Don't Allow Your Loneliness Affect Your Health

What has loneliness to do with health, you may be wondering after reading the title. When people talk about factors that affect your health, you will hear factors like smoking, drinking, overeating, passive way of living etc. But you are not likely to hear loneliness being mentioned as a factor that could impact your health. However, there are studies hat indicate that loneliness can be as much a hazard to your health as the above mentioned factors are.

Who do you think are most likely to be affected by loneliness? You are in for another surprise. It is not the old, as you may expect! Old people are not affected by loneliness as much as young people are. Perhaps, this is because old people are reconciled to themselves being lonely, since being alone is often associated with old age.

If you are interested in empirical evidence, you may find it interesting to know that communities that have social interactions as a way of life have been found to have higher proportions of healthy people and people living longer.

The impact of loneliness on health arises from psychological factors. As is well known, psychological factors can have a considerable influence on anyone's health. Certain illnesses like high blood pressure, high blood sugar levels are often found to have psychological rather than physiological origins. Given the havoc emotions can play on health, loneliness can affect your health by triggering your emotions. In fact, since being alone can often lead to a constantly depressed state of mind and thus trigger health problems.

Loneliness can become a serious problem if it persists for a long time. Its immediate impact is also considerable. When you are alone, your thoughts can go in uncontrolled ways making you feel bad in many ways. By generating negative feelings, loneliness will have an adverse effect on your appetite, digestion, sleep and other normal routines of your body. Sometimes, you may be induced to smoke or drink more.

If you understand good health as feeling good, then you will understand that anything that makes you feel bad is not good for your health. Being in the midst of people makes you feel comfortable, confident and safe even if you don't interact much. When you are deprived of the company of people, the opposite feelings will begin to take shape and affect your mind and your body.

Taking care of your health by following a diet program and exercise regimen easy but overcoming loneliness is not. If you are forced to be alone for some reason, do something to develop new acquaintances that may turn into close relationships over time.

You should be aware of loneliness being a health hazard but you can overcome loneliness by cultivating new relationships.

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The Right Environment For Group Therapy: Ensure Confidentiality And Mutual Respect

When people come together in a group for any purpose there are a variety of unique personalities in the same room, so it is often likely that not all of them are able to come together and achieve the objective of the group session(s). However, an experienced group facilitator will create an empowering environment in which each individual has a voice and feels safe enough to express exactly what they think and feel. In the case of group therapy, facilitating the group is an even more complex task because the group is not talking about any focused subject or particular problem; furthermore the environment is FAR from what it is during group sessions in the corporate world.

In group therapy, if the right environment is successfully created, everyone in the room (except the facilitator) ends up sharing their most guarded fears and insecurities. Almost each person has unresolved and sensitive issues which may be related to their childhood; some examples are sexual or physical abuse at home, and bullying at school. In order to heal people who are internally wounded by such experiences, it is absolutely essential that they feel secure during the process of group therapy. Security is created by building trust. It's not easy to build an environment of trust, especially when it involves a group as opposed to creating trust between just two people, which is a relatively easier task.

To foster feelings of trust, it is vital to ensure confidentiality. The rule for confidentiality is pretty much like the famous line "what happens in Vegas stays in Vegas"; whatever is discussed in the group has to stay within that group. The surety that confidentiality will be maintained (even after the group disassociates upon completion of the group therapy sessions) gives each individual in the group a sense of freedom. Once everyone feels liberated enough to speak within the group, each individual shares more than they ever imagined they'd tell anyone about themselves, their circumstances and problems. Once everyone starts sharing, the next step for the facilitator is to create an awareness that everyone's feelings need to be respected.

The nature of some individuals' problems could be quite sensitive, and if anyone in the group were to respond harshly to such an individual, it will only serve to hinder the overall process of healing. For group therapy to be successful, it is important for the facilitator to create an awareness of respecting one another's vulnerabilities.

While both of these factors of confidentiality and mutual respect are fundamental for healing to take place through the process of group therapy, it is essential that the facilitator actively intervenes from time to time to ensure that every member feels accepted by the whole group. If the right environment is created, group therapy is likely to be a positive and healing experience for everyone involved.

