PTSD-Yes, It's Real Part 1

Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) has been in the news a lot lately. The medical and psychological communities, along with society in general, are coming to a greater understanding to a condition that is common among the many veterans who are coming home after fighting wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.   It's not just veterans who suffer-It can happen to anyone who has a traumatic experience. But what exactly *is* PTSD? How common is it? I'm going to give you a very “tip of the iceberg” summary of what I've learned about it, with a link to more information.

I know it seems odd for me to be giving so many examples from popular entertainment. After all, scriptwriters are entertainers, not doctors. I'm doing this because a lot of very complex matters such as PTSD can be more easily understood if someone has a "visual" to work from.

When I say, "yes, it's real" in the title, I'm not trying to be rude. It's just that a lot of people who don't suffer from this disorder tell the person who does that they should just "let it go"; that, by "holding onto" whatever it is that happened, they are causing their own pain. This might be true when it comes to things like a breakup or loss of a job, but the events that cause PTSD are much more painful than that.  Also, it's normal to be shaken up right after an event, but symptoms of PTSD can take months or even years to manifest. It's not a given that someone who has a trauma will have these problems, but it's important to realize that a person who does have them needs both professional and personal support.

One of the major symptoms with PTSD is the presence of "flashbacks" that make the person feel as though they are experiencing the event all over again. A perfect example of this is an incident in an episode of Grey's Anatomy where a half-asleep Iraq War veteran sees a ceiling fan and feels as though he is back in the desert treating a friend who had just been shot. Because of this, he nearly chokes his sleeping girlfriend to death. He wasn't trying to hurt her; the flashback *literally* had him thinking he was still in the desert, adrenaline and all.  All flashbacks aren't this vivid, but the sight of the ceiling fan-which looked like a helicopter-triggered him. This isn't uncommon; a rape victim might be triggered if she sees someone who resembles her attacker and feel the same pain she did during the assault. Triggers can be items, sounds, smells-all kinds of things. This can also happen to someone who didn't experience a trauma themselves, but were witness to one and/or had a sudden death in the family.

People who suffer from PTSD may find themselves avoiding situations that remind them of what they went through. For instance, a friend of mine was nearly killed in an accident several years ago. For months afterward, she got very anxious anytime she drove or sat in the front set of a car, so she didn't do it. It took her months to be able to drive a car without freaking out every time a white truck (the color of the one that hit her) came by. They may also have terrifying dreams, be "hyper-vigilant" (i.e. constantly tense), prone to angry outbursts or other anxiety reactions that make it difficult to perform the tasks of daily life or hold down a job. It's not uncommon for a person with PTSD to be emotionally numb, which can cause problems in personal relationships.

For the effects of PTSD on children as well as treatment options, visit Part 2.

Is Your Family At Risk For Tourettes Syndrome?

Having a lifelong condition that inhibits you to have total control over your body is a very scary thing. Emotionally it can result in a very challenging time to obtain true friendships, obtain a successful career and even a romantic relationship as well. For the folks that suffer from Tourette syndrome this is a just another typical day for them.

Tourettes is not contagious, but it is certainly hereditary and can continue to effect a family for many generations. It was first discovered in 1885 but a man named Georges de la Tourette who became a famous physician just by helping those with the disorder. The range of symptoms that one with Tourettes can suffer from is an extremely wide spectrum as no two patients suffer from the exact same side effects of this brain disorder. Most people associate someone having Tourettes disease with an individual that is mentally challenged in some form and that is completely false. sure there will be cases of those with mental ailments that possess Tourettes, but that is no different than a person that is mentally handicapped having a lisp as the two are not related.

The symptoms can start to develop very slowly with one day you cannot control your eye movement for a few times in just one day, to it gradually taking over your entire day. The movements is begins with are subtle ones and they simply evolve from there. Specialists have reported that most patients with Tourettes disease began their journey with their symptoms developing when they were still children under the age of ten years old.

