onset of the disease or its gradual progression. What doctors can do is try to treat many of the disease symptoms such as loss of memory. The good news is that as new discoveries about the disease are being made, it won’t be long before effective Alzheimer’s treatments will be made available.

Try to consult with a qualified physician in order to help eliminate some symptoms that might look like true Alzheimer’s and to effectively distinguish between the many other causes of dementia, some of which are completely treatable.

Mental Health

Living With Alzheimer’s Disease

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When someone is diagnosed with Alzheimer’s disease, those around should not think that it is the end of the world. The best thing to do is help the one who is suffering from it until the person dies.

There are drugs in the market that can help ease the pain but not reverse the process or stop the disease from spreading. The only thing it can do is slow down the process that could buy enough time until a cure has been found.

Family members should give this or hire a caregiver to do that when no one is able to take care of the person.

In time, the sufferer may not even recall the name of the children. One way to help the one living with Alzheimer’s is through the use of visual aids. The name and the picture of the person can be shown in a card and someone can conduct memory exercises on the individual.

It will also be a good idea to talk as often as possible with the patient. The person should be within the line of sight of the individual and must say each word slowly in order to understand each word being said.

The best place to treat someone with Alzheimer’s is in the home. The people who are there should make sure that there is order in the house and it is quiet at all times because noise will just aggravate the patient.

Living with someone who has Alzheimer’s can be compared to taking care of a toddler. This is because the person will touch anything in sight and might even get hurt in the process. The best thing to do is to take make sure there is no clutter in the house and items that are deemed unsafe are hidden from view.

Alzheimer sufferers are known to wander off. The person can lock the doors but should the patient manage to get out, it is best to have either a bracelet or a pocket card inserted in the clothing. This must have the name, address of the patient as well as the contact number where someone can be reached to pick up the wanderer.

Studies show that those who are suffering from Alzheimer’s disease really get worked up in the evening. This can be prevented by coming up with evening rituals such as washing the dishes, watching television or walking around for a while to make the patient calm and sleep tight.

Those who are suffering from Alzheimer’s aside from the medicine prescribed by the doctor also need exercise. It doesnt have to be anything extraneous but just enough to keep the strength up. An early morning walk or lifting small weights are just a few examples to promote a certain level of fitness for the patient.

It is not easy living with someone who has Alzheimer’s disease because the task of taking care of someone is both tiring and frustrating. People have to understand that no one wanted this to happen but the reality is that the problem is there.

It is a good thing there are support groups out there that can help family members and patients cope with this disease. The people can also live closer because it won’t be long before the inevitable will happen and this person will go off to a better place.