Besides drugs, how else can I treat my anxiety attacks?

Life style and home remedies may help diminish anxiety. Try to exercise regularly, eat healthy, avoid alcohol and prescription medications, use some type of relaxing technique like yoga or meditation and get adequate sleep. Exercise is one of the most powerful reducers of stress and can help improve your mood and keep you healthy. Perform exercises that you like and gradually increase the intensity. 

Other alternative remedies that can be used to relieve anxiety include the use of Kava, valerian and vitamin B. Remember, except for the vitamins there is no solid evidence that any herb can relieve anxiety. Moreover, these plant products are also expensive and can have side effects. To help you manage anxiety, join an anxiety support group and address what is bothering you. Try not to dwell on the past and break the cycle when you feel anxious by going for a long walk.  Socialize with friends and family as these interactions can help reduce stress and develop loving relationships.  

Why Do I Keep on Physically Hurting My Body? A Look at Self Injury

There are, unfortunately, some people who deliberately harm their own bodies. Self injury is not intended to be a suicide attempt but rather a detrimental means to cope with emotional pain, anger, frustration or hopelessness. Self injury brings a transient sense of calm and a release of stress but this is soon followed by guilt, humiliation and going back to the same agonizing emotions. Self injury usually starts as minor injuries but can lead to severe disfigurement.Self injury is felt to be an impulsive behavior problem but may be associated with depression, an eating disorder (bulimia) and borderline personality. Individuals who self injure may have a variety of symptoms including physical scars, scratches, broken bones, being lonely, having difficulty with interpersonal relationship, wearing long sleeved garments even in hot weather or blaming the injury on others. Self injury is not only cutting oneself but may involve piercing the skin, breaking bones, head banging, biting, pulling out hair and making the wounds worse by probing.

Self injury is rarely a one-time episode and for some people it is a repetitive behavior that is often impulsive. Like most things in psychiatry, the cause of self injury is a mystery. Some people simply are not able to cope with their emotions and find self injury one way to relieve the psychological pain. It is believed that the physical injury distracts the individual from the painful emotions. Some people self injure their bodies to chastise themselves for alleged faults, and in others self injury may be a way of manipulation or getting attention.

Besides the direct physical injury to the body, this behavior also has other complications including accidental suicide, permanent scars, disfigurement or worsening of shame and guilt. The number of people who self injure themselves remains unknown but the disorder appears to be slightly more common in women. The disorder tends to peak in the second or third decade of life.

Self injury is a very difficult disorder to treat. There is no one treatment for everyone.The treatment is usually long-term psychotherapy, which can help one learn skills to manage stress control emotions, enhance a better body image, and develop a healthy lifestyle.There are no drugs to treat self injury but sometimes anti depressants may be prescribed to improve depression, reduce anxiety or control the impulse behavior. 

Depending on the degree of injury, one may even need hospitalization. Because of the seriousness of the problem, there are national hotlines where one can call for immediate help. The national suicide prevention lifeline (800- 273-8255) is available 24 hours a day. For people who have this problem, it is recommended that they try to reach out to their family and friends for support. Try to enroll in a support group and do not underestimate your ability to change. Avoid abuse of drugs and alcohol and get to know more about your medical illness. Unfortunately there is no way to prevent this behavior. For people who have no mental health disorder and injure themselves, the prognosis is good but for those who have other mental health problems, the prognosis is poor.

How does one develop an anxious personality?

The truth is that no one knows. As with most mental health disorders, there are many speculations and everything or everyone has been blamed at one point in time. Experts believe that it is perhaps due to altered level of neurotransmitters in the brain but why the levels of these darn chemicals change is a mystery. Bad genes and bad environment are two universal themes for almost all mental health disorders.

Anxiety disorders tend to develop 1) in females more often than males, 2) in those who have had a trouble childhood, 3) those with a certain personality (A-type) and 4) in those who abuse illicit drugs or alcohol. When the disorder is not treated it can leads to severe anxiety, depression, trouble sleeping, headaches, teeth grinding and problems with the bowel. Moreover, severe anxiety can affect interpersonal relationships, your job and make life for everyone around you miserable.

I think I may have anxiety. Is there any online testing available for my disorder?

Yes, there are several anxiety disorder tests available online that can help determine if you have an anxious personality. All humans develop some degree of anxiety but the symptoms are always well controlled and rapidly disappear. However, in some people, anxiety takes over the person’s mind and can be very troubling. Over the long period, one can develop anxiety, depression, panic attacks, hysteria, paranoia and the quality of life becomes poor.  There are many online mental health sites that offer social anxiety tests and the results are available instantly. In fact, many of these tests are free. 

The tests for anxiety are in a simple question and answer format. The questions pertain to everyday life scenarios. Moreover, the questions also ask if you have any physical symptoms when you develop anxiety. For example, one may develop tremors, sweating, fast heart rate, rapid breathing or even diarrhea during an anxiety attack. Other aspects of the social anxiety tests include your emotional mood. Are you very afraid of trivial things, do you develop intense anger, disappointment, are you depressed or have uncontrolled episodes of crying or feelings of helplessness?  The tests for anxiety  will also determine your behavior during the attack like fidgeting, pacing, cussing or avoidance. What should be understood that everyone has such symptoms to some degree. However, if these symptoms persist and affect your life style, then the anxiety is serious.

Is ginseng good for the mind?