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Coping With Multiple Mental Health Issues

Given all the medications, therapies and self-help books that are available for dealing with depression and anxiety, you would think that rates of these disorders would be declining, but unfortunately, surveys suggest they are just as prevalent today as they were 30 years ago.

One of the complicating factors in dealing with anxiety and depression, is that most people with these disorders have more than one mental health issue, which makes it difficult to deal with one problem at a time. Furthermore, the medications used to anxiety and depression can make other disorders worse. For example, antidepressant medications can sometimes worsen inattention in those with Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder, and medications for anxiety and panic attacks such as Xanax can make depressed people feel more tired and lethargic.

Given the difficulty in treating multiple mental health problems with medication, it's useful to identify those treatments which are helpful for all types of mild to moderate mental illness. Among the mental health treatments which can improve both anxiety and depression, without negatively affecting attention and memory include -
Physical Exercise
Hundreds of studies have shown that moderate to intense physical exercise helps improves anxiety, depression and mental focus. At least 30 minutes of moderate exercise, three times a week is recommended as a minimum by mental health researchers, with 30 minutes five times a week recommended for those with depression.

Deep Breathing Exercises
The majority of people with anxiety disorders and anxious forms of depression spend a lot of time taking shallow breathes with their mouth open. This over-stimulates the sympathetic "flight or fight" part of the nervous system and leads to a variety of physical and mental problems such as excessive muscle tension, irritability, impatience and poor concentration. Learning to take deep, relaxed breathes through the belly, helps ease nervous tension while improving mood and ability to focus. An alternative to deep breathing is single or alternative nostril breathing. Breathing through the left nostril, while blocking off the right nostril with your thumb can significantly reduce mental and physical over-arousal, while breathing through the right nostril can help stimulate the mind and body when feeling lethargic. Alternating from one nostril to another helps promote a more even level of nervous arousal and is good exercise to do in the morning.

Cognitive Behaviour Therapy
CBT is the most researched form of talk therapy for mood disorders and involves recognising and challenging ingrained negative thinking habits. Research has shown that CBT can be useful for dealing with both anxious and depressive thinking habits, and can also help moderate the mood swings and poor frustration tolerance associated with ADHD.

Therapy for Self-Esteem Issues
Poor self-esteem is one of the commonest problems seen in anxiety and depression. People with mood disorders tend to have a low opinion of themselves, are over-sensitive to personal rejection and spend too much time comparing themselves to others. Addressing self-esteem issues through talk therapy or by reading recommended self-help books can play a crucial role in helping to reduce levels of anxiety and negative thinking.

Meditation and Yoga
A growing body of research is showing that regular meditation of at least 15 minutes a day can significantly improve mood and mental focus. However, it usually takes at least three months of regular practice to see significant benefits. Many people also find it boring or difficult to sit still and meditate. A popular alternative to sitting meditation, are the various forms of active yoga that combine meditation with stretching exercises designed to condition the body while focusing the mind. Active forms of yoga tend to be most popular type of meditation because physically restless people find them easier to commit to, and there are a wide range of postures and breathing techniques to choose from.

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Health and Mental Benefits of Pets for Seniors

Most everyone can automatically lower blood pressure and smile in delight when petting an animal. For some reason, that act just brings on a happy feeling. Pets can help seniors in many physical and mental ways by providing physical contact and unconditional love to their lives.

Research from the American Geriatrics Society determined that seniors who live independently and have a pet are much healthier and mentally more acute than those who don't. Pets help lower blood pressure and other physical benefits and also help seniors live longer, healthier and more enjoyable lives in all areas.

Pets can get seniors up and moving - going on walks, changing litter boxes, grooming and providing food and water. They also bring happiness with their constant antics, playing and petting. The cardiovascular system and joints are benefited tremendously by these actions.

Having a pet to take care of and love may also help the emotional well-being of seniors. Some seniors don't have a support system in place and tend to become socially isolated. Pets give seniors a chance to interact in a way that helps relieve the depression and anxiety from living alone.