These symptoms of Tourettes are referred to medically as “tics”. They can be anything from cracking your knuckles to jumping in place to barking. The tics are obviously somewhat distracting to the outside world and make it very challenging to live a normal life for these patients as well as their family members. Imagine going to dinner with your children and all evening long your child is barking at the table or even worse, they are yelling explicit curse words. It can definitely be a struggle for these families, but the best way to cope with it is to realize that you cannot stress over things in life that you simply cannot change.

If you or your child has Tourettes you cannot take it away, but what you can do is begin to look for any therapies that may be very useful to help them out. To get an accurate diagnosis, the patient must be suffering from their tics for around one full year. There are many prescription drugs available to begin treatment for the tics and some people have found great relief in those medications. The worst part of living with Tourettes is learning how to effectively cope with all of it. Emotionally it can be very draining and the older you become with the ailment the more challenging it becomes. Talk to any specialists regarding Tourettes treatments and get all of the help that you can as soon as you or your loved one has been diagnosed with it.

Things You Should Know When Having Your Gall Bladder Out

The gall bladder is a small organ that has many uses, in fact most people know nothing about theirs until they experience some form of illness as a result of it. It can produce pain and may even need removed in millions of people, so it is best to learn all about the gall bladder and what you need to consider if your are having surgery.

The gall bladder is tiny, it is part of your body's way of breaking down foods. It generally is used to breakdown fatty foods that you have placed into your system. It can result in developing stones, or "sledge" inside the organ. These two things may seem small in the big scheme of overall health, but they can become extremely painful when not treated properly. The issue seems to be that most people do not have the resources to clearly define if they are truly having gall bladder symptoms or not.

Symptoms of an unhealthy gall bladder are:

Headaches, gas, bloating, cramping in the upper right side of the abdomen, constipation, pain just in between the shoulder blades, light colored stools or indigestion.

These symptoms are so vast that they can all lead to something else being wrong in the body which is why it is best to have it checked out as soon as you feel something may be wrong. The doctors can perform several tests to check and see if that is the case or not. A basic scan of the abdomen area can quickly identify what the issue is. It may not be your gall bladder but something completely else that is causing you pain or discomfort. You may have an issue with your liver, or your pancreas a well which can be much more severe if left untreated so do advise your physician of these conditions to get the proper treatment.

If your doctor has prescribed having the gall bladder removed, you must take your diet seriously just after having the surgery. At first, some patients claim they can feel a cold sensation when they eat or drink something chilled. Having foods that are low in fat and replacing them with ones that are high in fiber and protein along with drinking water on a regular basis with be best for you. Get plenty of rest after the surgery, it may be sore or tender to the touch. Your doctor will prescribe you medications to make you feel better and ease some of that pain. Take them as prescribed and it may be a good idea to do so with some food at first as your body is now learning all over again how to process foods.

Are You At Risk For Ulcerative Colitis?

If you or someone you know is suffering from a condition referred to as ulcerative colitis, then you are fully aware of the pain it can cause a person. It is generally a condition that develops inside the colon area inside the rectum. Inside the mucosa and the sub mucosa of an individual’s colon they begin to form ulcers that line the inside of the colon which in turn begin to bleed and can often form pus as well.

If you experience frequent occurrences of diarrhea, that may be the first warning sign you will need to have the condition evaluated before it worsens. The inflammation that the colon is suffering is where the diarrhea begins to come from. The cases of ulcerative colitis can range from a small case to a more advanced stage that can lead to toxemia and other things and peritonitis, which can actually be fatal.

Goals of ulcerative colitis treatment are to diffuse the situation and help the condition get better, the sooner the better. To replenish the diminishing amounts of proper nutrition as well as blood that has been a result as a loss due to the ulcerative colitis condition. There are many ways to begin to control the symptoms of ulcerative colitis, starting with learning how to cope better with stress. Similar to most other health ailments, when you suffer from this illness the body takes a toll not just physically, but emotionally as well. Many patients have found great pleasure in starting a successful yoga or meditation process and continuing to use those stress relieving practices for years to come.