For decades Orientals have been ingesting ginseng in large amounts. Now this fad has started in North America. Ginseng is a herb widely touted to treat many medical disorders of the brain and nerves. This herb is always listed as a best seller and brings in billions of dollars to the health supplement industry. But does it really work?

The latest studies show that ginseng when administered to healthy individuals does have very mild benefits on behavior cognition and quality of life. However, the results were not very impressive, not seen in all individuals and only seen with the panaz ginseng.

So the bottom line is that if you have money, then buy ginseng. If you do not have money, eat a healthy diet of fruit and vegetables, walk everyday and do not smoke- these simple lifestyle changes beat ginseng any day.

 

What is Fetishism?

Fetishism is sexual excitement with use of inanimate objects. Fetishism is a mental health disorder classified by DSM criteria. The disorder usually presents with intense sexual arousal, excitement and erotic fantasies involving inanimate objects for at least 6 months. Moreover, the disorder can cause a variety of behavior changes and interferes with normal social behavior and interpersonal relationships. In rare cases, the fetish can be so intense that it also interferes with work.

Fetishism is not a rare disorder. While the exact number of people who dabble into this type of behavior is not known, it is estimated that at least 1-5 percent of the population has some degree of fetishism. Most fetishists tend to be males. Fetishism tends to peak in early adolescence and continues as long as the individual is sexually active. Both men and women while masturbating may fantasize about a fetish object or they may rub, suck, wear or insert the item(s) into their body orifices. In most cases, fetishism is a solitary sexual behavior but it is not unusual for couples to practice fetishism. Some people smell the fetish or may ask the sexual partner to wear the object during sexual activity. It is believed that close to 30% of couples practice fetishism in their sexual relationships- however, the fetish is controlled and does not affect their personal lives.

One may develop a fetish to any number of objects but the most common are rubber, plastic, shoes, leather, underwear, hair, high heel shoes, boots, stockings and clothing. In many cases, the fetish is so strong that without it, the individual may be unable to achieve a sexual satisfaction. Practicing fetishism is not illegal but when the individual starts to combine it with other sexual disorders like voyeurism or pedophilia, then it results in criminal behavior.

It is widely believed that fetishism is a learned behavior and not something, that is genetically acquired. Individuals with fetishes often tell of physical or sex abuse during childhood.  Many males who have fetishes also practice other sexual behaviors like masochism, sadism and transvestism

People who are into fetishism enjoy the behavior and find it erotic. Thus, most people never willingly seek help.  Some individuals run into trouble with the law and are required to seek help. The treatment of fetishism is a combination of cognitive behavior therapies and medications.  Common drugs used to treat fetishes include drugs which reduce sexual hormones and anti anxiety agents. In most cases, therapy is not required for fetishes.

Paraphilia- disorder of sexual preference

Paraphilia is a medical term to denote sexual deviation, sexual perversion or a disorder of sexual preference. Unlike curiosity, paraphilia is characterized by repetitive, strong sexual arousal to unusual stimuli (not always sexual). Not all Paraphilias as such are illegal (like cross-dressing), but some like pedophilia are considered criminal.

The recognition of paraphilia as deviant sexual behavior was established by Von Krafft Ebbing in 1886. Since then the study of paraphilias has been exhaustive in the field of forensic psychiatry. Today, paraphilias are bona fide disorders recognized in the category of sexual and gender identify disorders in the DSM IV.

For some unknown reason paraphilias occur almost exclusively in males. The paraphilia often starts during early puberty and is almost fully developed by the end of the 2^nd decade of life. Men in all cultures have been reported to develop different paraphilias. In many cases, multiple paraphilias may co-exist at the same time. At least 5-10 percent of men have as many as 5-7 paraphilias.

In most cases, the individual never seeks help and is only seen by health professional after legal troubles starts. To make a diagnosis of a paraphilia one must have intense and recurrent sexual fantasies or sexual urges that usually involve inanimate objects, children, and non-consenting adults. The behavior is often associated with torment or humiliation of others. In addition, the activity must have lasted at least 6 months and caused significant emotional distress and difficulties in interpersonal relationships.

Some of the common paraphilias include:

• Pedophilia –sexual activity involving children
• Exhibitionism -exposing one's genitalia
• Fetishism  is a love for specific objects like underwear or pantyhose
• Frotteurism is rubbing against strangers (esp. in crowded places)
• Sexual masochism (pain or humiliation of self
• Sexual sadism which involves pain or humiliation of others
• Transvestic fetishism –involves wearing clothes of the opposite sex
• Voyeurism involves peeping

Other rare paraphilias include:

- Telephone scatologia- making obscene sexually explicit phone calls

- Necrophilia- have love of dead bodies

- Zoophilia is having sex with animals

- Corprophilias is love of fecal material

- Urophilia is love of urine

The majority of paraphiliacs also have other issues like a history substance abuse, personality disorders, history of aggression and most are loners. Even after diagnosis is made, paraphiliacs are not motivated to undergo treatment. Most become non-complaint because in fact there are no good treatments for these disorders. The few motivated patients can be helped with cognitive behavior therapy to reduce the sexual urges.

Drug therapy is often used with psychosocial treatments for maximal benefit. The commonly used drugs to diminish the sex drive include provera, lupron and androcur. In addition, SSRIs are also used to decrease the sexual urges. There are no real data on prognosis but anecdotal reports suggest that treatment is difficult and relapses are common.  Most people with paraphilia remain addicted to these behaviors and often end up with legal problems. The majority eventually remain incarcerated.