Elderly care centers are beginning to realize the benefits from pet companionship and there are many who now allow residents to interact with either their own animals or pets from organizations like Therapy dogs and Pets on Wheels. Some nursing homes are also allowing pets to live with their owners in the residents.
Some other ways that pets may help enrich the lives of the elderly include:

Relieving the emotional pain of losing a loved one.
Makes it easier for the senior to make friends.
Becoming more active.
Prevents loneliness, depression and anxiety.
Helps the senior to feel more secure.
Prevents certain illnesses such as heart disease.

Studies show that seniors who have pets visit the doctor 20% less than those who don't. The benefits of seniors owning and caring for pets are numerous and the benefits to the animals are obvious. Pet ownership seems to truly help seniors overcome many problems associated with aging and brings a greater appreciation of life and how they enjoy it.

Although pets can't take the place of human relationships in seniors' lives, they can certainly enrich their time and sense of well-being. Before giving a pet to a senior, be sure and assess his or her means to take care of it and speak to the senior before actually presenting the pet.

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Head Trauma and Brain Injury - Learn What to Do Before It Happens

Perhaps it's a motorcycle accident, or even a car accident. Or suddenly hit by an object. Maybe someone carried out an assault. Or it could come from being too close to a blast that causes a sudden pressure change inside the head. Any way it happens, traumatic brain injury occurs far too often. It's estimated that in the US there are about 1.7 million occurrences. The chances are, therefore, that it will affect you, either directly or indirectly.[I]

The thing is, the injury could be really serious even though nothing much appears wrong on the outside. That's why it pays to have some facts at hand for assessing how serious it might be. Whether mild or deadly, the bottom line is that getting the appropriate help as quickly as possible means a speedier and more complete recovery.

How Does Brain Trauma Take Place?

The analogy of an egg can give you an idea of how serious brain damage can take place without much - or even any - outward sign of damage. Think of the cranium - all the bones that hold the brain - as being like the shell of an egg with the brain like the yolk inside the egg. When traumatized, the outer cranium/shell may remain intact, but inside, the brain/ egg yolk can be violently displaced as it is thrown within the white of the egg, or the cerebral spinal fluid.

What Should You Do Immediately?

First, you need to call 911 - or get someone to call 911 and get an ambulance on the way immediately if the injured person has:

Blood or clear fluids coming from the ears or nose;

Slurred speech;

Unconsciousness, confusion, dizziness, or drowsiness;

Unequal pupil size or blurred or double vision.

Do not move the person's head, as they may have a broken neck and you could cause them to stop breathing or become paralyzed from moving it. Instead if you have something cold, put it next to their head WITHOUT MOVING THEIR HEAD.

Then, assuming it's someone else and not you who's injured, you can help to a great extent by letting emergency personnel know the extent of the injury even before they arrive on the scene. Research has demonstrated that the more quickly an injured person is assessed and appropriate emergency treatment given, the better the outcome down the road.

If you're talking to emergency personnel on a cell phone before they arrive, here's some of what they will want to know. In addition to whether or not the person is breathing, it will help them to know:

• The person's eye opening response: do they open their eyes spontaneously, do they blink, respond with their eyes to verbal stimuli, command or speech, only to pain, or no eye response.


• How do they respond to verbal input: do they seem oriented? Confused in their conversation even though they have the ability to respond to questions, do they answer inappropriately or with incomprehensible speech, or give no response?


• What is their motor response? Can they obey a command for movement (such as can you lift your finger, stick out your tongue, etc.), do they move purposefully in response to pain, do they withdraw from pain, flex in response to pain, extend their body in response to pain or give no response?

The answers to these questions are ones that can tell professionals the part of the brain may be injured, the extent and severity of the insult, and the depth of injury, for example, and whether the person's head injury is minor, moderate or severe.[ii]

Aftereffects of a traumatic brain injury:

Once the emergency is taken care of and the person is medically stable, they may have been discharged from the hospital and told they can go on with their normal life. But that doesn't mean the traumatic brain injury problems are done. According to the Centers for Disease Control, the signs and symptoms of a TBI "can be subtle and may not appear until days or weeks following the injury or may even be missed as people may look fine even though they may act or feel differently.

