Matters of the Mind: Alternative Healing Techniques for Mood Disorders
As a caregiver and someone who is watching a loved one struggle with a mood disorder, figuring out if and how to involve alternative therapies is one more challenge.
Alternative therapies � techniques that usually fall outside of the realm of conventional treatment -- is a hot topic for many traditional therapists and psychiatrists. It is certainly true that traditional therapy and medication or a combination thereof have provided relief for many suffering mental disease. Yet a great many other affected people don't receive the relief they seek. And the truth is we don't know how many people are actually "cured" or "healed" from traditional therapies. Perhaps this is why alternative therapies have assumed a place alongside conventional healing modes. In fact, they are also called "complimentary" therapies because they are often utilized in concert with traditional approaches.
When people feel bad, they usually start with a trip to a therapist who can conduct a screening, develop a diagnosis, and then recommend where to go for help. Typically, the standard treatment is talk therapy in conjunction with medication. As a result of managed care, increasingly people seek treatment first through their primary care physician, which has its own pros and cons. Caution is recommended, since mental illness is a specialty. You would not go to your primary care physician for heart surgery, so think twice about asking a primary care doctor to diagnose and treat you or a loved one for a mood disorder, such as depression or bi-polar disorder.
What role do alternative therapies play in treating mood disorders?
For many suffering from mood disorders, alternative therapies are used in conjunction with medication and/or talk therapy. Some of the more serious alternative treatments include: repeated transcranial magnetic stimulation (TMS); the use of lightboxes for people with seasonal affective disorder (SAD); eye movement desensitization and reprocessing (EMDR) therapy; massage treatments; hypnosis; sleep deprivation therapy; Chinese herbal medicine; group therapies; support groups and psychosurgery.
Many people report being helped or even healed by alternative therapies. Exactly why or how the therapies work is not a question to be answered here. In his book, The Noonday Demon, Andrew Soloman eloquently states: "Depression is a disease of thought processes and emotions, and if something changes your thought processes and emotions in the correct direction, that qualifies as a recovery. Frankly, I think that the best treatment for depression is belief, which is in itself far more essential than what you believe in."
Simply put, a great variety of factors � including situation, openness, genetics, sociological and physiological issues -- all play a role in the "healing" factor. Very often there is no "cure" and the pain may or may not subside over time with or without help from medication therapy and other methods of alternative healing. Still, who are we to instruct the person struggling with mental disease to stop searching for ways to assuage their pain?
If your loved one is struggling with depression, for example, and wants to try alternative therapies how should you respond? This may have more to do with your finances than anything else. But based on Mr. Soloman's thorough examination of depression, it is a good bet that supporting your loved one's search is not meaningless if they hold a belief in the cure.
Suggestions and ideas for offering support to someone with a mood disorder who is interested in alternative therapies:
1.Assist them in getting educated. Read everything you can about potential therapies. Keep an open mind and curiosity about the various approaches that interest them.
2. Seek advice from on line support groups for people who have gone through the types of therapies you are investigating. Real stories from real people can provide useful information.
3. Find the best in the field. If your loved one wants to try hypnosis, EMDR, or other type of therapy, find the best people available to provide it. Treat this as you might a research project and get the best information and medical help possible. Many traditional therapists increasingly are adding techniques like EMDR to their repertoire. Getting a referral from a professional is usually preferable to finding someone in the yellow pages.
4. Don't give up your existing support system (e.g., individual or group therapy and/or medication).
5. Remember, these therapies cost money and most often are not covered by insurance, so be mindful of prioritizing and setting limits if finances are a factor. Occasionally, alternative treatments are available at low or no cost through community agencies or medical institutions, which could offer the opportunity to try a particular therapy and perhaps arrange for affordable, quality treatment. But usually these therapies are an out-of-pocket expense. In the end, alleviating personal pain is the ongoing, consistent goal. For some, it is critical that they receive professional help in conjunction with alternative therapies. For others, the quest might involve healing of a different sort. Keep an open mind and, as always, don't go it alone: seek professional guidance in support of getting well.
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Mary Logan is a professional life coach specializing in support for the caregiver. Inspiring audios and her free: "Are you an effective caregiver?" assessment can be found at http://www.fromsurvivetothrive.com
Bodybuilding Drugs…Are They Worth It? Maybe?
Bodybuilding drugs, such as steroids, have been getting a considerable amount of attention in the news over the last year thanks to professional sports superstars getting caught “cheating” in their use of anabolic compounds to carve out that competitive edge within their sport.
But bodybuilding drugs are not just being used by pro sports figures and bodybuilders headed to the Mr. Universe stage. More and more, the “average” lifter frustrated with not making the gains that were promised in the latest muscle mag are looking for the silver bullet that will allow them to pack on massive muscle and are finding the solution in a box with a picture of a cow on the front…i.e. – steroids!