Dieting specifically to aide the symptoms of ulcerative colitis are also highly recommended. If you begin to limit the amount of dairy products you are in taking on a daily basis, that has been known to help diffuse the situation from continuing to flare up time and again. Supplements and taking vitamins to continue to replenish the body of the needed vitamins you will need to stay healthy while decreasing the amount of those dairy products will help your case. Some also use any type of product to aide in the enzyme process internally to help break up the foods you are eating. Additional fiber will also aide in the ulcerative process, but only for those that do not currently also possess an irritable bowel syndrome as the additional fiber can actually worsen that condition. Steaming foods can help as well, lots of water consumption will only add fuel to the fire of speeding up your recovery process.

Speak with your doctor regarding any other forms of treatment or medications you may be considering to work closely with your ulcerative colitis. Any exercise you can get in that does not cause the condition to flare up is also advised along with a healthy routine sleep schedule as well. If the regular sleep schedule and changes in diet do not appear to make a difference with your condition, you may need to seek the help of a specialist to locate more advanced options of treatment.

Is It Normal Worry, Or Could It Be OCD?

When you hear the term 'OCD', what do you think of? For some, it's taken as a joke because the media tends to make fun of it. If you've ever seen the cable series Monk, you've seen how Tony Shalhoub's character is a total clean freak who carries anti-bacterial wipes with him everywhere he goes. Jack Nicholson's character in As Good As It Gets carries his own silverware with him anytime he goes out to eat and has several jars of M&Ms separated by color. They go to extremes that are easy to make fun of. For people with the disorder, however, it is no laughing matter. The compulsive behaviors and obsessions we laugh at in the movies can be very disturbing when we have them in real life. We all have worries, but how can we tell if they are actually due to OCD?

OCD stands for Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder. It is an anxiety disorder characterized by obsessive and uncontrollable thoughts, as well as behaviors that come from these thoughts. For instance, Adrian Monk (Tony Shalhoub's character) carries around anti-bacterial wipes and hand sanitizer because he is deathly afraid of the germs most of us come across without thinking. This is an example of an obsession. A person with OCD may have 'rituals' they feel led to perform, such as checking the locks on their doors a particular number of times a day or constant hand washing. These are examples of compulsions.

A more complete definition of 'obsessions' is uncontrollable thoughts that are extremely distressing and may interfere with daily activities. They usually come out of the clear blue sky-for example, looking at your husband and thinking of the Holocaust, thinking you have a deadly disease or imagining yourself harming one of your pets. As you can imagine, these thoughts can be very unsettling and difficult to get rid of. They are things you would never do or think of normally but, due to a chemical imbalance in the brain, are not 'filtered out' they way they normally would be.

Compulsions, on the other hand, are behaviors that are done repeatedly in response to anxiety. What's interesting is that the behavior doesn't always have anything to do with the anxiety itself. For instance, it's not very likely that having your M&Ms color-coded is going to stop your husband from getting into a car wreck. Even if the person knows this, however, it doesn't stop the compulsion. They literally cannot control themselves, which can cause major problems in things such as work and relationships.

The good news is that OCD is very treatable. Since the disorder is considered a 'spectrum', the symptoms and behaviors vary in severity from person to person. The anxiety experienced can be traced back to an imbalance of serotonin levels in the brain. Because of this, medicines called Serotonin Re-uptake Inhibitors (SSRIs) such as Prozac, Zoloft and Paxil have been very effective in helping people with OCD control their thoughts and behaviors. Not everyone is helped by these drugs, however, so some opt for more traditional forms of treatment like psychotherapy or relaxation techniques.

OCD and OCD tendencies can be very disturbing to a person who deals with them. However, with proper diagnosis and treatment, people with OCD can live very productive lives. Only a licensed doctor or therapist can diagnose and treat OCD, so be sure to get checked out if you think you might have it. You deserve to live a healthy and happy life.