The following are some common signs and symptoms that the traumatic brain injury is still an issue:

Headaches or neck pain that do not go away;

Difficulty remembering, concentrating, or making decisions;

Slowness in thinking, speaking, acting, or reading;

Getting lost or easily confused;

Feeling tired all of the time, having no energy or motivation;

Mood changes (feeling sad or angry for no reason);

Changes in sleep patterns (sleeping a lot more or having a hard time sleeping);

Light-headedness, dizziness, or loss of balance;

Urge to vomit (nausea);

Increased sensitivity to lights, sounds, or distractions;

Blurred vision or eyes that tire easily;

Loss of sense of smell or taste; and

Ringing in the ears."

If these symptoms are taking place, it's time to get to appropriate health professionals who can provide the ongoing care necessary to bring about further recovery and healing. This may take the form of targeted nutritional support, massage and/or chiropractic care, herbs, physical therapy or homeopathy.

As judgment and decision-making are affected as part of the injury, others may need to play an active role in seeing to it that these treatment options are found and instigated. That's because the very after-effects of the injury can play against the injured person finding these options, making the appointments and remembering to show up for them.

The bottom line is that the sooner these are put in place, the more likely it is that the person will be able to fully recover.

[I] Corrigan JD, Selassie AW, Orman J A. "The epidemiology of traumatic brain injury", Journal of Head Trauma Rehab. 2010;25 (2): 72 - 80.

[ii] This information is part of the Glasgow Coma Scale (GCS), which is based on verbal performance, motor responsiveness, and eye opening to the appropriate stimuli. Source: CDC. Mass Casualties. Available at http://www.bt.cdc.gov/masscasualties.

For lots of tips to support your better health and greater well-being of body, mind, spirit, emotions and relationships, and to request a topic you'd like covered, go to http://www.betterhealthbytes.com. We encourage you to request a topic, especially because in doing so, you assist others who have the same concerns.

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What Causes Mental Illness? Clear Explanations In Dreams

After discovering the existence of the anti-conscience (because I was obeying the divine guidance in dreams) I didn't have time to think about this matter. I suddenly had to deal with various unbearable symptoms. My anti-conscience started attacking my conscience with the intention to generate a severe mental illness.

I had to offer resistance to all the absurd thoughts and the unbearable symptoms generated by the anti-conscience as if nothing was happening to me. I was working many hours in a store in the center of Athens (which belonged to my mother and my aunt), and I was silently praying all the time and remembering that I was fighting craziness. This fight lasted eight months.

Then, I stopped having absurd thoughts and unbearable symptoms. I had to get adapted to my reality after learning the truth about the human brain. This part was very hard, but not as hard as fighting absurdity.

I had to fight absurdity from the beginning of 1989 until September of this year, when I was 28-years-old. I worked for one year in a travel agency. One year later (in September of 1990) I had my first patient.

I cured a young woman who suffered from agoraphobia through dream translation. Her treatment lasted eight months like mine, even though my case was worse than hers. Eight months was the necessary time for a basic psychotherapy.

This was only the first treatment of a long list. After this simple case I had to deal with more complicated ones. However, I already knew all the stages of craziness. My fight against my anti-conscience showed me everything the demon can do to destroy our conscience.

So, from being an ignorant and neurotic researcher in the beginning of 1984, I became a mental health therapist in 1990. This miracle could happen because I precisely obeyed the divine guidance.

I don't think you believe that I could learn how to cure mental illnesses in six years only by reading books written by ignorant human beings, but if you do, I have to clearly tell you that this is an illusion.

Mental illnesses are invincible diseases. Only God knows how to deal with them. Our psychiatrists, neurologists, and psychologists may try very hard to eliminate mental illnesses, but they are invincible. Our knowledge always will be insufficient before this danger.

We depend on the divine guidance to be able to deal with mental disorders. Everyone must recognize this truth with humbleness and gratitude because God didn't abandon us.

God is an excellent doctor and teacher.

The lessons I had were superior. This is why I could clearly understand that our psychiatrists are doing everything the wrong way. Their dangerous medications destroy their patients' immune system.

The mentally ill must fight absurdity by offering resistance to the absurdity of their anti-conscience, otherwise they will keep having absurd thoughts and unbearable symptoms forever and never recover their conscience.

