Women’s Health Information

She won’t come out and talk with you. Her moods shifts seem so severe and her bad moods are lasting longer and longer. She doesn’t seem to spend time with her close friends anymore. To a parent changes like these can be terrifying as we can only imagine what is happening within our child.

Worry intensifies our reactions in various encounters and rarely helps in pinpointing the problem.

For most teenagers and young adults swings in mood and behavior are normal and expected. Even increasingly difficult times of rebellion and isolation are commonplace. However, if you find yourself seeing a pattern of change like your daughter withdrawing completely from family, friends and classmates, severe changes in sleeping and eating, deterioration in grooming and school work, increased paranoia, confusion or disorientation, it may be time to seek more help for your child.

Although drugs can exacerbate the symptoms of changing mental state, and in some cases actually bring on symptoms similar to those of several mental illnesses the effects often dissipate after the drugs have worked through the body.

Prolonged use of certain drugs may produce long-lasting effects. A medical assessment may be necessary to decide if there is an underlying psychiatric problem. Drug use can often be a sign of a deeper mental illness. Trained professionals are available to help both with the diagnosis and the treatment of drug dependency and its underlying causes.

Encouraging one to visit a doctor and honestly discuss these feelings is difficult but necessary. Criticism of a person’s behavior or thought processes defeats the intent which is of course to help your loved one or yourself find relief from their difficulties. Feelings of trust and acceptance are important to create an atmosphere where help can be sought. Here are a few ways to help this process:

An important note here is to find a doctor that the patient, and you, can work easily with. Treatment is a long and often difficult process and feeling comfortable with your doctor will make it all easier. Trust and respect are essential in achieving a positive result.

Finding help diagnosing and treating a mental illness is difficult. Overcoming social stigma and the innate need for privacy is a tough road for anyone. This is your chance to seek all the best tools to help yourself or your loved one find a way back from the dark place she is struggling through. Modern medicine has made great strides in dealing with mental illness and has much to offer you in this process.

C Sincular

‘Really, it’s only a drink or two after work. It doesn’t hurt anyone.’ Sound familiar?

Well, maybe not but if it’s becoming a habit, you could be finding yourself a victim of addiction. Addiction takes many forms; it can be the usual suspects…alcohol, cigarettes, and drugs. But what can also go unnoticed is the subtle addiction of prescribed drugs.

We all know that if you binge drink – you’re an alcoholic (though there are people who will dispute this). If you can’t go through the day without a cigarette or even can’t live without buying a packet – you’re addicted. And the harder drugs like coke, heroin and possibly marihuana can all be just as hard to kick.

Honestly people, I don’t see the harm in having a drink or two or even experimenting with certain drugs but you’ve got to know your limits. It’s not enough to say, ‘yes, I’m an addict, someone help me.’ Go help yourself. If you have a problem, use that vastness between your ears called a brain and kick that will power into gear.

If you, like thousands of others out there, need counselling or a support group, use it. That’s what it’s there for. But don’t use your addiction as an excuse. It’s important to know where you stand with it. Do you feel your body begging for it or is it purely just a social habit? It doesn’t sound like much of a distinction and sometimes one can cause the other. But be aware that the temptation just to have ‘one more’ can lead you down a very rough road.

Many addictions start out innocently. It starts at teenage parties, social functions for work or even your normal family setting. Most people don’t see the harm in getting blind drunk on the weekend while the family’s over but if you’re doing it every weekend and you find yourself hanging out for it…you’ve got to ask yourself why.

Granted there are some drugs out there that can creep up on you. Codeine, morphine and other pain killers as well as anti-depressants are notorious for being addictive. This is purely because alters your state of mind (like most addictions). You basically get use to it. It becomes easier to use the drug than to use your own reflective power to solve the problem.

I know…sometimes you can’t and that’s fine but ask yourself this…if you tried just that little bit harder, would you really need them? Yes, life will be horrid for awhile but the feeling of accomplishment would be worth the effort, right?

Even though the world considers all addictions to be negatively impacting upon everything, it can also be said that if these products weren’t available, then there wouldn’t be a problem. I know, I’m slipping into utopia with that line of thought but it becomes old when you see all the campaigns being anti this or that and nobody really cares.

If we want to smoke, why can’t we? If we want to get smashed off our skulls, why not as long as it doesn’t hurt anyone else. I guess this becomes the main point.

Be an addict and if you’re happy with that…fine. But the minute you start affecting others around you negatively with it, then get help. If you’re worried about your health or your finances, then take steps to fix quit. But if you, like thousands of others out there, just want to be left alone with your addictions and you are honestly not hurting anyone else…tell the world be damned. You have only one life…live it.

Kathy