Steroids are the most common form of bodybuilding drugs used. They increase testosterone within the user’s body, causing what are called androgenic and anabolic effects. It is the anabolic effects of this drug that are what bodybuilders are looking to achieve.
These effects include:
* Virility and vitality (practically a sense of invulnerability)
* Increased strength
* Increased muscle size
* Enhanced muscle recovery
Bodybuilding drugs of this sort increase testosterone levels in the body by bypassing the usual process by which the body synthesizes testosterone. With its own set of rules, the increased testosterone provided by steroids gets deposited directly in the bloodstream. The type of side effects caused by these sorts of bodybuilding drugs will depend one the type of steroid used, (for there are many to pick from).
Some of these potential side effects include:
* Acne (at 30 your face will look 15 again!)
* Aggression (“roid-rage”)
* Cardiovascular disease (Bam! Dead at 32 on the sweaty gym floor)
* Headaches, anxiety, depression, impotence (say it isn’t so!), stomach aches, muscle tears, enlarged prostate, premature hair loss, stunted growth, insomnia, sterility, lions and tigers and bears, oh my!
You get the idea…and yet this isn’t even the entire list! A novel would have to be written to cover them all (and I’m sure it has). But compare just this group of side effects with the benefits, which are:
* Increased muscle size and strength
* Speedy recovery time
* Increased energy levels during workouts
Is that it? Really? Can’t I achieve the same thing through sheer will and determination?
In a word…”Yes”!
Perhaps not as fast or not quite as “massive”, but pretty darn close IF you follow a practical program (and I’m not talking about the misguided myths that float around every gym iron pit!). In fact, I’ve had clients that were even able to SURPASS steroid claims by hitting all of the “anabolic factors” I cover in my Optimum Anabolics program (www.optimum-anabolics.com)
When considering “crossing over to the dark side” and using bodybuilding drugs, you must weigh out the consequences with the rewards and make your own personal decision.
And don’t forget that many are illegal, so if caught, a high-pitched voice and shriveled testicles could end up being the least of your problems. Be smart about your workout regimen. In my humble opinion, stay away from bodybuilding drugs and keep your workout “all natural”. By bulking up the natural way you are sure to increase your overall health and standard of living for years to come.
A few things about fibromyalgia syndrome and its effects
Although it is the most common cause of widespread pain, fibromyalgia can remain undiagnosed for a long time, and often doctors put misdiagnosis, causing disasters in the lives of the patients. It is not known exactly how many people have fibromyalgia, opinions differ from doctor to doctor, but it is sure the fact that most patients are female.
The word “fibromyalgia” comes from Latin, it is a combination of the Latin roots fibro, which means connective tissue fibers, my (muscle), al which means pain and gia- a condition of.
For many years, fibromyalgia was called under different names, such as fibrositis and chronic rheumatism. It is known that fibromyalgia is not curable yet, but it is very treatable, there exist many ways for you to improve your health and quality of life.
Many times, patients may experience symptoms that seem to have nothing in common with fibromyalgia, such as burning feet or mental confusion, but they experience also an over-all flu-like feeling.
It was revealed that in the central nervous system of a patient having fibromyalgia, some things occur, and that does not happen to healthy people. For example, in a healthy person, if you press a tender point, there is a minimal response in the brain, but if you do this to a patient having fibromyalgia, the result is totally different, the response of the brain is completely wild.
Fibromyalgia has as effects pain amplification, musculoskeletal discomfort, systemic symptoms, and it can reduce the coordination skills, endurance abilities, we may say it can be a source of substantial disability.
Patients with fibromyalgia may be very affected by some lights, sounds, touches. The body of the patient may interpret all these as pain. They also experience exercise intolerance, sleep disturbances, swollen felings.
Usually, most patients experience pain, but in the case of the older patients, the dominant symptom is fatigue, depression and soft-tissue swelling.
Young patients have skin sensitivity, discomfort after minimal exercise, below-normal temperature or low grade fever.
It was discovered that increased pain sensitivity of fibromyalgia can be determined because there is a dysfunction in the patient’s central nervous system. In fibromyalgia syndrome, there is a generalized central nervous system mediated deep tissue sensitivity.
This sensitivity includes the muscle and that is why many people are wrongly believing that it is a muscular condition.
It was shown that many mothers with fibromyalgia syndrome have children that develop the same syndrome. This may due to genetics, the tendency to develop fibromyalgia syndrome may be inherited.
Studies discovered that about a half of the children that have a parent with fibromyalgia syndrome can develop the same syndrome too.
It is very important that fibromyalgia syndrome to be recognized as soon as possible, because following a treatment at the right time will ease the symptoms and make them controllable.
For more resources on fibromyalgia and espcially about fibromyalgia symptoms please visit this link http://www.fibromyalgia-info-center.com/fibromyalgia-symptoms.htm