You can find sound mental health and become a psychotherapist like me by following the divine guidance in your dreams, and help other people do the same after translating their dreams for them. The doctor is God, and not the dream translator. You only have to translate the unconscious messages and help everyone put the unconscious guidance into practice in their daily lives.

God knows how to solve everyone's psychological problems. The dream translator simply follows God's instructions.

This is why I could become a doctor so fast. I'm a doctor helper. The real doctor is God, even though I assume the full responsibility for everyone's mental condition.

The safety of this psychotherapeutical method is guaranteed, while other methods are dangerous and inefficient. I'm not afraid to deal with severe mental illnesses because God is a genius and I simply obey His guidance.

I teach you how to understand the divine guidance and change your behavior after having this knowledge. Only God knows what kind of information can help you discover what you have to understand in order to solve your psychological problems.

If you don't have time for studies I can translate your dreams for you, but this knowledge is not as complicated as it used to be when Carl Jung discovered the extraordinary method of dream interpretation that accurately transcribes God's words in dreams.

I simplified and clarified his work. Learning the dream language is not a problem. The problem is the fight against your satanic anti-conscience.

Only by understanding God's words in your dreams you won't be automatically cured. You have to do what God shows you in your dreams. Your participation in your treatment is indispensable because you must acquire consciousness and become more intelligent as you fight your anti-conscience.

The knowledge you have must help you change your behavior and your life. This knowledge won't help you if you disregard it in your daily life. This means that you have to be an obedient patient to see positive results.

I will give you an example to help you understand this part. Let's suppose that you had a dream about one of your friends who is insecure and false.

Dream translation:

This friend represents a part of your personality that is insecure and false like him. You have to stop having this behavior because it is generated by your absurd anti-conscience.

Now, if you won't do what the unconscious mind is telling you, you won't be cured. If in your daily life when you are with your friends you keep having this insecure and false behavior, and i.e. you smile only in order to be kind, even though you dislike what someone else said, you are not obeying the guidance you had in your dream.

You have to fight this absurd behavior.

Why should you smile when you disagree with what someone else said?

Are you smiling because you want to seem to agree with your friends?

Or are you smiling because you don't think before doing something?

I will make you these questions when I will translate your dream, but if you will translate this dream based on my lessons you must make them yourself.

God makes you think and try to understand why He sent you a certain message.

Whenever you will perceive that you have the tendency to have a false behavior because you want to be socially accepted, you must stop and change your attitude. Instead of smiling, you have to remain serious if you disagree with what someone said.

If you will keep smiling even though you know that this behavior is absurd, you won't be cured. You have to consciously stop doing what is absurd after noticing it in your behavior.

Your participation is indispensable because you must learn how to control your behavior. You cannot be indifferent and keep making the same mistake, as if you didn't know that your behavior is absurd.

Your dreams and your daily life are connected. Your dreams are about you, your mental health, your past, your traumas, your present and your future, the people who are important for you, the person you love, the dangers of the outside world that can affect your life, and many other matters that could have a negative impact on your mental condition.

Christina Sponias continued Carl Jung's research into the human psyche, discovering the cure for all mental illnesses, and simplifying the scientific method of dream interpretation that teaches you how to exactly translate the meaning of your dreams, so that you can find health, wisdom and happiness.
Learn more at: http://www.scientificdreaminterpretation.com

Click Here to download a Free Sample of the eBook Dream Interpretation as a Science (86 pages!).

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A Parent's Perspective on Mental Health and the Challenges Our Children Face

By Todd R Ramsey

I've always found writing a therapeutic venture. It allows us to strip away our feelings of inadequacy, guilt, and imagined reactions and take a good look at the items at hand. 

There is something about seeing your thoughts crystallized in writing that frees us. 

That allows us to share and reflect in an objective fashion and truly challenge ourselves to see through to a reality that is both part of our life and yet easier to deal with as it is expressed in writing - once removed as it were.

Take this article for instance. For many many years the subject of mental health has not been discussed openly in families, schools, or work. Yet if someone were to break a leg, get in a car accident, or suffer a fall down a set of stairs people can see the injury. 

They can imagine what it would be like to see another car come crashing into theirs or to feel a tumble down the stairs. However it is very difficult for someone to understand the level of anxiety that keeps a young child indoors or the constant gnawing pain that can only be removed by taking a sharp object and constantly cutting parts of her body and then in a wave of guilt, hide these from those who love her. 

We need to break the silence and spend time engaging our children.

There is an attitude in some circles that if we don't acknowledge a problem and cater to it it will go away (the ostrich) or that it is a phase that our children will grow out of (the idealist), yet today more and more children are dealing with mental health. Some of these do not survive this fight. 

Society has not coped well with this particular epidemic. Parents are not taught the warning signs and children are not taught that it is OK to be open about mental health. 

Children withdraw into their technology - learning to communicate and interact with the world from behind the screen of a phone. Parents give their children their space thinking that this is just a phase of growing up. In reality it is often a call for help. This call for help is cast out into the Internet and if the child is lucky enough they find virtual support. If they are not lucky, their sense of being alone, abandoned and of little worth grows. It is time to put down (or at least reduce) our technology and talk to our children. 

We need to hug them and accept them for who they are. Every child has value and needs to understand that we value them, love them, and want them in our life.

As a parent when our children grow older we try to remember the way they once were. We try to recapture that moment of joy when they said "Dad" the first time. Or when they took their first steps. Or when it was OK to walk through a mall holding hands with your little girl without getting weird sidelong glances.

But things change and the passage of time causes our children to take their own paths. Paths that can be terrifying for them and for us. We lose the ability to just hold hands and be together. Now it is rush from here to there, take them to friend's houses or even - tragically so - sit on the sidelines feeling helpless as they struggle with mental health issues, depression and suicidal tendencies.

Time passes and you watch the system that is supposed to be helping your child fails time and again. Finally in a desperate cry for help - or with an impulsive decision to end the pain, she attempts suicide. It is one week before her 19th Birthday.

After she ingests numerous pills (her stated "method" of suicide) she has the presence of mind before she passes out to call you. You manage to keep her on the phone while you drive erratically to her mother's house. Police and EMS have been dispatched.

At the hospital you wait overnight while toxicology reports come in and nurses continually check upon the little girl that you could once hold in a single hand. No longer, she is now a full grown adult nearing the cusp of her next birthday.

Suddenly in the midst of this you start hyperventilating. It only takes a moment for this to happen, yet you feel as if your beating heart has been ripped from your chest and raised high on a sacrificial altar. 

Panic ensues, tearfulness begins, the spiral continues as you frantically try to grip the edges and lever yourself back into a position if strength. Back into a position where you can rationally deal with the facts and the reality of your situation.

You have just had a panic attack. A small vision of what your child faces on a daily basis.

Reflecting on this you realize just how strong your daughter is. She deals with this feeling, the hopelessness and guilt and pain daily. Now you understand a little bit and can begin the journey to help your child.

Fast forward and your daughter, now approaching twenty, is out of hospital. She still goes back every weekday for a half day program. She is recovering and has good days and bad days. She fights everyday to remind herself of how much she is loved, needed and valued. 

You also remind her of this every chance you get.

Occasionally you hear people talking about mental health and how someone is 'better' or 'cured' and you feel a bit of anger. The reality is that mental illness takes time to heal. It could take years before someone is fully comfortable and able to manage the stresses of life or the anxiety causing moments.

Your job, as a parent, is to stand strong and support your child. Be available and be understanding. You do have the ability to help your child just be consistent with your support and avoid placing guilt.

--

Todd Ramsey is a strategist, innovator and leader who focuses on developing leaders within his teams/client's organizations - whether they are at technology, telecommunications, or energy companies. 

His success is built upon understanding the real issues in a situation and approaching these with integrity, passion, focus, and driving results in a professional manner where the client (internal or external) feels valued and respected. Most importantly he is the father two wonderful children that he cherishes and would do anything for.

In addition to consulting on Leadership, Sales, and Renewable Energy/Telecommunications and Technology, Mr. Ramsey is the VP Business Development at Whitby Hydro Energy Services

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